Never a Dull Moment Here in Europe

Hello again,

           I feel like it has been forever since I last posted anything anywhere, whether it was an update to my blog or a picture on facebook, so I figured it was about time to do so. We finally reached Olomouc, which is where we are staying and taking classes, and it is a pretty great town. It is only around 100,000 people, which is nice because that makes it not too overwhelming for us Nebraskans, who are used to smaller cities. I'm going to take it back though, and start where I left off in my last blog.

           On that Saturday when I last posted, I said we were going to go on a walking tour of Prague, and we did do that for a while. It was a free one that we heard about from our hostel, where your guide is a volunteer, and at the end, you can tip the guide if you think he or she has done a good job. We started our tour at 11 that morning, and we all loved our guide. He told us so much about the city, and it was a lot of fun. However, half way through the tour, his wife went into labor with their first kid, and although he felt terrible for leaving us, he left and went to the hospital. We gave him a tip for the hour and a half that he was with us, and we decided to do a little exploring on our own. We went to an ice bar for around ten minutes, just to experience it, and took quite a few pictures there. And on the way back to the hostel, we walked over Charles Bridge, and got a beautiful view of the city. We all went back to the hostel and took naps after that, because we were still exhausted from London.

           The next morning, we left our hostel because we had to go to the airport to meet the rest of our group. However, instead of following the route that we had taken from the airport to our hostel, we tried a new route that Google Maps told us about. After waiting for about 30 or more minutes for a bus that never showed up, we back tracked and took the original route back to the airport. We waited at the airport for an hour or so, and after a four hour bus ride and a stop at McDonald's, we made it to our dorms. And after getting our rooms and throwing our stuff in them, some of us hurried down to the supermarket close to us, Globus, and picked up some things that we knew we would need while here, like food for example.

           On Monday, we were picked up at our dorms by one of the Czech students, Tereza, and were led to our university, Palacký University. We had a few presentations as part of an orientation and then were led on a walking tour of part of the city.we even got to tour city hall and go up a tall tower it has, which provided a nice view of the city.That night, we went to one of the clubs, 15 Minut, for an Africa night thing. It was pretty fun to get to know some of my fellow Nebraskans better while also getting to dance.

           The next day, we all tried as a group to find our university, and after almost getting lost, we made it right on time. We had a presentation about Czech history from a professor who was actually from the U.S., but immigrated to the Czech Republic after the Velvet Divorce of 1989. After lunch, we had another presentation about the history from a different professor, who after presenting, took us on another tour of some of the other parts of the city. That night, some of the Czech students organized a welcome party for us, and we went to a pub for kolaches and drinks. Some of us continued to stay out with some of the Czech students, and went to a couple more pubs before we called it a night.

           We had another presentation on Wednesday from one of the professors about the Gentle Revolution. He spoke about how the students were a big part of the end of Communism in the Czech Republic. It was a very interesting presentation, and the professor even spoke from personal experience because he was a professor at the university while this was going on. We got a tour of the library that afternoon, and then we waited around at the dorms until later that night when we went to another club, Belmundo, for the Taiwan, Ireland, and Belgium night. We got there a little too early, because apparently no one shows up until at least an hour and a half after it is suppose to start. It was still fun though to experience more of the multicultural community of Palacký University.

           Thursday we had a class about the effects of communism in the Czech Republic, and then we had our first two Czech language classes. The language is very difficult, mainly because the pronunciations are sort of confusing, and they have some extra vowels and consonants in their alphabet. We made it through the class, and then we went to watch a Czech movie that was being put on by the university. It was a little different, but still entertaining, and we finished off the night just hanging out with some of our new Czech friends.

           Yesterday, we had another three hours of Czech language class, and once it was over, I made another run to the supermarket, and came back and ate a late lunch. I had to hurry though, because we had a pub crawl organized by a former UNK student who studied abroad in the Czech Republic, and is now living here getting her masters. We started out at 5 going to Měšťanský Pivovar, which is a restaurant and brewery. After an hour there, we went to a winery, Vinotéka U Zlatky, and then eventually to Drápal, where we ate supper. We continued to Cocktail Bar OSA, and then finished off the organized part of the night at Black Stuff Irish Pub, where a few of us eventually continued on to 15 Minut to dance some before going to bed. It was a lot of fun to go see what restaurants and other places they have in Olomouc to go see, while also just bonding with the group.

           Today I decided to update my blog, and I really need to do laundry tomorrow (it has been a few days). Some of us went to Svaty Kopeck this afternoon, which is a basilica about twenty minutes from Olomouc. It was such a beautiful church, and I loved every second of being there. There was also a zoo about five minutes away from the basilica, so of course we had to go there as well. It obviously could not quite compare to the Henry Doorly Zoo, but it was still fun to be able to go see some animals. We ate supper at a restaurant near the zoo/basilica, and it was really good. They had hamburgers there, and although they were different than the ones back home, it was still nice to have some red meat.

           It completely blows my mind that we have already been here for almost a week, because I can already tell the days are going to fly by, and soon I'll be heading back to Kearney. But for now, I'm going to enjoy the time I have here, and try to not waste a minute of it!