As of today, I’m officially two weeks into my stay here in Prague.
St. Nicholas Church in Hradcany
The last 14 days have been a whirlwind of new people and near-constant activity planning, mixed with hot afternoons where I melt into my bed and cease to exist for a few hours. I just got here, but I’ve also been here forever. Do you know that feeling?
As I’ve been adjusting to living here, I’ve noticed little things here and there about myself and about traveling/living in another country, so I thought I’d write some of them down in this blog. In the coming weeks, I’ll do a more specific description of my life here and how it compares to my plans and expectations, but for now, here are some of my first realizations.
I speak English like it’s my second language.
I’ve gotten to talk to many non-native English speakers here, and I find it so interesting to listen to how they talk. While listening, though, I’ve gotten this feeling that I talk exactly like they do most of the time. I feel like it takes me a very long time to search for the right words to say, and I tend to pause a lot before speaking. I have no explanation, being a native English speaker, unlike my peers who are translating many languages in their heads. Maybe translating thoughts/feelings into words is a comparable task sometimes.
There’s something comforting about a warehouse full of unbridled consumerism…
After a week of shopping in cute neighborhood markets with unique and limited supplies, I can’t deny that I felt some relief stepping into a giant, impersonal, and commercialized chain store (Tesco). This was an unsettling realization because up until this trip, I thought myself immune to some of the basic American stereotypes, but here I was in week one wishing for the comfort of Target or Costco! I think I’m very used to only needing to shop in one place, and then not needing to shop for weeks because I could buy things in bulk. It’s a little awkward not knowing where to find things and knowing I’ll run out of things quickly. An unexpected adjustment for me will be learning how to shop in a way that better suits the norms here in Europe.
If I had done this a year ago, I wouldn’t have been as homesick.
I’m very happy to be here, but I still feel very closely tied to my friends and family and home in America. It’s been a weight that I didn’t actually consider much when I first started planning this trip last year. I could explain it by saying that in the planning stages, I wouldn’t have accounted for homesickness because leaving was so far in the future. But I think another explanation is that I really wouldn’t have been as homesick a year ago. During the past year, I’ve become closer with my best friends and my boyfriend, and spent less time in my hometown than I wanted. I think the unexpected homesickness I feel is a product of having more things to love and miss than I planned. I’m looking forward to building familiarity here in Prague and hopefully loving it enough to miss it a lot when I leave!
The culture here is not just “Czech”.
I noticed this most clearly when I was walking through Vinohrady during a Mexican street market festival, eating a sushi burger (pictured above). I reminded myself that like any big city, Prague is a melting pot of many vibrant cultures and ethnicities. I’m so lucky to get to experience not only Czech culture (like trying svíčková for the first time, pictured above) but many of the subcultures of Prague as well.
I’m not a tourist, but I’m not a resident either.
What am I then? I’m not sure, because it seems like studying abroad is such a specific and unique middle-ground between being a local and a visitor. I don’t have enough time to make this a home, but I’m not rushed for time. I still can’t speak the language, but I belong more than a tourist. I’m personally very excited to explore this transient but long-term experience, and I’m curious to see how I identify myself among tourists and residents as the months go on.
A few days ago, I was on a walk and came across two European tourists who asked me if I could help them with a few questions. They said they had arrived here two hours ago, and were curious about how to say “cheers” in czech, where to go clubbing, and where to find ATMs. I excitedly told them how to say cheers because I shockingly knew the answer (“na zdraví”). I only knew one club by name and didn’t know where the closest ATM was, but I told them there were many options in Old Town and recommended google maps for both.
After wishing them luck and walking away, I felt so proud of my somewhat unhelpful advice, and it reminded me of this one specific scene from The Great Gatsby:
“It was lonely for a day or so until one morning some man, more recently arrived than I, stopped me on the road. “How do you get to West Egg village?” he asked helplessly. I told him. And as I walked on I was lonely no longer. I was a guide, a pathfinder, an original settler. He had casually conferred on me the freedom of the neighborhood.”
I feel like that quote sums up my experience here pretty well, sarcasm and all.
(I’ve added many more pictures to my pictures section of the website, so I’m not putting a bunch at the end of this post like I did for the previous one)