With every new adventure comes new experiences and a new location.  The next adventure in my life is Teach for America in Chicago.  I’m here in Chicago for interviews and certification tests and it’s amazing how fast my lsit of adventures has already grown.

I flew in from D.C. thanks to my mom for driving me and dropping me off at the airport.  It was so nice to see her because it’s been nearly 4 months.  My room has dramatically been changed -in a good way - from being completely blue teenage dream to a nice off-white guest bedroom.  The room looks like it was taken straight out of a Bed and Breakfast in England and is very welcoming.

I flew to Detroit and then to Chicago and immediately my experiences with Chicago and the midwest were AWESOME.  I was nervous and excited because I knew this is where I would be spending the next two years of my life so I figured I better like it.  I’ll save you the trouble of reading the rest of my blog: Nothing, absolutely nothing, so far has made me second guess choosing to do Teach for America in Chicago.

My first interaction was with the L operator in the airport.  I know the D.C. metro line like the back of my hand but it was going to take some getting used to a new system.  I asked the woman what to do because I only had 2 dollars and the fair was a 2.25 flat rate.  She brought me over the credit card machine and because it wasn’t working she opened the gates and let me ride for free!

Then on the train everyone was their typical train self - very isolated and very introspective.  Then a man came on the train with his daughter on the train in a stroller and told everyone he was laid off and needs money for his girl.  I felt badly for him but knew I only had two dollars and I needed it myself.  That was my real shock that I was no longer in Williamsburg but truly in a big city.

Then I switched trains and ran into a band playing with beautiful voices and great charisma.  They truly sounded great!  A woman mentioned one of them had a great voice and I agreed and she told me about how the Jersey Boys were raffling tickets off but she didn’t win.  It was just amazing how I could strike up a conversation because that typically doesn’t happen in D.C.  On my way to Millenium Park for 5 minutes I wasn’t sure what direction to walk in and so I asked a nice looking girl which way.  As soon as I asked the buildings opened up and the bright green patch of beauty was staring at us while riding the L and I felt like an idiot but she thought it was funny and said I would really enjoy it.  I was still carrying all my luggage and walked down to the Park.  Sadly I couldn’t stay long but saw Cloud Gate and the Face Fountains and was SO EXCITED TO BE IN CHICAGO!  My heart was fluttering and I must have had the biggest dumbest grin on my face.

Then I met up with my host who knew/knows R.J. Archer who is the past quarterback at William and Mary and who’s house/room I stayed in my junior year.  They used to play childhood sports together.  Small world!  Then he took me and the other TFA Corps Member JayCee out to dinner and have a beer.  We came back and pretty much passed out only to get ready for our intense day of interviews…….

So my first night in Munich was rather boring.  It took about 5 hours from Prague with a bus and a train but it was still exciting to travel.  It was actually sad to say goodbye to Prague.  

As soon as I got to Munich I figured out where I needed to go and went to my hotel.  My backpack was extremely heavy and thankfully I’m not carrying it around Europe.  I changed my flight to this coming Friday which took a decent amount of time and money.  That was my afternoon.  Exciting!  And it even got more exciting as time went on…

I feel asleep after eating around 7:30 pm and didn’t wake up until 7:00 am the next day.  I think it was a combination of finally having a real bed and being exhausted from getting no sleep the past two nights.

Then came Sunday!  I got to my hostel really early and spent more time figuring out how to get to London and finally got a plane ticket.  This is what poor planning results in folks, lots of wasted time.

I really needed breakfast and found this great Cafe online and in our Wombat’s map guide.  It was called Cafe Glockenspiel.  I was walking around and then stumbled upon the end of a marathon.  There were hundreds of runners in orange T shirts (which I thought was amazing) and at the end of the race they could either choose wasser (water) or Beer.  What do you think they choose?  Well to be perfectly honest the beer was non-alcoholic but I still thought it was strange to see everyone drinking beer after a race.

I kept looking for the cafe and realized that it was actually on the 5th floor of a building.  The cafe was a LOT more classy than I expected but I searched so long for it I figured I’d treat myself.  I got the Glockenspiel which was a mixture of salmon, fruit, cheeses, breads, and horse radish dip.  It was extremely filling and delicious.

Then I decided to walk around and see what I could find. Instead of turning right and going towards a museum I took a left and wandered around a park for the rest of the afternoon.  The park is actually twice the size of Central Park and really, really beautiful.  The Isar River runs through Munich and the park and was spotless!  The water was a clear green and looked ready to jump in.  Some people where dipping there feet in but it must have been too cold still to swim around.

I kept walking through the amazing park and headed toward “Englischer Garten” even though I had no idea what it was, but figured it may have been a beer garden of some sort.  The God’s opened their doors and I found a fantastic beer garden known as the “Chinese Tower.”  There was a Chinese looking tower about 4 stories tall with a German folk band playing and tons and tons of tables surrounding it with hundreds of people drinking beer to “hydrate” themselves on such a hot day.  I myself hydrated by drinking a liter of the local Haufbrahaus beer.  It was pretty good and eas exacatly what I needed as I tried to read the German film festival magazine I picked up.

Then I walked back along with the metro back to the hostel.  I ate a Doner Kabob (really really good) with my roommate Joe from Colorado.  He is a civil engineer and is going to study abroad in Germany for 6 weeks.  I also met two New Zealanders who crack me up.  There is also a girl who is from Australia, Katherine, who was very friendly.  Then passed out while Michael was supposed to meet me in Munich.  Michael’s train was delayed about an hour and he said he needed to go to his hostel for a quick change.  Then the storm from hell began.

Michael thought he was near the train station and said he’d meet me in front of it.  I waited around the front entrance but was too sketched out by people so I called him up and tried to find him.  Michael was lost and wasn’t sure where he was.  He didn’t have a map.  I tried to find him on my map but didn’t see the street signs.  He kept walking in the direction he thought was right but in fact was the wrong way.  Before either of us realized this I started walking around one of the sketchiest places in Munich trying to find him.  Then he asked a gas station attendant where he was and he told Michael he was an HOUR’s walk from the train station.  This is when we both gave up after 2 and a half hours of aimlessly walking. 

Today (Monday) is a hot day but hopefully we can find something fun to do!

Saturday was a short day because we were so tired from Friday’s trip we slept until 2 in the afternoon!  We haven’t done that since we’ve been here!  Waking up was nice because Tim made us all pepperoni and blue cheese that was made in the skillet.  It was good stuff.  

Then we all headed out to Starbucks to get some research done.  It was somewhat productive.  I left early to go get my SigEp brother Michael Bertken who I met at Ruck last year.  He’s been traveling around on his own since June 1st.  We went back to the dorm and then had another delicious and cheap meal at “U Bus Stop” which is what we named one of our favorite local places.

People were going out and I wanted to show Michael a good time so we went out with Tim, Dave and pretty much the rest of the group.  The other group partied a little too much so I did my best to make sure everyone was okay.  I wasn’t feeling the whole going a bit but it was still nice to be with friends.  Tim was being fed shots by these two blonde women which got him sufficiently drunk but it’s all good because I got Tim home and Michael made some new friends.

No, its not what you’re thinking!  Today was an extremely hot day for Prague and almost everyone was dehydrated throughout the entire day.  Today was the transit strike so everyone was walking or riding bikes.  There were still some trams running but it was an extremely hot day for a transit strike.

Art and Architecture Class - Modern Art Museum

European Integration Class – Education and Bologna Reforms

Met with Jim right quick and then ran/walked the 2.6 miles home up hill following the tram lines.  It was really hot and I got weird looks but it was worth it.  People here don’t work out really.  I think it’s because they walk enough as it is they don’t find the need to go running.  Therefore when they see someone running they find it really odd.

Dinner with Tim, Ian, Dave, and Meagen.  Meagen was daring enough to buy rabbit off the menu and I tried a little.  I’ve never seen rabbit or duck so prevalent on menus until this trip.  The rabbit tasted turkey, with a sweeter taste.  It wasn’t bad but I felt bad because rabbits are a lot more adorable than turkeys.  Then Cream and Dream ice cream – delicious coffee flavored with pistachio J

Then chill out session with Tim and Ian watching ridiculous videos on YouTube.  Now I’m working on my research while Tim is passed out in my bed and I believe Ian is falling asleep!

Friday morning had almost an hour commute to the bus station, then another hour long bus ride.  However, I finally saw the Big Bang Theory tv show in English with Czech subtitles.  I found it funny that I finally saw the show in the Czech Republic.  I guess I should watch more television at home then.

As soon as we got into the small town of Plzen, we had interesting walks to Old and New Synagogues.  The New Synagogue is the largest or second largest synagogue in Europe.  It was decorated nicely, but had a lot of damage.  It was never destroyed by the Nazis because destroying it would have destroyed the buildings near it.  There is still a bullet in one of the plaques atop the synagogue from WWII.  The United States actually freed the town of Plzen and they are still very grateful for it.  There is an America street as well as a Roosevelt street.

We had an amazing walk through the Willy Wonka-esque factory, aka the Pilsner Urquell brewery.  We had a great tour guide who cracked some funny jokes and the factory honestly made me believe I had a golden ticket.  There were old rusty gates we had to go through, men dressed in green overalls, and the brewery looked so cool.  We got to watch the bottles move along the conveyor belt.  We also saw the old brewery and new one.  It was really interesting to see how beer, especially their beer, was made.  We even got to try barley as well as the germinated malt they use in beer.  They had a great video explaining how everything is heated, mixed and moved around.  

Then we go to try delicious un-filtered beer Pilsner straight from one of the barrels in the basement with the yeast still in it!  The beer was cloudy but the tour guide told us that Czech doctors prescribe(d?) the beer for men with kidney stones.  Got to love when a doctor says to drink a beer.  However, I was feeling a bit sick the next day and I forgot that I learned right  before the trip that I’m allergic to yeast.  Oops!  I think its getting out of my system but it didn’t help that we also tried unfiltered Gambrinus as well which also tasted really good (but not as good as the Pilsner).  I know if I had to do it again I’d still drink the beer even though I’m allergic.  It was too good!

There are 9 days left in the program and then I have another 2 weeks until I can go home.  Today and yesterday have been some of the roughest days since I’ve been in Prague. 

Today was a pretty good day for the most part.  Jim’s class was held atop the hill with a giant metronome which stands where a 50 foot statue of Stalin once stood.  It was very symbolic to have class there and very interesting to talk about as well.  Today was cultural artifact day and we all had to bring an artifact, mainly from our daily life, which represents European integration.  I decided to do my artifact on the toilets which I’ve found to be very different than the toilets I’ve seen in the States.  I don’t know if Jim thought I took it seriously but I did.  I think toilets are part of our daily lives and they’ve affected almost every day I’ve been here.  The fact that there are no public bathrooms and it’s considered fine to pee anywhere.  In fact on the way from class to the beer garden we saw a little boy with his pants down and was peeing off the side of the sidewalk.  We all chuckled immediately without helping it but everyone looked at us like there was something wrong with our reaction.  “Of course he’s peeing, there isn’t a bathroom to go to” they probably thought.  Also, just traveling to and from places you notice hobos and others pee in bushes and no one seems to say anything.  This isn’t just in the Czech Republic, it’s everywhere. 

Okay, rant#1 about bathrooms done.  I apologize to those reading this blog but it’s a very cynical blog mainly because I’m home sick but also because I’m upset about my flooding situation.  Rant #2 consists of my expectations on Prague.  It seems that I can’t get away from tourist cities.  Alexandria, Washington D.C., Williamsburg and now Prague are all some of the largest tourist populations I’ve seen and it’s getting really old.  Ian and I walked around trying to find food and all we heard were English speakers or French or Italian and very few Czech speakers.  The city also lives up to its tourist model by having overpriced restaurants, kitschy souvenir shops, and tons of annoying people.  Basically its not helping me with my homesickness because if I really wanted a western city I would have stayed in the States where I could at least be literate and read street signs.

Enough with rants.  After Jim’s class we all went to a beer garden which is exactly what it sounds like.  It’s not the Willy Wonka garden where you walk around and grab a beer from the trees (sadly).  You sit around tables overlooking all of Prague and enjoy a nice beer.  Jim had one with us and we had a good time talking.  Immediately the conversations got serious and we talked about politics, the death penalty, Osama Bin Laden’s death, and the Bosnia Yugoslavia wars.  Ian and I then left in search of food and ended up at a little place we’ve been to before which was right near the Charles’ Bridge.  We immediately came back and passed out because it’s impossible to get a good night’s sleep here.

And now I’m updating my blog.  I’ll probably either go get some food or try to work on my one of my many homework projects.  People are going out to drink but I can’t bring myself to do so.

I woke up today and read my article on the Euro for European Integration.  It was great only having on class today.  The class also went by extremely quickly because we talked about our pexperiences in Poland and considering we visited and saw so much in a short amount of time, we had a decent discussion.  After class I was really hungry so I decided to go to one of the thousands of KFCs in the Czech Republic.  The Czechs really love the delicious secret recipie fried chicken.  However when I walked in I was completely surprised.  The menu was set up different and was very limited which was understandable.  However I found that I actually stumbled upon the hang out for younger kids.  There were high school students as well as some college kids all lounging, eating and more importantly socializing.  Instead of fast food there were leather seats and lots of them for people to play on their computers and hang out.  After getting some strange looks and giving others strange looks I went back to the dorm.  Trying to take a quick nap Ian and I ended up sleeping and snoozing my alarm for over two hours and finally got up.  I then dragged the guys along on an hour trip to find a local coffee bar called Mama Cafe only to find out it had been bought out by KavaGiovata which was a gay coffee bar.  I wanted something local and fun so I tried doing some research on good cheap cafes that you could drink coffee and relax in.  However the websites haven’t been updated and the café was very different than what I expected.  Then we decided to U.S.A. it up.  We rode tram 22 which is our favorite and most familiar tram line back to a Starbucks.  Again, the Starbucks was enormous and way over priced.  But we used the free Wi-Fi and got some work done.  When it closed up at 9, Ian and I traveled over to the only Mexican good place we knew of.  It was way over priced as well but we had a long meal with an “El Diablo” mixed drink and talked for a long time.  Then we headed over to the tram stop, again for tram 22.  We decided it was best because it looked like a storm was brewing.  Boy were we right!  It quickly started to rain and we found some shelter next to a building.  Then it started to hail!  Little pebbles of ice came clattering down, splashing the water and bouncing around everywhere.  We ran over to the tram when it arrived and got on.  The tram ride was smooth during the storm for the most part, until it stopped on a hill.  After a while the conductor said something in Czech but of course we didn’t know what he said.  A couple next to us asked me in English if I knew what they said but of course I was about to ask them the same thing.  We stayed on the hill for a little bit and watched the water pour down the hill as if it were a giant waterfall.  Then we started heading back.  On our walk home it stopped raining and Ian and I twamped (Twamp = typical William and Mary person, used as a noun or verb because it’s made up) it up a bit by talking about old childhood cartoons like DragonBall Z.  Good times.  I realized I had run out of socks and underwear so instead of trying to tackle the laundry machine (which is a battle by the way), I filled up our sink with water and detergent and washed clothes by hand.  I’ll say one thing: Thank goodness for washing machines!  I had fun because I like playing with water but it was a bit tedious and who knows if my clothes will dry by the morning.  Now it’s 2 am and I’m going to try to do some more research for my Wiki on European health care!

Before I forget and before I pass out I have to write about my day at Ikea…but in Prague!

Today was one of the first days that I woke up after 12 and actually woke up at 1:30.  I didn’t stay up too late, it just felt great sleeping in.  I actually cleaned my sheets and took a long shower before I went to bed last night so I felt super clean and it was so nice to be in a clean bed for once.

It was a lazy Sunday beginning but then Ian and I decided to go out on an adventure!  We got up, got dressed and headed out with Meagen.  We took the tram to the metro station, go on the train and headed to the end of the yellow line.  It’s always weird going to the end of a metro line, especially when the line takes you to the outskirts of Prague where not a lot of people speak English.  We had a goal in mind: Ikea.  And luckily as soon as we got off there was a bus stop made for taking people to Ikea (apparently its the place to go).  So we took the bus to Ikea and ate lunch there.  Sadly there was no Lingenberry juice but I dealt with it.  The food was super cheap and pretty good (only 5 bucks).  I forgot to mention that when we walked in there was a woman handing out fliers and handed me one and spoke a lot of Czech to me and I had no idea what she was saying but I nodded and kept moving.  It was nice though, being treated as a local.

We had no real agenda for the day so we really took our time wondering around.   We wanted to go to Ikea for the adventure aspect as well as getting a cheap pan to cook with.  We eventually found the pan for 29 Kc (which is nothing) and a spatula for 15 Kc.  Then we left Ikea and wondered around the shopping centers.  We found some typical stores but there were a lot of key differences.  Clothes are still extremely expensive compared to the U.S. and many other stores look like they were taken out of a U.S. mall.  However, when we went into the pet store we were extremely surprised.  They had huge birds and extremely cute fluffy bunnies but even better…they had monkeys for sale!  For only about $3,000 each you could have your own spunky monkey.  They were hilarious to watch.  The rest of the pet store seemed as if you were walking through a zoo but the animals were for sale.  Then we kept walking around and found the Walmart of the Czech Republic called Globus.  There we picked up some plastic plates to eat on as well as some chocolate and dish detergent (details I know you’re dying to hear about).  

Then we experienced something quite strange considering it was the bathroom.  I’m not sure what it is about the CR but they make going to the bathroom a real adventure.  We walked in and there was bright blue lights for the toilet.  They reminded me of sanitation lights that gimicks always try to get people to buy but it was just trippy.  There was also “classical” music playing that wasn’t really classical but wasn’t even elevator music.  I just found it to be quite irritating.  So going to the bathroom is always an adventure here.

On our way out of the little mall we stopped in for some cheap t-shirts where we all ended up buying t-shirts for about $12.  However the shirts are very European and not in that they had the Czech language on them, but the fitting is strange.  The necks are huge so instead of showing cleavage or chest hair like a V-neck, the shirts show off your clavicle and is extremely tight around the arms.  We had to get shirts and they were super cheap but honestly I don’t know if I can wear the shirt without having some kind of product in my hair.

After we left we took the metro home and unsuccessfully went to the Seneca gardens which were closed.  So we decided to venture for the great Lennon wall.  We walked around in the general direction but gave it a break to eat some food and enjoy a Gambrinus.  We ended up eating for about 2 hours but mainly had a great political and background discussion amongst ourselves.

At the end of dinner I asked the waitress where the Lennon wall was and she didn’t understand until Ian showed her the lock and key (I’ll explain tomorrow).  Believe it or not we we’re eating dinner about 50 feet from the wall and had no idea!  We found the wall but it was too dark to take pictures so we went back and walked home.  It was another exciting and joyful day of Prague.  We still listed things we’d like to do before we leave even though each day is and adventure!

Now it’s time to finally do some homework and read Night.  I’d say it was a successful Sunday and I had a great time with Ian and Meagen!