I am not sure if this is a good thing or not. But when I am talking to someone or walking around in a different city, I conform myself into the person that someone else wants me to be. Maybe it’s not conforming or turning myself into a different person, but rather I bring out parts in my personality and quiet down others. I mean, yeah, everyone does that, but it’s my talent. I can be able to correctly read someone and find out their most ideal person they would want to talk to (hint: it is usually themselves). This power allows me to be able to fade into a crowd when I walk around Prague rather than having a metaphorical neon light sign that says “AMERICA.” My favourite part of my day is when I walk into a grocery store or a coffee shop and they start to talk to me in Czech. It gives me some weird sort of validation, but I feel like everyone feels that way, just no one will admit it.

If you need any tips to get people to automatically like you, compliment them. Find something you like about them: their eyes, their shirt, their hair, their dog. What is so funny about doing this in Prague is if I compliment a stranger they will look at me funny. A look of somewhat asking “Is she making fun of me, but if she’s not making fun of me that is nice, but why is this American girl speaking to me?” So, I really had to turn down the compliments that I would throw into the world like confetti at the Super Bowl. People in Prague are not looking for a familiar face in a crowd or wanting to have casual chit-chat on the tram. I may take everything back because young people, like people around my age, love to chit-chat. They are always interested in what I am doing in Prague and they always say it’s a lot to travel for just this city. Okay, so the no chit-chat thing maybe be due to culture differences and generational differences.

This past weekend I went to Budapest. I would tell anyone and everybody to go to Budapest. Budapest re-wired my brain. I lust to go back to Budapest. My friends and I took the bus from Prague to Budapest, and it was about 7 hours. I quite enjoy the long bus rides to different cities because it gives me time to listen to my music and journal about the days I already miss. (This is a sidenote, but I think having a journal abroad is the most important thing to have. An iPhone camera can not capture your thoughts and memories in your head). When we arrive in Budapest, we stop by our hostile to brush our hair and spray small bottles of perfume on our filthy bus clothes. Then we head into the city, to get dinner and to walk around the cities ally ways. The next morning, we spent our time admiring the architecture in Budapest and browsing flee markets. There were racks on racks of vintage clothes, handmade jewellery, and water painted postcards. Surprisingly, I found myself really enjoying the music that was playing all around me. I had to download Shazam to be able to find these songs I have never heard of. (The songs: Ruby by Kaiser Chiefs, Tomorrow by Electric Youth, Inner Smile by Texas, and You Get What You Give by New Radicals). After we sat on the river’s edge, wondering where we could get a bottle of water. Determined to continue our walk, we cross a bridge with giant golden lion statues and hike up to a top of a castle. On the top, we were serenated by a group of singing men– I think they were really proud of us for hiking up to the top in maxi skirts and mini dresses. Only the third time we got serenated that day. That night, we do what all tourist do in Budapest: go on a boat. While the boat started to pass Parliament and the sun started to disappear behind the buildings, I started to mourn the moment. I wanted to stay in this space and time forever. I want to be with these girls forever. I do not want to go back to Pennsylvania where all my baggage sits at the door waiting for me to unpack it. In that moment I start to mourn my own happiness because I knew I would not feel the same in a very long time.