July Updates

Ahhhhh! I have been unforgivably inattentive to my blog for the past few weeks, so I will try now to update you on my happenings. On the same day I wrote my last post, I took the bus up to Prague, where I met Ryan at the airport for nearly two weeks of a wonderful vacation from the bookstore. Roman (the owner of Shakes and the one who gave me the job, picked me up from the airport in May, and drove me down to Krumlov, aka, he's been really great) was wonderful yet again and let Ryan and me stay in his flat in Prague for the week while he came down and took my shifts in Krumlov! The relentless rain, which I'd grown accustomed to by this time, caught us unprepared several times throughout the week, and I think we spent as much time wet as we did dry while in Prague. Since Ryan had never been to continental Europe, it was a gas showing him around the 'mainland.' On Thursday of that week, we rented a car and drove to Salzburg for the weekend. Salzburg in the summer was something I'd never experienced, and boy are there a lot of tourists! So many terraces, outdoor bars, and music stages were set up around town, none of which I saw during my time studying there. On Sunday we drove back to the CZ, dropped off the car (this was actually quite an ordeal, but as those are memories I'm trying to repress, I won't recount them here. I will say that Sixt Rental Agency may not be the most organized institution, but the Ceske Budejovice employee was great! Thanks for your help, Vaclav) and returned to Krumlov for Ryan's remaining days. It rained every single day he was here, but I still think he had a good time... I sure enjoyed the company!! We went to Laibon for dinner one night, and SURPRISE SURPRISE David stuffed us to the point of near-unconsciousness. On Thursday it was back to Prague so I could put Ryan on an uncomfortably early Friday morning flight home.

Now that the trip I had looked forward to all summer was over, I realized I was incredibly lonely in Krumlov. It had honestly rained everyday for over a month, and it was (literally) putting a damper on my summer. Tourism in Krumlov was down, creating long days at the bookstore without much excitement, and on my days off I found myself doing nothing but hanging around my tiny room behind the bookstore. I spent the first few weeks here in Krumlov searching out people at hostels and around town in the hopes of making some friends, but almost two months had passed and I was still incredibly alone. When I returned from dropping Ryan off at the airport, I discovered that another girl was now working at the store, and that I'd now only be working 3 days a week, aka I'd now have 4 days a week to mope around in the rain or in my room. And then I found out someone from my high school class was shot and killed in Milwaukee. It was too much. Too much happened all at once. I realized I was incredibly homesick. And that I wanted to go home. Soon.

I spent the next week on the phone with Lufthansa, pleading with them to change my flight and finding no open seats. I emailed Roman and told the other girls here at the store what was going on. They all told me I could go home. I just couldn't find a damn ticket to get there. Finally I found a flight for July 22nd and nabbed it faster than Mr. Miyagi catches flies with chopsticks. (Or should I say, faster than Obama catches flies with his bare hands?) No sooner did I secure my ticket home when, honest-to-God, the sun came out and summer decided to show itself in Krumlov. Not only that, but all the people I'd met here finally decide to come to the store to check up on me. I got asked to an outdoor movie showing, a Brazilian band's concert, the girls at work started bringing me currant cakes and freshly-picked cherries... my landlady even decided to bring me an ice cream sundae out of the blue. WHATTHEHECK IS GOING ON?!?! It was like everyone in town knew I was depressed and stopped by.

"Too bad you just now decide to be nice to me, Krumlov! Well too late! It's over! I'm leaving you!" I felt like shouting, but couldn't as I stuffed my mouth full of more currant cake. I think I'm going to be 200 lbs by the time I get home. I think I'll just have a grapefruit for dinner. Oh, and maybe some leftover cherry pie...