Friday, I am late sorry, not for lack of trying

Thursday afternoon after I wrote my blog I went with another student into the city of Prague. I had purchased a toothbrush and somehow it never made it into my suitcase and so I have been using a tiny plastic one I bought for the plane. A friend asked if I would like to go with her to the grocery and I did so I could get a real toothbrush and some liquid dish soap. We took the bus, it is an interesting experience when you have absolutely no clue about the language. I can pick out meanings with Spanish, but Czech is so beyond me I don't pretend, [I can say please and thank you.] We made into the "circle" and then didn't know which way the grocery was. They do have stores like our Walmarts or Targets or Wegmans, they are generally the first floor of a building and there are not big signs that tell you it is a grocery store.

Eventually we stopped and asked and the man pointed one way and said, "Walk 10 minutes." Well, on a traffic circle it was pretty diffcult to really know what direction we should walk. SO we started and then walked a ways and asked a young couple again. [ I have learned now that generally young people in foreign countries are more apt to know English, and luckily this couple did.] We arrived at the door about 5 minutes later. You would never have known, even a block away, that this was a grocery.

I was able to purchase a reasonable box of granola, called "Musli", a new toothbrush, some dish soap, a package of sponges and some coffee cream for 104 kc, which is 104 Czech Crowns, each U.S. dollar is currently worth around 17,50 Czech Crowns. They use a comma in money, where we use a period. I'll leave you all to do the math.

Then we made our way back in the snow and ice around the traffic circle to take the bus back to the seminary. It was about a 15-20 minutes ride. The entire trip took us about 1 1/2 hours.

We did this all for one bus ticket for 26kc, approximately 1.50 U.S. Not terribly cheap, not terribly expensive. There is an effficient and well used subway, tram and bus system here. Except for pick pockets it is a very safe city.

Back to work in the evening, after a nap. I am still having such a problem with the time difference with sleeping.

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I Peter for today:
Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but imperishable through the living and enduring word of God.

That loving one another deeply, from the heart, not for-our-selves but because it shows we have been born of God, means that it should probably look very different from the kind of romantic love than we normally picture. It is something to seriously ponder. How might we practice that?

It is enough for one day with everything else that I studied to end my day thinking on this.