In reponse to some reader's requests, here is our mailing address:
Brandon & Ann-marie Verbrugge
Nad Helmrovkou 258
16000 Lysolaje, Prague 6
Czech Republic
Merry Christmas to all!
A Whole Mess O' Stress
Well, here we are in Iowa for the Christmas holidays.
Our trip here was less than pleasant. Lydia was the least of our worries and was a complete angel (answered prayers!). The airplane side of things wasn't so smooth. The "fun" began while still in Prague. We were flying to Munich and the plane we would be flying on was late arriving from Munich due to weather. We finally boarded the plane and were delayed another 20 minutes because on the weather returning to Munich. With only a 1 hour connection time we knew we were in bad shape. We arrived in Munich and missed our plane to the States by about 15 minutes! Talk about filling heartsick!!! Since the next plane to the States wouldn't be for another 24 hours, we decided to fly that night to Frankfurt so we could fly out first thing in the morning of the 23rd. We spent the night in a hotel near the airport, and awoke the next morning with only the clothes on our back. Of course, our baggage didn't make it to Frankfurt and we had to leave for the States without it. On the flight to America, Lydia was so well behaved the flight attendants were amazed at her. We got to Chicago and to make a long story short, Lydia and I had to leave on the flight to Sioux Falls without Brandon because there weren't enought seats on the plane. Even a plea from the United Airlines supervisor for a volunteer to give their seat to Brandon in exchange for a free round trip came and went with no takers. By this time Lydia's patience was wearing thin and Mommy was a bit emotionally unstable. Brandon arrived a few hours later, with time to shower and 5 minutes to spare before the party began.
We went to our first Christmas party with our same clothing. I was able to borrow a shirt from my generous sisters. Lydia didn't even make it to the party. I put her down for a late nap after we arrived at 4:00 pm. Since she had been awake for approximately 18 hours at this point she was in no emotional state for partying. She slept until 8:00 the next morning with a 1 hour wake up at 2:30 am for some talking, some milk and a diaper change.
The best news is our baggage just arrived. So now we have our Christmas gifts and we can change our clothing. Yippee!!! Not sure boarding another plane on Monday sounds so great, but the promise of 85 degree temps in Mexico will make it easier! :-)
Our trip here was less than pleasant. Lydia was the least of our worries and was a complete angel (answered prayers!). The airplane side of things wasn't so smooth. The "fun" began while still in Prague. We were flying to Munich and the plane we would be flying on was late arriving from Munich due to weather. We finally boarded the plane and were delayed another 20 minutes because on the weather returning to Munich. With only a 1 hour connection time we knew we were in bad shape. We arrived in Munich and missed our plane to the States by about 15 minutes! Talk about filling heartsick!!! Since the next plane to the States wouldn't be for another 24 hours, we decided to fly that night to Frankfurt so we could fly out first thing in the morning of the 23rd. We spent the night in a hotel near the airport, and awoke the next morning with only the clothes on our back. Of course, our baggage didn't make it to Frankfurt and we had to leave for the States without it. On the flight to America, Lydia was so well behaved the flight attendants were amazed at her. We got to Chicago and to make a long story short, Lydia and I had to leave on the flight to Sioux Falls without Brandon because there weren't enought seats on the plane. Even a plea from the United Airlines supervisor for a volunteer to give their seat to Brandon in exchange for a free round trip came and went with no takers. By this time Lydia's patience was wearing thin and Mommy was a bit emotionally unstable. Brandon arrived a few hours later, with time to shower and 5 minutes to spare before the party began.
We went to our first Christmas party with our same clothing. I was able to borrow a shirt from my generous sisters. Lydia didn't even make it to the party. I put her down for a late nap after we arrived at 4:00 pm. Since she had been awake for approximately 18 hours at this point she was in no emotional state for partying. She slept until 8:00 the next morning with a 1 hour wake up at 2:30 am for some talking, some milk and a diaper change.
The best news is our baggage just arrived. So now we have our Christmas gifts and we can change our clothing. Yippee!!! Not sure boarding another plane on Monday sounds so great, but the promise of 85 degree temps in Mexico will make it easier! :-)
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
This year's "Relative Best Utilizing the Postal System in a Timely Manner" Award goes to (drum roll please)... Natalie Van Meeteren for the first Christmas card we have received in the Czech Republic! Congratulations, Natalie! For those entrants who are disappointed that you are not the recipient... Don't worry! Gifts will be considered for the "Relative of the Holidays" award. And... of course, we will be accepting entries again next year. So get those Christmas letters postmarked early! :-)
Gag Order Lifted!
Ok... so it was a self-inflicted gag order. And not because I chose to be silent. We've been a little sick around here. And pre-Christmas preparations have kept us running non-stop! Although there continues to be much to write about concerning life in Prague, it has been difficult to make the time to tell about it. Hopefully we will see most of our friends and family over the holidays and we can spread the joyous stories of life abroad in person!
In less than 24 hours we will board a plane in Prague and begin our journey West. We'll fly from Prague to Munich to Chicago to Sioux Falls, SD. After approximately 14 hours in transit we will deplane in the plains of the Midwest. We are all looking forward to seeing family again. However, one of us (namely the female figurehead) is not so excited about the flight with a very busy toddler. In desperate circumstances is it ok for a 22-month old to watch DVDs for 14 hours straight???
In less than 24 hours we will board a plane in Prague and begin our journey West. We'll fly from Prague to Munich to Chicago to Sioux Falls, SD. After approximately 14 hours in transit we will deplane in the plains of the Midwest. We are all looking forward to seeing family again. However, one of us (namely the female figurehead) is not so excited about the flight with a very busy toddler. In desperate circumstances is it ok for a 22-month old to watch DVDs for 14 hours straight???
Return of the Lemon
So. Uh-huh, that's right. SO. The car repair man speaketh. After taking the car apart and putting it back together again, the car is apparently mysteriously fixed. They don't know what they did to fix it, but they claim the problem is gone. I haven't seen it for myself since it won't be home until next week sometime. However, Brandon believes this is the opportune time to sell it. We'll have to talk about that some more. (My good ol' Iowa ethics leave me feeling guilty about putting this puppy in someone else's hands.) Guess I wouldn't make a good Frenchman.
Oh, Christmas Tree
So, I decided that this past weekend was THE weekend. It was time to get our Christmas tree. After much debate, we decided we would go the "real" route once again. So, we all got in the car and headed to Ikea, one of the places to find a tree. From there, the Christmas spirit went downhill. They had their trees sorted according to height. The only problem was that the trees were wrapped up in netting so you couldn't really see what they look like. We just had to pick according to height. Once we made our selection, they cut the netting loose for us to see the tree. HORRORS! Seems that all of the trees being sold at Ikea and 3 other lots we peeked at had beautiful full bottom halves, but scrawny branchless top halves. I wasn't thrilled; Brandon reminded me that we are in the Czech Republic and this is the way it is. He then presented me with two options: "You wanna look somewhere else?" and "You wanna fake tree?" Feeling flustered and unwilling to haul Lydia all over on a tree hunting expedition I said, "It's fine. Just get it. I'll deal with it." We paid $30 for our scraggly tree and bought some loose evergreen boughs as well. We then went grocery shopping in grumpy silence. "I'm going to get the bread". "I'm getting the milk" (grumble grumble). This wasn't the way I had envisioned this evening! We got our tree home and, determined to make the best of things, I set about grafting the loose boughs onto the branchless upper half. (I call myself the "Tree Whisperer".) All in all, the end result is not too shabby. Add a couple hundred lights and some ornaments, and botta boom, botta bing... you've got a "perfect" Christmas tree. We'll keep our fingers crossed that the top half of our tree doesn't die before the bottom!!!
Not-So-Peachy Renault
Mid-November we returned the Renault to the car service guy. With the ever-present transmission issue we informed him that he had not "fixed" the problem and he should try again. So... three weeks have passed. He thought he had figured out that the problem is a faulty computer module. So, he ordered the new part, replaced it and (imagine this!) it DIDN'T fix the problem!!! Now he has another Renault at his station (presumably with a different problem) that he is going to swap parts with until he finds the part that is faulty. When Brandon told me I was supposed to have the car back last week, I knew how likely that was and thought I would believe it when I see it. Now they have given up on providing an estimated time of the car's return. I believe that at this point the car has officially spent more time at the service station then it has with me. I tell people that I have a car but it actually lives at the service station and only comes here to visit me once in awhile. Oh well... look on the bright side -- Lydia has learned the words "bus" and "taxi" and thinks of them as exciting excursions. Oy!
