Czech This Out

The One Where I got Married and moved back to the States

I am a resident of the old U.S. of A again! Alright, so I am a reluctant resident. I had a wonderful summer! Stephen and I were married on July 5th. Our immediate families were in attendance. The week before was alternately very hot and really rainy, so we were concerned about our outdoor, garden wedding, but the weather was beautiful! It was in the 80s and a bit cloudy so it was just perfect! The week was filled with visits to castles, touring the city, Stephen's family seeing the village where he lived for 2 years, food, and, of course, beer. We also managed to have bachelor/bachelorette parties on the Thursday before. They wre fairly low-key, with both Stephen's and my mom attending my party - actually they were the life of the party! They sang more karaoke and danced harder than any of us "younger" girls. It was a fun celebration.
The day of the wedding went so fast - I wish I could have preserved every moment! I got made-up and dressed, Starbucks in hand, at our parents' hotel/apartments. Laura Bazyn and I hauled ourselves, our coffees, and all the flowers on a tram from my house - getting strange looks and knowing smiles the whole way. Someone even offered to buy our flowers.
The wedding was perfect. I was a nervous wreck, crying when Stephen said his vows, but pulling it together enough to say mine. ;-) We had a fantastic turn out of friends as well. A few people from Budapest came up, a LOT of students, and the ESI crowd was there too! I think it was a bit bigger crowd than the garden was meant to hold! The location was phenomenal though! It's a UNESCO heritage site - a beautifully retored historical garden near the palaces on the Mala Strana, "the small side," of Prague. We took lots of photos, some with guests (see below)both there and in the city. We crossed the Charles Bridge, danced on it to a Dixie land band, and took more photos from our favorite spot south of the Charles Bridge - also one of the first places we kissed in the city on New Years Eve two years ago!

Our reception went off well, if not without problems. The air-conditioning was "on," but not good. Our dads ended up buying fans which worked well until the power completely went out about 2 hours in! We spent the rest of the time chatting with people outside the reception hall or out on the street, even making a brief appearance at a student concert - my favorite Ska band, Skalena Treska, in the basement of our reception restaurant. They congratulated us from the stage. At the end of the night, our friends ushered us into a waiting taxi which took us to our surprise - a five-star hotel! They bought it for us for two nights! What a fantastic treat to finish the perfect day!
Of course, as is our custom, we spent the next morning in Bohemia Bagel. It was my birthday request. ;-) It was a bittersweet day - a fun beginning to our honeymoon and also lots of sad goobyes to many friends!
We flew to Italy the following day and spent a week galavanting around the Amalfi Coast and Rome. We saw Pompeii (too hot and dusty to really be worth it) and Naples, one of the dirtier cities in Italy!!! Sorrento (where we stayed in a renovated church building right on th edge of the sea) was gorgeous, situated on a rocky coast of cliffs, steep walkways to the sea, and lemon groves everywhere. Sometimes the scent just floated around you. My favorite day on the peninsula was the day spend in Positano and the Amalfi coast. I wouldn't recommend staying there - WAY too expensive - but we took a ferry around the coast and loved the city set into cliffs, overlooking the Mediterranean. It was breathtaking, as was the walk to the bus top! Yikes - those hills leave San Francisco looking like a flat South Dakotan plain! We spent a few days in Rome too - HOT days! Thank God we had great AC in our room though! We visited a few of our favorite sites (San Eustachio's espresso and the Pantheon for me!) and a few sites from a favorite movie - Roman Holiday. As Stephen and I both love Audrey Hepburn, we saw a few key places where she stood - though not all, thanks to the oppressive heat.
The rest of the summ was made up of goodbyes to Czech friends, receptions in Illinois and Wyoming so we could celebrate with extended families and our American friends, and finally, this move to South Carolina.

I have been a bit shocked at the friendliness of people here! Wyoming is a friendly place, but it has nothing on this place! Ah- Southern Hospitality! It's especially a shock coming from Central Europe where people are less...open and friendly with strangers. ;-)
I have a new job - one I have been threatening to get for years, probably to the chagrin of my parents, who stood by me supportively while I got my degree, and to my husband, who will be relying on my financial income to help support us this year! I am a Starbucks barista! Yes, I joined the rank and file of those coffee brewers known worldwide for their consistency and friendliness (even in Prague!) So far I really like it!

I have been having a hard time with a few things. The first is that I am not doing a "worthwhile"job anymore. I used to live in Europe and teach English - interesting and useful, right? Well, my pride is being tested here! This is most painful when telling Stephen's colleagues what I do. I feel a need to follow the introduction with "I chose to work there! It's not that I don't have an education or that I can't get a job elsewhere." Yikes...gotta work on that.
The second struggle I have is a basic human need, but one I feel especially bereft of after my experience of the last three years - friends. I need people. I am a people person! I want girl-friends, in whom I can confide secrets. I want colleagues who understand the problems I face. I want interesting people around me who can make me laugh, who will laugh at my stories, and people I can count on in good and bad times. I have been extraordinarily lucky in this department for years! When I was in the U.S., I had long-term friends - people I had cultivated friendships with for years and with whom I felt infinitely comfortable. We could have an easy dinner party, watch So I Married An Axe Murderer, or just lie around the house, watching LOST and eating ice cream!
Then I found this great organization, ESI. Both in Pasedena for traning, and in Prague, I met some of the most high-quality people I have ever known, as my friend The Great Scott Adams predicted I would! I found an easy rapport with these people. We had things in common, such as a love (or tolerance for some of them) for teaching, a love of the Czech Republic and our faith. Some were quite similar to me and I struck up instant friendships with them. We knew right away we could have a great connection. Some were as different from me as I could imagine! In some cases, these friendships took a few years to develop - students who warmed up to me after awhile, some becoming people I lan to keep in touch with for a long time. And some were people I grew to love. We might or might not have had anything in common politically, religiously, culturally, or otherwise, but being brought together by common circumstances, we found or formed deep bonds. And now, I have my best friend, Stephen, but no others to sharpen me, listen to me over a cup of coffee, etc... Thank God for email and cell phones so I can keep those old friends! It is hard though.
And my most recent struggle has been localized to this week. The newbies in Pasedena are heading to the Czech Republic, as are the returning teachers, mostly either yesterday, today or tomorrow. I am really having a hard time both handing over that baton to people I don't know and with feeling covetous of the experienc they are about to have. I really miss the Czech Republic! I miss the beauty and the history of the city, the culture, the customs, and even the language!!! (Now THAT is shocking!) I "know" that I am in a different place in my life now and I am happy, but I long for the comfortable, the familiar, the routine that I know.
So, that's been my summer - an amalgam of the best parts of life and the some of the sadder parts, leaving places and friends that you love. (Sighhh...)

posted by Kassidee Kennedy @ 8:28 PM