A Comedy of Errors

I'm laughing as I start to type this. This week has been a rollercoaster.

We made it to Prague late on Sunday night. Got into our Airbnb, and immediately started sweating. It was an actual furnace. Rebecca says I immediately shut down, but I was just blogging. We made the big kid decision to book a hotel room around the corner and moved accommodation that night. 

It was a wise decision.

We woke up well-rested on Monday, ready to explore Prague. We started with the Astronomical Clock. Very cool. Poor guy lost his eyes for his brilliance though. After a quick lunch break, we walked across the Charles Bridge to Prague Castle. We toured around there all afternoon. As we were making our way back towards the other side of town. I slipped on a littered pamphlet and hurt my ankle. This is why we don't litter! We stopped at the library to see a really cool art installation and then went to a pharmacy for an ankle wrap. It was an early night for us. Rebecca applied for one job!

 

 

On Tuesday, we didn't have much of a plan. We saw some statues and I explored a park while Rebecca took a break. There were all these benches with quotes on them. Here are a few of my favourites. I think they all capture what the last nine months have been.

"Life is about timing." -Carl Lewis

"Moments are the most beautiful things in the world, not possessions." -Karel Capek

"In photos, I like that it captures a moment that is gone forever, that cannot be repeated." -Karl Lagerfeld

"It's kind of fun to do the impossible." -Walt Disney

That last quote is especially special to me as that is what I used as the basis for my commencement speech at Duke a few years back. 

 

 

Perhaps the most important part of the trip was trying a true Czech Kolache. If you're from Texas you know the importance of this food group. I was so excited, I haven't had a proper kolache in YEARS and it was delicious. No, it's nothing like a hot dog or a pig in a blanket.

We went to the airport and headed to the lounge to wait for our flight to Amsterdam. I was feeling pretty bummed as our tickets to the Van Gogh Museum had fallen through. Going to that museum was part of the reason we were going to Amsterdam, along with the fact that Rebecca had yet to go to The Netherlands. Rebecca manages to find two tickets to the Van Gogh Museum and we are PUMPED.

30 minutes later, I get a text message from EasyJet saying our flight has been canceled.

After exploring all our potential avenues, we decided to head back to London as soon as we could. So we spent another night in Prague at the airport hotel. We woke up, maybe too early (I was worried we would get into a Murphy's Law situation), and walked across the street to Terminal 1. Naturally, we went to another lounge and finally were on a plane back to the UK.

Rebecca handled all the changes and talked to all the help desk people with such grace and ease. You know it's a strong friendship when you can laugh through these moments. We laughed a lot. At ourselves, the state we were in, and how the situation turned. Mere months ago we were travel PROS. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

I was back in Cambridge by Wednesday afternoon and once again eating dinner at Queens'. 

Thursday was Rebecca's 'going away dinner' and it was good to be back with some MBAs.

I found myself FaceTiming a lot of people on Thursday. Some picked up, some didn't. I learned during Covid that I'm not good with downtime and suddenly, I have a lot of it. When I called Daniel he noted that I must be bored if I was calling. It's hard when your friends know you so well. That being said, it is always lovely to catch up with folks and I need to be better about using that app.

I walked through the Zoology Museum on Friday. I thought that would kill a few hours...it killed 30 minutes. 

Spent Friday evening on Parker's Piece, saying happy travels to London to Graham and Lucy with Tenaya, Jo, John, Brandon, Jack, Santi, Hadeel, and Ruth. 

I spent Saturday morning getting a massage per my mother's suggestion. I finished a cross stitch, worked on going through part of my room, and then spent some time writing. An idea with words came to me and I wrote them down. The silence, void, can bring clarity and help you hear things better. In April of 2020, I read a book called What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding, by Kristin Newman. In the book, she shares what her mother said about voids. "Kristen, a void is a good thing. You're always rushing to fill up your life with fun fun fun. But nothing new or good can come in without a void to fill. Voids are necessary and wonderful." 

Now I'm not saying that not having class right now is a void. But it is definitely the 'slowest' pace I've gone in a long time. And that is a void. But that void led to words on a page that are not this blog and I'll take it.

Sunday = Barbenheimer. I did it y'all. Bought into the hype and watched two movies back to back. I think it's worth seeing both, but you don't have to do it on the same day. YAY SPACE!

This Barbie is going to try to knock out a 4,000-word essay next week, so we'll see how that goes.

Complicated watches for complicated people

(This is a joke for me and no one else)