I've been in Prague for a few days now and I must say that I am truly enchanted by this city. The buildings are reminiscent are those that I'd imagine in a Hans Christian Anderson story or in Hansel and Gretel.
Day 1: This is technically my first blog since landing in Prague, so I'll start from the beginning. After travelling for many, many hours, my plane descended over the Czech Republic. I peered out the window and saw beautiful fields of green grass, but the most noticeable landmark was a giant, blue Ikea. I was amused. I had a rough first hour upon arrival; my bag was delayed in London and my card was denied at the ATM machine. Although these moments were less than glorious, I didn't let them dampen my mood. I got my card to work and the airport assured me that they'd deliver my bag to the hotel by later that night. I was cool, calm and collective (a totally new thing for me!!!) and happy that I'd packed a change of clothes in my carry on. There were six other kids from my program on my flight so we had a chance to bond and head to the hostel together. We put our things down and decided to take a walk and get a famous Czech beer. We all drank Pilsner which was about $1.50 a pint.
Day 2: The next day, our program took us to have our school ID photos taken. My friend Dani and I were the first few people in line so we were able to take our pictures quickly and go straight into exploring old town. We walked around for a few hours, grabbed some lunch and then reconnected with our program to go flat-hunting. A friend who went on this program a few years ago told me to pre-reserve a flat on Vezenska and that was coincidentally the first flat we toured. I (and my two flat-mates) were relieved to have found a flat so that we could move out of the hostel and begin to establish some permanence in Prague. The flat is beautiful and is right on the border of Old Town and the Jewish Quarter in Praha 1.
Day 3: We headed to our school this morning to have orientation and go over some of the logistics of our program. It was overwhelming but informative and I'm really pleased with the program I chose. It's organized and knows exactly what to do to give us an ideal study abroad experience. Dani, Abby, and I moved into our flat after the orientation and took a few hours to settle in, unpack, and explore the neighborhood. We decided to venture into Prague 2 for dinner in hopes of exploring some new territory. We ended up finding a random Vietnamese restaurant with only a Czech/Vietnamese menu, so we were constantly google translating the menu items so we knew what we were ordering. I literally have no Czech vocabulary except for a few classic Vietnamese delicacies now...
The trip has been incredible so far. Everything is new, over-stimulating, overwhelming, and exhausting, but I am having the time of my life. I still can't believe that I'm here and will be here for the next 3 months!
I'm exhausted and have slept 10 hours in the past 4 days I think so I'm going to Czech out in my Ikea decked out bed (I would expect nothing less...pretty sure my room contains the "Malm" set).
Love to you all!
Grace
I didn't finish the entire beer! Don't worry, Mom & Dad
Pilsner=famous Czech beer
Czech Cosmo...lol
Dani and I waiting for the tram
Old town
The famous Astrological Clock (google it and read about it...it's super cool!)
Old Town
A few of us in front of our school building
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