And It's Only the First Day!
I must say, it's been quite a long day. Last night we boarded the plane at 7:00, but takeoff got delayed and we actually didn't even end up leaving New York until an hour and a half after we were scheduled to, which was 7:55. Anyways, after a long and (needless to say) restless flight we landed at Prague International airport!!!!!! Gosh, it's so hard to believe I'm in another country, let alone an enitirely different continent. The first thing I noticed when looking around on the ride to the Univeristy's campus was how the vegetation looks so similar to Tennessee, without the hills. However, the architecture is quite different and the roads are barely wide enough to squeeze two cars on, which makes driving quite interesting! But honestly the biggest two other things that make this whole excursion a reality includes hearing snippets of conversation and not understanding it and seeing a different language on all the signs and such. It's amazing. We read our whole lives and are taught in school from small children that places like this exist, but sometimes it seems like the only world is what lies in our backyard. This experience is like none other, getting to see first hand some of the oldest inhabited cities in the world, walking across the ground that millions of people before you have. Its a wonderful, effortless way to connect to the past. This photo somewhat illustrates this feeling, with this beautiful line of trees leading the way down a street.
Rich feelings aside, other cool things define this place. Maybe they aren't all necessarily exactly cool, but they definitely have things to set them apart from other places in the world. One of the interesting things I have found is how cheap some things are. You can buy a two liter bottle of water for about 18 Krauns, roughly 90 cents in dollars. How crazy! Beer is also much cheaper than water over here, you can get a half liter glass at a restaurant (some of my friends did!) and pay the same amount as a 250 mL glass bottle of water that isn't refillable. Ha. Completely opposite from the US. I'm sure that has something to do too with this being one of the beer capitals of the world. Mom would also be proud to see that coke and Pepsi are huge around here. The locals love them, haha. And she would also like to hear that I used an ATM for the first time over here today and it worked fine! The currency is pretty cool as well: the smallest bill they have is a 100 and they have coins ranging from 1,2,5,10,20,50. So neat! It's been strange having money like that, but like everything you get used to it. We had a "banquet" tonight in the student restaurant. Sadly, all the food we had I could have had at home and cooked it better. But! Tomorrow we are going into the city and will hopefully have some authentic Czech food then! Yep. All about the food as always! But anyways, it is currently 9:53 PM over here, 2:53 PM at home. (the time difference is the strangestnthing about this whole trip!) and I need to go to bed. Up early tomorrow! :) we have a lecture for a couple hours about Czexh agriculture and economics and then we are going to tour the city! I must say, I'm quite excited to see this historic place that so many people, both in the past and the present, have described as magical. Love you guys! :)
Our room, isn't it nice?
ice cream we bought at a store because we saw some students with it. Must be good if they have it right? WRONG. Tasted like strawberry Chapstick. Promise.
Dinner: yummy but disapointing. Yep. Bobs pork chops are better. Actually waffle houses are better, haha. But it was still good :)
View from the car driving to the campus! It can almost fool you into thinking of Tennessee. But I suppose there are many places in the world like that. Just because you are somewhere else doesn't mean your on a different planet. . .most of the time.
Last but not least: THE AIRPORT! Praha is how the locals pronounce Prague. Guess I gotta learn the local lingo here, just as people need to learn hillbilly when they come to Tennessee, eh?
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Rich feelings aside, other cool things define this place. Maybe they aren't all necessarily exactly cool, but they definitely have things to set them apart from other places in the world. One of the interesting things I have found is how cheap some things are. You can buy a two liter bottle of water for about 18 Krauns, roughly 90 cents in dollars. How crazy! Beer is also much cheaper than water over here, you can get a half liter glass at a restaurant (some of my friends did!) and pay the same amount as a 250 mL glass bottle of water that isn't refillable. Ha. Completely opposite from the US. I'm sure that has something to do too with this being one of the beer capitals of the world. Mom would also be proud to see that coke and Pepsi are huge around here. The locals love them, haha. And she would also like to hear that I used an ATM for the first time over here today and it worked fine! The currency is pretty cool as well: the smallest bill they have is a 100 and they have coins ranging from 1,2,5,10,20,50. So neat! It's been strange having money like that, but like everything you get used to it. We had a "banquet" tonight in the student restaurant. Sadly, all the food we had I could have had at home and cooked it better. But! Tomorrow we are going into the city and will hopefully have some authentic Czech food then! Yep. All about the food as always! But anyways, it is currently 9:53 PM over here, 2:53 PM at home. (the time difference is the strangestnthing about this whole trip!) and I need to go to bed. Up early tomorrow! :) we have a lecture for a couple hours about Czexh agriculture and economics and then we are going to tour the city! I must say, I'm quite excited to see this historic place that so many people, both in the past and the present, have described as magical. Love you guys! :)
Our room, isn't it nice?
ice cream we bought at a store because we saw some students with it. Must be good if they have it right? WRONG. Tasted like strawberry Chapstick. Promise.
Dinner: yummy but disapointing. Yep. Bobs pork chops are better. Actually waffle houses are better, haha. But it was still good :)
View from the car driving to the campus! It can almost fool you into thinking of Tennessee. But I suppose there are many places in the world like that. Just because you are somewhere else doesn't mean your on a different planet. . .most of the time.
Last but not least: THE AIRPORT! Praha is how the locals pronounce Prague. Guess I gotta learn the local lingo here, just as people need to learn hillbilly when they come to Tennessee, eh?
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Prague, Czech Republic
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