Home Sweet New Orleans

Hello all! I am happy to report that I am currently on my flight from Atlanta home to New Orleans (yes, there is free wifi at 32,000 feet!). All three of my flights were delayed today, but I somehow managed to get home in the end. Others are still stuck in Europe, but I'm glad to have made it back to the US of A. I know I will miss my European life, but the thought of Louisiana doesn't sound too bad right this moment. I will be sure to update some more later. AMERICA!!!!

Day Late But Not A Dollar Short

So, as expected, my flight to London was canceled today. Heathrow airport is A ZOO, and all flights are canceled again today. I have been watching the British news in my hotel in Prague, and I really am glad that I'm not in London stuck. I showed up to the airport (conveniently across the street) to rebook my flight at 5:45. The ticket counter opened at 6:30 this morning, and fortunately I was the third person in line. While I was certain I would not get a flight out today, I was even more certain I would be leaving Tuesday. Fortunately, the British Airways representative helped me book a 7am flight to Brussels tomorrow morning, with a connection to Atlanta then New Orleans. I also received a voucher from the airline to renew my hotel at the airport for the night, including free lunch and dinner. So far, I have not had this snow delay as bad as other people, but the uncertainty of still being in Prague - which has just one flight to America a day - is daunting. If i make it to Brussels tomorrow, I think I will be golden, since there are more flights to the USA from there. Will keep you posted, and WISH ME LUCK to be home by 6pm tomorrow!


PS - here is a picture of the most of Brussels that I have ever seen...from the train to Amsterdam from Paris this summer!

Snow Sad Face

I am at the airport in Prague, staying at my hotel. London Heathrow was completely closed today, and my program friends were canceled today and rescheduled to Monday. I have a ticket on the first flight from Prague to Heathrow in the AM at 8:45. Wish me luck, since it will be much easier to reschedule flights to the USA from London! If things don't work out, see you Tuesday (or later?) USA.

Bucket Full of Q-Marks

That's all, folks. I am sitting here in my apartment one last time updating my blog. Can you believe it's been almost 4 months since I arrived in Prague. This is officially the longest I have ever been away from home. I have to turn in my apartment keys by 9am tomorrow. I will be headed to the Prague airport to stay at a hotel before my 8:45 am flight on Sunday morning. I leave Prague for London Heathrow (3 hour layover), London for Dallas-Fort Worth (really, my first taste of America is Tex-ASS?), then finally home to New Orleans by 11pm Central Standard Time. It will be an exhausting 24-hour day of travel, but being home will certainly be worth it. Let's just hope the baggage fees are TOO much (sorry, Dad).


Yesterday was our last day of classes, and finals are officially over. Academically, this was NOTHING compared to Georgetown, but my grades don't even transfer anyways. We also had a graduation ceremony this morning, which was a complete joke. The CIEE program was really not very good at all, and I have heard that it has been drastically changed this semester compared to previous, most for the worst. Despite all my complaints about the program I am studying with, the experience could not have been more amazing.


While not a day went by that I didn't think about being at Georgetown or my friends and family back in the US, I know that I would have regretted forever not studying abroad here in Europe. Prague, for all its difficulties and quirks, was a great jumping off point to see Europe, and boy did I see Europe. 22 Countries in 186 days..that's more than half of 2010 spent outside of America. I may have spent all of my savings, but I will probably never get the chance to live and travel like this ever again.


Tonight will be our last goodbyes in Praha. It's really a strange situation with 17 other Georgetown students on my program. While I will be so hard to say "see ya later" to many of my friends from around the country, I will have comfort of my Hoyas crew back in DC when we are forced back into reality in January. It really is impossible to be thrown into a group of 80 Americans in a foreign country with no friends and to not come away with some lasting friendships. It feels a little bit like the end of high school - and what I imagine will be the end of college in just 3 semesters (YIKES!!!). Knowing that you can keep in touch but not knowing when you will next see people.


Prague is nothing like I imagined, and it is really is very "Eastern" compared to a lot of Europe. Convenience and language are not the easiest thing in the Czech Republic, but I really will appreciate the comforts of home in America. I can't wait to eat my way through every delicious restaurant New Orleans, Washington, and New York City have to offer in the next 3 weeks. I will be back in Washington in just 11 short days and in NYC just a week after. THEN SCHOOL BEGINS AGAIN.


I've posted some pictures of my new friends here, from our many days and nights in Prague. It was such a treat to meet so many other college students from the United States, and an even bigger experience meeting them in Europe!


Credits to Mary for the title of the blogpost, always ready to throw up her Q-Mark (?). It is really a strange feeling leaving this place that has become home for these past few months. A true mixed bag of emotions leaving it all behind and returning to reality.


I hope you enjoyed reading my blog thus far. I will update a few more times back in the states. It was certainly difficult to muster up the energy to write and post pictures so often, but what a neat memory I will have in reading through this.


So it's just one last night here in Prague. We're going out to dinner and then to our favorite pub to say our goodbyes. SEE YOU ON THE FLIPSIDE AMERICA!!

1 Week

In exactly one week, I will be on a jet plane back to the good ole US of A. I have almost 24 hours of travel, leaving Prague for London and Dallas to connect to New Orleans. This will be my last week coming up in Prague, and I have just one final and a few presentations. Classes run through Thursday, and we have a "graduation" ceremony for our program on Friday. We are then promptly kicked out of our apartments at 9am on Saturday, and I will be staying at a hotel that night before catching my first morning flight to London. I plan on writing a more detailed blog post later on Prague and my European experiences, but for now I thought it would be fun to do a BEST OF & WORST OF list from my travels. Here goes...

FAVORITE CITY: Paris, France

BEST BEER: Sagres from Lisbon, Portugal

COOLEST MARKETS: Istanbul, Turkey

COLDEST CITY: Copenhagen, Denmark

MOST EXPENSIVE: Zurich, Switzerland

LEAST SAFE CITY: Naples, Italy

BEST CLUB: Prater Dome in Vienna, Austria

BEST ICE CREAM: Florence, Italy

BIGGEST FESTIVAL: Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany

CHEAPEST BEER: Prague, Czech Republic

FRIENDLIEST PEOPLE: Dublin, Ireland

COOLEST BREWERY: Heineken Experience in Amsterdam, the Netherlands

BIGGEST SANGRIA GLASS: Barcelona, Spain

LEAST AMOUNT OF TIME SPENT: 5 minutes in Brussels, Belgium

BEST HAPPY HOUR: Nice, France

WEIRDEST LANGUAGE: Malmo, Sweden

MOST CHURCHES: Rome, Italy

MOST DIFFICULT TO NAVIGATE: Berlin, Germany

HOTTEST DAYS: Madrid, Spain

MOST ORNATE: Vatican City

MOST LIKE AMERICA: London, United Kingdom

COOLEST CASINO: Monte Carlo, Monaco

MOST FASHIONABLE: Milan, Italy

MOST RANDOM: Ljubljana, Slovenia

STRANGEST CURRENCY: Forints in Budapest, Hungary

MOST EDUCATIONAL: Krakow, Poland

MOST UNIQUE TRANSPORTATION: Venice, Italy

MOST TIME SPENT IN A MALL: Bratislava, Slovakia

UGLIEST CITY: Zagreb, Croatia

PARIS ENCORE

Sorry for the delay in posting, but it's been a little busy around Prague with finals mounting up and just 12 days remaining. It's hard to believe that time in Europe is running out so rapidly, but alas, I'll leave that topic to another post.


It has been snowing in Prague non-stop for nearly a week now, with inch upon inch piling up on the streets, slowing turning into brown mush. I was really shocked to find out that my flight to Paris had not been canceled with the winter weather in both the Czech Republic and France. Unfortunately, my friend Kim from LSE in London was unable to make it to Paris to meet me with the terrible weather for trains between the UK and France. I spent most of the weekend alone, but it was not bad since I know Paris so well now.


After arriving late on Thursday, I checking into the place I stay at the end of my France journey this summer, located in the Latin Quarter on Rue Mouffetard. An early wake up call Friday meant a FULL day of sightseeing to my favorite places. The weather was pretty cold, but it was not bad compared to Prague. I started on the Île-de-St. Louis, where the famous Notre-Dame is located. The church was as impressive as ever, especially with the giant Christmas tree out front.


I bought a day metro pass both days I was in Paris, since I'm an expert at quickly navigating the métro. Plus, the system is so efficient compared to almost any other European city that it takes no time to get wherever you want to by subway. I walked down the Champs-Elysées before making my way to the north to my favorite part of the city, Montmartre. Pictured above is Sacre-Coeur, just a 15-minute walk from where I had my homestay this summer. I tried to meet with my host mother and my French professor from Georgetown, but alas they were busy for the weekend and I gave short notice with the snow.


The Christmas decorations in Paris are absolutely unbelievable. Pictured above is a massive 5-story Christmas tree in the Galeries Lafayette department store. All the grands magasins decorate their windows in holiday themes, much like in New York City. Many streets are lined with Christmas lights, and decorations adorn all the stores. Quite a drastic change from last weekend in Istanbul, a 99% Islamic populated country.


Other than transportation, I spent almost all my money for the weekend on food. It was nice to be back in the Eurozone, as I had become so accustomed to those bills and coins during the summer and earlier parts of my semester. I stopped at the famous Le Consulat café in Montmartre for lunch for a menu of roasted chicken, French onion soup, and mousse au chocolat. Later, in the day, I did a few more big sights at night because, after all, Paris is the City of Lights. Above is the Eiffel Tower, which still sparkles every night on the hour.


For dinner on Friday, I stopped at the French chain Hippopotamus for dinner. A large steak haché, pommes frites, and again mousse au chocolat completed a great day. And a carafe of French red wine. And the nutella crêpe snack earlier between lunch and dinner. I woke up early on Saturday and made my way back to the Champs-Elysées to see Harry Potter 7 again en français. It was a special 5.90 euro early movie, and I wanted to test my french after all this time. Having read the 7th book in French and seen the movie in English already, it was pretty easy for me to follow and understand the French. C'est cool.


For lunch, I went to a small café in the Latin Quarter to meet my friend Nora from Georgetown for lunch. She is studying for the year in Paris and really loves France and the French people. If you remember my blog at the end of the summer, I was not very fond of the Parisians. However, the city has a totally different atmosphere in the colder months with much fewer tourists and a generally happier French population. Waiters and workers were much more willing to speak to me in French, and they never really switched to English like they would in the summer. Very refreshing.


Pictured above is Le Bon Marché, a large department store in Paris, very much decorated for the holidays. Their gourmet food sections was also full of Christmas and Santa Claus treats. It snowed on Saturday for a little while too, making Paris even more magical. I also stopped by the Musée d'Orsay, the impressionist museum, which is free for students of the European Union (I flashed my Czech visa and Charles University ID for free admission!). For dinner, I went to Le Marais and stopped a a Jewish deli. One of the best burgers I have ever had...they used fried egg instead of cheese to keep the meal kosher. There was a Jewish couple from New York City sitting next to me at dinner, and boy did they give the poor French people a bad impression of American elitism.


Overall, I had the most wonderful weekend in Paris. I really never wanted to leave, knowing the amount of cold, snow, and work awaiting me in Prague. Despite all that I thought about Paris when I left in the summer, I really think it was my favorite city in Europe. Having seen so much more since I left France, I really gained an appreciation for the French people, culture, and language. I think it is one of the few European cities I could see myself living and working in, and who knows what the future holds.

And my last column for The Hoya: Click here to read my article in this week's The Guide! I really enjoyed writing for the Guide this semester, and I hope that you have enjoyed reading them as well. It was a good way to get my blog out into the non-cyber world. Look forward to some wrap up blog posts in the next few days about my experiences in Europe. Au revoir!