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Published: February 18th 2008
Melbourne
my last view of MelbourneWell, I’ve been in Prague just over a week now and what a week it has been! It’s been an incredibly difficult and frustrating week but also very rewarding and I’ve already done lots of interesting things here.
Everything here got off to a bit of a bad start basically from the minute I arrived at the airport. Getting from the airport to my dormitory was a minor disaster, mainly because of lack of communication. I took public transport to get there - ended up waiting an hour for a bus that was never going to come because it doesn’t run on weekends, which the lady at the information desk conveniently failed to tell me. I also ended up getting lost on the way and with no way of contacting anyone and no-one around who spoke English, I felt pretty alone and frustrated. I eventually made it to my dorm safe and sound though and things there were okay for a while. Until I got moved into my permanent room, which only happened a few days ago. For some unknown reason, I was put into a 2 person room that already had 2 people in it. Luckily they were away
Australia
my last view of Australia for 12 months for the week, so I still had somewhere to sleep, but still… So I was woken at 7am on Friday morning by a lady telling me in Czech that I had to get out of that room and move to another one because that one was already taken. I had no idea what was going on and she just kept on talking to me in Czech, despite being told that I didn’t understand what she was saying. Anyway, I think I’m in the right room now but my roommate is away at the moment so I’m going to wait until she gets back before I unpack my stuff and settle in, just to make sure I’m actually meant to be there!
I suffered some major culture shock when I arrived here and I’ve only just managed to get over it. I think it’s mainly the language barrier that is the problem - hardly anyone here speaks English! People working in the tourist industry and people my age can often speak okay English but with everyone else, forget it! Seriously, I speak better Czech than they do English and that’s really saying something because my Czech skills are almost non-existent.
Some people have actually been quite hostile and rude when I speak English to them or ask them if they speak English. But in a way it’s been good because I’m being forced to learn Czech out of necessity and have already picked up quite a few new words and sayings. I’m especially good at “do you speak English?”, “I don’t speak Czech” and “I don’t understand”!
Grocery shopping’s been an interesting experience too, on account of the language barrier. It’s always a bit hit and miss when I go to the supermarket - if I’m lucky I’ll end up with things that are edible and taste half decent! It’s been a lot of trial and error though, I pretty much buy things that look familiar or have nice pictures on the front (I found a Czech chocolate bar that has a picture of a kangaroo on the front!).
I had my first real Czech meal the other day. Fried cheese and fried potato balls. I can’t say I thought much of it really… It was okay for a while but it was incredibly fatty and filling. Czech food is apparently quite good though - if you’re not vegetarian.
Czech Republic
first views of my new home country If you are vegetarian then there’s really not very much to eat. Except for potatoes, fried cheese and bread and that doesn’t really excite me. I have a hotplate thing in the ensuite part of my room so I’ve been cooking most of my meals. I’ve had a couple of Czech beers since I’ve been here too… I still think beer tastes awful! It’s so cheap though - no more than about $2 for ½ a litre. It’s cheaper to drink beer than it is to drink water, so I think maybe I’ll just have to get to like it!
Classes start this week but I think it’s pretty relaxed, people just sit in on lectures and see which classes they’re interested in. I still have no idea what subjects I’m doing so I think I’ll be doing that a lot. I’ve spent the past week trying to organise a million things, to do with uni, accommodation and just general living but everything here is so disorganised, it’s been incredibly frustrating. The Czech bureaucracy and administration are absolutely terrible and nothing ever seems to get done quickly or efficiently. I have to register with the immigration police here -
Kutna Hora
human bone candelabra I went down there last week and sat in line for nearly 2 hours. I ended up leaving before I got to see anyone because it would’ve been at least another hour before I got called up and I was so fed up! But apparently that’s normal for the immigration police. Plus none of them speak English, which seems ridiculous considering they deal with foreigners all day. I went back there earlier today and got told to come back at 6am tomorrow (?!) because there were too many people waiting.
From what I’ve written so far it sounds like I hate Prague and everything here has been bad! That’s not the case at all, it’s just taking a while to settle in, organise everything and get over the culture shock. Prague really is a beautiful city, everywhere I go there’s always something beautiful to look at. It’s incredibly old - my university is one of the oldest in Europe (or possibly even the world!), it’s about 660 years old. Pretty impressive, huh? I’ve met some other exchange students that go to the same university and most of them seem pretty cool. There’s a few Australians here who I’ve hung
out with a bit and I went out with one of them and her American friends last night.
I’ve done a bit of sightseeing and touristy stuff since I’ve been here. Although I’ve gotta say, you’d pretty much be doing that just by being here cos everything is a tourist attraction! I’ve been to the castle, the Charles Bridge (where I saw a guy busking playing the didgeridoo!), the old part of the city (well, older, considering everything here is old!). I’ve also been to an ice-hockey match, which was pretty cool. On Thursday I went on a trip organised by the uni’s international club. We went to Kutna Hora, a small town about an hour from Prague. We went to a church there that was decorated inside completely with human bones! The bones of 40 000 people went into decorating it! Slightly disturbing and a bit freaky but very fascinating. Kutna Hora was a really beautiful and interesting place but it would’ve been a hell of a lot better if it wasn’t so cold, it was absolutely freezing!
The weather here was fairly nice when I arrived, sunny and about +9 degrees for the first few days. I
didn’t mind that at all but since then it has been so cold! Most days it’s only about +1/+2 degrees maximum and in the mornings and late afternoons it’s more like -2 degrees. When I was coming home last night it was -10! We did have a very little bit of snow on Friday and Saturday though. Even though it was an incredibly small amount, I was still pretty excited about it!
I went to my faculty this morning, the faculty of science and everyone there was so wonderful! My faculty advisor is really nice and very helpful and she seems really glad to have me there. She took me around and introduced me to lots of people in the department and she’s managed to get together a little support network for me there so if I ever have problems with anything then I’ve got lots of different people who can help me. They were all so helpful and they speak really good English too so I’m pretty glad that I’m in that department now. Apparently there’s only 2 exchange students in the whole department this semester though, me and a guy from Kansas so we’ll be getting a
lot of attention and help! So that was all a huge relief, to know that I’m going to be well looked after in at least one part of my life here!
Hope you’re all doing well and hope to hear from you all soon!
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Ake Flintull
non-member comment
Welcome!!
Hi and welcome to Europe! I guess you arein the process of getting used to Prag. Som Du vet har vi svenskar en lång tradition som kopplas till gamla Tjeckoslovakien. Karlsbron i centrala Prag är ett särskilt minne, flera hundra år gammalt. Följande historia ger Dig en bild av de svenska krigsherrarna: "Den svenske kungen Gustav II Adolf ingrep 1630 i trettioåriga kriget och svenska trupper landsattes i Pommern, Nordtyskland. Kungen föll i slaget vid Lützen sydväst om Leipzig den 6 november 1632 men svenskarna var kvar på kontinenten till fredsslutet i Westfalen 1648. Prag belägrades två gånger av den svenska armén. Till Karlsbron, (Karlúv most), hisnande vacker än i dag, lyckades svenskarna ta sig under 30-åriga kriget, men där blev det stopp. Där försvarade invånarna i Gamla och Nya stan tillsammans med en liten tapper kejserlig garnison samt 740 studenter praktiskt taget utan kanoner". Jag tror dessutom att Prag har europas störast centrum från medeltiden!" Ok, everybody else who are on this blogg- this was a piece of Swedsih that Kimberly master very well" I wish you good luck in Praha and that you get used to the beer....whlile being on this note; the world famous Budwiser has its roots i Budovijce and is called Budvar. The original Budvar is far superior than its watered down American copy! Stay safe! Kram, Ake and family