PRAHA!

I'm finally here in Prague! It's just as amazing as I thought it would be, too. From what I've seen so far, Prague is a beautiful city and the people seem really nice. Hopefully they won't start hating me when they realize that I have no clue how to speak Czech. But I've got my phrasebook handy, so maybe I'll start picking up on things soon!

The airports kind of sucked, as I already expected. I don't have all of my luggage since the one bag that I checked in never even left RDU. Luckily, I thought ahead and crammed in most of my clothes and all of my essentials into my carry-on luggage. So hopefully my suitcase with all of my sweaters and boots will get here sometime tomorrow morning since it's about 15 degrees outside right now.

Right now, I'm staying with my friend Nicole and her cousin who lives in Prague. She lives only about 10 minutes (walking distance) down the road from the pension we'll be staying in this semester.  It's nice knowing that there is someone we know who lives so close to where we'll be for the next couple of months!

That's all I really have to update on so far. It's noon here, so Nicole and I are about to go grab some lunch, and wander around a little bit! I'm about to go get my first taste of good European beer. WOO HOO!!!

(I'll upload some pics once I get my camera cord from my other suitcase tomorrow)

Later that day...
The day is finally coming to an end, and I am exhausted. I had a great first day in Prague. We started off with lunch at Zunzibar, a little restaurant and bar right around the corner from the apartment we're at. After stuffing our faces, Nicole and I headed out towards the pension where we'll be staying, just to check it out, and I am so excited to get there next week! It's right down the road from a metro station, and has some really cute restaurants right around the corner.
From there, we took the metro to the institute, which is located right outside of Old Town Square. There are some great little food stands around the area and a street market that sells all sorts of cool things (be expecting some knick-knacky souveniers). Then after that we basically just wandered around aimlessly and just admired the architecture, and got some great pictures on Nicole's camera. Unfortunately, my camera seems to be giving up a little bit, so I might have to invest in another one sometime soon while I'm here!
Lastly, we ended the day with dinner in a typical Czech restaurant in the middle of Old Town, followed by a very very chilly walk down the Charles Bridge. Even though my whole body basically went numb from the cold, it was definitely worth it to look out over the bridge and see the city entirely lit up. So beautiful!
We've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow, and it's about 10:20 pm now, so I'm gonna try and get as much sleep as possible!

Me, walking through Old Town Square

Testing, testing...

Just trying to test out the blog, see how this whole thing works.
I have discovered that I own WAY too much clothes, and it makes this process of packing for a 4 month trip even harder. I'm trying as hard as I can, though, to listen to everyone's advice and not overpack. However, I did come up with a brilliant idea to work around that:  Jumbo-sized Ziploc bags! They are quickly becoming one of my new favorite things. The trick is to shove as many clothes as you can in there and then squeeze all the air out of the bag, and it's just like a vacuum-sealed bag. It's saving a lot of space, and allowing me to bring more clothes! Woo hoo!

I can't believe I'm leaving in 4 days! It's crazy! I'm getting nervous, but I'm still so excited to get over there. So much to do before then, and so little time. AH!