Monday, February 13, 2012

Promises.

Kicking off week 3 of being here in Prague! Things just keep getting more and more amazing. Headed to Berlin this weekend with three other girls. We are very excited for our first adventure away! If anyone has any tips regarding Berlin we would love to hear them because we aren't really sure what we are going to do there!

Because I have to blog every week I have decided to try and have a theme to every post. This one regards promises. Before I left I made a few promises to some friends...

The first was to my best friend, Drew, we decided to make a pact that we both wouldn't cut our hair until I get back. I have no idea where this started but if you know me you probably know my obsession with my hair length. As much as I want Rapunzel-like hair, not cutting it is not the way to get it because when I do go to get a trim they will have to take much more hair damaged hair off. Whatever. I wanted to post about this to forewarn anyone who looks at my pictures, there can be no judgement when my hair looks scraggly, because it already does.

The second promise was to my best friend, Hannah. When we were saying goodbye at the airport she told me to have fun and make new friends but to make sure I don't find a new best friend. I am happy to report that I have met some amazing people so far on my trip. I think my favorite thing about the people I am meeting is just realizing that we really all come from such different backgrounds. I love hearing people's stories about where they grew up and what their friends and family are like. Although I really have met some great people and know that there are more to come I don't see myself having to break it to Hannah that I met someone who has replaced her. (Ps. Happy birthday!!)

And finally the last promise was to my sister, Morgan. She made me promise that I wouldn't be "that study abroad girl" for those of you who don't know what that is. It is basically the person who goes abroad and then comes home and compares everything to things in Europe and talks about how much better Europe is. They become condescending just because they spent a semester away. She already called me out once with a comment about the food here the other day. They don't put preservatives in anything here so meat, chicken for example is only good for about 3 days. (Lesson learned, that was a smelly experience) And it is also much smaller because they don't inject it with ridiculous amounts of hormones. Not saying one is better or worse, just that one might not make you grow an extra arm 20 years down the road. ;) I am hoping that although I feel extremely lucky that I get to experience this semester away that when I come home I'm not "that study abroad girl".

Molly Jayne

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Settled.

To say getting around by tram and metro in a country where you don't speak the language is a challenge is an understatement. Not to scare off anyone from trying it, but it really is something that takes getting used to. I can say I can successfully get from home to school and back by tram and metro. But...that's about it. Today myself and two friends went out to run a few errands around town. This ended in a 5 hour excursion with a lot of wrong turns and walking in the cold. We ended up stopping at McDonald's for a break from the cold. Fried cheese is a staple here in Prague and McDonald's carries it just like chicken nuggets in the states. Talk about delish. I was a big fan but we all promised each other we couldn't make it a habit of going there because we are in Europe and there is such amazing cuisine all around. We eventually made it everywhere we wanted to go and home safely so it wasn't a total waste of a day!

Tomorrow marks a week that we've been here. We started classes yesterday and we are getting into a routine. So far everyone has enjoyed their classes and schedules! I am taking an intro to Czech class, Jewish history, Prague art and architecture and European history. Two of those involve field trips around Prague throughout the semester which I'm really looking forward to!

This weekend we had a trip to a castle with all the kids in my program on Saturday. Sunday we took a walking tour of Prague. There is such amazing history associated with this city and I'm looking forward to more time here to discover all it has to offer. The closer you are to the city the more English you are able to find which is comforting. However, I'm excited to get started with my Czech class just so I can communicate simple things like when we are trying to buy things at the store.

So far I haven't been homesick just the normal amount of missing my peeps which was expected. But not being around for all these February birthdays is not fun! So to all my loved ones whose birthdays I've missed just know how much I love you and wish I could be there to help celebrate!

My friends and I all keep having the same realization. We will be in the middle of doing something and someone will stop, and just say "can we discuss that this is our life right now?" or "we are in Prague for an entire semester!". Needless to say, we are all unbelievably thankful that we are getting this amazing experience. Not to mention the fact that we have a wonderful cleaning lady, Olga, who comes and cleans our apartment EVERY DAY. She does a wonderful job and is such a sweet heart. (She even waits until we are awake which is helpful for those roommates that enjoy their beauty sleep).


Molly Jayne

Friday, February 3, 2012

Made it!

Finally I have arrived in Prague! I got here yesterday morning around 8:30. I was so exhausted from traveling, even though I slept almost the entire time, on all three planes. Standard. I was the first girl to arrive so I got to pick my room, which ended up being a huge bonus. Our apartment is about 3 times bigger than the other 2. My roommates started arriving at about 11. 2 girls from Rhode Island and then my roommate who is from Washington. We went and met the other boys and they took us grocery shopping. Talk about confusing. Thank the Lord for fruits and vegetables being universal because besides that we didn't know what anything was. Things are much cheaper here which is nice. We came home and attempted to unpack which led to me napping while my roommate was being productive...then the others students arrived. There are 12 of us, 8 girls and 4 boys. Everyone is super nice and really just looking forward to seeing and doing as much as we can while we're here.

We went out to a little pizzeria that one of my friends suggested. 3 other girls and I were going to split a pizza that we kept asking the waiter for "just cheese, just cheese" I then pointed to the word cheese on the menu and he seemed relieved "ahh, yes yes". So far English has been very hard to come by and we've struggled to communicate. Well needless to say, he didn't understand us correctly and as the other half of the group was given their giant Hawaiian pizza we were given a very small plate with a circle of bri cheese with some orange sauce overtop served with bread. We already felt bad about not knowing any Czech when ordering drinks we just decided to try it. It was good, but no cheese pizza.

Today we woke up and decided to head into the city to go to the big grocery store and to figure out where our school was. Our apartment decided to split off from the group and go just the 4 of us. We had no clue how to get anywhere and it was interesting trying to figure it out. We headed to the tram station and got tickets, hopped on the 17 and headed out. We made it to the St.Charles bridge and decided to get off. I cannot begin to explain how beautiful this city is. I was completely blown away. The architecture is so old that every single building is picture worthy. We walked around a bit and then finally found the Tesco, the 5 story Target-ish store with groceries. We spent a lot of time trying to figure out where things were but we were able to find it all! We headed home on the tram. Once again our communicaition failed us. Apparently when you get on the tram you are supposed to stamp your ticket in the machine and it is then valid for 90 minutes. Well, we didn't. So when the tram-ticket man came around to check our tickets and they weren't stamped we all had to pay a $40 fine! Our lack of Czech was no excuse for this guy. We certainly learned our lesson.

Let's hope we get a little better at communicating within the next few weeks!

Molly Jayne