Week 2 of school is complete, and was quite good. My classes look like they will be completely possible, perhaps even easy - but I'll still be learning a lot.
I am sick-as is Breanne-with a cough/throat thing. I'm doing the water-tea-juice-soup thing, and I hope it will blow over. I do NOT want to try doing the doctor-in-a-different-language thing. All respect, I hate going to the doctor in the first place. It makes me very uncomfortable.
Looking through the lensI’ve noticed that I see a lot more of the city when I don’t have a camera. I can just, look, not like a tourist but like a person. There are a lot of different people here. The Czechs seem very set in their ways, like they know where they’re going, and like they aren’t real eager for anyone to disturb that. Shopkeepers, foodsellers, all kinds of cashiers just really seem to wish like we knew what was going on. They’ll just roll their eyes as we count out money or look at them puzzled when they say something in Czech. Sorry, Czech people!
The people are really happy, though, too. Maybe not immediately friendly (although we’re told that they become friendlier once you get to know them)… but they look peaceful. There are so many couples in Prague! At any time of day and any part of the city… you can’t walk three steps without passing a happy couple holding hands or kissing (hella PDA out here, yo). How sweet.
And the sculptures! When you focus on the big attractions, I think you can miss the little ones… everything here is covered in paintings and statues. I’ve walked to and from school several times now, and each time I see a new saint standing next to me or looking down from above a door.
All of that being said, I think I’m going to buy a camera this weekend, in…
DRESDEN!Ali, Ellie, Breanne, and I are going to Dresden this weekend, for Breanne’s exciting birthday bash! I went to the train station all by myself today to buy tickets. They were a little more expensive than I anticipated ($60 each round trip)… I probably said something wrong and didn’t get the right discount. We are staying in a hostel, which I also booked this week, called Mondpalast, in the new town.
I am learning more and more about this whole traveling process. For example; hostelworld.com. This site is a fantastic resource, as there are many, many up to date reviews and ratings for pretty much every hostel out there; it’s a wonderful way to get the best deal. The reviews also mention the little useful things like “there are a lot of stairs,” “bring your own sheets!,” or the little extra fees they will tack on at the last minute. All good information. However, I also learned that hostelworld.com’s reservation system may not be the way to go; both times I’ve booked hostels, the kind of room I wanted was shown as full or unavailable, but booking through the hostel’s official website has provided a cheaper price and the exact room I was looking for. Good deal!
StudiesI am pretty much the star student in my journalism class (because I am the only one who has done journalism-type-stuff before, and speaks English as a first language…), which is fun… I went to the Student Council meeting last week and am preparing a story on how the Student Council president, Mario, is using club parties to bring together students at AAC, since there are no other big events. AAC suffers from residing in rented rooms of a building; it is in a great location, but there is no common relaxin’ space for students to chill during classes.
Czech is really fun. We sing every Wednesday and have learned two songs so far. We also learned numbers yesterday, which has already proved useful. I went to the convenience store up the street, and when I went to purchase something the woman didn’t use the cash register to ring me up (since it was just one item), so she just told me the price. Usually, I cheat and look at the screen, where the numbers show up, but this time I actually understood her! I think progress is going to be visible.
PerspectiveAll of the hanging out with Americans, and talk of travelling, has made me start thinking about what my goals are, what I should really be getting out of my time here. I think I should try to get out more, alone, see the sights in Prague, and try to befriend some Czech people in my classes. I’m obviously not going to get the same cultural immersion experience as I would with a host family… but I should really try to do everything I can to take advantage of this unusual opportunity… 3 solid months in a foreign country.
I know that my East Central European politics class is going to give me perspective I could never get in the US. The students are very outspoken about their opinions, and we are seeing a lot the way that history is taught differently in different countries.
One time at Powell’s there was a book like that, that had selections from history texts all over the world… I couldn’t find it the next time but I should try again. It’s such an interesting concept; facts, history, just the simple truth is different in different lands. How fascinating.
And speaking of perspective... I have added a list of links to the right of some other blogs. Breanne is my roommate, so you can check up on her version of events on her wordpress. Mark, who goes to LC with me, is in Russia right now, and you can read his adventures (notably, his humorous misunderstandings with his host mother) on his blog called "my head hurts." Lauren, another LC-er, is having "Adventuras en Chile" - she writes absolutely beautifully. And then there is the news from Prague, and my favorite web comic, xkcd. So....enjoy the internet!
See y’all laters!
