Pre-Departure 1, or The Czech Consulate Still Has My Passport
Ever since I started thinking about going abroad for a semester in my junior year of college, I have received lots of encouragement, wisdom, assurances, and even carefully printed packets of information about Pague, the capital of the Czech Republic. And that was even before I applied. Since I've been accepted, I've been trying not to tell too many people that I'm leaving. They always seem to get so excited, exclaiming, "Oh! Prague! That's so wonderful; you're going to have such a wonderful time! Are you really excited?"
And this is when I start to wish I hadn't told them, because now I have to disappoint them. I have to hem and haw around the question, with answers like "Mmm..." and "well...," eventually leading to something with a little promise to it. Right now, I'm partial to the line, "Well, I'm not quite excited yet!"
I mean, of course I'm excited. No wait, I'm not. Somewhere deep down, I know I'm going to enjoy this trip, but the feeling has yet to surface. Sometimes, I think the only reason I'm going at all is because of my European-born family, who would probably excommunicate me if I didn't take this wonderful opportunity to travel. They love travel, my family, especially travel involving Europe. What better way to see the world, become a cultured person, diminish some of the ignorance I inherited from being born in the US? Oh yes, traveling is a good idea. Studying in a foreign country with a Slavic language, even better. But no one said I had to anticipate fun.
Well, it's late December. My forms have all been turned in, my plane tickets - departure and return - booked, and I'm sitting here anxiously awaiting an email that will hopefully give me some information to help stimulate some exitement on my part. Because thus far, I haven't been told what classes I'll be taking in Prague, where I'll be living, or if I got the exciting-sounding internship I applied for. Oh, and the Czech consulate, which greedily snatched my passport sometime in October, has made no move to return it, or send me a visa.
So maybe there's something to this. Maybe January 17th will roll around, and I will attempt to board a plane to Prague (via London) and will be stopped because the Czech consulate will still have my passport.
And I'll say, damn, I was so excited.
2 comments:
Oh, you will have fun. And you'll even be able to afford it! Everyone says Prague is wonderful, and it is, but what I say is, I didn't have enough time and the time I was there (2 days) was poorly planned. The Mucha Museum is worth maybe an hour of your time, at most, not a whole morning. And don't get a tour of it. The ballet is cheap, and good, if you like that kind of thing. The city is certainly beautiful, and it even has HILLS! But it's also very touristy- to visit another beautiful quaint city that's cheaper and less touristy, I recommend Bratislava, Slovakia- and be sure to go to 1. Slovak Pub, the biggest and cheapest traditional restaurant in town, recommended by every guidebook, and deserving of all the praise it receives. But enough of my little plug- there's a world out there to see and explore and learn from. It's good to be back in the states, for now, but that doesn't lessen the wonders of study abroad in Europe.
Best of luck.
Thanks Ariel! I enjoyed reading your blog from Denmark this semester - hope mine measures up!
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