PRAHA!!!

So I realize now that I have been in Prague for almost 3 full weeks and it's time for an update. Prague is an amazing city. At first glance, everything appears very daunting since all you see are completely unfamiliar words, often with lots of 'v', 'y' and strangely accented letters. However I've never had a more fun challenge than starting figuring out this city.

I flew into Prague on Monday, Jan 19th in the morning. My first glimpse of Prague was spectacular in the bright sun. I met up with other kids from my program in the airport and we all proceeded to a hotel for the night. I decided to walk around and explore a bit with some other kids. After finding we would be studying next to a 500 year-old church and a beautiful park, we stopped for lunch at a local Czech eatery. Two pivos (beer) and a hearty lunch of meat and potatoes was a whopping $7. Each pivo only cost 23 Korunas, or about $1.10.

We spent the next week in orientation sessions. Half the time we sat in classrooms and had life here explained to us. The other, more interesting part, was taking various walking tours around the city by our Czech Buddies, who are local Charles University students who live with us and help us out. I learned to navigate the city very quickly because of them, which is clutch. Public transportation and the trams in particular get you wherever you need to go at all hours of the day.

I am living on the top floor of a dorm right down the hill from the study center. I'm living with Scott, one of my friends from my freshman hall. We are two of the 7 guys living in a dorm that also has 28 other girls. Not a bad ratio at all. Everyone here is also down to explore and go out which is great. It's almost like reliving freshman year, except now we actually know what to do. We often go out as a group with kids from the dorm and meet up with some apartment kids elsewhere.

Prague nightlife is amazing. That first week a Czech buddy took us to a Czech Beatles cover band playing at a club with a retractable roof. We also went to a 5 story club with a different style of music and design on each floor. As much as I hate clubbing at home they are a blast here. One place called Radost FX is amazing as well. Almost every night of the week people are willing to go out and do something new, and everywhere I've been so far has been a blast.

After our orientation week, we had two weeks of intensive Czech language. We had class for 5 hours, 5 days a week. Not so much fun, although I found it to be far easier than arabic, so it was a nice change. Plus, with so much class, I picked up on the basics pretty quickly. Hello is 'Ahoj,' which is literally pronounced 'Ahoy!' It's been very useful, especially when trying to figure out where the hell you are or what to order.

I have plenty more to talk about, but it will have to wait for later. We had intense downhill skiing, a church made of bones, and my weekend adventure in Bratislava. More on that later...but for now, check out some of these new pictures

Prague and Bratislava Pics