Adventures in Ostrava

We've arrived!

5 exhausted and travel-worn ESI teachers + 1 helpful chaperone arrived in Ostrava Friday night, minus about 15 pieces of luggage. We were all taken to our respective flats, given a loaf of bread, some bottled water, and a roll of toilet paper to get us started. Saturday we were to have a free day to get us over our jet lag, but then on Friday night all the new teachers were invited for dinner at Stacy's flat. Stacy and here husband, Al, are Americans working for Young Life who have been living in Ostrava for the past 5 years.

Prior to dinner, Emily, Steph, and I spent the day cleaning out, reorganizing, and arranging furniture within our new home. In the afternoon, miracle of miracles, our luggage arrived, hand-delivered courtesy of British Airways. Taking into consideration our laborious trek from Prague Airport to the train station, via bus and metro, we later came to the consensus that our luggage delay was a blessing in disguise. It is highly unlikely we could have made the entire journey with 6 girls and about 20 bags in tow. This only further affirmed for us that God truly does have a greater plan for us than we have for ourselves.

On a more humorous note, when hauled all our bags up to our flat (which is on the sixth floor, with spectacular city views), we found that we could not for the life of us figure out how to unlock our front door. All of us took turns, but it was no use. So there we were, three silly American girls, locked out of our apartment, keyes in hand, surrounded by all our huge suitcases and duffel bags. Finally we knocked on the door of our next-door-neighbor, a little old Czech woman, and Emily recited the one Czech phrase she had memorized, "Excuse me, can you please help?". She was indeed able to help us, bless her heart, and we later took turns "practicing" locking and unlocking our door. We also managed to flood our bathroom that aftrenoon while doing our first load of wash, but that's a whole other story...

After unpacking our begs and settling our belongings in their new environment, our growling stomachs summoned us to the nearby shopping center, Futurum. Of all things, I leave my job in retail, move all the way to Central Europe only to wind up living right next to a shopping mall. Go figure. As the three of us ventured through the mall, window shopping the various clothing, shoe, plant, and tea shops, we tried to get a handle on the Czech prices and their equivalents. It took us a good ten minutes, hungry as we were, to summon up the courage to order some food at the food court, however, we were quite impressed with ourselves for not copping out and heading to the nearby McDonald's. That night we had an amazing dinner at Stacy's flat across town, and she graciously let us use her phone to call our parents' in the States, and let them know of our safe arrival abroad.