na shledanou.
This post is long overdue, but go figure it took me the plane ride home to finally get my shit together and write something, so here goes:
As I write this on the plane with a mere 2 hours until I’ll be back in America, it’s kind of tough to exactly describe my feelings because I feel so ambivalent.
About 15 hours ago, I was back in Osadni, my home for the past 4 months, absolutely satiated from having eaten my last smazeny syrs from Wenceslas Square (and yes, that’s plural, because I got greedy and ate 2) and still drunk from the numerous pivos consumed at Chapeau Rouge. It would be impossible to guess that I needed to make it onto the 6AM shuttle bus to the airport, as my suitcases remained, for the most part, empty. Fact is, 15 hours ago, you couldn’t get me to leave Prague, to leave the city that had just given me the best 4 months of probably my entire life. Shit, even just writing that has begun to bring tears to my eyes, literally.
But now, with more like an hour and 50 minutes until I’ll once again see the New York City skyline, I really just can’t wait to be back. I’m exhausted from lack of sleep and traveling. I feel disgusting, as my drunk ass didn’t fit in the time to take a shower prior to so I probably still smell of beer and cigarettes, something I’m hoping my parents don’t catch onto. I’m hungry, and there’s Taco Bell, followed by sushi dinner, waiting for me upon my arrival. I mean food alone is probably one of the main reasons I’m anxious to get back, as much as that makes me look like a fatass (my “Food Checklist Upon Returning to NYC/NJ” on Facebook truly gives a full picture of this).
But really, I can’t even explain how much I’m looking forward to running through the arrivals gate to tackle my sister, to give my parents a hug, to see my freaking dogs and hug them and be that ridiculous owner who holds and talks to them like their babies. I can’t wait to see all my friends and once again reclaim my title as “The Drunkest of Them All,” sending them text messages at every hour of the day to go for a mega margarita or all-you-can-drink beer. Speaking of which, I can’t wait for unlimited texts and normal mobile service with voicemail instead of having Vodafone tell me “The number I’ve tried to call is being cheeky.”
There’s such a ridiculous amount of things I’m looking forward to, but I already know for a fact that I’m going to feel some major reverse culture shock. I mean, people actually responding to me? Holy shit – I’m not used to that. People who take showers?! Speaking in English instead of using hand motions all the time? There’s so much I could go into. The fact is, it will be so completely strange and weird to be back in America, and I can honestly say that I already foresee myself wanting to be back in Prague in, oh… I’ll give it 2 days but it will probably be sooner. Because as difficult as it may have been to deal with the reserved and cold people of the Czech Republic, and for as many times as I found myself saying “Oh, CZ…” in response to something that would only happen in Prague, there were so many other moments in that beautiful city that made me just feel lucky to even be able to experience them. Some of them, I’m glad to actually have managed to capture in this blog, but the unfortunate majority were the victim of my apparent ineptitude at maintaining a constant stream of posts. Maybe I’ll come back and try to give those moments the justice I feel they deserve and write about them so I won’t forget them, but I have a feeling they’ll have to settle for remaining in my sadly fading memory. The only silver lining in that is that I take a ridiculous amount of pictures, so there’s a good chance there’s photographic documentation of those times that remind me of how much I basically loved life the past semester.
In the end, all I can really say is thank you, Praha, and the amazing people you allowed me to meet, for giving me the best experience a girl could ever ask for. I can say with full honesty that I am going back home a changed person, perhaps more in debt, out of shape, unhealthy, and dehydrated from all the traveling and drinking 5 nights out of the week, but overall more independent, more open, and more cultured. The stories you have given me, both in Prague and in visiting places I could have never imagined I’d see, have truly added to my “life experience,” as cliché as that may sound, and those experiences are what I will take back with me, back to my homes of New Jersey and New York, and look back on and remember the four month vacation that was my semester abroad in Prague. I can now only look forward to the day when I can once again return and create new memories and experiences to remind me why I loved this place so much to begin with. Until then, Na Shledanou, Praha. It has truly been amazing.
2 years ago