Saturday, August 25, 2012

"Wiggle Your Big Toe"

One week from today, I will be landing in a foreign country known as the Czech Republic. That's 7 days, I will be halfway across the world, submerged in a different culture with people I don't know, places I've never seen, and a society that is far from ours here in America. Scary, huh? Well I certainly think so. I know it's going to be exciting and adventurous, but until I land, I'm going to be in this state of nervousness. I know I can handle it, but it's how I identify with myself once I'm over there.

For those of you who want to know a little bit more about my trip, I'll give you a little pre-departure summary:
I leave August 31st, 2012 from NY to London. Then I transfer from London to Prague.
I arrive in Prague on September 1st, 2012 at 7:20am EST/ 1:20pm CET.
I will be greeted by my administrator at the airport and taken to the city for orientation and some important instructions.
I AM NOT using my phone as my main contact. It WILL BE DEACTIVATED. I shall be purchasing a new phone while I'm there, and I will post that number as soon as I get it. However, I will be contacting mainly through Facebook, this blog, and my email (mccandlesskyle@gmail.com). You can also access my Facebook at the top of this blog.
So that's just a brief summary. I will update it more in detail when I know more.

Now, this is my first post, so I decided to title it "Wiggle Your Big Toe". If you don't know the reference, it comes from the movie "Kill Bill: Volume 1". The protagonist, Beatrix Kiddo, played by the lovely Uma Thurman, wakes up from a coma, unable to move her body from the waist down. She realizes that she is alive and needs to plan her revenge on those who tried to kill her. She reflects on the incident that placed her in the hospital to begin with, and needs full function of her body to begin her journey. So she says to herself "Wiggle your big toe", and after 13 hours, she is able to drive a decked-out "Pu**y Wagon" mobile and begin. In that moment, it was something that helped motivate her to fulfill a mission.

For me, I must do the same. I have a mission, a goal, that isn't fully pieced together just yet, but it will help me understand what it means to be a Global Studies major, a represented student of Providence College, and how society operates within a different culture. I have a lot to look forward to, my home stay family, the culture shock, the food and nutrition, the city, the history, etc. But in order to take that first step, I must wiggle my big toe.