My first few days in Prague....
it's been very surreal. I can't believe that I'm actually here and will be here for a while. Everything is so gorgeous it almost seems "disneyfied". It doesn't seem real.
Backtracking a bit....
I left Japan on the 3rd. Tami picked me up and drove me to the airport and we said our goodbyes there. I really didn't even get emotional at that point because it didn't feel like I was leaving. But reality is that I did leave and I'm not sure when I'll ever be back in Japan. This hit me when I landed at Heathrow and I heard the final strains of Japanese being spoken. Then I got sad...
Oh, and flying into Heathrow we flew over London and I saw the London eye (is that right? the big carousely thing?) and that was so cool but weird. And when we landed I had such a long layover that Elena came out to the airport to meet me. So, I got my visa stamped for the UK!!! Another stamp!
Of course, as soon as I left security and was in the lobby area I started to panic a bit. I had no cell phone, no british money (because I had exchanged to euros at Narita) and no way of getting a hold of Elena. After a bit, I decided to try an international call with my credit card but as that is a bit screwed up right now waiting for my last paycheck to be wired, I wasn't sure it would work. That's when reality hit me....I was moving to a new country, I had no working credit card, no phone, and no address for where I was to be living. PANIC!! But then I turned around and there was Elena. It was fantastic to see her...even though it's been 7 months it felt like only yesterday since I saw her last. We had dinner and gossiped a bit- just caught up on things. And then it was time for me to go through security to catch my flight to Prague.
Landing in Prague, I didn't see anyone there to pick me up and again panic started to set in. I had money for a hotel but I wasn't sure how I would get a room at 11 at night. Then I saw it....my name on a piece of paper...and my nice driver Raj. He drove me to my new flat...where I will be living with 8 other people!! Talk about a change...from living completely isolated to living with 8 other people. The flat itself is great..4 stories, newly remodeled, in a nice neighborhood, fairly close to the city center. I also feel like I'm living in an IKEA ad as everything in the place is from IKEA- furniture, sheets, kitchen stuff!! Crazy.
Anyway...one other person was already there, Randee. She's from New York and we ended up picking rooms next to each other. She's totally hilarious and we've had a great time together already.
I pretty much crashed right away. The next day, Randee and I headed into to the central city area to check it out. And I had my first Czech meal- pork, gravy and dumplings. One word- AMAZING!!!! I'm in heaven. After walking around for a bit after lunch and having a coffee, we hit the grocery store and headed home. When we got home, two other people had arrived- Alex and Andrew. So we hung out with them for a bit and then they went into town to get some food. They brought back some beer and we sat around talking for a while. Really nice guys. Everyone seems to be really fun and friendly, etc.
We decided to call it a night at about midnight and agreed to get up and head into town for some tourist sightseeing in the morning.
So that was day one....
Day two to come shortly.
Quick note: I don't have internet at home so my posts and emails will be a while. I'll try to post when I can.
Miss everyone tons...but I'm so excited to be here I can't stand it!!!
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