Searching for Myself

Well, well, well, where do I even begin? Let's start with yesterday. I got to sleep in until 9, and Jenny and I began work on the schedule for the camp right away. She left to go look at the apartment that some of the other leaders are going to have to stay at while they are here in Prague. It's about 30 minutes from Prague by metro (subway) in the opposite direction from us, which makes it about an hour away. While she was gone I mostly completed the two week schedule, giving the students plenty of breaks and plenty of time to work on the projects for the universities that will be seeing their work. Now, I need to think of night activities and figure out what projects will be done on what day. I'll definitely have to use input from the other leaders when they arrive tomorrow.

When Jenny came back, I had to go to the city to meet with Jaro (pronounced Yaro) about the agenda I completed. He gave me a lot of feedback about what camp should look like: time should be organized in a way that is structured, but needs to be flexible enough to give the kids the feeling that they are at a summer camp and not school. Furthermore, he emphasized that the schedule is going to have balanced correctly to give them a lot of motivation, especially during long periods of work. It's a delicate balance between work and play, but I think I can do it right. I'm excited to see how the first camp goes and how much the agenda changes (or doesn't).

After my meeting with Jaro at the AIESEC offices, he invited me to grab a quick bite to eat, and actually bought me my food. After talking with him more, it turns out, he's working for Pricewaterhouse Coopers in their audit department. He was originally was on track for their advisory department (I'm working for KPMG Advisory), but the financial crisis hit and it was either audit or unemployment, so he chose audit. After dinner, we went to this awesome beer garden on the other side of the Vlatva River. It was a little bit of a hike to get to because after we crossed the bridge we had to walk up a really tall hill. At the top, the beer garden looked over the entire city of Prague. The sun was setting and the spires were lit in hues of orange and red. Great scenery, great beer, and lots of fun.

Although they invited me out to a disco afterwards, I was unable to attend because I had my laptop, backpack, poor clothing, and Jenny's house keys (otherwise I would’ve loved to join them). When I got home, Jenny offered me wine and we sat outside on the patio enjoying the summer night. I showed her how to find satellites in the night sky, which is my favorite thing to do while I stargaze. Jenny's friend and fellow AIESECer Michelle came over around 1-2 AM and we played cards and had more wine. I soon found out that the sun rises at 4 AM in Czech Republic and we made our way to bed shortly afterwards.

I woke up this morning at 10 AM with Michelle telling me to get up and get ready to go before we missed the train. I had forgotten I told her I would go with her and her friend to the Czech National Bank the night before and although we were both tired, I knew we had to go together. We got to the train station and both of us were in pretty poor shape. Tired, not showered, and wearing the same clothes as the day before, I was clearly a mess. When we got to Prague, we got a slice of pizza from the train station (it was OK, but nowhere near NYC standards), and walked to the Czech National Bank. When we arrived, the line was out the door and around the block. Since today is some kind of Czech national holiday (kind of) the bank was giving free tours and it looked like all of Prague wanted to take advantage of that. There was no way the three of us were going to wait in the long line in the sweltering heat, so we decided to go somewhere nice and enjoy an ice cream: so we went to McDonalds!

I had a McFlurry with Michelle and Martin (different than the one who picked me up from the airport). Martin leaves soon for London to begin his AIESEC internship and he recently spent some time in the US. He told me that the Prague Castle is having a similar special and that I should go there, so after the McFlurry we parted ways and I headed across the famous Charles Bridge toward the Prague Castle. After crossing the bridge, I bought an over-priced tourist water because it was about as hot as Hades and I began walking to the castle. Prague Castle is the largest castle in the world, with beautiful gardens and the St. Vitus Cathedral, but it sits on top of a hill that overlooks Prague. When I made it to the castle, I went in the walls and through the courtyards. Apparently you still had to buy tickets to get in the buildings, so I went to the only free thing, St. Vitus Cathedral. This church is huge, awesome, and beautiful. It is a Roman Catholic cathedral, which holds tombs of kings, and has towering pillars inside along with a beautiful stained glass rose window and other adornments. The church has roots back to 925 AD, and the current cathedral was built in 1344, so it’s quite old.

Here’s when things get good. After the cathedral, I walked around the grounds more and made my way back to Prague. I got to the train station by tram and missed the train by about 2 minutes, so I waited for an hour for the next one. I was so tired, so overheated, so miserable by this point, I couldn’t even deal with myself. Sitting on the bench, my exhaustion caught up with me and I was so uncomfortable I could only close my eyes and wait. When the train got to the station, I jumped on to have some refuge from the heat and closed my eyes. Closing my eyes turned into a nice little power nap, and when I woke up, I was pleased to see the train had taken off. At the next stop, I looked out the window and enjoyed the beautiful Czech scenery, with the Vlatva River winding calmly next to the train. And then I realized, I didn’t recognize this countryside. And when we stopped at the next stop, I looked down the isle at the flashing sign that shows the next stop. Sure enough, I had slept right through my stop and was on my way to who knows where. I got off to find myself in a nice little village town with no terminal, just tracks and boarding platforms. I walked under the tracks to the other side and sat down alone at the empty station. By now, I was fed up with the heat, but luckily the hills provided shade on my side of the tracks. But now I began to wonder how long it is going to take for the next train, what am I going to do about a ticket, and a flurry of other questions. Of course, I have no phone service or wireless and there really isn’t anyone around besides some townspeople working on their houses nearby. Most Czech people over 35 don’t speak any English, so I knew it was pointless to ask them.

Naturally, I pulled out my cell phone and began to play games, listened to music, and I even wrote the first half of this blog. The train had to come eventually. I ended up waiting another hour before the next train arrived, taking me back to my stop and thankfully with no conductor to ask me for my ticket. When I walked in the door, I had a splitting headache and I was about two shades tanner from being outside all day. All I could think of on the walk home from the station was, “Good job Regis, now you really have something to tell everyone” and here I am. I took a two hour nap, and after waking up I asked Jenny what where doing tonight. I get what I deserve, because I had asked Jenny earlier if we could go out Saturday night and here it is, Saturday night and she’s got the evening planned for us, and I’m getting lost on trains after staying up to ungodly hours the night before…and I am the future of America. Don’t worry, this doesn’t happen often... (or does it?)

Stay tuned for more stories!