It has been less than a week since I left for Prague and I have already experienced so much. London, Munich, and now finally Prague. London was an amazing city, but while I was there I was thankful I wasn't studying abroad there. Don't get me wrong, it is so beautiful and has a lot of things to do, but I want my study abroad experience to change the way I see the world, and London won't do that for me.
When we first arrived in London at 6:30am on Wednesday morning we went straight to the hotel, however we weren't able to check in to the hotel until 1:30pm. So I felt absolutely disgusting from traveling. I was unable to shower or get anything out of my bags so I walked around the city with only a sweatshirt while wearing sweatpants. A horrible way to begin, but after we checked in everything got better. We had opening drinks later that night and we got to meet a lot of people in our program. There are 72 people in the AIFS program and everyone is from different parts of the United States. After two days in London we left for Munich. We had to wake up at 4:30am to leave for the airport. We were all exhausted and really jet-lagged, some were still drunk from the night before.
Munich, Germany was an awesome place!! It was snowing the day we got there and really cold, but we ventured out into the city. A group of us ended up going to a beer hall to eat and drink. There we all got the largest beers we had have ever seen! We ate sausage and pretzels and had a great time! Definitely my favorite night so far! On our way home from the beer hall we decided to have a snow ball fight because it was snowing so bad. I was dominated by a huge snow ball.
On Friday morning we took a bus to Prague, it was much shorter than I thought it would be. The first night in Prague a few of us went exploring and we ended up finding some local pubs near our dorms. As soon as we walked into the pubs everyone turned and looked at us and just stared. I wasn't really sure how they knew we were foreigners right away, but apparently within seconds a Czech person can tell if you are American or not.
Prague is beautiful and yet SO confusing. Nothing is in English! I knew that this was going to happen, but it didn't hit me until we actually started exploring. Before I left I heard that most people speak English, this is not entirely true... most of the people I encounter don't. So far getting around isn't too bad because there is only 3 metro lines, but I am still really unfamiliar with the Tram lines and the Bus stops. I am sure after a few weeks I will become more comfortable with everything and attempt to start taking the buses.
While in Prague we are staying at dorms a massive dorm a little outside of Old Town Prague. The dorm is a maze, twice I have gotten lost and was unable to find my room.
My room is much bigger than I thought, good thing I brought tons of stuff to fill it!! My roommate is Kacy and she is from Tuscon, Arizona. She is really cool and we get along great!! :o) 
There is a common room next to our room with a bathroom and small kitchen that we share with our suite mates. The next few weeks are packed with many events! For example, tomorrow I am going to the city of Plsen, which is about an hour outside of Prague. And on Wednesday I am going on a tour of the Kutna Hora UNESCO site and Cesky Sternberk Castle. And this weekend I am traveling to Moravia, which is supposedly wine country! Although I am really exhausted, I was reminded today that we only have 115 days to experience the Czech culture so I guess I can just sleep in June! From only being here 2 days, I can already tell that this experience is going to be very challenging because I lack the most fundamental key - communication! The only thing that I can do is adapt, so next week when I start my Czech Language class I am actually going to pay attention!
Until next time...
☮
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