The Flat at Ujezd, Praha 1

 

Me and Seth at Wenceslas Square (photo taken by policeman, via "Pardon, Foto Prosim?")

I'm writing this post from my new flat in Prague!  This process has not been easy, but in the end I think it should be worth it.  Due to popular demand (mostly from mom), this will be a longer post.  In the beginning, I don't want to cut things short, just to set the scene for later stories.

First of all, here is a recap of the last couple of days.  Yesterday, we started out in the morning with some administrative details for orientation.  We filled out a lot of information to have our visas registered.  Apparently, it is not pleasant to have to go to the Foreign Police (Immigration) to register your visa, as they aren't very nice and tend to be rough, so the program staff take care of validating our visas for us by using a contact in the office.  I guess one time Anna or Pavlina or Henrieta was waiting in line, and a man threatened her with a knife unless she gave him her spot in line.  Seriously.  This is not Western Europe style.  Unfortunately, our passports will be gone for the last weekend in February, so I can't travel, but this is necessary.

Also, while they do allow drinking in streets and carrying stuff around (so weird), Czechs don't like absurd drunkenness.  We were warned that one time, a student got too out of control and was taken to the drunk tank in Prague 8, and ended up getting roughed up by the police, with a concussion.  So, that's not something I hope to do.

I'm definitely not in the U.S. or a Western country.  Some of the things I thought about Prague beforehand are proving to be true, but others not so much.  I thought Prague would be a huge party city.  This is somewhat true, but often it is the foreigners, including Americans, that are the ones that really go all night and don't stop.  Czechs are a really reserved people, and tend to enjoy hanging out in a bar with friends over a few drinks (not getting drunk), but not necessarily spending so much money like so many foreigners do.  The clubs are often filled with foreigners (more about this to follow in this post).

I thought there would be more English spoken than I've seen so far.  But seriously, if you just try to speak a little Czech, the people appreciate the humility so much and suddenly learn how to speak English a lot better.  We are so spoiled at home, we don't even know it.  Imagine if people from Prague came to visit the U.S. and expected us to speak Czech.  There are many other ways to communicate, however.  Body language, pointing, eye movement, and tone all can say a lot.

But yesterday, Doug (one of my flatmates) and I were in an interesting situation.  We were riding the trams to look at the flat we are currently in, and wanted to make sure we changed at the right place.  So, we walked into a coffee shop, and asked (in Czech) if anyone spoke English.  The first guy said no, but his co-worker came over and shook his head no and said, "Espanol?"  Aha, this was something that could work, as we both knew a little bit of Spanish.  So, with broken Spanish (his was probably worse than ours), a Czech guy gave two English speakers directions.  Little things like this that happen all the time continue to amaze me.

Last night, my friends (some new, some old) and I went to a small pub called the Red Room.  It was a really nice environment (minus the smoke of course), with some light live music, cheap drinks, and good company.  We ended up walking to another club later, but decided to get some KFC instead because it was late, we were tired, and would rather pay for a snack than some other place.  Turns out that there is a definite order to the club scene here, especially for Americans or foreigners.

Every night there is one of two clubs that are known for being popular.  You know,  Friday is when to go here (Lucerna), free entry to this place on Wednesday (Mecca), try to stay here all night Saturday because they serve an awesome brunch starting at 4 am Sunday (Radost).  But a ton of these places are filled with Americans studying abroad.  It can be good or bad, but I'd like to try and find more authentic places.  It's sort of a Catch-22, because how else would I hear about fun places to go except from past people who have visited, but walking into a random place is never bad.

Now, on to today.  We started with orientation in the morning for a small tour, but skipped out early in search of a well-known place called Bohemia Bagel.  It's extremely good, and American style food (kind of like a Zingerman's style place).  Some comfort food in the form of an omelet and bagel was nice to find, and I will definitely be going back.  Finally, we put our security down for our lease (YES!) and got the keys.  We moved out of the Hotel Propokpa, and are settling in nicely.

One funny story...as we walked through the Old Town area today on our way from Bohemia Bagel, there were a bunch of girls (clearly tourists) who were wandering lost, and were a bit too excited for the moment.  They were screaming and being a bit obnoxious and way too obviously American.  Come on people, you gotta try here.  Not only that, they were dressed (every single one the same) in huge sunglasses, North Face long coats, leggings, and Ugg boots.  I said to someone near me that it looked like Michigan Theta transplanted to Prague, and, unbelievably, Doug said he actually recognized one of the girls as a Michigan Theta...oops.  Come on people, you gotta try to blend in here.

When we started searching for apartments, I didn't think it would be quite so hectic.  UPCES is great, but they don't give us a lot of realtors to work with.  We finally settled on a place on the border of Prague 1 and Prague 5, right next to a huge park.  It's on a street called Ujezd (hard to pronounce, but it's OO-YAYST).  I like to think we live on the Park Ave of Prague.  Up the street one way is the Prague Castle, and two minutes the other way is a few main tram lines.  The apartment itself has three bedrooms, a full kitchen, full living room area with tv, laundry, bathroom, shower, entry hallway...it's really everything we were looking for.

I am living with four other people from Michigan actually (go figure, I know, but this is a small program and lots of the other people had already paired up with people from their schools).  But, we all get along so well, and it turns out I either knew or had connections with close friends to every single person in our flat.  Maize and Blue has gone rouge to Prague.  For reference, their names are Seth, Doug, Ahbra, and Sophie.  The rules are a little different here, for instance a 10 pm quiet rule that is strictly enforced because the Czech work day begins and ends earlier.

I can't possibly tell everything that has happened (so you'll have to visit), and am already regretting such a long post.  I'll take more pictures tomorrow and put them on here or facebook.  Bye for now!