Today Courtney Sam and I went to explore the castle area.  It is beautiful!!!! Neither words or pictures do this justice.  Tomorrow we are taking a free guided tour from the city at 3 pm.

My roommates and I just booked a bus to Berlin and a hostel for the weekend of the 21st. I'm kind of excited for my first hostel experience... it looks nice on the website... Lets hope I feel the same way after.

Tonight we went to Lucerna, where they have an 80's music party.  While it was really fun it was also WAY too crowded.

Below are all my pictures from yesterday, using my iphone so maybe not the best but no picture can do this city justice.

*** Also, we missed the 3 pm tour so hopefully we will make it to that soon... (ended up not publishing this post last night)

Tonight there is a DJ Nicky Romero coming to a club mecca.  It should be really cool but being spoiled after working for Necto I am not too excited to wait in a 2000 person line for tickets (which you cant buy online) very different

SNOW!

MORE SNOW!

PALACE

                                              

SNOW IN FRONT OF THE CHURCH 

view from the top 

courtney and sam trying the sausages 

John lennon wall 

                                The wall is surprisingly small, but still definitely worth seeing.

My name is a czech word!!! means just or only (depending on the translator you use!!!) 

h2NO

Water is definitely something we take for granted in america.  Here the beer is literally cheaper than water, which can cost up to 8 dollars for half a glass. Also I have yet to have a hot shower, and neither have any of my roommates... oh well.  Additionally no restaurants will serve you ice.  We have tried to bring water bottles out with us, though that is frowned upon at some places.

Yesterday one of my roommates friend visited so we went to old town square for lunch.  We wanted to go to bakeshop, but then saw another restaurant that looked fun.  While I have yet to try a traditional czech meal I had czech meat fot the first time-- the best burger I have ever had.  It then started snowing which was pretty but cold.

We went to a really fun nightclub last night. It was where Rihanna filmed her dont stop the music video which happened to only be a 10 min walk from our building.  They played a bunch of old school american songs, which really fun.

(this is where we were last night)

Czech beef burger

beautiful cakes from bake shop a cute store in old town square

We are going to the castle now!!!

Ahoj

(I forget if I have posted this already, but its my school)

Ahoj! Today I had my first day of classes.  If you thought backpacking at michigan was overwhelming you should see how they do it at AAU.  Much more complicated, but my roommate Emma and I were the first ones there to change our classes.  Although they did not have room for us in the same section, we are both taking czech culture and language, something I am actually very excited about. The first words we learned: Ahoj - hello (pronounced ahoy) and Pivo- Beer.

My professor lived right outside of prague during the communist era, and it caused alot of trouble for her family who was very academic   She said in the 80s people from prague would have came up to us and hugged us for being American, but now many of the country suffers from post-communist syndrome in which they are nostalgic for the old days.  She mentioned how communism is still visible, and we will be seeing how throughout the semester.

This class meets twice a week, with one day focusing on culture, and one day focusing on language.

So far it doesnt seem that bad

poltica=politics

sports=sports

caba=coffee

mleko= milk

pizza=pizza

skola=school (there are accent marks but i do not know how to type those yet...)

Our class wants to make an intramural FLORBAL team 

(like field hockey with a whiffle ball)

Our homework for the week is to try some czech food and learn the alphabet we learned they eat heavy lunch meals here as is much cheaper to eat off the lunch menu.  I also have to learn how to pronounce the alphabet.  While language was something I wanted to avoid I am eager to know what is going on around me.  We have class trips to order food, to dancing lessons, and to grocery shop so i feel as i will really be able to immerse myself in czech culture. (Although we will take it one step at a time, I did have bohemia bagel whre I got a bagel eggs and cheese for lunch and I made eggs for dinner)

Overall I had a great first day.  Everyone says abroad classes are a joke but we definitely have work.  They just seem much more interesting than the classes that we take at home, so it doesn't feel as much like busy work 

Ahoj! (means goodbye as well)

Fairy Tale Land

Prague is literally a fairy tale land.  Today Marissa, Lauren and I walked to go find our classes as class starts tomorrow, although I dont have any Wednesday classes.  Its weird because everywhere the buildings look old and beautiful and important, yet some of them are covered in graffiti, which I find kind of sad.

Afterwards we walked to go find old town square.  IT IS BEAUTIFUL.We sat and ate lunch outdoors at a cute restaurant with space heaters and blankets on the chairs.  In europe nothing is free. They brought out a basket of bread, which we didn't ask for, which later showed up on the bill... lunch was yummy however I got mushroom spinach and ricotta ravioli. It came out to about 10 american dollars with tip, service charge, and the bread fee... not bad.  It is easy to find good food for pretty cheap, although we realized today we were a little off on how we were converting CZK to dollars

                                  


Marissa, Lauren and I wandered home and found a vodophone store where Lauren stopped into to get an international phone. In the store we ran into our other 4 roommates! (this keeps happening, guess we all have been getting lost in the same way) We then found a little market where we were able to get fresh fruit, hot wine, and creepy puppets.  We will defiantly be back there for the fruit, which seems to be rare here.  So now I will show you my day.  I wish these pictures could capture the beauty but in the requests of my dad they are "no filter"

one of my favorite buildings the "drunk building" in praha 2

                               
                                             On the charles bridge, on the way to class

so beautiful 

this is prague

view while on the charles bridge 

If I knew alot about saints i would know who this is but i thought it would look cool

another view, its all too pretty to capture 

on the way to class, casual. WHAT (zoomed)

same view (actual)

No this is not disney land, its old town square

breathtaking 

not even real life, i know 

the clock tower

I wish i could capture it all 

Michigan colored building!!! 

too pretty 

 After, we went to TESCO, the most overwhelming, store every.  It is a combination of target, bed bath and beyond, and giant.  The food is something we havent yet mastered, the turkey tastes different (kind of like ham which scares me) it will deff be trial and error as far as food here.... but it is nice that there are many of the same ingredients as america... also many different ones...

SO MUCH MEAT!!!!

After we all came back and hung out in the apt and made some dinner. so far i have made peanut butter and banana sandwiches and pizza...maybe not the most cultural but deff nice to feel comfortable. 

everything here is truly foreign, but also so similar.  Something interesting is that they have alot of pizza /gyro places... WEIRD combo

Sorry i am writing so much about food, but that is a huge part of culture to me as i eat about 25 meals a day

Im so excited to get to know this city, everywhere you turn it is prettier and prettier.  I am going to try to sign up for a czech class tomorrow something I never thought I would want to do but it is deff necessary. 

Jet lag is still here so we are waiting up to watch the michigan game. #GOBLUE

shout out to Courtney who brought this flag to decorate our room!!! 

okay were off to try to find somewhere to watch michigan beat osu #GOBLUE

Last night all of cea pretty much went to a bar, the drunken monkey which is owned by americans to "Watch" the superbowl.  It was fun meeting alot of people, but crowded.  When we got home my roommates and I watched the commercials and the half time show... obviously the most important part.

Today we had many activities planned, intro to czech and a historical tour.  Unfortunately, we took the wrong tram.  While we realized our mistake it was too late to get to the meeting point in time so instead me sam and courtney walked around for a few hours. We also discovered the restaurant that is below us (with pics of kabob, chinese, indian, and hamburgers) has AMAZING pizza. We saw the presidents house, a castle, and finally made it to our school. After that we went grocery shopping.  I realized I definitely need to learn some czech, did not know what meat was what, if there was skim milk, etc. I am excited to learn more and become familiar with this amazing city. We also discovered the restaurant that is below us (with pics of kabob, chinese, indian, and hamburgers) has AMAZING pizza for less than 5 dollars for a whole pizza. 

(my purchases, and a few bananas =269 crown)

our neighborhood

okay nap time this 6 hour difference is rough

Stein, Jennifer. Miss World travler.  This is what my boarding pass said, and I hope for this to become an accurate statement. I left the US on Feb 1 at 9 pm, landed in London at god knows what time, and after a few glasses of champagne boarded a plane full of CEA students to Prague.

Upon landing my bags were the first to come off the plane, pretty lucky because 100 bags did not make it on the flight. 

I was the last one to arrive to my apartment, and it is AMAZING.  We have a kitchen, living room, storage room, balcony, two bathrooms, and two big bedrooms.  I am rooming with my friends courtney and sam from school, and we are with 4 girls from Wisconsin who are super cool.

We pretty much went straight to dinner- my first czech meal... pad thai... oh well I will get adventurous soon.

(me and all of my roomates except one)

We went out with some friends and explored the city but due to jetlag and some poor wardrobe choices that did not factor in the cobblestone streets we came home pretty early.

Today we toured our neighborhood and checked out our school which is beautiful.  Well off to go watch the superbowl... but keep reading to czech out what I have been up too

(Charles bridge and old town)