Rant

Today it hit me. I’m missing home a lot. It’s finally caught up with me. I guess I just have to keep busier. I miss the people and places and food. Especially the food. I just want a good burger without worrying if I’m going to feel ok after I eat it. The people here aren’t very friendly, especially because I don’t speak Czech very well. I’m trying to make the most of it while I’m here, but its hard. It makes me miss the states and realize that I could never really live in a different country unless I was fluent in the language.

The weather here is awful. It hasn’t been sunny in quite a few days and that takes a toll on my well being/attitude. I’m feeling deficient in vitamin B (from the lack of sun) and I’m trying to eat right but it’s hard. I had green beans last night, my first vegetable in a while, and it felt fantastic. They even tasted good.

My bed sucks. You can feel all the springs in it all the time and its very uncomfortable to sleep on. And it’s really low to the ground. Also the upstairs in our apartment gets really really warm at certain times of the day, even if we turn the radiator off. Also, I’m getting zits! I never get zits. I’m supposed to have perfect skin : ( I know it sounds stupid and whiney, but its true. I guess its something in the water here because I’m using face wash from home. Hopefully I will adjust to it before I leave.

So thats all I guess. Just a little rant for today. I’m feeling a little nostalgic for DC and Oakland. Everything is still going well though. No major bumps in the road or crazy things. Although last night there was a man on the metro, clearly on some type of drug, running up and down the car, getting off at every stop and then getting back on. It was a little scary but all together funny.

Ahoy!

So this weekend has been a blur. Its crazy actually being here. Every time I step outside of the apartment, a smile creeps across my face. I love it here. Really. Of course there are times I wish I were home with a car or the language but it really isn’t anything I can’t get over.

In the first two hours of being here my roommates and I took a stuporous walk around our apartment to get our bearings in the area and a feel for the neighborhood. We live next to a veternary hospital and within walking distance to the trams and metro to take us to the more city central areas. So on our walk we decided to stop at a little place and eat. Of course we knew no Czech so trying to order was fun. We did fine but as the man was assembling my sandwhich, he started to put carrots on and I said I didn’t want any and he understood. Somehow we got to communicating about how I don’t speak Czech and I told he we had just moved in. Then in my delirious state I asked how to say carrot in czech and he told me. Merkef (don’t quote me on the spelling of that). He thought it was funny that my first word of Czech was carrot.

I did too, but from then on I decided to be that delirious all the time. To reach out and make an effort. Of course some people respond to it better than others, but it’s really interesting how the world caters to us english speakers. That is always something I feel bad about, not learning, really learning another language. We just don’t do that in the states, we learn typing in the 6th grade (our Czech “buddy/roommate” thought that was odd and I did too after he pointed it out to me) and all about computers, but we cannot immerse enough in a language to be able to communicate with another population in the world.

Hello world!

Apparently starting a blog to record a semester abroad is the new trend, and so I will follow as per the request of family and friends. Words cannot express my excitement that I feel toward this trip and I will try and update this as often as possible, but we will not have the internet in our apartment.

I leave for Prague January 16th and arrive on the 17th after a brief stop in Paris. I’m trying not to think about actually going, or having any expectations because I want to just go and see for myself. Discover things on my own and not be side tracked with the stories of other people’s travel abroad experiences. I will make this the best possible experience for myself that I can because I am fortunate to have it, why spend my time complaining and wishing for something else when this is what I’ve wished for since I can remember. It took a lot to get to this point so I will make it the best I can.

Thank you to everyone who got me to this point, family, friends and professors. I really appreciate everything that everyone had sacrificed and helped me with.

Now that this sounds like an acceptance speech, I’m off to spend the rest of my time at home as best as I can : )