Time Travelling!

This is so cool! I said good-bye to my dad and rainy Seattle and hello to Europe all within a matter of 15 hours (1 of which I slept....).

After a 9.5 hour flight to Amsterdam (sadly not on a 747 as I had so eagerly anticipated--but plenty large nonetheless), and a 1 hour flight on a puddle jumper to Prague, I have finally made it to this beautiful city! I truly wish that I was able to get a photo on the first leg of the sunrise while we were flying over Greenland-It was gorgeous, yet so odd to realize I had been going the opposite direction of the sun, literally time travelling:) Three of us were on the same flight from Amsterdam to Prague, and upon arrival to Prague we found another study-abroad student in our group who joined us on the metro to head out to our apartments! After one bus ride and two subway rides, I made it to my apartment. I didn't know how to get a hold of anybody because we didn't have phones, but I had facebooked the girls who were already at the apartment and informed them to be there around the time of my arrival to let me up to the apartment. Therefore, I simply buzzed every single apartment (had no idea which one they were) which got their attention and the three girls came out on the balcony and waved at us then ventured down to let Adrienne and I in :) In the process of getting the attention of our roommates, however, I also got the attention of several people speaking Czech through the speaker....If you are not familiar with slavic languages--good luck! It has been very evident that there is definitely a language barrier, especially where we live in what seems to be the suburbs of Prague. Anyways, our apartment is WONDERFUL. It is on the top floor, has two bedrooms, a toilet room, a bath/shower/powder room, and a kitchen and dining room. The best feature, though? THE BALCONY! We have a complete wrap around balcony as we are on the corner of the building, and it has the most amazing views and greatest natural lighting!!

All of the girls I live with are really cool, and it was great to get settled in my room. I definitely was thankful for, but certainly not expecting, having a queen size bed. Not only that, but I can confirm that our apartment is above a KFC and a McDonalds, and RIGHT next to one of the larger malls in Prague.... oh lord... this could be trouble!

My first adventure was to the store. Sounds like an easy feat right? ...It definitely isn't when everything is in another language! All we needed to get was wine, pasta, cherry tomatoes, garlic bread, and zuchini so that Victoria, one of my roommates, could make us all dinner (she is going to spoil us with her wonderful cooking!). Well, it is incredibly difficult to find anything outside of the produce aisle because all of the signs are in Czech. Even all of the wines were in Czech! So I opted for an Australian wine that was only 59 Kc (about 3.50 US) and was in English. At the checkout we were confused when the lady wouldn't give us a bag and continued to say something along the lines of "un karuna" really quickly....soon we realized you have to pay for bags, and they cost one koruna each...and you have to bag your groceries yourself, and bag them quickly or else the next persons items get mixed up with yours! Well, either way, we made it through the store and found all of our items and headed 50 yards back to our apartment to indulge on wine and pasta with veggies :) Our spacious place seems to have already been dubbed the hangout spot because last night we had a bunch of other girls from the program meet up here for wine night--which I simply could not push through past 9 PM when I finally hit a wall and crawled into/passed out on my bed. I realized by about 730 that I had not slept for nearly 30 hours and I was truly exhausted. After sleeping for about 8 hours, I woke up to gorgeous sunshine shining into my room, realizing I am in another country, about to have a fantastic adventure -- what a lovely feeling!! 

It wasn't until about 45 minutes later that I realized there was no way I would be able to do anything strenuous or adventure-filled today... Jet lag has truly hit me like a truck and I literally could not even make it far enough to experience real Czech food, so I am embarrased to say that for my first meal in Prague, I opted for a Cheeseburger and a hot fudge sundae with a large Diet Coke from McDonalds. Since then I have been sitting in my bed eating potato chips and blogging--taking a minute every now and then to step on the balcony and watch people be active. At this point, I feel hungover from Jetlag and cannot wait until it is over with!! I just want to get out on the town and explore something beyond my balcony, the store, and McDonalds!!! 

Here are some pictures of my place:) It truly is a great set-up. I'm amazeddddddddd!