September Summary

Hi all!

I am terribly sorry for the late post, but I have definitely been having some technological difficulties! You see, my computer has stopped working for unknown reasons... And so has my brand new camera... I just have terrible luck I guess, but I am making do. My gracious Slovakian roommate has been loaning me her camera and computer until I can get mine fixed/replaced. Here is a summary of the exciting things that I have been up to since my last post.

Trip to Kutna Hora:

We stopped at a small town on the way there (the name escapes me at the moment) to see a site where they dug up 40,000 bones and used them as decoration inside a church. Apparently they ran out of room in the graveyard so naturally the solution is to dig up the dead people... In any case it made a great site to see! At Kutna Hora we saw the church of St. Barbara which is the second largest gothic cathedral in the Czech Republic (after St. Vitus in Prague Castle). Absolutely beautiful! We also went on a tour of a medieval silver mine. Walking through the tunnels was way cool, but I am definitely glad that I'm not a miner...

Troja Wine Festival

This was a wine festival at the Troja Chateau here in Prague. It was a beautiful building with beautiful gardens and beautiful wine. There was also traditional Czech music and dancing, a really neat experience!

My first operas

We went to the State theater to see La Traviata. Very cool! Then four days later we went to see another opera at a different theater which was also really cool! I don't think that this will be my last mention of opera this semester, I will definitely need to see more!

Prague Zoo

This is definitely the best zoo I have ever been to! It was huge, and all of the animals were really active so it was exciting to see! Even the tapir was standing up, which is something I have never seen from the tapir at the Minnesota zoo. There were also a lot of baby animals, including Sumatran tiger cubs which I had been looking forward to seeing since August when I read an article about them back at home! It was great to finally see them in real life, and they were just as cute as one would expect baby tiger cubs to be! It rained while we were there, but it was so much fun that nothing could dampen our spirits!

Karlstejn Castle and Wine Festival

This is the second biggest castle in the Czech Republic. It took only 15 minutes to get there by train from Prague. It was awesome. There were lots of people in costume, and in the castle courtyard there was medieval dancing and song. Even Charles IV showed up with his entourage! This was especially exciting for me because I've never seen royalty in real life before... I don't mind that it was just people in costume, I was sold!

St. Wenceslas Day

Wednesday was St. Wenceslas Day! He is a huge deal here, a national icon who naturally deserves to have a national holiday named after him! It's the only day of the year that they have services in the church at Prague Castle, so my roommate and I took advantage of the opportunity and actually attended them (she's Lutheran, shhh...). We went to Vespers which was followed by mass. It was awesome to be a part of, to think that Charles IV and the Hapsburgs and countless other people went to mass at the same church, very powerful. But things got really mind blowing when they brought out the actual skull of St. Wenceslas. His cranium. The one that held his brains. What???? All of a sudden they were processing with his skull on a cushion to the front of the church. It was straight out of Indiana Jones. I still can't really believe it. After mass they took his skull back to his chapel and we were allowed to go and say a prayer in front of it, which everybody, including us, did. I have never prayed to a skull of any kind before, so that was new for me. All in all, it was fantastic experience! I am so lucky that I could be here for it!

Visitors

My aunt and uncle, Mary Jo and Tom Smith went on a tour of Eastern Europe and the last few days of their tour were in Prague. So on Thursday we met up for lunch, and later saw part of a free concert in the Senate Gardens. The gardens were beautiful, they have free range peacocks roaming around! Definitely a place that I want to visit again. It was really great to see them, and it was fun to hear about their adventures! It made me excited to go on more of my own adventures, stay tuned to here about those...

Paddle Boating

Yesterday I went paddle boating with friends on the Valdova river. The weather here has been absolutely gorgeous, and it was a beautiful day!! The boat offered a great view of the city, but it was pretty hard to pedal... I may or may not have been steering a majority of the time...

Hopefully I will be able to get my camera and computer situation figured out soon, that way I can update on a regular basis and hopefully post some pictures! I hope everybody is doing well back home! What do I miss this week? Smoke-free facilities!

I'll post again soon!

Martha

I'm in Prague!!

Hello Everyone!!
Starting now, I am going to try and keep this blog updated (for real this time) so everyone can know about all of my adventures during my study abroad! Here is a summary of my trip so far, starting on Sunday, August 28th:

11:00 AM: I get on the smallest plane I've ever been on (I was in row 12 of 13), and flew to Toronto.
5:45 PM: I get on the biggest plane I've ever been on. It was a Boeing 777. 9 people in each row. It was absolutely huge!! The flight went well; I slept some, and watched Bringing Up Baby, which I highly recommend to anyone who has not seen it. I needed something familiar do keep me grounded while flying 33,000 feet above the Atlantic ocean.
6:55AM I arrived in Frankfurt. I met a few kids from my program, but they left on an earlier flight than me, so I waited in the terminal for a few hours alone, until I met another boy from the program. Ironically, our seats were next to each other on the plane, so we talked for the hour plane ride as we made our way to Prague.
11:45 AM I arrive in Prague, get my luggage, and find the program staff who are waiting for me. We take a bus to a hotel where we are given orientation packets and told to meet in the conference room for dinner. I didn't have a roommate, so it was kind of lonely for the afternoon, I was exhausted from the flights.
For dinner our "Czech buddies" took us to a Czech restaurant, where I had my first taste of Czech beer. It definitely lives up to it's reputation! The food was pretty good too. After that they took us to a bar where each table has it's own beer tap. However, I was so full and exhausted from dinner that I did not partake in further consumption.

Tuesday, August 30th: My first full day in Prague
I woke up, packed my luggage, got some breakfast and we had a brief orientation on apartment life. Then I meet my roommate and we go to our apartment. It's very cute, but wait! There's a problem! They gave me a single room. Apparently, I accidentally checked the box saying I would like a single for an extra 500 dollar fee. I definitely wasn't going to pay for that, so I go to bed worried.

Wednesday: I move apartments, my new apartment is much bigger and in a cooler location. There's a little square in front of it with a fountain. It's quintessential European apartment (at least in my mind), complete with Ikea furniture. I have two roommates from the program, Julie and Alyssa, and we also have a roommate from Slovakia named Maia. She is really fun, and we all get along very well.

Thursday and Friday we had orientation during the day. They took us on a few walks around the city, and we learned more about getting around town on the metro (subway) and the trams. I can't fully remember what we did during the evening, but I think it involved going out to dinner with my roommates! We have a bunch of restaurants really close to us, so it will be easy to find food when one doesn't want to cook...

Saturday: Maia took us to see the gardens around Prague castle. They were absolutely amazing! Everything was in bloom, and there was lots to see. There was even a little robot lawn mower, which was way cool. We got to see part of the outside of the castle, and we went into the church. I can't believe how beautiful it was. The light was coming through the stained glass windows, so it felt like the whole building was glowing. Pure beauty. I can't wait to go back!

Sunday: We travel to the edge of Prague to see a free opera in the park. My roommate Alyssa and I take the wrong way and end up going on a 3 or 4 mile hike through the wilderness in said park. We made it in time for the second and third act though, and it was way cool to see! It was a Czech opera by the name of Dalibar. There were tons of people there just sitting on the grass, listening. The opera was beautiful, I think I'm going to try to look up what the plot is though, because I was pretty lost!

Yesterday we began our intensive Czech language class, and so we continue that all day. It's pretty difficult to learn, but my teacher is really nice, and I think it will get easier once I can master the pronunciation.

Today I went to the farmers market after class. I purchased some pears (not as good as Grandpa Roly's), raspberries, and some sweet corn! I'm really excited for the corn, because I hope it will be a little taste of home from the other side of the world...

I'll try to update this blog once or twice a week! And I will definitely post some pictures too!

Bottom Line: So far, so good in the beautiful city of Prague!