It's the little things

Ever since I've been here, I've been waiting for that day in which I have to pack up all my belongings and head off to the airport to go back home. I know it doesn't make sense, but you would feel the same way if you've only ever lived in Cleveland, the Berks or a frat house. This place has yet to cease amazing me, and I'm humbled by it; I've begun to learn that life exists outside of the United States. Strange that I could never truly wrap my mind around the fact that people are born and raised in beautiful European cities, as if these places around the world were built purely for my amusement as a tourist and nothing more. But I'm not a tourist here. I'm finally immersed, living my life the way I want without the threat of it all being taken away at a moment's notice. It's the little things that I've always been attracted to when I'm in a wondrous new place. I'm getting haircuts here, going to the movies without worrying that I'm wasting my precious time, enjoying afternoon runs through the park, reading in my comfy chair followed closely behind by a sturdy nap, making tea in the morning, etc. As of late, I've really enjoyed watching Prague shift from its warm summer days to cool autumn evenings, which has become the clearest sign to me that I do in fact actually live here. The morning air grows more brisk with every alarm blare, making it that much harder to get out of bed in the morning--a feeling I know all too well. All of my shorts have officially become useless, leaving me with two pairs of pants that I can actually wear in public (not counting my Sunday pants, of course). Trees haven't changed colors yet, but I'll wait for Halloween until I can begin to feel cheated out of my very favorite occurrence in nature. I think in a week or two I'll finally be able to put my scarf to good use, which I've been highly anticipating ever since I packed it into the pocket of my jacket in DC to save room in my luggage. Yesterday, it rained all afternoon, so I did a whole lot of nothing. I woke up, made eggs with toast, went grocery shopping, watched Battle Royal (which is an amazing film about kids in a 3-day fight to the death AKA Hunger Games on crack), read my book, took a nap, then went out to some bars with the gang. In other words, I did not feel a need to spend my day enjoying the city or utilizing every waking moment being productive, I lived like how I normally live. I thought to myself "What a boring day you've had, there's no way you can blog about this.." but then it hit me: this is exactly what I should write about. The fact that I feel comfortable enough to the point where I can shmooze around all day and not feel guilty about it. It makes me laugh that I can find such importance in my most lazy day, not that I'm convincing myself to become a Netflix fiend in Prague like I am in the states. Still, even after a day of doing exclusively "me", it's the little things that make me smile. I hope everyone reading this can find a little thing in their life today and smile about it.