Month: April 2013

Dreaming of Spain

Published on by Grace10 Comments

As the days become better and brighter, I cannot help but dream about vacation destinations.   After living in the center of Europe for almost 2 years now, I really miss the sea.

                             Photo courtesy of gospain.about.com

As I was searching for European beach destinations, Spain has piqued my interest.  But it isn’t only because of its beaches.  A lot of it has to do with my home country’s history.    For three hundred years, the Philippines was under Spanish colonial rule and a lot of what we have now came from the Spaniards.  Shown below is a picture of a street in Vigan, Northern Philippines, which somehow gives you an idea of what the Spaniards have left behind.

Not only did they leave us with historical buildings, but our language in itself is interlaced with a lot of Spanish words.  I would love to see and experience the country that gave us all these.

                                               Source: images.nationalgeographic.com via Elaine on Pinterest

 

As of this time, I still don’t know when we will be able to go, but it is definitely on my bucket list.  Luckily, I found this great site    that offers good deals on hotels, flights, and everything that has to do with travel.  So perhaps one day I will get there.  But for now, I’ll just keep on dreaming.

Mommy’s little helper

Published on by Grace3 Comments

Being the curious child that he is, my little boy almost always has to try everything that he sees I’m doing.  I am oftentimes annoyed with this gesture because it detracts me from doing my usual household chores.

Albeit one day, I decided to put his curiosity into good use by asking him to vacuum the area under the stairs for me.

vacuum1

I thought he was going to give up after one pass, but contrary to my expectation, he actually enjoyed it.

vacuum2

I was even more surprised when he actually did a good job.  Now I don’t have to worry about docking under the stairs.  I have someone to do it for me.

vacuum3

I’m glad that he is now finally able to help.  Now, spring cleaning wouldn’t be that tiring.

I hope you’re having a great week!

Spring is Here!

Published on by Grace8 Comments

After the seemingly endless winter weather that we’ve had over here, I was elated this past weekend as spring finally came.

bud

 

We took a walk to town through the woods and were having a grand time just looking at these leaf buds.  The birds were also singing and the air smelled so fresh.

woods

We then went to feed the ducks and the swans.

playground3

 

And of course the trip wouldn’t be complete without a quick stop at the playground.

playground2

 

Right now, a lot of visits and weekend trips are already planned.  On top of  that, we will have to put in a lot of work with our house landscaping too.  With too many activities planned and with relatively short time,  I am now beginning to understand why Czechs really love the outdoors.

An Unusual Easter Holiday

Published on by Grace3 Comments

I was so looking forward to Easter Sunday because my husband and all the other Czechs I know were very optimistic about a bright and sunny Easter holiday. Although we still had subzero temperatures during the night, the days prior to Easter Sunday were relatively warm (at 2C or higher).

We arrived Friday night at my in-laws’ house and everyone were in high spirits. Come Saturday and the weather was not too bad. In fact, we had a little bit of sunshine creeping through the clouds as we walked around my husband’s home town in Moravia. But Easter Sunday was a different story. As I was getting ready for church earlier that morning, 5cm of fresh snow greeted me as I opened the windows. The worst part was that it didn’t stop snowing till late afternoon, not until it reached 15cm. In other parts of Moravia, the heavy snowfall caused a lot of road accidents.

We all went out to lunch that day at a local restaurant and visited my husband’s aunt at a neighboring town. We then proceeded to visit my mom-in-law at the hospital. Luckily, we arrived at our destination safe and sound and only had to contend with cleaning off the snow from our cars. It was a very unusual Easter, even for the Czechs. For a while there, I thought I moved to the North Pole instead of the Czech Republic. Winter has definitely overstayed.

I’m glad we are now back in our home in the Bohemian lowlands. There was no snow in this part of the country, and it is now relatively dry. I do feel bad for the rest of my husband’s family in Moravia who are still contending with heavy snowfall which is forecasted to last until Friday. “Oh well, what can we do? That’s life,” I said to myself as I am now slowly digging into my son’s Easter loot.

Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with a short video about my land of eternal sunshine. It is a great antidote to these winter blues.