Has it been 2 weeks already?

Class. Class. Prague. Dresden. Prague. Olomouc. Since my last blog entry on March 20th we started our official class schedule that will fill up time between our group trips. As many of us have coined it, "it's not so much classes, it's something that we have to be at in the mornings." Our day normally begins around 7:30 in the morning when the roommate and myself attempt to wake up through alarms and pressing the snooze button several times to avoid the inevitable fact that we will have to pull our ass out of bed and get ready for class.

After our zombie routine, we haul out to catch the tram that takes us to the center of Olomouc by 8:15, for our Czech language class that begins at precisely at 8:45-ish, or whenever the last person walks through the door. In our Czech language class, we are going over the basics of the language without really learning the basics. It's like learning to drive with a blindfold..yeah, you might hit some shit and cause some damage, but eventually you'll get it. Our professor, Tomas, pronounced Toe-mosh, essentially smiles the whole class period, but we all know he is cursing us on the inside for our inept ability to pronounce the words. At the end of the class, he always announces that "time is coming," and everyone snickers like pre-teen school children.

I can only hope that time is wearing protection.

After our language class ends at roughly 9:45 am, we sit through an hour and a half of a painstaking lecture by different professors that are from either here in Olomouc, or from surrounding areas such as Prague. I would love to describe to you what we have learned thus far but I was too busy thinking how much I would rather drink antifreeze than listen to how the Czech Republic ousted communism and it's inception in the European Union. Needless to say, I spend the entire time taking a few notes here, zoning out once or twice, but mostly drawing inanimate crap on my paper. These lectures are long and monotonous, but thank God they are in English. However, some of these professors still have a very thick accent, so understanding of the words is hard to come by when you're half asleep dreaming of life outside of the University. Our professor today pronounced the word "focused" and it sounded as if he said "fuck you" and it got a tiny laugh from the peanut gallery. These are the things we looks forward during lectures to provide any sense of entertainment.

After the lecture is over, the group is free to roam the city. Four to five times during the semester, we have an afternoon lecture that begins at 3 pm, but other than that, we are free to spend the rest of the day sleeping, shopping, eating, or drinking. And many of the people in the group prefer the latter in mass quantities. Anything from beer to vodka to absinth has been consumed immediately after class, setting up the group for a myriad of fun later that night.

Class was on hiatus this week as the group took it's first trip, a three day rendezvous to Prague, with one day in Dresden, Germany squeezed into the Prague sandwich. On Thursday morning we loaded onto the train at roughly 9 am to make our way to Prague, which is located about three hours to the west of Olomouc. This was my first train ride, at least that I can remember, and I must say that I enjoyed it. It was relatively smooth and allowed you to see parts of the country that you wouldn't see otherwise. The train arrived in Prague, or Praha, at about noon and we were led to the hostel that we would call home from the next three nights. The hostel was tucked away in the bowels of Prague, a hop, skip, and a jump away from marijuana and cocaine dealers. We had to enter some passageway and the hostel could be found a few meters inside.

My first impression of Prague was that it was one giant shopping mall. The part of Prague we stayed in could be confused for shopping centers all over the world, Nike store over here, clothing stores over there, and everything inbetween. A person could easily blow hundreds of dollars in this location, as long as you avoid the cocaine dealers. I keep mentioning these drug dealers because there seems to be an abundance of them swarming the tourists in Prague. It's the most subtle move ever.

Drugie: "Do you speak English?"
Unsuspecting Tourist: "Yeah, why?"
Drugie: "You want some weed, maybe coke?"

Unsuspecting Tourist: "What, are you serious?"

And they vanish into the alley like a crackhead Batman. Anyways, we were only bothered a couple times to purchase drugs. The first day in Prague we walked across the city, over the Charles Bridge, a bridge only open to foot traffic and street vendors. We made our way up a massive hill to a castle...that we wouldn't be visiting until the next day. Smart. I know, right? Regardless, at the top of this hill, just short of the castle we were able to take some breathtaking shots of the Prague skyline, which extended as far as the eye could see. The rest of the day was free for us to shop and look around. My night ended early after walking around for hours searching for shit I wasn't going to buy.

The next day was our trek back to the castle. We woke up that morning (I say we and I mean my roommates for the trip, Kane, Caleb, and Cody) and went to go get an American breakfast at McDonald's. You can never have too much American. Anyways, after our climb to the castle, we got to wait in a very large line to enter. At 125 Czech crowns (their currency), this place has got to be pulling in some serious coin. The castle was enormous and provided for many picture opportunities, which will be available once I get a computer to download them onto. The rest of the day was free to rummage through the city and blow money on. I ended up getting a postcard for Laine to send to her and made my way back to the hostel. Another early night for Garrett.

The next morning we got on the 9:05 am train to Dresden, Germany. Apparently, Dresden is a city in Germany that the Allied Forces made their bitch in World War II. Tired of Germans bombing English cities, these Allied Forces decided to exact some revenge by attacking this military hub during the early 40's. Essentially the forces came in waves. The first wave was small explosives, to break windows and move foundations, to create instability. The next wave was giant fire bombs, which engulfed the city in flames. The next wave dropped more explosives and then the damage was too much to control. Temperatures were so hot, that people caught on the street or in buildings combusted into dust. It was estimated that these flames reached 1000 degrees Celsius. Anyways, the city that we saw on Saturday was a town that had to be completely rebuilt after the second World War, but it still had the look of an old European city, using the architectural styles of the early 1900's. We arrived in the city at around noon, possibly, and made our way directly to the town center, which happened to be a church with a status of Martin Luther in front of it. A quick tour of the church left us with two hours before we were to meet again to take our final tour. A few of us had lunch at a local restaurant and it was pretty good. I shopped around for a little bit, buying another postcard for Laine and a mini-beer stein shot glass for my sister. I spent the rest of the time taking photos, trying to capture the lore of the city.

Our final tour in Dresden was of an art museum, not my cup of tea. We had two and a half hours to look at these pieces of work and I was done after 20 minutes and outside taking pictures of the surrounding area, attempting to bring out my artistic side. I took a couple of pictures that I really like and will eventually get those on here. During my excursion outside, I saw a married couple getting wedding/engagement photos in the courtyard, some other girl with her own photographer, and people from all walks of life enjoying a beautiful day. As the group met up again, it was time to get back on the train and head back to Prague for the night. Another early night for me with no partying involved.

The next morning we met at 10 am, well, we met at 10:15 after a very frustrating experience at McDonald's where I watched eight people order their food after me and walk out the door with food in hand and me ready to break something. Anyways, we made our way to a Jewish cemetery/memorial part of town where we looked at Jewish remnants left from the second World War, as well as a Jewish cemetery with tombstones piled on top of tombstones. It was quite the scene. After the cemetery, we were free to roam the city until 2:40 pm, the time we were supposed to meet up and head to the train station. After a walk in the rain, we made our way to a pizza shop to eat before we left. We boarded the train at 3 and it was goodbye Prague and hello what we call home. Our train pulled into Olomouc around 6 pm. The end of a very fun trip and my first excursion into another country besides the Czech Republic.

That night I decided to do laundry for the first time and, let me tell you, it was so emotionally frustrating. First of all, the basements of these buildings we live in have one washing machine. One. Not a bank of them, nor are there any dryers. One load of laundry, correctly done, takes three hours to get done, if you don't want clothes that feel like you just swam in the Atlantic. Anyways, after three miserable hours and two loads of laundry done, you have to hang them up on your balcony and hope they dry. Ugh, I will never take a washer and dryer in the States for granted again.

Anyways, a late night on the computer talking to Laine ended my weekend and we had class this morning, which I could care less about. One funny moment was when our advisor asked us how our weekend went. A few sheepish answers were faded out when I said "bonerrific" a little louder than I wanted to say it. The advisor repeated the word back and it made me laugh for a good five minutes. I don't think she knows what it is.

I am still without a computer and it is growing more frustrating each day. I am thankful that my roommate lets me use his to get stuff done, but I am dying for the day I get a working computer again. My dad sent me a new hard drive to replace the shit one in my laptop now, along with my external hard drive with all of my photos, documents, music on it, and it is nowhere to be found. Needless to say I am beyond freaked out. It has been sitting in customs in Prague since March 21st and I don't know what to do about it. I got a letter from the Prague post office today, as it had been sitting in the office since last week. The entire letter is in Czech and no one can tell me what it says. I got the gray copy of the receipt that my dad filled out to send the package, so I don't know what's going on. I was told to go back in tomorrow to check on what they could find out for me. I'll travel to Prague and demand the god damn package myself if they aren't going to send it.

Anyways, I feel this has been long enough and that you are probably getting tired of reading. Pictures will be coming soon. I miss all of you back in States and I hope you're staying safe and STD-free. Until next time, stay classy, United States.

Feeling the lag

As I type this to you, I am currently sitting in a near empty lobby, looking out of a window at the pitch-black night as time creeps up on midnight in Olomouc. It's a Saturday night, shouldn't I be out having the time of my life? I sit here wondering that and I must admit, if I wasn't feeling jet lag before this weekend, I sure am now. This weekend has seen me falling asleep at 11 pm last night and more of the same tonight once this lobby closes at midnight and I am forced to stop watching my beloved March Madness games.

Now once my roommate and I get internet service in our room, I can be on as late as I desire, so that will be nice. But as for now, I am attempting to squeeze this post in before they shut off the lights and kick me out. This will be a quick update for those of you following my progress here in the Czech Republic.

The past two days have been absolutely beautiful, as opposed to the weather I heard about back in Omaha. It has been in the 50-60 degree range with some light winds and the warmth has continued into the night, making walks and wandering easy to do. Yesterday, our group had its second Czech language class followed by our first lecture about Central vs. Eastern Europe and just where exactly we thought we were. I was trying to pick up on the meaning of the lecture as it pertained to our trip, but the pieces just weren't fitting..the wheel was spinning, but the hamster was dead. Anyways, upon the completion of our lecture, a few of us went to one of my favorite restaurants called Husa. I order the Fettuccine Malianese, which is essentially chicken alfredo. It is a large portion and tastes quite good when you're craving it. After lunch, we came back to the dorm and split up to do various activities. I walked to Globus to purchase a couple of laundry baskets and walked back, jamming on my iPod both ways.

I don't care if I looked like a spaz.

Anyways, I spent almost the rest of the night watching NCAA basketball on the internet in the lobby, taking time out to have dinner in a cellar-type location. Great atmosphere, a pure "Czech" restaurant. After that I came back, had a couple shots of vodka with some flat mates and then called it a night after I passed out. I woke up around 6:30 am and hit the lobby for some internet action, to check the rest of the scores from the following night. I went back to bed around 7:30 am and woke up again at 11 am, looking forward to renting some bikes and riding around town. Much to our dismay, the bike shop closed at noon and we were running late. Whoops.

So instead of riding bikes, we walked around the square and stopped at a local pizzeria where we gobbled down some delicious pepperoni pizza. It had very thin crust, however, so it did little for the appetite. From there, my roommate and new friends, Samantha and Valerie, took a scenic route through Olomouc, walking through the more neighborhood part of town, rather than the downtown/shop aspect. Along the way we ran into small bars and even a locally owned winery, where a famous artist was drinking wine. I had some win myself and I must say, I think that will be the last time I drink urine.

Anyways, we continued on our walk home and managed to find our way back while enjoying the company of one another, taking in the city as we traveled. From there, I spent the rest of the afternoon on the phone with my mom, watching basketball and talking on Facebook. And now, here I am, 11:56 at night and the lobby about to close. Tomorrow should be rather uneventful and Monday will be our first official full day of classes. But until then, may your brackets be blessed and I hope you are all enjoying the snow, I sure as hell don't miss it.

As the schedule heats up..so does the weather

Hello everyone and welcome to my second installment of "Garrett's Adventures In the Czech Republic." Last time we spoke, I was coming off of a great party that didn't end until 4 am and, well, this time I am writing after a great party that didn't end until 4 am.

Now, when I say "end" at 4 am, I don't mean the party ended at that time. That is the time that I had to tap out and say "no more." The dancing was still raging on by the time I left the club with dead feet, ringing ears, and a sweat soaked shirt. I don't know how these people do it. It seems as though they have a party every single night that NEVER ends. I must admit though, that I love it. I love being able to just spend the night, a weeknight nonetheless, with a group of growing good friends and turn it into memories that will last a lifetime.

I will admit, I'm not the greatest dancer, but last night I was "en fuego" (or "on fire" for those of you who no absolutely no Spanish). I was bustin' moves even I didn't know I had and displaying them for that club to see, whether they liked it or not. I was so dehydrated and sweaty, I felt like I had just run a marathon in dress shoes and a tie. It was a great time, even if the rest of the group did bail on my roommate and I early, just like they did on Monday night. It's whatever, we know we are warriors and it will continue to be that way until the day we leave on that plane back to the States.

I do miss the United States. I miss the currency, I miss the routine that I had become accustomed to, but most of all, I miss the English language. While I am embracing the differences that do exist over here, it is so frustrating to have questions, but in order to get them answered, I need to pray the person who can answer them, knows just a little bit of English. We have taken our first two Czech language classes and I have learned a little bit. I have learned how to say hello (ahoj) and where are you from (odkud jsi), but the rest is filling in slowly. I can tell it will be difficult to piece together the puzzle that is the Czech language, but I know I can do it, especially after taking four years of Spanish.

I know you are asking yourself, 'Hey, Garrett..I thought you went overseas to study and do schoolwork, not party?" I assure you, we are just about to start lectures next week and we are already beginning our language classes. Take that, naysayers. Anyways, to kind of recap the past two days:

Yesterday started out good. It was St. Patty's Day and I had just gotten seven hours of sleep. We woke up and hit the tram to go take a tour of city hall. Once we were in city hall, we learned a lot about the history of Olomouc and then got to climb the clock tower where we were treated with a bird's eye view of the city. It was breathtaking, nonetheless. Pictures will be posted as soon as I get my computer fixed. From there, we had a lunch break where I had roast beef and potato dumplings. It was exactly like salisbury steak, but it was damn good. Once we finished lunch, we headed to Globus, a humongous Wal-Mart type place a few blocks away from our dorms. I purchased some chocolate, apples, bananas, pringles and other goods to munch on in the room. From Globus, I hurried back to my room because it was 2 pm and I had class at 3..I had to call my dad to let him know I needed a hard drive mailed to me for my computer. I made class at 3 and after that was relaxing and the aforementioned party.

Today has been laid back. After getting home at 3 am, I read a little bit of my book and hit the sheets to wake up at 8 am. I had brackets to fill out. We were to meet at the University courtyard at 10 am to get initiated with the library. This turned out to be a 15-minute tour and we were set free until our language class at 3 pm..what a waste of sleep. It was, however, the nicest day yet here in the Czech Republic. The temperature got up to about 55, maybe warmer, and I was able to bust out the shorts and feel really comfortable. The group had lunch at McDonald's and then it was back to Globus to get things I forgot yesterday. After that, I hit the room for a quick nap before our class and now here I am, typing to you and watching some NCAA basketball on the internet, since I am missing it in the States.

Well, I'm gonna keep watching basketball and then enjoy a quiet night in my room. I miss you all and hope you miss me too. God bless!

The First Encounters

Oh how the time is flying here in Europe. Hello everybody, welcome to the up and down adventures of Garrett Ritonya in the Czech Republic. Sorry I didn't blog it up yesterday, but circumstances and time kept me from sharing with you what I did during my time here thus far. I last left you with myself getting ready to depart for the airport for what turned out to be the longest day of my life. We departed from Omaha at 12:30, due to the plane being overweight and imbalanced from top to bottom. To correct this, they had to move carryons from the bottom to the cabin of the plane and if they couldn't accomplish this, then people were going to have to be kicked off.

Their final solution?

All of the bags on the flight that were going internationally (mine) could stay on the plane. But for those who were making domestic flights within the US, their bags would be re-routed on different flights. Definitely a sure-fire clusterfuck to start off the trip. I did get to sit in the first row and enjoy some extra leg room. In no time, about an hour to be exact, we were landing in Minneapolis and preparing for our next flight. A few of us stopped at a Subway near our gate and as we were finishing our last bite, a student came to inform us that they were currently boarding the plane and that we were the last ones left. Whoops. Well it was about time for my first-ever trans-Atlantic flight, and I must say, it was one of the best flights I have ever had. The flight covered roughly 5100 miles from Minneapolis to Amsterdam, but there was entertainment all around you in the form of a small 7-10 inch screen on the headrest in front of you. On this screen you could find everything from movies, to television shows, to music, to games, to business talk.

First I watched The Blindside. I can see why everyone says this is a good movie. I really enjoyed the storyline and the performances of the actors, definitely a deserving candidate for best movie. After listening to music for a little bit on the screen, I saw that they also had Law Abiding Citizen on file, so I watched that for the fourth time and it was just as good as the first. I must admit that during this movie, I started fading in and out of sleep. I got to the point to where I turned the movie off so I could sleep and restart it again. So after my sleep/movie time, I looked for something to do, and that came in the form of dinner that was served to us on the flight. I remember choosing chicken and it wasn't that bad, especially the chocolate chip cookie bar. The guy sitting next to me was in some type of Australian get-up, wearing a leather vest and some type of boomerang cowboy hat. He didn't talk much. So after dinner in the sky, I decided to take a stab at Inglorious Basterds. I must admit that I only watched a quarter of the movie and stopped because I just could not follow it anymore. My next viewing adventure came when I found the plane had a Family Guy episode, Meals on Wheels, where Peter opens a restaurant and it becomes inhibited by cripples, much to his dismay. I lost track of time, but the plane had a cool feature on it where you could view a map of just where you were in the sky, kinda cool. Anyways, I ended up reading a little bit of my book by Rick Reilly and had breakfast and before I knew it, it was 5:30 am and we were landing in Amsterdam.

With a second burst of energy, it was only 11:30 at home, we were on our plane to Prague. Nothing interesting happened here and the three hour bus ride from Prague to Olomouc was very uneventful. We got to the city at roughly 3 pm local time here and moved into our dorm rooms. I'm rooming with a fifth year senior from Wilbur, Neb, named Kane. He currently attends the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a blast to be around in the room. The rooms are small, with two very stiff beds, a small fridge, some shelving and one desk. In the middle of our pod is a kitchen, with three more rooms surrounding it, accompanied by two bathrooms.

Our first adventure was to find food. We ended up hitting up a pizzeria and I ordered a ham, sausage, and egg pizza, good way to start off the trip. We then hit up a couple more places before coming back to the dorms, tired as all hell. I sucked up it, however, to hit the bars with a group of friends, drinking shots and partying it up. We hit up a local club and had a good time dancing and goofing around until we left at 3:45 am..we had orientation at 9:15 that morning. So we set our alarm for 8:20 am and it went off at that time.

Or what we thought was that time.

Apparently the clock I brought from home is now running slow. So for each 4 minutes or so, it would lose a minute of time. So when we woke up at 8:30, it was actually 9:30, but luckily they were waiting for us downstairs in the lobby. From there we had an orientation meeting at the University. An hour or so of blabbing, I was drawing pictures in the back. After that meeting it was off to find lunch and take photos for our tram passes. Everything in this city runs through a tram system. So we got our pictures and three of us went to find a place to eat. After an unsuccessful attempt, we hit up a hamburger stand on the street. It was here that I separated from the group and came back to the dorms to put on longer pants and grab my camera. It was 1 pm and we were to meet back at the University at 1:45 to go on a tour. I grabbed my camera and gloves and got back on the tram at 1:30.

I don't remember how to get back to the University.

So after going too far, I walked and walked and walked, eventually retracing my steps back to the University to get me there at about 2:10 pm. No group. So I looked and looked and looked, but nothing. So I walked back to the center and waited until 3 pm with no luck. By now I was so cold I decided to head back to the dorms and call this day a loss. I slept until 8 pm and here I am now, typing to you.

I forgot to mention that last night, the hard drive in my computer crashed, sending me into a panic, because now I have no laptop. I find it frustrating not being able to contact anybody here if you are lost, because we don't have phones. The biggest barrier here has to be the language. Almost all of the vendors speak no English and it's impossible to ask questions and get answers. I feel this will be a problem until the day I leave. As for now, I'm going to work on my computer and let my roommate have his computer back. Until then, wait for pictures and I will gladly post them once I have them. We have a tour tomorrow at 10 am and then a class at 3. Tomorrow night there is a St. Patty Day's toga party at 9:30 pm that we are attending. Thursday we make our first group trip to Prague.

I miss all of you back at home and I can't wait to be back, but for now, I am going to enjoy my time here. God bless and check back soon!

Ready for Takeoff

Well, it is nearing that time where I must pack my life away into two suitcases and a carryon, shovel those items inside of a car and drive to the airport. This is where my future awaits me. Today is the beginning of my semester studying abroad in the city of Olomouc in the Czech Republic, and I have mixed emotions as I type this entry into my blog this morning. I still have materials to pack and papers to print off before I am to arrive at the airport in 72 minutes. But really, who's counting? I am not the biggest fan of flying, especially trans-Atlantic flights, as this will be my first. I can normally handle short two-to-three hour departures, but needless to say this is my total trip:

Omaha to Minneapolis - Noon to 1:20 p.m.

Minneapolis to Amsterdam - 3;30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.

Amsterdam to Prague - 7:25 a.m. to 9 a.m.

Prague to Olomouc - ?

So needless to say, I am looking at a 19-hour adventure today that will take me from the midwest, where the weather is overcast and the mornings are brisk, to the middle of Europe, where...the weather is overcast and the mornings are brisk. Well, it'll be like I never left home. To all of my family and friends who will be following this during my time abroad, I wish you the best in all that you do while I am gone; I will truly miss your company and companionship while I'm overseas. It will be difficult adjusting to life with family so far away, but it will be good to learn how to manage my life on my own. I will be updating this blog with entries everyday (at least I will try) with my encounters and my experiences through my typing and my photographs.

Well, I must be getting the final preparations made before we leave and I say goodbye to my family for the final time for just over 10 weeks. To the rest of you, keep me in your prayers and in your thoughts as I put my life in the hands of a big piece of metal with propellers.

Update later once we make our arrival in Europe. God bless.