I can’t believe today is the day I’m leaving Prague after four months. It went by so quickly it feels like a blur. Saying goodbye to all my friends was hard, but saying goodbye to the city was harder. I know I’ll be able to visit everyone at their various colleges next semester, and some I’ll see at New Paltz in the spring, but who knows when I’ll make it back to visit Prague. I woke up early this morning to walk through the castle, over the Charles Bridge and over to Old Town Square before catching Tram 22 home for the last time. It’s such a bittersweet feeling. I know I’m so lucky to have been able to experience everything I did these past few months, and to have met all these amazing people, but I never planned on it being this hard to say “na shledanou.”

I don’t want to leave, but there are definitely some things I am looking forward to about being home again. I’m excited to see my friends and family, and sleep in my own bed, for free water at restaurants and public bathrooms that don’t cost money to use, to eat Panera mac and cheese, and make Christmas cookies, even though it will already by January, and then to finally go back to New Paltz in less than a month. There’s a lot that I am happy to be able to do again, but there’s even more that I’ll miss. I’ll miss walking down the cobblestoned streets on my way to class, always being surrounded by other languages and cultures, living in a city filled with history, and having something new to do each day. Living in Prague was an unforgettable experience for me, and it’s one that I can’t really describe. In four months, I made countless new friends, learned a new language and travelled to seven new countries. So even though I’m sad to leave, I’m incredibly happy thinking of all the memories.

Even though I left Prague today, I have two more weeks before I have to say goodbye to Europe. My sisters have been in Prague for the past three days, and today we’re meeting our parents in Munich, spending Christmas in Salzburg, and finally New Years in Paris before flying home. It should be an awesome vacation and it will be fun to have a few more weeks in Europe without the stress of school to worry about. After that, it’ll be back to good ‘ole America!

Taking a walk through Petrin Hill on our last night

Christmas Markets in Old Town Square

Showing my sisters the Castle Complex

At the Staropramen Brewery tour

One last family dinner before we left

I’ll admit, not being home for the holidays is a bit weird. It was hard to see everyone’s pictures on Facebook about going home for Thanksgiving Break and seeing their friends and family, knowing you’ll have a 3 hour class the morning of Thanksgiving. But the ECES office went out of their way to organize a great Thanksgiving Dinner for all of us here at a fancy restaurant on the river. It was sort of like a Czech take on American Thanksgiving food, but nonetheless it was yummy. I Skyped my family in the afternoon, and everyone at the dorm got dressed up, then went to the restaurant where we met up with the kids from the other dorm for a combined dinner. Zuzanna, Eva, Ivana, Jitka, and the Dean of Charles University were all there too and we ate turkey, stuffing, bread, corn on the cob, potatoes, and some other foods. There was strudel instead of pie for dessert which everyone agreed was the thing we missed most from home.

Last week it snowed for the first time all semester, which I was very excited about. The only problem was that the night before there was freezing rain which froze the lines above the trams. They were sparking all over the place, which was actually pretty scary to watch. As a result, on Tuesday, every single tram in the city was out of service. Every.single.one. It wasn’t a problem because we just took the bus and the metro all day, and they put 100 more buses in service to make up for having no trams. Apparently, that was the first time in the history of the city that this has ever happened!

December 5th is when Czechs celebrate Saint Nicholas Day here. Some friends and I were in Old Town Square at the Christmas Markets that night and there were people dressed up in angel and devil outfits everywhere, even a few dressed up as St. Nick! Tradition here is that kids sing a song or recite a short poem and are asked if they’ve been good that year. Good kids get candy from the angel, bad kids are stuffed in a sack by the devil and taken to hell-or so the story goes. It’s a bit more extreme than just getting coal in your stocking! My family has celebrated Saint Nicholas Day my whole life so it was interesting to hear about Czech traditions.

Also, the city is completely decked out for Christmas and I absolutely love it! There’s markets all over the place and giant trees throughout the city. Also, there’s lights strung across almost every cobblestone street and on the light posts. It’s like a fairytale, it all looks so magical. I’m hoping to get a chance to check out some of the other markets this week. I can’t believe in 2 weeks I will be leaving Prague. This semester went by faster than I could have ever imagined. It has been such an amazing experience and I already know that I am going to miss this city incredibly once I am gone.

Prague’s first snowfall of the season!

Christmas Tree in Old Town Square

Thanksgiving Dinner with everyone!

Pros:

free bed

comfortable bed

closet

homemade meals

family time

friend reunions

the holidays in NY!

american coffee

Cons:

american coffee

Long Island accents

driving everywhere

phone works EVERYWHERE

lack of internationals

no cobblestone streets to wander

same thing, different day

So I’m home, I’ve been home for about a week. As I sit in my bed and watch reruns of the “Fresh Prince” I cannot believe that only a week ago I was sitting in a comedy club in Dublin with people from all over drinking an Irish guinness. It amazes me everytime I come home how things and people don’t change, they will always be here. Certainly people get older, move, change, but so have I and I guess after three and half months of change everyday and learning a new place, these small details seem insignificant to the larger picture. This isn’t to say home isn’t interesting or I don’t love the people in my life here, it just reminds me why I travel. It also reminds me that the same is true for other places, like Prague. Prague will always be there, some of my friends might have moved by the time I go back, or there might be a new pub next door, but places are always there for you to return to, so why not move around? Move around and experience new places.
In a little less than a month I will be headed to Malaysia for ten months. I was initially very nervous and a little hesitant about committing so much time to living in Asia, to be honest, all I wanted was to go back to Prague to live there forever and ever. Now, I could not be more convinced that I made the best decision. Prague will always be there for me, it will always be magical, but I feel that it is time to move on and explore a new continent for awhile. I travel to learn more about myself, the world around me, but mostly people. I want to understand how people live and thrive in different environments and cultural situations. My goal is to be an English teacher in Northeast America one day. Part of teaching English is to teach where literature comes from, what influences, what perspective it comes from. There is no way I could accurately and successfully teach students about literature from somewhere other than New York if I don’t experience those places and people myself, which is part of the reason travel is such an important part of my life. To be the best teacher I can be one day I need to live and breathe other cultures and I need to remember that those places that are my favorite will always be there, but to further my learning I need to move on, try something new, challenge myself and I could not be more excited to be moving to Malaysia in less than month!