Tomorrow is our one year anniversary. Hard to believe how time flies!

Libor has been going to interviews this week and last - he got a job offer with a company that sells heating units, but he wasn't interested so he's still doing interviews. I think I can get used to seeing Libor in a suit - he looks nice! :-)

November 1st, I woke up to see a thick layer of frost/ice outside. It was VERY cold, I ended up buying a new coat because mine wasn't warm enough. I was shivering like crazy with my old winter coat, scarf and hat, most everyone else had on sweatshirts/sweaters and wasn't shivering. Makes me wonder what the "real" winter is like. :-/ Thank goodness I'll be in Italy for most of it! It snowed the next day, but nothing much since. Over the weekend in Breclav it snowed, but nothing stayed on the ground. It's getting dark EARLY now - the last time I checked the time for sunset was a couple of days ago, at 4:45. I know in NM the sunset is now at 5:30. Libor and I already mentioned how we are looking forward to the Winter Solstice coming up in December when the days will get longer again.

The weekend in Breclav was VERY nice - while Libor was in school, his mom took me to the yarn shop with his poor dad in tow as my "interpreter." She's knitting me a sweater for Christmas and she wanted me to pick out the yarn. I picked out a nice blue yarn with purple - should go with pretty much everything I have that I will bring for work clothes. His dad didn't want to go with us into the store, which reminded me of Libor because he was complaining when he had to interpret for me and his mom as she was trying to show me some techniques for knitting a scarf. I told him that his English vocabulary is expanding in ways he never thought possible. He just looked at me and grumbled, "Yea, I guess so." heh. Libor and I also went for a long walk with the dog, Bessy, into the forest near his house. It's a very well-loved and appreciated land, Czech is. One cool thing I saw, was a small shack in the middle of the woods, where Libor explained to me, the forestry service puts feed for the deer in the winter time to prevent them from going into the town or into peoples' gardens. Pretty neat. :-) We ended up at the river were we saw many men on both sides of the river in pairs just sitting and fishing. Libor wondered aloud if they actually catch anything or if it's just an excuse to get outside. ;-)

Forgot to mention Halloween - I wanted to carve a pumpkin so Libor's mom bought us like 5 pumpkins, so 2 were used for Halloween (one for Breclav, one for here) while I used one to make pumpkin pie. :-) I was planning to make it towards Thanksgiving time, but one of the pumpkins was already becoming soft so we cut it open and used the good parts of the pumpkin for the pie. We Americans are so spoiled - just go to the store, buy frozen pie crust, and canned pumpkin, and we are pretty much set. Here, there is no such thing as frozen pie crust or canned pumpkin. So everything had to be done from scratch. I was not prepared to make the pie that weekend, so I had to guess on how to make the pumpkin pulp - roasting and then mashing. The pie was good, but it was missing something. Julie suggested maybe I should have added condensed milk, and I think she's right. I also think maybe a little more sugar or some molasses (which I probably wouldn't find here, to think of it)... The joke for Libor and his mom was when I asked for dried beans to weigh down the pie crust in the initial baking. They couldn't stop laughing. She had a field day telling the story to her coworkers, I'll bet! ;-) We carved a pumpkin for his parents - a cute smily face. I think Libor had fun with that. :-) The pumpkin we brought back to Brno was transformed into a "freaky" face that just brought stares from both Veet and Jiří. They were happy though, when I gave them chocolates. Veet did his homework - before I gave him his chocolate, he said, "Wait, wait. I know... am I supposed to say 'Trick or Treat'?" I got them Kinder chocolates, the kind that are hollow chocolate eggs with toys inside (you can get them in Canada but not the US). We had FUN with that!

I haven't been studying much this week... been too lazy I think. :-/

This Thursday we go to Prague! :-) We'll go by bus and visit Libor's cousin on Thurs night and explore Friday on our own. We'll stay with his friend Chapa for the weekend - Chapa was in London with us so I've met him already. Saturday we'll be able to go inside Prague Castle, which is only open 2 times a year. :-) I'm looking forward to the trip. It seems that everything else will pale in comparison with Prague, which is why Libor wanted me to see as much of Czech as I could before he brought me to Prague. He considers it the most beautiful city. His father (and my Dad) thinks Vienna is the most beautiful city, but Libor said, "Of course he thinks Vienna is the most beautiful city, it's his birthplace." So, I guess I have to see both cities and decide from there. ;-) I doubt I'll have time to see Vienna before going to Italy, despite it being closer to here than Prague!

Hope all is well. :-)