Cell Phones, Tips, and Boston Accents

Now that I've been back for a few days, there are certain things from the States that are different than how my life was in Prague, and there are some I hate, some I love, and some that just annoy me.

First is cell phones. This isn't unique to the Czech Republic, but it is unique to my abroad experience. In Prague we had pay-as-you-go cell phones; therefore, we were cheap and never used them. We used them out of necessity and rarely just texted someone for fun. (Grandma and Grandpa, "texted" means "sent someone a text message"). It was nice because it meant that when we were out somewhere no one was on their phone. Everyone was fully in the conversation and wasn't talking with someone that wasn't there. Now that I've been home I've realized how bad Americans, me included, are when it comes to their phones. I've been going out with friends to catch up, and I don't think that there has been a single meal that neither me nor my friends has read a message while at the table, and it makes me miss that aspect of my semester. I think I might start leaving my phone in the car at meals or turning it off or something. Prague showed me my phone isn't as necessary as I always think or pretend that it is.

The second thing is a difference that I love. There is customer service here. In Prague it barely existed. Waiters and waitresses acted like you were inconveniencing them by ordering, and they made no effort to be friendly. I think customer service is important, so especially yesterday when I worked a cashier shift at Target I tried to be as holiday-spirited as I could. It was nice to hear the other cashiers wishing people a happy holidays as well, and I really appreciated the positive spirirt that just isn't present in transactions like that in Prague. On the other hand, it really stinks to tip again. In Prague you maybe leave ten percent, but it isn't really required, so the price you see on the menu is the price you pay. I wish it were the same here!

Finally, this difference isn't so much a difference as it is a new realization. Never before in my life have I been able to hear a "Boston Accent" or a "Rhode Island Accent" when someone speaks. When you grow up around something like that it's just normal speech to you, not an accent. However, after spending a semester with minimal exposure to such accents, they are now all I hear. I spent my first shift back at Target cringing every time someone spoke. With every dropped r I heard I missed the regular English of my friends from Prague, and I even missed the more broken English of my professors.

I'm off to search my suitcase for all the Christmas gifts I stashed away and subsequently now cannot locate. Merry Christmas to all of you, and thanks for keeping up with my trip this semester!

Vánoční v Praze!

(Translation: Christmas in Prague)

For such an agnostic country (they get slightly mad if you call them atheist), I have been so impressed with the Christmas spirit in Prague. They have Christmas stuff everywhere! The Christmas markets are my favorite! This video is from the one on Old Town Square.



The Christmas markets consist of a bunch of different booths. Some of the vendors have annoying souvenirs, but others have really nice hand-made traditional Czech gifts. There was also traditional Czech foods everywhere, including these cinnamon sugar things called Trdelnik, goulash in bread bowls, sausage and hot dogs, potato pancakes, and Czech wafers. Walking around shopping with the smells of all of the foods was really nice!

On my last day I stumbled upon a fire at one of the manger scenes in the Christmas markets. It was pretty crazy, and I'll put the pictures up when I put up the pictures of the Christmas markets.

Home!

Since I'm back in the States I figured I'd start titling my posts in English.

I made it home! After not being able to sleep Friday night, I left my dorm at 3am Prague time Saturday morning. After spending almost eight hours in the Frankfurt airport due to delays, I arrived in Boston a little after 5pm Eastern Time, or 11pm Prague time.

I'm exhausted, so I'm heading to bed. For now it's nice to be back, and I hope to see you all soon!

Nashledanou!

(Translation: Goodbye!)

Not only has saying goodbye to the city been tough, but saying bye to my friends is even worse. It's not that I don't want to go home, because I am looking forward to seeing everyone, but I just want to be able to come back next semester with all of the same people.

I've given a lot of thought to whether I'm going to continue the blog once I get home, and I've decided that for now I am. There are still a bunch of things from my last week that I want to write about so that I remember them, and I have a feeling that there are going to be a lot of things about the trip that I won't truly appreciate until I am back home and notice the differences and have time to reflect on it. Therefore, stay tuned, because the boring ramblings of my trip aren't over yet!

I leave my dorm in three hours, and my flight leaves in five. I will be back on U.S. soil in about twenty hours. See you soon!

Kvalitní Tři

(Translation: Top Three)

I've started reflecting on the trip and the "top three" in a bunch of categories. I'll start with a few today and add them as I think of them.

Cities I Visited:
1. Paris
2. Krakow
3. Berlin

Three Things that Scream "Czech"
1. Bad Hair: This includes the most fake red hair you've ever seen but it being totally normal for women of all ages, dreadlocks, and mullets.
2. Plaid reinforced pants
3. Dogs everywhere and on every form of public transportation.

Things I Miss from Home:
1. People
2. Vegetables
3. Feeling 100% Clean

Cafes:
1. Rembrandt Cafe (for all the free samples!)
2. Bohemia Bagel (all of them)
3. Kavarna Slavia


K, that's all for now! I'll post more as I think of more categories! I might do some Prague superlatives, so let me know if you have any suggestions!

Finále

(Translation: Finale)

This past weekend was a blur. MaryBeth, one of my roommates from PC, came for the weekend. She is studying abroad in London for the year, so it was nice to get a chance to see her!


We had a great weekend. It was nice showing her around the city because I got to see a lot of my favorite places for the last time! Friday MB got in late afternoon and we got dinner at Lehka Hlava (Clear Head), my favorite vegetarian place. Then we walked around the Christmas markets. (I know I still need to tell you about them, so I think I'll just do a whole post about them tomorrow). Anyway, after the Christmas markets MB and I made red and green chocolate covered pretzels, the closest thing to baking that I have done all semester. Later Friday night we went with all of my friends to a place called Absinth Bar (which is all the explanation of that you are getting), and then we went to a club called Lucerna for eighties and nineties night. It was a lot of fun 'cause the music was so good.


Saturday we decided to go on one of those free tours that I've been doing in the other cities. I figured I should see Prague the same way I had seen other cities, and I knew that they could be better tour guides for MB than I could. After the tour we headed back to the dorm to warm up. This weekend has been the coldest days that I have had in Prague all semester, so being outside was tough at times. We did have a lot of snow flurries though, so it is putting me in the Christmas spirit even more! Saturday night we went to Pivovarsky Dum for dinner, the place that I have taken the dads and Tarah. There were ten of us that went, so it was a lot of fun. It's a microbrewery, and they finally changed their seasonal beer, so we got to have vanilla beer that came with vanilla cookies. After Pivodum we went to U Sudu because we needed a more quiet night after our previous one, but we ended up staying there for hours!

Sunday I showed MB the castle, St. Vitus, and the Lennon Wall. Then we went to see something that I had not yet seen: the infant of Prague, Baby Jesus. In Our Lady Victorious Church is a DOLL that is supposed to look like Jesus and that the Carmelite order is obsessed with or something. It is world famous and people come from all over to see it. When the Pope came to Prague he came to bless the infant Jesus. Kings and queens long ago used to give the doll fancy clothes as gifts, so there is a whole museum with its outfits. It was quite funny, and I have never had to stifle laughter in church so much. We even got to see the display with THE UNDERGARMENTS OF JESUS. It was definitely the highlight of MB's trip. After that experience we went to see the dancing house, grabbed lunch at Maitrea, and did some more Christmas market shopping. MB and I got a nice dinner at U Prince, the outdoor restaurant on the roof that overlooksOld Town Square. It was a great meal. We wrapped up the weekend with a drink at Bukowski's with my friends. I honestly think that I went to all of my favorite places this weekend, and I had a friend from home to do it all with, so it was my favorite weekend in Prague so far.


It is so sad that I am leaving so soon. It is weird because usually leading up to a trip, either coming or going, you are at least a little excited for the change, but I feel like a kid whose parents tell them that they are moving and they don't have any choice. I have to leave behind all of the places I like and the friends that I've made. Not to mention the fact that I don't want to pack an entire semester back into two suitcases. If you thought that my packing to come here was hard, just wait for the packing to leave!

I will take another study break in a bit to put my Paris pictures up, so I hope you like them!

See you all soon!

P.S. Read this article. (Can you tell I'm avoiding studying?) It'll put you in the holiday spirit!

Miluju se Paříž!

(Translation: I love Paris!)

There was not a single city that I visited that made me question choosing to study in Prague until I went to Paris. Paris was definitely my favorite weekend trip that I took. You might get bored by every single detail that I choose to describe, but I want to remember the trip. It may sound like I did nothing, but I felt like I got to experience Paris a lot more than the last time that I was there running from sight to sight.

Friday

Karen, Blair, Jill, Alex, Courtney and I took a 6am flight to Paris, meaning that we left our dorm around 3:30am. Jenny and two girls from her program came as well, so there were nine of us. We got into Paris a little before nine and checked into our hostel. It was the nicest hostel I've stayed at, so it was nice not having to worry about that.

We took a free tour in Paris, just like we had in Berlin, and once again it was very good. The tour guide was great, and we saw some of the major sights early on in the trip. We got crepes for lunch, and then we went to Galleries Lafayette. For those of you who don't know what it is, it's sort of like the Harrod's of Paris. Jenny had found online that they do a fashion show for free every Friday, so being in the fashion capital of the world, we all went. I had never been to a fashion show before, so it was pretty cool to see. Since I have been to Paris before, I was glad to be seeing something different, like a fashion show.

After the fashion show we went to the Louvre. They let people under 26 in for free on Friday nights. I've been to the Louvre before, but never at night, and after seeing The Da Vinci Code it was really interesting being there at night. They don't really turn a lot of lights on, so it almost feels like walking through your house at night using the glow from streetlights. I've been to the Louvre before, and we were all really tired from getting up so early, so we headed back to the hostel after seeing the major sights at the Louvre. We were lucky that we even got to go to the Louvre, because for all weeks for us to be there, workers at French museums had been going on strike on and off all week.


Saturday

Jenny, Emily, and I slept in pretty late and then took the metro to Sacre Coeur. After that we walked through Montmarte and then to Moulin Rouge. We then walked all the way to Hotel De Ville (the town hall), where we had heard there was supposed to be ice skating, but the rink wasn't frozen yet. I'm not going to lie: I was very disappointed! We ended up walking to the Champs Elysees and Arc de Triomph and seeing all the Christmas lights and Christmas markets there, which was so pretty! We then walked to the Eiffel Tower, but since it was starting to rain we decided not to go to the top. It was still beautiful to see again, especially with the sparkly lights. I think that the Eiffel Tower and Prague Castle at night are my two favorite landmarks in Europe. (Just a little fun fact I thought I'd throw in there).



Sunday
I want to thank my friend Cara because even though she is currently in Georgia (the country) with the Peace Corps, she managed to give me some great suggestions of what to see off the beaten path in Paris. I decided to explore the city by myself and see the places that she had suggested and the places that I have never really explored before. I started by going to the Bastille, because I remembered going to a great market there on a Sunday morning the last time that I was in Paris. I bought a great winter hat at the market that I refused to take off the rest of the day. I literally wore it all the way back to Prague. It was so nice out that I was getting so hot and I took my coat off instead of taking my hat off. Pretty genius, I know. Just wait until you see this hat.

Anyway, after I went to the market at the Bastille I wandered around La Marais and went into a million little boutiques and vintage shops, just like Cara recommended. I bought some rolls at one of the many Jewish bakeries around there, just as she had recommended. So good!

After La Marais I wandered down to the Latin Quarter, which I have never really explored before. I went in a million stores there too. Amazingly, the hat is all I really bought that day! After the Latin Quarter and St. Germain, I walked up to Galleries Lafayette and grabbed some lunch and walked back to Montmartre to wander around again.

The highlight of the day was definitely having three different people ask me in French how to get places. There was only rally one place that I could help with, but the fact that I didn't look like a tourist was pretty exciting. However, I hadn't showered all weekend, making me fit in pretty well over there, so that may have had something to do with it!

Having all the people ask me for directions was nice because I got to use a lot of French. That may have been my favorite part of the weekend, speaking in French and understanding everything going on around me, because that is something that I have gotten used to ignoring here in the CZ. I have forgotten how fun it can be to eavesdrop on random people, or read stupid ads in the metro. In Prague I don't have that luxury, but in France I did. I had forgotten how nice it is to understand everything.


Even though Paris made me question my choice to study in Prague, I am still very glad that I did. I love Prague, and I think that Prague is a much more relaxed, comfortable city. It isn't as classy as Paris, but it definitely isn't as expensive either, so I am able to do a lot more here. I would love to visit/live in Paris someday when I have an actual adult income, but Prague is perfect for a student because you can experience everything on a student budget.

Anyway, I will get my Paris pictures up as soon as possible, but for now it is time to celebrate that it is THE WEEKEND again!

**I ended about 5 million sentences with prepositions today. If I could ignore it, you can too!**

Grammy

I just want to wish Grammy a Happy Birthday!

I hope she enjoys her cake. Apparently Dad picked it up today and put it in the fridge. When Nikki got home from school she inquired as to why an ICE CREAM CAKE had been sitting in the fridge, not the freezer, all day, to which Dad replied that that was where it belonged. He must have been too busy with work to realize that ice cream melts. (Dad, you deserved this one.)

If my parents don't start answering my emails, I just may stay here :)

Off to Paris! Be back Monday!

Nikki

My life in Prague is currently dominated by writing term papers. However, I leave for Paris in a little over 24 hours, so I can definitely put up with a little paper writing.

Congratulations, Nikki for not getting cut from the basketball team. I'm so proud.