Home in America

It's now June 9th, and I have been home for approximately 10 days now.  It's so weird to be back in America!  I never thought that I would experience culture shock going back to my own home country, but the culture shock is hitting me almost as hard as it was when I first got to Europe.  Some things are so nice to be able to come home to, like the restaurants that I love, as well as the little things like free ketchup and free water.  I really do miss Europe though, I really miss the culture there as well as constantly exploring new places and learning new things about the world.  I absolutely cannot wait to go back! I'm going to start saving with my first paycheck so that I can go back again either next summer or the summer after. It's unreal how big of an impact that traveling Europe had on me for only being over there for three months... I feel like a completely different person now than I did before I left. 

For future study abroad students, believe me when I say that you are in for the best three months of your entire life.  You will gain a whole new perspective of the world and yourself, and you will definitely change as a person (for the better) because of the incredible new places that you are about to go and because of the amazing experiences that you are about to go through.  Don't get me wrong, there will definitely be some really rough times, like when the airlines lose your bag for a few days, or when you start to really miss everyone from back home. However, the good times make all of that completely okay, and the few rough times that you go through will make you a stronger and better person.  Have the time of your life! Here are some helpful tips that might make your experience a little bit better.

1.  DO NOT TAKE AN ONLINE COURSE WHILE YOU ARE STUDYING ABROAD!
      I took business stats online while I was abroad, and that was without a doubt one of the worst decisions that I have ever made in my academic career.  You are studying abroad for the experience, while yes school does still matter, don't make it all that matters. Get out and experience everything that you can, after all that is why you decided to study abroad isn't it?

2.  Travel as much as possible!
     There will be plenty of time for you to travel on your own, take advantage of it!  While Olomouc is a fun and cultural place to be, you should try to travel as much as possible on the weekends and on breaks.  Trust me, the travel that you do on your own time will help to make for the experience of a lifetime. 

3.  Say yes!

  When a new opportunity presents itself, don't be nervous or shy, just do it!  While in Croatia we did a lot of activities that some people might get nervous about, like renting a little motor boat and taking it out onto the Adriatic Sea, but those memories will become some of your favorite memories of the entire trip.  I don’t mean to go out and make clearly stupid decisions, but what I do mean is to go out and try something that you probably never have done before.  So go out, have fun, do things that you normally wouldn’t do, and make memories to make it the trip of a lifetime.

Last Day in Olomouc

I can't believe that the end is almost here.  I have learned so much over the past couple of months, not just about the Czech Republic, but the world as whole and even more importantly about myself.  These last eleven weeks have without a doubt been some of the most important weeks of my life.  I really wish that everyone could be as lucky/blessed as me and be able to experience something like this in their lifetime.  I can honestly say that I have learned more in the last eleven weeks than I have in years.
Traveling to new places so often and experiencing new things has without a doubt helped me to grow into a more educated, cultural, and all around person since I have arrived in Europe.  I wish that I could keep doing this forever; although I really am starting to miss family and friends from back home.  This trip has taught me a lot about myself and what I want to do with my future.  I really hope to come back over here soon, even if it’s just for a couple of weeks just to be able to relive some of my favorite memories and to be able to experience some of the places that I haven’t been able to travel to yet. 
It’s really weird that tomorrow morning I will have to be saying goodbye to the city that I have been calling home.  It feels like just yesterday I was getting off the bus here being checked into my room, and now tomorrow I already have to check out.  I will definitely miss this quiet, interesting, and fun little city that I have been fortunate enough to call home for the last couple of months.  I will still be in Europe for the next 13 days, but I will be traveling the Bohemia region of the Czech Republic for the next 5 days and then traveling to Croatia and soaking up some sun before heading back home to the States.  It is just so weird to me that I am already having to say goodbye to my city of Olomouc!

Locals (3)

The character of Olomouc is really unlike any other city that I have been to.  The people here for the most part are really nice, and the ones that speak English are even nicer. Most of the people are really helpful; however, at times the language barrier can be really frustrating to deal with.  However, it is usually possible to communicate main ideas to people who speak little to no English with a little bit of time and patience.  Most food establishments usually have at least one employee who is fluent in English, and many places have English menus.  Like I said, for the most part people seem really nice, but it can be difficult to really have a conversation with most Czech people as most only speak basic English.  It's also been kind of hard to meet Czech students and Czech people in general.  We live in the multicultural dorms, where none of the students are Czech. There are people from literally all over the world that stay in our dorms, but no Czech students live here.  It's also kind of challenging to meet new people because of how much we traveling that we do.  However, I have met a few really nice Czech people, and even got invited to a house warming party this month from a couple of students that I have met.
Like I said earlier, MOST of the people here in Olomouc that I have talked to are really nice; however, no place in the world is completely perfect, and Olomouc is no exception.  There have been a couple of instances in which I had to deal with some pretty rude people, which is to be expected anywhere you go.  Surprisingly enough though, nearly every time that I have had to deal with someone rude it is usually always an employee at Globus, the Czech version of Wal-Mart.  I posted in an earlier blog about one of the encounters that I had with a cashier who tried confiscating my credit card, which was by far the worst encounter that I have had here.  I had another bad encounter with the cashier while I was there today, and thankfully I had my card signed this time because she was really double checking the signature on my card versus the one on the receipt.  They mean business there when it comes to credit card theft/fraud I guess!  Overall the character of Olomouc is a friendly small city with very nice and helpful people, but like everything else in life, it does have its imperfections.  I really do hope that someday I will be able to return to this friendly city that I currently am calling home.