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!
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