When In Doubt...Do the Cotton-Eyed Joe

(ME ON THE TRAM, FIRST DAY OF CLASS)
In the last couple of years, I have become substantially less extroverted than I used to be. I don't mean among my friends, they will tell you I almost never shut up. I mean in new, unfamiliar situations, and being ready and willing to meet new people and try new things. Part of the impetus behind this trip to Prague (and beyond) was the realization that I used to love to travel. I used to love making new friends, and seeing fun new things. I never stopped liking those things, I just think they went into hiding for a while. Anyway, being here in Prague, where I don't speak the language and know not a soul, is probably the best way to change that. In the last few days, I have relied on two girls in my class that speak Czech to order for me in a restaurant, had to teach my class how to do something I know how to do well (seeing as there was no way to teach 8 people how to bone a chicken, I whipped out my iPod, cranked up the volume, and taught everyone the Cotton-Eyed Joe), and forced myself to go out at night when I really just wanted to stay in. I have had to figure out how to feed myself using only a glorified hotplate and a bar fridge for storage space (boiled lentils it is). Oh, and navigate a city (and public transportation) that makes no logical sense in its layout, and whose street names are not only unpronounceable, but largely unreadable, and therefore not conducive to being committed to memory. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it does to me. And it's been fun, mostly. I say mostly because it can be very disorienting to hear voices around you, not one of which speaks your language. As I walk down the street, my ears prick up at anything that sounds like English, and I instinctively turn towards the sound. I went out last night with some classmates to a known expatriate cafe/bookstore called the Globe, and for a few hours I might have been in New York, or England even. While occasionally isolating, it makes you grab on that much more firmly, and appreciate more, those moments, however brief, where you feel like you know what is going on and that the world isn't in on some joke that's just outside your reach of comprehension.