A Semester of Adventure: Entry Two

Within these posts lie the adventures and thoughts of a traveler. One who wished to see the wonders first hand and experience them for what they are.

January 26, 2015

We met a buddy*, Teresa, at the metro where she would bring us to the dinner that had been planned for all of the home stay kids. Everything seemed so nice and clean compared to the NY subways I had grown up around. There was no scanning of my ticket needed which confused me. The whole transit system was based on the honor system and if you were caught without a ticket you would be heavily fined. If they tried that in NY no one would pay for it.

Teresa was very nice and answered a lot of the questions that we had no matter how dumb and superficial they sounded.

We had dinner with the other home stay students, there were 9 in total, and their buddies at a pub. I was nervous. My first social situation where I would be drinking. Now call me what you will but I had no idea what to expect. The buddies all ordered us a pint of Pilsner Urquell, the Czech specialty, and it was okay, not a huge fan. It was a bit bitter with the aftertaste but the initial taste on my tongue was nice.I nursed it the whole meal, taking my time. I didn’t get to talk to the other home stay kids much before we left but I would see them again soon enough.

Teresa got us horribly lost trying to locate our house. I didn’t mind the exercise after the crazy day we’d had of traveling but Rebecca quickly grew impatient. We ended up going into a local pub and asked for directions. When we finally got home Lenka was there waiting for us and we gave her our gifts. I had gotten her a piece of Penn State cheddar from the creamery and a Penn State cheese plate to go with it. Rebecca had gotten her a few plain, hand painted mugs. I felt like they were better received than my gift but who was I trying to compete on such a petty level?

We talked for a while. Well, Rebecca talked we listened. I can’t really get a word in and it’s frustrating. She isn’t very cultured and it kind of bothers me but at the same time it does help because she can be curious and ask some good questions. It just takes a long time to get to them.