London, Munich, and finally... Prague!

Hey everybody! I am currently sitting in my dorm room in Prague as we speak, how crazy?! I am so sorry it has taken me this long to post an entry. We have honestly been non-stop traveling since first landing in London; and as you know, I am not a morning person, so all of these early mornings have seriously thrown me for a loop! Even though I've only been here for about a week and a half, it feels like I've been here for months. I've met so many awesome people already and seen more in 10 days than most people see in their lives, so I truly consider myself very lucky.

Landing in London in Heathrow airport was surreal. It didn't seem real that I was finally beginning the adventure I have been planning my whole life, even as we were driving on "wrong" side of the highway at 4:30 am to our hotel. Actually, the 10 of us from the northeast did not have much time to let all of these new emotions to sink in, for when we checked into our hotel in Hyde Park, we were then told to leave and explore this gigantic and somewhat intimidating new city because our rooms were not ready yet. So, because of this, we spent the next 10 hours walking around London in the rain and having not slept a wink on the plane ride over. It was definitely an adventure for sure, with the welcome party, pub-visiting, and sight-seeing that was done over the next 2 days. I can easily say though that it was not my favorite city. I don't really know why, maybe because it was too modern and too much like the U.S., or maybe it was because I was already having a mini freak-out over the fact that I was beginning my journey around the world alone for the next 4 months. I didn't even take pictures because my batteries kept running out.. actually thats a lie, I have 3 pictures of my hotel room, which actually doesn't really count. Whatever it was, I could not wait to leave for Munich. The bangers and mash were delicious though

Munich was reallyy interesting. I sat here just now thinking of the perfect word to describe it, and it is definitely "interesting". Our hotel was situated in the newer part of the city, but when we took a tour of the rest of the city, we really got to see a lot of the beautiful architecture and history that really makes the city of Munich so unique. Not only was it gorgeous, but it was very intriguing in the fact that it was the birthplace of the Nazi movement. I actually did not know this until I was on the tour bus and the tour guide explained how Hitler had chosen a specific square in Munich for his speaches and demonstrations. This was definitely very freaky and almost frightening, because as the tourguide was telling us this, we were sitting right in the middle of the square itself. It was also very surreal, because being Jewish, having the chance to be there and see the history that has not only shaped my life but the lives of millions of others was unbelieveable. Reading about it in history books is one thing, but being there and feeling and experiencing the emotions that are evoked is another. After the tour, a few of us walked around the historical part of Munich and went to two extremely old beer houses, built around the 14th century. The beer was amazing, the food delicious, and the people much friendlier than I thought they would be. My friend Jenna and I stuck with a lot of the Americans from our program for most of the night, but then decided we wanted to meet some locals, so we sat with a table of German college students. Not knowing what to expect, we started with small-talk, and of course, the conversation directed itself to American politics and President Obama. We were surprised to learn that the Germans we talked to were happy with Obama, but had little faith in what he set out to accomplish. Also, they were equally surprised and offended that we didn't know who the German prime minister was by name. We blamed it on the American media, but they blamed it on our ignorance. But isn't that the whole reason why I am here, to learn more about a culture that is often forgotten and misunderstood by most Americans? I think so...

After leaving beautiful Munich, we had a 6 hour drive to Prague. After falling asleep and being woken up a few times by the jerk of the bus, we arrived at the front door of our new home near Prague castle; not the most beautiful of homes, but cozy enough and in an amazing area. Liz (my awesome roomie) and I moved our stuff in to our little room with little beds and big windows that look out to the courtyard and unpacked and put away our things. Over the next few days, we had manyy meetings and trips around the Czech Republic, including to Cesky Krumlov, an UNESCO town in the countryside, and Kutna Hora, another ancient czech town bome to an ossuary (which holds the bones of  about 44,000 people who died in the black plague). These past couple days have been absolutely jam-packed, but we managed to still go out and explore our city, which is gorgeous. The food here is amazing and very different from home, which is really cool, because I loveeee trying new food. Also, everything here is soo inexpensive! The dollar is very strong in comparison to the crown, the Czech currency, so there is a very good exchange rate. For example, a half-liter of Pilsner, a traditional Czech beer, is only 21 crowns- one dollar!!! I will hopefully have alot of money left to use for traveling because of this

Well, it is very late, and tomorrow morning I have to be up for breakfast and on the bus and ready to go to Brno, a small city in Moravia, a province in the southeastern part of the Czech Republic. I would love to tell you more details about my last week but I am soo ridiculously tired right now, its past my bedtime, and it honestly feels like a huge blur. I wish I went into more specifics, but I just wanted this post to be a quick update of my last 10 days of travel, so expect the rest of the journal to be a bit more personal and up-to-date- I promise!! I know you all don't really believe me though, haha! But I will definitely try my hardest. If you have any specific questions, feel free to email me and ask! Also, I know I have no pictures up yet, but that will definitely happen by Monday when I am back in Prague for the start of my 2-week, 5 hours a day Czech Intensive course. Miss you and love you all soooo much, and I will tell you all about Moravia when I return!