Odds & Ends

Warning: This post is probably a little boring, but it is full of things people have asked about; plus a few odds and ends/lists/stories that have popped into my brain over the past couple months. I'll do an update on Christmas, how it went, thoughts from our neighbor, pictures, etc next time. 

Embarrassing/Funny Stories:
- The proper greeting in all situations here is, "Dobrý den" (good day), "dobrý" meaning, "good." One morning, as I was walking to meet a friend for lunch, I passed by a group of construction workers. As I had just walked by, I heard, "Dobrý!" I had heard this single word used occasionally as a shorted version of "Good day;" so, meaning to not be impolite, I turned back around to wave and return the greeting. A full body-turn and a mid-wave later, I realized, They're saying 'good' as in 'it's all good' to signal each other that it's okay to move their construction supplies and truck!" They weren't greeting me after all; but the beginnings of my supposedly-reciprocated gesture had already been spotted. I had to think quickly how to cover my embarrassment. Of course, I turned my wave into a smooth but awkward dance move and pretended to be singing a far-fetched "Dobrý den" version of "Oh What A Beautiful Morning" from Oklahoma, and continued on my way.

- The landing after each stair set in our apartment building recently was relabeled to coordinate with the elevator level numbers. Prior to this update, if anyone came over, I'd have to explain, "If you take the stairs, we're on level 5; if you take the elevator, press the button for level 4." I mostly took the stairs, so I always remembered "level 5." However, one day, after a trip to the store for a lot of groceries, I decided, "I'll take the elevator this time." I was relieved not to have to haul all those groceries up all those stairs and I happily climbed in, set down the groceries to give my arms a rest and waited to reach my level. When the elevator doors opened, I went to the door and pulled out my keys to unlock so I could I enter. However, my key wouldn't go all the way in the door handle; I've had the experience in the past where - if Daniel's keys are in the door handle on the opposite side, my keys won't go all the way in. So after trying to jimmy my keys in the handle unsuccessfully, I began knocking on the door and yelling for Daniel to come get his keys out of the opposite handle and let me in. After about 2 1/2 "Daaaaaaniiiiieeeeel" yells, I suddenly realized, *gasp!* This isn't my door! This isn't my entrance rug! This isn't my shoe bench. This isn't my apartment. *gasp!* What if someone is home and they're coming to answer the door - and they think I've been trying to break in - and I don't speak enough Czech to explain myself!!!!!!! I could hear footsteps approaching the door and I was mortified. I grabbed my bags and dashed for the stairwell! I escaped to a shadowy corner just as a woman opened her door and started yelling, "Ano? Ano?! Ano?!!" and a few other things I couldn't understand. She hadn't seen me, so I was okay; but I was so confused how I'd gotten off at the wrong level. I didn't know where I was suddenly. I was totally disoriented with all the excitement. So, I took the elevator back down to ground level, looked in the building entrance to see if my mailbox was there (I thought perhaps I was in the wrong building totally; the idea seemed to make sense at the time). I saw my mailbox, so I knew I was in the correct building. I walked back up the stairs and made it home safely. I must have hit "level 5" for the elevator button originally, instead of level 4. You have no idea how glad I am to have our level numbers all matched up and coordinating with the elevator now.

Things I'm most glad I packed:
- leg warmers
- hat
- paints/markers/art supplies
- a few small gift-y type things
- ground cinnamon
- 1 fancy dress
- Czech phrasebook & dictionary

Things I wish I hadn't packed:
- hand warmers instead of just mittens
- 1 less sweater
- 1 less pair of shoes
- fewer spices (we have a great selection here actually, including a few favorites: red pepper, cumin, basil, and curry)
 - 2 fewer necklaces

Things I wish I had packed:
- 1 extra pair of socks
- 1 extra undershirt

What I did pack:
- 2 suitcases total (including the carryon), plus my 1 personal bag/purse; this included:  4 sweaters, 2 undershirts, 2 tshirts, 2 long sleeve shirts, 4 pairs of socks, 3 pairs of pants, [of course underwear], 2 pj's, toiletries, 5 pairs of shoes (both black & brown boots, hiking shoes, dress shoes, and the shoes I wore on the plane), 2 scarves, an umbrella, 5 necklaces/4 sets of earrings

Notes for anyone in the future:
- Just pack 1 week's worth of clothes total
- Bring a few extra small gifts
- Be ready at all times to bake or cook or purchase food from a store; always have snacks on hand
- Language/communication is essential
- Know how to cook from scratch; no box mixes :)

Rare/Non-existent foods in our area:
- Sour Patch Kids candy (non existent)
- hot/spicy foods
- cranberries (I found some at Makro last week but they're not in any stores here in Šumperk; a guy from Kostel who went to cullinary school actually didn't know what cranberries were)
- molasses (non existent) 
- brown sugar (non existent; there is raw sugar here that is called "brown sugar" though)

I'm sure this list will grow, morph, perhaps change altogether with time. These are things that came to my mind for now though.