Fines, Success, and Conversations

"You speak English very well but you need to read it on the back of the ticket," says the police man who fined me for not having a proper boarding pass for the metro. I paid my fine and asked him nicely if he knew where I could activiate my open card (year long pass for transphortation). He very kindly told me where to go. Yes the next day I went and activiated the card. Now I feel like I have a new found freedom since I can just hop on a metro, bus or tram without purchasing a new ticket every time. The lesson: always purchase a new ticket for the metro and read the back of it if you are confused as to how it works. Thanks to Peki and Danielle I have successuflly found the Lennon Wall! I've gotten to do some more sightseeing this week (most of it today actually). I will either go on my own or I'm starting to go explore with some new friends from church. This week I went to Petrin Hill and climbed the Little Tower on a cold, windy, rainy afternoon. I was also shown a wall/gate that has tons of locks on it. The story is that couples will put their initials and the date on the lock and they will stay together. If they do break up one of them comes and takes the lock down off the gate. The romantic in me loves the idea. I visited the Bertramka, Mozart's home in Prague. It is very beautiful and a must see if you ever go to Prague. I will confess though that only 3 rooms were open for me to go through and they are doing a lot of reconstruction so his instruments were not in the house. I'll have to go later this year to see more of the house. I have 3 people that I am getting together with to pracitce English. It's been fun conversing and learning about each other. The ages of the 3 people vary and I'm learning that I'm not in the "know" about a lot of American pop culture. As I will continue to meet with these 3 I look forward to the other encounters I will have with people who want to practice English. Of course I do have people who want to practice Czech with me too. This Thursday I will be leaving with the youth group (young adults) for Southern Bohemia for a retreat. We will be sleeping in a gym at another Czech Brethren Chruch. We'll spend the weekend there, relaxing, enjoying the country side, and focusing on Jesus' death and resurrection. We'll return on Monday. I'm looking forward to this time to bond with my youth group and focus on the amazing gift God has given us.