Wednesday we had, of course, morning Czech, and then had a lecture about Jewish heritage in Prague for a short time. There are only 1500-1700 identified Jews living in Prague today, a city of 1.2 million. The Jews here are still nervous about revealing their identity, as a result from the previous years of hardship. After the lecture, we toured the Jewish Quarter in Prague, which was actually a much smaller space than I expected. The main sites were the Maisel Synagogue, the Old New Synagogue, the Spanish Synagogue, a touching monument and temple with 50,000 names of Holocaust victims written on the walls, and the famous Jewish Cemetery, which has graves that stack on top of each other as high as 12! They ran out of room, and had no more land for graves. I met another cool Czech student, Klara, who was walking around with us for the tour and is partnered up with my friend Hannah from Michigan.
I didn't go out Wednesday night for once, because I needed a recovery day. Yes, that does happen in Prague. More than staying out late, the smoke in bars absolutely kills me, because everyone in Europe seems to smoke cigarrettes.
Thursday, we had classes in the morning, and my flatmates showed me this amazing little bakery called Rembrandt near school. I think it is a small chain in Prague, but the food is so good, the pastries smell delicious, and it is so cheap. Thursday afternoon we visited the Prague Castle. It was huge, and beautiful, and all the things you see from the pictures. It was also extremely cold, so I want to go back again when it is warmer. The views of the city are stunning. Our tour guide took us through the castle, its many churches (they were all old, and famous, and started to blend together after a while in the cold), and a few halls of the castle.
View from the Prague Castle
That night, through flight delays and unpredictable weather, my friend Joe and his roommate arrived from Florence to visit for the weekend! They pretty much were instantly hooked on Prague. We went to a nice little lounge/club named Radost FX, extremely popular with Americans and even some Czechs. It is doubly convenient because the tram drops us right at Radost's corner from our corner.
Now we come to today, our last day of intensive Czech language! Honestly though, I have really appreciated it, and it is SO easy to learn a new language when you are using it constantly and living in the culture. We were able to order coffee and pastries from our flat's favorite bakery entirely in Czech, and even got the people there to teach us some new words! Nonverbal communication is so powerful, and I can see they really appreciate the fact that we are trying to learn Czech. For our final assignment today, we had to go to the post office and order, in Czech, an envelope and postage stamp to America. Kind of cool.
This afternoon, we had a welcome reception from UPCES to mark our "graduation" from orientation. It was at a nice little place called Cafe Lourve, which is a good place to come back for dinner or nightlife. Afterwards, I showed my friends around a little bit. Playing tour guide is a lot of fun.
We are all about to take a nap now so we can survive tonight. About 12 of us have a reservation at this semi-famous place called Beer Factory, which has good food but is known for having beer taps in the middle of every table with kegs underneath, and special knobs for keeping track of how much you drink (i.e. apparently competitions often take place). It should be a lot of fun (Czechs really do love beer, it's just part of the culture) and we'll go out after that to continue our night.
Until next post, Na Schledanou!
dude its na schledanou..get it straight bro
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