Arrival and Initial Impressions

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I am going to back-track a bit and relay the journey that was my arrival!

On Friday, February 1st, Amichai took me to the Atlanta airport. I flew from Atlanta to Frankfurt; the flight was wonderful (for an 8-hour flight) but I didn't sleep much (like I had hoped to) so I was pretty tired when I arrived in Frankfurt. To be honest, I wasn't terribly impressed with the airport or its employees, but I was also very groggy and nervous, so I am sure that dampened the experience somewhat. The officials wouldn't let me in the terminal until an hour before my flight, so I wandered around until I found an empty chair and read some. Once I got on the plane from Frankfurt to Prague, I fell sound asleep and didn't wake until we landed in Prague. The Prague airport was recently remodeled, so everything was very bright and clean. My bags were just coming around the carousel as I walked up, so I quickly grabbed them and followed everyone out. It took my tutor (Veronika) and I a few moments to find each other. She was kind enough to have bought bus tickets to Brno for me; Brno is about 2.5 hours from Prague. She teased me a bit for having so much luggage; it seemed that I was obviously American because I had significantly more stuff than anyone else. I did bring a lot, but some things I will use up or leave here, such as shampoo, and other things I will ship home. We took a bus from the airport to a station a few miles away, then got on another bus which took us to Brno. I again fell sound asleep! Because of all of my luggage, we took a taxi to my residence hall. Veronika helped me get settled in and sign my housing contract and such. She was invaluable!!!

That night was pretty rough; I was sure I wanted to turn right around and go home! I cried quite a bit and couldn't imagine that any of this would make sense. I talked to a few other people and they said they felt the same way! I think we were all in shock a bit.

Veronika and I went to the grocery store on Sunday; we also obtained my transportation pass. I watched a Czech film called "Kolja" with the other international students. It was quite good; the International Student Club (ISC) shows a movie every Monday, which seems like a fun activity here. ISC does a lot of activities and hosts a lot of parties, so I joined. I get discounts on trips and such, so I thought it well worth it.

That's about it for now... I will try to post every day or so.

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