A Whole New City

Since I've come back from spring break, Prague has become a whole new city. The day before I left, I was still bundled in my coat and boots and I experienced sun, snow, sleet and rain all with in hours. Since I've come home, it has been warm and sunny every single day. The sundresses and shorts that I thought I would never get a chance to wear have now become necessities. Even the Czech people are friendlier now that they're getting a bit of sunshine. Of course, the change of seasons has brought tons more tourists, but I'm willing to have them if it means warm weather. Over spring break, people would ask me how I liked Prague and I had a hard time telling people that I loved it. But now that I'm back, my opinion has totally changed. It just took some better lighting to make me realize how much I love it here. The six weeks that I have left here definitely doesn't feel like enough.

Yesterday I went to a beer garden in a park with my roommate Sammi, some friends of ours, and some friends of friends. It was so much fun because the crowd there consisted much more of Czechs than of Americans or other tourists. It was the perfect kind of warm spring night to sit and talk with friends. 

I also made a breakthrough with my independent study project that I was supposed to be working on while I was here. I was supposed to be doing a project comparing the health care systems in the Czech Republic and the United States, but it turned out to be a lot harder to get motivated than I expected, I had no clear direction of what I wanted to do with the project, and the language barrier proved to be more of an obstacle than I had expected. I was getting really stressed out about having to spend the last weeks of my time here cramming to get the project done. Last night though, I got inspired to take my project in a totally different direction. I got the idea to do my project about why kids in my generation continue to smoke, even though they are well aware of the health consequences. I already have a clear picture of how to conduct the research and I will be able to do most of the research over the summer and throughout next semester, so I will be able to relax and enjoy the rest of my time here. 

I promise I'll work on my first set of Italy blogs tonight!!