Longest Grocery Run Ever

Yesterday was our trip around Prague! We walked and took the tram around the city. We saw places like: Old Town, New Town, where our classes will be in 2 weeks, where our Czech language classes will be for the next two weeks, where the ISA office is, and a ton of other things in between such as opera houses, libraries, famous cafes, theatres, and of course the Charles Bridge. Everything here is really old, it's amazing how preserved they have kept the city and definitely my favorite thing about Prague.

Today Cassi and I walked to the grocery store so that we could pick up a few things to eat for our breakfasts and lunches. We went to Tesco, which is a few blocks across the bridge we live close to. Everywhere you look there is something beautiful to see so I took a few pictures on the way...



The Prague Caslte! We get to have a guided tour of it sometime in the next 2 weeks, it's part of our intensive Czech course. The bridge in the picture is the Charles Brige, it was made during the 14th century.









This is on the other side of the bridge from our side. The building with the gold roof is the Prague National Theatre. They collected the money for it to built from the people that's why it's a national theatre.

After we got to Tesco we picked up a few things like cereal and sandwhich stuff. We decided to take the tram back to our apartment, we knew we need to take the 9 but we got on it going to wrong direction on accident so we took a very long ride to the end of the route.  We had to wait for it to leave again and take it again through all of the stops we had already gone through so that we could get back to our apartment, the trip probably would have just been about an hour but I think it took us double the time because of our little  misshape, I guess it was a good way to just see a little bit more of the city! We made it back to our apartment though and put our stuff up. Filling up the fridge and cabinets kind of makes it sink in that this is really where I live and my temporary home for 4 months, it's so crazy to think about it!

I thought I'd also put some pictures up of our apartment!!! We were all expecting it to be a lot smaller but it's definitely a good size and really nice! We have a really good size dinning room and a cute little kitchen area, the cabinets on the far right are actually our fridge and freezer. In the living room you can see how high the ceillings are! Also, we actually have 2 bedrooms and 2 baths but I only took pictures of Cassi and I's bedroom and bathroom. As you walk into the apartment we have an entrance way and our room is for first door on the left, our bathroom is in our room (like a master bedroom).

Anyway, tomorrow is our first day of learning some Czech! Wish me luck!!!

I FINALLY made it!!!!!!

Cassi and I finally made it to Prague!!! It took a lot to get us here and we're exhausted but I think after we learn our way around it is going to be the most amazing place to explore.

It took us much much MUCH longer to get here then expected. Our original plan was to depart from Tulsa connect in Atlanta to go to JFK and then directly to Prague.  The flight from Tulsa to Atlanta went smoothly, we got to Atlanta and found our next gate and then grabbed some lunch.  About an hour before we were supposed to depart we found out that our connection was delayed and that the delay would mess up our connection in JFK so we went to the call center to speak to a rep. The phone call lasted a long time and it ended up with us having an 8 hour layover that would take us to Amsterdam then to Prague, instead of being in Prague by 10am we wouldn't arrive until 3pm. It was our only choice so that's what we did. We were concerened about our luggage so we asked the man behind the desk to make sure our luggage would follow our new route and even though put in the request, or whatever, he informed us that there was no real chance of them taking it off of the JFK flight. As if that was upsetting enough he told us that he wouldn't give us our new boarding tickets because our visas expire on the 14th of May and we aren't coming home until the 22nd. He directed us towards the international rebooking booth, which we didn't know how to find because his directions were too fast and he was grumpy. On our way to trying to find the rebooking booth we stumbled upon the customs area, where we thought we needed to go, where we talked to the information desk. Let me just say that his help was....unsatisfactory. By this point I had had enough but we decided to go up the stairs where we found my favorite person that we met the whole trip. The lady that helped us at the international rebooking booth got us all set up with making sure we got our bording passes and luggage. After we settled that we got dinner and sat our gate until 9:35.

The plan ride was really bumpy and the man infront of me didn't know the meaning of personal space because for the entire 9 hour flight he had his seat laid back as far as it possibly could go, good think I'm short although it was still uncomfortable. But that was probably worst part of it. We had an extremely smooth landing in Amsterdam, which was nice because that is usually the scariest part!

After landing in Amsterdam we thought we had plenty of time to find our gate but we were wrong, we had to go through security to get to our gate and the line was extremely long. Thankfully they opened up another line and it started moving a little faster. After we got through that we literally ran to our gate (with the help of those moving platforms). I had 35lbs of carry on stuff so it was really uncomfortable trying to get there so fast but we did it! Unfortunately it didn't matter because our gate had been moved down to the end of the terminal, so we scurried to the new gate and waited to be checked in. I'm not really sure why but we had to be bused to the plane, maybe because it was small? Anyway, we got on and made our way to PRAGUE!

Once here we went to claim our luggage, remember it was supposed to be following us, but it never came up onto the luggage belt. After all that we had been through we were really frustrated but went to talk to the baggage people and the woman said that our luggage was on it's way over, it had gone to JFK. So we should get it tomorrow. I will probably never fly again without carrying and entire set of extra clothes and some kind of toiletries, BIG mistake not to!

After we walked through customs, really we just walked right through, we met up with an ISA staff member and 3 ISA students that were waiting for us. Then we were all driven to our apartments. Our apartment is really big and really nice. We were all pretty excited about it, it's the perfect place to live in this beautiful city.

Lets see..a quick run down of our day would be Cassi and I finding our way to a store to buy some things (we took a tram). After we went to dinner with our roomates. After dinner Cassi and I decided we would just head back to the apartment because we haven't slept since we left Tulsa, it took us forever though because we took the wrong tram to some sketchy place where we then had to get on a tram to take us back to where we had had dinner. We decided walking would be better so we probably walked about a mile hoping we were going in the right direction. Thankfully,we had gone the right way and found our way back to our lovely apartment.

Tomorrow we have orientation, a walk around Prague basically. I think it's going to be really cool so I'm very excited!

Did I mention I hate flying?!

Tomorrow is the big day....FINALLY!!!!

This week as been extremely stressful. I've done so many last minute shopping runs that I'm sick of going to the store. Yesterday and today were probably the worst though because the real packing began. I am not a very good packer, I never know what I want to take because there are so many situations you could find yourself in and I want to be prepared for all of them. I have to constantly remind myself that it's not possible to be prepared for every event, there are way too many unknowns. Also, I had to change my return date, so instead of coming home on the 21st of May I'll be home on the 22nd. I guess that having to change that was actually a good thing because now I might be going to Tuscany for the last week of my trip (can't complain about that)!

Something I wasn't expecting to happen this week were the nerves I've been feeling, I thought I would have absolutely no problem with leaving but in reality I'm actually really nervous and a little sad. I'm really going to miss my family and friends while I'm gone. I know I'm going to have a blast while I'm there but it's definitely going to be an adjustment. Good news is I'll have email, skype, facebook, and of course this blog. I don't know how often I'll get to be on but every little bit will be great. Also, if anyone would like my address while I"m there just ask and I can get it to you also if you would like postcards or anything like that I'd really like for people to give me their addresses!

By for the hardest thing about this trip is the flying, I absolutely hate flying! For the last couple of days I have been alittle bit of a mess just thinking about it. I have a million butterflies in my stomach everytime I think about it!!! Thankfully my doctor was kind enough to give me some medicine to calm the nerves plus I am flying with Cassi so I won't be alone, I don't know what I would do if I were going by myself!

Anyway,no matter how terrified I am I still have to fly to get there so here is what my schedule looks like for tomorrow:

                 I leave at 10:15am from the Tulsa airport to Atlanta
                 Atlanta to JFK
                 Then JFK to Prague, landing there at 9:40am on the 28th

Oh and something that made my day today was a picture my sister drew for me...

Prologue to Prague!!!

So there are ONLY 2 weeks left. I'm beyond excited to say the least but honestly writing a blog is going to be weird for me...I've never read a blog let alone written one so this whole thing is new to me.

First I'm glad that I get to go with one of my best friends, Cassi. It's been a long process to get to this point. We went back and forth between several different places before we finally decided on Prague but I couldn't be happier with our choice.

One of the things I'm looking forward to the most is meeting all of the people in my ISA group, especially my roommates! We are living in a cute apartment building about 10 minutes away from the Charles Bridge. It's going to be so much fun to explore the city around us.

(It's the best I could do)

Anyway..Although I'm excited I'm also really overwhelemed with all of the things I still need to get done before I leave!!! There is still a lot of packing to do and things to buy and currency to order!

I guess for now this is it. I'm sure I will have a lot more to say the closer it gets to January 27th!