Venice

Well Venice was one for the books! On Thursday we checked in and then started to wonder through the city. We were in awe of the city's beauty the moment we stepped off the bus and it only grew as we explored deeper into the island. The dimly lit walk ways, tiny shops, Venetian restaurants, and gelato shops made for an unforgettable evening! As we meandered through the streets we stumbled upon a tiny wine shop with bottled wine from the area, as well as, wine in wooden barrels from local wineries. We were able to fill our own bottle for €2.20! Needless to say we made a few more stops at that shop before our trip was finished! We finished our evening with a stroll along the Grand Canal with a very refreshing cup of gelato! 

The next day we were up bright and early eager to get back to the island! It was sunny and 55 degrees we couldn't ask for much more! We walked through the streets and over the bridges and finally found San Marco Square. The pictures do not do it justice. It was so large and beautiful and architecture made for a very pleasant view. We decided to take a little break and take in the scenery. As we were people watching we notice a boy and his girlfriend with a slice of pizza and completely out of no where a sea gull flew down and snatched the pizza right out of her hand! And instantly a flock of birds surrounded her. As we sat there dying laughing we actually did feel bad for her but it was way too funny! We finished our day sharing a calzone and then sitting in a park watching some young kids play soccer or futbol I guess. 😉

On Saturday the temp almost reached 60 and it was completely sunny. We sat along the Grand Canal and listened to a gentleman with his bird play some sort of guitar. It was a perfect day to relax and soak up the sunshine. Venice is the perfect city to just sit and relax while taking in the beautiful scenery. It's so crazy to think about how old most of the buildings are and how they are still so well preserved. Each small turn and twist brought you to a new amazing sight. The doors, the flower boxes, the colors of the building were so beautiful it's hard to put into words. At sunset we took a gondola ride through the Grand Canal and through many canals that were not accessible by walking. We felt like we were in a secret area of Venice that not many got to see.  This will definitely cherish our time in Venice, it was by far the most breathtaking city we have ever been too. We look forward to the opportunity to return! 

Ciao,

Tom and Lo


For more pictures we created a slide show at the very bottom of the blog. I believe you need to click it to get it to start! I am almost positive it will work this time!

St. Patrick's Day

One of my favorite holidays is St. Patrick's Day! This year at ABC we decided to do it big! We began early in the week planting our seed about the leprechauns and how sneaky they are. The kids were so excited, so we decided to build leprechaun traps to try and catch them. We used 'magical' glitter and sprinkled it in their traps. We told them that leprechauns like the glitter because they think it looks like gold. The anticipation was so high, the kids were so excited to see if the leprechauns were going to come to our school. Michaella (friend/coworker) and I stayed late the night before and completely trashed the school! We flipped the chairs upside down, spilled glitter everywhere, switched the chalkboards, dyed their water green, and messed up all the toys! To finish it off we decided to place green foot prints all over the room, and set off some of the traps. I made a trap and we put a little figure inside with his hand sticking out to make it look like I caught a leprechaun, inside the trap was a note that said "HAha Lauren, you can't catch me!" We also set off one of our students traps. This sweet little child took so long to build her trap and even left a welcome mat! We decided to write this sweetie a note from the leprechauns. It said, "I really like your trap Nela, but I'm too sneaky you can't catch me!" We finished up a few things and placed some foot prints on the door and in the bathroom, we were so excited to see their faces! The next morning was amazing, the kids could not believe what had happened. They came up with an idea of what had happened and they followed the foot prints all over the room and finally decided that the leprechauns came in the back window that was left open. They were so confused how the little leprechauns could make such a big mess and pick up such heavy objects! I asked one student why all of Michaella's stuff was all over my chalk board and she responded that the leprechauns switched our boards and that we can't fix it because we don't have the magic to lift up the boards and switch them back! So to this day they think that our boards were switched rather than just the pictures on the board, bless their sweet little hearts:) Overall, it was by far the best St. Patrick's Day and I got so much joy from seeing them so excited! I also have never seen so many little pairs of green skinny jeans...our parents do such an amazing job of getting in the spirit!

 **Please notice the adorable "Ahoj mat" at the entrance. Ahoj is something you say to your friends when you greet them or leaving, similar to hello and goodbye. The funny thing though is that in Czech you don't use Ahoj to someone you do not know so it was cute that she used it an assumed they were "friends" even though she never met the leprechauns!

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Later in the evening Tom and I went to Becketts Irish Pub. We drank Irish beer with some friends (even an Irish friend!) and had a great time!