get me OUT of these Czech classes!

UGH when will they end? (this Friday!!!)

I'll admit it, I've been kinda down and out of late (ever since Friday's cell phone debacle), and I really haven't known why. It's that annoying tired feeling, where you don't feel like anything is particularly exciting, and that fact really frustrates you because hey, you're in Prague, things should be exciting! This Czech course, while I'm definitely learning something new, moves at a snail's pace because the language is so complicated. So I only have so many more things I can allow my mind to focus on while our teacher describes all 14 cases of a certain group of adjectives.

Today, though, I think I figured out the source of my problem. During a short break, our Czech language teacher told us she was studying for her PhD at Charles University, and she was studying Fairy Tales. SO COOL! I immediately went into "Evan-is-a-major-nerd" mode and asked her if she had looked into fairy tale motifs in film (something I talked about a bunch in a class). While the whole class laughed at me, I got really excited about something for the first time in a long time, and we talked briefly about what she studies (interpretations of fairy tales across cultures. neat!) and how those motifs go into so many media forms.

An intellectual conversation! An exchange of words that didn't have to do with finding out what school someone goes to, what their major is, what sorority they're in, and whether they like Lost or Grey's. It was really refreshing, and it made me realize how much I miss going to school. Wow, I can't believe I said that, and it's true. I'm incredibly excited for our classes to start on Monday (the syllabus for one of my classes looks SWEET!).

My awkward mood was only exacerbated by my on-again-off-again relationship with other people in this program. It has been very comforting to hear from both JC (my Prague expert) and Lisa (my all-things-travel expert) that they too had issues with people on their programs. Everyone here is really nice, don't get me wrong...but it just doesn't seem worth the huge effort to try to become "in" with the crowd. So I'm attempting to become comfortable with the fact that I'll probably do a lot of my traveling alone (some of it with Dan, hopefully).

But it got better today. I wanted to go to Munich for my birthday weekend (in two weeks) and couldn't find anyone to go with me. So I was going to go alone (JC promises I wouldn't be celebrating alone if I went. But it still wasn't ideal). I was really happy today when I lamented about it, only to find a friend was going to Krakow that weekend with a group, and would I like to come along? Of course. So I may be doing that, which would be great.

I've also decided to take some other advice to heart. JC told me not to spend more than an hour at a time at home, and since he said it, I've been feeling guilty every time I find myself looking for something to do around the house. So starting tomorrow, I'm going to find somewhere new in Prague every day I have some time. Tomorrow, it's the old Jewish ghetto. Sunday, some museum. From there, I haven't made plans.