The halfway point of my summer in Prague has come faster than I expected yet looking back there is so much to think about. I think this Blog is an excellent opportunity to reflect on my expectations and hopes coming into the trip and how they compares to where I am right now.
Naturally a huge hope of mine was to explore and understand the city well enough where I feel somewhat of a local. And halfway through my trip… I feel i’m about half way there but teetering off. I can travel around well enough to places I know, but those are the more bustling and popular areas of the city, which are the easier places to become acquainted to when first living in Prague. There is still plenty I have to explore, but they are the less known areas which is going to be much harder to navigate and motivate myself to explore. So at this time I have to fight myself on being contempt with what i know to push myself to explore more.
A fear of mine coming into the trip was how the other people on my program would be and if we’d get along. I was hoping to have a few good friends by this point in my summer but I am happy to say I have a very solid group of friends whom I am happy to be in Prague with. It is amazing what a difference it makes to have a bunch of familiar faces in a foreign city to make plans with and get myself doing things in the city i would not expect myself to do alone.
Work-wise, I was expecting to be in a daily routine by this point and I feel I have lived up to that expectation for the most part. Before I couldn’t take my eyes off of google maps on my way to work, now It’s so natural to me that I often catch a few extra minutes of sleep on my transit. When i get to the office I set myself up, grab a cup of coffee, then get working on my morning tasks. These tasks usually bring me to about lunch time and afterwards I tackle the rest of the day which is a coin toss between busy or relaxed. I keep up communications with my coworkers and supervisors and still ask questions when I need help.
Moving forward I hope to satisfy the rest of my expectations and complete some I did not even know I had for a reflection at the end of my program.