JELANI VS PRAGUE

Hi everyone!

It’s been about 4 years since I’ve written anything for this blog and that’s because I haven’t been in Prague- but guess what? I’m moving back! 

I couldn’t decide if I wanted to revamp this blog and bring it back to life, but I think it’s the right thing to do. One day I want to export this entire thing and put it on a real website, but for now, Tumblr is going to.  I don’t feel like I was able to keep up with it on a daily basis a few years ago, but a lot has changed since then. I want this to be a resource for people and something I can look back on in the future. This is a big step in my life and I want to document it- maybe not all of it, but at least some of it. 

If you know me, you know one of the things I talk about is how some people are “real adults” and I feel like I’m finally turning into one. I’ll be teaching English for 10 months in Central Bohemia in a little town refer to as SČ. When I get there, I’ll mostly be teaching older children in grades 6-9. I’m not gonna lie- I’m a little scared. Not scared, but nervous. I’ve been in classrooms with kids up to 5 years old, 5th graders, and adults- but middle school? That’s a completely different realm for me. 

I was lucky enough to have an internship at Radio Prague, the international broadcasting station of the Czech Republic. I worked in the English department and every couple of weeks, I was able to write about an experience I had and professionally record my story in a sound booth with audio technicians. I was terrified because I have a fear of public speaking, but I would 10/10 do it again if I had the opportunity.

Today was graduation and that was... long, to say the least. It started at like 9:30am and I went to bed pretty late and I feel like graduation should have been yesterday, lol. Anywhooo, today was a good one! Graduation was in three parts and I got my Charles University diploma as well as two letters that spoke about what I did (at the radio station and as a blogger) and a free t-shirt (because everyone loves free stuff) and then after we had a great lunch at this fancy-ish place. It was nice to just chill and get free food on the last day.

Thursday was crazy. A lot of things happened and I’m a little hungover as I write this.

For dinner, we ate at a place called The Kitchen in a touristy area of Prague and it was DELICIOUS. It’s Asian style food and I had my first, legit ramen bowl. I loved it and I can’t wait have another one. I feel like my next ramen bowl won't even be able to compare, haha.

Today felt super long. I had my last Journalism in the FB Era class with Milos and my last film class. Milos' class wasn't too bad, we just discussed different ideas for our finals and I sent him my link from my last Letter From Prague and he played the whole thing in front of the class and I was soo embarrassed! It wasn't because I thought it was bad, but it was more because it was strange for me to watch my classmates listen to my voice and then it made me feel awkward, haha.   

Today I had to buy invested in some chewable Vitamin C tablets since I still feel like I'm getting sick and I have to be on my A-game at the airport, especially Heathrow because it's a huge place and I don't want to haul ass and run through it while I'm half sick. I looked it up and it says that it's supposed to take me like 90 minutes to get from the terminal my Prague flight drops me off in to the next one where my flight to NY leaves from... which is nerve-wracking to say the least.

This is the last week of actual things to do and it's only Monday but I hate it, haha. I have so much homework to do, but I also want to go out and party and get a beer or two since it's my last days of being legal here! In my ICL class, we talked about re-entry into society when we get back to America and some of the questions that were posed to us really made me think. Here's a few of them:

In what ways might your friends and family have changed?

How would you like your friends and family to treat you when you return home?

In what ways have you changed?

What are you looking forward to the most? The least?

It'll be interesting to see how my answers on paper play out in real life when I get home or even they even play out because they might be so different!

I feel like I have a lot going on today. I have essays and homework and the constant urge to stop doing everything and just watch Grey's Anatomy. I think I need to manage my time better and it's finally hitting me that I'll be home sooner than a month from now. Today, I did one of my last loads of laundry as well as finally cleaned up my room. I've made a huge dent in blogging because I had so many unfinished drafts and I'm proud of that. Erm, what else? I have a lot to do and literally no motivation for anything, but, that's because I'm getting lazy since I see everyone from Susky is on Winter Break and it makes me want to do less work and talk to them because they have time for me now. I keep trying to to work and end up getting distracted once again. It doesn't help that I have a lot to do, it's just taking a lot for me to focus. BUT, I'm doing something right because I had a 15 page research paper and my academic advisor suggested I get a high grade so that's always a good thing.

This is going to be a little series where I'm basically gonna write a little bit each day until I go home on December 20th! 

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So, even though it's Saturday, I'm gonna start writing this post about Friday evening since that was when I actually feel like I accomplished things. Since it's the last legit week in Prague, Alex thought it would be cool if we went to eat at places we've never been to before and I completely agreed with that. We went to a place near Old Town Square and I got fried calamari with french fries and then shared a honey cake with Mara. After dinner, Mara and I went to Beer Geek which is near our house and has 30 beers on tap. She really wanted to show me the place and I liked it. It was super chill and we just sat, talked, and (obviously) drank a little beer. I got a dark beer in a (kinda) wine glass and that was fancy. One of the owners was American so it was nice to talk to him a little bit and see how he ended up in Prague.

Later on, we (as in me, Mara, and Brittany) got ready for the night. We pre-gamed a bit with Darbus and headed off to to Lucerna, which is a dancing club for those of you who don't know. It was the typical, Lucerna Friday which means that you can get in for 100 CK ($4.50) they play like 80's and 90's music all night and I had such a great time. In Prague, I don't really go out because I would much rather just relax and feel well rested/ adjusted so I went allll out on Friday, haha.

There were a lot of people from our program there and obviously the other CIEE kids from the larger program, but it was definitely majority Americans. Well, maybe it was just majority American from where I was standing, haha. Everyone always loves to be on stage and there were a few American girls who fell off. Not gonna lie, I did laugh a little bit but I'm glad I was content being NEAR the stage and not on it.  I got home at like 4:30am which was absolutely crazy since it's finals week but it was fun. 

Intercultural Trip #2

I loved my second host family! I don’t know why more people don’t take advantage of the Cultural Immersion Program that happens over a weekend in a small village in the Czech Republic. You get to feel like you’re in a real home and you get to be treated like a guest, which is something everyone likes at some point (especially after living on your own after 4 months) plus you don’t have to pay for ANYTHING! My host family consisted of a mom, dad, Kristyna, Petra & Petra’s dog. I only lived with the first three people though, haha. The dad is a contractor and built the most beautiful houses as well as a pub in their town. The mom managed the restaurant and bar, she was also a hostess. Both children help by working in the pub (which is walking distance from the house) a few days a week. It was a great weekend, I spent a lot of it with the two sisters as opposed to spending time with others who went on the trip with me, like I did last time. I really liked it though because I was able to just have some more “me” time. It was a little bit harder to communicate this time than last time just because this family doesn’t speak as much English, but we did fine. There was a lot of slow speaking, “I don’t understands”, as well as smiling, head nods, and “yo yo’s” which means “yes, yes” in Czech.

Trams are life for me and when they stopped working one Tuesday, I felt a little piece of me die inside... well, not exactly. As you can see from this photo, all of the trams were backed up. They completely stopped working. They were a NO go because of ice on the tracks. Now, I take the tram almost everyday to get to whatever destination I need to by at because the tram stop is up the block from my house. The trams stopped working for an entire day and I felt like my whole schedule was thrown off. Now, I don't mind taking the metro, but it reminds me too much of New York with all of the people crowded on the subway. I like the trams, some people beg to differ, but they're cool to me... and convenient. Like they always say, you don't realize what you have until it's gone and for me, that was the trams.

Christmas Markets, Christmas Markets, and more Christmas Markets. I went to Vienna, Austria for a weekend with CIEE and it was really nice. I didn’t really know who was going on the trip beforehand because there’s only 16 people in my program and the night before I learned that 2 of them were going but I didn’t really end up spending time with them. We took a 4 hour bus trip there (with a 30 minute break in between) and it wasn't too bad.

As for the sights, we did a ton of walking. The first day we were there, we went on a walking tour. It was nice to see things, but it was freezing! I looked up the temps before I went and I wore layers, but I was still sooo cold. I ended up having to pay an obnoxious amount of money (in Euros) for a hat because it was that bad-- Mother Nature wouldn’t let Vienna’s temps hit at least 40, so it stayed between about 33-38 degrees alll weekend. The upside of it being that cold was an excuse for hot wine, which is actually the most amazing thing ever. I also had a really great kebab and chocolate cake to diiiiie for, omg.

For legit places, I saw Belvedere Palace, St. Stephen’s Cathedral, Schönbrunn Palace and went to Sigmund Freud’s house! I learned about Gustav Klimt’s work and I think he’s now one of my favorite artists, tbh. This was my last out of the country trip and I ended up being really happy with how it went. I definitely liked visiting Vienna, but I still love Prague.

A few weeks ago, I took a trip to Geneve, Switzerland for a weekend. Before you get to thinking about it, no, I did not go skiing or snowboarding. I was in a city and the weather was pretty chilly! I was pretty surprised at that because I checked and it was supposed to be about 20 degrees warmer than it actually was, but whatever! I layered up with what I had and dealt, haha.

It was a relaxing weekend away from the flat and although it wasn't a jam-packed weekend of exploring, I got the rest I needed. I had cheese fondue for the first time and I REALLY liked it. It was the first night at it was at a local place where you had to walk over a pretty long and narrow bridge to get to it. They didn’t have a lot of options, but when looking at the menu, you could tell that fondue was a big deal there. When we got our pot of fondue and bread, we definitely had enough of that to last us for days. I absolutely loved it, for the most part.