The six hour layover in Chicago went by surprisingly fast. I must have just been excited about getting to Prague. On the flight from Chicago to London, I actually sat in the same row as another girl in my program. Since our flight was delayed out of Chicago, instead of having a 3 hour layover in London, we actually only had about 40 minutes to get to our connecting flight. I got to the gate literally two minutes before it was closed. Not surprisingly, considering the short connection time, my luggage did not make it to Prague with me. There was actually a lot of other kids whose baggage didn't come either, so I didn't feel so bad.
A large group of us got delivered to our apartment around 8:30 Wednesday night. There are six girls total in my apartment and there are two other apartments each with six boys in our same building. Chris, Sarah and Dana all go to University of Wisconsin, Lisa goes to University of Arizona, and Sammi goes to Cal State Fullerton. The apartment that we're in is pretty cute and seems like an authentic apartment where actual Czechs would live. We live on the sixth floor of our building and the elevator that we take to get to our floor is absolutely tiny.
The set up of the apartment is actually a little weird. Our apartment opens to a foyer that is actually accessible to the rest of the building because it is where the building laundry room. There is one door off of the foyer that opens into our common area. The common area consists of a couch, a coffee table, a dinner table and the "kitchen" which includes a microwave (which can't even pop popcorn) sitting on top of a mini-fridge, and a countertop with a hot plate, a sink, and a dish drying rack. There goes my dream of honing my culinary skills while I'm abroad. Off of the common room are the three bedrooms. Sammi and I live in one room, Chris and Dana live in another room, and Lisa and Sarah live in the third room which connects to Dana and Chris's room. We only have one bathroom for six girls which is a little rough. The only entrances to the bathroom are through Dana and Chris's room or through the foyer, but we have to lock the entrance that goes through the foyer at night for security, which means we have to go through Chris and Dana's room if we need the bathroom at night. This has already caused a bit of a problem since Sammi and I are earlier risers than the other girls, but I think we'll figure out a system over time. The best part of the apartment is the balcony outside Lisa and Sarah's room. We can't wait until it gets warmer so we can hang out out there every evening.
A few minutes after we got to our apartment the first night, our neighbor Matt came over with a batch of fresh baked cookies. He is an American exchange student who has been here since September on scholarship and has apparently been bored to death without any study abroad students to hang out with. He actually took the Wisconsin girls and Lisa out to a gay bar that first night but Sammi and I stayed in because we were both missing our bags and felt pretty gross. Thankfully, our bags were delivered at one that morning, so we were able to unpack and get settled that night.
The next day we had our orientation at school at 2 p.m., which seems surprisingly early when you can't fall asleep until 3 a.m. Since we didn't have any of the food at the apartment, I got a sandwich from the Subway restaurant that is right across from our building. It's funny having something so American right nearby, but I think that it will be comforting to have something so familiar so close. We all took that tram across the river to our school for orientation. The school is in a gorgeous old building, but we all are under the impression that Anglo-American University is something of a community college...I mean, just look at the name. The orientation was fairly pointless, but I found out that I got all of the classes that I requested. I'm taking Elementary Czech, Prague Art and Architecture, Anthropology of Central Europe, and Modern Intellectual History. I have three classes on Tuesday, one on Wednesday, and one on Thursday, which means FOUR day weekends every weekend! I'm even considering switching my Thursday class to one of Wednesday so that I only have two days of school a week, but I literally have no idea what I would do with that much free time.
After the orientation, I went with the Wisconsin girls and Lisa to an apartment where a big group of the Wisconsin girls' guy friends from school live in Old Town. We got very jealous to see their full kitchen, large bedrooms, and three bathrooms, but we still like our apartment a lot. Theirs is definitely nicer, but ours has more character AND a balcony. We walked home from their apartment which gave us the chance to see more of our area beyond our tiny little street. The boys live right off of Old Town Square which is very old and classic, but much more touristy. Our area, New Town, is much more modern and urban. It seems more authentic as far as getting the experience of being a temporary native. We live right by Wenceslas Square and the National Museum. Our street connects to a a very busy, energetic street with a lot of appealing shopping stores.
After we stopped back at the apartment, we made our first venture on the metro to go to Tesco (the Czech version of Walmart). The metro was actually very easy to navigate and I feel like I will be able to get around the city pretty confidently using it. At Tesco we just got some essentials that we had been missing for the apartment and some snacks since we were all starving. When we got back to the apartment, we met up with Sammi and we went out to eat a a restaurant in Lucerna, which is something like an indoor mall across the street from our apartment. That night, we all went out with to Prague's famous five story club, which sounds pretty crazy, but it was actually pretty disappointing. The interesting thing about going out in Prague though is that you meet people from a lot of different countries that are also traveling. We met a guy from Australia who is traveling around Europe for eight weeks before going back to Australia to start college. I can't imagine doing something like that at only 18!
Yesterday, we had a walking tour of some of the sights of Prague hosted by one of the women who works at CEA. It was cool to get a chance to see more of the city, but it wasn't the ideal tour. It was cold and cloudy out and our guide wasn't really cut out for the job. We had the chance to see Prague castle, St. Vitus cathedral, Charles Bridge (which I actually will get to walk across every day to get to school) and the astrological clock in Old Town Square. I'm looking forward to going back to all of those places when it is warmer and when I have a guidebook for better information. I would like to go on another smaller, more professional walking tour, so I am going to look into reputable guides for when my dad comes to visit.
Once we got to Old Town Square, the Wisconsin girls, Lisa and I broke off from the tour to get some food. We went to one of the many pizza places in Old Town for some comfort food. When we got back to the apartment, they got some sleep for the first time since they've been here and Sammi and I went with our neighbor Matt to an adorable ice cream and dessert place right down the street. There was a grocery store that was much less intimidating than Tesco in the same building, so we stocked up on some food beyond snacks. It's really nice to have Matt here because he already knows the city pretty well and (more importantly) knows how to speak Czech.
That night, Lisa, Sammi and I met up with some other girls from the program to go to a cute place in Old Town called Bar and Books. It was a small, quiet bar and it was really nice to have a more relaxed night. When we got home, the other girls were stilling getting ready to go out for the night. Some of the boys from the apartments downstairs came up and it was nice to get to know them a little better. They were all going to go out and the boys had to stop in their apartment before they left, but when the girls went down to the boys' apartment to meet up, there were police outside the boys' door! And not just a couple, like six or seven. They came back upstairs and were freaking out and then a few minutes later we got a knock on our door. We thought it was just the boys' from downstairs, but when I went to the door the Czech police were there. Thankfully, the only problem was that we had been too loud the first couple of nights, but seeing the Czech police at my door was definitely not on my list of things to do while I'm here. Part of the problem is that our building has quiet hours from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. and noise carries a lot more in this building than it would at home. The Wisconsin girls seemed to really downplay the situation, but I don't think they realize how loud they are when they are talking in the common area or when they are waiting in the hallway for the elevator. I guess it's just another thing we will all have to adjust to, but I really don't want to ever see the Czech police at the door again...
Today is our first free day. Considering that I only have class three days a week I'm actually going to have a lot of free days, but it feels nice to not have anything scheduled. I'm kind of getting to the point already where I could use some silence and some alone time. You would think that I would be used to a lack of personal space after living in a sorority house for two years, but I think this is just a lot more concentrated living situation and the personalities are a lot more extreme.
Sorry this post was so ridiculously long! There was just so much that happened in the first few days. I will try to be better about keeping up with this blog. I miss you all a lot already. Take care!
No comments:
Post a Comment