Praha

(Translation: Prague)

I FINALLY HAVE INTERNET IN MY DORM!

Now that I have internet I will be able to do more frequent short posts that will be much more interesting for you to read (and for me to write). But since I want to catch up on the last few days this one may be pretty long. For that reason I'm going to subtitle them. That way, if you get bored you can just move on to the next one.

Sunday Night
I left off with Sunday night when I was supposed to meet Jenny. Since her program got back from their trip late, I ended up not getting to see her. Instead I went for a GREAT dinner at a vegetarian place near Charles Bridge with my friends Jill, Alexa, and Alex. Then we came back to the dorm and decided to go explore the city. We found a very nice establishment right near the bridge and on the water. It was a lot of fun because it was mostly people our age and most were from other countries. We met a group of ladies from Norway and some college kids from Belgium. It was really interesting hearing the impression that these kids have of the United States. We danced for a while but then had quite the adventure getting home. This time we knew our address and which metro stop we were and everything, except we had forgotten that the metro stops running at midnight and we were um, slightly past that time. We decided that we could definitely walk back to our dorm. We forgot the part that we had never done that before, so it was quite the challenge. After walking for about two miles up a twisting, winding road that was straight uphill, we finally decided that we should just try to figure out the tram. We FINALLY found someone to ask and got on a tram. Mom, this would be why I was talking to Dad at that hour.

Monday
This was our orientation day at the university. Not much to report on that. A bunch of the director people introduced themselves. I do not lie when I tell you that ONE OF THE PROFESSORS stood up and wrote the names of the best clubs on the board and told us which ones were cheapest which nights. She was great. She also told us that if we pay more than 35 crowns for a beer at a bar or restaurant, then we're getting ripped off. (FYI 35 crowns is about 2 dollars). Anyway, after that little introduction we ran some errands. It was about noon so we got breakfast, and did a little shopping for odds and ends that people needed. (Okay, not odds and ends but important things like cell phones).

I think it's necessary to quickly make the distinction that I am here through a program called AIFS, which are sort of like study abroad travel agents. I go to school at Charles University in a program called European College for English Studies (ECES).

Monday afternoon we went on a boat ride up and down the Vlata River. It was with all of the kids from ECES, not just AIFS. It was cool to see all of the sites from the water, but we were all a bit rundown so two hours on the water really tired us out. I met Jenny for dinner and got to see her dorm. It was nice to see a familiar face, and it was surreal that I was seeing her here.

After I left Jenny I was taking the tram back to my dorm. As I got off the tram to get on the metro, I ran into a bunch of my friends. They were headed to see the John Lennon wall so I decided to go with them. (So much for an early night). It took us a while, but we finally found the John Lennon wall. Unfortunately, my camera died after only taking a few pictures of it, but I will definitely go back soon.

Today
Today was a trip with ECES that is part of our orientation. We went to the town of Pilsen (or Plzen in Czech) where we climbed to the tower of an old church and saw the city from up high. We also toured some old synagogues. The highlight of the trip (yes, the real reason we all signed up for this one) was that we then toured the Pilsner Urquell beer factory. It was so impressive!

So far many things in the Czech Republic have been beautiful and impressive, but they have been beautiful and impressive because they are so old and yet so intricate. However, there isn't much here that is new. There isn't anything that I have looked at and been impressed by the technology or the modernity. Pilsner changed that. Everything at the Pilsner factory impressed me. We saw the filling station which is the size of FIVE SOCCER FIELDS. The most impressive part is that they fill 100,000 bottles and 38,000 cans AN HOUR, and all with only FIFTEEN workers on duty at a time. I was so impressed! They bussed us to other buildings where they showed us movies about the process and showed us every single step. We went into the cellars (absolutely freezing) of the brewery where there are over six miles of tunnels. We got to see where they store the beer. They gave us our free sample and even included a free Pilsner mug!

Tonight I went to Tesco with Jill and our friend Mike. This was a very important trip. Tesco is sort of like Walmart. I had to buy a towel because the towel that they gave us and that I have been using is literally smaller than a hand towel. Very effective, I know. I also bought plates and cooking utensils. I tried to buy food, but it's kind of difficult to figure out exactly what you're buying. Maybe now that I can cook my own food it will be easier to find something to eat!



There are a few more odds and ends that I want to tell you about. So this morning I went down to the breakfast at the dorm cafeteria. I got a yogurt and a hard boiled egg, but the best part was that when I tried to find water to purchase with my food it was no where to be found. However, there was BEER ON TAP AT BREAKFAST. I am not even kidding. Before you ask Dad, no, I did not get it.


The other thing that I wanted to share was that I have actually been using Czech. I'm the only one that really knows any besides "thank you," so I've had to talk several times. Looking for the Lennon wall I used my wonderful "Excuse me, do you understand English," and that came in handy again tonight when looking for Tesco. I also told the host at lunch today that there was eight of us. That I can attribute to Caroline who helped me to learn the numbers! Thanks, Care! Anyway, my intensive Czech classes start on Monday, so hopefully I'll be able to use more than the simple phrases soon!

Tomorrow I'm heading to a town called Telc. I don't know much about it, so that should be interesting. Just so you know I was able to put up my pictures from Munich tonight, including the ones from our interesting night out! Talk to you soon!