Day three

Hey all,

It is now 10:30 a.m. and I'm in my third day of my trip! So far things have gone by pretty fast. My flight over was decent. I didn't sleep at all though. So two days ago I was running on pretty much no sleep. But lets see, I got to my apartment at about 4:00 Thursday afternoon. It's set up much like a dorm. I have one roommate, Alex, who I share a bathroom, small kitchenette and huge room with. Then there are two other rooms just like mine, with two girls in each, connected by a hallway. There is a washer in the hall but no drier. There is also no air conditioning so it is rather hot. The beds are very low to the ground and quite small but I think I'll be able to manage for three months. After I got to the apartment I unpacked, met my roommates etc, and then went out to a rather late dinner.

That dinner was my first bit of culture shock. We didn't know the dinning customs so we didn't really know how to act. We basically looked like 6 dumb, scared Americans and our waiter was not nice. I'm sure she ripped us off because we had no idea what we were doing. But we ate and drank a couple of beers and made it though the awkward situation. I made it up until about 11:30 and then went to bed for 12 hours.

Then yesterday we had our school orientation. We had to buy a metro ticket and figure out how to ride the metro and get to school but that was all easy enough. Our school is very very small. It has 5 or 6 classrooms, a student lounge, a tiny library and a tiny computer lab. I think it will be nice though because the classes will be small and we will get to know each other better. I have one class every single day but I think I will drop my Friday class.

After our school orientation we went on a "practical" city tour to see where to buy phones, get food, etc. It was cool to just walk around the city but I had no idea where I was in regards to my apartment at any time. Right now its kinda hard because I have no idea how to spell or say any street names and I do not know the layout of the city but hopefully it will get better.

After our too brief tour I bought a phone and groceries, which was my other bit of culture shock. It was the yogurts and milk that got me...I had no idea what they said or what was in them. I ended up buying some essentials but not enough, and no milk.

We got back to the apartment around 7 p.m. and my roommate's Dad, yes her Dad came all the way to Prague to settle her in, invited me to dinner. He has a friend who lives in Prague and he took us to the Prague castle, which was absolutely huge and gorgeous. Of course I forgot my camera but I'm sure we will be going back. We ate dinner inside the castle at a very fancy and nice place, which was very cool. There is a HUGE cathedral in the middle of one courtyard that was built in the 10th century...crazy! Oh and the president lives in the castle and they wave a flag when the president is home. I thought that was nuts! Why would the governement let people just walk into the "white house" of Prague and then let everyone know if the President was home or not? Huge security issues! So yeah, I got to dine in the Prague Castle while the President was home.

After dinner Alex and I came back to the appartment and went out to the bars with our other roommates. Another culture shock. We wandered the streets looking for a club or younger looking bar for about an hour with no luck. Then a nice man and his mother (maybe?) pointed us in the right direction and we went into a bar for about an hour but it was not very crowded so we wanted to find a better "hot spot" so we wandered some more. At that point, 3:30 a.m. I was done. I was tired, lost and just frusterated so I walked home with Mikela while the others stayed out for a while longer. Hopefully tonight will be better.

So today we go on a "historical" city tour at 1:00. I want to find a place to work out before then and maybe walk around our appartment area a little more. Well thats all for now. Miss you all tons!