Entry way to the church right near my school...
Grog!!! Yummy hot water, rum, sugar, and lemon... It'll warm you up real nice!
Just me overlooking the Vltava River...
On the corner of the church near our school...
The church near our school...
A view from the hill by our school...
Some traditional Czech food... Yummy!!!
Street view near my apartment...
And another street view...
My apartment... Its the yellow building on the left, we're on the second floor!
Kendyll and I on the ice and ready for some action! We make quite the pair!
Getting ready for some ice hockey!!! Woo hoo!
Two of my roommates and I. From left to right, its Kiera, me, and Kendyll... Where's Morgan???
Part of the USAC group on the Metro before a night out on the town!
A building in Prague on my walk to the Old Town Square!
Last Thursday I drove with my mom, dad, and Kendyll (my new roommate) to San Francisco. We dropped Kendyll off at her cousin's, who works in the city. Then my parents and I headed down to Pier 39 for some clam chowder... my favorite! It was raining the entire time and we even endured a flat tire, but I still had an excellent time! We were going to see a movie but decided to explore the mall near our hotel instead, I know, just what I needed... more shopping before the trip! We ended the night with some dinner from BJ's... my other favorite! My flight took off at 6 am on Friday, so my mom and dad got me to SFO bright and early. There was a bit of water works as we said our goodbyes and I headed through my first round of security.
Next thing I knew I was on a flight to New York... My dad told me to try and not sleep on that flight, but I couldn't really help it and ended up sleeping the entire way. It was probably for the best anyway because I was crammed in between a lady headed to Barcelona and some man who disliked Americans very much. When I landed at JFK I headed straight to my terminal only to to wait for 4 hours for my next flight. I flew on Alitalia to Milan from New York; that 8 hour flight was quite the experience. Of course I immediately fell asleep, as in before the plane even left the ground. Every word spoke on the entire flight was in Italian, so I just nodded my head and caught words here and there. We were served fish for dinner, definitely not the best meal in the air... the entire plane smelled like fish, so that was fun. After dinner I fell asleep again and woke up sometime in the middle of the night. That's when I started reading Twilight... and the rest is history. I had to see what all the hype was surrounding the stories so I bought the book right before I left... Needless to say, I am hooked! Somewhere around the middle of the book I realized we were flying right into the sunrise and crossing the Alps. It was one of the prettiest things I have ever seen. The mountains go on for days and are completely covered in snow. When my plane finally landed in Milan it was about 7:30 am and -8ยบ outside, can you say brrrr! Before I knew it my final flight was underway and I was headed to Prague!
Before leaving the states I e-mailed another girl from the program and we decided to meet up at the airport and share a cab. I am pretty sure we got ripped off. The cab ride cost 2,200 crowns... that is about $120. The other girls were only charged 700 crowns. Oops! As soon as I got to my apartment I fell asleep again! Then all my other roommates showed up. They are all really sweet, and we seem to be getting along well. There are 4 of us all together, it is Kendyll and I in one room and Morgan and Kiera in the other. We all got ready for our first group dinner and walk through the city. On our way out the door the landlord stopped us and urged in Czech that we all take a shot of his homemade plum brandy... not my favorite! I can already see that there is a lot of drinking taking place in this country. We headed to dinner and had our first traditional Czech meal and some more alcohol. The food here is sooooo good!
So far I have walked around the city quite a bit, rode the Metro (subway), rode the trams, started school, learned a Czech pick up line, eaten some AMAZING food, blew up a blow dryer and a straightener, found 3 shopping malls, had half a loaf of bread stolen from me on the Metro, learned some of the Czech language, and played ice hockey on the Vltava River. Hockey was soooo much fun, and I was surprisingly pretty good at it! And, incase you were wondering the pick up line asks, "Would you like to see my butterfly collection?" Apparently, if men collect butterflies they are innocent and girls are more likely to talk to them... several jokes have already began surrounding the line. We also learned about a Czech tradition that happens the Monday after Easter... In the Czech Republic on this day women color Easter eggs, then men come up to them and whip them with tree branches to beat strength into them... in return the women give them a shot of alcohol and the eggs they colored. Sounds like fun... NOT! Today we did a little more exploring and tried Grog... It is a traditional Czech drink. It is rum and hot water and it is actually delicious! Oh, and by the way it is FREEEEZING here! Good thing the apartment is nice and toasty :)
I guess that's it for now... I am headed to Paris this weekend and I am sooooo excited! I miss and love you all a ton!
XOXO,
Sarah
P.S. I am still trying to figure out the picture thing... feel free to check out the photos on Facebook!
