Welcoming Fall...

Today I smelled fall in the air and am wearing a sweater to ward off the chill. I've been here one month already? Hard to believe it.

Now I truly am starting to feel the impact of "living" here. Before I felt like a tourist - travelling and staying in other peoples' homes. Libor and I moved to an apartment in Brno (40 min north of Břeclav) on the 1st of this month, and with it has come a mix of experiences.

Everything I've taken for granted in the US is not so available here. After experiencing frustration of wanting things to be "just like home," I'm realizing I have to change my mindset and welcome this new life as a new set of experiences and make the necessary adjustments to live without frustrations. An example of this is food. In the US I'm used to cooking Thai and Indian influenced-foods, but here almost none of the ingredients I am used to using is availble in the stores, or are exhorbitantly expensive. Olive oil was 5x's as expensive as the commonly used sunflower seed oil. Low sodium soy sauce? What's that? Cilantro? Never heard of it. Espresso? Is that what Italians drink? Go to the Italian gift store. It took 2 days of searching before I finally found the small stove top espresso makers that I had bought in NM for $7. Here, I bought an even SMALLER one for $25. Julie gave me one to bring with me, but I couldn't fit it into my suitcase, and assumed I could easily find one here. *laughing* Oh, you gentle and naive American. "Wake up," Libor tells me. *clicking ruby slippers* "There's no place like home. There's no place like home." *opening eyes to realize everything is the same, but everyone's looking at me funny*

The positive aspect is that now I've got a room of my own, and it's set up the way we want it. I've got all my little things that makes home, home, on the bookshelf and my homemade Tibetan prayer flags set up on the wall. Next step is my pictures up on the walls. That's what gives me an oasis of peace and quiet in the midst of so many new experiences.

However, this is a good experience for me, this culture shock, because it means I'll be better prepared for Italy. What scares me the most is being alone to navigate through a new place. Here I have Libor, my 24/7 translator and guide. I need to learn how to let go of that guide rope and try to do things on my own. That's my goal for the next 3 months.

I've got over 400 pictures on my camera and bought another memory card to tide me over until I get the USB cable to download all the pictures onto the computer and the web. I promise, my priority will be getting the pictures online as soon as possible. I know everyone's dying to see the pictures!

Miss you and please do keep up the emails you are sending my way - they always add sunshine to my day!! :-)