Summer of my Senior Year: The Bus Ride to the Czech Republic... and Cooking Adventures

So..... Damian put us on a bus at 7:10 am to go to the Czech Republic on the morning after we got back from Italy. Which means, of course, that Court, Kristin, and I slept about a solid HALF HOUR after playing around on the internet (the first time we really had it for two weeks), cooking dinner, saying goodbye to everyone on our floor, and packing up our three months worth of clothing into two tiny suitcases each.

The rest of the day, eight hours on a bus and then another two in a van (after Zeebee got a speeding ticket), were uneventful. Except when Kristin and I got off of the bus at a long stop to pee, and then the driver wouldn't let us back on when we returned. When we showed him our tickets (purchased for the bus that morning) he said they weren't valid because they were for 7:10 am (DUH.), and the proceeded to climb in the bus and DRIVE AWAY. Courtney was asleep during all of this, bless her tired little heart, so she couldn't save me when the bus was happily chugging out of parking lot.

Which brings me to the subject of my physical salvation: When we first got on the bus, there was a lady with short dyed red hair that wouldn't switch seats to let Courtney and I sit next to each other (so that we could sleep) and we immediately hated her for separating us. If you're alone on an eight hour bus ride and two people want to sit together, generally, in America, out of common courtesy, you'll promptly switch seats. Thus, for about the first fifteen minutes, we were really evil sorority girls and pretty much vented about how much we hated Poland and being awake a 6:30 a.m. and the lady with the really bad dye job who wouldn't move her butt five inches to the left. As fate would have it (and God was definitely reminding me to hold my wagging tongue), as the bus pulled off, it was this lady... the one who'd been staring at me like I had the Ebola virus earlier on in the day... who realized that I wasn't on the bus, that I was standing right outside waving it down, and who yelled at the bus driver to stop the bus and let us back on. I sent a lot of gratitude her way after that. I owed her a lot, considering I didn't want to be stuck in the middle of Nowhere, Poland when I can't talk to anybody and I have no idea exactly WHERE I am. All I knew was that Damian stuck me on a bus, and that I was on my way to the Poland/Czech Republic border to be picked up by a guy, but I didn't know his name, and that my final destination was Liberec. Something tells me I would not have gotten very far. All turned out well though, thanks to the lady with the dyed red hair.

I'm in Liberec now. Our dorm is absolutely fabulous. Spaceous, so new it still SMELLS like new, and definitely in a picturesque location. I hate to say this, but I kind of miss Poland and the familiarity of the people and the city. I'll learn this one, though, and then everything should be fine.

One of my friends, Anthony, is in Germany right now - and Budapest tomorrow - so I think I might hop on a train to go see him and his dear family. It's really fun to be able to meet all these people I know from the United States in a bunch of different foreign countries. Joey in Egypt, my family in the Netherlands, Mom and Dad in France, Kristin in Italy, Anthony in Hungary. I'm one lucky girl.

Today, as a final testament to our creative "genius," and yearning for entertainment. My dear mother was kind enough to lug a box of brownie mix across the Atlantic for us, even during the two weeks that she was there with us, and today we decided to make them. Except that the only tools available to us were a stove and a burner, no oven in site, so we had to improvise. Inspired by our morning breakfast of eggs, I thought it might work if we scrambled the brownies in the pan. You know... that way that would cook on their entire surface, and we could still make them even if we didn't have everything we needed. The process, it turns out, works fabulously. And the journey was probably even more fun that eating them. Thank goodness we laugh together. I couldn't imagine having more amusing memories than scrambling brownies in a pan.

I'll put some more pictures up from our recent travels, especially for Daddy Styres.... and the entire nuclear plant staff (from what I hear.)

Click on this picture to view it in all it's glory. I love that Michael's camera had a panoramic setting.

The four girls in Cinque Terre, right after our cliff diving adventure.

Paris at sunset.

My darling Courtney. How silly. And wonderful. ♥ I'm glad that you're my adopted big sister.

Bike speed racers. It's Markie, Michael, Courtney, and me biking along a random river in Amsterdam to make it to a cheese factory that my mother found. Ahem.

Eiffel.

Us.

Court looking up at the Arc d'Triomphe.

Courtney and Allison right before white water rafting.

I love this picture because Courtney looks scared out of her mind and I'm the freak in the corner who is laughing at the eminent death awaiting us. (Nothing higher than a class 3 rapid. We were losers in Switzerland.)