OUR FIRST TWO WEEKS (newsletter 2)

Dear family and friends,

We arrived safely in Prague and have now been here 10 days. We are comforted by the familiarity around us and have enjoyed visiting with some old friends and seeing some of the beautiful sights. In some ways we feel like we are in a bit of a dream and can hardly believe we are here. We were able to settle in quite quickly as we have been able to step into our friends house, Harders (who are home on furlough for 6 months) and not worry about setting up whole household. Thankfully we will have until Christmas to look for another place.

I have been baking and trying out some of my recipes--everything is a little different here, so even the cooking takes some getting used to. I have the smell of banana bread lofting up from the kitchen which helps to make everyone feel a bit more settled in and like this is home for them. It is interesting the things that bring comfort to ones soul when everything around seems to be changing.

We thank many of you who have been sending emails-it is such a lifeline for us. We check our email often throughout the day and are always excited to see any new ones that show up.
The kids seem to be adjusting quite well. We have worked hard to get over jet lag quickly and have made sure we all stay awake during the day --even thought by supper we could hardly keep our heads up. They have enjoyed going back to the places they remembered--especially our favorite Italian Ice cream place--Cream and Dream. They talk of people and things they miss from Canada but are very positive and excited about what they are experiencing here again. They can all hardly wait for school to start and to meet some new friends.

We have had some great family time these days. We do not have any demands on our time yet, so we are using this time to spend together and recover from our very busy months of preparing to come here. We were able to buy some bikes for the kids from people who were leaving Prague, so they have had a great time riding around. We are thankful for the university that is across the street from us. There is lots of room to ride bikes and they have great trails in a forested area that we like to walk through while the kids ride ahead of us. Even our Sara is ploughing ahead with her two-wheeler and trying to keep up to her brother and sister. There is also an indoor swimming pool at the university that we have had fun splashing around in (even though it is very cold water which is the way all Czech pools are).

We are very thankful for our friends, Manisha and Rajeev (friends from India), who picked us up from the airport when we arrived and gave us a great welcome as we stayed the first night with them. They have two girls(5 and 3 years) and Sara quickly rekindled her friendship with them like they had never been apart. Manisha has taken me shopping to the big superstore called Tesco--she had to re-teach me what everything is, and with her help it is all coming back to me.

We have been in contact with some of our Czech friends through email and look forward to getting together with them soon.
Most of the staff at Riverside are away on holidays, or have not arrived yet. We look forward to connecting with many of them in the next couple of weeks.

We stopped by Riverside School a few days ago and there has been great restoration to the school since the flood that swept through the school three years ago. Al has been in to work a bit these last few days and is looking forward to getting things started. I still do not know what my schedule will be but am also looking forward to starting the school year.

We hope that all of you are able to get information from our BLOG. A blog is similar to a web page where we will be posting regular updates and pictures. Anyone can access it at any time by typing the following URL in your web browser (or clicking on the link): http://alandconnies.blogspot.com
There is also information about Prague and Riverside School on our blog which you can just click onto.

Love to you all,
Al, Connie, Andrea, Mark and Sara