I’m sure many of you are curious as to what my day to day life looks like now that I live in a Czech Republic. While there are quite a few differences, there are also many similarities. It isn’t as different as I imagined before coming, which is a blessing because it made it so much easier adapting.
Living arrangements
I live in a flat (or apartment) that has two double rooms (two people living in each), two single rooms (one person living in each), two bathrooms (three people to each bathroom), and a kitchen. I’ve lived in dorms before so the main difference in the living arrangements is that my roommate and flat-mates are from a country other than the US, so they do things a little differently. For example, people from other countries go out to party way later than people from America. They usually don’t start going out until 12:30am-1:00am and don’t come home until like 4:00am, even on school nights.
My roommate and 3 other girls are from Turkey and one girl is from Italy. All the girls have been so welcoming and kind to me, which I’ve really appreciated. Just a few weeks ago it was my flat-mate’s (Loubaba is her name) birthday. I was coming home past midnight from Paige’s room because we had spent the past few hours booking hostels and flights for spring break. Since it was past midnight, it was technically Loubaba’s birthday. A lot of her friends had come over to celebrate because they wouldn’t be able to see her during the day since they were leaving for a trip early in the morning. Everyone ran up to me and invited me to join the gathering in their room and have a slice of cake. My flat-mate from Italy had made the cake (tiramisu) and it was delicious. It was fun meeting my flatmates’ other international friends, and I ended up in her room until 1:30am even though I had an early morning the next day. Instances like these, where they are so inclusive, help make being far away from my friends and family easier.
Roommate
I lucked out with such an amazing roommate. Her name is Berin and she is from Turkey. She is studying philosophy and isn’t quite sure yet what she wants to do as a profession. She loves trying new foods like me so she is constantly bringing home new things for me to try. The other day she found these crunchy cookies from the grocery store that literally taste exactly like Chips Ahoy, so it was nice to have something taste like home.
There is a club in town called Belmundo that all the international students go to on Wednesday nights because they have themed country nights. The first week I was there it was Turkey night so of course I had to go since my roommate and flat mates are from there. Berin was so excited I was going with her and she enthusiastically introduced me to all her Turkish friends which made me feel so welcomed. We had a blast dancing the night away and turns out you really bond as roommates when you stay out until 4:30 am together lol.
It has also been so interesting learning about her country and culture and comparing it to ours. Of course, we also always have these long, engaging conversations late at night right before we go to bed. That is something that doesn’t change no matter where you go. Girls have their best deep conversations at night. One of our more interesting conversations was about holidays. With the Easter season coming up and the grocery stores filling up with merchandise, Berin asked me if I celebrated Easter. I told her yes and she told me she never had before. I asked her what holidays she did celebrate and she told me they don’t celebrate as many as we do in America, but her favorite is the day her city was liberated. It is in September and they shoot off fireworks, have parades and cook special meals for their families (it sounds very similar to the Fourth of July). She expressed to me how jealous she was of all the “themed” holidays Americans get to celebrate and how she thinks they are so much more fun. She was very fascinated learning about what Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day, and Easter were all about since she has never celebrated any of them. I also had a great idea while telling her all about them. We would celebrate her first Easter in the dorms. So, I went and bought some eggs, dye, and stickers so we could dye some eggs. She was beyond excited when she realized what we were doing. My other flat-mates came out to watch as well, but I could tell they were very doubtful we were going to be successful. They thought dyeing eggs was a very difficult process and were extremely impressed when Berin and I were making multi-colored eggs. They thought we were artists. It was so fun watching them all react so enthusiastically to something that seems so simple in America since we are used to doing it. They all came up to take pictures with the eggs and show them to their friends. I also surprised Berin with her first Easter basket that I had filled with the essentials (chocolate bunny and candy eggs). She was so thankful and excited over the basket and took plenty of pictures to capture the moment. I’m blessed to have such fun-loving and kind roommate during this whole study abroad process.
Food
I was so afraid before studying abroad that I would miss American food desperately and constantly be craving stuff from back home. I even made my family eat lots of fast food from various places leading up to the week I left which consisted of Amigos, Godfather’s Pizza, KFC, Taco Bell, etc. to try to get all my cravings out (I don’t think they were too upset by this). I don’t know what I was so scared about. While they don’t necessarily have Taco Bell, they have lots of Mexican restaurants, McDonalds, and pizza places. I was honestly very surprised by the selection that is at my disposal. Don’t get me wrong, these places definitely don’t taste exactly like the American versions, but they are pretty dang close. There’s a café right by my classroom called Cross Café that has basically become the Starbucks for all of us American kids, and we go there almost everyday before class (they do have Starbucks in Europe, just not by my classroom). Their vanilla chocolate chip muffins and iced coffees are to die for.
I don’t go out to eat everyday (though it is pretty close), I also go grocery shopping at a store called Globus. Globus is about a 15-minute walk from my dorm and is the equivalent of a Walmart. It has everything from food, to clothes, to cleaning supplies. It can be quite difficult shopping there though because everything is in Czech. It can be scary not knowing if you are buying ham or some gross mystery meat, but so far I have been fairly successful in picking things out. I’ve mostly stuck to safe food products like bread, meat, and cheese for sandwiches, and chips. I’ve only had one major mistake in picking something new out. I purchased something that looked like a weird tortilla rollup with some kind of tasty looking dip in the middle. It was made in the deli section of the supermarket and many people were buying it so I assumed it would be good. Wrong. I opened it up to discover that the “tortilla” was some sort of gelatin. I translated it and the gelatin was made from animal bone stock. And the tasty cheese dip- it smelled so bad there was no way I was trying it. Anyways, I recently found the international aisle, which was exciting. They had a Mexican section which had chips and salsa and tortillas so now I can make cheese quesadillas. The American section was really disappointing though. Apparently, all we are good for is barbeque sauce.
Language
One of the more frustrating things I have encountered while abroad is the language barrier. While there is a large amount of people who do speak at least a little English, there’s also many people who don’t speak any at all. It doesn’t help either that the ones who don’t speak any English tend to have zero patience towards me when I’m trying to ask for help. The last time I was at the Prague train station, I needed help finding my train. I had just come from the airport and was running behind so I wasn’t sure if I had missed my train. There was a train sitting at the platform my train was supposed to be on and I wasn’t sure if it was mine or not. So, I approached a worker standing near one of the train doors and tried to ask. She quickly waved me away and pointed to the next worker farther down the train. I ran down to the next worker who rolled her eyes at me and said no English. I tried to just show her my ticket, which was completely written in Czech, but she completely refused to even look at it. It turned out, I had missed my train and so this one wasn’t it, but it was just very disheartening that these women refused to help me just because I didn’t speak their language. Don’t get me wrong though, not all non-English speakers are like this. In all the restaurants, I have to just point to things on the menu because I completely butcher the pronunciations of the items whenever I try and end up confusing the waiters more. Almost always, the workers are courteous and flash a kind smile when I am struggling trying to tell them what I want. It will be so refreshing when I come home to be able to communicate with basically anyone I want about anything.
Getting adjusted to daily life in Olomouc hasn’t taken too long. So far, everything about my study abroad experience has been amazing- the traveling, people, school, etc. so I’m excited to see where the rest of my semester takes me.