Post-exchange rambling on a Friday night

Sobriety: an abnormally rare condition on a Friday night for a Praha trainee characterised by too much blood in the alcohol stream. Symptoms include coordination, morality, awareness, less idiotaness, ability to spell all of this correctly. Treatment: TICKET TO PRAGUE, NOW, PROSIM! But since the treatment is a bit expensive, I’ll use my voice on cyber space to whine/reminisce/ponder a little.

It’s been 10 days since I’ve returned to my tiny remote island on the other end of the world. Yes, I’m happy to see my family and close friends, to breathe the unbelievably pure air and see familiar places and faces. It’s nice to gorge on all the treats I missed so much, hear/read/understand/speak the same language as everyone around me and be pampered so much in the sanctuary I call home but a part of me still lingers on in a tiny little country in Central Europe. A part of me still finds it hard to reintegrate into life in this paradise called NZ! A part of me is still feeling the after effects of an amazing life-changing experience.

Life-changing...it’s a term I’ve used rather loosely to describe my traineeship experience ever since I arrived in Prague. I thought more about the term the other day. I went to Borders (yeah super surprising considering my horrendous reading skills) to kill some time before meeting with a friend. I have always thought about documenting my Prague experience so naturally I was drawn to the travel writing section in the bookstore to get some inspiration. Ta-da I found a book – “Me, myself and Prague” written by Rachel Weiss, an Aussie writer who wrote this book about her one year escapade to Prague. I only read the foreword and was hooked on...I could relate to her experience in so many ways. She described her one year in Prague as a life-changing experience as it helped her discover herself. I couldn’t agree more. My 16 month epic adventure was life-changing. I didn’t meet the love of my life (much to my mother’s disappointment :P) neither did I find the job of my dreams nor did I do anything outrageously crazy like bungee jumping or sky diving but I did change. Life as I know I know it and the Rucha that I once was will never be the same again.

I had always been a straight A student throughout my school and University life. I was a woman with big dreams and a plan, a life plan – Bachelors, graduate degree from an Ivy league school, a corporatey career with a Fortune 500 company followed by a job with the UN, a family life with a white picket fence, 2 kids and a Mcdreamy and then a PhD and becoming an educator. Wandering around aimlessly on the streets of Europe, living with a whole bunch of crazy international idiotas, mastering (alcohol) drinking and partying skills and working in a small company in Prague were never a part of the life plan but boy am I glad that I have a problem with sticking to plans :P

How does a Harvard degree-UNDP job-white picketed lifestyle compare to an intense party-fuelled life in crazy hostelesque trainee apartments? Well, it’s hard to compare since I haven’t experienced the former lifestyle but I do know that I learned more in the last 16 months about life and myself than I had ever learnt at University. Not all those who wander are lost! I’ve learnt the importance of having a global mindset (cultural spongeness FTW), the importance of adapting to all sorts of situations and people (Thank you Andel apartments :P), the true meaning of friendship, developing an unshakeable trust and love for humanity (people surely maketh a place), being a migratory bird/nomad building a nest wherever I go, the vital need for holding on to the child-like curiosity and constantly accepting and overcoming life’s challenges and most importantly having FUN FUN FUN. Life’s too short to not be living da vida loca ;)

I’m sooooooo grateful for this life-shaping, self-discovering, idiota-being experience. I wouldn’t change a thing about those 16 months. The emoness I feel now and the concern I have for future experiences (HOW WILL ANYTHING EVER MATCH UPTO THIS?!) are all testimony to how amazing this experience has been. Moving on is going to be hard...as Zrinka and I discussed, the end of one’s traineeship is like a break-up but only harder because you’re breaking up with soooo many more people/places/objects of affection in this case. SIGH but c’est la vie.

As a wise philosopher/a cheesy facebook page proclaimed “don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened”, I’m going to stop whining over the end of my internship and being so far away from my new-found friends and family and be happy that it happened! The internship was a life-changing, not life-stopping experience so it’s time to use and apply all my life lessons to life here in NZ and continue living da vida loca!