czech republic

so here i am sitting at a computer in the lobby of my hostel in prague, czech republic. its amazing to think im really over here and getting to experience so much of the world. my spring break started on wednesday night and my friend margaret and i took a night train from florence to munich, germany, which was soooo amazing. we had real bed-like things and a sink in our room, free breakfast (good breakfast) and free water bottles. compared to trenitalia deutsch bahn was amazingly amazing. i went from there to bayreuth (a town father in bavaria) with bryan and stayed with his old host family from 2002 in nemmersdorf. i had the absolute best time there. the family was so welcoming, bought us food, made us dinner, and generally opened their house to us, which was especially nice considering theyd never met me. we had such a relaxing time and even celebrated easter with them a bit by taking a nice walk through the countryside and them hiding easter baskets for us (yes they hide the whole basket in germany haha).

from there we went to munich and stayed at this awesome hostel called Euro Youth Hostel, which was more like a hotel for young people. munich was my favorite big city in europe so far (tied with barcelona mb but theyre very different). i loved how everything actually worked and worked on time! it was incredible after being in italy for months haha. i even took a picture of the tv in the metro station that tells which trains were coming because it was so well organized and pretty. the whole city was so cute and just like a fairytale. i got to eat delicious german food that id been hearing about for years and had a great time all in all. we took a cool bus tour which helped to see a lot of sights all at once and learn about them too. we went to olypmic park also which was so pretty! i wish i had had my bathing suit cause the huge gorgeous pool was only 3.50Euro. there was so much more i could have seen and done, but with only a few days its difficult. im so glad i went though.

from there i took a train to prague, where i am now. this city is very nice but i thinhk it would have been better to come before munich, because munich definitely steals its thunder. while it is really pretty it can be a bit too fancy, and its soooooo international and metropolitan that you almost feel like everyone here is a tourist/youre in disneyland. but again, i only have 2.5 days here so i guess i am just doing touristy things. i think if i stayed longer or was with people from here i'd have a different experience but oh well. we went across the river today and i went up this tower which gave me such a pretty view of the city. it was neat to see the old architecture mixed with the obviously communist built buildings. one of the highlights of prague was definitely eating at a Tex-Mex restaurant called Buffallo Bills and having delicious tacos and nachos. it was so strange eating mexican food here, it definitely was a bit confusing to my sense of where i was. the other fun thing we did was hang out in the common room of the hostel last night with a bunch of australian and new zealander kids. they were so much more similar to ppl in califronia than anyone ive met from europe, its funny. they dressed just like califronians. they were all really nice and taught us some funny games.

from here i am going to budapest, so that will be interesting to get to see even more into eastern europe. who ever thought i would be going to hungary???? i dont even believe it. im taking a night train tonight with my friend margaret so hopefully it all goes well! for now i might wander around the city? im so tired but its such a nice day out i feel like i should. i should try to find margaret too since she said she was napping but i cant seem to find her.... hmmm. aye travelling. it can be stressful but in the end i think its worth it.

i cant believe my program is over in a month. almost exactly a month. it seems like i spent the past 2 years of my life talking about coming here and to think im going back to CA makes me very sad. i mean, i miss it and my friends and family there but just to think this stage of my life is over makes me sad. plus ive made really good friends on my program that i dont want to leave. my friend katie and i are already planning our trip to University of Virigina to visit our new friends there. aye i dont want to get back to normal life, i just want to be on vacation forever!

i will post pictures soon! it takes so long to upload them i have to do it when i have a lot of time which is rare. but i swear i will make something soon. hope all is well elsewhere in the world.

1.5 hrs til spring break!

i feel bad i havent updated much. i know im going to regret it later, so im going to try to write something short now. im in cinema class right now talking about one of the most disturbing movies ive ever seen, salò. don't watch it. im not even go into it but just trust me. this class is so eh. the teacher prints out tons of pages (like 50?) and just reads them mostly though the class. it's so boring and makes him seem like he doesn't know what hes talking about, but today hes been better about asking questions.

im sooooo tired. ive been up so late every night. i feel like i never sleep here. but im going on spring break tonight!! im going to germany with bryan then prague with a bunch of friends from my program and then budapest with my one friend margaret from here. im nervous about going to all these places (for different reasons). germany because ill be with a family for a few days where i dont speak the language much at all but i know bryan will be there most of the time. its just those few moments that im dreading. but mostly im worried about prague and budapest cause i cant even read czech or hungarian! i dont even know how to say yes or now. i guess ill learn. it should be a good experience. im soooo excited, dont get me wrong. i cant wait to see other parts of europe. ive heard so much about germany too that i cant believe im really going there. and the other cities ive never even thought about much in my life so the concept of going somewhere that i barely can think of as real (if that makes sense). i cant wait! im taking a night train tonight and im absolutely exhausted so hopefully ill just pass out and wake up happy and healthy in munich.

i ended up staying in siena the last 2 weekends. we had planned on staying one of them and then we (a bunch of friends from here) were going to go to Capri/Pompeii/Sorrento but it just became so far and so expensive for the amount of time that we would be going. im glad tho, i felt like i was more a part of siena, meeting people (kind of, though other people, i could say hi to them on the street probably so that means i met them right?) and just feeling not really at home here but something like that. siena's an easy place to feel at home since its small but enough going on and such.

it's gotten so touristy here! i cant believe the change even in the last 3 weeks or so. i guess its only gonna get worse. ohhhh well. im always so jealous when i see them cause ill be walking to class and theyre just mosseying (sp?) around on vacation. but they only get to be here for a few days, im here for a few months :)