Halfway Point (One Week Late)

(Quick note: So I wrote this up last Tuesday before I left for Prague, but in my rush to get my homework done and clothes packed, I forgot to post it. So here's my thoughts on the first half of my Roman Journey.)

Well ladies and gentlemen, I find myself at the halfway point of my Eurotrip and I’m already ready to call this trip a success. I honestly feel myself becoming a more independent, faster-acting person, which was my overarching goal. I’m adapting fairly well to my surroundings-I even order almost exclusively in Italian now. I know my way around Rome, and am to the point where I feel confident and 100% safe walking around.

I still test myself with some trying experiences (see: 24 hours to prepare for a Budapest trip) and school is starting to put a sliver of a damper on the trip (SOOOOOOOOOO much work-it’s terrible) but the first half of the trip has definitely been the time of my life.

That being said, I still have quite a bit to do, and plenty of time to do it. I want to keep the excitement and joy going for the next five weeks (and then two weeks of my Bosnian adventure after that). I’m going to start that today, with a journey to Prague, in the Czech Republic. I don’t know if we’re going to be able to top Budapest, but darn it I’m going to try.

After sitting around too much (and spending too much time on Facebook and typing these blogs up) the first part, I’m getting out now. I’m taking buses around just to explore. I’m going to new restaurants to see what they have. I’m even working in the kitchen more myself, learning some new tricks, so I can dazzle you all when I get back.

This trip was definitely the best decision I’ve ever made in my life (going to Budapest was a close second). It’s what I needed, and it’s going to make me such a stronger, better person. I get happier and more confident everyday. I feel like I’m going to be a much better person for the rest of my life because of this. Who knows, maybe when I get back I’ll even be able to be serious for more than two seconds at a time. Hey, a kid can dream!

One last story to close out this blog and illustrate my main, underlying point. Last night was the best Monday night of the trip. Semir, Matt and I went out for dinner and then to an Irish Pub for a couple of hard ciders afterwards. It was a much needed guys’ night out. While we love the girls on the trip (believe me!) it was nice to just catch up (last weekend I was in Budapest, Matt in Barcelona and Semir in Rome), see what was going on and discuss various issues pertaining to the trip and beyond. We watched a replay of the Super Bowl (along with some rugby, which is actually really cool to watch) and then headed home and continued to sit around and talk for awhile (it was either that or read for class, and that wasn’t going to happen). I settled on my motto for the rest of the trip, which we then adopted as a new house rule:

Nothing but good times and no regrets.

So here’s hoping the second half of the trip is just as spectacular, amazing, exciting, happy, entertaining, special, enthralling, adventurous, motivating and inspiring as the first half.

Honestly, I’m not too worried about it.