I finally figured out my future!

I know what I want to do with my life.

Okay, not really, but I know what I want to do in the near future, and it's THIS.

Well, it's kind of that...I want to spend a substantial amount of time traveling throughout the United States, writing, taking pictures, and meeting my fellow Americans.

Traveling through Europe has been incredible, and I am so so excited to continue my journeys, but I stumbled upon the above video, and it has me watering at the mouth to plan the next step in my life. At first I thought, "Someday. Someday I'll do this," but then I remembered one of my favorite quotes, which I happened to see graffitied on a wall in Vienna. That quote reminds me that, "The perfect moment to start is always now."

So, why not? What's stopping me? I have a car, making traveling around much much less expensive than flying throughout Europe, I graduate from college (yikes!) in almost exactly a year and one month, I am young, have no real responsibilities yet (i.e. children, etc. - thank God), and I only have this one lifetime to pack in as much adventure, experience, and learning as I possibly can. So, again, I ask, WHY THE HELL NOT?!

Reasons why I should not spend a year traveling & seeing my amazing country:

1. It's not the normal thing to do. Well, I'm not normal, so whatever.

Reasons why I should spend a year traveling & seeing my amazing country:

1. My country is absolutely incredible. Is there a more diverse country in the entire world? I'm talking people, land, culture - this is my own backyard (a 3.97 million square mile backyard), and it's just full of interesting things to see and do and experience. Just thinking about all of the people I could meet, how many stories I could hear, is making me want to start planning RIGHT MEOW!

2. I have a car with less than 65,000 miles on it, and I am sure my Baby Car would love to see and experience the wonderful country that produced it. Yup, it's a Ford ; )

3. As previously mentioned, my country is incredibly diverse, and I want to meet the people who I share a nationality with. Everyone has a story, everyone is the way they are because of their personality and circumstances, and I want to hear those stories.

4. I could possibly make money doing this. Maybe. I'll figure it out. Maybe.

5. There are a million and one more reasons, but I'm in Barcelona, so their documentation will have to wait!!!


I just got so excited about this, and I had to post about it, but later when I have more time, I will share more of my thoughts and feelings on this topic. For now, I must explore this city that I am totally infatuated with, Barcelona, Spain!

Happy Easter!

Good morning! Happy Easter Monday to you!

http://www.kaltoons.com/wordpress/2009/04/easter-cartoon/

First of all, I want to let you know that I have completely updated my Pictures page! All of my photos have been edited and compiled into albums based on location and/or experience. Each album contains tons of pictures, so make sure to scroll through them all! Enjoy!

Today will be a day of catch-up for me: on schoolwork (I have my paired internship class!), on my blog, on laundry, on cleaning - it is spring after all, right? You could fool me by the snow falling here in Prague, but I don't mind too much (yet).

I have spent the past two weeks here in Prague, and I have been up and down. My mom suggested that I've simply become an adrenaline junkie from traveling so much, and just don't know what to do with myself on a normal day now. I think there might be some truth to that! The good news, then, is that my travels will be starting up again this weekend with a trip to Barcelona, Spain! I am very excited, and I absolutely cannot wait for the warm weather and the Spanish beaches on the Mediterranean! If the temperature is above 65°F, you will see this girl in the water! My blood has to have thickened up from the past two months in the freezing cold weather, so I can take a bit of cool water!

On that note, happy two-month anniversary to me & Prague! Okay, so technically that was Saturday. I can't believe it has been two months, already! That is 40% of my trip, gone - a truly frightening statistic! Looking back over the past two months, I am both very proud, yet disappointed in myself. I have done a lot! I've made a great friend in my "buddy" from my program, Tereza; I have trekked across Bratislava, Slovakia by myself in the snow; I have reconnected with acquaintances from home and developed wonderful friendships; I have traveled alone and taken chances on other people; I have visited Berlin, Germany and vowed to live there at some point in my life; I have gained incredible experience through working my internship; I have visited Vienna, Austria and been inspired to enjoy the beautiful cultures that differ from my own; I have gained so much self-confidence and independence; I have visited Rome, Italy, seen the ages-old history that it offers, and can better understand one of the most accomplished periods in human history; I have developed and matured my personal views on so many topics; I have ventured out by myself, taken chances, and reaped the benefits; I have learned, I have grown. The list could go on for pages.

I am very proud of these things, and I know how lucky I am to have this opportunity to mature and grow through an experience this incredbile.

But, I want more from myself.

I want to spend each and every day learning something amazing. Don't get me wrong, I learn something every single day here, but I want more. I don't want to waste even a second of this period of my life (or of any part of my life at all, for that matter), and I need to get better at pushing myself to do just that. The first step, of course, is being aware of the problem, which I most certainly am, so it only goes up from here! I am working on this, and I have taken baby-steps in the right direction. I always expect more out of myself, though, no matter what, and I need to remember that patience (and particularly patience with myself) is a skill that needs exercising for development, too.

I cannot thank my friends & family enough for all of the support you have shown me! This has been and will continue to be the time of my life, and I can already feel that I will pine for and fondly remember this experience throughout the rest of my life. I could not have asked for more love or support from you guys, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart!! I love you!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Easter in the Czech Republic is celebrated with a few traditions that are quite different from those celebrated in the United States! Stay tuned!

http://www.candyboximages.com

http://globalvoicesonline.org

http://www.weirdomatic.com

A Good Day in Tempeland

Well, hello there! Today was a wonderful day, no? I hope your day was just as fulfilling, exciting, and exhausting (in a good way) as mine. Why am I raving about my day, you ask? I shall tell you!

Maybe falling asleep before 10pm last night has something to do with my good mood, but the day's events are what have me so giddy! My day started with some wonderful news - due to a pending donation from my most amazing, wonderful, generous, loving, selfless, youthful, and beautiful (how many adjectives is one sentence allowed to have?) Grammie Happy Heart, I have been able to plan several more exciting adventures during my remaining time abroad. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I am so incredibly grateful, thankful, and lucky that my grandmother is willing and able to progress my experiences and growth at this time in my life. Thank you, Gram, with all of my heart! I love you dearly, and I am so thankful to you and God for providing me with this extra money!

Do you want to know where I'm going? The first trip I have planned is to visit Robin in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and I am going during TulpenfestivalI!! I absolutely cannot wait to see the tulips!! I am very excited to get to see Robin again, too, and I know we are going to have a great time together! I am hoping that we will take a day trip to Amsterdam! I can't wait!

This picture belongs to: http://www.flickriver.com/places/Netherlands/Flevoland/Creil/

My other planned trip is to London with two friends from my college. WE ARE GOING ON A HARRY POTTER TOUR!! I have been wanting to go to London for, well, forever, and I cannot wait for this trip! It will be short, but I am going to try to get as much London in as possible. I also might go with one of those friends to Madrid for a couple of days after London, too! I hope it works out!

This picture belongs to: http://www.thefulton.org/support/london-tour/

Lastly, I am considering going to Barcelona next weekend. I am still undecided, as this trip will be quite expensive, but I am sure it would be amazing and beautiful! I will keep you all updated!

The other happening that has me so happy today was actually my internship. I got to meet Ian, my boss's boss, and he was incredibly nice, encouraging, and inclusive. He was meeting with my boss, and I was in our office working, and throughout their meeting he included me with questions, suggestions, and by explaining things to me, even though I wasn't technically supposed to be at the meeting, and I am actually still working with Digital and not Marketing. The people I work with on a regular basis are so kind and helpful, but when they brainstorm, they usually do so in Czech. Because Ian is an English speaker, their meeting was in English, and it was just a great experience for me to be able to follow along and be included.

Also at my internship, I got to write the "Editor's Note" for the company's magazine! I know, I am obviously not the editor, but it was last minute, with the deadline approaching, and they needed someone to write it, and asked me to give it a shot. Now, honestly, I have never read our magazine completely, let alone the editor's note, and I had very little information to work off, but this task was fun! I got to write in a voice other than my own, and even though after the suggestions and edits of the other people working on the magazine, my piece might not be recognizable (and it definitely doesn't have my name on it), it is really cool to be able to say that I wrote that!

The icing on the cake was a two-and-a-half-hour Skype call with my mom. I still can't believe we were on for that long, but after not talking for two weeks, we had a lot of catching up to do! I have been a little down lately - I know, I know, I'm in Prague! What is there to be down about? But still, between my amazing adventures and good days at work, I do actually have time to get lonely, bored, and maybe a little sad. Getting to catch up with my momma was an awesome stress reliever, and we had some truly insightful conversation. I love you, Mum!

So, as I said, I really hope your day was as good as mine, whether it included something as wonderful as planning a trip, or as routine as going to work or chatting with your mom. I know that I am thankful for the big things and the small in my life, and every person who has decided to be a part of it!

Vienna

I have been told on a couple separate occasions that I am long-winded on my blog. More specifically, that I talk a lot. As a general rule in life, I listen more than I talk. Not only am I shy with new people and incredibly socially awkward when trying to make conversation, but it's ridiculously easy to see when someone's eyes start to glaze over during a conversation. Also, most people really enjoy talking, and I just generally prefer listening.

The biggest exception to this rule is when I write, and particularly with my blog. I put my Berlin, Berlin post into Microsoft Word and deleted the picture, and the post was 13 PAGES LONG! That really probably is the longest post I have written, but still, that is slightly ridiculous. However, after thinking about it, I am mostly writing this blog for me, and it is my blog, after all, so I will write lengthy posts if I want to! Ha!


Although this is kind of old news, I haven't had the chance to talk with my family, as they just finished moving to a new house, and haven't gotten a webcam & microphone set up to Skype yet, I am finally posting about my trip to Vienna! Enjoy (you don't have to read it if you don't appreciate how much I can talk)!!!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tereza and I had an amazing time in Vienna, Austria a couple weekends ago! Unlike Bratislava, where we both went in with a less-than-dapper attitude, neither of us had expectations for this trip, and I think that made a huge difference.

After our 5ish hour train ride, we walked around for FOREVER trying to find our hotel. Google Transit, you let me down. We were hungry, and tried to sit down at two places only to find out that they either didn't serve food or had no menu. What? Nobody spoke English, either.

Once we finally found ibis Vienna, we checked in and asked the front desk to suggest an English friendly restaurant nearby. He told us that if we didn't mind a ten minute walk, there was an area nearby with tons of options. His directions included walking through a flea market.

We dropped our stuff in our (really nice) rooms and headed out.

I am SO glad the guy at the hotel told us to go where he did! We walked through a flea market, which was really neat but very chaotic. The place was really crowded and completely full of random junk - piles of clothes on the ground, old knicknacks, used housewares - I'm pretty sure I saw some cell phones from the 80's.

As we continued through the market, the tents started getting nicer. We looked through a couple displays of bohemian-style clothing and accessories. I wanted everything. There was a great distressed leather backpack that I fell in love with, but not for 60 euros (or any number of euros close to that).

We continued on, and the market change to an outdoor food market. It was INCREDIBLE. The market went on for probably a mile with outdoor displays of everything - bread, meat, fruits, vegetables, dried fruits, spices, cheese, sweets, and more with kabob places, cafes, and other little restaurants scattered throughout. It is worth a trip to Vienna just to go to that market!!

We found a restaurant on the street that runs parallel to the market and hoped for the best! Inside, the place was really cute and looked a little fancy for two students, but we were ravenous. The waiter was a young guy that spoke English well, and right away he offered us that day's special apricot punch. Tereza and I couldn't resist, and I am so glad!! It was delicious, and so pretty!

The menu displayed pretty typical Viennese fare, and when Tereza and I finally decided, we settled on chicken schnitzel for her and a salmon steak for me. I have an obsession with salmon lately, if you haven't noticed!! The waiter took our order, and brought us our caffeine fix and a huge roll for each of us. Restaurants that give you food right away are my favorite - you can't be hangry if you have a basket of bread or tortilla chips on front of you!!

When our food was brought out, it wasn't what I ordered, but I thought Tereza got the right meal, so we just figured the waiter misunderstood our order and went with it. Only later did I find out that Tereza didn't get the right thing, either! So what did we get? I think Tereza ended up with some kind of chicken cordon bleu, a side salad, and a bowl of potato salad, and I got pork schnitzel with boiled potatoes and some kind of jam. It was AMAZING! Tereza really liked hers, too.

It was awkward, however, when the waiter came over distressed and asked why we didn't mention that we got the wrong food. We told him we didn't care, and that we weren't really sure what was going on. Oops. The poor guy probably ended up with chicken schnitzel and salmon that nobody ate! He did ask if we wanted our actual orders, but we declined. This place was pretty fancy (read: expensive), after all!

After our feast, the waiter asked if we wanted a traditional Viennese digestive - little drink to help with digestion. Since we had decided to splurge on this meal, we said sure. Okay, I said sure, and Tereza went along with it. Again, I am glad we got this, because it was really tasty and it is always fun to try traditional foods/drinks/customs.

 This meal ended up being ridiculously expensive (40 euro each!), but it was really good and a lot of fun!

After a night spend wandering from club to club, trying to (unsuccessfully) find an inexpensive cover, we returned back to our hotel, drank some wine, had a serious jam session with my iPad introducing each other to music, and hit the sack.

The next morning we each ate a HUGE breakfast at the hotel, and even made ourselves sandwiches and snitched snacks for the train ride home! Our day was full of sightseeing, including all of the buildings we saw the night before, plus Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral), the Manner shop for chocolate goodies, and the biggest thing we did, the Mozarthaus. The Mozarthaus was so incredibly interesting, and Tereza was super excited because she had just recently seen a movie about Mozart. I really knew very little about Mozart before this museum tour, but now I not only know what an incredible composer he was, but also how frivolous and fancy his life was! It was fun!

Here are tons of pictures of our Vienna trip!
(click to enlarge & scroll through!)


Photo Gallery by QuickGallery.com

Home & Here: things I miss & things I love

Things I miss about home:

 

1. Ranch Dressing - it's not like I eat ranch dressing particularly often when at home, but it's one of those staples you just always have around, because it's good on everything. I mean, who knows when you're going to get a craving for ranch on your sweet potato fries instead of Old Bay?? Just kidding, it would be ranch AND Old Bay. This might just be on the list because I am craving some ranch right now...

2. Taco Bell/ late-night food runs - okay, so I don't eat fast food ALL the time when I'm at home, but I eat it more than once or twice a week. Hey! It's convenient! There are definitely places around to fulfill late-night indulgences, but nothing very close to my apartment. I think I should actually be thankful for that fact...

3. Driving - I miss whipping Baby Car around and having the freedom of being able to drive myself where I please. Don't get me wrong, I really love public transportation (it's actually one of my favorite things about Europe), but some days I have to take the metro home with two incredibly large IKEA bags (seriously, have you seen the size of those things??) and other times I don't bother to check tram schedules, resulting in some very long and cold waiting times.

4. TV - Again, I don't watch TV too often back home, but I do really appreciate being able to put on Food Network for background noise or flipping on the TV for 20 minutes while I eat lunch. Any shows that I really want to watch, I just download, but when you just want to watch something while grabbing a quick lunch, and not sit through a 45 minute episode of Gossip Girl (and let's be honest, it's hard not to watch an entire episode), having a TV to flip on is convenient.

5. Being on a normal schedule - I am most productive when I am busy and on a schedule. This whole experience has been amazing, but I often find myself undisciplined and unproductive. Seriously, I just sat in my room and watched six episodes of Vampire Diaries. Okay, so I worked on a paper, too, but SIX EPISODES, GUYS! Even after seven weeks, I haven't quite found my everyday groove. It's definitely a work in progress!

6. Good roommates - it's not that I have bad roommates right now, but I don't even know them! I guess that makes them kind of bad... It's just weird! I know I have mentioned to many of my friends and family how strange my living situation is, but I don't think I have written about it here on my blog, so here goes: I live with three guys; one is American and has a girlfriend and a ton of friends in a different program, so he is never ever here. In all seriousness, he may not even live here anymore. I have no idea. One roommate is Italian, and he is actually really nice, but every time I see him, we pretty much just say hi. No conversation there. When I have tried to speak with him in the past, it's been fine, but he won't initiate conversation, and I am just awful at small talk, so that pretty much leaves us silently living within the same 50 square meters. The last roommate is an Indonesian guy who rarely leaves his room. We have never said more than "hi" to each other, other than when we first introduced ourselves or when he offered to take the trash bag that I was holding downstairs with him. Brownie points for taking the trash out?

I am now realizing that this makes me sound like I'm not even trying to get to know these guys, either, but that's just not the case! I leave my door open, I come out of my room, I always say "hi." These guys are just hermits or have literally no interest in getting to know me. At this point, interacting is really awkward, and I really miss the absolutely perfect living situation I left back home! I miss my apartment 105 girls!! On the bright side, none of the guys I live with now are disgustingly messy (although cleaning of communal areas doesn't really happen), or loud, or annoying, so I guess I should be thankful?

7. Cell with data - This hasn't been as hard of a transition as I thought it would be, but I definitely have to be more organized before leaving the house than I normally would be back home! I also can't help but think that I might be a little more adventurous if I carried the Internet around in my pocket in this city!

8. Printer in my room/apartment/within walking distance - This is one of the things I miss most! Having to ask someone at work or make my way to an internet cafe to print up boarding passes, information, or just something interesting that I want to print is inconvenient. It's such a small thing, but I miss it!

9. Chili powder - I just can't find it!!!

10. English - Obviously. It's very enlightening to connect with people in a different culture, but can't help but think that something is always lost in an exchange with a language barrier. A language barrier also makes it much more difficult to read people or even just understand everyday conversation. Was that a statement, or a question? Is that something I am supposed to do, or was it just an observation? It gets tricky! Also, I just feel like a complete ass around these people who can usually fluently speak at least two languages besides their native tongue, and often can understand enough of several other languages to get by. I think this is a major major issue in the American education system, but let's not get started.

11. My family - I really do miss my family, but of anyone, I have been able to keep in touch with my immediate family the most. I miss them and my extended family, and getting to talk on the phone or just call them up whenever, but it hasn't been as bad as I expected. Still, they get a spot on the list!

12. MY FRIENDS - This is #1 on my list of things I miss about home!! I really really miss my friends! We are all so busy that it's difficult to keep in touch, but mostly I miss being around them! It's true that you often don't realize what you have until you don't have it anymore, and I never before thought about how lucky I am to have friends around all the time! I miss seeing them and just hanging out, having classes with them, working out with them, seeing them around campus, going to the caf, attending sports games, going out. I just miss them so much!! And yes, I have made friends here, but not of the same closeness of the friends that I have at home. I miss the convenience of being able to run around the corner to see what everyone is up to, or going out on campus and literally knowing every single person at a party! Being reunited with my friends is going to be the most comforting reunion of all when I get back home!!

On that note, I also miss being around people that I completely trust. Like I said, I have a couple of those people here, but I'm also finding that my personal beliefs & actions don't always align with those of the other study abroad kids here. That's a pretty unfair statement. I can't say that as a blanket statement, but there have been more than a handful of times that I find myself out with people doing things that I don't and won't do. I don't judge them, but I don't always want to be around that, you know? I miss my friends who think and act like I do, or at least kind of like I do. I'm not really sure if this is making sense, but it goes back to the trust thing - I definitely have friends who do things that I wouldn't (and I am sure I do things that some of my friends wouldn't), but I know them well enough to know that the things they do don't make them sketchballs. When you just meet someone, and they seems sketchy, you never know if they really are a trustworthy person making bad decisions, or if they would screw you over in an instant. I miss really knowing the people I'm hanging out with!

Things I love about Prague/being abroad:

 

1. Public Transportation - it is incredibly convenient to be able to hop on a tram to get to work! It is particularly convenient to be able to take public transportation when going out, as nobody has to worry about being the designated driver! There is something special about living in a city with great public transportation - I think you need to experience that to really understand.

2. Being legal - It's really nice to be able to go out to a club or bar! It's also really really nice to have a beer with dinner! I am so bummed that I will be back home for six months before I am legally allowed to drink in the States. Some situations just seem inappropriate without a beer in hand!

3. My internship - I am learning so much and enjoying (mostly) every step of my internship! It's nice to kind of be out in the real world, and although I don't know where I want to work, I am looking forward to finding a fulfilling career in the (ever nearer) future!

4. Food - the food here is just so good! I know it's good at home to, but it's also much less expensive here, making a nice dinner out less of an indulgence and possible to do more frequently!

5. BEER - I don't know what the heck I'm going to do when I get back home! I don't think I will even be able to drink Bud Light, let alone Natty or Busch! My wallet is truly going to suffer for the benefit of my taste buds! I am not kidding, the beer here is just so dang good! When I went to Rome, we got cheap Italian beer, and bleh! I could barely drink it!! I am so used to the deliciousness of beer here, I don't know how I'll ever go back to the yellow-tinted water we call beer!

6. Traveling on weekends - traveling around Europe has been one of the most incredible parts of this experience! I have seen so many historical and famous places just traveling around on the weekends. This is a tradition that I definitely need to keep up back home! Who says a weekend trip a few hours away is out of the question??

7. Meeting new & totally different people - I have gotten to meet so many interesting people through this journey. There are so many nice people in the world! Yeah, a lot of sketchballs, too, but a lot of very nice, kind, and interesting people. I have particularly enjoyed meeting people who are very different from the people I know - it has been an eye-opening and enlightening experience!

8. Being able to walk places - While I do miss my car, it is also really nice to be able to walk out from my apartment and have 10 restaurants within a stone's throw, and an uncountable number withing walking distance. Include the grocery stores, banks, shops, and more, and you have everything you need within walking distance. I really appreciate city life!

9. Living in a real apartment- okay, so I lived in an apartment at school, but on-campus housing isn't exactly really living in an apartment. It is really nice to have (basically, because my roommates barely exist) my own place, my own space.

10. Really really good produce - The variety and quality of produce here is fantastic! It's also inexpensive, making eating these delicious fruits & veggies cheaper than at home!!

11. The culture - The Czech culture, the customs, the history, the food, the bars, the clubs, the shops, the people - I love it all! This really is a wonderful country and an amazing city, and I am so thankful that I ended up here! It has truly been and will continue to be the best experience of my life!! All I need to do is take advantage of it and really spend my time here to the absolute fullest - I just hope I do that!!

A quick update & a mishmash of thoughts

Ahoj!

As you can see, I've done a little updating to my blog layout. I was getting bored of the plain background, and although I liked the dynamic view of my posts, the template was buggy and did not like to have my pages show up in the toolbar. The previous layout also wasn't very friendly with my widgets, which I like to have visible (plus, my mum begged me to put a picture of myself back on the home page - she keeps telling me she misses my face - which I couldn't do on the old layout).

So, I looked through  my pictures, did some editing, and chose the one you are seeing now! This shot was taken from the lookout of the South Tower (287ish steps up!) of the Prague Castle, and I think it is an appropriate representation of the city! I just hope my mom doesn't complain about the colors again *hint* *hint* I think this layout is still pretty reader friendly, although I wish I could have the dynamic view with the addition of sidebars and without the bugs, but we can't have everything, now can we? Just make sure to check my "Blog Archive" on the left sidebar to make sure you are all caught up on my posts. Okay, are we good? Good. Let's get to the other updates!


I am working on the Vienna post (promise!) and I will start the Rome post soon after. In the meantime, I wanted to share a few things & thoughts! It has been tiring to travel for four weekends in a row, and although I am sure you are just super duper interested in what I have been up to while away from Prague, some of you might be curious what I am doing here, too! No? You're not? Well, I don't blame you, it hasn't been particularly exciting...but, I'll tell you anyway!

Here is a little taste of Vienna to break things up and get your mouth watering for that post!

SoOoOo...I have been spending full days at work lately, as we are working our butts off to get all of the necessary content uploaded for the website launch later this month. Wait...this month is almost over! Yikes! We are hoping to have all of the content that we have received from each region uploaded by the end of the day tomorrow. We can do it!

This content comes from all of the different regions, and most has not been translated from the regional language into English. Guess who gets to translate them: this girl! Yup. Now, you all know I am not fluent (or really even intermediate) in any secondary language, so how, you ask, am I translating articles from Polish, Portuguese, and Greek? Google Translate! No joke. I am using the tool to translate the articles, then rewriting and polishing them up. So, basically, the quality of the English articles might not be fantastic. Oh, don't worry, they read nicely, but who knows if their content is very accurate to the originals. Fortunately, the people I work with are very good at understanding languages they don't speak, and most of the time we can figure confusing phrases out, but honestly, it is impossible to tell if what Google Translate spits out is what the original article meant. This has been quite an experience! It's not so bad, except that my head wants to spontaneously combust after a while. Let's hope it doesn't!

http://buquad.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Cartoon-Translated-Literature-complete-e1267584365610.jpg

Also at work, our graphics guy, Adriano, has been moved into the office (as opposed to working from home), and he, Tereza, and I go out to lunch sometimes, which is very nice. There are a ton of great restaurants around our workplace, and here in Prague, restaurants often have wonderful lunchtime specials for each day of the week. These specials are usually pretty cheap (almost always under $10, and usually less) and include lots of delicious food! The food here is so dang good! My pants are starting to get a little tight! Actually, they're not, but I definitely have put a few pounds on! I need to get my butt to the gym!

Speaking of (and I'm really really sorry to my teammates and coach who are reading this), I haven't consistently worked out since I've been here, which will be seven weeks this Saturday. First of all, I'm wondering where the hell all of that time went! Second, I've noticed that being on a regular work schedule where I spend a full work day in the office (and usually a couple hours working at home), the days fly by! I really need to start exploring after work! Typically I wake up, get ready for work, go to work, go to the grocery store, go home, do nothing, do some work, take a nap, make dinner, do more of nothing, go to bed, and repeat. I have gotten really really bad about staying in all the time. It's so stupid! Here is my resolution to spend more time doing something around the city in place of doing nothing in my flat. Hold me to that, okay?? Also, hold me to getting on a regular workout schedule! It's just so dang hard to wake up at 6am when I could get up at 7:30 instead. Ahh, the struggle. Okay, had enough whining?


 In other news, I found an incredibly cheap roundtrip flight (less than $100!) to Rotterdam. If you remember, when Carly, Jacqueline, and Katie came to visit, we made some friends who live there! One of them, Robin, invited me to visit and offered to show me around the city. I really want to go, and I really really want to go during Tulpenfestival! Can you even imagine how beautiful it must be to see rows and rows and rows and rows of brightly colored tulips, just lined up across huge fields?! I think that would be an incredible experience!!

This picture of the Tulpenfestival comes from the blog "My Love Journey in Holland" and can be found at http://mylovejourneyinholland.blogspot.cz/2012/03/countus-tulpenfestival.html

This picture makes me want to book my flight right now, but I am not sure how I feel about this trip yet, so I will keep you updated on my plans. I think it will probably happen, but we shall see!

So, I have figured out that with a little editing, my washed out pictures turn out fabulous! Okay, they turn out better than without the editing! For example, a side-by-side comparison: the before and after of the picture I used for my new blog background!

Lookie there! My washed out-looking picture ends up much more vibrant and beautiful! I can't wait to go through all of my pictures and see how wonderful they look after editing. Well, I can kind of wait, because it will be a lot of work, but the outcome will definitely be worth it!!

Other exciting things going on in my life: tonight I finally get to hang out with Camille again after not seeing her for almost a month (how the heck did that happen??)! We are going to some Erasmus party with a bunch of people from her program - should be a good time! I am also super excited to actually be in Prague this weekend, because on Sunday I am going to try out a local English-speaking church that I have been wanting to check out since my first week here, and also on Sunday I WILL GET TO PLAY VOLLEYBALL YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY!! There are a couple groups around who get together on Sundays and play some pickup beach ball, and I have been wanting to go since I found out about them, but I have been away every single time they have played. I will FINALLY be in town this Sunday, and there is absolutely no way I am missing a chance to touch a ball after at least 2 and probably closer to 3 or more months of not playing. I am so excited!!!!!! I hope I'm not too rusty!!


One more thought for the day: I am incredibly, incredibly lucky to be having this experience. A lot of people get to study abroad (I never thought I would actually get to be one of them!), but a lot of people don't. If it wasn't for the anonymous benefactor at my school, I don't really know how I would have managed this trip. Sure, I promised myself that I somehow would, but after being here for almost two months, I am really realizing that it might not have happened. I also realize that without that financial support, there would be absolutely no way I would have gotten to travel so much! A few of my trips were included with my program, but Berlin and Rome were not, and the handful of other big trips I am planning are not, either. Without that scholarship, I would never have the opportunity to experience Europe like I have and will!

On that same note, I might either have to eat Ramen (well, the Czech version - yes, there is one) for the rest of my stay or find some random jobs to do, because I want to travel so much more!! I am going to have to put myself on a budget - yikes! A little discipline is good, though, and something I have been lacking in for the past 7 weeks....oops.

Those are all of the random thoughts I have for now, people! I hope this will tide you over until I take the time to actually sit down and focus on chronicling my time spent in Vienna and Rome!!

In case you were wondering what the inside of a camera looks like...

It's this.

Soooo...yup. That's my camera. It still works. Shout out to the girl that broke that side piece off freshman year of college (the piece with the wrist strap and duct tape) because that is definitely what caused the front to come off. Looks like I will be needing to find some duct tape back in Prague.

I know that I have been complaining about wanting a new camera lately, but this isn't exactly the reason I wanted for getting a new one. Oh well!

Seriously...at least it still takes pictures!

I only have a few more hours in Roma, and typing on this Italian (?) keyboard is getting tiring.  My next post will (should) be about my trip to Vienna, Austria with Tereza last weekend, and then I will tell you all about how amazing Italy is!!

See you back in Prague!!