PRAHA

So this past weekend was my first foray out into Europe.  A couple of my roommates and I booked a pretty last minute trip to Prague, or Praha in Czech.  Despite being there for 3 days, this is still probably the only word of Czech I know, so we had to pull the "dumb American tourist" card quite a bit.  Regardless, the plane ticket to Prague was probably one of the greatest buys of my life. 

*Point of note for all future trips: when you have to be up at 3 for your flight, staying up til 1:30 playing Landmines might not  be the best idea.  Quick shout out to Olivia, who ran out to the store at 2 in the morning and made us sandwiches for the trip, which would have been infinitely more painful on an empty stomach.

*Boarding on a discount airline is vicious.  Essentially you're forced to wait around until your gate is posted on the board, and then it's a mad sprint to beat everyone on your flight.  And being first actually matters here, because you get the one row in the plane with extra leg room.  We found out the hard way by coming in second, and my knees were in my chest the entire flight.

*Prague is an interesting city in that it doesn't have a quintessential tourist attraction like a lot of the other cities in Europe, and lacks the one big postcard monument (think Big Ben, Eiffel Tower, Leaning Tower of Pisa status).  Oh you say I'm wrong, well here's a picture of the biggest tourist spot in Prague:

This random thing on the wall is the Astronomical Clock.  And every hour hoards of people stand around to see the clock move. Cool story bro.


*When one of my roommates told his boss that we were going to Prague, his boss said that he probably will be seeing a lot of the inside of a pub.  And yeah he pretty much hit the nail on the head with that one.  But when we actually decided to climb up to Prague Castle, it was well worth it.  Just took three stops at different pubs on the way up....

*On Saturday, the girls we were staying with took us to The Pub. Yeah, creative name I know.  Basically the premise of this place is that they have the tap in the middle of the table, so when you want to fill up your glass you just pick your number on the little touch screen and use the tap.  Plus the touch screen is how your order food, and can pick songs to be added to the playlist.  But what sold me on the place was the giant scoreboard on one of the walls.  It ranked everyone who was in one their different locations by which table had drank the most.  Personal accomplishment of the day...we beat Berlin. Best part: go to pay at the end, and it ends up being less than $12.  For the first time in a month and a half I wasn't getting killed by the conversion rate.  This place needs to be in America and it needed to be there yesterday. So if this whole accounting thing doesn't work out for me, I already found my way to make millions.  Strongly considering dropping out of school and starting my own franchise (KIDDING MOM). 

Seriously, let's make this shit happen people.

And despite not knowing more than a word or two of Czech, we made it back to the airport in one piece.  Prague set the bar REAL high, I hope the rest of Europe (more specifically Ireland, Switzerland, Florence, and Paris) is ready to bring it.

Hey Mama

Indulge me on this one guys....

Over the first 20 years of my life, no one has done more for me than my mom.  I feel incredibly blessed to not only have a mom, but a best friend who and will always be there for me.  Which considering the circumstances is pretty amazing...

See my Mom was diagnosed with MS (multiple sclerosis) a couple years before I was even born.  I guess I was just too young to notice that my mom walked a little bit differently than most people, and that pretty much the second after she tucked me in when I was little she hit the sack herself.  Even when she told me when I was about 11, all it really meant to me was that we got to skip lines in Disney World and park in handicap spots. 

Despite all of this, my mom is by far the hardest working person I know.  Yeah she has her rough days, but rarely does she ever use it as an excuse.  If I had half of the work ethic and determination she has I would be pulling a 4.0 with ease.  And whenever I think I'm having a rough go of it, thinking of my Mom having to drive with her left foot because she can't move her right one is incredibly grounding.

And so on her birthday, I just wanted to give a quick shout out to my mom.  I know a stupid blog post can hardly do her justice, but at least I'm gonna give it a try.  Maybe I'll actually send her the link to my blog now so she can read this.

Didn't have a title for this blog, and then this song came on shuffle.  Kinda funny how those things work out...

One Wild First Month

Want to live life like your going 1000 mph every hour of every day?  Well, you can go do a ridiculous amount of speed...or take the slightly more legal route and study abroad in Europe.  I literally cannot wrap my head around the fact that a little over a month ago at this time I was in my house back in RI, frantically packing for my flight.  When I look around at my friends here, it's so strange thinking 30 days ago I never knew they existed. 

And even though I probably look like a zombie most of the time (sleeps tends to not happen), I'm having the time of my life and wouldn't change a thing.  Here's just a ESPN highlights version of the first month...

*The first day here I lugged all my stuff up four flights of stairs in search of Flat E...only to reach the top and the door said "D."  Thinking I was in the wrong building, I proceeded to carry everything back downstairs.  As I get back to bottom I hear one of the girls living in D yell to me that they found Flat E.  We have to go through the girls suite and up another flight of stairs to get to our room.  Later that night all the guys I'm living with decided to nickname our flat the Penthouse.  Even though our apartment kinda sucks, we hype it up to everyone.  Our shitty TV that has all of 6 channels (on a good day...) is our "home entertainment system."  The fan becomes a "climate control system."  If you're in London come get the Penthouse tour firsthand. Life changing.

*Never would've thought that after a month here I would've been to more rugby matches than soccer.  Considering I had no idea about most of the rules, have to give credit rugby is an insane sport.  Oh, and that jersey I had a picture of in one of the first posts...guess who's a proud owner of one of those?  Gotta love having a friend who works for the team and the subsequent employee discount.

*One of the first things we noticed at dinner Day 1 was that we only had 5 of everything: plates, knives, cups, and the like.  That was until we went to this one pub that throws everyone out the door at midnight.  Really, do you expect a bunch of poor American kids to stick around and return the glasses?  So needless to say we've "acquired" quite a few glasses...and a hard hat.  Still don't know how I ended up with that one.

*Apparently I give the "drug addict" vibe to people in London, can't tell you the number of guys who have walked up to me and asked if I wanted to buy.  Funny thing is more guys have offered me coke more than anything else.  Read an article a while back that a line is cheaper than a beer in London, it was on Barstool so it must be true.    

*No matter how many times it happens, I still can't help but laugh every time I hear a little kid with a British accent. 

*In one of my poorer decisions, decided to go on a pub crawl with internship the next morning.  By about 12 I was starting to nod off, and I really didn't want to pass out at my desk second week on the job.  Simple solution: go take a nap in the bathroom.

*The amount of people that smoke in this city is sickening.  Even worse, no one really seems to pay attention where they blow their smoke.  If I had 5 pence for every time someone decided to blow smoke right in my face...

*Not having ESPN or any American sports is killing me.  Our suite must be such a sad site on Sunday, each one of us huddled up with our laptops trying to stream football with our shitty internet connection.  On a side, First Row Sports is a godsend.  Pretty much can watch any sports game imaginable.

*Animals here are absolutely fearless.  Squirrels will run right up to you in the park, and if you offer them food they'll sometimes climb up your arm.  And I'm positive before the end of this trip I'm gonna get hit by a pigeon, they dive bomb through crowds with absolutely no regard for their own safety.

And even though I cry every time I see my bank statements (which after I book my last few trips later tonight is going to look even worse...), I wouldn't change a thing about the last month.  One of my friends joked about how you just need to "swipe it and forget it."  You're really only gonna have one chance like this to tear shit up in Europe, you need to make the most of every moment.