Week 1: Orientation (Mon, Tues, Wed)
Monday, August 28th
Today was our final API orientation day and Jana arranged a scavenger hunt throughout Prague.
We began the day by meeting at 10am for a scenic walk to another lookout with a view of the city and then through Malá Strana (Lesser Town) where Jana pointed out some shops and restaurants we should Czech out.
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| Roomie next to the view |
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| API girls in front of the view (From left to right: Julianna, Christine, Ella, Me, Katelyn) |
It was a rainy day, but I kind of enjoyed the weather. Fall is my favorite season and I was happy to break out my boots. After a super hot arrival day, it was really nice.
We stopped at Kavárna V sedmém nebi (Cafe of the seventh heaven) for drinks and discussed culture shock and fatigue, as well as our API excursions throughout the semester. Jana then sent us on a scavenger hunt to discover the city for ourselves!
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| Our scavenger hunt |
We had 3.5 hours to complete the scavenger hunt, get lunch, and meet back up with Jana at Kafé U Kanónu, another cafe located closer to our dorms.
We completed the scavenger hunt relatively efficiently. Because it was sprinkling, there were a few items we had to get creative with, such as, "I am on a boat!"
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| "On a boat" |
We stopped for lunch at a restaurant with traditional Czech cuisine on Wenceslas Square and I got some fire potato soup. The restaurant was a bit pricey because it was right on the square, which is a popular tourist stop, but I'm hoping to get to a grocery store soon so I can start putting together my own meals.
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| Potato soup in a bread bowl |
When we met back up with Jana, we ordered drinks on API; I got an affogato (mostly for the ice cream). We also completed our final scavenger hunt item, take a picture with a Czech person that speaks English -- Jana!
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| Our final scavenger hunt item! |
We then headed back to the dorm to regroup before meeting with the remaining ECES students that arrived while we were out. When we got back, Christine and I had a new roommate, Sadie (who wants everyone to know that she's really cool). I spent some time reorganizing my room because it was a little chaotic. No matter how hard I tried, my bed always ended up facing the door. This is bad for feng shui because it's a symbol of death, as coffins are carried through doorways feet first...at least that's what the guy on TikTok told me.
Most of the ECES students that had arrived gathered in the lobby before we headed to dinner. I'd gotten used to it being relatively quiet, so it was weird having so many people around.
I ordered a caesar salad with chicken at dinner. I've been vegetarian for almost 2.5 years because I tried sushi once and overthought it, but was mentally preparing myself to eat meat on this trip. If I ate it with lettuce at the same time and told myself it was tofu, it was relatively painless! I'm hoping to make my way up to beef goulash by the end of the semester.
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| Look, Mom, real chicken! |
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| My $1 Pilsner |
Tuesday, August 29th
Today was our first day of ECES orientation. I woke up around 7:30am without an alarm, even though I didn't fall asleep until 2am because somebody decided to move their furniture around all night (officially beefing with 401C). It was the first day of the dorm's continental breakfast, so I headed down. It was a pretty typical spread and is definitely better than whatever I would have done on my own. I don't quite understand deli meats in the morning, but I'm from America so who am I to judge.
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| Breakfast! |
After breakfast, I went back to my room to attempt to do makeup and my hair. I've only ever really done mascara and my eyebrows and would like to have at least a basic understanding of makeup, so I got some tinted moisturizer, bronzer, blush, and a few other little things. I would also like to try and put a little more effort into my hair; I tried to braid the front so I can leave it down and still keep it out of my face. We'll see how long it takes for the ponytail to return.
We met around 9:15am to get our student IDs at one of the school buildings. A few of us headed to the university bookstore and mall to pick up a few things and get lunch before heading to our orientation meeting in the main building at 2:00pm. The orientation meeting was an orientation meeting just like every other orientation meeting and then we had a little more free time. A few of us walked around to find a cafe and I got a wee, itty bitty, teeny tiny bit of gelato for fun.
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| A picture with the man himself -- the university is named after King Charles IV |
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| The view from the classroom where we had our orientation meeting |
At 4:40pm, we met to walk "awhile" to our river boat cruise. When someone says we'll be walking "awhile," I anticipate the worst, but it was a relatively medium length. I love walking (contrary to the popular belief only held by my mom), but my legs are getting SORE from these cobblestones.
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| Actually on a boat! |
Our river cruise had a buffet-style dinner with different traditional Czech foods. I grabbed a little bit of each, including the variety of meats. The ham and schnitzel were good, but I couldn't get myself to try the chicken wing because the bone freaked me out. The staff packed up the leftover food for us to take back and our "dorm grandmother," Zuzana, came up to our table with a bin of chicken. She looked right at me and asked, "Who wants to take the chicken?" as she was handing it to me. Room 301 is now the proud owner of approximately 5lbs of schnitzel and chicken wings.
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| Roommate Sadie with our chicken |
After the cruise, it was back to the dorms for a round of cards, Australian Masterchef in the ECES Lounge, and the discovery of a drying rack!
A Funny Story
I'm in a four-bedroom dorm, but only three of us had shown up by this point. Roommate Sadie said she saw our fourth roommate that morning. She was wearing a red sweatshirt, had her hair in two braids and a suitcase. We figured she was tired from her flight and was sleeping. Throughout orientation, we were looking around at our group wondering who our fourth roommate was and contemplated asking who is in 301A. When we couldn't track her down, I had decided that the only rational explanation was that our dorm is haunted, until dinner, when Sadie and I realized she had seen me leaving for breakfast. She was probably still groggy and imagined the braids and suitcase, which is why we didn't realize earlier. I promise it's a funny story...I guess it's one of those things you had to be there for.
Wednesday, August 30th
Wednesday was our first "relaxing" day. There was nothing planned besides an optional walking tour, so a lot of us used the day to get home goods and groceries.
Zuzana, our "dorm grandmother," lives in the dorms and organizes various cultural excursions. She had some home goods leftover from previous students, so I went through them after breakfast and grabbed a hamper.
Zuzana's late husband is Jan Weiner, a navigator of the 311th RAF Squadron. There are a number of documentaries about his life and you can read about him here.
Julianna, Ella, and I took a trip to the promised land -- IKEA. I got another pillow, blanket, little rug, and some self-adhesive hooks for my towels. It's difficult to know what I should and shouldn't buy. I want my dorm to feel comfortable, but don't want to spend too much on things that I probably won't be able to take home. I also don't anticipate spending too much time in my room, but I also don't want it to feel like a wasteland.
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| A stairway we passed on our way to IKEA, the public art in Prague is very cool |
The IKEA we went to is in Černý Most at the end of one of the metro lines and it took about 45 minutes to get there. The difference in atmosphere was really interesting, as most of the architecture was from the communist regime and feels very bleak. I'm unsure if the following is a statue or some kind of fixture, but I thought it was interesting. It looms overhead as you exit the metro and doesn't seem to serve any other purpose than make the people passing by feel small. I'll have to look into what it actually is -- my art history minor is probably overanalyzing something that serves no purpose.
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| A sculpture(?) in Černý Most |
After IKEA, I spent some time unpacking the rest of my things and organizing my room and then joined the 3:30pm walking tour. I had debated going, as I had arrived earlier than the other students and felt I had already seen everything the tour might have taken us on. However, the tour stopped at quite a few new locations and was very informative.
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| The view from one of the stops on our tour |
Back at the dorm, Christine and I debated picking the lock to the fourth room in order to pillage the goods, but our new roomie, Michaela, arrived before we could formulate a plan.
We went for dinner and I got pineapple juice and pizza. I don't know if it was actually delicious or if I was just starving. We got gelato before heading back to the dorm, got back to the dorm, and then, nevermind, we're actually headed back out on the town to see the blue moon from the Prague Castle overlook. It was cloudy so we didn't get a great look at it, but a nice little walk anyway.
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| My pizza 🔥 |
Back at the dorm, I spent some time in the ECES lounge, learned about Connections, the best New York Times game in existence, and got a peek at the blue moon from my dorm window before heading to bed.
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| The blue moon |
Some Updates
1. I'm tired of meat
2. Hair is back in a ponytail