It's the Home Stretch

Hello all! Tomorrow will mark 2 weeks before I leave Prague! Crazy...although I'm sad to leave, and I know that I will especially realize how much I miss it once I am home, I canNOT wait to go to the UK to see Brian. I am like a little kid anticipating Christmas Day or something like that, just bouncing around with this excited feeling in my stomach! That boy means so much to me...

My mom just left Prague early on Tuesday morning after spending a week here, and we had such a good time while she was here! We toured Prague and took a day trip to Cesky Krumlov-a town in the southern Czech Republic-and spent the weekend in Berlin. Needless to say, neither of us slept much that week! It was so different having someone with me in Prague, because I am so used to being alone while I go about my routine here. To have someone to talk to in the grocery store and on the tram and while walking around was so nice! Of course, I have traveled with friends when I leave Prague (except for Krakow), but here in Prague, I'm used to being on my own when I'm out of my apartment. It was so fun to have someone to show around the city, because I feel proud of how much I've learned and how much more comfortable I am with Prague since arriving here!

For the first time since coming to Europe, I had absolutely no mishaps or confusions with a train trip, which was nice! Not that anything has ever gone majorly wrong, but I always have a million connections or crazy conductors or people mugging me, and so to have a direct perfectly smooth train ride to Berlin and back was so nice! I found Berlin to be such a dichotomy of old and new, historical and up-and-coming, urban and traditional. It was really interesting, and of course since my Mom and I love history, we really soaked up that part of the trip. I keep thinking over and over since this semester started how crazy it is that I am actually visiting or living in places that I used to only read and imagine about. Growing up in Wisconsin, when I would hear about how Eastern Europe was under Communism, it all sounded rather abstract and far-away. Hearing about the Berlin Wall seemed like it was on another planet. Reading about battles fought in World War II was far removed from me. It's interesting to realize that so much of that kind of history is not that far removed when I'm here, and I am walking through the places where this actually happened. Not only that, but you can take it so much further back. Oh yes, this was built in the 800s. That was constructed in the 1200s. My oh my, are things in the U.S. so new in comparison!

When I said goodbye to my mom, I thought that I was doing pretty great, but as I rode the bus home, I realized how alone I all of a sudden felt. I liked having someone familiar with me, I liked having someone to chat with. That's what I miss about home, being able to call someone up and hang out with them whenever, or at least just call someone while I'm driving in my car, something else I miss so much! And the thing is, as wonderful as new friends are, nothing replaces the friends that you've had for years and are as comfortable as anything with. I'm really excited to have my phone (ok, I have a phone here, but this Vodafone POS doesn't count in my mind), a car, Miller Park, Brown Deer Road, Pick 'n Save, English, dollars, non-military time, temperature in Fahrenheit, things measured in miles and pounds and inches and gallons, Mountain Dew, Taco Bell, normal-priced Starbucks (really, $7 for a frappuccino here??), Jude and Luke, my family, my sweet Grandma...that will be wonderful! But there is so much that I will also miss here...See why it's so bittersweet?

I went paintballing for my first time ever just this week, and I've got an especially awesome bruise on my leg to show for it! It was indoors, and I did alright for my first time! I shot some people, I got shot plenty of times, I was the only girl there...all around, quite a good time! : D We went out for beers afterward at a Slovak restaurant where there were musicians playing old Slovak music and I honestly felt like I was back at Alpine Village (if you know that place, you really know me haha). And yes, I know Alpine isn't Slovak, but the decor and feel to both places were very similar! It was a fun experience, and I knew that my brothers would be proud. And I'm definitely doing it again!

<3

Write in my blog? Or write my research paper? Guess what won out.

Ok, this research paper isn't even due for another couple of weeks, but I want to get a head start on it since I know that my last weeks here will be busy and I won't want to spend them writing an entire 10 page research paper. I'm sorry that I haven't been too good about posting on my blog as opposed to when I first came to Prague, but I've gotten busier, and every time that I want to sit down and write a post, I second-guess my topic and tell myself it's not that interesting anyways. Well, I've finally decided that since this blog is for me as much as it is for other readers, I shouldn't judge myself on whether or not something is interesting. I should just write it. The past couple of weeks have been fairly uneventful, as I've been working on homework, putting a lot of hours in at my internship, and planning what my Mom and I are going to do when she comes here (we're going to Berlin for several days while she's here, I'm so excited!!). As much as I want to go out and explore Prague more, the "new-ness" of it has worn off quite a bit, although I'm really excited to show my mom around the city =)

It's only 26 days until I leave Prague, and it feels unfaithful to say this, but I'm really looking forward to getting back to everyone. I MISS all of you guys back home! It's weird how you can track your feelings over the course of a semester, and how your thoughts and emotions shift from those early weeks, to settling in, to getting comfortable, then to getting antsy. I can definitely say that that has been the case for me! And as much as I love traveling all around, it's tiring to plan trip after trip, let me tell you! I'm spending a lot of time planning Brian's and my trip to the UK, because we're going to be couchsurfing while we're there, so I am contacting various hosts and trying to figure everything out. Don't get me wrong, though, this has been absolutely amazing. It's weird to think how long it might be before I'm back in Prague, because to be honest, as great as Europe has been, I want to visit other continents next before coming back here. I want to travel to China, India, South Africa, Australia, Japan, Egypt, and on and on! I'll be back Europe, don't you worry, I've just got a lot of other things to see too!

School has been, interesting. There has been more homework than when I started the semester, so in that regard, it feels a bit more normal to me (Is normal good in this case? I don't know haha). But this is all old news to both you guys and to me; it's all just part of the AAU experience! : P I have 4 weeks left of school and of my internship. My internship has been a really good learning experience for me, and last week, I went to an NGO market fair and worked at the Burma Center Prague booth with my colleagues. I had a really good conversation with a woman my age who spoke fabulous English, and she was interested to know how an American girl who knew zero Czech ended up at NGO market fair that was being held entirely in Czech. I explained to her that I was interning at BCP, and we chatted about the differences in attitudes towards volunteerism and humanitarian work in Eastern Europe versus the U.S. and Western Europe. I have talked about this topic to some length in my online posts for my internship course, but I never cease to learn new things every week at BCP about working in an intercultural workplace. It has taught me a lot!

I have to confess to all of you now that as hard as I have been trying since coming to Prague to stop being such a worrier (some of you might remember my earlier blog post about that), it's been an uphill battle. I guess I was hoping that this would be one of those things that I stopped doing and never dealt with again. Of course, I knew that couldn't actually happen, but one can always dream, right? Sometimes, I just want to step outside of myself and lecture ME. Tell me to stop thinking about what other people do, stop thinking about my faults and my missteps, stop comparing myself to anyone and everyone, and just ACCEPT myself. Easier said than done, of course. I know that I'm not the only one who deals with this, but it's funny how your brain can trick you into thinking that you're all alone in something and that you're failing while the rest of the world is blissfully happy. I want to tell that constant little feeling of anxiety inside of me to chill out and relax, but it's always bouncing around inside, telling me to do this and do that, go here and say this, write this and visit that. I know that that same feeling is also the one that always keeps driving me forward and keeps me motivated, but I think the problem comes in when it's the one that starts to control me, as opposed to me controlling it. I don't know if that makes any sense, but it's hard for me to explain...

Alright, I better get back to this paper!

Italy: the land of sun and gelato

Hello there everyone! Yes, yes, I realize that it's been a little over 2 weeks since I posted on here, and I'm sorry about that! I spent 10 days in Italy from April 3-12 for my spring break and had a wonderful-albeit exhausting-time there. There is simply SO MUCH to see in Italy, and yet our group tried to tackle as much as we could in the time that we were there. We started out in Venice, then moved on to Florence (where we toured Florence and the surrounding countryside), then to Rome, and then we went to Salerno, which is on the Amalfi Coast. Once there, we all traveled to the town of Amalfi for a day, and a friend and I took the next day to see Pompeii. All we saw of Naples were the train station and the airport as we were leaving, but by then, none of us cared to sight-see anymore anyways and just wanted to get back. Unfortunately, we all returned to a chilly and rainy Prague, which was a huge disappointment after sunny and warm Italy.

I am going to be perfectly honest and say that when we left Italy, I didn't want to be returning to Prague. I wanted to be going back to the U.S. I know that the other girls in our group felt similarly, too. There's something about a long trip that makes you look forward to home, and now that we can all see the end of our time here in Prague rapidly approaching, it's an odd mixture of sadness that this amazing trip is coming to an end with an excitement to be heading back home. I think that my feelings of homesickness were very greatly compounded when I got bad news from home while in Italy about the health of two people very close to me. Never have I wanted to be home more than I did when I heard about that. But I am really looking forward to my Mom coming out here in a little over a week, and I know that I am going to have so much fun in these last 5 weeks I have here. Basically, I think that when I leave, I will be ready to go home to all those that I love, and while I will be sad to leave Prague, I will know that I lived my life fully while I was here, learned so much, and had amazing adventures!

Now, about my actual trip :-) Venice was incredibly beautiful, and everything that I ever imagined it to be. However, it's not the type of city that I could ever see myself staying in longer than a couple of days, because it was nothing but tourists as far as the eye could see. Which was fine for the day and a half that we were, but I felt like I got a lot out of the city in just that time. Venice is where the gelato tasted the best, and none of us could get over the fact that around every corner, there was another beautiful, windy canal snaking around an old, paint-chipped building with ivy tumbling down from the windows. It was such a romantic town. Our maps were largely useless there, as the roads never lasted long, soon turning into a dead end at another canal. The city is relatively small, though, and since it's on an island, you really can't ever get too lost. We were in Venice over Easter Sunday, and so we all went to church that morning at a small, local church near our hotel in the suburbs. Although the service was obviously all in Italian, it was still nice to be able to go to church on Easter. It made me miss my family, though!

Next, we were on to Florence. Our hostel in Florence was a joke, to be honest. I am struggling to find one good thing about it...ok, it had a good location near the train station. That's it. However, we were hardly there since we were out and about all the time, so it's really alright. Who needs hot water anyways? We were just lucky to get in there at all, because the night we checked in, the lady behind the counter informed us that she *oops* overbooked, and we didn't have a room. Although she first tried to get us to just leave to find a hostel she knew of (that was pricier than this one), we vehemently informed her that that was not our job. She spent over an hour calling other hostels with no luck, and she finally ended up giving us a room that was supposed to be filled by another group coming that night, but since it was almost midnight and we had arrived first (with a reservation and confirmation and a deposit paid), she gave us the room. We felt badly for the other group, but at this point, it was first-come, first-serve.

Florence was beautiful, although the majority of our exploring was in the countryside around Florence, rather than the city itself. Our second day there, we went to a small town called Greve, which is in the Chianti region of Tuscany. We shopped, went to a wine-tasting (my first!), and hiked around the hills. Basically, it was glorious. The rolling hills were ruggedly and wildly beautiful, and there was such a peaceful calm all around. It felt great to be outside of a city and experience such wide-open beauty. Our next adventure was to head to Rome. Unfortunately, our trip didn't start off on such a great foot. Our train ride to Rome involved all of us getting gypped for 5 euro each (although the conductor claimed he could've charged us 40 euro each) for not getting our train tickets validated, something we knew nothing about. He claimed that we could've used these tickets twice already to go between Florence and Rome since they didn't have a date stamped on it, and although we explained over and over again that the last 2 train conductors we'd already had in Italy hadn't brought this issue up, he was a completely jerk about it. Trust me folks, he pocketed our money for himself, and we all knew that, but he was very threatening and rude and angry despite our attempts at defusing the situation. Ah well. Then we barely made the last metro of the night when we arrived in Rome, and raced to get on the bus. Our bus driver then proceeded to only stop at the stops when someone pushed the "stop" button, and since we were relying on counting the number of stops in order to find our hostel's stop, we got lost. Past midnight. 6 girls with their backpacks wandering around completely lost in a sketchy neighborhood with our hostel not answering the phone. We finally found our hostel and thanked God repeatedly that we were safe.

As the proud history geek, I thought Rome was super amazing. The other girls weren't as fond of it, but I loved it. Plus, I'm a huge fan of Audrey Hepburn's "Roman Holiday", and I was excited to see all the sights from the movie. We went to the Vatican Museum, St. Peter's Square and Basilica, Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Colosseum, Pantheon, the Castle of Angels, and many other things! Crammed it all in :-) My getting sick put a damper on Rome, though, and although my cold was only awful for 2 days (it's been an annoyance these past 2 weeks though), those 2 days were when we were in Rome. Therefore, we were all looking forward to relaxing on the Amalfi Coast. We were giddy with excitement when we saw the hotel that we'd booked. Since it was outside of the city center, we were able to get an actual hotel room for a great price. I mean, people, we had hot water, continental breakfast, our own room, a pool, and a clean bathroom! This was like heaven to us. College students don't ask for much. We took a ferry to Amalfi on Saturday, and none of us could stop snapping pictures. This was one of those places that lived up to all of the hype about how beautiful it was, and as we laid on the beach in our swimsuits soaking up the Mediterranean sun, I had one of those moments (I've had several of these since coming to Europe) where I just thought: studying abroad was the best idea ever. I looked around at our surroundings, tried to absorb the fact that we girls were sunbathing on the Mediterranean, and just turned to Madison and said, "Can you believe we're actually doing this??" We had a little pizza and wine picnic on the beach before we took a bus ride home that I feel lucky to have survived. The scenery was incredible, but the bus was taking these narrow, winding turns so fast, and there was nothing more than a 3-foot barrier along the cliff edges separating the road from a several hundred foot drop. Eek.

Natalie and I headed to Pompeii on Sunday, which was a really cool trip. We walked all over the place, oohing and aahing over these ancient ruins that were still kept intact. Only thing that wasn't fun was the fact that the roads were quite possibly the bumpiest I've ever walked on. And I thought that Prague was bad with its cobblestones. These were more like boulders in the road. It's so amazing to visit a place like this, because it's the kind of thing I studied about every year in history class growing up, and I never thought about the possibility of one day seeing some of those places in person, and here I am, doing exactly that! When we arrived back in Salerno, Natalie and I had the bright idea of "Hey, rather than waiting 2.5 hours for the bus that will take us back to our hotel, why don't we walk?" Two hours and 15 kilometers later, we realized how foolish of an idea this had been, but we made it. Never in my life have I ever been honked at so many times in my life as we walked back. In fact, the entire time we were on the coast, it was like that. And it wasn't just a car full of young guys or creepy old men, it was everyone. Of course, guys honked, but there were families and couples that would honk and yell "Ciao bella!" at us. I have yet to figure this out.

All in all, Italy was amazing, I ate like 8 gelato cones, as well as oh so much pasta and pizza and wine and delicious pastries. Every window we passed seemed to be filled with yet another tempting treat (and we often gave in to them). It was an exhausting trip too, though! So, having written this novel, I will say "Ciao" and hope that all of you are doing well :-)

I blinked, and March was over!

I honestly cannot believe that the month of March is already over. February really seemed to take forever, but March seemed to last about a week! I did so much this past month: I traveled to Paris, Austria, and Poland, got long hours in at my internship, and, of course, kept up with school. I only have one midterm left, but never has a semester ever been so relaxed. I realize that I am used to working in hyper-drive when it comes to school, so that may make things seem easier than they are (I'm told that AAU is actually a very rigorous school!), but STILL! Here, there is a lot less busy work, and the focus is on the midterm, the final, and other larger projects. It's really nice, because this way, I know from the beginning of the semester what days certain things are due, and I can plan around that. I am watching my grades because I know that grad schools (especially if I apply to grad schools overseas) will be looking at how I did while I was studying abroad, but it's still nice to know that only my course credits, and not my GPA also, are transferring back to UWM.

I have been keeping a close eye on the countdown of days until I leave Prague, with a sense of both dread and anticipation. In case you were wondering, it's 49 days ;-) I am so excited to see everyone back home, and especially since I just heard that a very close friend of mine is pregnant, I can't wait to hurry back to the States and see her!! I have another very close friend getting married, and my brother and sister-in-law are adopting two children this spring...so there are a lot of important things that I am looking forward to being a part of! Of course, on the other hand, thinking that my adventure is now on to its second half floors me. Time really does fly when you're having fun! I keep thinking about where in the world I want to travel next after my European adventure is all over, and I keep thinking that I would love to see India, or Japan, or Africa or the Middle East...Australia....there's a lot I want to see! I'm looking forward to wherever my next adventure takes me. Of course, there will still be parts of Europe that I won't get to on this trip, so I'll want to see those too someday!

UWM just posted their class schedule for next fall, and so I was going through the courses and picking what I needed to take. I'm at the point now where I really don't have any leeway in deciding WHAT I want to take, it's more so that I just have to make sure that I get all of my required courses to fit into my schedule. I can't believe that this will be my final year of college! On the one hand, I don't want it to be over; I don't want to move on to the next stage because I like this stage. On the other hand though, I want to go to grad school, so it really won't be over when I graduate from undergrad. One thing that I won't really miss about college is the "poor college student" feeling, but it's also kind of fun to be doing things on a budget. I know that sounds funny, but it's true. If college wasn't so darn expensive, I would probably extend things by a semester or two, but I know that I can finish in 4 years, and so I will. I also think that while this semester has been nice, once I'm back home, I'll remember all of the stress of balancing school and work! Besides, I like to get things accomplished in a timely way, in case you didn't already know that ;-)

I am leaving tomorrow for my 10-day trip to Italy with 3 other girls, and I am so excited! We're traveling to Venice, Florence, Tuscany, Rome, Naples, and the Amalfi Coast while we're there (and yes, we're going to manage to fit all of that in : D ). I am very, very excited for Rome, but I'm also really looking forward to the Amalfi Coast. If you've never heard of the latter, you need to google it =) The pictures will blow you away! As exciting as sight-seeing is, it can get tiring to trek through a city and snap pictures of buildings, which is why I loved my ski trip so much, and also why I'm excited for the last couple days in Italy. It's fun to actually go out and do something active while you're traveling, rather than just looking at things. I don't know if I'll have much internet access while I'm in Italy, so my next post might not be until I get back, but we'll see! I'll have lots to say then, and a million pictures, I'm sure.

::Polska::

This past weekend was another adventure outside of Prague, this time to Poland! I chose this weekend to go because several of my friends were going to be going to Krakow for the weekend with their study abroad program, and I had planned to meet up with them once they got there so that we could hang out. Well, that didn't exactly happen, since my phone decided that it could not make phone calls or send text messages as soon as I got into Poland. I actually saw some of my friends at Auschwitz (kind of a weird place to have a "Hey, look, it's so-and-so, fancy seeing you here!" moment, but I digress), and I knew that there was a chance I'd catch them while I was there since their group would be there on Saturday like I was, but I only spent about 15 minutes with them. However, it actually turned out just fine, because I met a lot of new people on this trip, something I might not have done had I spent all my time with people I knew. And besides, I love meeting new people. I really do. And I've had to do a lot of that since coming here to Prague, because I came here knowing NOBODY, not a single person here. It's good to go places alone sometimes though, because then you have no choice but to branch out. Plus, it's also good to be alone sometimes. I think that too many people (myself included) are sometimes afraid to really spend time with themselves and travel alone. It was a great experience for me, and I continue to realize more and more that I can be comfortable in my own skin. It's a freeing feeling.

Anyways, I got to Krakow on Friday afternoon with only a couple problems along the way ;-) I had to take 3 different trains to get to Krakow, and the second train I took was running about 10 minutes behind. Normally, no problem, but the third train was supposed to leave only 5 minutes after I got to the station, so I really couldn't afford to be running even 10 minutes late. When I got to the station to catch the third train, the lady at the ticket office managed (with my lack of Polish and her lack of English) to explain that I missed the train. Feeling depressed, I decided to check the boards again, and amazingly enough, I saw my train posted up there as also having been late, so it was just now pulling into the station! Yet another miracle that I've had this semester. Then, when I got on the train, the conductor (who also spoke about 3 words of English) started to freak out when he saw my ticket, and I realized that he was trying to say I wasn't supposed to be on this train and had to get off at the next station. I got so worried, and then he even walked away with my ticket in his hand. Five minutes later, a different conductor came back with my ticket in hand, and handed me my ticket back. I asked if everything was alright, and he just looked at me with a very bored expression and said, "Yeah, why wouldn't it be?" And that was that!

I did my own little walking tour of Krakow on Friday afternoon and evening, and as I was heading back to my hostel at around 19:00, I saw a sign posted outside of a gorgeous cathedral saying that there would be a chamber orchestra playing there that evening at 20:00. So I walked up to the man selling tickets outside the door, and after hearing that it was 50 zloty ($20), I figured that that was a little much. I started to walk away, but then turned around and asked if there was a student discount. Sure enough, I got in for $12. The concert was beautiful, and I met two very nice ladies who were also traveling alone while I was there, one from London, the other from New Zealand. While I was sitting there in this gorgeous cathedral with vaulted ceilings and elegant artwork and architecture, listening to some of the most beautiful songs that humanity has created, I couldn't help but think of what a stark contrast that evening would be to my day the next day when I would go to visit Auschwitz. I felt as though that evening, I was experiencing the best of humanity, the most beautiful offerings that mankind has, while the next day, I would be seeing the absolute worst side of humanity, seeing what horrors a person or group of people can be capable of. It gave me the chills.

I was up early on Saturday to get to Auschwitz, and though people told me that it was a bad idea to go by myself, I knew I didn't really have a choice. All of my new friends at the hostel had either already gone or had absolutely no desire to go there. So, I got on the bus and headed there alone. However, I decided to strike up a conversation with the girl sitting next to me on the bus and learned that she was also traveling alone to Auschwitz, and so we agreed to spend our time there together. And boy, am I glad that I had her with me. I realized when she left (she had to catch an earlier bus, so I spent the last 45 minutes or so alone out of the 3.5 hours I was there and didn't find my friends until almost the very end of that) how horrible I felt going through the camp alone. I actually started to go numb to what I was seeing and reading by the end, and the last building I went through, the one where the prisoners had their hair shaved off and were given their prison clothes, was basically in a daze. For those who haven't been there, there are actually 2 camps to see: Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The first one is much smaller and is a museum. About half of the old barracks are filled with exhibits, and there is a lot to read and see. At Birkenau, about 3 km from the first camp, it is nothing but wide open spaces of old barracks and crematoriums. And, of course, the crushingly infamous set of railroad tracks that led straight into the camp...

Birkenau is massive, and when you walk along the railroad tracks with the wind whipping past you and the long rows of barbed-wire fences on either side, you can't stop yourself from imagining what it must have been like. If you were led to the right off of the train, you were taken to the barracks to begin a life of slave labor. If you were taken to the left off of the train, you were immediately killed. The women and children (except for the ones saved for cruel medical experiments) were almost always taken to the left immediately, and perhaps the saddest thing I saw all day was at the museum, where they had a gigantic pile of children's shoes that the Nazis had saved from their victims and were planning on selling. I felt as though I was going to lose it right there, but again, this was where it helped so much to have a friend, and she was very sweet, patting me on the back, asking if I was okay. The other moment where I felt as though I would break down and cry was when I was walking through one of the barracks where they had hung the pictures that the Nazis took of the prisoners when they first arrived at the camp. The pictures had been framed, and had the person's birth date, arrival date at the camp, and date of death. I couldn't help but glance at the birth dates on some of the pictures, and I found so many that were from 1920 or 1921, making those prisoners about 20 or 21 years old when they arrived in 1941 (that was the only year where they took pictures. After that, the volume of prisoners got so high that they stopped taking their photographs). All of a sudden, I stopped at a picture of a young man who was 21 when he arrived at Auschwitz, and who only lived about 6 months there before passing away. What arrested my attention was his eyes: he was looking straight at the camera with the calmest face I have ever seen, and all that I could think was that he was the same age as I am now. My heart broke to think of the life that had been stolen from him, yet he looked so calm and brave. I will never, ever forget that face and that moment in time where I felt as though he and I were connected. I am crying as I write these last few sentences, because I still can't believe how gut-wrenching of a feeling that was. I had always wanted to go to Auschwitz very badly, and it was an experience that I am very glad I had and one that I think everyone should have at least once in their lifetime, but it was so heart-breaking. It's actually a state requirement that every Polish student now go to Auschwitz with their high school graduating class, which I think is very important.

I didn't really have the heart to do any other sight-seeing on Saturday night after going to Auschwitz, so I went out with some girls from my hostel to have an authentic Polish dinner, which tasted absolutely amazing. Cabbage and mushroom pierogies with potato cakes = delicious! I also sampled some of the other girls' food, and although I don't remember the Polish names for those foods, they were amazing. Krakow is a really cool city, actually kind of like a smaller version of Prague. Almost the entire city has now been reconstructed from the WWII damage, and I only saw a couple buildings that were under serious renovation. On Saturday night, our group walked down along the river to see the famous Krakow dragon breathe fire. Yes, breathe fire ;-) I had actually seen the dragon from where I was up on the Castle Hill, and I had honestly thought that I was going crazy when I thought I saw fire coming out of the dragon's mouth, but one of my hostel roommates assured me later that day that it does indeed breathe fire. So, we headed down there to be able to see it at night, and it was pretty awesome! We girls climbed up on the sculpture, and, forgetting about the fire-breathing aspect, freaked out when he breathed fire as we climbed up there. Of course, we were far from the dragon's mouth and perfectly safe, but as a reflex, we all panicked when we saw the fire coming ;-)

Before leaving on Sunday afternoon, I headed out to the Wieliczka Salt Mines, which were absolutely amazing to see. The lowest our tour group got (all 3 of us ;-) that's what happens when you take the early Sunday morning tour, nobody is there!) was 200 meters below the earth. The mine became inactive back in 1996 and now is just for tours, but we walked through massive underground chapels that the miners had carved, including the world's largest underground cathedral. It was gigantic and beautiful, and the entire room had been carved out of the salt. They actually have masses down there every week, too!

So, I think that that's enough for now! Your eyes are probably crossing from reading all of this, dear readers, so I will let you go. Life is busy here in Prague this week, but only 5 days till I leave for Italy for spring break! Wooo!!!!

Spring, Care Packages, and Health Care

I think it's safe to say that spring has officially arrived in Prague. Now, it might get cold here and there in the upcoming weeks, but I think that in general, we're headed towards sunshine, warmth, birds, and short sleeves. I love it. The windows were open all day long at the office where I intern, and every once in a while, I would just stop, close my eyes, and let myself soak up the sun that was pouring all over my desk. Just as I thought it would, Prague looks gorgeous in the springtime. The fresh sunshine glints off of the red roofs, and the river no longer looks dull and gray, but rather shimmering and clear.

I spent the last weekend catching up on and also working ahead on my homework, so that I can continue traveling on the weekends worry-free. It was nice to sleep in, and since everyone I know seems to be getting sick (including my roommate), I was worried that if I didn't take care of myself, I'd also get sick. Plus, who doesn't like getting extra sleep sometimes? ;-) It's strange, because while I only have about 8 weeks left in Prague, I get this feeling sometimes that this, what I'm doing now, is my life. That this is how things will continue indefinitely, with me living here in Prague and traveling around and meeting new people and going to school and interning. It's kind of unsettling to realize that everything I've now come to know will be gone before I even know it! The memories will definitely never be forgotten, as this trip has been life-changing. However, I think that the realization that my time here is short fends off most homesickness and loneliness. That doesn't mean I'm immune to all homesickness though, trust me. It just makes it easier to deal with it if it does hit. Having a boyfriend back home makes a big difference, I think, because no matter how amazing things are here, I am always aware that my best friend and other half isn't there to share in these experiences. On the other hand, the feelings of pride and independence that I get when I realize that I moved to another country and have not only survived, but am prospering and happy, are exciting. But for the record, this time abroad has reminded me more than anything else has before that Brian is my soul-mate. We are learning how to communicate so much better, and we have dealt with the issues of being apart, and while we're not back together yet, I am 100% confident that we're going to get through the second half of my study abroad just fine. When you really want to be with someone, you'll do what it takes to make things work :-)

Just yesterday, I got a care package from my mom and sisters, and it was packed with Easter candy and notes from my family. When I opened the box, I felt as though a whiff of home came right into my apartment. It was exciting to get a package, and promptly ate all of the candy that was in the box within 24 hours (okay, there wasn't THAT much candy in there, don't get any ideas about me being a totally greedy eater!). Brian just mailed out a package yesterday, and two of my friends also sent one this week, so I am eagerly looking forward to receiving those. To have something that you can physically hold on to and touch is a big deal when you're away from home! Don't get me wrong though, I have loved all of the sweet and wonderful messages that I've gotten online =) I honestly feel so incredibly blessed, because I am so happy here, BUT I also have a wonderful life to return to back home with amazing family, friends, and boyfriend. Not everyone can say that, and I realize that, so I am very thankful!

It's interesting to hear news about the U.S. while I am away, and of course, the biggest news right now is the passing of the health care bill. Most Czech people that hear the news are just surprised that it took the U.S. so long to pass such a bill, since even they have universal health care like most developed nations. I am very torn on the subject of this bill, to be honest. I see the fear of "the spread of socialism" as over-the-top in many respects, because to be honest folks, the government has long had control of many aspects of society, and the recent changes in our government doesn't mean that we are suddenly slipping towards the edge of socialist oblivion. Many people also ignorantly associate socialism with Communism, which, simply put, represents a lack of understanding of what socialism and Communism really are. However, I also disagree with many aspects of the bill. What really embarrasses me, though, is the way people are behaving about this. Why is it acceptable for members of either side of this argument to personally attack people for what they believe in? It doesn't make me less of a Christian because I don't wholeheartedly back this bill; yes, Jesus said to care for the poor and suffering, but did Jesus say that the only way to care for such people is by offering them universal health care? I thought not. And why is someone not a Christian if they support this bill? Christianity is now based on your political beliefs, and your political beliefs determine your Christianity? How sad. It's true that we are known by who we associate with, but in today's political world especially, there is a stark difference between the political ideologies of a party and the people that run that party. My point is this: realize what your words are doing. The U.S. is strong because we are allowed to hold different beliefs and ideologies, and in order for that system to continue, we need to respect others. That doesn't mean that we have to stop trying to talk to others about what we believe in and teach others about what we feel is right and wrong, but remember that everything rests in how you spread your message.

You come to our country, you learn our language?!?

Ok folks, so while most of you have probably long since forgotten my promised post on a certain controversial topic, I had not! That's one thing about me, for better or for worse: I will not forget something that I promised to do. So if I promised to pay you back the money I owed you, I will! If I promised that I would punch you in the face the next time I saw you, well, I will also do that (I don't make many of the latter promises though :-) ). I am in Prague for the weekend catching up on homework, errands, and internship work, so I figured this would be a good time to bring this up before I have to post about another wild European adventure ;-)

So I have been seeing these groups pop up all over Facebook that have names generally akin to "You come to OUR country, you learn OUR language!!", and I can honestly say that it completely disgusts me that people actually subscribe to that sort of thinking. Coming to a new country, whether it's for a semester or a lifetime, is always a difficult thing to do. There are a million and one new things to adjust to, and the language barrier is one of the largest hurdles in my opinion. If you can't understand the language, you're blocked from doing so many things. For me, I have learned to tune out Czech when I'm out and about, because at first, it stood out to me so much and always distracted me. I couldn't help but feel painfully noticeable (even if I wasn't speaking!). It's as if I felt that everyone knew I didn't speak Czech just by glancing at me. I still stick out, I know, but I've learned to accept it =) I'm a foreigner and that's how it is.

And while just a simple annoyance with those that are different from you--while still wrong, if you ask me--might be the motive behind a group as the one I've mentioned, I feel that it goes deeper than that for many people. And this isn't just for Americans who are angry with those who don't learn English, although I think that we are typically guiltier than most. Czech people, for example, can be extremely rude and downright unkind if they realize you aren't able to speak their language. They expect everyone to be able to speak Czech and can be judgmental if you do not. Please, don't get me wrong. Not everyone is like that. But it's definitely true of a large part of the population here.

However, I think it's interesting that of all places, the U.S. would become a place that looks down upon those who can't/won't speak English. Your native language is one of your closest ties to your ethnicity, and for many immigrants to the U.S., the first, second, and sometimes even third generation would not fully immerse themselves into English upon moving here. Rather, especially in the large cities in the U.S., pockets of cultures existed in their own neighborhoods, and while some might cry out in fear that the immigrants to our country are no longer blending well, what would you call those huge Irish-,Italian-, Polish-, African-American neighborhoods of the 19th and 20th centuries?

There seems to be this whole debate going on nowadays about whether or not the U.S. is a melting pot or, as some say, a salad of sorts, where everything is all in the same bowl but not blended together. Ultimately, I find it silly, because I feel that a fear of immigrants is a denial of who we all are. I do find the economic and political situation in Mexico to be troubling, and one that should be remedied. Not so that we don't have immigrants here, but so that people do not feel that their only option for survival is to slip across the border. The dislike of those who don't speak your language can often mean a whole lot more than just frustration in dealing with someone who can't communicate with you; it can signal something deeper. And while I think that's it's vital to learn the language of the country that you're living in, I can also sympathize with those who are slow to learn English. When you are thrust into something completely new, it is comforting to converse in your own language, even if it's just amongst your family and friends. It sounds harsh and very close-minded to expect everyone to speak your own language. As Americans, we are lucky that when many people come to our country, even as tourists, they are able to converse in English. When we go to their country though, are we able to converse with them? Remember that the next time you get angry at someone for not speaking your language. English may be spoken by a lot of people, and so it may get easy to expect it out of everyone, but that's naive and unfair. Our country was not built on the ideology that we must all think the same way and act the same way.

The Amazing Trip Where Everything Went Wrong

After coming home from Paris last week, I couldn't imagine having a trip as fun as that one was. Well, this past weekend in Austria, I have to say, was equally amazing as Paris, although in a completely different way. I honestly don't know if I have laughed so much as I did on this past trip, where I traveled with 4 other girls: Natalie, Madison, Chelsey, and Perri. Almost every step of the way, our plans unraveled and things went wrong, but amazingly enough, the alternative to the plans that we had made and the "wrong" thing that happened either turned out to be even better or it at least gave us a good laugh.

The trip started out with my almost missing it altogether. We were supposed to meet at the train station at 6:15, and I woke up 6:20 to a text message from Natalie saying she'd be a couple minutes late. Our train left in 55 minutes, and I have never gotten ready as fast as I did that morning. Obviously, I made it in time, thanks to the amazing public transportation here in Prague that got me to the train station in record time. After we got to Salzburg, all of us but Madison went on the Sound of Music tour; that movie is absolutely a childhood favorite of mine, and I have also dreamed of going to Austria since I was a young girl in the 5th grade, and I did a report on the country of Austria. I was not let down in the least, as the stunning Austrian Alps whizzed past us while we were on the train and tour van, with small villages and brilliant blue lakes dotting the countryside. Our tour guide, Peter, was a lot of fun, and he was the one that suggested we girls eat at a local beer hall in Salzburg for dinner.

After the tour and freshening up at our hotel, we all decided to hop on the bus and search for this beer hall. It took some searching, and we were just about to give up when we found it. I am so happy we didn't stop searching, because this stop was definitely a highlight of the weekend! We filled up our beer steins, loaded up on rich (read: artery-clogging) Austrian food, and sat down at one of the long tables in the hall. We were stared down by almost everyone in the room, and we quickly realized that we had not been directed to any type of tourist destination, because we were clearly one of maybe a few groups of foreigners in this packed hall. After a little apprehension, we all relaxed a little and chatted it up with our new friends at our table. This was our weekend of making new friends, to be sure! We walked to the bus stop afterward singing the "Do re mi" song from Sound of Music at the tops of our lungs, which, although embarrassing in retrospect, was so much fun at the time! : p

We all wanted to ski at Flauchau on Saturday and Sunday, but after getting to the train station on Saturday morning, we found out that not only was Flauchau 3 hours away, it was also extremely expensive. So we literally picked the next train headed in the direction of the Alps (Salzburg has mountains around it, but nothing suitable for skiing!) and hopped on it. When we arrived in the village 2 hours later, we were pleasantly surprised to realize that we had arrived at a mountain that was a bit more out-of-the-way and less touristy, which offered lower prices but equally amazing skiing. Our next new friends were the two guys working at the ski shop, who not only gave us free beer at the end of the first day, but they gave us discounts on our ski gear and great advice on places in town to eat. On that first gondola ride up the mountain, I almost had to pinch myself to believe that I was really about to ski in the Alps. I had never really dreamed of doing this, like I had dreamed of going to Colorado growing up, because I had sort of assumed that it was such an impossible thing to happen. However, it was just as incredible as you could imagine it to be. I would just stop skiing at times and pull off to the side to look around me and soak in the fact that I was skiing in Austria!

I had more experience than the other girls on the trip with skiing, so I headed off on my own most of the time, which was perfectly fine with me. We would meet up for lunch, and at the end of the day, but the rest of the time, I was free to ski as fast as I wanted ;-) I couldn't believe how good the majority of the other skiers there were, because after skiing for as long as I have been, I am generally used to being one of the better skiers on the mountain, but here, I was surrounded by people going as fast as I was and carving beautifully down the mountain. Unfortunately, my tendency to go off on my own is what led to my first disaster of the trip. My first of two, to be exact. After doing some tree skiing right underneath a ski lift, I noticed that off in the distance a little ways, there was more tree skiing with fewer tracks and more powder. Excitedly, I headed off in that direction, knowing that I still had ready access to the lift if I was over there, and that I would be fine if I stayed where the other tracks already were. I wanted to be adventurous, but not stupid, especially since I was alone. However, I unknowingly started down the run too far to the left, and although I followed someone else's tracks, I realized later that they had made a mistake in going where they were and had gotten lost. So in following their tracks, I did the same thing. After only going about 30 feet down the mountain, I realized I was in trouble. The snow was impossibly deep and way too fluffy to ski in safely. I also had quickly lost sight of the lift. As I skied towards a stand of trees, I suddenly started to rapidly sink into the snow, and suddenly I was waist deep in the snow and unable to move. I could feel panic rising inside of me, and although I tried to stop it, the fear that I would go in over my head in the snow and I would suffocate overwhelmed me. I started to wriggle like crazy, which only made things worse. However, I managed to get my skis off and pull myself out of the hole, and after a long time, pulled my skis out of the hole. After getting back up, I proceeded to sink again, and went through this experience 3 more times. Each time, my panic grew deeper, and I began to scream for help. In my foggy mind, I realized somewhere that I had a phone, but I knew that I had no way of really describing where I was, and I worried that I would sink again and if my head went below the surface, I might not have a lot of time. That realization all of a sudden made my brain re-engage, and I remembered all of those articles I've read over the years about what to do if you panic. I began to talk to myself in the calmest voice possible, attempting to pull myself out of the numbing panic I was feeling. Each struggle to pull out of the holes I sunk into sapped my strength even more, and so I began to feel weak, and I was drenched in a cold sweat. However, as I began to talk to myself, I could feel my brain clearing, and I slowly managed to slip my skis back on and skim as lightly as I could without breaking the surface of the snow until I found a small path with footsteps (of the person whose tracks I had earlier followed). From there, I took my skis off and walked for about 20 minutes hoping that it was the right direction. I eventually found where a run joined in, and I shakily put my skis back on. I took two long, slow runs down the other side of the mountain after that, because I did not want that experience to be the last one I had on the mountain. That experience terrified me, but in no way scared me off from skiing or even tree skiing. It did remind me, however, that the majestic beauty of a mountain also holds incredible danger if you don't respect its rules, and while I truly wanted to be safe by staying in sight of the lift and following all of the tracks, I ended up making a huge mistake that could have cost me so much more than just an hour of my day.

That being said, I still had a blast in Austria. I know you might think I'm crazy for saying that, but I ended up okay in the end, and I just thanked God a million times over for watching out for me. I know that I have so many people praying for my safety on this trip, and that was made even more obvious in both this case and in my next story. This one was also a "near-miss". Since we took the 4 AM train on Monday back to Prague (it was either that one, or we left the mountain at noon on Sunday to take the train back to Prague, leaving us with 2.5 hours of skiing on Sunday, which none of us liked). We stayed in the waiting area at the train station until 4 AM, getting absolutely no sleep, so when we got on the train, we were all anxious to sleep. However, I felt a little uneasy sleeping while all of our stuff was there, and although we were in a separate compartment with a closed door, if we were sleeping deeply enough, we would never hear someone come in. WELL. I decided to stay awake, but I was lying down on the bench seat with my purse right next to my face. Unfortunately, pure exhaustion caused me to slip into a doze. All of a sudden, I had the sensation that someone was standing over me, and I snapped my eyes open. All I see is the back of a very big guy headed out the door of our compartment with something purple under his arm. My purse. I leap out of my seat and race after him. I see him slip into a compartment next to ours and slide the door shut. Keep in mind, at this point, I had a major adrenaline rush, and I knew that nothing was going to keep me from getting that purse back. I yanked their compartment door open and (Mom, you'll have to forgive me for this, but this was not a time in my life to be nice) and screamed at the man to give me my purse back, sprinkling plenty of obscenities in there. By that time, he had passed my purse off to his buddy, and so I reached forward and ripped my purse out of the second man's hands. I think that I took both of them so by surprise that they didn't resist me as I yanked my purse back. I immediately raced out of their compartment and into the hallway, rifling through my purse to be sure that everything was there. It was. The conductor heard me screaming and came running, and although he assured me that he would get the police, as soon as he left to go the phone, the two bumbling thieves jumped out the door of the train and onto the snowy ground. From there, they tripped around and walked off into the fields. C'mon, this is Europe. Did you really think the police would help me much anyways? I am so glad I just got my purse back myself, otherwise I could have said goodbye to my passport, debit card, credit cards, ID, and camera. I normally keep those things in a wallet around my neck while out of Prague, but I hadn't planned on sleeping and had started putting things back in my purse. The other complication was that while I really wanted to stay in the hallway of the train and scream at those guys and (remember: adrenaline rush) punch them in the face, I also knew that none of us in our group were in a position to make the conductor notice us too much. That's because we unknowingly gave our ticket to Natalie when she left on Sunday (she didn't ski on Sunday). I though that since we had 5 sheets of paper, each one was a ticket, and so I gave her one. However, since we bought all the tickets together, only the top sheet of paper-the one I gave her-had our destination written on it. The others were basically worthless without that top sheet. So when the conductor came, she told us to get off the train or pay again (at least $50 for each of us). Luckily, I am nutty about being organized, and I had saved the receipt for those tickets. Although that said nothing about our destination on it, I think that the fact that I had a receipt was enough for her to let us stay. I think she also felt sorry for us. However, the next conductor didn't know that she had let us just stay on, so when he came wanting to talk to me about my purse, I said I was fine and didn't want to talk, in case he found out about our ticket situation.

I know that these two stories may make it sound as though my trip was horrible, but it really wasn't. I had two near-misses, but I pulled through them and feel stronger because of it. I also feel more aware of my safety, which is always a good thing to be reminded of! Anyways, it was a weekend of laughing and goofing off and making new friends, and whether it was Chelsey knocking wine bottles down at the grocery store as she swung her backpack on, or eating cheese strudel and apple strudel, or hearing from the man at the hotel counter that we couldn't pop popcorn in the microwave there because "that stuff veel grow and spread all over the microwave!! It could break my microwave!! Eet grows!", or getting free champagne our last night there, or just being together and bonding, it was the trip of a lifetime. I skied in the Alps baby!

Oh Paris, how I loved thee...

Home again, home again. That's honestly how I feel being back in Prague, which is actually a surprisingly wonderful feeling. As I mentioned in my last posts, I had started to grow tired of Prague in many ways because the new and exciting feeling had faded. However, leaving the city made me realize that I wasn't really growing tired of it, I was just starting to feel like it was home as I grew comfortable here. Of course I miss home back in Milwaukee, but I love it here as well. It's the people that I truly miss in Milwaukee, although I do miss the city itself too. I can't wait to be back home to go to a Brewers game, or stop at Buffalo Wild Wings, or go running along Lake Michigan...things like that! It was actually a little disorienting to be in Paris, because I was not only away from my real home, but I was also away from my temporary home, and Paris was a completely new experience altogether.

A new experience, as well as a fabulous one. Although many people have told me that the city "isn't all it's cracked up to be", "it's all hype"...I didn't feel that way at all. Paris has a lovely, romantic, and elusive spirit about it, and one that I eagerly tried to capture. I felt as though, at times, I was able to grab onto that spirit, and it was exciting. I am a lover of all things historical, and walking down the streets of Paris filled my mind with thoughts of who might have once walked here and what happened here. Prague is an incredibly old city, but unfortunately, it's never found anywhere in a Western history book, so when I came here, I didn't arrive with childhood dreams of what I wanted to see and do. Not so with Paris! (It's the same with Italy, I think, I am so excited to be going to cities like Venice and Rome!).

I traveled to Paris with a fellow AAU study abroad student, Madison, and luckily, we both had similar agendas for what we wanted to see. I got into everything except for the Eiffel Tower for free; the Louvre was free on Friday night to students, the Palace of Versailles was free because I was considered an EU student (thanks to that visa that caused me innumerable headaches in getting! I'm glad it was good for something.), and on the first Sunday of every month, the museums are free, so we went to see Centre Pompidou and Musee d'Orsay for free. Everything about the trip went incredibly smoothly from start to finish; I couldn't have asked for anything more. The sun was out most of the weekend, and although the wind could be bitterly cold, it was generally just sunny and chilly most of the time. I had never stayed in a hostel before this trip, and it turned out to be a great first experience. Our only trouble was with how cold our room got, but I slept with 3 blankets and did just fine =) Our hostel was almost all students, and we all would gather in the lounge and chat, exchanging travel tips, discounts, and restaurant ideas. Madison and I spent Saturday with two friends that I met at breakfast that morning; although I am quite extroverted, I have a hard time making initial contact with people, but that morning, I told myself that although Madison was sleeping still and I was alone coming to breakfast, I wouldn't eat alone. I sat down with a bunch of people, introduced myself, and started asking where everyone was from. I was proud of myself, because as I said, it's actually really difficult for me to initiate conversation with people I don't know. I'm working on that....and I'm glad that I did so, because I made new friends that we were then able to travel with.

Traveling to Versailles was our day trip on Saturday, and it was a great trip. The Palace of Versailles is stunningly gorgeous, and I can't believe that somebody built that to live in. I was blown away by the architecture and landscape, the colors and fabrics, the vibrancy and grandeur. I also loved thinking about the history of the Palace, and of what it must have been like that night that the French peasants broke through the gates of Versailles and dragged King Louis XVI back to Paris. I have always loved history, but I have a professor back at UW-Milwaukee that has especially piqued my interest in European history, and after having a course with him about the French Revolution last year, I really wanted to see Paris. It was so fun to imagine the history of both Versailles and Paris; I think that I could spend a couple years of my life living in Europe reading old history books in cute street cafes and be perfectly content.

Madison and I conquered the public transportation in Paris on the first day. Our first time on the metro, we felt overwhelmed, but after studying the metro map for a little while, we figured out the system. Then it made perfect sense. However, we had our fair share of squeezing underneath the turnstiles at the metro stations. For some reason, many of the tickets we bought would not work on the machines, even if we literally had just purchased them a few feet away from the turnstile. At first, we felt embarrassed squeezing through, but by the last day, we had become experts at it. Our tickets worked less than half the time, and besides, I will confess, the last day we were there, we were out of tickets and-not wanting to spend any more money-just slipped through the turnstiles every time we got there. Ah well... =)

The food in Paris was oh-so-good. We ate out a couple times, but we also went to the grocery store for some of our meals. I will admit, it's slightly easier to grocery shop when all the food names are in French as opposed to Czech, since French is so much more like English than Czech is. Anyways, while I knew that crepes were of course a classic French food, I had no idea that that would mean that it would be sold literally on every street corner. It was everywhere. And the Nutella craze was full-blown. There were containers of it being sold in the grocery store that were up to a liter in size. Number of calories = who cares? The stuff's delicious! And besides, I always had bananas with my Nutella, so it was a bit healthier ;-) I bought some brie there, and we munched on baguettes. I always found it funny when I'd see people walking on the street with their long baguettes poking out of the bag, tearing off pieces of bread as they went and munching it. Silly Parisians, that's why you keep your food safely in the bag all the way, so that you don't eat everything just on the walk home. I know I'd have everything polished off if my bread was sticking out like that in plain view, tempting me.

Speaking of the Parisians, either Madison and I got lucky, or the stereotype isn't right, but the people we met in Paris were incredibly nice. We had people stop on the street when they saw us with a map and ask us where we were trying to go. It was nice to realize that so many people spoke English, because while almost everybody under 30 speaks some English here in Prague, it gets difficult to find someone over 30 that speaks it. In summary, Paris was an absolute blast, it was a dream trip, and I am so glad that we did it. To be able to spend a 4-day weekend in Paris makes me feel incredibly lucky; a 90 minute plane ride and we were there! I know I'll be back someday, Paris. You were wonderful to me, and you were a gracious hostess. Expensive at times, yes, but so worth it!

Forward, MARCH!

*I know I promised my controversial topic for this post, but I'm feeling way too chill right now for that. I apologize, I know that my eager audience may never forgive me, but heck, relax people, I'll get to it ;-) Enjoy the read:

Yep, it's March now, and (for me, at least), the first day of this month is already almost over. I think the weather read my last blog post, because it's been beautiful outside ever since I wrote that last post. I won't complain at all, I'm loving it! But I'm ready to start a new month here in Prague, and, in fact, I was eagerly looking forward to a fresh start. I had started to really feel pretty down by the end of the month, which was largely due to feeling sick, but also to feeling restless. February was something of a blur, in many respects, although there are many individual moments and emotions that I can distinctly remember from that month, and I doubt that I will soon forget them. I am so glad that I started this blog, because I will treasure the opportunity to look back over my posts and remember everything all over again.

I remember my first jet-lagged days here being so tough, and my sleep schedule was completely screwed up for the entire first two weeks. Now, I am obviously fully accustomed to my new schedule; my weekdays are packed full with school and internship activities, and now that March has started, my weekends will be all about traveling. I'm headed to Paris for four days this weekend, and I can't wait! But I love that I can navigate the grocery store now (although now I shop at Billa, there's no Tesco close by my new apartment), hop on the trams and metro with no problem, and make my way around. I remember how strange it felt my first day here, walking through Wenceslas Square, dragging my two suitcases over the cobblestone streets. When I had read in my travel book that Prague had cobblestone streets and sidewalks, I did not realize that the author meant that ALL the streets and sidewalks are cobblestone. Yikes. Needles to say, I've tried wearing heels around here once, and I don't think I'll be trying again anytime soon. It's a wobbly mess to navigate cobblestones with heels on. Anyways, the shuttle bus driver that dropped me off that first day made it seem as though where he dropped me off was only a few minutes from my apartment. Yeah right, buddy. You try dragging all that luggage around a new city for blocks and blocks with only a faint idea of where you were going. Thank God for the two sweet girls who gave me directions and helped me with my bags! Sometimes I think it's a miracle that I survived those first several days here. No, it was definitely a miracle. So many things fell perfectly into place time after time, and things continue to flow so smoothly. I can't believe that I'll be home in 3 short months.

I got all moved into my new apartment with no problem, and I like it here. I haven't shared a room with somebody like I am now since I was 13 years old, when I was sharing a room with my younger brother Joe. It's definitely an adjustment, because I have gotten so used to my own schedule, but my roommate, Anna, is very sweet, and she's excited to have somebody to practice her English with. It's been interesting so far with us trying to communicate, because her English is fair, and I have to remember to slow down when I'm speaking so that I can be understood :-)

I still am not back into "school" mode, so to speak. Back home, I study and do homework constantly, but here, my classes are largely focused on the midterm and final exam, with a paper or presentation maybe scattered into the semester somewhere. I had a presentation tonight, which went well. I think it's safe to say it went well, because my professor walked over to me at the end of class while everyone was still packing up and told me, "Hey, you got an A. Good job." Pretty relaxed, but I'll take it! It just feels unnatural to be doing my readings and such, because I feel as though I should be on break, since I'm not at UWM. Anyways, I've been attending every class, and participating, so when those exams arrive, I'm sure that I will study hard and be fine. It's just a completely different feel for me.

I miss you all back home and love you very much! I'll be seeing you before you know it =)

I Think I Should've Studied in the Bahamas...

Clearly, I made an unwise and poorly researched decision when I chose to study in Prague. I could have picked anywhere in the world, and I picked a city with a climate like Wisconsin's?? In all honesty, I am getting really tired of the gray skies and damp weather, because it's really starting to get to me. Actually, it's been getting to me all week. At least I feel better knowing that I am not alone in feeling like this, because when I talk to my friends here, we all feel kind of "blah" and would do anything for some sunshine around here. So, to make ourselves feel better, we look at pictures of sunny, beautiful places and dream of going there.

Not only that, but I'm also really starting to get the urge to get out Prague. I went to Kutna Hora last weekend, and it was nice, but it wasn't quite enough. I know that it sounds silly to be tired of a city after three weeks, but it's just the truth. See, it's not like I'm moving here permanently, but I'm also not here for a weekend trip, so there's this awkward in-between feeling, that leaves me wondering where exactly I fit. Prague is definitely my home base, but at the same time, my urge to travel is growing. And I definitely plan on acting on that urge. In the next 8 weekends, I plan on being out of Prague for 6 of them, which makes me very excited! But I just feel surprised that I'm already so eager to travel more. It doesn't help that everyone I know here is traveling constantly; I've officially jumped on the bandwagon and started planning as many weekend trips as possible. I'm pretty excited =) I will also be broke when I get home, but do I sound too unhappy about that right now? I'm not. I can always make more money, but can I always do this?

I'm still loving my internship here, and if I didn't have such a great internship to distract me from my chaotic school, I don't know what I'd do. What I'm trying to say is this: my school is quite possibly the most disorganized university I have ever heard of. I still don't have a student ID card (What? You sent us a picture for your ID? Oh....well, can you get another one?), no password for the wi-fi (I'm sorry, you have to be a registered student here to get access to the w-fi. Oh, you ARE a student here? That's funny, you're not in our system...), and just general chaos. And yes, I was asked if I'm actually a student here. They "lost" my name for a couple hours there, I'm told. No worries, I was "found" again. This coming from "the oldest English-speaking private university in Prague." I'm sorry, but seeing as how Charles University here in Prague was founded in the 1300s, making claims that you're the "oldest" university of anything when you were founded in 1993 seems a bit silly to me. Maybe in the States that would fly, but here in Europe, if you're less than 300 years old, you're not old.

Well, it feels good to get that rant out of the way. Spending one semester at this school studying abroad will be fine, but I'm just glad that that is all I will have to deal with. It's not that my classes are not interesting, because they really are. But I am an organized person, and the chaos makes me frustrated! I think even those who aren't organized would be driven mad by this.

One quick side note: I have had my first real bits of homesickness this week. I think that being sick earlier this week brought it on, because, let's face it, who wants to be alone when they're sick? I wanted someone to take care of me! Then after I got better, I was still feeling that way, just generally missing my friends and family (and Brian!) back home. I think it's also wrapped up in my feeling of wanting to get out of Prague, because it's almost as if I feel like I've had my experience in Prague, so isn't it time to go home? I think it's cool though, to have the experience of moving somewhere far away, rather than just taking a vacation for a couple weeks. It's an entirely different perspective. The homesickness isn't very serious, largely because I know 3 more months here really isn't that long!

Anyways, I think that I will let all of you off easy for now and wrap this post up =) As a warning, I have a somewhat controversial topic in mind for my next post; it's a topic I've seen floating around on Facebook, and I wanted to put my opinion on it. So tune in soon for that (and no, of course I won't tell you what it is, you have to come back later to find out!).

A Little Bit of Everything

It's definitely been an eventful past few days! On Saturday, I traveled with 3 other friends, Chelsea, Madison, and Silva, to Kutna Hora, which is a town about an hour train ride outside of Prague. It felt nice to get out of the city even for the day, and this was my first experience taking the train here. It was a highly successful endeavor getting to and from Kutna Hora (although we kept worrying we'd get on the wrong train!), and we all loved the fact that the trains had the individual "compartments" for about 6-8 people each, with a sliding door on each compartment. I know I sound like a little kid, but it reminded me exactly of the trains that you see in old movies. I love Europe :-)

The first thing that we went to see was the Sedlec Ossuary, which-and I'm not making this up at all-was fully decorated on the inside with human bones. It's the kind of thing you have to see if you go to the Czech Republic, and we were not disappointed by what we saw. Creeped out, yes. But it was also incredibly fascinating. Back story: during the Great Plague in Europe of the 1300s, thousands upon thousands of people were dying, and the monks ran out of graves and began just piling the bones into piles inside the church. Then, one of the monks began to make decorations inside the church out of the bones: wall hangings, pyramids, a gigantic chandelier...everything you can imagine. And their goal in this was not to be morbid, but rather to exemplify the mortality of humanity. It still came off as disconcerting, but it was also a very cool sight. This church has been featured in many horror films and novels, as you might imagine...

We also saw St. Barbara's Cathedral, and although we couldn't go inside unfortunately, the exterior of the church was incredible. The stones on the church glowed in the sunset, making it even more incredible. The train station in Kutna Hora looked like something out of an old movie too, although in much less of a dreamy way and more of a dark-and-lonely-train station kind of way. We girls stuck close together, needless to say. It was altogether a very interesting and fun trip, and we were proud to have explored a different part of the Czech Republic.

Sunday night, food poisoning hit. Luckily, it only lasted 24 hours, but those 24 hours weren't very fun. The unfortunate part was that normally I would have tried to take it easy all day since I don't have class til 6:30 PM on Mondays, but I had a presentation that night and I had to finish working on it and present it (I don't take sick days...sorry, I've got this wild never-ever-quit attitude...I've missed a total of zero classes in the past 2 semesters of college, maybe 5 or 6 total in 5 semesters. I'm a nerd...). Well, I worked all day, finished the presentation, got all dressed up to give my presentation, rode to class, aaaaand: class canceled. At least the work is done for next week now...

I started my second week at my internship, and it wasn't just a first-week fluke: I love love love my internship. Rather than feeling like they have to scramble to find boring filing jobs for me to do in the office, my supervisors are filling me in on their major projects (heck, it's an NGO, they're thrilled to have free help from someone who's equally thrilled to have an opportunity like this!). I needed an international internship to graduate with my Global Studies degree, in case anyone was wondering why I am doing this, and while it initially felt like a chore having to get an internship, this has majorly enhanced my study abroad experience. The funny thing is, when I'd listen in class to what some of the things NGOs do, it'd seem boring to me at times, and I worried about whether or not this was really something I'd want to do. But when I get to do these things and see real results, rather than just discuss possible results in a class, it's exciting. I'm also looking forward to going to some of the human rights, NGO, and refugee aid seminars coming up in March and April, because they'll give me an opportunity to travel around the Czech Republic with my colleagues.

It's starting to get warmer here! Although my Wisconsin mindset tells me to remain skeptical until May that spring is here, my Czech roommates tell me that things start to warm up in February here. So I can be hopeful...right? Oh, and as much as I praise the public transportation here, I can't help but realize how many bizarre smells are inherent with public transportation. I bring this up because today was one of those days where both on the metro AND the tram to the Burma Center, I thought I might be sick from the gross smells all around me. It's funny how every different country (and city, I suppose) has different smells compared with home. I can't say I miss the smell of cows from back home either, though...

Worry, worry, worry

Before I go into the meaning behind my blog title, I just wanted to say thank you again to all of you reading my blog! It means so much to me, and trust me, I really look forward to posting! =) There's just something calming about being able to write down your feelings, at least for me, because I've always loved to write. I'm not a creative, story-telling type of writer, but I enjoy the feeling of taking everything that's swirling around in my head and heart and putting it down neatly into words. The struggle to find words that describe feelings and thoughts is something I enjoy.

My trip thus far has just continued to get more amazing. I don't simply mean that in the sense of going places and seeing new things, because while that has been super fun, there's so much more. Don't get me wrong, I was thrilled to book my plane ticket to Italy: 10 days of backpacking through the country is my idea of a truly spectacular spring break. I continue to plan new trips, and I am so thrilled that my mom might be coming to visit at the end of April (shhh, don't tell my dad, he hasn't heard about this yet haha). And hey, I would be so happy if anybody else wanted to come here too, because you can stay at my apartment, and we'll have a blast traveling! But really, so much of my excitement comes from just the fact that I'm here and learning so much about who I am.

If you were watching any of my Facebook statuses last semester, you probably got a good idea of how unbelievably stressed out I was. I was so unhappy and frustrated with so many things, and it was one of the hardest periods of time I've gone through. Between planning for Prague, dealing with heartbreaking personal issues, and just suffering from serious burn-out, I was a wreck, to say the very least. There were definitely times where I thought I wouldn't make it here to Prague, and I had several Plan B's if this trip didn't happen (and none of those plans had good results). I had no idea at the outset how difficult it would be to plan a study abroad trip all on your own, and I was also searching simultaneously for my internship abroad. However, now that I'm here, I can tell you that I didn't go through all of that struggle for nothing.

I feel as though the value that I place on this trip is so much higher because of what I went through to get here. Talking with other study abroad students who came to Prague on their own as I did has been so cathartic, in many ways, because I realize that I was not alone with my frustrations. Ultimately, what I've learned though, is something that people like Brian have been trying to tell me for years: it will all work out in the end. That doesn't mean I've been cured of my worrying tendencies, because I had one of my "freak-out sessions" just tonight over something that *surprise surprise* ended up working out just fine. What happened tonight is what inspired me to write about this topic for this post, because in writing this down, I want to imprint in my mind this lesson that I've learned over the past months about how useless worrying is. Clearly, I still have a long way to go in dealing with this, but I've made major strides.

Oh, and when I say I worry, you might be thinking "Hey, I worry a lot too, it's not too big of a deal", but let me tell you, up until coming here to Prague, I was a WORRIER. The kind that stays up all night thinking, or tossing and turning, having nightmares and cold sweats, waking up sobbing because I'm so tense and frustrated, constantly feeling like I had to prove to myself and to others that I'm not a failure and yet telling myself repeatedly that I was a failure. I had to repeat good things to myself in my head, even small accomplishments, to show myself that I was still capable. It didn't matter how successful I really was, because, in truth, I did a lot last year and things in my life actually turned out very well. But I couldn't see any of the reality. Yeah, it was bad, and for almost all of 2009, that's what I had become. 2010 won't be the same, because not only will I not allow that to happen, but I know better. I made it to Prague, I have the perfect internship, amazing apartment and roommates, good classes, and an amazing circle of friends and family. This doesn't mean that I'm naive enough to think that everything in life will just magically work out now. It won't. Everything comes by hard work, and sometimes, even with that hard work, it doesn't happen. But if it doesn't, it's because there is something so much better in store for you instead. Not everything I'm doing right now was my Plan A initially. However, I couldn't be happier with how things have turned out.

Goodnight, everyone =)

Going the Distance

I decided that I really wanted to open up this blog post to hear other people's opinions/stories/advice on the topic of long-distance relationships. If you can't comment directly on the blog, feel free to comment on Facebook! Now that I've gone past the two week mark of being apart from Brian, things have clearly switched from "Beth is just away for a couple weeks" to the reality of being away for 4 months. Now, I know that for some couples, 4 months apart is common, or not that long. But for Brian and I, the longest we've ever been apart previous to this trip was 2 weeks, and so I think that that's why this week has suddenly been so hard on us. We realize that this is a long haul, and while Skype is incredible, it can also be very frustrating to be able to see the person's face and hear their voice, yet not be able to touch them or hug them or kiss them.

It's harder for me to sympathize with Brian's emotions, because I feel that he still has his family and friends and normal life surrounding him, while I have faced an entirely new life all on my own. However, I have to remember that he's bored with doing the same old things while I experience so much and travel. It's led to frustration, but I've decided that this trip is a great opportunity for us to learn to communicate exactly what we're feeling, because if not, there are 4500 miles that separate us and that could easily lead to us distancing ourselves from each other. So here's to improving communication! (what every guy loves to hear, right?).

I think that there are unique challenges in being long distance, because while it's incredibly difficult for me to suddenly be long distance after living in the same city as my boyfriend for 2.5 years, I also can see the difficulty in being together in the same city if the relationship began long distance. Whereas I am used to sharing so much of my life with Brian, or at least having the convenience of calling and texting 24/7, when you get used to being long distance, it probably feels very different when you do move to the same city and begin sharing all of your life with your significant other.

In some ways, it feels freeing to know that I can do all of the same things with or without Brian. I am still outgoing and adventurous and motivated. However, if it ended there, it would seem that there's no reason for us to be together. But the thing is, although I can still do all of these things, I simply enjoy every minute of life more when I share it with him. And right now, I think it's good for us to grow as individuals while we're apart, but ultimately, every moment is more beautiful, exciting, and fulfilling when he's there with me. And truly, I don't know if I could have done many of the things that I have without him, where he has supported, encouraged, and held me through some of the most painful times in my life. And that is what this is all about for me. My life is made complete (cliche, but true!) with him in it, and while I know that I am still Beth whether I'm single or not, I know that I am a better person with Brian in my life and because of Brian.

What experiences have you had in long distance relationships? What were some of the hardest times about it? And what were the most rewarding?

First Day as an Intern

Today was my first day at the Burma Center-Prague, and I know that I'm going to love it there. Now, my morning didn't start out ideally, because while I got to the yellow metro line with no problem, got off on Palmovka, and found the tram that would take me to the stop right in front of the building I'm working at, I most certainly did not get on the tram headed in the right direction.

This was my first time in Praha 7, which is a more industrialized part of the city, so my sense of direction was thrown off. If I had gotten on the tram headed in the right direction, I would have had 2 stops, crossed the street, and I'd be there. Needless to say, I rode the tram all the way until the end of the line (about a 30 minute ride), expectantly waiting to hear my stop called, and just assumed it was towards the end of the line.

I had one of those moments where the tram stopped, I looked uneasily around, and realized that I was the only person on the tram and I'd reached the end of the line. The driver, who only spoke Czech, and I, who only spoke English, managed to figure out my mistake through lots of hand motions and nodding, and I eventually got to the right place after riding all the way back in the direction I had just come. Ah well, my supervisor was great and completely understood my new-ness to the city. But c'mon, I had been feeling so proud of my public transit abilities, I guess I needed to be knocked down a peg or two.

My projects as an intern are going to be multi-faceted, but today, I was working on setting up a photo board for a booth that the Center will have at the One World Film Festival. I'm going to researching grants (that class I took back home on grants will actually come in handy!!), getting the Center on the road to being fair-trade certified so that they can sell more of the handmade Burmese products, finding micro-loans to distribute to refugees here, and more. I got to listen in on a meeting on a budget meeting...I'm loving this! My supervisor told me that it's okay if this isn't what I want to do and I want to find another internship, but this has just been a complete and perfect blessing. I'm staying! =)

Also, I find my apartment for March, April, and May. The one I'm in now is only for the month of February (I'm subletting from a friend of a friend of a friend, hooray for connections!), and the place I will have after this is really cute, and with nice roommates, a guy and a girl. Best part: the awesomely low price. I'm living all 4 months here in Prague for about $850 in rent!

I miss everyone back home! I love it here so much, but I also can't wait to see my wonderful friends and family back home again =) I am so much busier now than when I first came here, but at night in my room, or especially when I wake up in the morning, I'm so conscious of being in a new city with new people, thousands of miles away from home. But I've loved realizing these past weeks that all of that stubborn independence I've always had is still there, and although I have a boyfriend, and I rely on family and friends for things, I'm still able to move away all by myself without knowing a soul here and find my way and be happy! It's a beautiful thing to know that I still can hold my own.

Why Prague?

Many, many people have asked me over the past several months (and continue to ask) why I chose Prague as my study abroad destination. I honestly have a myriad of reasons why I came here. I am part Czech (not very much, though), and for some reason, that part of my ethnicity has always interested me the most. I had always dreamed of coming to this part of Europe, and when it came time to choose a study abroad destination, I chose Prague because:

1. Here was my chance to visit some of the places I have always wanted to see.
2. I can learn another language!
3. It's ridiculously cheap in comparison to studying elsewhere in Europe.
4. Just because. I wanted to go somewhere a little less traditional than London, Paris, Madrid, etc., yet I still wanted to come to Europe.

I couldn't possibly be happier with the place I chose to study :-)

Today was a very fun day, and, for once, sunny! I met two friends, Madison and Silva, for lunch, and we discussed some of the places we want to see while we're here in Europe. We've decided to head to Italy for spring break, flying into Venice probably, and then visiting Venice, Florence, Rome, and Naples. It'll probably be packed for Easter, but that's alright. What better time to visit the Vatican than Holy Week? It should be absolutely amazing. Madison and I are also planning a trip in March to go skiing in the Swiss Alps, which is proving to be a difficult trip to plan, but it's definitely a priority for both of us to do while we're here in Europe. As for the rest of my trips, I'd love to see Budapest and Krakow (and Auschwitz), and then when Brian comes here at the end of May, we'll be traveling all over Germany and Austria for two weeks. I can't wait! Some of my classmates are traveling almost every weekend, but not only is that a bit much expense-wise for me, but I also need to fulfill the required hours for my internship this semester. If I make it to all of the places I just listed though, I will be more than happy!

It's funny, because I view Prague as my "home" while I'm here in Europe, although I've only been here 2 weeks. I bring this up because I felt very defensive and indignant when I read a traveler's blog that completely blasted Prague as being filled with rude people and there not being much to see here. The person admitted to only spending a day here, which immediately made me question how they could condemn the city so strongly after only one day's visit! Anyways, I've met countless people on the street who have helped me with my questions, the city's beauty has awed me, and there is such a small-town charm for being such a huge city. And it's so cheap for being a popular European destination! I can't wait to explore more.

I'm off to see another film at The Globe and drink some more of their delicious tea (I tried the beer here, I really did, but there's something about the aftertaste that's very different...I have been drinking lots of tea while here though!).

On to my second week in Prague!

I've already been here ten days....I've only been here for ten days....

I started classes this week! I have class on Monday night, Wednesday afternoon, and Thursday afternoon and evening. It's strange for me to only go to each class once a week for 3 hours at a time, but I'll get used to it. My Thursday night class was canceled for this week as the professor was out of town, so I only had 3 classes so far: Intro to International Relations, EU Market and Business Policies, and Political Economy. The fourth class is Nations and Nationalism. This semester shouldn't be too difficult, because 2 of my classes are pretty introductory-level courses. My internship also counts as 3 credits, so altogether I have 15 credits this semester, and I am really looking forward to starting my internship, which will be about 15 hours a week. I'll be at a small non-governmental organization (NGO) called The Burma Center of Prague, which focuses on raising awareness in Eastern Europe about the political conflict in Burma, and also to aid Burmese refugees who come to Prague. I don't have the list of projects that I'll be working on yet, but I start this coming Tuesday the 16th!

I've been making a couple of like-minded friends in each of my classes so far and really enjoyed getting to know them and hearing of all the other places people have traveled. Now, when I say like-minded, I mean: cares about school and doesn't party every single night. I have been really irritated with some of the large groups of American students that have come to AAU (my school) and don't care about anything beyond drinking. I know that it's cheap to drink in Prague, but c'mon people, dropping down to 9 credits and taking classes that you don't care about just so that your schedule is really easy? My favorite quote so far-I overheard this while I was getting my student ID in the registration office-has been this: "No, no, I'm totally dropping that class. Yeah, totally. Because, there's like, reading and homework and this paper we'd have to do. Seriously, I didn't decide to study abroad so that I'd spend my time at school and studying and stuff. Ughhh..." That made me laugh so hard, but I also found it incredibly pathetic. Of course, study abroad is about so much more than just the courses, but I don't think you're getting any cultural experience by going out with all of your American friends every night and blowing off your classes. Am I crazy for thinking this way? I don't want to judge people, but it's so expensive to come over here, it'd be cheaper to party back home.... :) Most of the friends I've made so far also came to Prague alone, as I did, and those that didn't try to dissociate themselves from the huge group they came with.

So far, I think I'm getting just as much of the French culture as I am the Czech! My roommate Catherine is from southern France, and I've had a blast going to art exhibits at the French Institute with her, eating the French meals she cooks (and, true to form, spending at least 2 hours at dinner eating one course at a time!), and just learning about the culture. I love to hear what the Czech and French think of Americans (we love hamburgers and are much too busy and fast-paced, what a surprise to hear, I know), and they like to hear about the different things Americans do. Catherine made chili a few nights ago, and anxiously waited to hear my opinion on it, as she felt nervous making American food. It tasted delicious-and very American!-which she felt quite proud of!

Thanks again for reading, everyone! :)

"I Have a Question, Please"

I repeat this phrase "I have a question, please" to my roommates so many times in a day that they have now started to tease me mercilessly about it and remind me that I don't have to say that every time I have a question for them! I really do ask a multitude of questions every day that I'm here!

Today was wonderful, for many reasons. This past October, I put down a deposit worth 2 months of rent ($800 total) for accommodations here in Prague that my school had directed me to, but after reading countless negative online reviews of the place (it was basically a long-stay hotel type of place), I chose to find my own housing. I was told I would only get a partial refund on that deposit, but today, they decided I could get a full refund! That's a lot more money back in my pocket, which, as a college student, especially makes a big impact.

I found a beautiful park right by my school, and so I wandered through it for a little while this afternoon. I need some sledding partners, because I found this fantastic sled run in the park! It's long and steep, and quite slick, so all I'd need is a piece of cardboard or something to slide down on! Perhaps I can convince my roommates to join me in the cold...

For some people, this may not be the case, but I have never enjoyed being alone. Of course, I like my own quiet space and need time to myself, but I don't like sight-seeing or traveling alone. But today, I felt this sense of peace as I walked around by myself. As if I felt comfortable in my own skin. I am not the type to strike out on my own and look around by myself, but I've done a lot of that lately and it surprisingly bothers me less and less. I've started to enjoy it! Most nights, I go out with my roommates (as I did tonight), but in those random times between classes or between appointments, I have time to myself and rather than spending it on the computer or watching a movie, I try to fill the time with some little adventure of my own.

It seems that some of the best adventures come from what would be an average, mundane thing back home. Figuring out the grocery store, navigating the public transportation, walking in the park...all of these things feel much more exciting and rewarding when you're doing them for the first time and on your own. I don't really feel as lonely as I did even a few days ago, because I have made friends and my roommates are amazing people and I can Skype home often. Going to bed or waking up in the morning can be tough, because I remember that I'm far from home, but I eagerly fill my time with new things: going to art exhibits, watching rugby games with my roommate, taking pictures, things like that. I know that if I were not staying busy, I would probably feel terrible, so I'm working to fill my time. I don't say "no" to new opportunities!

I know this post was long, but I had so many things in mind for this post. So much happens in just one day while I'm here! I am extremely excited, because I just heard from a local non-profit organization here in Prague that mainly helps Burmese refugees find work that they would love to have me as an intern there, which is a huge answer to prayer. I had contacted them before I arrived, saying I would like to intern there (it's a requirement of my Global Studies major that I intern abroad, and so I absolutely needed for this to work out!), and now they said I can start next week! God has taken care of me every step of the way, and I don't regret for a minute the journey that I took to get here to Prague (because many of you know how frustrating it was at times to plan this trip). I worked hard to get here, and it's still tough at times, but it's already been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.