Everything I Hoped It would be...

...And so much more. The title of this post is of course in reference to the photo above. For a while now, I have been both amused and intrigued by the Czech specialty of beef with whipped cream. I thought to myself, "it can't possibly be what it sounds like...maybe the cream is unsweetened. Maybe it's just a cream sauce, that would be normal". Nope! In this case, the dish turned out to be EXACTLY as it sounded. Two slices of beef in a gravy sauce with dumplings...and sweet whipped cream with cranberries. So funny, and actually really good, I enjoyed the meal. It's very filling though, although I guess it has to be with how cold it is here. People need something to stick to their ribs! The dumplings are fantastic- kind of spongy, like a cross between a crumpet and a loaf of white bread. My friend Erin who lives in Rome is here, with her boyfriend Simone. We had a nice breakfast and dinner yesterday. I haven't seen her in 2 years, and she is so happy living abroad, and is full of great advice and bits of wisdom about making the transition. In other news, we taught our first 2 classes this week, on Thursday and Friday. I thought they both went well, they were just half-hour classes, but the students (who are all adult volunteers of varying levels) seemed to respond well, and do the activities I set them, so I was pleased. For the next three weeks, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday will all be given over to planning lessons and teaching them, so we will get a fair amount of practice, which is great. I'm currently trying to do laundry, but our washer has no clear set of instructions, and I opened it when I thought it was done at one point, and half the clothes weren't even wet. So we'll see what happens. I didn't bring that much in the way of clothing, so I hope that it works soon, so I can start leaving them out to dry...This will be my first weekend in Prague- I don't count last weekend, as we were so disoriented and getting settled in. Time to see what the nightlife is all about! Much love to all.