Day 2 or When the Jet Lag Kicks In

I woke bright and early this morning, ready to meet new people and see new places - including my flat (apartment). My buddy and I hopped on the tram and headed to the administration building for my faculty with the intention of getting some paperwork done. When we arrived, however, the halls were full of undergraduate exchange students (part of the Erasmus program across Europe). It was clear that my questions could wait until my smaller graduate orientation on Friday. My buddy likewise tried to get her work done but the admin person basically told her, "I don't care. Come back a different day." So she and I both ended up getting nothing done. Still, I did run into two Canadian girls in my same program, which means there are at least three people in my major - and that's a good sign that there could be more! They were both very friendly and I'm glad to have met them by chance.

After getting nothing done at the admin building I headed down the river to my flat to meet my roommates and to see where I'll be living for the next four months. First impression of my roommate: she seems outgoing, athletic, and adventurous. We hit it off right away, as we did via email, so I felt a wave of relief. The flat itself is located in a nice neighborhood, very close to the river and close to several parks, including the city's botanical gardens - which is funny to me since my brother lives across from botanical gardens in Philly. The kitchen is spacious, the bathroom has a tub and is pretty spacious, too, and the rooms have big windows with sheer curtains that let lots of light in, so those were all great perks I noticed immediately. On the other hand, I'm out of practice living with other people, aside from family (and even that was hard to adjust to this summer), so living with five strangers who are all Czech will be an adventure and probably a challenge. I think I'm up for the challenge...?

After seeing the flat, my roommate and I headed out for lunch. We walked a bit until we found a Chinese restaurant and had a nice meal - with tofu (which, coincidentally, I saw for very cheap at the supermarket yesterday, which was a huge relief). Then I headed off to meet my buddy to go back to her flat, but got a bit lost-ish in the process. By lost-ish I mean I knew where I was supposed to go, and had an idea of where I was, but had no sense of how far I should walk and if the streets were going to get me there. Happily this meant that I accidentally took a detour through Old Town and ended up on the main tourist street, Karlova, which turns into the Charles Bridge to go to the castle. It was so fun to be swept up in the mass of people walking by, to pass the tables of patios filled with people eating, drinking and people watching, and to see the amazingly beautiful buildings along the way. Luckily, with some help from my discreet mini map and from my buddy's texts I managed to turn around and head to Namesti Republiky to meet her, and get away from the throngs of tour groups and their flag-waving guides and back into lovely narrow cobblestone lanes.

All of the walking and wandering and being lost-ish made the jet lag kick in, so I settled in for what I meant to be a short pick-me-up but turned into a two hour long sleep. I woke to a text from my college friend, S, and realized I was supposed to be meeting her and another friend, M, right then. I scrambled to meet M since she lived in the area, and planned to meet up with S in the city center, but my phone died and in the end I didn't get to connect with S. Still, I had a really nice time with M. We headed across the Charles Bridge and down into Campa, which is a cute neighborhood just south of the castle along the river. We found a bar and each had a glass of Kozel, a black beer (only one glass, dad ; )), and had a great chat, catching up on life and talking about travel and living in new places.

Whew, I didn't plan to write this much, especially when I wrote a lot yesterday. Right now everything still feels so unreal that it helps me to write it down just to keep everything straight as I'm adjusting! As I walk around I feel like I'm constantly mentally pinching myself. I feel as if I might wake up tomorrow in Madison and have dreamt this.