Orientation and First Day of Classes

Dobrý den! Jmenuju se Heather. Jsem Američanka. Jsem studentka. Je mi dvacet let. Promiňte, nemluvím česky. Děkuju.

(Hello/good day! My name is Heather. I am American. I am a student. I am 20 years old. I am sorry, I do not speak Czech. Thank you.)

Well, this encompasses the vast majority of my Czech speaking abilities thus far. I can also count to ten, haha.

Anywayyy, the first few days in Prague have been GREAT! My dorm (Jerome House) is very conveniently located in the city and is near the building where we have classes. I have a single bedroom with a wardrobe, desk, ethernet hookup, twin bed, nightstand, and a vanity. I also have these rustic looking wood beams running through the room and around the ceiling. I have a nice view out my window of a church across the street and the red-tiled rooves of the surrounding buildings. I have my own private bathroom, including a shower, which is FANTASTIC! I have these strange steps down into my room, up into the bathroom, and back down into the bathroom on which I am likely to break an ankle at some point during the semester, haha.

So yesterday we had orientation in the morning, and in the afternoon I bought some more stuff that I needed in my room. Then I went on a long walk through Prague with another girl from the program named Sarah. We walked along the Vltava river up to the famous Charles Bridge. We climbed the bridge tower at sunset and had a magical view of the city. Then we crossed the bridge and wandered around on the other side for a while. We crossed back over the bridge and walked to the Old Town Square to see the clock tower. We then attempted to head back to the dorm, but overshot it and ended up on a large pedestrian/shopping street. We kept wandering and eventually ended up near our class building, so we were able to recognize how to get home from there.

This morning our 2 weeks of core course classes began. At 9am we met with one of our professors for a 2+ hour walk around the city. We rode the trams across the river and up past the castle. When we got off, we walked around different points of interest while heading back down towards the river. We stopped at a BEAUTIFUL panorama lookout high above the city. We saw the royal gardens of the castle area and an old stalinist monument that has been replaced by grafitti and a large red pendulum that represents the passing of time and the changing of regimes. We walked back across the river to the old town, passing through Old Town Square, and eventually ended our tour at a church down the street from our academic center.

We then had a break for lunch followed by 2 hours of Czech language class. Czech language was pretty good, but it's soooo different from English, and it will be very hard to learn. We don't have class until 11am tomorrow, so I don't know what is in store for the rest of the evening. It's only 6:45pm. I'm thinking I should get some dinner and maybe grab some notebooks from the Tesco. Anyway, I suppose that's all the updating necessary for now. I'll try to put up some pictures soon, but I have only taken some of my dorm room. Sadly, I forgot to take my camera on today's walking tour (stupid).

Miss you guys, and hope these blog entries aren't too terribly boring!