The end.

It's currently 7 am Prague time. For those of you who know anything about me know how I feel about early mornings. But for some reason I couldn't sleep last night...except I know exactly what that reason is. I know my time left here is so short I want to soak up every last minute of amazing-ness that Prague has to offer.

In the past 4 months I have had the hands down, most amazing experience of my entire life. I can't really put it into words.

I'll never forget the first day I arrived in Prague and my sister texting me asking if I had met anyone I really liked. I responded with, no one I think I will be really good friends with, but lot's of nice people. Ha! I was just a little wrong about that one. I have made some life long friends here, my BPF's (Best Prague Friends). Although we may not all get along all the time, our crazy Real World/Jersey Shore combo house is something I will never forget. Last night we all went to our favorite pizza place up the road, which just so happens to be the place we all went our first night together. Talk about coming full circle! I of course made everyone go around the table and say their favorite Prague memory, which turned into a big jumble of conversations about our amazing semester together. I love how different we all are, yet how special my relationship with each of my roommates is.

Yesterday as we were walking out the door to have our last dinner all together a nice American girl introduced herself to us, saying she had just moved in up stairs and was here for the summer. When we got back from dinner we went up and invited her over and then out with us. I think we all enjoyed spewing out all of our Prague knowledge for someone who was new here. Especially because we all remember what it was like our first few days. We overwhelmed her with spare change we weren't going to spend, a hair dryer, straightener, cell phone and more random things we planned on leaving behind. The plan for today is to meet up with her and take her around to some of our favorite places. Pretty great way to spend our last few days here!

Although it's been a roller coaster of emotions these last few days, I know, without any doubt in my mind, I will be back. Prague has given me so much, I think I owe it to make a return visit. ;)

Countdown.

The countdown has officially begun, 9 days until I return home. The word bittersweet has never resonated so deeply with my before now. I feel silly for complaining that I have to leave Prague to go home to my amazing friends and family who I've missed so much these past 4 months. However, I have been blessed with such an amazing study abroad experience it's hard to say I'm ready to go home!

In the past 4 months I have met some of the most amazing people, visited unbelievable places, learned so much and had more fun than I ever thought possible. I feel like I should just become a study abroad advocate for the rest of my life because I'm worried I may never stop being obsessed with this experience. When I think back to the period of time when I was deciding if this was something I wanted to do and then almost backing out and not coming it makes me laugh because I can't imagine not doing this.

I feel a bit snobby when I talk about Prague to people I meet now. I have such a bias, I don't think anyone should ever study abroad anywhere else. Last weekend I had two American friends in town visiting. I felt like I was trying to sell them to love this city as much as I do. Thankfully it wasn't difficult because Prague is SO amazing. ;) I know without a doubt I will return here someday and relive all the amazing memories and experiences I have had.

Last weekend as I was floating down the Vlatva river on a grill boat in 85 degree weather with some of my closest friends I couldn't help but think how I never want to go home. Obviously I am so excited to see everyone and have some of the luxuries of home back, like a bed that I can actually fit in, but I just still feel like I have so much I want to do and see. I think that's mostly because this experience has broadened my horizons so much! I can't get enough of traveling and seeing new places. I am so thankful that I now will make that a possibility for myself rather than make excuses of why I don't have the time or money to do it.

9 days and I'm back home! I wasn't sure I was going to make it through these 4 months before I arrived and now I am 100% not ready to leave!

-Molly Jayne

Visitors.

What a crazy past few weeks! Had 14 days of straight visitors here in Prague! First had a friend from London in over Easter weekend. Easter in Prague is a HUGE deal. My roommate Brooke made a big Easter feast for our whole flat and it was amazing! The weather was amazing and having visitors means I get to go see all of the amazing things this city has to offer that I forget to appreciate during our busy school weeks!

After that visit, my mom and Nanny came! They got here on a Friday and we woke up early Saturday morning to catch the train to Salzburg. What a beautiful city! We had some pretty rainy and cold weather while we were there but we were just happy to be together that it was still great. We did the Sound of Music tour while we were there which although isn't my first choice normally, I really enjoyed because we got a chance to see the countryside! We got back to Prague late Monday night. We then spent the next few days enjoying all this amazing city has to offer. The castle, Old Town, Wenceslas, Petrin Hill, lots of eating and even more shopping. I've never met two ladies who love to shop more. We stayed busy with a perfect balance of relaxing and taking it all in. I was so sad to see them off however before they were even gone I got my third set of visitors!

Mike and Lisa arrived on Friday afternoon! We all got to have dinner Friday night before my mom and Nanny had to head back to Texas. :( Mike, Lisa and my friend Lauren and I enjoyed Saturday walking around Prague and trying to squeeze a lot in with only a short period of time! Mike and Lisa headed out Sunday morning to continue their Eurotrip 2012 on a bike and boat trip up the Danube river. After some sneaky convincing from those two myself and three friends will now be meeting them in Munich, Germany this weekend! I was relieved I didn't have to say my final goodbyes last weekend. Looking forward to get a chance to experience Munich, as it's in Bavaria which is much different from Berlin!

Monday was the one month mark before I head home. I have said this all along, but it is such a bittersweet feeling. I am not looking forward to leaving the most amazing adventure of my entire life, however I am missing all my peeps back home so much! Not to mention my beautifully, pregnant sister! When I get home we have just about a month left before the little one comes! I know I'll be sad for this experience to be over however there is so much to look forward to this summer as well. 

Just trying to make sure I make the most of the last month here! Headed to Munich this weekend, London the next weekend, then 2 of my wonderful friends from home come for a weekend, then one last weekend and I'm Michigan bound! Too crazy for words.

Spring Break.

Oh my goodness. I have loved spring breaks in the past, a lot, but nothing has come close to this one! (I'm aware that pretty much goes without saying but just wanted to make sure I made it clear!) This past week I spent time in Barcelona, Spain and Lisbon, Portugal.

Myself and three of my roommates left for Barcelona on Thursday morning. After sleeping through my alarm and waking up 5 minutes before we were supposed to walk out of the door my morning started off a little rough...but I got myself together in the airport bathroom we headed out! We ran into some of the boys from our classes in the Barcelona airport and they helped us find the way to our hostel, which was in Plaza Real right off of Las Ramblas. It was absolutely beautiful! We settled in and then headed out to explore, we started off by walking along the water and stopped for a wonderful outdoor lunch by the water. We then went to the beach! My favorite part of spring break for sure. The next day we headed out to see Park Guell. It has a amazing view of all of Barcelona and some of Gaudi's work. It was an interesting experience to say the least...while we were there my roommate got her wallet taken out of her purse. Some of the vendors took off after the guy and caught him and turned him into the police! Rambo, the vendor, was our savior! To save an extremely long story, basically myself and my roommate Brie had to spend the entire day in the Barcelona police station. In the end she got everything back though! My Spanish came in handy, a little, but the type of Spanish they speak in Spain is so different from what I learned. The next day we were headed off to Portugal!

We made it to Lisbon late afternoon on Sunday. We absolutely loved our hostel, Oasis Backpackers Mansion. It was a small operation with homemade meals served for dinner where everyone sat at a big table and got to know each other. They also had a patio in the back with a hammock and chairs we all sat out and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Some of the guys even played Jack Johnson on their guitar. I was in a happy place. But it did make me miss some of my best friends from home. Sitting around playing guitar and singing is our favorite thing to do. We spent the next two days at the beach, I can't even begin with how in love with that beach I was. My favorite place I've been so far without a doubt.

We headed back to Barcelona and spent one day checking out the rest of the city we hadn't seen yet. We went to Sagrada Familia which is Guadi's church. It was absolutely breathtaking. We then walked to some more of Gaudi's places and the old bull fighting arena. Then to Montjuic which is the Olympic park there. With another view of the entire city, we had finished our touristy stuff. We spent our last day at the beach trying to get every last ounce of sun.

After some boring and complicated airline issues, we spent a night in a hotel and finally headed out on Friday morning and made it back to Prague safely. It was such a great week! No one was ready to get back to school today. We all think it's unfair that we have to go to school while we're here, even though that was the whole "study" part of "study abroad" I don't think any of us expected it. Getting excited for Easter because word on the street is that Prague is the place to be for it, not really sure what to expect! It's also the week that starts off all my visitors. 2 weeks straight of playing tour guide, and I couldn't be more excited! Not ready for this experience to end at all. It's so insane that it's less than 2 months until I come home! So bittersweet. 

 Sagrada Familia!

 Beach in Portugal

 View from Montjuic

 View from Park Guell

Amsterdam

I've been having a little bit of an issue trying to blog lately, so apologies for the lack of posts! My computer charger broke, which is a pretty standard thing for me these days since technology has decided it has a vendetta against me, so I wasn't able to get on it until my WONDERFUL mother sent me a new one in the mail from the states. Thanks Mom!

Spent last weekend in Amsterdam with two of my roommates, talk about an amazing place! We had the best time. We arrived late on Wednesday night. Huge bonus only having classes M-W, we get long weekends for travel. We went straight to our hostel, The Flying Pig, that a friend of mine suggested. It was a youth hostel so we were able to meet people our own age, unlike Berlin where we had a little bit of a more interesting group in our hostel. Very thankful for the recommendation because it was a great place! Thursday morning we headed out to explore! We made our way to the Van Gogh museum. When I was telling one of my friends the story about Amsterdam he got so mad at me for saying that we went to the Van Gogh museum so nonchalant, so let me make sure everyone is aware of how cool it was! Best part for me though was the stop in the museum gift shop where I found a cute little wooden shoe Pandora bead! I asked for my Pandora bracelet so I could have it while I was here to collect beads from the places I visit. Was unsuccessful to find one in Berlin so I was beyond thrilled when I found one in Holland. :) We got lost on our way there, and back but we've learned to just embrace being lost and use it as time to see more of everything these beautiful cities have to offer. The next day we went to the Heineken brewery tour. It was so fun! Very well done, although I don't have much to compare it to. We ended up meeting some boys from Manchester, England on Friday night who entertained me the entire night. They were all doing "American" accents (which includes a lot of "dude and awesome") and having me attempt my terrible British accent. They even brought up American Pie so I really got to impress them when I told them where I was from! Saturday was our last day so we woke up early and made our way to the Anne Frank house. Everyone told us to be careful of the long lines but thankfully we only ended up waiting about 15 minutes. It was so interesting and cool to see. I love all of the history that the places we visit have about the Holocaust because it has always been something that has interested me so much! Whenever I try and tell anyone about the weekend in Amsterdam I want to say that one of the things we did was my favorite but really I loved them all and they were all so different.

Amsterdam as a city itself is really cool. They have canals running through the entire city that are beautiful to walk through. Everyone bikes there which I think is just the coolest thing. I think that living in a big city and biking around seems so European and cool. If you can't tell by now, I think Europe is really cool. I feel like the younger kid who is impressed by everything the older kids do when I'm here. I am definitely putting Amsterdam on my list of places I want to return to!

Next week is spring break, YAY! We are headed to Barcelona and Portugal for the week. I am so excited. :)  Hopefully I can communicate well, it's been a while since I've spoken Spanish!

Time is flying by here and I hate it! I keep having amazing things to look forward to but then I think about it and realize that's another week closer to going home! After spring break I will have less than 2 months left. :( I still have so much I want to do and see over here I've decided I'm just going to have to come back ASAP!

-MJ

1 month in!

We have officially been in Prague for a month! In some regards it feels much longer and others much shorter. We all keep saying we still feel like we have so much to do and see in Prague and time is already going so quickly! Not to mention we have so many other places we want to visit on the weekends.

The trips I have planned for the rest of the semester are Amsterdam, London, Barcelona, Portugal, Vienna and Italy. If anyone has anything they want to reccomend for any of those places please let me know! We're all just going by internet searches and books. Having the inside scoop seems to be very helpful!

School is finally starting to feel like a routine for the semester. It took a while to get used to going to class here but I love them! My professors are all very nice and tell us all the time if we have any questions on things about Prague to ask them. I just made a friend who is from here who speaks perfect English so it's very helpful to talk to her about things we are confused about.

Excited to have lots of visitors coming in April! 2 weeks full of lots of my favorite people.

We all keep trying to do as much as we can every day because we don't want time to run out and not have done something we wanted to! So excited to see what the rest of this adventure brings!

-MJ

Berlin

Its been a while since I've blogged, having a little complication with my computer charger so I've been computer-less for a few weeks. Thanks to my wonderful mother who is sending me two new ones in a care package that should he here sometime this week (fingers crossed).

Earlier this month we went out for our first weekend away to Berlin, Germany. I went with 3 of the girls that are from my program. We left early Friday morning at about 5:30 to get to the bus station and be ready for our bus that left at 7. The bus ride was about 5 hours long. They have movies and free drinks to keep you occupied but I slept the entire way. So I was ready to go when we made it to Berlin! We got off at the bus station and headed out to find some Eruo's and our hostel. Because we've *almost* mastered how to get around our city by subway we felt that we could do it in Berlin. Although it took us a little while to figure it all out we ended up making it to our hostel! Our hostel was really nice and our other roommates we're all friendly. We headed out to explore after getting settled. We ended up finding Mexican food, that we had all been craving and decided to start off our German adventure that way. We had a great time in Berlin but if you're looking for true German culture and life, Berlin isn't the place. We kept comparing it to New York just because it is such a big city. We decided to make Saturday our touristy day. After meeting a bunch of American students on Friday who recommended all the must see things we felt confident that we could make it around. The history that goes along with Berlin is really interesting. My favorite thing we saw was a museum called Topography of Terrors. A holocaust museum dedicated to the children who suffered. It had tons of pictures and information but it was a lot to take in, especially for someone who cries at a sappy commercial. A remaining piece of the Berlin wall is right outside the museum as a monument so that was also very cool to see. We met tons of interesting and fun people which I think was my favorite part of the trip. I took Berlin as a learning experience of how to travel. We learned the hostel situation, what to bring, what not to bring, and how to spend way too much money in one weekend! I'm excited for our next adventure to Amsterdam on Wednesday to see if we can take what we learned and put it to use!

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

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

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

2 weeks

2 weeks from tomorrow I finally head out on my 4 month adventure to Prague. I leave Tuesday January 31st. I could not be more excited. However, I could also not be more nervous. There is so much to do before I leave and although everyone mocks me about it, making sure I spend time with all my loved ones before I go is high up there on the list. I have decided I need to start writing everything down that I need to do because if I just let it stay in my head it stresses me out. I keep trying to imagine what the first few hours will be like when I get there. Will I be able to make it to my apartment?! Will my roommates be just as nervous as I am?! Will I still be able to text everyone back home?! (Only kidding...kind of)

Huge thanks to my friend Christine for the letter about advice of where to go, what to bring and where to eat! Although she doesn't know it, that letter has kept me from completely freaking out as time gets closer!

Thanks so much for reading, I plan on updating once a week while I'm there! 

-Molly Jayne