In Prague

So the apartments we're living in are nicer than anywhere I've lived in recent memory. They also happen to be in a neighborhood with the most pubs per capita, of anywhere in the world. A beer that's more like three costs about a dollar. Everything is so easy that it's a little hard to believe that I'm outside of America —it's certainly nothing like Nepal. While the down pillows and huge bathtub make it less of an adventure in my eyes, I'm sure I can adjust my expectations and just let myself enjoy. An adventure doesn't need to involve sitting on dirt floors and eating with your hands, but the Sephora down the street is actually a little disheartening. The joke I often make about what I want to do with my life is that I want to save the world while wearing cashmere. In Prague, I'm neither trying to save nor trying to advance my goal of saving, I'm just walking down beautiful boulevards and taking pictures —quite literally.

While here, I'm taking three classes. One is fieldtrips; the grade is based upon the journal we keep on those trips. The second is twelve lectures and a final. The third is independent research with a budget. Our trips take us to castles, spa towns, vineyards, the bvercherova (national drink) factory and more —tough times ahead. It's funny after Nepal to do something group oriented, organized, hand-holding. I didn't even have the experience of finding myself across a new city on the metro. But I'm going to try to embrace the structure and ease of traveling with a set agenda. I'm going to to try once again to become someone who can be both calm and productive. The workload is light, there's a beautiful city on my doorstep, a park to run in, a yoga studio downtown. And if I spend some time this weekend alone, wandering, observing, getting lost, always taking the strangest of my possible paths, I'm sure I can find a corner of the world that I would never see with a map and a group. Then there's some hope for adventure.