Feb 28th – Day to Leave for Prague

Today I missed my first class but figured my birthday was a good time to take an excused absence. Funny. I took a shower, got dressed, ate and went to school. First, I took my paper to my professor and apologized for not coming to class (which we didn’t do much in class that day anyway). Then I waited for my art class where we got back our exams. I did really well! Which he was very pleased with how we all did overall. After that, I had to go back to my host home to get the baby suitcase to meet up with Rachel for our trip to Prague. My uncle lives there so and we wanted to visit so he said we would be able to stay with him! What luck! And when I had checked my email earlier, I found out that my present from my parents was a new camera that Geoff (my uncle) would help me pick out since he’s really great at photography! Yay! Now I would be able to see what I was taking pictures of instead of guessing! (Story here is that I took it to Granada and it worked one minute and then the screen went out. The rest of the camera was fine but I couldn’t see what I was taking pics of so I would just guess. Good thing I’ve had it so long so my aim was really good.) Awesome! Plus Geoff had a puppy and I had been having a really hard time not being around my dogs so it would definitely put my in a good place to at least play with one! Rachel and I met at the bus station excited for our weekend and caught the bus to the airport. It was really easy and fast and no crowding! We had gotten to the airport 2 hours before to check our luggage and get some food. The woman that checked our bags had asked the funny question of whether I wanted my luggage to come to Prague with me. We had a lay-over in Frankfurt and had she been a native English speaker I would have sassed her saying, ‘No, my bag and I are having some issues so I’m going to Prague and it’s going to stay in Frankfurt.’ But I was afraid she would take it literally, so I smiled and said yes, all the way to Prague. Then Rachel and I walked towards our terminal and stopped at a café to get some food since I was hungry again (go figure, haha). And guess what I saw there? Kiwi! I haven’t seen or even heard of anyone talk about having kiwis here and I love eating them…they remind me of being in high school where my friends would make fun of the way I would eat them at lunch time. Rachel had never had a kiwi, so I figured this would be a good time to try. I also got some yogurt (which tasted like yogurt back home), white grape juice (which I’ve been missing terribly here, since I’m such a juice fiend), and a water. Well, I brought a water, but the Nazis who are running security are way cool until they see water, then they take it and toss it without even a flinch. Dang. We were sitting at the café eating, which Rachel found that she loves kiwis, when a dad-aged man at the table next to us said, ”You don’t hear many American accents around here” and smiled at us. We both looked at him with a kind of worried look because we thought he would be another Spanish creeper. Trust me, age isn’t an issue…creeper in Spain is ageless. Haha. Then he said, “I’m from the states”…oh, and a sigh of relief. We didn’t catch his name, but I think he was very happy to speak to someone from his own culture. But what we did learn was that he was from Ohio, living in England with his family, loved it there, but missed home and was thinking about moving them all back in 5 or 10 years. Plus he was getting worried about his kids because they were really picking up on the accent, and he was hoping that they wouldn’t especially when they move back. Then before we had met him, he left to catch his flight to England. But wished us the best of luck and really admired us for coming to study here in college. From the café we went to our terminal and we boarded the plane. It was from Madrid to Frankfurt and would be about 2 hours so we were watching a movie…cool. It was ‘Waiting’ with Keri Russell and it was the most bizarre, heart-breakingly depressed movie/plot I’ve ever seen! She works as a waitress in a pie shop in a very small town on a rarely frequented interstate. She gets pregnant from her controlling husband who hits her, controls her thoughts and actions. Oh, and of course he is insanely jealous. She had planned to get away from him by stashing money to use for her get away until she got pregnant. Now she had to figure out how to hide it. She also narrates her life by the pies she creates which are amazingly good. Like ‘Earl is Gonna Kill Me When He Finds Out I’m Having His Baby’ pie. Then she ends up having an affair with her baby doctor who is, of course insanely good-looking, and married as well. To give an example of how crazy, dumb and jealous the husband is, when she tells him, he gets jealous that she will love the baby more than him. And will only let her have it, if she promises to make an effort everyday to love him more than the baby. Earl first, baby second. When we landed in Frankfurt, it was pouring rain and very cold. The way they run their airport is that every flight has a shuttle that takes them to their plane regardless of size. So once we took the shuttle to the gate, hustled to the next gate and had the shuttle take us to the next plane, we were relieved that we were about to be in Prague. Our flight had a mix of everything, German, English, Russian and Czech. The man sitting next to me was Russian and had attempted to be social and make small talk but my incredibly confused look told him everything he needed to know! The flight was only an 1 hour or 45 mins (I can’t remember) but I slept most of the way. Awakened by my stomach telling me to grab my paper bag in the seat, I felt sick. But I didn’t know why….and no it’s not because of the night before, believe me…that was all cleared out. I felt funny after I had the sandwich given as our airplane snack, but thought it was nothing until now. I’ve never had problems with my stomach on a plane and never once thought about grabbing the ‘bag’. Once the plane landed, I needed to make a run to the bathroom but no one spoke English and they were all older people, so they were going extremely slow. In order to get out quickest to get to the bathroom, I made motions to people in front of me like I was going to throw up…and wouldn’t you know it, they moved out of the way! I had to go through customs in order to get to the bathroom, and I don’t even remember it because I breezed through so quickly. Finally, I found a bathroom…but now my stomach wouldn’t do anything. I learned a trick to use in this case from a friend to take away the nausea: put cold compresses behind the ears and just below the nape of the neck on the chest. I’m not sure why, but it actually does help, and it seemed to calm my body down. When I came out, Rachel was waiting for me and we walked over to baggage claim. The two of us were laughing at an electric purple bag that a very masculine man grabbed, with his toy dog, while looking for our bags. Then my hot pink suitcase came barreling out, and me in my baby pink scarf, cute matching gloves, and a bow in my hair reached for it, but not before a group of older men laughed at me. Of course she would have that bag, funny. Rachel’s bag soon came out, less girly of course, and we then came out to meet Geoff; funny sight to see my huge step-uncle, as big and tall as he is, with an adorably anxious 4-month-old chocolate lab. His puppy’s name is Nixon and he’s the cutest puppy I’ve seen this side of the ocean, obviously since my two are the cutest my side of the ocean. He’s also teething, so caution with fingers and his baby teeth! Once we arrived at Geoff’s apartment, we went up the stairs, which Nixon gleefully led the way, and in the door. Side note, Geoff’s apartment is awesome, and huge! It’s probably the coolest apartment I’ve ever seen, and has enough room to host five people at once with two bathrooms. Our room had two beds in it with our own terrace, bed-side table, couch and access to the bathroom downstairs. There are two terraces total, once outside of our room, and once outside Geoff’s room/the upstairs living room, with roof access so you can see the total panoramic view of Prague. Like I said, it was awesome! Plus it was nice to stay in someone’s home instead of a hostel, so we kinda got to see more of the native living side of Prague. And it’s pretty cool. After getting settled, and silently doing the excited dance together (because of the cool apartment and that we were in Prague), we went to bed awaiting to see the city the next day.