7:00 is almost a witching hour.
There are plenty of reasons to love NYC, but i miss the alternate universe in which i lived in prague. I miss waking up and seeing the baby tower from my window—creeping to the bathroom as to (try to) not wake up my wonderful, sleeping roommates. I miss looking through my scarce wardrobe (because, really, who needs any more than that?) to find an outfit (that was so out of the fashion loop it hurts). I miss our communal kitchen, where I’d run into at least one happy smiley morning-glowing face, or even ‘dobry den!’ whom i’d awkwardly share the space with as I ate my breakfast. I miss passing that cute little car that was parked next to slezska for months and walking through the park as people walked next to their dogs. I miss the jiriho z podebrad stop and always wanting a croissant from princess as i descended down the mile long escalator to the always-on-time train. i Miss thinking (or saying) ‘there’s a storm coming’ whenever the train would begin to pull into the station and the way the czechs kind of looked at me weirdly when i first moved there and when, towards the end, I kind of felt like i fit in. I miss Mustek and walking on the cobble stone past the little market to Richtruv dum or Male Namesti. I miss looking up, just casually on my way to class, and appreciating how simply understated the beautiful, intricate architecture just stood there. I miss how the colors of the buildings brightened my day no matter how dull and gray the sky was. I miss the stairs alll the way up to the top floor of male namesti, my teachers who could hardly speak english, and sitting in the computer lab and knowing every single person that walked in. I miss how every single day was like its own little adventure. I miss walking home and getting kind of lost every time, but finding it easier, each time, to find my way home. I miss the pivovars, and the tabaks, and studenska bars, and kozel cerne, and radost, and tesco, and no open container rules, and just having to go down (or up or just look across the room) a couple of flights of stairs to see my favorite people. I miss my crazy voice teacher who would smoke cigarette after cigarette, make tea for me filled with the most delicious cesky med, and almost come to tears every time I sang. I miss the slow pace and traveling almost every weekend. I miss not understanding anything anyone said around me, but when I did, feeling such pride in myself that I could decipher their precious code. I miss taking photos and developing them for hours. I miss tourists staring at that stuuuuppppiiiidddd (but beautiful) clock. I miss hot wine, medovina, and every food that they sell in staromeska that it full of sugar or meat or bread. ughh i miss smazeny syr with tartar sauce. I miss the christmas market and how prague felt on St. Nikulas day—the air was electric. I miss the snowflakes of the last days and the feeling that we’d never have it that good again. I miss skype sessions with my parents and how the time difference made the stakes that much higher to talk to them. I miss trying to pronounce street signs as I walked by, cacoa covered brazil nuts from country life, and the search for american things which I was probably better off without anyway. I miss making cookies with no proper measurements and no proper ingredients, but the fact that they’d still be eaten in less than 5 minutes. I miss the apple orchard and the best view of praha. I miss the trams and the sketchy buses. I miss how the most stressful thing was figuring out traveling plans for the weekend. I miss my life there and the fact that really, life never hit me in the face with its reality and its harshness and its pressure. I miss na zdravi, and dobry den, and na schla, and dekuju and the difference between perliva and neperliva. I miss feeling different and special in a place that I was borrowing. I miss really living and breathing and experiencing and being inspired every day and not realizing how lucky I actually was and how vivid my memories would be. don’t get me wrong, nyc is a city of dreams, but prague? God, I would give anything to go back. take me back…
