In the small

2.2.17
T-0 days until I get to use a real towel

Czech word of the day:
little//troche

After a few flights and a couple nights I have officially arrived in Prague!!! On the way over we had a couple nights in London. It was fun to meet other students in the program and navigate the 8th largest city together. (Which was quite an adventure in itself!)

Since arriving in Prague we have had various types of orientation sessions about the program, city, public transportation, culture, and everyday life. As orientation is slowly beginning to wind down we are starting up our intensive Czech language course, and let me tell you—after just two days in Prague I was more than happy to wake up bright and early to learn the language of the country I will be living in for the next few months. It has already come in handy when we went to buy notebooks this afternoon. Well, we tried to make use of it (we’ve only had one class so it was rough), but we made it out of the store with notebooks nonetheless. Sometimes it’s simply the little things that make all the difference, even if it’s just a notebook.

A couple nights ago we went to Tesco, a local store, to buy towels. It was interesting to say the least. The store had multiple stories and on each level there was a different type of merchandise: household decorations, groceries, toiletries, clothing, etc. After we had successfully made it out of the store with everything we needed followed by a couple moments of confusion finding our way to the metro we made it back to our dorm. Success! Or…so I thought.

After getting back into my room and excitedly telling my roommate about my new towel I realized that somehow the ink tag was still on (I paid for the towel, I promise). It’s the little things, eh? She suggested to me, rather than trying to pull it off or going back to the store, to simply cut it out of the towel. So last night I carefully cut a small circle out of my towel around the ink tag—and this morning I got to use a real towel after my shower— 🙂 , and the small circle doubles as a way to hang up my towel to dry—bonus!

We have often found ourselves wandering around Old Town and though it may be cold it’s beautiful; and maybe sometimes it feels we are simply wandering aimlessly around cobblestone streets, but we seem to find the most interesting places. In those moments of simply saying yes to go explore or to turn down one street or another we discover much more than we imagined. In these small moments and simple decisions we learn and we are challenged. God has been teaching me so much already through just about everything, but the closer I pay attention the more I see Him. You see, even in small moments of defeat or confusion there is something to celebrate. I have a towel! It may seem small, but when you’ve just moved to another country and have been using a travel towel a real towel is a blessing. Although change allows us an opportunity to grow sometimes a little bit of familiarity makes it all seem a bit less intimidating. In the big and the small, in the change and the familiarity—let’s remember God is there, and let us never stop looking for Him.