May 6th began as we traversed time zones during our flight from IAD (Washington D.C) to BRU (Brussels). Our flight had been delayed about an hour and a half and four toddlers were screaming in French, so I was exhausted but found it difficult to sleep. However, my late nights of studying at Benedum had prepared me for this day. When we touched down in Belgium, we had about 30 minutes to get to our next gate, and the line for passport control was pretty long, so we had kind of internally given up considering that we were already looking to rebook our flights. Although, one of my classmates, Dylan, was further ahead in the line and was able to make it, relaying the message to the flight attendants that we were on our way. I made it through the passport control at around 9:15 AM, which was when the gate officially closed, but I started sprinting anyways.
After dodging endless perfume shops and respectfully blasting past slowly walking people, I made it to gate A40 and heard a woman shout to me “Prague!?” Words from an angel. I had made it there at around 9:20 AM and told them that there were more shortly behind me, and, fortunately, we were all able to take our seats before the departure time (9:30 AM). The travel chaos officially ended (despite our luggage being left in Brussels) when we arrived in Prague, where we were happily welcomed and taken to our hotel by our wonderful tour guide, Jana.
I then proceeded to sleep past my alarm for our first tour despite the fact that Chris was pounding on my door for me to wake up from my nap. I woke up around 40 minutes late and joined the group (I am sorry Jana, Chris, and Dr. Sacre). Regardless of this mistake, my mind was then fresh, and I was ready to actively listen to Jana’s fun facts about the culturally rich city of Prague.
I would say that one of the biggest highlights of today was getting to know a little bit more about the personal life of my classmates and program directors. The stress of travel truly brought us together. Additionally, the fact that we don’t exactly speak the language of the Czech Republic forces us to rely on one another and to build some level of trust and friendship. I really enjoyed today because of this fact, and I look forward to developing more valuable relationships.
Thanks again to Jana for an amazing day!
P.S. I included a picture of a pigeon sitting on the statue of Charles IV adjacent to the Charles bridge because the pigeon along with the brisk weather today reminded me a lot of Pittsburgh. I also thought it was cute.
Swanson School of Engineering 