Highlights

In finishing up my posts on Berlin, and preparing for my trip to Barcelona, I haven’t been writing full posts for the last couple days. I have kept notes about what happened in my journal and I will try to give you some highlights.

Monday March 25, 2013
In my Intro to Czech class, our professor (who I would guess is in her later fifties/early sixties) told us that this is the coldest spring she can remember in Prague.  She confirmed what Ivana had said that normally the weather is much warmer by now and people would be wearing t-shirts outside. That is definitely not the case. We still get sporadic snow between the days that are freezing cold.

In my next class, supply chain management, we continued learning about the differential equations for calculating inventory and reordering points. As he was explaining it, my chest started to feel funny. I put two fingers on my neck and, watching my watch, checked my pulse. It was 75 bpm (perfectly normal) but inside my chest it felt like it was racing. I began to feel short of breath, yet I was breathing normally. Just as I realized both symptoms were in my head, it grabbed me! My abdomen muscled went rigid.

I was having an anxiety attack.

I was pretty sure the algebra formulas weren’t the cause (although on second thought, we shouldn’t completely discredit that idea) but I couldn’t figure out what would be the problem. I was ecstatic for my trip to Barcelona this coming weekend. I was planning to Skype with my friend Bryan tonight. I’ve been in touch with a lot of different friends and family from back home in the past few days. I just had a great trip to Berlin. I honestly felt happy and fine….why was my body freaking out.

When it came time for the break, I told my group I wasn’t feeling well and they told me I should go home. I did, trying to take slow deep breaths the whole tram ride. I seriously wasn’t stressed! What was going on? Back in the dorm, I snacked on some soup, and then laid down. I tried thinking about possible causes for the anxiety. There were really only two things that came to mind. (1) My laptop has been acting up a bit lately. If it dies on me, I’m not sure what I’m going to do. (2) Barcelona is definitely the biggest trip I’ve done and maneuvering the airport on my own does have me a bit nervous.

Eventually I drifted to sleep and when I woke up, I felt better. I made some dinner and then Skyped with Bryan. We had a great chat and I felt totally recharged for the rest of the week!

Tuesday March 26, 2013
Tuesday night, I met with my group for International Marketing to work on our midterm project (which is due next Tuesday.) This group is made up of Martina (from Czech) Jana (from Slovakia) Tomas (from Chile) and myself. I was the last to arrive at the school. We’d agreed to meet at 7:30pm but I missed the 7:16 tram. We laughed at the stupid American, but then got to work.

Our project is to design a new marketing campaign for Skoda Auto. Skoda is one of the oldest and the largest companies native to the Czech Republic. While they are now owned by Volkswagen, they were originally a bike company in the 1800’s that evolved into making automobiles. Our new campaign has to target young people who are buying their first car.

As we started into the project, we had a long list of ideas of improvements Skoda could make to their cars to appeal to young people. Re-reading the instructions I pointed out, “We aren’t designing a new car, we are marketing their current car to young people.” This wasn’t as much fun as theorizing about new GPS units and XM radio, but it was the project.

After drafting out a few ideas, Jana said, “We need to go get some beers. I need some beers to think.” The logic normally didn’t work in American study groups, but we talked about it and decided to go to the Puma bar for some drinks to continue working.

Tomas and Jana had never been there, so we enjoyed showing them the pumas on the patio. The two of them ordered a light beer while Martina drank coke and I drank my staple of orange soda. At one point, we circled back—as most conversations I have with people seem to do—to talking about ages. Once again, my youth was a subject of much laughter and surprise. I, however, later surprised myself. When they suggested we go into the game room to play foosball, my gut reaction was “I’m not very good at that game, why don’t you guys go and I’ll head home.”

Instead, I said, “Sure! Sounds fun!”

We played three games. Martina and Tomas were on a team against Jana and I. The first game we were tied every round. We’d get a point, then they’d get a point. We’d get a point, then they’d get a point. Finally, they won when Jana scored a goal on our own team.

“Too many beers?” Tomas joked. We all laughed.

The next game we started out with a vengeance. I scored on Tomas in the first round. “Too many beers?” I joked. Again, we all laughed.

In the end though, they won the second game too.

The third game was closer. Again, we’d get a point, then they’d get a point. This time, we won! We would have kept playing, but a line was starting to form.

Jana lived across town while the three of us lived back at the dorm. We rode the 9 back talking about our own home countries. When Martina said there is a difference between city people and country people in Czech, we stayed on that topic for a while. It seems like Chile and the Czech Republic have similar stereotypes of country folk as the US—that being that they are simple, friendly, down-to-earth people.

Back in the dorm I skyped with my parents. After we hung up, I realized I hadn’t actually eaten dinner. I made some pasta, finished some homework, and went to bed somewhere around 3am.

Wednesday March 27, 2013
I spent most of today rushing around getting ready for Barcelona tomorrow. I have to be at the airport at 5am and it is about 2 hours away on the night tram. In fact, the normal trams and buses don’t go to the airport that early. I have to make a series of three transfers (with two minutes between each transfer—here’s hoping the trams don’t run late) so I can get there in time.

I went to the supermarket in the morning to buy some travel sized soaps. After wandering around for about thirty minutes, I came to the conclusion they didn’t sell them. After watching me wander around the cosmetic aisles for thirty minutes, I think some of the other shoppers were coming to some conclusions about me too.

We had a guest lecture from the Marketing Director of Skoda Auto, giving us some more insight into their companies psyche and mindset. It was very interesting and I wrote down several things he told us about business in general. The one he repeated most often was, “the fish has to like the worm, not the fisherman.” I thought that was a catchy reminder to market to your audience’s needs, not your own.

Afterwards, I went into town to enjoy the Easter festival before I left. When I return from Barcelona, Easter will have passed so I figured I should take in the opportunity to see it one more time. I am so glad I did. I spent some time at the different stands looking at the hand painted eggs. It sounds silly to say, but I was amazed that they were hand painted EGGS. In glancing at and photographing them before, they were so shiny I assumed they were ceramic. They were in fact eggshells that had tiny holes drilled in the bottom to drain out the yolk. They were so delicate and beautiful to look at.

I enjoyed another grilled cheese with jam and watched a middle school dance group preform some folk dances. It was another fun, atmospheric evening. The icing on the cake was seeing the Astronomic clock do its thing at the top of the hour.

After hanging out for a bit in the square, I rode the tram back to the dorm and got together the rest of my things for Spain. Now, I am off to take a quick shower before getting a few hours of sleep prior to my midnight adventure across Prague.