A World of Adventures: Checkers in the Czech!

After such a beautiful ride, we were in the Czech Republic and living a new dream. Being back in a post-soviet nation had a lot of parallels between Lithuania, Latvia and Russia. There is so much similar, and so much that just blows your mind. One thing I love about the CZ is the fact that there is limited modernization. The entire city seems frozen in time…once you look past the exotic cars and various impressive store fronts; all you see is old historical buildings.There are numerous medieval churches and incredible architecture.

Yet again, we were off on a 2.5 hr walking tour through the city to get acclimated and to see what the CZ had to offer. City after city, they begin to blur, but there is so much culture and numerous differences to take in that it becomes overwhelming….hence the exhaustion…needless to say the 6:30 breakfast to fit in our action packed days and classes. But hey…I am getting 12 credits will in a European class room.

Today was by far one of my favorite corporate visits of the trip. We had the opportunity to tour the STANLEY (since they merged 3 months ago) Black and Decker factory here in the Czech Republic.

You may be wondering what they make…well, they produce all of the Dewalt Tooling equipment. Wow. Tedd, you would have really loved to see where these pieces come from…needless to say, drop you drill 2 meters….they are supposed to withstand breakage, plus there is 30% glass mixed into the plastic to increase durability. The tour itself was really neat to see.

The factory produces everything from pouring the plastic to making the motors and packaging. Plus, the fully computerized inventory warehouse with magnetic floor tracking systems to move the forklifts was incredible.

There is just so much happening right now. Yesterday I felt like I hit rock bottom. I was running on E. Funny enough, as I entered breakfast this morning…for the first time, only 6 out of 42 were there….Dr. LaFrance got a little nervous I think, but we all just needed one morning to catch up a little. To think…I got to sleep in until 6 am.  One has to work hard to play hard…and that is exactly what we need to do. What a thought life huh? Studying and exploring 13 countries in 10 weeks….I may give up and sit at home. Just kidding.
I do miss Heidelberg though. As a Shanta Betz truck came bellowing past our coach today it just reminded me of Heidelberg and Germany in of itself, a place with deep family heritage and some fun adventures…Though updated, the same posters Tedd once collected still wallpapered the city streets.