As a senior looking back on my fall breaks, junior year definitely wins the prize. Every junior can attest to the feeling of saying goodbye to best friends leaving for their semesters abroad, especially after essentially living with the same group of girls for two straight years. When I said goodbye to my best friends in August of my junior year, I decided that if I could, I’d go visit them during fall break. While flying to Europe during such a short break suggests some extravagance, my trip gave me incredible memories and invaluable preparation for my own semester abroad that was quickly approaching.
Come September when I received the schedules for my classes, one friend and I decided our Thursday before fall break would volunteer as tribute to be skipped. We booked our flights out of JFK; we would have five full days in Prague, totally worth it to us. Because off season months feature scarce direct flights to Prague, Helsinki gave us a great spot for a quick 45 minute layover on our way to our destination. We flew a somewhat questionable aircraft from Helsinki to the Czech Republic, but because we went through customs in Finland, we breezed right off the plane when we landed in Prague.
We were finally there! Freezing cold and early in the morning, the friends that we came to see sat in Czech class. The two of us, feeling the first wave of abroad confusion–something we grew extremely accustomed to feeling during our own semester abroad–drifted by. We wanted to find a Metrocard machine. We found some sort of public transportation machine, bought something, and boarded a bus. We took the bus to a subway, then to a trolley, then to a ferry, a gondola, a horse-drawn carriage, and finally a Segway. Just kidding about the last parts, but we did somehow manage to take a bus, a subway, and a trolley to finally arrive in the part of the city we wanted to be in. We had some faux pas, but I won’t go into them here. Considering all of the street names in Prague sound like complicated advanced level hot yoga poses, we made this feat pretty miraculously. Luckily for us, we got off the trolley and immediately spotted an American boy. He had a North Face backpack; we knew. He directed us to the coffee shop that our friends told us to wait in. (If this boy is out there…thank you again.) We struggled a little, ordered some cappuccinos, severely confused the waitress by asking for skim milk, and then waited. Somehow in the midst of all the travel nonsense from the airport, I had managed to cop an Instagram to post for our arrival. I had yet to learn the lesson of just how crucial wifi would be for the student abroad in Europe. Before we knew it, the lovely faces of the girls we came to visit came rushing into the coffee shop after class. REUNITED AT LAST!
We then went to the mini mart, stocked up on Milka, pretzels, and imitation Nutella, and went to their dorm room to do what we do best: nothing. After a few hours of resting, catching up, and simply reveling in the presence of our best friends, we ventured out into the city. Much smaller than New York, we walked and trolleyed around Prague pretty easily. Not having heard an ounce of Czech language before my trip, the waiters and waitresses (usually) spoke enough English to manage in a restaurant, or they had English menus and you could point. If they did get it wrong, it was okay because the Czech are not known for their food (only their beer and I don’t even like beer).
So many “classic abroad” moments happened that weekend. To start, I ran into both a friend I interned with over the summer and a girl I went to middle school with in the same night at a club. I would learn that I would frequent this type of occurrence often abroad because American students tend to flock to the same places. On a typical night abroad, you can run into your friend’s cousin, camp friend, sorority sister, or a random kid you played soccer with in third grade and it would not be weird simply because you all are studying abroad in Europe.
One of the highlights of the trip? Obviously painting “Happy 125th Barnard” on the John Lennon Wall. The photo we took has been featured in every Barnard publication since. I hope that it’s not my only legacy that I leave with the school, but at least it’s pretty cool.
Because they had already spent two months in Prague, my friends had planned out the perfect amount of tourist destinations, wandering around, cute cafes, relaxing, and going out for us. Over the weekend, I even got to attend one of my friend’s field trips to Terezín, which made an incredibly meaningful day for me. With plans to go abroad in the spring, I loved seeing what abroad life was like. Obviously programs differ around the world, but Americans studying abroad can always share at least some common experiences. Overall, your friends’ abroad apartments will make for great free housing and noteworthy fall break destinations.