Na Zdraví Pastrami

      I've made it to Prague and it's everything I hoped for and more! I've been nothing but blown away by this city, and I know I've only skimmed the surface.
      Because the city was behind in industry when WWII began, it was largely passed over by bombs, and is therefore still well preserved unlike many other European cities I've been to. Every building is beautiful in a very different way, and the entire city is a hodge-podge of architectural styles. I've seen everything from Renaissance to Cubistic, Gothic to Modern, and even Communist style popping up behind every turn, I don't think I'll ever stop finding new views to fall in love with. I've also adopted a strange love of doors in the short time I've been here. Some of the doors I've seen are so intricate and ornate, while others are minimalistic and simple. Overall, I can't stop taking pictures of doors, and I think I might come home with an interesting new collection =).

      The train ride from Berlin to Prague was really beautiful. It was much more mountainous than I expected which was cool to see. The first town we hit was Dresden which was gorgeous, maybe I'll go back sometime soon to really visit. We met up with the Vltava River, which eventually passes through Prague about halfway through the trip. As soon as we hit the river my eyes were permanently peeled to the window. The mountain towns lying right up against the river were picturesque and so peaceful. I would love to see the ride again during the summer when the trees are green and the sky is blue. Regardless, the snow and cold gave the small towns a special charm.
      I arrived at my apartment easily which lies within Praha 3, just a few tram stops from the center of New Town. The apartment is much larger than I expected. The kitchen is small but very Ikea-esque which I love. The living room is also large with a huge entertainment center but no entertainment to speak of hehe. There are two double rooms which are also quite expansive. My room has a balcony which will hopefully be nice when the weather is better in a few months. Though the kitchen, bathroom, and dining area are totally new, ikea-like, and updated, the rest of the rooms are much older. Our beds are extremely small, and pretty funny actually; they're really just glorified cushions on stilts. It doesn't really matter seeing as I can sleep anywhere (except airplanes as you might have noticed from the last post...). The apartment is quite lovely all things considered and pretty perfect for a four month stay.
      My roommates are great as well! The two girls in the other room are really nice, and strangely enough my roommate is from Grinnell! Jeanette and I know each other a bit because we're both close friends with Mark, but I had no idea she was coming to Prague. We don't know each other well at all, so it will be cool to make a new Grinnell friend. At first I was a bit bummed to be so close to another Grinnell student because part of the reason I was so excited for the program was to get some distance from Grinnell and meet new people. I quickly changed my mind, finding it extremely nice to have someone to relate to about Grinnell, home, and classes. You really don't realize how much we take for granted at Grinnell until you meet regular people hah. We also live with a Czech girl named Marquetta who has been great so far; she is so nice and fun! There is another apartment of girls upstairs in the same building. Another Grinnellian lives there (Eva) who I'm starting to think is pretty awesome. I've also become friends with a girl named Maddie who lives upstairs and goes to American University. We have all the same classes, and went sight seeing together on the second full day. Above that apartment is another group of six guys, one of whom is Czech. They're pretty hilarious and always up for fun; I can tell they will be a blast.
      On night one we went to a welcome dinner at the CET center and began getting to know one another. The CET center is one street off Wenceslas Square which is the center of New Town and where the Velvet Revolution occurred. The whole area was amazing right from the start, and my excitement grew immediately. There was an overwhelming number of film students at the dinner, but since then we haven't seen much of them; I think our programs are very separated. We tried to go out to a bar for some drinks after dinner but failed miserably at finding the place Pavel (the guys' Czech roommate) had told us about and quickly gave up since most people were were suffering from jet lag.
      After a good night of sleep we started orientation with a quick overview of the basic things we need to know to function while abroad, most of which I have already heard. Our director, Jiˆri, made a sassy comment about how we are the only group ever to have not gone out on the first night haha. I'm not sure if he was proud or ashamed. We got some groceries and went back to New Town for dinner. We quickly realized Wenceslas Square, which is beautiful and touristy during the day, transforms into a sketchy street at night. We finally found a place for dinner in a dungeon decorated with suits of armor and had some fun food. We walked around trying to find a bar, only to find ourselves failing again, though we did find multiple strip clubs. We were in a large group and Prague is one of the safest cities in the world so I never really got nervous. We even saw some women alone on the block and stopped worrying altogether until we realized they were prostitues (they were much more covered than any other prostitutes I've ever seen haha). We decided to head back towards our apartment and find the bar Pavel had told us about. We searched a few blocks and failed again, but finally found a sports bar which had good beer and a fine atmosphere. We were laughing that we are probably the only people in Prague who can't find a good bar, but still enjoyed ourselves, and vowed to plan better for the next night out.

      We had the next day off so Maddie and I took a stroll around Old Town following Rick Steves' advice. We saw the astronomical clock go off on the hour (quite amazing mechanics for the 14th century), looked into Tyn Church, saw an art exhibit called Post Velvet on modern Czech art, and saw a plethora of Medeval alter pieces at St. Agnes' Convent. We ended the day at Charles Bridge where we snapped some photos before our hands began to freeze, decided we had never seen any place more beautiful, and quickly got home. We grabbed dinner at Pizza Dali below our apartment which boasts Surrealist posters, 80s American pop music, great pizza, and the usual beer before meeting up with our entire building for a night out. We decided to celebrate Eva's 21st birthday and Pavel's 23rd by actually going out, letting Pavel lead the way to ensure success. We gave up trying to fit all 25 of us into one bar and split up, ending up at a really fun bar with a dance floor. We had a few beers and got to dancing. Eventually some drag queens joined the party which was a hoot. I'm pretty sure the other two Grinnellians and I were the only ones in our group that felt totally in our element, and was proud of my school =). We tried our first becherovka which was much sweeter than I anticipated. We decided it tastes just like Prague, and a bit like Christmas (interpret that as you will). I'll try to bring a bottle home to share my new drink of choice.

      The next day we had some more orientation and went on a scavenger hunt through town. We had a good time finding the random things on the list, and ended the day running up the hill to a monastery with a great brewery for dinner with the whole program. The beer was amazing and the food was equally good. A few others joined Maddie and I to bond a bit with the Czech buddies at a bar nearby after dinner. Our new Czech friends informed us why bar is great: they sell full liters of beer rather than the typical half liter. The beer came in what looked like a glass bucket with a handle, though I stuck to the usual half liter. Maddie and I stayed back with one of the guys in our building, Nate, to finish our beers and conversation and got directions for tram home. We left soon after and hopped on the train, only to find that the metro was closed because of some unknown emergency. We walked a mile or two back to Wenceslas Square to wait for the only tram we knew well because we had taken it the other night. We found out after half an hour of waiting that the 58 tram is only a night train, which means it only runs after midnight. We decided to go into McDonalds which was the only place open, where we got a burger and warmed up to wait for midnight. In another half hour we finally hopped on the tram getting home much later than we wanted, but laughed it off as a good story and fun bonding experience.
      Today we took a formal tour of the town which was cool, and started our intensive Czech class. We  have four hours a day of class for the rest of the week to get us started on the language. I really enjoy Czech and have found it to be surprisingly beautiful. My pronunciation is shockingly good, but the tricky part is yet to come. Apparently there are only three tenses in Czech (WHAT?) as opposed to Spanish which seemed to have endless conjugations. I initially thought the language would be a cinch when I learned this, but my hopes were dashed when my professor (also named Jiˆri) said there are seven cases. I don't even know what a case is. They don't exist in Spanish, English, or French. I think I'll be endlessly confused on that one, we'll find out later I suppose. Today we finished class by learning to count to ten. Turns out the word for four is absolutely impossible to pronounce. No really. It is spelled ˆctyˆri which is supposed to sound something like chtrji. The r sounds like a mixture between a rolled r and a jjj sound. Jiˆri 2 makes it sound so easy! I was trying to make the sound after class while waiting in the hall for our apartment to depart and Jiˆri 1 walked by and informed me that "It's not a rolled r!"... yeah yeah Jiˆri. He's so sassy, but that's what we love about him. We proceded to practice saying ˆctyˆri on the way home until we realized how funny a group of people saying the word four over and over on the metro would look.


      Overall I love love love Prague. It's beautiful, history rich, small, and cheap as dirt. A beer costs anywhere from 20 to 40 kc for a half liter, which is the equivalent of 1 to 2 dollars... Water costs more, so you really have no choice but to drink beer. Every meal I've eaten has fallen between 90 and 200 kc which is about $4.50-$10. What?! But what you still don't know is that dinner includes beer. Yes, you can get a full sized meal and a half liter of beer for under $10. It's unreal. I also bought some groceries (spagetti, sauce, cheese, lunch meat, bread, granola, yogurt, hot cocoa, juice, and cheese spread) for 350 kc or $19. This city is going to make me the biggest cheapskate ever (fingers crossed). I'm really excited for my normal classes to start next week, and I'm even more excited for our trips. We're going to ˆCesk´y Krumlov, Lidice, Terezin, Kutná Hora, Vienna, Krakow, Budapest, and more all covered by our program. They also are paying for us to attend an opera and either a soccer game or a hockey game. I might have to put in some extra money so I can get to a hockey game in addition to soccer, too much fun to say no.

      I have to get up tomorrow for 9:00 Czech class, so I better head to bed. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll be completely fluent. HAH.

Oh P.S. I forgot to mention the title of this post! On our first night I asked Marquetta how you say cheers in Czech so we could toast to a great semester with our first beers. She told us to say Na Zdraví which was immediately mistaken as Pazdravi and ultimately changed to Pastrami. Whenever we have a drink we all raise our glasses and cheer "Pastrami!" much to the amusement of our Czech friends. =)