As my semester in Prague is quickly coming to an end, I’ve
had the chance to reflect on my experience and how much things have changed in
the last four months. I’ve honestly had the time of my life. 2015 has already
been the best year of my life and motivated me to continue to accomplish my
goals and make my life exactly the way I want it to be. This semester has shown
me that anything is possible if you work hard enough and have the courage to
chase your dreams. Also, when people ask me now what I want I want to do with
my life, I know the answer. If I could be anyone, do anything, or have any
dream job, I would definitely say I want to be a study abroad student for the
rest of my life. Unfortunately I don’t think that’s possible, but I can dream. Studying
abroad has been such an incredible experience with lots of great moments. Sometimes
things can get hectic or difficult but in the end every second is completely worth
it and totally amazing. I’ve compiled a short list of these said ‘difficult yet
amazing’ things to try to hang onto the last few moments of my study-abroad
experience.
1.
Having so many random kinds of money floating
around. It's in your wallet, backpack, coat pockets, etc. and you consequently know the
exchange rate of at least 7 currencies off the top of your head. Then when you
get home from a trip and still have some zlotys or kunas left but you don’t
feel like exchanging them because you just know
you’re barley going to get half of what it’s actually worth. On the bright
side, it’s a good way to unintentionally start a foreign currency collection.
2.
Randomly speaking in your home country’s
language when you’re definitely not in that country. Especially Czech. Because
no one in Europe is going to have any idea what you just said. I’ve
accidentally walked into somewhere and said “Dobry Den!” *strange look* “Helllloooo..(in
your awkward voice because now they know you’re an idiot/American/tourist)”.
3.
Seeing a dog that you really really really want
to pet but knowing that’s not a thing in this country. Seriously this is the
most pet-deprived I’ve been in my entire life. I just want to pet and snuggle
with a cute, fluffy, puppy. Unfortunately people here think that’s weird and are
very selfish with their dogs… every now and then though a random dog runs up to
you and you get that solid three seconds of happiness to pet them before their
owner gets them away from you.
4.
Trying to decide which picture to
instagram/facebook/whatever, especially now that your social media pics have
gotten about a thousand times cooler. Since you’re currently gallivanting
across the continent and visiting some of the most picturesque places in the
world, you’re bound to have hundreds- maybe thousands- of photos filling your
phone. Now you have to decide what picture exactly you want to post. When I
first got to Prague, I had about 300 pictures on my relatively new phone. Now I
have 6,123. Looking back, I’m really glad now I decided to go with the 64gb
phone. Seriously on spring break alone I took over 1,300 pictures and only
managed to narrow it down to 85 for my blog and only posted 4 on instagram. The
struggle is so real.
5.
Becoming even more of a child hater. Okay this
one is probably just me. But who brings their screaming two year old to the
Vatican?! It seems like any train, plane, or bus ride I’ve been on I’ve been
stuck right next to the crying child/ren. I’d really just like to sleep in
peace and get through the torture that is traveling in quiet. *Note to my
future self: Vacations are more fun without the toddlers. Hire a babysitter.
Also, bring more earplugs.
6.
Trying to decide between eating a good meal or
spending more on drinks that night at the bar/club. Most study abroad students
don’t have an unlimited cash flow so it’s a constant game of budgeting, being
cheap, and deciding what you’d rather spend more money on. It’s also
ridiculously hard to stretch your money for an entire semester. In the
beginning you’re constantly scrounging because you’re afraid you’re going to
run out of money. At the end you suddenly don’t care anymore- because YOPO (you
only Prague once)- so you suddenly start blowing money and doing whatever you
want. Then you’re broke but we won’t talk about that struggle. You know it’s
rough when the last week people are trying to figure out how they can eat on
the equivalent of $12 for the next few days.
7.
When someone mistakes you for a local and tries
to speak to you in their language but you’re too embarrassed to admit you only
speak English so you just smile and nod and try not to make any more eye
contact. Or when you try to speak to someone in a foreign language and then
they say something else that you have no idea about and have to just revert to
English and say “what…” Awkward. But at least you tried.
8.
Actually having to do homework or study.
Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the whole “travel, party,
my-life-is-awesome, I’m-a-rockstar-and-don’t-have-a-care-in-the-world” thing.
Then you get back from a ten day trip and have a presentation the next morning,
a six-page paper, and an exam all due in the next 24-hours, none of which you
are prepared for. That’s when you just crawl into bed- because hey you just got
back from ten days of traveling- and pretend to die instead of actually doing
work. The “study” part of studying abroad is surprisingly stressful to manage
and rather annoying.
9.
Constantly dealing with public transportation
and navigating in random cities. Don’t even get me started with night trams. Or
the fact that the metro shuts down at midnight?! (Or eleven in Rome) Why do
they hate us?! Then there are holidays and construction and suddenly you have
no idea how to get from point A to point B because you don’t have a phone and
the map you downloaded on your phone is highly inaccurate. Or you’re in Venice
trying to navigate ridiculous streets and find bridges over canals, or maybe
you’re riding a bike through Amsterdam and looking at your phone or a map will
likely get you run over by a car or an angry cyclist. Either way it’s a
struggle and you’re navigating skills will most definitely be put to the test
very often. Because of this though your navigation skills are most likely on
point and unstoppable by the end of the semester.
10.
Sitting down at a restaurant. Eating is just a
struggle in itself half the time because you can’t even read the menus and
therefore have no idea what you’re ordering, including and especially beer and
wine because nothing is familiar. You also don’t know how that restaurant
workds. Do you seat yourself? Pay at the front? Do they even take cards? Most
of the time you just end up pointing at something and take what you get.
Fortunately though, if you have an open mind you’ll get lucky and come across
some crazy delicious foods.
11.
Also craving buffalo wings, enchiladas,
barbecue, etc. You try hard to find something similar and you smile inside and
try to tell yourself that it’s just as good as back home. But it’s not. So you
deal with it and the craving hopefully goes away. But sometimes you’re left
craving random things for weeks and it’s just a continuous sadness deep inside
your soul that you try to ignore.
12.
Basically just never having any idea what you’re
doing. It’s a constant in life to be utterly confused about where you are/how
to do something/what something is/why everyone is doing something extremely
strange/what is going on. Your life becomes one big event that you’re
constantly winging and just going with the flow. Literally it becomes such a
normal feeling that you don’t even question it anymore. You just embrace the
cluelessness and suddenly life becomes one permanent adventure. It’s amazing.
13.
And then there is the biggest struggle of all.
All of the sudden reality sets in and you realize you’re leaving in a matter of
days. You now have to pack up your entire life into a suitcase and pray to
god/cross your fingers/do a magical rain dance or whatever it is you do that
you can actually fit all of your stuff into your bag and that it’s not
overweight, which let’s be honest it will be so you’ll have to pay an ungodly
amount of money at the airport. You also have to say goodbye to the amazing
friends you’ve made and people you’ve met during the semester. That’s pretty
much heartbreaking. And wait what’s their actual phone numbers? Also, you have
to say goodbye and leave the remarkable city you’ve come to know and love.
Heart officially broken and shattered into a thousand pieces.
this was hilarious
ReplyDelete