The First Week.

Well, I’m glad to say that I’ve made it almost a full week. I arrived early Monday morning after a red-eye flight; driving into the city felt like the way all horror stories start: “it was a dark foggy morning”. I kept my hopes up though and couldn’t help but smile from the second the plane touched down.  

Culture shock hit as soon as I entered my room. It is small compared to what Susquehanna is like, but after a while it started to feel like a normal dorm. Instead of mulling about in my room on arrival day, I decided to go explore the city with a friend. We saw the famous Prague castle and got a great view of the city while we were at it.  

It’s quite interesting how one wrong turn in this city can bring you somewhere beautiful. Later on in the week, we found the John Lennon wall while on a hunt for dinner. From almost any location, the view of the city is astounding. Side note: gelato is around every corner in the city.

During orientation, Charles University kept us busy with a scavenger hunt of the city, a river cruise, and two day trips. One of the day trips was to Česky Krumlov, a fairytale town full of tourists like myself. On our way there, our tour guide stopped in the middle of the Czech forest to go on a hike. It was near old ruins of a small village; it definitely was worth speed walking through a field of wildflowers and going off path more times than I could count. Our tour guide was a kind, older man who would casually pluck mushrooms out of the ground and eat them as a snack. He was quite a character, one helped me paint a better image of what people from the Czech Republic are like.

On our second day trip, my group went to the Lidice memorial. We first watched a movie to help understand the history behind a small little village that was destroyed and disappeared off the map by the Nazis. It was quite chilling to be on the same land as the things that we read in history books or watch in movies. Even though the landscape was completely changed as a result of the Nazis, I just couldn’t help but imagine what the chaos was like. Out of this village, only 12 children survived along with a few women from concentration camps. I recommend looking the story up. Even though it is quite chilling, it definitely needs to be heard.  

During orientation, we also had a guest speaker who was none other than Janek Rubeš from Honest Guide on Youtube. If you are a student, or even a traveler looking for the local’s view of Prague, check him out! He talked to our class about how to avoid scams, where the best Czech food is, etc. Since I am a fan, I had to capture a picture, and you could say he was not expecting it by the look on his face.

After a few long days full of never-ending jet lag, I was able to sleep in and am currently sitting in Cosmai cafe writing (picture below). One bonus for a girl like me is that Prague is full of little cafes in which you can sit down, have breakfast, and write. One tip that I already have for students on their first week abroad is to go to all of the social events prepared! I was super jet-lagged, but I met some of my closest friends here on the first night at a meet & greet dinner. Just keep pushing past it, you’ll thank yourself later.