Post thanksgiving

Hello all,

While Thanksgiving turkey and pies may be long ago for many of you, our Czech ex-pat Thanksgiving dinner was only yesterday, and I am finishing my meagre (but especially tasty!) leftovers at tonight's dinner. The Fulbright office organized a pot luck at the home of one of the program directors who lives about one half hour outside of Prague in a small town on the river. We all arrived at the Prague train station with food in hand (a few people approached us to ask for the food, but we stood firm). A crew of about 24 joined in the celebration, including a newborn (one of four young children of a professor who studies Prague Castle and all its long history), and a few non Fulbright friends (two of them were my sous-chefs, because it turned out that making candied yams was no small feat. Special thanks to a friend at the embassy for real brown sugar!). High school teachers came in from the small towns they have been frequenting, and we all shared stories and explored the small town which was quite fun(see our animal friends on the field?).

The Christmas markets in the town squares have opened - holiday lights, hot wine, greenery, music, and handicraft sales. My blue tree photo is included here, but doesn't quite do justice to the markets. However, I can confess that sunset at 4:00 pm is becoming a challenge for me.

This is also a week of workshops and programs - I led a half-day fundraising workshop this morning at the Narodni Museum, and go on tomorrow to do a workshop for family learning in museums. The concepts are relatively unfamiliar to the participants, but the participants (Museum staff from around the region) are good sports and surprising willing to try out my highly interactive tasks. I am very glad I didn't start doing workshops when I arrived...I have learned alot that has modified my presentations and guided my thinking.

More about workshops when the next few are history!