05 September, 2009

First Official Post from the Czech Republic!

Dobry den! That's Czech for good morning and it is also the very first phrase I learned in Czech. I think I'm going to like learning this language.

I meant to update this as soon as I got here so that there wouldn't be so much to write, but then we haven't had any wi-fi and only one ethernet cord to share between four of us. This should b
e fixed soon. But, anyway...a lot has gone on since I first landed in the Czech Republic. So, I guess I should go back two days ago and start the story there, where it should have started.

On Wednesday, September 2, my friend Kris and I boarded a plane at JFK International Airport and took off on a 7 hour flig
ht to Prague. Well, the flight itself wasn't that bad. I rather enjoyed the food on Czech Airlines that they had for dinner and I was able to sleep for a good 2 or 3 hours before the woke up the entire plane to serve breakfast, which was also pretty good. I only had one complaint about the entire flight. That would the fact that most of the plane consisted of a group of Jewish people that only spoke Hebrew and they all knew each other. Talk about feeling out of the loop. Kris and I had no idea of what was going on. People were everywhere talking to each other. It was a bit of madness.

The plane landed ea
rly at 5:45am (Czech time, that would be 11:45pm American time) and we got through customs rather quickly. We then proceeded to find some place in the airport that was open. Low and behold, we found ourselves at the McDonald's because it was the only place open. We made our home there until about 8:30am. During our stay there, we pretty much did nothing but plan out some of the stuff that we are going to do while in Prague this semester. Things like see the maze of mirrors and rent a row boat on the Charles River.

EDIT: This is Thursday morning now, by the way.

We started to get a bit worried around 9:45am when no one seemed to show up to retrieve us from the airport. Turns out though, that Kim (our RD) was just running late and she couldn't believe that CET didn't think to have someone come pick us up earlier. We caught a taxi with some other people which lead us on a tour of the entire city by taxi. I have come to the conclusion that I never, ever want to drive in Prague. It's worse than New York, but the city itself is gorgeous.

Once I reached my apartment, I met one of my roommates, Jorge, and I pretty much crashed for a nap until about 3:30pm. When I got up, one of my other roommates had arrived and I talked with her for a bit. Turns out she had been in Prague for a week prior to this, so she was pretty well adapted to the sleeping schedule.

We headed for the opening CET dinner around 5pm and made our way to this really nice Czech restaurant. I had chicken in a spicy cream sauce and it was delicious. While at the dinner, we got to meet one of our professors from FA
MU and the dean of FAMU. (FAMU is the film school where I will be taking most of my classes.) After dinner, we headed out with our "local buddies" (these are people that actually live in the Czech Republic and are living with us to show us around), Petra, Marek, and Jorge to a pub which was close to our apartments. We were there until 11pm and it was so much fun. It was relaxing and I got to know many of the people in my program. We are a small group of 8, so we are pretty tight knit.

Friday morning came around earlier than I wanted it too. I started the morning with a jog with Kris around the local park and then a quick trip to the store for shower stuff, where I quickly learned that you needed to bring your own bag to the store. Luckily, I didn't get a whole lot of stuff.

After a shower, I headed with Steph (my roommate) to orientation at the CET center. This was a pretty quick overview of what
we were going to be doing this semester. We watched some of the films from last semester, which were fabulous and amazing. I can't believe I'm going to get to make something that spectacular this semester. Also, I get to use real film. Not digital stuff like I use at home, real-honest to goodness film!

We took a break for lunch
and then Kim took us on a mini-tour of Prague. We saw New town and Old town and it was just awesome! We crossed the Charles Bridge by foot and then Kim left us and the 7 of us traveled up to Prague Castle to have a look around. The view from up there was absolutely beautiful. The picture doesn't do it justice, you just have to see it for yourself.

We then moved our way ba
ck down to the tram and back to the apartments so we could get ready for dinner. For dinner, we went to this little place that was across the train tracks. I had duck and potato dumplings! It was so awesome!

After dinner we went back to the apartments to get ready to go out. Marrek took us out to a club that was under the Charles Bridge. Ladies got in for free! Can't beat that. It was a little weird though, being able to order from the bar. I first got a Mojito and I danced a little with everyone. But, I am so not a good dancer, so Kris and I decided to just go get another drink and find a table, which we did. The second drink was a Smirnoff. It was a pretty good time, though I don't think the clubbing scene is for me unless I have really close friends with me. I get pretty self-conscious about my horrible social dancing abilities.

Kris and I left the club at around 1:30am and ran to catch the night tram back home. The nice thing about Prague is that the entire city had transportation all night. It's pretty awesome.

Today's agenda consisted of mainly shopping for groceries, which were extremely inexpensive and working on getting my other abroad application filled out. And now, we're getting ready for dinner with the group. We are going to do the whole cooking thing tonight. Should be fun!

More to come! Stay tuned!

4 comments:

  1. Ahh, I'm glad you're having such a great time already. I am super jealous :O

    The city scape is really pretty! It kind of reminds me of a couple buildings downton. Just a whole lot prettier.

    PS - post your address so I can send you shit.

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  2. Gram and I read your post. Love the fact your are having a great time. Your are drinking like your mother. Kinda scary. Everything sounds so beautiful.

    We are envious. Love and miss you Mom & Grammy.

    Now we are off to see Grandpop.......

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  3. Goulash is really good! Golems are sweet.

    <3

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  4. That was supposed to go on the latest post. Oh well.

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