Arrival day | September 9th & 10th

Our adventure to Prague for 3 months began on September 9th 2013.  Even though I was kinda excited about this trip, I was more anxious about leaving my family.  I have never been apart from them for this long of a time so I was dreading the day that I would have to leave.  Josh on the other side, was really for this trip and has wanted to do this since being at NC State.  So we arrived at the airport around 5ish and got our bags checked ( had to do some rearranging, because our bags were too heavy, imagine that) and make our way to the security gate.  We said our (tearful, on my part) goodbyes to my parents, Josh's parents and his grandparents and even Maggie came along to say her goodbyes.  We checked through security and headed towards our gate.  Our plane was big so there was a lot of people boarding the flight and the flight the day before got canceled so we were booked to capacity.  We sat in the back (ugh) in the middle section.  Josh sat on the outside and I sat beside a lady from India that talked to her friend (who was a row behind her) for the whole 7+ hour flight.  We were served dinner, which was either a chicken or pasta option.  I took pasta, which was macotti (pretty good for airplane food but not as good as moms), salad, cheese, bread, bottled water and a snicker doodle cookie.  Josh got chicken and it was served with green beans and mashed potatoes as well as all the other items that I received on my tray.  They played 2 movies throughout the flight, 42 and Trouble with the Curve, even though we both had seen them, it was nice to listen to noise and not everyone around us.  We tried to sleep, me more than josh because I slept on his lap and he really didn't have a place to rest his head comfortably.  It was such a long flight.  We were to arrive at 6:55 am in London so before we landed they fed us breakfast, which consisted of a croissant, blueberry yogurt, and orange juice.  A good start to our day considering we knew that we would be up for the rest of the day, traveling and getting acquainted to the time change.  When our flight landed, we had an hour layover to our next flight departed, which meant that we needed to get off our flight (we were in the back so it took longer, go through security again and find our terminal).   Needless to say, we were running to our next flight and hoping that we would catch it!  And we did, but I was so out of breath by the time we got to the gate!  We boarded a bus that then took us to the airplane and we boarded the plane outside.  The weather was cool, in the low 60's and sunny in London.  So we boarded the plane (in the back again) and luckily we didn't have anyone seating in the third seat with us, so we put all of our coats in that seat.  Speaking of coats, because our luggage was too heavy to check in Raleigh, we removed several coats  and just carried them on the plane.  So we had to maneuver 5 coats, Josh's messenger bag, a backpack/suitcase, camera bag and 2 carry on suitcases.  So needless to say, we had a lot to keep up with!  The flight to prague was only a hour and 35 minutes so we were able to sleep and then they fed us a croissant ham and cheese sandwich with orange juice and hot tea.  As we approached prague, we were able to see the countryside, lots of farm land and trees.  We finally landed, received all of our bags (so now add 2 fifty pound bags to our list) and headed to find Dana.  She is the director of the prague institute for NCState and renting us her apartment while we are here.  We found her, and packed our bags in a taxi cab and headed to the apartment for her to show us around and get familiar with things.  The temperature was even cooler here, mid 50's but sunny.  We arrive to the apartment after a 20 minutes drive and unpack the car and head inside.  So the apartment is on the fifth floor and the elevator is only 3feet by 2 feet (very small) at the most, so each of us took a load up.  The apartment is amazing, very roomy, and perfect for us while here.  She showed us how to work everything and gave us a tour.  We then decided that we needed to go to the school to buy a plane ticket for myself for our trip to Copenhagen which was on the 19th,  so I would be on the same flight as the class.  So Dana showed us the tram, which will be our mode of transportation and where we needed to get on and get off, It is about a 10 minute commute and what we saw of the city is beautiful and the architecture is amazing, cant wait to explore more, i think josh was paying more attention to the details than where we were heading.  We head to the school, bought our plane ticket and got a quick tour of the building.  By this time it is 2:30 and we both we feeling the jet lag.  We decided to go to this pizza place that Dana recommended,  which was pretty good.  Everything is in a foreign language. (Imagine that) but thank goodness for English subtitles!  I got prosciutto pizza and josh got spaghetti ( he got confused and thought that was pizza) but he said that it was still good.  We were both half asleep and full after that and decided that it  was best to head "home"  and rest.  We got on the tram, arrived at our stop and headed home, by this time, it was lightly raining and kinda cold.  We both sat on the couch and passed out, granted we were trying to stay up to at least 6 to help ease into the time change, and it was only 3:30!  Anyways, I woke up about 6, moved to the bed and slept til 10.  Now I feel wide awake, which is why I am writing this so I will not be behind but i know that I need to get to bed because we have a full day of orientation tomorrow that starts at 9:30am.  Today has been eventful, exhausting and all ready eye opening experience and we look forward to the days ahead and the memories that we will share!  Ps.  Please don't pay too much to all the spelling and grammar mistakes, i will fix them later, hard to type on the iPad!  I hope to update often but not everyday, just so you know!  Much love, Lauren and Josh