I'm so tired, I haven't slept a wink

I'm here. I'm sitting in the hotel picking up some shady wireless connection because no one in the group understood the man at the front desk's directions to connect to the wireless.

It's been a rough start. One of the guys in the program didn't get his visa in time for the group flight out so he's waiting at home in the USA for it to arrive. Another girl's luggage got left in Heathrow. All of us are dead tired and forcing ourselves to stay awake so we can adjust to the time zone difference. That's mostly required sustenance and my first exposure to Czech food.

The academic coordinator ordered us a cheese plate and some bread at a pub-- instead, we got several plates of fried cheese. Imagine mozzarella sticks. Now make the pieces of cheese larger. Now substitute in several different types of cheeses, including smoked varieties. We walked cafe/coffee place called Medusa and tried some actual food.

None of us know any of the words for food. Whatsoever. But there actually were some English translations on the menu. I've been surprised (and somewhat pleased on the first day) at the number of signs in English and the number of people speaking English. The table next to us at the cafe was actually an English lesson. I almost wanted to jump in and help out! But trying to read the menu required much more concentration.

Here's some of what I noticed--
* cocoa and hot chocolate? Not the same thing. Hot chocolate it essentially liquid chocolate. Kind of like the "chantico" drink Starbucks tried to sell and failed at miserably since it was too rich.

* their choices of fruits -- it's not that they have entirely different food than we do, particularly fruits and berries, but they combine the flavors in different ways. Like plum jams on the Czech version of crepes

* all the food came out at different times. It came as soon as it was ready, but it meant that we couldn't wait to all eat together

* the server basically drops the food on the table and disappears. They don't rush you out, but they also don't really check to see if you want to order anything else

Now I'm off to bed like a little old lady, all fat and happy