Prague Blog

   I have had an incredible week in Germany. However, between all of the city tours, museum excursions and interesting lectures, there has hardly been a moment to stop and smell the metaphorical European roses. My feet were tired from trekking through city after city, and I hadn't had a decent night's sleep all week. Needless to say, I was really looking forward to relaxing over the weekend in Prague, Czech Republic.

   A group of nine TAMU students, myself included, spent five hours on the train from Berlin to Prague, and by the time we exited the train I was just itching to quickly get to the hotel, shower, and go to sleep. And stay asleep. For a long time. Sometimes my naivete surprises even me...

   For one thing, none of us had ever traveled to Prague before. We were as unfamiliar with the tram/metro system as we were with the Czech language. It occurred to me finally, as the nine of us stood looking around the almost empty subway station, how very unprepared we were to visit Prague.

   Thanks to my sensible fellow Aggies, Google maps, and mostly the good Lord above, we managed to get to our hotel safely, via the subway and about 20 minutes of walking. The EuroStar David Hotel was fancier than we expected considering its fair price, although we were so happy to have made it there safely that we barely noticed until the next day!

   We spent our free day wandering kind of aimlessly around the city, stopping here and there for souvenirs and food. Every restaurant seemed to serve cheeseburgers, which I think is great. The strangest part of eating at restaurants in Prague is the sheer number of languages into which the menus are translated. At one restaurant, you could read off the specials in Czech, Russian, Spanish, and English. The default language in Prague is clearly English, and I often observed strangers from non-English-speaking countries communicating in English. I wondered what things would be like if the lingua franca was Mandarin, Russian, or German instead.

   I also thought about how much easier it is for us, as native English-speakers, to travel abroad. In so many places, we don't have to learn the native language to successfully travel. I see so many people politely converting to English to communicate, and I feel very humbled. I also feel like I should continue studying French, and maybe start another language, too. Being mono-lingual is a disadvantage in our globalized world, and one we Americans hardly suffer because English happens to be the language of business and trade.

   On the train back to Hannover, I conversed (in English) with a young Egyptian man traveling to Leipzig to teach Arabic to German university students. He explained that the political turmoil in Egypt led him to leave, and again I was struck and humbled by my incredibly blessed life.

   I am studying abroad by choice, and at the end of two and a half wonderful weeks I can return home to a safe country. THAT is truly a blessing.