A Whirlwind of Events.

It took me a few days to finally post to blogspot, but here I am! I have arrived safely in Prague and have so far had the BEST few days of my life.
We arrived in London 2.9.09 and spent close to 3 days in the city. After viewing the British Museum as well as the National Gallery (so cool!), the AIFS (American Institute for Foreign Study) students went on a short bus tour of London to become familiar with the city. Our first night consisted of getting to know each other by stopping at a small pub in Picadilly Circus. While we were laughed at by the owner of the bar for reading every coin (in attempts to pay..), we successfully survived the night and made a lot of good friends along the way.
There were a few things that also made me realize what we could do back home to become more environmentally aware. Apart from effective public transportation, the hotel rooms only received electricity when your key card was inserted (and remained) in a slot on the wall. This stopped people from leaving their lights on while out of the room (and caused a few black outs while we were still in the room and unsure of what was happening!)
London, overall, was an opportunity to overcome jetlag in addition to becoming more comfortable with the people we will spend the next 4 months with. While the city was beautiful, we all agreed that the experience was somewhat surreal. Being in the city did not seem realistic and most of all it did not feel as though we had left home for the next few months.

Munich was an equally surreal experience, but the city was astonishing. The architecture alone was enough to cause jaw drops and the people were extraordinarily friendly. We managed to make friends with a few German natives and I attempted to get the group through the day with my broken German. We somehow managed to find the few places that did not speak a single word of English, but I truly think this added to the cultural experience. People were very understanding of my terrible language skills, but it made me grateful for the little German that I had learned throughout high school and college as it seemed to help people warm up to us at the least. We stopped at the Hofbrauhaus later that night. (I was informed by our tour guide that this was an absolute must for cultural experiences in Munich!)

Our journey to Prague began the next morning and could not have come at a more opportune time. After 4 days of hotels (for which we were so grateful!) everyone was ready to stop living out of our suitcases. We had a 6 hour bus ride ahead of us before arriving in Plzeň where we stopped for a quick lunch during their celebration of Oktoberfest. Another few hours later we had arrived in Prague where we quickly discovered that we had chosen the best city to live in and one of the worst if we plan to complete any sort of studying..

Prague exceeded any of our wildest dreams in beauty and Munich failed to compare after we caught our first glimpse of the city at night. Whether it was the incredible people we met along the way (from Germany, Britain, New Zealand, and Czech) or just the shear shock at the beauty of our new home, I could not have imagined this place in my wildest dreams. These first few days have been a whirlwind of orientation, travel, exploring, new friends..and even tried my first Czech beer (a Pilsen..of course!). I would not trade this experience for the world, and I am so thankful for the people that pushed me towards this chance. I have truly found home in Praha. The language barrier has been difficult, but language classes start Monday and I hope that that means we won't come across as "stupid americans." I have tried my absolute hardest to morph to European society so that they do not have to accomodate my inability, but the challenge has been a difficult one and has failed on occasion.
I truly look forward to the coming months when I can slowly integrate into this wonderful society and culture.

For now, however, I think it is time for sleep before our travels to Telč.

(I'm sorry that I wasn't able to see everyone today for family festivities, but I am sending all my congratulations to Kerry and her thesis!! Safe travels home to both you and Ben). Miss you all 110% and I can't wait to share all of my stories in person.

PS. I have not had a chance to upload pictures from our first days in Prague. However, the pictures at the top are a few of my favorites from my trips to London and Munich. Ill have pictures up in the next few days and the rest of these photos should be up in mom's picasa soon..maybe..