The Art of Changemaking

Day 1: Choppy Landing
July 17 (My Lolo’s birth anniversary)
Masarykova Kolej dormitory
Thákurova Street, Praha 6

Today marks my Lolo’s 93rd birth anniversary. I would have loved for him to see me go off to Europe so he could tell me his own stories of European adventures. Sadly, though, he passed away in 1993 when I was just 13 years old. I don’t see it as a coincidence that I mark my first full day in Prague during Lolo’s special day. He’s my personal guardian angel up there in heaven, and I know he’s watching over me now.

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I arrived at Masarykova Kolej at around 11PM last night, after initially resisting the idea of spending for a cab to get there. Prudence told me, however, that one must not scrimp on safety–especially when traveling alone at night, armed with heavy luggage and weighed down by zero Czech language skills. My cab driver seemed to be just like what the travel advisories described–curt and not very eager to help–but I got to the dorm safely and for just Kc450 (approx. P900) so that was a good start.

The dorm rooms were what I expected–small and very cozy–except that, in Europe, they don’t have air-conditioning and it’s a very warm summer here. There is very little ventilation, and if you try to open the window to let some of the breeze in you’ll end up sharing the room with mosquitoes. So I’m quite thankful that I don’t sweat that much even in warm temperatures, or else my room would feel like a sauna.

Soon after settling in, however, I realized that the warm room was the least of my problems.

I had locked my luggage zipper before flying here because I didn’t want to take any chances on airport security especially on a long-haul flight. When I got to my room to unpack, the lock wouldn’t recognize the security code and would not open. Thankfully, I had packed two days worth of clean clothes in my overnight bag and kept all my electronics there as well. So I should be able to survive until tomorrow, but if I will need to destroy my zipper while still at the beginning of my journey then I know I’ll be in for a rough road ahead.

Then there’s the matter of adaptors. I had packed two different adaptors in my bag, to be safe, but none of them works so I had to go downtown this morning to purchase one that would be compatible with the outlets here. Two hours later, with an adaptor in tow, I headed back to the dorm–only to discover that, because of the way my computer adaptor is designed (large and rectangular), it would not fit nicely into the round adaptors that are jn use here. I saw a super-multi-universal adaptor while in the department store, but it was way too expensive and would put my budget in serious jeopardy. Of all the adaptors and plugs that I have, the only one that fits is that of my HD camera–so at least that worked!

The best news of the day so far is that I’ve already met our program director and some of my classmates (from Egypt, the US, and Peru), and I’m pretty sure that at least one of them will have an adaptor that will work with my gadgets.

Right now, I’m so tempted to curse the ISO for not standardizing all the adaptors and outlets of the world, but since even that will be futile for now, all I can do is pray and hope that my Lolo–the soldier, Air Force ace, and jetsetter that he was–will whisper some streetsmart tips into my wide-open ears

My lolo, Capt. Generoso A. Lopez. I miss you, Lolo!