March Madness: Easter candy version

My mom was not thrilled when my MST decided to make Easter candy as a fundraiser and way to get word out about my assignment in the Czech Republic.  She has good reason: we have done this in years past and is at least one (if not more) very full day of shaping and dipping literally thousands of eggs.  One of my cousins reflected as we worked that she didn't remember anything other than earning money from the last time.  Apparently we easily forget the exhaustion and pain.

But, we went ahead with it and unbelievably sold way more than my family has ever made before (much to my mom's chagrin, I'm sure.  But I'm so grateful for her wisdom and experience in the process!).  So yet another adventure of determining how in the world we could make 202 pounds of candy in one day.  It didn't quite happen.  But in 2 evenings and one 12 hour Saturday, we have managed to finish 210 pounds of chocolate covered eggs and 20 pounds of fudge.  Whew!

Sugar!

How many Kitchen Aids do you need to mix 54 batches of candy?  At least 5...

Many busy bodies.

Stack of boxes we have to fill.  

And we ran out freezer space to chill eggs.  The 40 degree porch will have to suffice.

And if you're wishing you had some, we have a few pounds we're still selling!  Though soon we might just hand you the chocolate and filling... happy dipping. :)

diacritic symbols, what??

I have to learn another language. Czech, that is, since that's the language spoken where I'm headed.  But based on the rather relaxed 2 years of language I had in high school (from which I remember maybe 6 phrases and a few nouns and verbs) and several trips overseas in which I have attempted to learn just a couple of words and phrases, I'm not all that confident in my ability to actually implant foreign words into my brain.  They just don't tend to stick there.

In addition to memory issues, there are grammatical issues. Nouns and verbs: ok.  But infinitives, cases, objects, perfectives, imperfectives, diacritic symbols... I couldn't tell you what these things are in English!  (Ok, some of them I don't think actually exist in English, but still...)

And then Czech words... zmrzl, smrt... how do you pronounce a word that has no vowels?!

I wanted to attempt to learn the letters of the alphabet and what sound they make.  But I read through the book loaned to me by a friend and it said, "When you want to pronounce ř place your top and bottom teeth slightly together, purse your lips and whisper the following words: tri, tri, tri...   If this doesn't help, consult a speech therapist."  I might need the speech therapist.

Oh, the joys of anticipating what is to come!