Week One Post

I finally made it to Czech Republic!  I arrived in Prague last Thursday evening, where I stayed for a few days before coming to Olomouc on Sunday.  I flew over with another student who is in the program and neither of us had any idea how to leave the airport.  After a few busses and a few subway rides we finally made it to the apartment where we were staying.  Prague was the first foreign city I have ever been to, so it was a lot different than anything I am used to.  In the few days we were in Prague, we walked around and saw all the cites, and met up with some other kids in our program.  Luckily the jetlag didn’t last too long, I was back to my normal schedule in just a few days.

Once we arrived in Olomouc on Sunday night we moved into our dorms and unpacked.  The first few days we walked around the city and had a few guided tours showing us both historical and practical things, like how the trams work.  We have ate out for every meal so far, other than a few breakfasts, but the food here is really cheap.  Most meals are around $5 including a drink.  Water seems to be the most expensive drink you can order, so hardly any of us are drinking that.  The food is really good here, I really like the traditional Czech quinine.  One of my favorite dishes that I have ordered is Schnitzel, which is like chicken fried steak with potato salad.  When we don’t have much time to spend eating, we stop and get kebabs which are superb.

One of our classes is a Czech language class, and it is way harder to pick up than I thought it would be.  I learned some basic phrases, like “thank you” before classes started, but that is still all I know.  Letters are pronounced differently here and there are a lot of different accent marks that make the letters sound different as well.  I feel like none of us are going to be able to learn that much Czech while we are here.

There aren’t many people in Olomouc who can speak English, mainly just younger kids.  A lot of the restaurants here only have menus in Czech, so it can be difficult to know what to order.  Sometimes you can get lucky and have a waiter/waitress who can speak a little bit of English, but other times you have to just point at a dish and hope for the best.

I can definitely tell a big difference between the people here and the people back home in Nebraska.  People here aren’t as friendly, and just rush right past you without looking at you.  It is very rare to see someone smiling when they are walking down the street, and we have been told that is only an American thing to smile for no reason.  There are crosswalks but most people just walk out into the street wherever they want to cross and cars slam on their brakes.

Old Town Square in Prague