Last Day

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Let me start off by saying I’M DONE WITH MY EXAMS!!! I finished up by 10:15 this morning, so I had the whole rest of the day to spend a little more time saying goodbye to Prague.

My first exam of the day was with Professor Voráček. I think that was a good decision on my part to start off with him, because it really settled my nerves. He spent the first four minutes or so asking me about where I was from and my family because I have a Slavic surname. It was kind of funny, and also really convinced me that the interview wouldn’t be so bad. And it wasn’t. He asked me only a few questions (like three Czech cities that I’d remember forever), and I don’t think I got the chance to fully answer any of them without him going off in a completely different direction. And excuse my boasting for a moment, but he told me I got full points on my essay, only missed one point in Czech Language, and my final grade was 99 out of 100! I practically danced out of the room after he told me that.

My other two exams went a little…less well (that’s going to count as a real English phrase for today). I had Boučkova right after Voráček. When I got to her room she had someone else in there, so I waited until the exact time my exam was supposed to start and walked toward the door. She promptly told me to wait and she’d be done in a moment. Several minutes later the man she had been talking with walked out and I was allowed to start my interview. She asked me all about my paper, which I feel like I was able to answer sufficiently for the most part. Some questions she asked I wasn’t really sure of (such as, “In the future, do you think there will be conflicts of land use between energy and food crops?”) so I just told her what I personally thought might happen…without any real support for those answers. Toward the end it seemed to dissolve into a bit of a comparison between the United States and Czech Republic and their views and usage of alternative energy sources, so here’s to hoping I did alright. I had my exam with Lošt’ak ten minutes after my Boučkova interview, so I waited a little while in between. Michael said he found my paper interesting (on the topic of the role of nature in the off-time of Czechs versus Americans), which I took to be a good sign. We talked for a little while about various points brought up in my essay. It was interesting to me to watch him throughout the interview, because he’d light up when I’d say something interesting, then kind of shut down a little if I gave an answer he apparently wasn’t looking for. That made it a bit easier for me to find out what kind of answer he was looking for, but then again it also showed me just how often I said something he didn’t find quite so amazing.

After exams Heather and I went to the zoo. Prague Zoo has also been on my list of places to go for years, ever since I found out that they keep the studbook on Przewalskii horses (one of my favorite animals). I’m really glad we went, even though we didn’t get to see everything (we missed some of the big cats and the gorillas). Some of the exhibits they have are amazing. They had an exhibit for Barbary sheep and Barbary Macaques that was phenomenally constructed. It was a very large rockface with some plants and trees, and very very similar to the natural habitat. Actually, almost all of the exhibits were very good at providing the animals plenty of hiding places and allowing them to feel at home. From the animal’s point of view (and as someone involved in the zoo industry) they were very nice. From the visitor’s point of view? Not so great because it was hard to find the animals. Having said that, I also noticed that people could get incredibly close to the animals here, which is also something I noticed at the London Zoo. Maybe the US is the only country that keeps the people and animals very separate? I’m not sure, but it’s strange to me when people can practically touch the animals.

I’ve been trying not to think about the fact that this is my last day in the Czech Republic. Actually, I haven’t thought about it at all. It’s kind of bittersweet to go home (which I’m sure is a very common sentiment). On the one hand, I should probably get back to my friends and family, but on the other I’m leaving a place that I’ve wanted to visit for a very long time. There have been experiences here that I’ll remember for the rest of my life, and things that no one else will understand because (as Asa proclaimed in one of his speeches) they just weren’t here. I’m very glad and incredibly grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to come here and participate in this program. I can’t say that I feel like I’ve “grown as a person” (or maybe I avoid saying that because it’s too much of a cliché, I don’t know), but I do think that I’ve changed in ways that I can’t quite pinpoint and I have a better understanding of places outside of “home.” This summer has certainly been an unforgettable one.

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Photos

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Interesting African savannah exhibit.

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Przwalskii!!

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Barbary Macaques

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Barbary Sheep

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Sichuan Takin!! I was surprised to see them at the zoo.