You can’t just call your mom. Even if you get a new phone plan, there’s no guarantee that your friends and family will be easily reachable. For me, there’s a 7-hour time difference between Prague and Alabama, meaning that I can’t call my mom until it’s 3pm here, by which time I’ve usually already had multiple meltdowns.
Food. Unlike New Orleans, Prague is not quite a foodie paradise (with the obvious exception for trdelnik, so good). Most restaurant food is very heavy, and vegetables are scarce to be found outside the supermarket. Speaking of supermarkets, grocery shopping isn’t easy either, with most labels being printed only in Czech. Cue me crying over the last box of Easy Mac I brought from home. Yes, you will end up at McDonald’s or KFC at least once (a week) just to find a sense of normality.
That language barrier. Whether you get lost or are trying to determine what exactly you are ordering at dinner, not speaking the language is hard. Two nights ago it took the cashier and the customer behind me in line to tell me that my purchase cost 170 Korunas and not 117 and that the 120 I was trying to give to the cashier was not enough. Even when you’re speaking English with people, things can get complicated and leave you feeling very embarrassed and a little stupid.
Even though all these things happen and I sometimes feel a little defeated, studying abroad has still been a great experience so far -2 weeks and counting!! It’s not hard to make fast friends when everyone is thrown into a new situation together, and you learn so much every day through trial and error. On top of all that, you will see so many new and beautiful things and make amazing memories and get great new ~prof pics!~