When Things Go Wrong, Life is Still Pretty

I haven’t really been choked up about leaving until Wednesday afternoon when I was walking down the long corridor to get to security. It felt so scary and lonely. I was quickly snapped out of it when I had to remove my shoes, the liquids from my bag, my lap top, and put everything on the conveyor belt. I made it through security and sat at the gate for about 2 and a half hours. I couldn’t really focus on my book, I wanted to save my ipod’s battery for later. I felt pretty freaked out without any connection to the outside world. My cell phone was left with my mom, and my watch was packed away in my suitcase. It all just felt very strange. I was kept entertained by three little boys from India who were all from different families, but found each other, hugged, then started playing games. Finally I was ready to board my flight. The first thing I noticed was that the airplane seemed older. Not that that matters, but where were the Tvs in every seat that I thought all international planes had? Then, I realized the plane was not even half filled. This was a true sign of how bad the economy is. It was also weird that I had an entire aisle to myself, but pretty awesome, too. The only downfall was that my seat was next to the kitchenette, so I wasn’t able to sleep that well due to the noise and light coming from it. I ate a pretty delicious rice curry meal however. There was only one big tv a bit further up. They played the movie The Duchess, which I fell asleep to about 20 minutes in. I hadn’t ridden in an airplane for a while, and with the two flights going down back home, I felt pretty freaked out during take off, and anytime there was turbulence. But I made it safely to London Heathrow at 6:30 in the morning, London time.

This is where the real fun begins.
I had to go through the long line in customs where the lady really interrogated me about my trip. It was sort of scary. But I remember that room well from the first time I came over, so everything started coming back to me a bit more. I went to baggage claim, which I remember as well. My last experience here was a full-bearded Drew flirting with all the girls in our group haha. My baggage made it and I trekked through the ‘nothing to declare’ hallway. It was sad coming out and not seeing someone holding a “Temple University” sign. I found which terminal I needed to go to, but stopped in the bathroom to freshen up and to get my watch out. I guess that was one nice thing about having to get my luggage. Then began my trek to Terminal 2. I had to go down a bunch of ramps (My trolley almost started flying downhill until some nice gentleman told me I needed to use the break. Oh) and a bunch of walking escalator things. I passed the London Underground and felt so/happy sad. All I wanted more than anything was to just get on the tube to South Kensington and listen to the lady say “Mind the Gap.“

But I stayed focused and had to push the trolley UP a ramp, then lug the suitcases up two more escalators because I couldn’t check in for 3 more hours. By this point, I’m really sweating and need to relax. (It’s now 8:30, 3:30 in the morning in the states). I found a spot and chilled. I did some grammar work on my packet, and played bejeweled on my laptop until it died.
I went back downstairs to check in.

This is where the true fun begins.
The lady tells me I’m 26 kilos over my weight limit. Um, okay, what does that mean?
Her: You’re one bag over. If you had a connecting flight the whole way through, you could have brought two bags.
Me: Um, I just came from the States. And Czech Airlines was supposed to be my connecting flight, but they screwed me over.
Her: (Not caring whatsoever, I’m just another customer) That will be 500 pounds
What that really means: Fork over $1,000 on your first day away from home because you know how much England loooves to rape you of your money and dignity!!
Me: Yeah, that’s not happening. What are my other options?

So I had to go over to “Excess Luggage.,” this is where I start crying. He tells me it will be 300 pounds in order for it to be sent to Prague. Not AS bad, but still not doing it. This is where I have to unpack my suitcases and repack them. (I got the majority of what I could live off of for a while in one, but there’s still a bunch I’m missing out on right now.) I hope Heathrow enjoyed me throwing around all my underwear! You money sucking leeches.

I go back upstairs to the post office. They tell me it will be 100 pounds. So, we have a winner! I go back downstairs, get my bag wrapped, check in my other bag, go back upstairs, mail off my suitcase, go through security, then finally sit down. This is where I start thinking “I can’t believe I already spent more than $200 on my first day away. What the hell am I doing? Why am I here? I should just catch the next flight back home.” Then an older Greek man who can’t speak English very well asks me to help him find his gate number. I tell him it’s not posted yet and that he needs to wait for it to come up. He points to bench, I say yes. Then he sits down right smack next to me, like literally an inch away. Then he starts asking me questions about myself and shows me a picture of his wife. My gate number is posted and I tell him good luck.
I make my way to the gate where we’re pretty much allowed to board right away, even though its about 40 minutes until take off. A nice Czech man who was sitting in my row put my book bag up in the hutch for me. I’m not sure what happened until take off because I completely passed out. (It’s about 9 am in the states, and I should have had a good full nights rest by now). I woke up just in time for take off and for me to freak out and think the plane is going to go down (this anxiety really needs to stop because I was quite the traveler in 2006.) We’re not 10 minutes into the flight when a lady gets on the speaker and says something in Czech, then in English says “Please, if there is a doctor on board, contact the cabin crew.” Then the cabin crew starts running up and down the aisles in a frenzy. My first thought: the pilot is out and we’re all going down. Then I realize, it’s a passenger, which sucks, but makes me feel better. A woman jumps up to help. This has never happened to me on a flight before. I pass out again, then wake up in time to realize that I missed the snack and we are about to land. [I guess the passenger is okay now.] I look out the window and see field after field of nothing except a white blanket of snow. My thought: Where the hell am I?

We land smoothly, I go through customs. This lady says absolutely nothing, but stamps my passport, and buzzes me through the gate. I pick up my one piece of luggage [Eff you Czech Airlines], and walk down the hallway. There are a bunch of people waiting, some are holding signs. I see a young man holding a sign with my name on it and sigh in relief. Something went right today! [Aside from my ultimate safety]. He comments on my one suitcase, takes it, and leads me to the car. Martin makes me feel a lot better about everything. I told him what Czech words and phrases I know [Yeden pivo, procim being the most important…One beer, please!] He takes me to my flat, breaking the wheel on my suitcase along the way. Hurrah! I’m living in Soviet block housing. It’s all very strange, the apartment is liveable, though not as charming at Metrogate. The apartment buildings are all in a circle with a little park and school in the middle where the kids meet in the to go to school. Weird.

I meet my roommates, a guy and a girl who seem really nice. David has already been here for a few days so he already got his bearings. Gina arrived two hours before I did. Gina and I are absolutely exhausted and starving. David takes us to where our school is, and to the grocery store…TESCO! That’s right ladies and gentleman, Tesco is my grocery store! I couldn’t feel more at home if I tried. Granted everything is in Czech, but it’s still comforting. I get the essentials, cereal, boxed milk (which is awesome because it doesn‘t go bad and has a sweet taste to it), tea, sugar, pasta, pasta sauce, and Tesco’s version of Ramen noodles. My bill: 170 crowns=$8.50. I’m liking this place already. We go back, make dinner, get to know each other a bit, then pass out.

I woke up at 3 in the morning after 4 hours of sleep and COULDN’T GO BACK TO SLEEP! Gina woke up too. So there we were at 5 in the morning eating cereal and chatting about how freaked out we are in this situation. We get ready, and 3 of us go to Old Town’s Square. It’s sooo pretty and the snow is falling and everything is just gorgeous. However, I feel like I’m hung over the entire day like I had done a heavy night of drinking. We’re all starving and want real Czech food. We find a place and I order beef goulash, dumplings, and potato pancakes. Absolutely delicious!! I feel more like I’m in the Czech Republic. Somewhere around this time is when I realize my new watch isn’t working. It starts working again when I tap on it. Fabulous.

Then we make our way to the school. The group in my class are a wide array of people. I hope we get to know each other more later on. The course seems very interesting and intense, we already have to teach something on Tuesday. I think that we’re on our own a lot though to do the learning. They give us the tools we need, and we need to be proactive. Then, a guy gives us a tour of the building. The school café serves wine and beer (hilarious) and people are allowed to smoke in there after 2:30. It’s funny how little adjustments like that make their culture more and more interesting. The guy is supposed to take us on a tour of Prague, but he ends up answering all of our insecure questions. I think we’re all feeling pretty lost at this point. Gina and I go home and make dinner. I fall asleep at 9 pm.

I wake the next morning at 6 am! I know! So unlike me! But I guess I did get my 9 hours of needed sleep haha. I do some work, read the map trying to get my bearings straight. Then David and I decide to go explore a bit. We made our way up the hill through the tiny streets to the Prague Castle. I needed this day. I needed to take in my environment and see beautiful things and feel calm before the class starts and not be in my Soviet Block Housing. The view is absolutely gorgeous. Like a fairy tale. The bad news is that my camera is dead because my charger is in my other suitcase. We stroll the medieval streets that once used to be where people lived. We stop every now and then to take fake pictures. I might try to go back tomorrow if I can get anything out of my camera. [Apparently this is only second time this winter that it has snowed, and I NEED a picture of everything capped with snow!]

We make our way down the steps that Samantha Brown used in her show and head over to the St. Charles Bridge. I couldn’t believe how many tourists there were in February when it was snowing! I’m afraid to see what the summer is going to be like with tourists! The Bridge was beautiful and charming, the statues along the side were actually stunning. Usually statues don’t do it for me, but there is something about these, I think because they are so old. We get to the statue that you touch for good luck and I tell David that Samantha told me that I have to use my left hand. We decide we need all the luck we can get and go to get in line. We notice all the people using their right hands. We decide to come back after doing more research because we don’t need any more bad luck.

We got lost in some of the streets after we got off the bridge. The streets and make me feel like I am at the true Renaissance Faire. The crazy thing about Prague is that the streets aren’t on any type of grid, so one minute you’re going south, the next west. It’s very confusing and annoys me to an extent because I like knowing exactly where I am. We found an internet café, got some baklava and coffee. I read our course book for a while, and David used his computer. He let me use his laptop for a bit so I could send off some emails, but then it died L Oh, the reason I couldn’t use my computer was because it died and guess where the charger is? That’s right, in my other suitcase! I hate not having the internet in my flat. I knew we weren’t going to have wireless internet, but I didn’t realize how put off I would be. I want to do research about school activities and Prague, I want to skype, I want to instant message, I want to watch mindless television on the internet, and I want to get caught up with LOST!!

We went back to Tesco since I wasn’t falling over asleep this time and I got a bit more creative with what I bought…such as roasted red peppers, mozzarella cheese, ham [I think it’s ham], bread, olives, stocked up on 4 bags of pasta, bananas, and toilet paper. Total: 250 crowns= $12.50. If I bought that at home it probably would have been at LEAST $30. I’m actually feeling very resentful towards London at this point, too. Who do they think they are?
We go back home and are absolutely exhausted after our big day. I make a ham, mozarella, and roasted pepper sandwich. Delicious! Gina is a vegetarian so she gets creative with her meals. I’m going to copy off of her and then make the meal my own. I fall asleep and wake up at 8 pm. I think my roommates are sleeping , but I’m not sure. I hope they didn’t go out without me.
I really want to meet up with Pavel and his roommates, but it’s hard since I don’t have a phone and don’t have the internet right now. Hopefully I can meet him soon because I think he’s going to take me to some really great places.
I fall back to sleep and wake up at 6:30 in the morning. Hurray!


Things that Rock:

• Everyone wears fabulous boots and lots of fur, especially fur hats. I can’t wait to buy one of these
• I think I’m passing as Eastern European pretty well…so far.
• The Czech children are so adorable and always bundled up in puffy outfits
• It's great being back in a city where I have to walk around a lot. I'm feeling the burn already!
• You have to stand on the right and walk on the left on escalators...Just like in London!

Things that Suck:

• I’m really missing out on a lot of things from my other suitcase…like moisturizer, my camera and laptop charger, and scarves.
• I shouldn’t have exchanged my warm boots for bigger ones because now they’re rubbing my feet and hurting them more than if they were just cramped.
• It was snowing here all morning, but now it’s raining L
• A lot of people smoke here and are still allowed to do it bars and restaurants.
• I’m scared to use the little Czech I do know. And apparently learning the Czech language is almost impossible. Foreigners can get the vocabulary down, but not the grammar.
• This is the second internet café I’ve been to in about an hour and a half and both won’t let me connect to the internet.

Things that are Hilarious:

• When an elderly person gets on the subway, you’re supposed to get up to give them your seat, which I think is great. However, people get up soooo fast! I don’t even realize they walk on the subway. And some people have canes and supposedly if you don’t get up they start hitting you with it. I’ve already had to give my seat up once. But I don’t know what is considered “older” so sometimes I just stand so I don’t have to deal with it.
• The slow songs sound so ridiculous in a different language.