Saturday, November 14, 2009

Love Thy Neighbor

I spent 4 hours at our neighbor's house, drinking wine and talking up a storm. They are Czech, father is Slovakian...really not much difference in culture or language from what I gather. Both the teenagers speak English, 19 year old son is amazingly fluent which he claims is from watching British and American TV all of his life. The parents say it is because he has taken English; albeit not by native speakers, in school and had an American friend from California that was here for one year on an exchange program. I'm sure it is a combination. I was somewhat embarrassed on several occasions when asked by him for information about American geography and history...when he knew more about it than I did. He challenged me to write down as many of the States names as I could in 5 minutes. Breeze right, well so I thought! I got to 40 and drew a complete blank. He helped me out with the rest, hence my embarrassment! I took my list home as a trophy or claim to shame I suppose. Now ask me to name all of the countries in the European Union, or those in Europe and I'd really struggle. I'd better study up! I also messed up on who we were fighting with and who against in the Korean War. It was all in good fun and we had a fantastic visit. I'm really glad to have my new friends and neighbors.

My dog thinks their dog is his girlfriend (she thinks he is a knucklehead) so we are going to try walking them two together this morning. I'm hoping it will go well, but have my suspicions that it will prove to be a challenge. Last week I vowed to never take Jerry Lee for a walk ever again as long as he lives. I was exhausted and humiliated when he lunged at, barked, whined, and attacked every dog, human, and bicyclist that ventured by. He was out of control and I was angry and embarrassed. I was sprayed with jeers from old ladies and families whose peaceful walk was "rocked" by his miserable antics. I'm praying that Irem, Jerry Lee's girlfriend, will be able to teach him some manners! We'll see...

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Who Turned Out the Lights?



Get ready for short days and long nights. I was caught by surprise when I went to pick up my kids at 4:40 PM and it was already dark outside. I understand that in December the sun goes down at 4:15- 4:30! I thought I was going crazy when I started to get sleepy and looked at the clock that night it was only 6:30 and finaly went to bed at 7:30. My body is very tuned into day light and always has been. My mother can attest to the fact that I was always up and down with the sunrise and sunset. I've never been a "night-owl". I also have to train myself to turn on lights in the house. Again, I'm used to just opening the blinds to let the sun in...who needs LIGHTS? Well, unless I'm going to be hybernating through the winter, I guess I'm going to have to get used to artificial lighting. I feel like a jaundice baby with hyperbilirubimia (how is that for a tounge twister?)