My Time is up, Goodbye and Hello

This will come as a surprise to most of you. I have decided to return home, immediately. I'll be flying back to good old San Francisco on Friday. Thanks to everyone who made this time so special and so memorable for me. I won't go into the details of why I'm returning home, I'll just say that I didn't want to waste any more time taking care of my financial responsibilities.



As a nice goodbye, the sun decided to come out for the past few days. Even though it's been bitterly cold, the sun always lightens my mood. These pictures were all taken today or yesterday.



I will miss this place so much. The good times, the conversations, meeting crazy travelers and crazy expatriates, working hard for my own survival and sanity, and learning to appreciate another culture. These things and so many more I will take home with me. I will miss this city, of course, but I will miss so much more the great people I have met here. Andel flat is truly a crazy place and I'm grateful for the experience, even if I did complain at times. Anyway, I could keep going, but I would just keep repeating myself. You will all be in my heart. I wish you all, and especially my Andel crew, the very best in life. I hope to meet some of you in the future if our geographical paths cross. You can find me here or by email (jercasey@gmail.com). For sure I will visit Europe again and if any of you want to leave your heart in San Francisco, just let me know and I'll be right there to show you why I love my home.



So thats it, fare thee well fellow travelers and look out Bay Area, 'cause here I come!

Later,

Jeremy (Jezza)

Happy New Year / My Little Holiday

I didn't know how badly I needed a break until the third or fourth day of this one. Thankfully, my office has been closed since Friday the 23rd which affords me a nice little holiday. Nevermind the fact that it was more or less forced on me, I needed it. The daily stress of sticking to a tight budget, being energetic at work, dealing with a foreign culture and living in the middle of a big city have all been small, but pervasive drains on my mood.



Having little travel experience so far in my life, any trip has a sense of adventure to it. My friends and flatmates here still chuckle at my excitement for taking a train to another country. In short, Berlin was amazing. I only got to see a little of it, but I loved it. We saw in equal measure, beautiful weather and awful weather (depening on your opinion of snow). We walked to AlexanderPlatz and Brandenburg Gate on a brilliantly sunny day even if it was a bit cold. In contrast, it was abolutely dumping snow as we walked to the train station two days later to return to Prague.



To me, German language is oddly refreshing. My impressions of listening to Czech speakers is that all the words run together. It's hard for me to pick out the few words that I do know. I know as much German as I do Czech...meaning none, but German sounds well ordered and more understandable to me. With that said, I'm going to bite the bullet and begin to learn Czech in the next couple weeks, wish me luck.





New Year's in Prague was great. Me and my flatmates went up on Petrin Hill, with students from the local Aiesec committee to get a veiw of the city and the fireworks displays. At midnight, it looked like the whole city was exploding. Afterward, I had my first snowball fight ever. I think we should have more of this in the States. Why have fireworks displays only once a year?

I hope everyone had a great holiday and if you missed me, know that even though I had a great time, I missed you even more. Until next time, have fun living down your New Year's hangovers and living up to your New Year's resolutions.

Later,

Jeremy