A New Place to Call Home.

As I promised I'm here with a blog post! YAY!! Hope all my devoted followers enjoy it(That's you Mommy) and hopefully get a baby taste of my adventures here! So here we go...

Jet lag at its finest.

I've been in the beautiful country of the Czech Republic, or Cesky as the the locals call it, for a little over a week. I keep pinching myself because it doesn't seem real. My first few days I spent in Prague, and they were amazing. It is a city fueled by tourists so it reminded me of my lovely NYC, but also incredibly rich in history as all of Europe is. Sami and I landed at the Prague airport on March 10th a little before 2pm after we had conquered an hour flight delay which made us sprint through the Minneapolis airport barely making it on board our international flight one minute before the doors closed. However, we made it! Our first day in Prague was spent conquering the dreaded jet lag. This was even more of a struggle because Sami and I slept an hour on the plane between the two of us. While we were checking in to Hotel Caesar, which I was very impressed with thanks Mommy for teaching me to read reviews while booking, we found our other travel buddy Molly. The three of us wandered the city for awhile and we found the coveted DOUGHNUT ICE CREAM CONES. I'm sorry to disappoint, I did not like the ice cream cone. That's just my opinion so come to Prague and taste it yourself. :)

Kissing the cone before I realized I didn't
like it.

The rest of our stay in Prague was spent exploring. We met up with Lydia and Jessica and took a hop on hop off tour of the city. Which was the best 500kc(roughly $20) I have spent on this trip so far. We visited Wenceslas Square, Charles Bridge, Prague Castle, St. Vitus Cathedral, the Queens Palace, and explored Kampa Park. It is so amazing how much history one city can have and how many centuries it can go back. We lack that in America due to us being such a young country. The tour also allowed us to have a section on the Vltava river which was a very unique view of the city. We met up with some other UNK students later that evening and experienced a little bit of what Prague's night life has to offer.  The next day we visited the John Lennon Wall which is a symbolic grave of the Beatles band member. The wall is full of anything and everything anyone wants to say or 'spray' with a can of paint it was artistically refreshing. Our night was finished with a little more art and saw a black light theatre show 'Phantom'. My thoughts on this production could probably fill a book so if you are truly interested call me, beep me, if you wanna reach me. The last day we had in Prague I got to walk through the city solo to go meet my friend from Kearney, Madi at St. Vitus Cathedral. Walking around anywhere by yourself gives you a very cool perspective and I kind of felt like a local for a few minutes. Once I said goodbye to my friend we headed to the airport to meet the rest of our group. After we all made it to the arrival terminal we took a bus to the enchanting city of Olomouc and  have been here for exactly one week. 

Panoramic view of my dorm room

We arrived in Olomouc close to 8pm on  Sunday and everything felt very disorganized. It was all very chaotic and it left me feeling a little homesick and unsure of the new place I would have to call home until June. This uneasy feeling passed after a goodnights sleep and in my seven short days here I can proudly call Olomouc home. Nebraska abroad is partnered with the group call ISHA. Which is the history students at Palacky University here in Olomouc.  The students planned a welcome party, a tour of the city, a tour of the university buildings, a pub crawl, a day at the Antique Market and a trip to the Holy among other events. I am very grateful for all they have done for us in our short time here.

Group trip to Holy Hill

I am here to study so I should touch on that in my first post. We had our 'syllabus week' our first couple days here along with guest lectures. I was not aware how connected Olomouc as well as the rest of the Czech republic is connected with America and Nebraska. All three of our guest lectures had different information on our historical connections. My regular classes are language, holocaust history, and a field study class. All three of the classes sound very interesting and I can't wait for them to start. The only class that has truly met is our language class. Czech. Is. Hard. The language still uses our latin alphabet but each letter sounds different as well as new letters being added. I am excited but also very intimidated to dig deeper in to this new language. More to come on how wonderful our classes are later once they get in to full swing! ;)

A traditional Czech dish, Fried cheese. YUM.

The cultural change is also something I have been observing. A huge culture difference from America, especially the midwest, and here is how we greet each other. Czechs are very straight faced/angry people. One of our guest lecturers told us if you ask a Czech how they are doing they will always respond with, "Everything is shit.' When in Nebraska we always say we are 'good' or 'fine'. Alcohol is another big thing here. You can order a beer or some sort of alcoholic beverage anytime anywhere. I couldn't imagine walking in to Panera and watching someone order a beer with their lunch it is something our culture doesn't embrace. Food is an area I thought would change drastically and an area I would struggle with as a very picky eater. This being said, I haven't had a meal I didn't like. I've even tried traditional Czech dishes a few times! I can't lie though, I can almost find any American dish I am craving. We've had chinese, burgers, pizzas, tomato soup(my favorite), and even sushi. Ordering has been a little bit of a struggle but nothing that can't be handled. I could probably type for hours but I will spare you until my next post. Na Shledanou! 

P.S.

Things I miss

1. Ice/Free water
2.  Fountain Pop
3. Dancing/ Everything in the FAB
4. My own schedule

Things I don't miss

1. Driving
2. How Expensive eating out is
3. Cow smell
4. Mornings

Okay, Now I'm really done. See you via my blog in a week.