Why oh why?

Why did I stop updating this?

Oh right, I got super depressed about being in Prague, hated life, and gave up on everyone in this sinful city. For a while I was really feeling alone here - Beliza had gone, Haykel and I broke up (hey, it was an intense couple of months!), and work was really sucking. Every day I felt like I was getting beaten down there with no light at the end of the tunnel.

But, a lot has happened since then.

1. I went to Spain! Mom came to Prague to visit in July for a few days, then we took off to Barcelona and Madrid together for about 12 days. It was amazing, and I was soooo happy to see her.
2. Tara visited!! My best friend in the whole world - we really tore up both Prague AND Berlin. The pictures prove it.
3. Shannon and Bethany visited. Another great couple of weeks.
4. I got a new job - I have a really long and important-sounding title. I'm only a couple weeks into the new position but I already love it, and my days seem and feel brighter.
6. I went to Pittsburgh for Shannon's wedding! I was the maid of honor, and it was an absolutely beautiful ceremony and reception. It was a huge success - congratulations again Shannon and Ted :)
7. Maira came to visit - another insane week.

It makes sense that right after Maira left, I got sick. I was exhausted from all of the fantastic visits and a weekend in bed really did me some good. I'm already over my cold (I swear this is due to not taking medicine - I swear by this - your body knows how to heal itself!)

Beliza is coming to visit in a week. Tomorrow is Friday, and I'm going for Mexican food with some friends. I'm dating a new guy (still casual, but definitely fun). Saturday we're having a party at my place for Elena's birthday. Sunday might be Czech lunch and Ikea day with Katy.

Life is good again.

Life goes on

Life here keeps getting crazier.

Since my last post I...
1. Got a boyfriend
2. Broke up with boyfriend (well, the other way around actually)
3. cried a lot and got really homesick and depressed
4. Felt better again
5. Read a couple books
6. lamented Karma Lounge closing, but I'm happy at the same time because it will end my contact with the Tunisians

It's been a very dramatic month and I'm happy to say that it's winding down. Work is normal, nothing especially good or bad. I've decided that once I fulfill my time here I'll be heading on back to the other side of the ocean for sure, though I don't know where, yet. It will depend what Ariba has for me, I guess, if anything.

All I know is that the problems I had back home were nothing like the crazy, immoral, psycho problems I have here, and I miss the non-crazy life. I don't like Europe, and I really just want to go home and move to Texas with Tara and go cumbia dancing every night.

Katy is talking about going home to Atlanta soon. All my good friends are leaving. I really think that if she goes, I'll fall into a serious funk and just stop leaving my apartment all together for anything other than work and groceries.

Maybe my crystal really is broken. I should have forked over the $300 when I had the chance.

Geez, melodramatic much? I need to shut up.

Today is the day!

Today is the day my new Tunisian friends are coming to my place for dinner :) I bought speakers and a blender (to make hummus) just for the purpose of today being awesome. I really love cooking for people. And.. I get to see Haykel :) This bubble might burst quickly but I figure there's no harm in enjoying it now.

Also, it's Easter. So if you celebrate it, Happy Easter. :)


Beliza came over last night and we had an awesome night in. And I got a ton of new movies from her. Hey-o!

Up and up

I have this bad habit of only writing when things are slow, usually when I'm kind of down. Well, it's been a hectic few weeks and things have been just super. So even though it's 11:53pm, I have a terrible cough and sore throat, and I'm dying to go to bed, I thought it would be nice to do a little update.

So what's new? Wow.. good question. Well work is fine, same old thing. Beliza resigned from Ariba for June, so that is sad news for me but happy for her. I think it's okay, we'll still visit of course. Katy and Derrick are staying, and that makes me REALLY happy. Things were kind of down for them for a while. Derrick found a job (actually working in the same hotel as Katy) and they're both feeling good about everything now, which is great. I'd really lose it without them here.

I can't remember if I ever got to write about this, but I have a new regular hangout - it's a spot in the old town where they have live Arabic music every Saturday, bellydancers on Fridays, great music all the time. I made friends there the first night I went with Katy and Derrick, and then last night I saw them again (well, Badr and Roger anyway). I'm really jumping around here, though...

Well let's start here. About a month ago I was out with Katy and Derrick. We went to Chapeau Rouge, and while it was supposed to be good music, it sucked. So we left after 10 mins. We were continuing onto some other place when Katy got a work call. So we stopped. Just as I was getting tired of waiting, along came a guy singing Amr Diab and walking with a friend. I knew the song and being in a silly mood I started to sing with him. So we got excited that we were both Arabs and he said, "Hey, want to come to an Arabic party???" I said, of course I do, stranger!

Well unfortunately he turned out to be not such a good guy, and stopped to buy some cocaine along the way from one of the street Nigerians. But the point is, he took us to a place I'd never have found in a million years. As soon as we got there, people started talking to us, and we ended up at Bombay with the friends we made. I've been going back at least once per weekend since then.

So let's fast forward to last weekend when I was there with Diana and Beliza. We met a couple of guys, and Diana and I went to Bombay after for dancing and saw them there as well. So we made a plan that I never thought would get carried out for the following sunday - a Tunisian dinner, hosted by them.

Cue birthday week. Thursday was the real day. I went for drinks with Diana, Beli, Jose, and Henrique after work, and then Diana and I went to the Afghani restaurant - our favorite restaurant in all of Prague.

Friday, Katy and Derrick along with Petr, Denisa, and Denisa's friend Mustafa came over. We drank and played Mario.. nothing too eventful here.

Saturday I went to see two movies in Febio Fest with Beliza. The first one was called Amreeka, the story of a Palestinian woman who goes to live in the US with her son. It was FANTASTIC. The second movie was from Chile and really didn't impress me at all. We hurried home, got ready to go out, and then went to Karavanseraj for dinner. Delicious food. Then we went to the Arab spot :)

Everyone was there.. the guys from the week before, Badr, Roger, and then the people with me were Beliza, Elena, Rique and Ramona. We had a really great time mixing and talking to people, then we went to Bombay after for a little while.

Sunday I went to Diana's to make baklawa for - da da daaaa - the Tunisian dinner!! Diana was kind enough to let me use her oven. We got to their place around 7pm or so. The guys were just the sweetest things in the world. It's four of them living together, and they made the most lovely dinner and evening for us. After the amazing food (cooked by Adnen, a chef!) they put on an Arabic movie, got the shisha going (I don't smoke but I love the smell:), and we sat around laughing and BSing until around 11:30pm when we realized - hey - we have to work tomorrow :)

So here I am. It's technically Tuesday now. Already I can't wait for Sunday because we have another dinner with them planned (as of just tonight), this time hosted and cooked by yours truly :-D

It's gonna be so much fun!!

All in all, a very successful 27th birthday (my second birthday spent in Prague now!).

Love to everyone -

Dr. Czechová

I realize I haven't updated for a long time. Reasons for this are that 1. mothing especially exciting has happened, and 2. if I did write in the last few weeks, it would have been depressing, as I've been under a lot of stress, to the point of getting physical symptoms of stress. This brings me to today's story: Dr. Czechová.


Over the last month or so, I've been suffering from headaches, tension in my jaw that won't go away, and sheer mental exhaustion - I can't pay attention when people speak to me, I space out frequently, I'm seriously just a mess. Everyone kept telling me, take a couple days off from work and just stay home and sleep. Did I listen? No. Should I have? Yes.

On Saturday night as I was walking to the tram stop from Akropolis, I got a sharp pain in my right leg. I could barely walk or put any pressure on the leg. I managed to get home just fine, as I was near the tram stop when it happened and I found a taxi to get me to my building from the tram stop in Andel. I figured, just rest, it will be better tomorrow.

I woke up on Sunday with the same leg pain, but now an even worse pain in the side/middle of my back. It felt like I pulled a muscle, though I have no idea how I could have done so. Again, I figured, just rest, do some stretches, it will go away. Sunday night it wasn't better at all - I started to worry, and to play it safe, texted my boss to let him know I might not be in, as I couldn't even walk, just hobble. I ended up staying home yesterday (Monday). I said to myself, if it wasn't better today, I'd go see the doctor. When I woke up it still hurt, so I called off work and made an appointment for 11:30am. Took a taxi and arrived right on time.

"Ms. Douglas?"
"Yes."
I follow the woman to the examination room.
"Do you speak Czech?"
"No..."
"Ah, my English is not well." (Maybe her English should have been seeing the doctor?)
"It's okay."
"So tell me what is problem?"
I told her the story, starting with Saturday night through the morning. I explained that my leg was feeling better but my back muscle was still bothering me, still in this weird "spasm" phase.

"Ah, so show me where is pain."
I point on my back to where it is.
She punches me in the muscle. "Is it pain?"
"No, it's only when I move in certain ways. Walking is painful for it, because of the way the muscle moves I think."
"Ah, so I should think it is problem with your spine."
"My spine? I really don't think so. It really feels like a muscle."
"So is problem with your kidneys, yes? Strip me your shirt, please."
....okay. So I strip her my shirt.
"Lie on table. Is this pain? Is this pain? Is this pain?" while moving my leg in all different directions.
"No, my leg is better, it's my back muscle that hurts."
"Ah, your lower back! Yes."
"No, it's in the middle, on my right side, like I showed you."
"Okay, so I don't know what is problem. I give you pill for pain. If next week it is still pain, return to me and I will take your blood."

.....okay. I left feeling dejected and unexamined, as she barely touched my back to see where the pain was. I asked if the prescription was at least for a muscle relaxer, since it's in that jerky phase that's very painful, and a muscle relaxer would let it RELAX and heal, but no. This is just for the pain. "Muscle relaxer will make you sleepy." So? I'M NOT AT WORK TODAY, IF YOU DIDN'T NOTICE.

Anyway, I didn't feel like talking to her anymore so I left. The weather was lovely today and it felt good to be outside. Of course my leg started hurting on the way home, but only minimally.

I'm going to go lie down, I think it's back to the grind for me tomorrow.

21 before 12 - in what world does it make sense?

It makes sense in ARIBA world, if we're talking about how many auctions I watched before what hour!! FML today.

Work is driving me insane. The only thing that's keeping me going is that tomorrow is FRIDAY and the weekend is almost here. The sucky thing is that all my favorite people to hang out with are either busy/working/out of town this weekend, so it might be a boring one. I don't care so much, I could use a boring weekend. I have a small date tomorrow that I'm not putting too many bets on, but at least it's something to do. It's always good to prepare yourself to be surprised.

We have this Ariba interal website - I like to say that it's the Ariba version of Facebook - where you can write a blog. I love writing, and blogging, apparently... so I think I might want to write a blog for the site. I don't know why, when I have as much work and stress as I do, that I'd want to add MORE work to my pile, but it's something I think I might actually enjoy. I saw that several people in our company write about new and exciting ideas, new product features, Sourcing tips, etc. Since I can't contribute on any of that, what do I know? The product! And I know what users call us about all the time.

So, what I'm thinking is, why not start a blog with a weekly FAQ or tip about Ariba Sourcing? I wrote to the site manager and he LOVES the idea and is really egging me to do it now, so I think I might. I guess I probably have to consult my manager first to make sure it's okay.

Anyway, THIS blog is not supposed to be work-related. So I will change the subject.

I went to the cinema with Beliza tonight. We saw "Imaginarium of Dr. Panassus" and boy was it cool. I have to admit that I'm not quite sure I understood everything, but I really liked it anyway. 10,000x better than Sherlock Holmes, which was a pretty big disappointment. (There's no reason to compare the two other than they're the two most recent movies I saw). I'm dying to see Shutter Island, it will be out soon here.

I guess that's it. I miss Pittsburgh less this week. I think it's because I'm too busy to feel feelings.

Weekend and Nostalgia

I always feel the need to stress that I am happy in Prague, even though I talk about how much I miss Pittsburgh. Ever since I got back from my Christmas holidays, I have felt so nostalgic for home, and all of the special things that you can only buy/say/do in Pittsburgh.

So, here is a list of 20 things that I miss about my life back home:
1. Primanti's
2. Chatting with strangers
3. Qdoba (okay, so this one isn't just Pittsburgh, but I still wish there were some way for Maira to inter-office mail me a fajita ranchera burrito and some chips&queso)
4. Sunday night salsa, and being dead tired all day Monday yet completely regret-free
5. Working with the people in the Pittsburgh office
6. Pittsburghese
7. Not being around people who like to remind me how Europe (and Europeans) is superior to the U.S. in every way, shape, and form
8. Speaking English everywhere, and being able to ask questions in shops and restaurants (i.e. can I change the dumplings for french fries, do you have any Frank's Red Hot for my pizza, can I please have a bottle of Heinz Ketchup with that)
9. Frank's Red Hot
10. Heinz Ketchup
11. Red Devil sauce
12. Mom's cooking (nothing specific, just everything)
13. Driving a car (more specifically, not having to carry heavy bags of groceries up a hill covered in ice while the cold wind blows so hard, numbing my hands, that I can't feel if I'm holding the bags anymore or not, then carrying the bags up three flights of stairs)
14. Weeknight TV nights with mom
15. Saturday mall trips with Tara and/or Ashley
16. Sunday visits at Dad's house
17. Driving around listening to music with Tara
18. Maira in general
19. Firehouse nights followed by Fathead's days
20. Shopping constantly


Now that that's out of the way, I will talk a bit about my weekend. On Friday after work I went with Beliza and Elena to the Argentinian restaurant to have a glass of wine. Well, one glass of wine turned into two glasses, then it turned into dinner, and I got home around 9:45pm. By that time, Katy figured I didn't want to go out, so we called off our plans for the night which really didn't bother me, as I was tired and it was insanely cold outside.

Saturday I slept all day. There is nothing to tell here because all I did was sleep on and off and watch episodes of True Blood on my computer. Plus I ate. Sooo interesting this day. :)

At night though, Katy, Derrick, and Denisa came over. We girls got ready together, we did a little Becherovka-style pregaming, and then headed out to Radost for the night. Met a nice Irish guy and his American friend and hung out with them a bit, danced a lot, goofed around, then ended up dancing with a guy from Cote d'Ivoire for about an hour, around 4am or so. Danced till about 5, hung out until about 5:30am, then finally arrived home around 6:30am. I got into bed at 7 and slept until about 1pm on Sunday, and forced myself to stay awake all day so I could be tired at night. I busied myself cleaning the apartment (landlord is coming over today) and cooking a nice dinner, watching some movies, reading. At night I called Tara and then my mom and talked for about an hour total - that part was awesome. I really miss them both.

All in all it was a relaxing weekend. I woke up today about 5 minutes before my alarm feeling completely rested. Definitely a good start for a Monday :)

Bits and Pieces

- Lucerna (as mentioned in my last entry) was super fun!! They played all kinds of great music from the 80s and 90s. Some of it I'd never heard before but Beliza could sing right along (Euro-famous songs:) and others that I freaked out over, she'd never heard. So it was a fun mix. We danced with some drunk Czech guys and even shared our beers with them. No funny business, just dancing and a lot of air guitar. :-D

- Saw Sherlock Holmes. Enjoyed it but wasn't overly impressed.

- Tried to join a gym here with a couple of girls from the office, who are already going there. It's called "Contours" and is a 30 minute workout for women only where you go in a circle of machines. Sound familiar, America? :) Anyway I needed an appointment so I'm going on January 30th. I feel crappy since I'm walking a lot less, since all of Prague is covered in inches of ice and slush, so I'll try this out for a few months at least and then go back to my long walks around the city and along the riverside once the weather is nice again :)

- I'm going to Spain this summer with my mom!! We're still in the planning phase but it's definitely happening.

- Coolest thing ever - I am going to see Rachid Taha live!! We happened to see the sign to see him at Lucerna and Beliza and I had no idea that the other loved him. I never in a million years, when I first started listening to him as recommendation by Amazon.com, that I would get to see him!! He probably never plays on the US, but here he's famous. 700Kc for the tickets but SO worth it. Diana is coming, too - I played her one song the other morning to tempt her and in the first 10 seconds she was 100% in :)


Tomorrow is Thursday and I'm absolutely ready for the weekend. It's been a rough week at work. Though I will say this: much as I hate giving trainings, I really am good at it. And when they're over, I feel like I actually DID something. I do a lot of work every day but none of it ever feels like I'm really doing something somehow. I've found that two tasks (and they are broad ones) make me feel good about life: helping customers directly with their problems and making them happy, and training people, either internally or externally. I guess that's nerdy, but at least I'm not part of that vast percentage of people who hate their jobs.


Ciao, lovelies.

Sleeping quarters

It's Saturday morning and I feel great.

The week was a rough one, full of annoying questions and pesky tasks.

I had fun on Thursday night, though. I went out to La Casa Blu with Henrique, Mohammad (his Syrian friend visiting from France), Beliza, Martino, Naima, and Theresa. They have decent Mexican food. Not great, but okay. We had a nice time talking and eating and laughing, then we walked the center's icy streets over to Chapeau Rouge for salsa night (we had 3-4 dancers in the group, and all drinkers:). We stayed for about an hour total and then headed in our respective directions. I got home around midnight which wasn't all that bad for such a night out. I wasn't even tired the next day.

Friday came as quickly as it could this week and maybe it's that my years are slowly ticking by, but I was content to just make a nice dinner and stay home alone on a Friday night. I think if the weather were better I'd probably want to be out and about, but the sidewalks are covered in ice and the streets are covered in gray slush, not to mention the cold. So the idea of cooking a meal, having a glass of wine, watching a movie and playing my new computer game won out over anything else.

This morning Ikea was going to come deliver my new mattress between 10am and 2pm. I complained about my bed breaking (the slats falling down when you lie/sit on the bed) and they came to fix it. The same night it was broken again - this time I decided to just buy a cheap but decently thick mattress to go on top of my wooden slats (which keep the bed off the ground and give me some back support because they're angled), then my good mattress that I spent more on, and then another thinner but still mattress-like thing on top of that, then sheets and blankets. So they brought the new cheap mattress and took the bed away.

Before they came I decided to clean - I swept the floors (it was totally gross), washed dishes, cleaned the bathroom, and put a bunch of clean clothes away that I had lying around for a week or so. They came and went pretty quickly, and I put together the new "bed". Guess what? It's more comfortable than when I had a real bed.

This whole thing makes me want to put a pea underneath everything to see if I can feel it. Nobody's slept on top of this many mattresses since that princess.


Tonight I have plans to go to a place called Lucerna that will be playing 80s-90s music. I have a nice group going - Diana, Beliza, Gabriela, and MAYBE Henrique and Mohammad, and also MAYBE Martino. We'll see. Either way it has the makings of a good night already, for how rested and happy I'm feeling today.

Life is good.

In the swing of things

I guess I'm fully back in my Prague rhythm now.

The first week back to work was, thank goodness, an easy one. I only worked Wednesday through Friday and nothing crashed or went crazy, and at times I was downright bored because there just wasn't anything to do so I just took calls and caught up on things with my colleagues.

Since I came back I had every intention of going out with Henrique and his friend on Friday night. But Friday rolled around and so did the snow. It was falling, but nothing was on the ground yet, when I left for work in the morning. It continued to fall ALL DAY, nonstop, and by the time I left work there were a couple inches on the ground. It kept going, and going, and going. Wild horses could not have dragged me out of my house. I don't know if Henrique ended up doing the same since I didn't hear from him even though we had plans to hang out (he was sick anyway) so he might have had the same feeling.

Saturday I got up relatively early and met Beliza at 1pm. I had to go to Ikea to take care of the final return (exchange) of my bed - I decided to just get rid of it and make a bed on the floor. Naima warned me about mold if you just have a mattress on the floor, but I have these wooden things that will let air in underneath the mattress so I think it should be okay. I decided to exchange the bed and basically get my money back, and then purchase another mattress in its place to give me more cushion between me and the floor, and to make my sleeping surface a big higher off the ground. I think it will be comfy - it'll be nice not to be on my couch anymore, anyway.

Anyway, Beli was coming with me to be my translator in case Ikea didn't speak English. We went out for Czech food (I had a hankering!) and the place we went was soooo good. I had vrabec, which Google translator says is 'sparrow' but it was definitely some kind of pork. It came with potato dumplings and red cabbage, with some kind of thin gravy over it. It really hit the spot, as the snow had continued and we were trudging through a snowstorm all over Prague. It was so hard to walk - luckily we both had nice waterproof boots to keep us cozy :)

After that we headed to Ikea and the exchange was really easy. The guy who assisted me spoke English perfectly well, and I just paid the difference of 800Kc since the mattress I picked was more expensive than the bed I'm returning. They'll call me about delivery sometime this week, so I'm all set.

We didn't quite want to go home yet so we went to Palladium mall to walk around a bit. Beli saw a dress in a window at Benetton in Novy Smichov mall, but they didn't have it inside the store. So we went to find it in this mall but they didn't have a Benetton at all, so we just had a coffee (an Americano for me, cappucino for her:) and we shared two desserts - chocolate mousse cake and cheesecake, which looked like American cheesecake from afar but it was not, and would have been delicious if it had fruit on it or something, but it did not :( Oh well.

We went our separate ways after that and I went home and bummed around, took a small nap, and then trudged through the snow to go out to a club. I left with plenty of time but just missed the tram that would take me to Starometska from Narodni Divadlo, so I figured, it's only one stop away, I will just walk and get there faster (I arrived at Narodni Divadlo at 11:10pm, was supposed to meet Katy and co. at 11:15pm, and there wasn't another tram until 11:29pm, so I had no choice!) Well, one stop was a lot farther than I thought. I ended up being pretty late anyway, and walking in that much snow is like walking through slippery cold sand, but it's ok, we made it. Katy, Derrick, and Katy's friend Denisa (a Czech girl who is SO NICE and a lot of fun!) were my party for the night. We went to a club called Lavka which didn't get too crowded but had a fantastic DJ and we had a blast anyway because we just danced with ourselves :)

After that we played in the snow outside a bit, then caught a cab to Rincon Latino, where there was still a big party going on. I danced with Denisa and Derrick passed out on a couch, and we stayed for about an hour or so before we decided we were tired and wanted to go home. I took a cab - it was so cold and so snowy - there was no way I was going to walk up my hill in that :) 140 Kc was totally worth it.

Today I was lazy almost all day. I got home around 5:30am and got to bed around 6, and I had to wake up at 9am to watch an auction from home (FML). After that I went back to sleep, then got up, decided I was still tired, went back to sleep again, then watched a movie. At that point it was 6pm and I had done NOTHING all day, so finally I got myself to get up, take a shower, clean the kitchen and reorganize some things, do some laundry, and cleaned out my closet to get rid of a few things I don't want anymore and reorganize that, too. Still to come tonight: cleaning the bathroom/shower, sweeping the floors. Tomorrow (maybe), scrubbing the floors.

That is, unless Beli wants to go see a movie, which I'd totally be down with :)

Back from the USA

I hope everyone can understand why I didn't make any updates from the US - I was way too busy having fun and seeing everybody to update a silly blog :) It was such a great trip but I have to admit I feel relieved to be back in Prague.

The flight there was hectic. There was bad weather everywhere but somehow I actually made it there on time, despite having two connections and overbooked flights. I went from Prague to Amsterdam to Detroit to Pittsburgh. Yes, the same AMS to DET flight that the Nigerian terrorist was on just one week later - crazy! I arrived without my big suitcase, the one with all my clothes in it.

My first night home was spent having steak dinnner (RED MEAT!) with Mom, and then I picked up Nalo from work. We had a lovely reunion, I had missed him so much. I took him to the bus stop the next day in the afternoon so that I could get some things done, specifically clothes shopping which I prefer to do alone because I'm picky and take a long time, and hate to feel rushed :) I got fantastic deals and stocked up on some cute winter stuff. That night, Mom made me belated Thanksgiving dinner, which was AMAZING. She is truly the best mom ever. Went salsa dancing that night which was kind of dead, but I didn't care at all - I had Tara and Nalo with me, and the three of us danced together and didn't really need anyone else. :)

The next day I visited work because I had vino night with Chris and Lisa. I got to see everybody, catch up, visit, and then vino night was fantastic. I missed those two so much, and getting together for our bitching-session was super fun. I drunkenly took the bus home and slept happily.

Tuesday my brother arrived, and the next few days were spent hanging with family and not going out much. Christmas was lovely but uneventful. I got an external hard drive, some gift cards to go clothes shopping, two great knives, pajamas, some other little things, and my mom treated me to a lotttt more stuff over the break (winter boots, which I desperately needed, some more clothes, etc.) Again, best mom ever.

Went dancing again that Sunday, which began my week of working overnight. This was the hardest week of my life, and nothing happened in it other than working and trying to stay awake, being a zombie for a few hours after I got home, and sleeping. The last day of that shift I was off at 8am, so I slept in my car for 3 hours, met Maira and Renata for lunch, went shopping at Macy's, and went home to sleep. Except I didn't sleep much - I did laundry, putzed around, and finally took a nap for a couple hours. Tara and I spent New Year's Eve at Matrix, which totally sucked, and we left around 1am. Needless to say, I slept like a baby.

The next night Tara and I went dancing, taking my sister along, and had a blast. Not a lot of people danced, but we had a ton of fun anyway. The next day was by far the best, though. I spent the whole day shopping with my mom, had lunch out with her, and had such a pleasant day. Then at night, Maira invited Tara, Ash and me to her place to have some drinks and then to go out to Firehouse. We remembered that Serge, a guy we work with, was having his birthday party there that night, so there were good drink specials and everything. The club was amazingly fun and we took a ton of hilarious pictures. We went to Primanti's, which was my main request because I couldn't go back to Prague without having had a sandwich from there, and it was probably the highlight of my trip :) We slept at Maira's place (took a cab - we're safe like that:) and then went to Fathead's the next day for lunch, which is another Pittsburgh must.

Tara picked up Nalo in downtown for me after that, and we went to my house and watched the Steeler game. We won, but didn't make the playoffs after all :( Oh well, there's always next year.

On Sunday I felt weird and nervous just about all day. I packed my suitcases but felt incredibly restless, like I couldn't relax. Tara came down to visit and that was nice, but then she left and I felt like I had to get out of the house. So Nalo and I went to Eat'n Park and had some food (we were both hungry) and I felt a little better. The next morning I took him to the bus stop and we had a very tearful goodbye, because we also "broke up" (though we're still going to talk and be like normal, but it's unfair to both of us to wait for each other basically for nothing, especially since I won't be home again until September. C'est la vie. I'm not really sad because we'll stay friends, and that's the most important thing to me.

My flights coming back to Prague were uneventful. I sat next to a Turkish guy on the flight to NYC and a Jewish guy (kosher meals) on the way to Prague. Neither one spoke to me, so whatevs. :) I knew I was at the right gate in JFK. Outside that area, people were still smiling, said hi when we were waiting in line near each other, made eye contact, etc. As soon as I got to Gate 12, it felt colder, nobody said hello, and I could feel the anti-social vibes all around me. Welcome to Prague :)

I was happy to see my apartment. Had lunch with Jose, did some basic (and I mean basic: milk, bread, eggs, butter) grocery shopping afterward, and treated myself to a hair dryer that I really needed. Having wet hair in this cold weather is too miserable to bear.

And here I am, back at work for the first day, and feeling content to be back. The next time I see anyone from home will be from them visiting me, which will be really nice :)

Here's hoping I manage to update this more often now!! I know I've gotten lazy about it :)