Hello again! I'm sure most of you reading this probably figured that I just wasn’t going to write anything, but I have a really good reason for my absence: I’ve only had the internet for 2 days! You could only purchase the internet at the reception counter for a few hours a day and so I finally got up early enough to buy it before classes started in the morning.
So now that I have it, let me recap the last few days in Prague:
Saturday:
At around 2:30pm I left the hotel where I had been staying (since I had already been in Prague a few days before the program started) and took a taxi to my new residence hall. I was a little worried about the ride because taxis have a really bad reputation in Prague, especially when it comes to overcharging tourists. After getting reassured that my driver spoke a little English I felt more at ease. I knew the ride should take around 30mins, but I was really surprised at the size of Prague. I knew the section of Prague I was supposed to go to so I kept looking out the window. I finally ended up in the outskirts of town in a mainly residential area. My driver pulled into the right street, but there were a ton of small buildings and I could not see any numbers on them. Apparently, neither could he. He pulled the cab over to the side of the street and when he got out I was so worried he was going to make me get out too and find the building on my own. But there was no reason to worry because he said he was just getting out so he could find the building for me; I was really surprised (and thankful) he was going the extra distance to help me. He finally found it and helped me take my luggage to the front door. If anyone ever plans on going to Prague make sure you use the yellow taxis that have “AAA” on the side because their drivers are simply the best! When I walked in I was greeted by a woman named Adriana who is one of the organizers for the program. She helped me sign in and get my room key and bed sheets because the woman at the reception desk does not speak any English. Unfortunately, I had to carry my 2 heavy suitcases and shoulder bag up two big flights of stairs before there was a floor with an elevator. (Though calling it an elevator is a bit of a stretch). I found my room and met my new roommate. Her name is Merle and she is from Germany. We hung out in the room for awhile and then it was time to go to dinner. It was a traditional Czech pub and Adriana and Monika (another organizer) had already ordered for everyone. The food is definitely different: a lot of bread, meat, and enormous amounts of sauce. When we got back to the hall it was time for bed.
Sunday:
Sunday morning we had a tour of Prague. It is a beautiful city and I took a ton of pictures. After our tour we came to the university where we will have our lectures: Charles University. It is the oldest university in Central Europe and was first established back in the 1300s. We had our orientation session and our crash course in the Czech language. It is quite possibly the hardest language ever! Afterwards, I went with a small group to another Czech pub and then we explored the city for a few more hours.
Monday:
Monday was the first day of classes. The journey between our school and our residence hall is about 35-40 minutes. That includes taking a bus, then switching to a subway and then walking for about 15 minutes. We had a session on the brief history of Central Europe then we went to lunch at a nice place called Café Slavia. After lunch, another lecture then I had to rush back to the hall to change into my opera clothes. We went to the Estates Theater and saw Don Giovanni which was written by Mozart; it is quite humorous. Don Giovanni is a man who enjoys sleeping with women and keeps their names in a book (it has over 2,000 names from all over Europe). He upsets one particular woman and she sets out to expose him to the world and get her revenge. It was originally banned in Austria so Mozart came to Prague and it made its debut in the same Theater in 1787. After the opera it was back to the hall for bed.
Tuesday:
I had class from 9:30 until 12:30. Then there was a picnic in a park near the university. We then had two more sessions of class. After that we were free for the evening. A group of us has dinner at a lovely little cafe. I ordered a chicken salad which tasted like something I could eat at home so it was pretty good. Then I went to the Palladium shopping mall with my friend Elena because we needed to get our pictures taken for the bus/subway tickets. The man behind the counter did not speak English so I had to take out my passport to show him that I wanted a small picture like that one. It took some time, but we finally got the pictures. The mall is pretty big with 6 floors and so we went to the top floor to have dinner. There’s a restaurant called L.A Finger Food and the number 14 was called the “Sacramento” so I had to order it. It was a fried chicken breast stuffed with ham and cheese with a vegetable salad. It was very tasty! After dinner we returned to the hall to just relax and go to bed early.
Wednesday:
We had our normal morning lecture from 9:30-12:30. In this session we learned about the EU (European Union), though a lot of the information was stuff I already knew from my EU class that I took at OSU. We then had lunch at Café Slavia again. The afternoon session has been the most fun in classes that I have had so far. We had a mock European Council and represented 6 European Countries: the UK, Germany, Bulgaria, France, Spain, and Poland. The best part was that I wasn’t a country; I was one of 4 Presidents on the Council! (though technically I also represented the Czech Republic). Our task at hand was to set the budget for the EU with very specific amounts allotted to different areas for 2010-2016. This was a very hard task. I had to take notes of all the requests by the countries and they each had 1 min 30 secs to tell us where they wanted the money to go. Myself and the other Presidents then had to take the information and give budget proposals to all 6 countries. We had about 4 different proposals and we argued, negotiated and compromised for about 3 hours before we finally set the budget. After that there was a scheduled sporting game, but as most of you all know, I watch sports, not play sports. So a group of us went to get something to eat for dinner and then spent the rest of the night talking and listening to music at the hall.
I’ll update later with today’s activities.
Love from Prague,
Marisa
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