Off to a Good Day in Praha.

I think yesterday might have been the first day since I got here that I didn't write a blog entry. Perhaps this is a step in the right direction. . .although I was a bit depressed yesterday, and didn't leave my room until class time. But class was good, and I had a nice dinner at a restaurant across from the Kolej (U Dragoon) with Megan, Bekka and Laura.

I got up at 8:00 this morning, emailed some registration questions to Marketa and Fiore, got dressed, ate breakfast, and was on a tram by 9:10. However, the tram I got on, #23, which normally takes me to downtown, happened to have a sign in the window that I couldn't read because it was in Czech. Apparently, that sign said something to the effect of "This tram is not running on its normal route," because after about 10 minutes, I didn't recognize any of my surroundings. I took out my headphones and heard the tram-announcer-lady-voice say that at this stop, you could "vystup az k Metro" (exit to the Metro), so I figured I should get off, because I could acclimate myself at a Metro station and get downtown via that. It was a good thing I did get off, because once I got to the Metro platform, I saw that the stop was the furthest one out on the Green Metro line. If I had gone further, I would have been extremely lost and would have just had to wait for a tram going back the other direction or something, which would have been fine, but taking the Metro was easier and I didn't have to get lost. Crisis averted.

So I got on the green line and rode to Mustek, transferred to the yellow line there and rode to Narodni Trida, where Tesco is. I bought a pot and a knife and some Tide on the 3rd floor, then ventured down to the grocery store in the basement. I had memorized how to ask for 200 and 300 grams, so I could get that much meat and cheese. It worked pretty well. I got 200 grams of some kind of "Burlander light," which looks like swiss cheese, and 300 grams of this meat called "kureci rolka," that looked like ham. (To my dismay, when I looked up the word kureci after I got home, I learned that it meant chicken. So I actually bought some kind of weird chicken-roll-mystery-meat, I think. But I've probably eaten worse. . .) I got some of these little chocolate-covered wafer candy bars I've been eating at school called Cokotatranky, a few "Nestle Fit" bars that were the closest I could find to granola (I miss Nature Valley and Clif bars!), and then a bunch of veggies. Fresh fruits and veggies are the way to go in Praha -- they are incredibly cheap and good. I got some olive oil, garlic and green peppers to cook with some pasta for tonight, and I got 4 nice big Braeburn apples for like 50 cents. That blows my mind. The bunch of bananas I got were more expensive than apples.

I took all of my groceries and decided to walk to the AIFS office; I know how to get there by Metro, but I wanted to navigate by foot, so I did. I'm getting used to recognizing landmarks and knowing where I am, knowing which way to go, even though I don't know any street names or actual directions. (I also found a Kino I had been reading about last night that shows at least one film with English subtitles per day, so I definitely want to check that out soon. It is right by the office, and it is showing a new Czech film called "Happiness" that looks good.) Went to the AIFS office and put down a deposit so I can go see Don Giovanni and Swan Lake later this month. Then took the Metro and a tram back up to the Kolej.

I'm going to do my homework, go to class, and then come home and cook a delicious dinner. This has been a great day so far; it was a good move to get up and get going this morning instead of laying around feeling out of place. I'm getting better at this.