A Little Snowed Under

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Ahoj!
Hope that you're all doing well and for those of you in Australia, specifically Adelaide, that you're managing to survive the heat! This blog is gonna be quite long, sorry. I've been meaning to write for ages but have been sick for a while and have been incredibly busy with lots of different things. Anyway, it's here now, hope you all enjoy it and that it answers some of the questions I've been getting.

Uni’s definitely in full swing here now, which is partly why I've been so busy - everything’s crept up on me and then all of a sudden I seemed to have a ridiculous amount of work to do. Although I admit I have started to slip back into my usual study habits of doing the bare minimum and leaving everything to the last minute. My skills in bullshitting my way through assignments don’t seem to have left me though - 95% for my first assignment here and I had no idea what I was talking about! Let’s hope I can keep it up, cos I don’t intend to spend a lot of my time studying… Having said that though, I think I’ve managed to make life pretty hard for myself in terms of workload. I’m doing 44 credits worth of subjects this semester and a full-time subject load is 30 credits! Yeah, I’m crazy, I know… But most of my subjects are so interesting that I don’t want to drop them and I got guilted into doing a couple of subjects by my academic advisor here, who assumed that I would be taking every subject on my study plan, even though that would mean me doing about twice as many subjects as I should. The subjects are relevant and interesting though and I’ve managed to negotiate some pretty good special considerations, so it’s all worked out okay. Although, speak to me in a couple of months when all my essays are due and I’m studying for exams and I’ll probably be on the verge on a mental breakdown and kicking myself for taking so many subjects!

So, the subjects I’m doing this semester are:
Ecophysiology of Plants (a 3 hour lesson, mainly in Czech, so I end up sleeping for a lot of the class!)
Plant Physiology
Plant Anatomy (I get individual lessons in English for this one!)
Global Changes, Photosynthesis & Sustainability
Contemporary Human Geography of the Czech Republic
Czech for Beginners (I love this subject!)
Multiculturalism in Western Europe & Northern America (a really interesting class, we even have a lesson on Australian policies)
European Policies & Practice towards Roma (Roma are gypsies, for those of you who don’t know - this class is really relevant and interesting)

All of my subjects, except for Ecophysiology, are taught in English, thank God, otherwise I’d fail everything! That, and fall asleep in class. I have enough trouble trying to stay awake in class anyway, let alone when it’s in another language, which is incredibly tiring. I’ve been on the verge of falling asleep in so many of my classes here. It often happens to me in Melbourne too, but it’d be much more embarrassing if I fell asleep in class here considering I have no more than about 10 or 15 people in most of my classes and it’d be pretty obvious if one was asleep. The last 4 subjects I have with other exchange students, the first ones I have with Czech students, except Plant Anatomy, which is by myself. It’s pretty impressive that I have 2 classes where Czech students are studying the subject in English, just because of me. And especially because it’s plant physiology subjects - it’s hard enough for me to understand and English is my native language! I can’t even imagine how hard it would be studying it in another language.

A few weeks ago I went on a trip organised by the uni’s international club to a town about 2 hours away called Karlovy Vary. Apparently it’s really famous internationally, I think it’s called Carlsbad in English, because of it’s mineral spas. There are lots of springs where hot mineral water comes up, so there are spas everywhere and people can go there to relax or get cured if they’re sick. Apparently drinking this water is meant to be some miracle cure. I drank some though and I’m slightly sceptical, if anything it made me feel sick! It tasted really disgusting because it is so rich in iron that the water is basically orange. So, hot rusty water… Mmm… Karlovy Vary is a really nice place though, the buildings there are beautiful and there are lots of old spa buildings. We also went to the Becherovka museum. For those of you who don’t know what Becherovka is (I didn’t), it’s an alcoholic spirit that is made only in Karlovy Vary, out of a secret mixture of herbs. We got to taste it for free at the museum. It was the first time I’d tasted it and it was a little bit strange, it tasted like gingerbread. They gave us quite a bit to taste too, so there were a few people who were a little unsteady on their feet afterwards - it’s really strong!

My roommate arrived back a few weeks ago - she’d been away on holidays in the Seychelles! Her name’s Maja and I've gotta say, I could hardly have asked for a better roommate! She’s really friendly, helpful and nice and her English is wonderful. I’d say that out of all the Czech people I’ve met so far, her English would have to be the best. She’s decided that she’s going to start helping me learn Czech though so now she’ll be speaking a little Czech to me every day. It still feels a little strange having to share a bedroom with someone and it’s really not that big either, probably the same size as my bedroom in Australia. But I like the company and I’m glad to be sharing with a Czech, I really don’t get that many opportunities to meet Czech people. Which sounds stupid considering I’m in the Czech Republic, but most of my classes are with other exchange students and Czech people are often pretty reluctant to speak English.

I had a visit from Germany a few weeks ago! (There was a lot that happened a few weeks ago!) My friend Nela, who lives in Hamburg, came to stay with me for nearly a week. We hadn’t seen each other for 5 years so it was awesome to spend time together again. I had uni that week so I still had to go to class, but when I didn’t have classes we pretty much spent the whole time walking around the city sightseeing and going to cool places. It was strange going around Prague with someone who’d never been here before - I discovered that I know quite a lot about the city and its people already, more than I thought I did.
One of the things we went to check out was the castle area, which is the world’s largest fully functional castle complex that is still in use. It is pretty impressive, although there isn’t really an actual castle to speak of. There’s lots and lots of buildings in the castle area, all used for different purposes. There’s also some normal houses that people, including Franz Kafka, used to live in, but I’m not sure if anyone actually lives in the castle complex anymore. We saw the changing of the guard ceremony, which was interesting but it is so touristy. Up until about 15 years ago there was never a changing of the guard ceremony at all, I think it was the prime minister who decided that there should be one, so that the tourists had something else to look at. And he got a famous film costume designer to design the guard’s uniforms! So it was a little pointless and a little tacky, because they marched around for a while and then just went inside when they were finished, the guards weren’t actually changing over.
We only went inside one building in the castle complex, St.Vitus Cathedral, and that’s because it was the only building that was free to get into! There were a ridiculous number of tourists in there, but it was incredible. It is absolutely huge and really beautiful inside. There were lots of different altars, each one dedicated to a different saint I think and they were all beautifully decorated, with intricate stained glass windows. There were some crypts in the cathedral as well, several saints or priests or kings or something are buried there.
It also snowed on the day we were at the castle, which made the whole experience even more awesome.

It’s been snowing a bit here recently. It’s definitely one of the most exciting things that has happened so far - it totally makes my day every time it snows. I love it but the Czechs don’t, they just find it an inconvenience. A couple of days ago I woke up to bright sunshine streaming through my window so I stupidly assumed that it would be a really nice, relatively warm day. I was so wrong. It turned out to be the best snow day we’ve had so far! When I was walking to one of the uni buildings, we had what was almost a snowstorm. It was so cool that I just stayed outside in the snow for ages. The flakes were really big and they looked awesome just spiraling down. Later in the day the snow was coming down in really small, hard balls, they looked like polystyrene balls and were almost like hail. That was actually quite painful cos they were coming down hard. For the last couple of days, when it snows, the snow has been staying on the ground so everything looks really pretty with its covering of snow. Normally it doesn’t snow enough for the snow to stay on the ground. It always melts when it hits the pavements and roads though because they’re too warm. There just ends up being big puddles all over the footpaths. But this morning when I left for uni there was still snow all over the ground and it was crunchy when I walked on it!

Happy Easter to everyone, I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend, wherever you are for it. As for me, I'll be spending my Easter in Germany! 😊

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Photos

Karlovy Vary
Becherovka museum

Karlovy Vary
the only indoor spring

Karlovy Vary
me & Sabrina, an Austrian

Exchange students
me with a Turkish girl & an Australian girl at an exchange student party

Vysehrad Cathedral
the cathedral in Prague's 1st castle area

Communism monument
a monument to pay tribute to all who suffered or died under Communism

Comments

[Al Sparkes]

Hello from some Aussies in Prague
Hi Kimberley, we are a family from Coffs Harbour in New South Wales, currently holidaying in Prague. Have enjoyed reading your stories and congratulate you on your study program in a foreign country. We are absolutely loving Prague, wishing you every success with your chosen life path. It is a good inspiration for our children. Kind regards, the Sparkes family

[Rissa]

Snow :D
Ooh, snow :D So opposite to what the weather had been like here! (It's just gone back to cold and rainy lol). Sounds like things are going really well now! I'm glad you're having such a good time. The uni seems really helpful - that's cool having all those lessons in English. Good luck with everything! *hugs*