My First Week In Prague!

Ahoj!

It has been an eventful few days here in Prague and I have almost been here for a whole week! That just doesn't seem right. Saturday we had a historical city tour that led us from Wenceslas Square and ended near the Prague Castle. Our tour guide, Dagmar, led us along and shared little bits of information along the way. We stopped at the astronomical clock which was so cool. We didn't see it chime but I do plan on going back at some point to see it.

After the clock, we went on to the Charles Bridge. The bridge was crowded and busy with other tours, tourists, street performers, and little booths of things to buy. We didn't really stop on the bridge much until the end where there was a little more space. But it is definately a very cool piece of the city that I have already been back to multiple times. On the other side of the bridge we took a quick break to grab coffee or a snack. I went to use the restroom but had to pay 5crowns to get in and there was a black light in the stall. So bizzare. After the break we went by the most narrow point at Prague. Mom, you would go crazy in here. Dagmar told us that you have to be sure to go through when the light is green. Otherwise you could end up like some large German woman who got stuck in the middle and had to be rubbed down in soap so they could slide her out. Then we went to see the peeing statue. That was an interesting piece of art. Apparently you can text some number and they will write you message in the water.

After this stop we wandered through town and heard some small facts as we worked our way towards Prague Castle. This was gorgeous! There were some awesome views of the city. We went into the castle courtyard and were right outside the cathedral which was incredible! It costs money to go anywhere in the castle so we couldn't do that as part of our tour, but to go in the cathedral was free so we did that. It was so amazing in there. After the castle we wandered back down towards where our school is and we ended our tour there.

That night my roommates and I all went to another apartment of people from our program. There ended up being quite the crowd there and we had a great time mingling and getting to know people.

On Sunday, I decided to make myself some dinner. If you haven't already heard the embarrasing story from my mother, here it is. I have a new rule for shopping in Europe. If you plan on buying some sort of item for cooking such as sugar, flour, or baking soda, you must look up what that word is before going to buy it. Why did I create this rule for myself? Because otherwise you may end up using powdered sugar in place of flour. And let me tell ya folks, mac and cheese just doesn't taste quite the same when you try to make the cheese sauce with powdered sugar. Grandma, please don't kick me out of the family for this one. So that was one of my "Oh, I guess I'm not in the states anymore" moments. It just means I know have a bag of powdered sugar to make an abundance of muddy buddies and frosting with. Any other suggestions?

Yesterday was my first day of school. I had my Exiles and Expatriate literature course. The nice thing about school here is each class, except for my Czech class, meets only one day a week. And the nice thing about my schedule is I only have one class a day. Katie and I went early to get our books and get other things at the school set up. It was a very busy afternoon. Class was good. My teacher has lived in many different parts of the states but was in Seattle for the last 8 or so years before moving to Prague. He and I had a nice chat about Seattle, and Greenlake, and Wallingford, and Magnolia. After class got out I came home to meet my other three roommates and we went to the CEA Welcome Dinner. It was very fun to get to relax and see people again and meet more people. Today was my second day of class and I had Czech. It is a pretty small class but I seem to like the teacher. He was shocked to hear that I had never learned a second spoken language. But I am excited to try to learn this one!

That has pretty much summed up my last few days here. I hope everyone is doing well. I miss you all!

Na zdravi!

Anna