One Week In

Sorry I haven’t written much since I landed, but it has been a really really busy week.  My flights went smoothly out of the U.S. and I arrived to 40 degree weather in Prague!  The weather this week has been beautiful, which is great for all of this orientation that we have going on.  As soon as we got to the hotel, we were bustled out into the tram to get to our school, Charles University.  The tram systems are great!  I’ll be using them a lot. 

The school we will be taking courses in is right near Old Town and Wenceslas Square.  I also just learned that down the street from where we will be taking classes is a building that was the Prague headquarters of the Nazi party, and right next to our building was once the headquarters for the Czech Communist Party.  Kind of creepy…

The front of school - Charles University

So this past week, we have been in orientation every day and have been searching for flats (apartments) around the city.  This has involved a lot of walking and a lot of stress.  It’s pretty tricky finding a flat in a good location, in your price range, and with people you barely know, in such a short time.  After a whole week of stressing over that, we finally found a place!  I’m living in a cute little flat in Nove Mesto (New Town), in Prague 2, on a street called Na Hradku.  It’s a great neighborhood and we are all so relieved that we got so lucky!  We are close to the tram stop that will take us to and from class and downtown, above a restaurant and post office, and a few blocks from the Vltava River.  Oh, and there’s a botanical garden across the street which I’m sure will be beautiful in the Spring!  I’m living with three other girls from Tulane and we are working to gain the respect of other residents in the building.  Apparently there was a group of American boys living in the flat last semester who were loud and obnoxious and had a bunch of parties.  We are lucky that the landlord gave us a chance seeing as they are not very fond of having Americans live in their flats due to our “loud voices” and loud music… we are hoping that they will soon smile back in the stairwell after they realize that not all Americans are crazy and loud.

View from my bedroom window

We start our intensive Czech language course on Monday and I’m actually pretty excited.  It’ll be nice to have a routine to my days and weeks, and to learn some Czech to help me get around. 

With the first week under my belt, I’m feeling relieved and ready to finally go explore the city!