I'm here!

So after a very blurry day of travelling, I'm finally here. Still very jet lagged and kind of disoriented, but I'm here. It hasn't really registered with me that I'm in Europe yet, even though all of the signs are in Czech and everyone outside of the dorm isn't speaking English. I guess it takes a while - maybe once all the jet lag wears off.

I got to JFK around 2ish yesterday afternoon, met up with Emily, went through security, and spent the next two hours waiting at the gate so we could board. Normally, I'd be calling everyone in my phone book, but I left my American cell phone back in New York, so I wouldn't call me on that until I get home in May. I won't be getting back to you anytime soon if you do. Verizon doesn't get service in the Czech Republic, so I'll be getting a cell phone here.

Since that wasn't an option, we mostly just hung out, got the requisite slightly trashy magazines, and I discovered just how bad I really am at sudoku. Really - the puzzles were easy and I kept having to start over. Maybe by the end of this trip I'll actually figure out what I'm doing.

The flight from JFK to Paris wasn't bad, it was just really long. The six or so hours dragged on for quite a while, especially since I couldn't sleep. My body was still on New York time, which meant that it was really confused when I was trying to fall asleep around 8:30, because I was trying to get on a European schedule, which meant that it was 1 a.m. or so. I spent most of the flight reading, watching bits and pieces of Little Miss Sunshine, and playing the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire game that came on the TV. I kept losing, because it was the UK version of the game and I only know so much British trivia, but eventually I won the million.

Transferring through Charles de Gaulle airport was kind of tricky. It wasn't that everything was that hard to find, it was just that we had to take two separate trams to get where we needed to go - on the exact opposite side of the airport from where we had landed. No one had any real idea of where we were going, so you had a bunch of really tired NYU kids wandering around the airport at 5 a.m. It was fun. We had to go through security again to get on our flight to Prague, but once we got on the plane, I slept for most of the flight, seeing as I still thought it was around midnight.

Customs went fairly quickly - all they did was check our visas. I now officially have a stamp in my passport, which is very exciting to me, even though it seems a lot of people in the program have been to Europe before. It took us a while to get out of the airport though, because some people lost their luggage, and they had to figure out where it was and when it could be delivered to the dorm before we could get out of there. The bus ride to the dorm is kind of blurry, mostly because the jet lag was starting to kick in.

We got to the dorm and found our room, which is all the way at the top. When they told us it would be on the fourth floor, I thought they meant it would be up four flights of stairs, but each floor has two separate landings, so if the elevator is always this slow, it looks like I'll be getting quite the workout this semester. We apparently have the smallest double in the building, but we get charged less for it, so it's okay, and the stairs up to the study lounge (which has the only accessible balcony I've ever seen in an NYU building) are right outside our door, which will be nice and convenient when I need to print something.

The dorm as a whole is nice - really clean, pretty spacious - and from what I've seen of the neighborhood, it's nice too. I napped for a few hours, even though I know that's not what you're supposed to do when you have jet lag, and then we went on a walking tour, which basically showed us where the subway is, as well as a pharmacy, grocery store, and some of the local bars. After that, Emily and I went back and checked out the grocery stores with a few guys from our dorm. I bought some gum, for under a dollar. Czech crowns still feel like monopoly money to me.

Spent the next part of the afternoon getting to know some people on the program - everyone seems nice so far, and there were a few people I knew from beforehand, which is always good. I'm still a little disoriented and confused, mostly because I didn't really sleep last night, so as far as I'm concerned, I'm still on the same day as yesterday. Everything is just running into one.

Orientation is jam packed with tours and Czech history, and of course, learning Czech. So far, the only thing I've learned is that none of the letters actually sound like what they look like, or how they're pronounced in English ("ck" makes the "tz" sound, to give you an example.)

This could make things interesting.

I got my visa today!

So, after the Czech consulate held my and Emily's passports hostage for almost two months (it was about two days short of their sixty-day timeframe) we finally got the calls yesterday that told us that our visas were actually ready. The first time they called, I thought it was a telemarketer and kind of hung up on them, but they called me back, so this morning I headed into the city and picked up both of our visas. I was a little nervous, because they had told me to bring my health insurance forms again, but apparently everything had worked out, and now I have a visa and can officially go and hang out in Prague for four months without having to abuse the loophole in the law that says you can stay in the country for more than a month (the amount of time you're allowed to be there without a visa) as long as you leave the country at one point each month and come back. I don't want to have to explain anything like that to customs officials on my way in. But I have my visa, and I'm almost set to go (I just need to get my new plane ticket,) so I'm very excited.

Also, any travel suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

home

It's almost two a.m., and I'm not tired yet. I keep thinking that maybe I should do something productive if I'm still awake, like start to unpack or something, but so far all I've done is unpack my computer, some pajamas, and my toothbrush, and besides, if I do anything else, I'll wake everyone up.

It's a little scary how fast this semester went. I keep thinking that it should be October, or November, at the very latest. I can't believe I was interning at Marie Claire for four months - everything flew by. I shouldn't have moved out of my dorm in December. I should have been struggling with my suitcase on the LIRR. To those of you who kept telling me that the past four months crawled by - I just don't see how.

It's a little scary to be home, a little scary to think that, while I'll probably wind up in the city at one point or another, I won't be back at NYU for eight months or so. And while I'm really excited, it's even more scary that I'm going to Prague for almost four months.

I have my plane tickets, my course schedule, and I've sent in every single form that I've needed to, so far. As soon as the Czech consulate stops holding my passport hostage and gives me my visa, I'll be good to go. Bureaucracy is great, isn't it?

But before that, before I get on a plane on January 12th and finally get to see why everyone I know thinks Europe is so fantastic, I need to readjust to being home, because it's certainly different then being in the dorms, (or the "residence halls," as ResEd apparently prefers,) even if I haven't had a curfew since I left for college. And I need to unpack, because we've concluded that I have way too much stuff, even if most of it was from the kitchen.

Even so, getting everything into two suitcases (that weigh less than 50 pounds each) might be a little more of a challenge than I initially thought.

We'll see how that goes.