I have arrived!

Dobry den!
Well, I have arrived here in beautiful Praha! It has, thus far, lived up to what people told me and proven to be a gorgeous city. I arrived yesterday (Thursday) morning and met some man from my program. He pretty quickly put me and two of my roommates into a taxi. That alone was quite the experience. The two roommates I was picked up with (twin sisters from Arizona) had two suitcases each. All four of them bigger than my one. When we got to our taxi our driver looked a little concerned. He had a rather small car so I didn’t blame him. I was very impressed when he was able to fit it all into his car. He, amazingly, was able to fit two of our bags into the trunk along with one carry on. Then he put the other three into the backseat with the two other girls, literally sitting on each other’s laps, and I sat up front.

When we got to our apartment we were pleasantly surprised by its size. Although the living spaces are not quite as spacious as I am used to, my bedroom is about my dorm room size times two. There are a total of three bedrooms one of which you can only get to by going through another room. There is also one full bath although it is separated into two rooms. One room is off our laundry room, (really just a room with a washer in it) and has the tub and sink in it. The other half is on the other side of our hallway/living room and only has the toilet and sink. That part of the bathroom reminds me so much of the spare bathroom at Grandma’s house on the lake. You know where you could sit on the toilet and wash your hands all at the same time? But I do really enjoy my new home. It seems to be completely furnished by IKEA so it is kind of like living with Britta again! Oh, also our dining room table and chairs are the EXACT same set that were at my apartment in Monmouth. It was a little freaky when I first walked in.

We wandered around a little bit of our part of Prague yesterday. We found a few little markets, a bakery, and a few restaurants and bars. We also have a suspicion that the bar directly across the street from us has a strip club in its lower half. I don’t foresee solving that mystery personally. My roommates and I all get along pretty well so far. Let me introduce you…
Hailey and Kelsey B- Seniors at University of Arizona. Originally from Albany, NY. Business management majors.
Hayley H- Also a senior at UA and a business marketing major. Originally from Lake Tahoe, CA. She has lived with the Kelsey and Hailey since they were all freshman.
Katie G- Junior at SUNY Brockport. Psychology/English major. Always from Brockport.
They are all very nice girls. I am living in the same room as Katie which I think is great.

We had school orientation today and I got all the classes I wanted. Elementary Czech; exiles and expatriate writing; culture, identity and film; and social anthropology. We also had a brief practical city tour that led us from campus to Wenceslas Square. It wasn’t very practical for me because my apartment wasn’t near any of these grocery stores or other useful shops that people will use. But it was nice to wander around a little bit. Tomorrow we have another tour of the city that will show more of the history and big sights. So that should be nice. I think that just about wraps up my first two days here! I am loving it all!

Na zdravi!
Anna

T-Minus 15 Days.

My departure to Europe is rapidly approaching! I could not be more excited or nervous! All the stress is starting to sink in but I am having no second thoughts or anything of the sorts.

I decided to make a blog that I will (hopefully) update soewhat regularly while I am gone. That way all you people will know what I am up to! I think, if I did this right, it is set up that anyone can leave comments. But I am also going to be checking emails and facebook and everything else as much as possible. From what my program has told me I have internet at my housing but it is really slow dialup. So I shouldn't count on it too much. We will see what is up with that when I get over there.

Here are some other funfacts about my program...
-I am going to be attending the Anglo American University in Prague.
-I am living in an apartment with other people from my program. No host family or anything like that.
-I will be there from the end of August until mid-December.

I think that is all I have for now. I really just wanted to get this started and let people know that this will be here while I am gone to keep you all informed! I will hopefully fill out the sidebar to the right with useful links for you people to get a taste of what I am experiencing over here!

Bye for now!
Anna