Week 2: Intenzivní kurz češtiny (Intensive Czech Course)
Monday, September 4th
First, and most importantly, I am so glad free breakfast is back. There was a mysterious, but very good, melon. It tasted like honeydew, but way better.
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| Mysterious melon |
Second, and second most importantly, it was the first day of our Czech language course! There are four sections; one in the morning from 9am to 1:45pm and three in the afternoon from 2pm to 6:45pm. I was placed in the morning class, which I'm super happy about.
We were thrown into it on our first day. We learned, "What is your name?" "How are you?" "Where are you from?" and how to respond all before our instructor spoke anything in English.
We also learned proper pronunciation, basic phrases and greetings, and the names of basic objects, as well as pronouns and the verb, "to be."
I was feeling very confident in class, but as soon as we exited the building...whoosh, it was gone.
After class, I headed to the mall to get a yoga mat. I've accepted my fate and will be doing body weight exercises in the park until the weather gets too bad. I stumbled upon the absolute steal of an $11 yoga mat and headed back to the dorms for lunch.
I found a cute park and went for a run; I say found, but I really just exited the dorms, walked a minute to the left, and, boom, there's a park. Conveniently, the tram stop is named Park Maxe van der Stoela, so maybe I should've realized.
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| Looks like Ohio |
After dinner, we hung out in the kitchen to do homework. It's the first time I've done worksheet-esque homework since high school, and I guess I missed it because I was having fun.
Tuesday, September 5th
Free breakfast! Second day of class!
Today we learned about grammatical gender and the words for different types of food, drinks, means of transportation, directions, and places in Prague. We took a field trip to Malá Strana and our instructor pointed out overrated, underrated, and perfectly-rated cafes, as well as some words and phrases we had learned in class. I felt like I had a better grasp on it after today's class and was able to decipher some signs we walked by.
I went back to the dorms for lunch, played some sudoku, and then sat outside to do my homework. I signed up for an ECES walking tour of Prague Castle in the evening and headed back out to grab some Fancy Fries before meeting with the group.
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| Fanciest fries I ever did see |
Fancy Fries is a "restaurant" that serves french fries to-go. I had walked by it the day before and couldn't stop thinking about it. I got my fries and headed to the Rudolfinum, a concert hall next to the main Faculty of Arts building, where we were going to meet for the tour.
There I was, sitting at the top of the Rudolfinum steps, enjoying my Fancy Fries, listening to classical music play from a mysterious new art installation, and watching the sunset when I was overcome with the feeling that something was incredibly, terribly wrong. It took a second to hit me -- the sun was setting in the wrong direction. It felt like this scene from Pirates of the Caribbean. For an entire week, I was certain that my dorm room window faced North and that my family was to the left. Why is the sun setting in what I know is east? There's a glitch in the matrix it's the only explanation if Santa is that way the sun should be setting...
Our tour is ready to leave!
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| Mysterious art installation |
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| Picture I took right before realizing the sun should not be setting that way |
We headed to Prague Castle and strolled around with Imogen, one of the ECES directors, who shared a lot of fun facts. For example, Good King Wenceslas (thank you for the banger Christmas carol) was actually a Duke and became an honorary king after he was killed by his brother (his mother also killed his grandmother, classic medieval family drama) and his body is in a crypt in St. Vitus Cathedral, which is located in Prague Castle, along with (allegedly) St. Vitus's arm and someone else's head!
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| St. Vitus Cathedral |
After the tour, we headed back to the dorms where I chit-chatted with my roommates. They tried to explain to me how directions work and made me download a compass app.
Wednesday, September 6th
I let myself sleep in until 7:30am, had breakfast, took the tram to class, and, you know it, had class! Today we learned the verb "to have," numbers up to 40, parts of the day, days of the week, and food and drinks you'd find in a buffet.
After class, I grabbed my yoga mat and headed to the park where I sat and watched the frogs, then did some body weight workouts and my homework. The water was super clear and I could see tadpoles in all stages of development and little baby frogs. It's especially cool here because they croak in Czech, unlike the frogs in America.
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| Frog pond; interestingly, there are no zebra mussels in sight |
Sadie and I had dinner and then Julianna and I competed for who could complete the NYT Games' sudoku the fastest. She won, but I realized later it was only because she had automatic candidates on 😒
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| Dinner with Sadie |
Julianna, Lilly, Ella and I played Anomia and realized I'm way too competitive, then Lilly and I retrieved our laundry and headed to bed.
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| Quick fit check while retrieving our laundry |
Thursday, September 7th
Breakfast! Tram! To! Class!
Today we learned how to tell time, six new, irregular verbs and reviewed for tomorrow's midterm!
After class, Aislinn and I went in search of a planner, and I experienced my second wave of culture shock. There are no planners in existence that begin earlier than January 2024. Who is currently buying a planner for 2024? Bruh.
After that immense disappointment, Aislinn and I got ice cream for lunch to feel better about the lack of planner and stressful midterm review. Aislinn got a medium and I followed suit, but couldn't finish it. I think it's the first time since I was maybe 7-years old that I couldn't finish ice cream. My world is shattering.
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| Barely reached the cone :( |
I regrouped at the dorm then headed back out in search of a new wallet. ECES students have a transportation pass that we need to have on us when taking public transportation and it doesn't fit in my wallet, so I had it in a separate pouch which was killing my keychain vibe. However, I quickly found the perfect wallet for only 200 CZK; it fits everything I could need and isn't too big that it looks goofy on a lanyard. Score.
That evening, we had a picnic in Letna Park organized by ECES, so after purchasing my new wallet I headed to meet up with the group. We trekked up the hillside into the park and then had sandwiches from Bagaterie Boulavard (a Czech fast food restaurant), mustard-flavored potato chips (apparently a popular flavor here), and Kofola (a Czech cola brand with an interesting history, which you can learn about here).
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| Trekking up the hillside |
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| Picnic! |
When the sun began to set (in the West), we had the collective realization that there was a midterm in the morning, so we rushed off to study back at the dorms.
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| West |
I tried studying, but couldn't focus and decided it would be better to get a good night's sleep and study before class the next day.
Friday, September 8th
The good night's sleep worked miracles because I ended up getting 100% on the midterm. The test was much easier than I anticipated; I did miss one question where I spelled a word from a word bank wrong, but our instructor didn't dock me for it. I think I expect tests to be really hard because of math class in high school, so it's nice to be pleasantly surprised when they're not.
After getting our grades back, we learned more foods and then our instructor took us to the National Gallery to see the temporary exhibition on Communism in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s and a whale skeleton. There was also a rock with taxidermied (I'm being told this isn't a word, but we know what I mean) birds on it that they painted to be a little too realistic. Then it was off for lunch; Katelyn and I went to Cafe Louvre, known for being the preferred cafe of famous thinkers like Franz Kafka and Albert Einstein.
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| View of the National Gallery overlooking Wenceslas Square when I get off the metro for class |
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| Realistically-painted rock |
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| Cafe Louvre omelette |
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| Hot chocolate on an 85 degree day? Methinks yes |
Even though I'd gotten a decent amount of sleep, I was feeling exhausted from the general testing atmosphere, so I spent some time sitting in my window playing sudoku and then went for a long walk.
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| View from my window |
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| View on my walk |
When I got back, I did some more chit-chatting with Christine and Sadie and then some word searches like most 22-year old girls on a Friday night.