Wow, am I really doing this? That's the thought that always crosses my mind when I'm doing something way out of my norm, and in this case, it's studying in the Czech Republic for the next 3 months. It truly hasn't hit me yet that this is my life for the next couple of months, and it honestly probably won't for at least a couple more weeks. All I know for sure is that I am absolutely thrilled to be here.
As I'm writing this I've already been here for two weeks, so I definitely have some catching up to do for you. I arrived in Prague, Czech Republic on March 10th, two days before my program started. Luckily, I traveled with friends so I wasn't completely alone when I arrived in my new country. Even though I was suffering from serious jet lag (being in planes for 11 hours is no fun), my excitement couldn't be contained and I was ready to explore the city right when the plane touched the ground. We didn't want to try to figure out public transportation in another language on day 1, so we got a shuttle to our hostel. Before studying abroad, I had never heard of hostels and so when we were first trying to figure out where to stay in Prague, I thought hostels were people spelling hotels wrong. In a sense they are hotels, except you share the room with other people. I guess I would say they are more similar to dorms. Usually there are at least 3 to 4 bunk beds in the room and 1 bathroom. I haven't had the experience of sharing the room with total strangers yet because I have been traveling in bigger groups so far, but I'm sure the first time I do, it'll be an interesting one. After getting checked into our room, my group went out to explore Prague.
St. Ludmila in Prague, Czech Republic
For the next two days, we walked all over the city without a true plan in mind. We just wanted to get a good idea for the city and not go to all the super touristy places, such as the Prague Castle, because we knew we were going back as a class in a few weeks and would receive a proper tour then. One of our main goals while in Prague was to have an authentic Czech meal and luckily we were able to try quite a few unique foods. (If you'd like to see all the new foods I've been trying while visiting different countries, head on over to the 'Eat' tab on my blog's website.) We also tried to go on a day trip to Kunta Hora, Czech Republic to visit a bone church and had to get on a train to get there. Let me tell you, it is nearly impossible to figure out what train you need to be on, at what time, and at what platform in a completely different language. Good luck even trying to buy a ticket. Many hours later and missing a couple of the trains heading to our destination, we finally just got on one we thought was right and headed to Kunta Hora. We did manage to get there, but arrived at 5:30 pm and the bone church closed at 5:00 pm. It was a fun fiasco trying to figure out the train station though, and we will definitely have a better idea of how to approach the whole train situation next time. My time in Prague was too short and I'm already so excited to go back and experience more of the touristy aspects of it.
Lost on a train in Prague
Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc
Before I knew it, we were all boarding a bus and heading to Olomouc, Czech Republic, my home for the next 3 months. I am attending Palacky University in Olomouc. The whole bus ride there I was so nervous, not just because I was in a new country and that in itself is overwhelming, but because I had never met my roommate before. I didn't even know her name. There was an odd number of girls studying abroad from UNK so one of us was going to have a random roommate- lucky me. But honestly, lucky me. I literally have the coolest roommate ever. Her name is Berin and she is from Turkey. She is a foodie like me and when I first met her she was coming home from a weekend trip to Poland and she brought cookies and treats from there for me to try. That's how I knew we were going to be good friends. Now whenever we visit different countries we bring back food for each other to try. It has been so interesting learning about her culture and just getting to know her. In future blogs I will go into more depth about daily life and that sort of thing though, so stay tuned for those! (:
But anyways, I think I have done a pretty good job of catching you guys up on how my whole studying abroad experience has gone so far. I'll have a blog going up every Wednesday so feel free to follow along on my adventures!
Jenny