The First Day and a Half (The Randomness of Prague)

So I can finally settle down for a couple of minutes and talk about the first 36 hours I've been here, which has been a little bit of a shock, a little frustrating, but really promising.

To wrap up what I've been up to in a paragraph:  yesterday, I arrived in Prague with my friend Hannah (also from Michigan) and we checked into the Hotel Propokopa in Prague 3.  We dropped our stuff off, grabbed a quick breakfast, and went for a little walk around the block with other people from UPCES.  At 4, we went to our school in the city center to see where it was.  Then afterwards, we wandered around for the evening between restaurants, bars, and a club that I later learned was a big international student bar, and also not the safest place.  We took the Tram #9 a lot, so learning public transportation has been ongoing.  With how tired I was, I can't believe I didn't get lost.

Today, we started orientation in the morning, got our more permanent transportation passes, and after lunch, started the process of finding a place to live.  For our program, realtors come in and give presentations and help us find places to live.  Imagine Ann Arbor in September, with the housing rush, and cram that into two days with people you barely know.  That's what this situation is like.  Hopefully soon I can report success with a new flat.  Some of the places we saw were amazing.

Prague is a modern European city, but it is such a random blend of different parts stemming back from Communism.  Most Czechs don't like to talk about that part of their history actually, but Anna, one of our program managers, shared a little bit today as we were walking around looking at flats.  At one point, we passed the main radio station, and she told us how important radio is because the first thing the Nazis would do when they invaded was to take over the radio station.  She pointed out that our school is on the same street where the Communist headquarters was, and where the Gestapo was during WWII.  These are not the sorts of things Americans think about.

I haven't had much experience with Czech food yet, except that today for lunch we went into a smallish Czech cafeteria place, where no one spoke English, and somehow came away with Chicken Schniztel and potatoes.  I successfully got a marmelade pastry of some sort later by saying "Prosim," or please, the most important word you can know.  Some other random facts:  people here are quieter or "less confident" than Americans on the streets and metros; apparently smoking indoors is not allowed, but clearly not enforced; everyone in Europe smokes, or so it seems; dogs don't really wear leashes in Prague, but they don't bother you at all except to use the sidewalks as bathrooms, constantly; things don't really work the same here, for instance there are hardly any driers, and you better go to an ATM early in the week because by Friday it may be out of money until Monday.

This was all pretty boring, and sorry no pictures yet (forgot my camera, plus nothing too grand so far).  I'll get better at being shorter, but so far it's been a blur, but a good blur.