5 Czech Cities in 1 day!

This weekend I finally traveled a bit in the Czech Republic! I haven’t made my way to Prague yet… But I will make sure it happens, even if I have to go alone. This Sunday, though, my good friend Radka invited me to stay at her house and to see the beautiful cities surrounding it. I was very excited because this meant I would see a real Czech family in a real Czech house! That’s one of the big things that are different about being on exchange this time – I am not living in a house with Czechs, but in the dorms with students from all over the world. Both are great and have their benefits, but it was still nice to be in a house for a night! So on Sunday I saw 5 cities! Nový Jičín, Kopřivnice, Štramberk, Hulkvaldy and Přibor are all small towns about an hour north east of Olomouc. Radka is from Kopřivnice, but the cities around her town are beautiful, old, an unique.

I arrived in Nový Jičín and then went by car to Radka’s house. She lives kind of in the country in a beautiful house her grandfather built before he left for the US during communism. They told me he actually built the house so the government would let him leave because if he owned something in Czechoslovakia his chances of returning were greater. He didn’t return, but settled in Milford, MI where Radka still has family! (Small world!) She lives with her two brothers and parents when she is home on the weekends. They have two huge, but sweet and gentle dogs! Again, it was so nice to see dogs! At her house we had a big lunch of chicken and potatoes, and then headed out to walk to Štramberk. This city was so beautiful, and the amazing weather just added to it. It was founded in the 1300s and has a great story about defeating the Tartars (that resulted in a yummy gingerbread snack called Štramberk ears!). The city is built on hills and has a castle that is now just a tower you can climb up.

The houses are all beautiful and built so close together. There are cobble stone streets and adorable shops and restaurants. I loved it! I would go there often if I lived close. We went up to the top of the tower and walked to a cave near by that has a beautiful view of the city in front of it.

After visiting Štramberk, we walked home and then drove to see the Hulkvaldy Castle. It was a long walk up a hill to the castle, but it was worth it! There are may castles in the Czech Republic, and this was a beautiful and old one. It had beautiful views of the cities surrounding Hulkvaldy and of the mountains and countryside.

After seeing the castle we drove to Přibor where Radka went to high school and our friend Kristyna is from. There she took me to see the house Freud was born in! There was a great statue of a therapists couch and under it was written, “Sit Down and Meditate – Stand Up and Act“ which I loved!

She also took me to Kopřivnice to see where she grew up. I must say, after this whirl wind tour of 4 cities we were exhausted! So we returned to her house and had a snack and rested. We watched a movie and decided to go to bed early, which was so nice! I can’t do that very much here because of the nature of dorm life, so it was really nice to sleep in a quiet house in the country side.

The next morning we took a bus at 10:15 back to Nový Jičín to walk around and have some coffee before our bus to Olomouc. We were back in Olomouc before 1:00 and I went to the store to get some food and then rested before my class in the afternoon. It was such a wonderful weekend with the weather and being with Radka. I’m so happy to say that I traveled in the country a bit and met a Czech family. I know you’re wondering about some cultural differences... So one of them is when they eat their big meal. Here, Czechs normally have a big and hot lunch around 1:00 and then just have a smaller snack around 6 or 7 – opposite of us in the US! But, I think this is better for your health and digestive system... so maybe I will try to do this too! And, much like it was in Finland, Sundays are days of rest and the family was just sitting at home doing some things around the house. Neighbors visited, but mostly the day was spent enjoying the wonderful weather. Sundays in the US, at least for me, are fully of running errands and finishing homework until late in the night. It is nice to have a relaxing Sunday... and you’re kind of forced to because most places are closed anyway. Radka’s parents didn’t speak English, but she translated a bit and they were really nice people. I’m so thankful they invited me into their home!


Tonight is the American National party for Erasmus! I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this, but every Wednesday there is a national party at a club in town. All the students from that country plan the party, make some food, and put together a “midnight surprise“. The organization picked our theme for us... Cowboys and Indians... hah! It’s something really foreign to me... so it’s like a costume party for me too! My friends are all excited about it, and I’m looking forward to actually getting to know the group of Americans from Nebraska that are here. It should be a fun night! And this weekend I am hoping to travel somewhere... not sure where yet, though! My roommate and friends are going to Vienna, but I’ve already been, and will be there in a few weeks before we go to Croatia. I’m also a little bit sick... I’ve had a bad sore throat all week, so I’m hoping it goes away and I can have a fun weekend! The next two weeks I want to work ahead in my school work because I will be missing classes while I’m in Croatia and I’ll be busy showing Bernardo (my Brazilian friend I met in Finland) around! I hope I can stay focused and get a lot done.
In other news, I interviewed for a job in the Office of Study Abroad at MSU last night over Skype! It was an interesting experience... but I think it went well! I found out that over 80 students applied for 4 positions, so I am really excited that I got an interview. I’ll know if a few weeks how it went... I’ll keep you updated!

Krakow and Auschwitz - a surprise, but amazing trip!

I’m way overdue for an update, and I’m really sorry about that! I went to Krakow, Poland this past weekend and then had a tough week at school. Today I finally have time to relax and get myself together! So, first I think I’ll tell about my weekend in Krakow, and in a few days tell you about some things in the Czech Republic.
Last Friday a large group made up of a few Americans, French, a Hungarian Romanian girl, a Belgian guy, and a Polish guy who would be our host in Krakow made our way to the train station in the early morning. We were able to get really cheap tickets as a group ticket and because we would only go to the border and get on a bus in Český Těšín (Czech side)/Cieszyn (Polish side). There we walked across the city and into Poland to catch a bus to Krakow. The bus we took was quite interesting… they are small busses and if you don’t get there in enough time to have a seat, you have to stand! And it was around a three-hour ride to Krakow – very bumpy and nauseating too! I am very happy that we were able to have seats.
We arrived in Krakow sometime after 1:00… I’m not exactly sure when. But we met up with another friend of hours who would be hosting us and went to Machal’s place where most of us would sleep. We then rallied and went to get food – zapiekanka! They’re these big, cheesy, warm, amazing sandwiches that are sold everywhere. They’re a favorite of drunk people after a night on the town… And I must say that I may like them better than Menna’s Dubs! We then walked around the Jewish Quarter – Kazimierz, to see the synagogues, where the ghetto was, and Schindler’s factory. That night we went to bed kind of early at Michal’s place because our plan for the next day was to see Auschwitz.
To be honest, I had never put Krakow on my list of places I would definitely see this semester. For some reason I just didn’t think it would happen. I am so thankful it did, and part of the reason was the opportunity to see Auschwitz. Before we went, many people told us it was one of the most difficult places to handle as a tourist and that afterword we would be quite depressed. It was hard to express how we felt about going there. It wasn’t excitement, but the feeling that we were going to see something that was necessary to experience as global citizens. The tour was tough, but our guide made is worthwhile. It was so hard to imagine living in those conditions, but to see the rooms, buildings, and cells they were in made it more real. My thoughts the whole time were about how it was possible to do such horrible things to humans – just because they were different. We still discriminate and, in a sense, torture those who are not the “same”. But really, what does it mean to be “normal” or the “same” as everyone else? The group of friends I traveled with helped me to see how a group of very different people can get along and have fun, but learn a lot as well. I am so thankful we saw Auschwitz together. Even though it was a difficult day, and I really don’t want to go into much detail (please ask me if you do! I will talk about it, it is just a lot to explain in a blog post), I am very thankful I was able to experience it.
That night we decided to have a fun night on the town – I mean, we were in Krakow! We started the night in Marion’s flat with some traditional Polish vodka and beer and then went out to meet Michal and go to a bar. We had a really great time! Krakow is full of life at night, especially on a Saturday night. The energy is fantastic and really different from Olomouc and East Lansing! It was really great to see the city both during the day and at night… what a difference! There were always people out – more young people at night, but always people from all over the world. Two days were not enough to see the city, and I really hope to go there again soon.
Sunday we took a quick tour of the Castle and the main square by ourselves. We missed the free tour, unfortunately, but Michal was our guide for a bit and we still had a nice time. We had a nice Italian lunch, and then made our way to the bus station. We ended up having to take a later bus in order to have places to sit… and that began a very exciting time! Our bus arrived in Cieszyn later than we had planned on, so we thought we had missed our train to Olomouc. We got to the train station around 7:20, I think, and Michal was very smart and used his limited Czech skills to find out if there was a train to Olomouc any time soon. And, we were in luck! There was a train that was very late and would be leaving any second, so we could buy tickets and run and hope to make it! He bought the tickets very swiftly and we began to rush – but oh no! Someone was in the bathroom! I ran to get her and we ran after the others, just making it onto the train before it left. What a rush! The train was incredibly crowded, like the one from Bratislava, but we made it on and were back in our dorms before 10:00! It was definitely the most exciting part of our trip.
I am continually so happy I am able to travel as much as I have, and with such great people! However, traveling in such a big group does have its challenges – not to mention language and personality differences! But even through the challenges of paying for meals and finding our way out of malls, we had a fantastic time. Next stop hopefully Budapest! And on Sunday I will go to Štramberk to stay with my Czech friend and her family for a night! I’m very much looking forward to seeing another Czech city and to see a real Czech home.

First full week of school, the zoo, and a dorm fire!

Hello all!

So, it has been a week since I last posted... and nothing too extraordinary has happened. This week was my first full week of school, and now I have a lot of work to do! I really like my classes and my professors, though. Doing the work will be worth it, I just have to find the motivation to do so! It's hard after not being in school for 3 months, and when most people are just having fun here. But all the students were talking today about how much work they have to do, so I think we are all feeling the same way.

In the next couple weeks I will have to give two presentations, but I think it will be ok. While I'm getting into my classes here, I can't help but think about going back to MSU in the fall. I'll have to register for classes at the beginning of April and I'm pretty nervous about doing it without speaking with my advisors. This next year should be my last at MSU, but I am unsure how I will fit everything in and complete it all. That has also made me start thinking about what to do after I graduate... I've gathered that for many of the students here - Czech and other - plan to go right into graduate school to get their masters after they have finished their bachelor degrees. For me, it's hard to say I will go right into graduate school because I still have no idea what I eventually want to do with my life. I have so many options... including coming back here to Palacky for my masters. My professer here told me if I do that, I could do an Erasmus semester at another university in Europe for free, and get some scholarship! So that is something to consider... but then again, I have no idea what I want to do! I think there is time... I just need to get through this semester and see where next year brings me.

Today was an interesting day, however. I had planned to do homework all day, but that of course didn't happen. My friends and I decided to go to the zoo in town because today was such a nice day, but before we left my roommate and I got very lucky! We were sitting and talking, and a 1,000 crown bill literally floated from the sky!! We have no idea where it came from, except for that it was windy and our window was open. It was really crazy! So we think we will use it for our trip to Krakow this weekend... it will be a big help for both of us! So, after that stroke of good luck, my friends and I had a great time at the zoo. It was actually really big, and really busy! There were all sorts of monkeys, birds, cats, snakes, fish, lions, tigers, and bears! Really :) So it was a great afternoon.

Then we did some shopping and I made some fish for dinner, and just as I sat down to eat the fire alarm went off. We first wondered if it was real, or just some smoke or a joke that made it go off. So the Polish guys that hang out with my neighbor went to check it out, and they came running down telling us it was real! So we went outside and called for the fire truck. By the time they got here they had put it out with a fire extinguisher... but it was a fire on the stove in the flat right above mine. I guess some oil spilled over in a pot and the fire started. There was melted plastic too from the vent above the stove. The power went out twice, once while I was Skyping with my step mom (sorry Jodi!). So now it is back, and they are cleaning up the mess upstairs. Now I know to be even more careful when I'm cooking in here! You never know what will happen!

So this week will be full of school, and maybe making real hamburgers for my friends! Friday we plan to go to Krakow, Poland which I am very excited about. I am also officially going to Croatia in April! We'll go from the 16th to the 22nd, and we're flying (which was a bit more expensive, but less travel time than a bus). So things are going well, I'm having fun, but now I must do homework!! Back to real life...

Bratislava - Capital of Slovakia

Wow… travelling two weekends in a row… I love it! Though my wallet probably doesn’t… But today’s trip to Bratislava was wonderful, and quite cheap! Very early this morning (6:15 am) two Americans (including me), two Russian girls, four French girls, and one Belgian guy made our way to the train station in Olomouc to head to Bratislava – the capitol of Slovakia.
Our train ride there went very smoothly. It only costs about $22 for a round trip ticket, so I thought that was pretty great. We got into Bratislava at 10:00, struggled a bit with the change to the Euro and finding out which bus takes us to the center… but figured it out! We then headed to the Bratislava Castle, with my Frommers as our guide, and joined some Asian tourists with the picture taking. It was a big castle… but very modern as far as castles go. We learned on the free tour we took that it burned down because of an Italian dinner, so it was rebuilt and is now being renovated. That’s kind of the case with a lot of places in Bratislava… they were very unlucky and then had to be rebuilt, but the Slovaks always pick themselves up and move forward.
After walking around the castle and seeing an exhibit of goldsmith work we made our way to the center of the Old Town. It was really cute, with lots of cafes and restaurants, and little shops. We all got kebab (because it is cheap and SO good in Europe) to eat and walked around to find where we would meet for the free tour we had planned to take. The tour was really fantastic! Our guide was a student and she had excellent English. She took us to the main sights of the city and gave us enough history for us to know what Bratislava is all about, but not too much to bore us. Some basic background on Slovakia for those of you who don’t know much… Slovakia became an independent nation only recently in 1994 after being apart of Czechoslovakia. They had been their own nation in the past, but always seemed to be controlled by some outside force – like the Soviet Union or the Austro Hungarian Empire. Their succession from Czechoslovakia was very peaceful because they had always felt they were their own country, and they had always done things very peacefully. Like the Czech Republic, they had a very smooth fall of communism with a peaceful, “velvet” revolution. Basically Slovakia seemed to always get a dose of bad luck, but Slovaks are optimistic and very proud of their country.
We were finished with the tour around 3:00 pm so we decided to find a grocery store, and then a café to sit in for a while. We wanted to go to the grocery store so we could buy some fantastic Slovakian beer a friend of ours gave us… The beer in this region is really fantastic! And, best of all, it is incredibly cheap! In Bratislava the beers we bought, which were each ½ liter, only cost 0.70 Euros! In the Czech Republic, it is about 13 crowns with the deposit included. That makes each beer (bought in a supermarket) less than one US dollar! Oh man, I’m going to miss that… Anyway, we bought our beer and found a nice café to relax in for a while and then found our way back to the main train station.
If you have seen the movie Eurotrip (or watched the link to a clip I posted on Facebook) you will remember the really depressing, dirty, and poor way Bratislava is represented. The old town and much of what we saw today proves that representation wrong, but the main train station is definitely a bit depressing. It is very dark and quite dirty, and all you can see around it are the remnants of their communist past. The train ride from Bratislava to Břeclov was also very interesting… There were so many people that crammed onto the train we had to stand in the walkway for our hour ride. It definitely wasn’t pleasant and made me nervous, but all the people around us didn’t seem bothered by it at all and just settled in. We weren’t sure exactly where we needed to change trains to get back to Olomouc, but luckily a Czech girl spoke English and helped us to get off at the right spot. We arrived in Olomouc just before 9:00 pm, and were back in the dorms about a half hour later.
One day in Bratislava was definitely enough, and it was a really great trip. The weather was cold and windy, but the sunshine definitely made up for it. I’m really glad I was able to go there, and with such an eclectic and fun group. Now I can say I have been to Slovakia, and I have made some really great friends! It was definitely a great weekend. This week is my first full week of school because the three courses I haven’t had yet will finally be starting. I am also going to try out a Czech Culture class tomorrow that is taught by an American man. I’m pretty excited about having my full class load and getting really into my classes… I’m a bit behind as far as European history, so a lot is going over my head right now. I think I will be able to catch up quickly, though. So, here’s to a good week at school!

Language can be quite amusing...

I have no been in Europe for two weeks, which is pretty hard to believe. It’s been quite strange being abroad this time with the wonders of Skype and Facebook… I barely feel like I am in another country sometimes. It’s funny, when I am doing my nightly routine of homework and Facebook I sometimes forget that I am not back in Michigan because I am talking to the same people I always do. I’m really glad that it hasn’t made me homesick, but excited to be able to talk to my friends and family back home so easily.
Today I wanted to write a bit about the wonders, challenges, and amusement of language. It has been a challenge living with the language difference so far because many older people in stores and restaurants don’t speak English. Usually it works to just point at things, but people can seem frustrated when you have to speak English with them. I have a habit of feeling really guilty when I am forcing people to speak English with me, but my friends tell me I shouldn’t – they say the people need to learn to speak English. Or, I just have to accept that I will not become fluent in three months and that isn’t the point of my semester here, so it is really ok that I can’t speak the language.
So that’s a bit about language barrier with the Czechs, but my classes and life with the other Erasmus students is a different story. All of my classes here are in English, but I am one of 3 native English speakers in this current batch of international students. This means that all my teachers and colleagues at school are not speaking in their first language, but in their second or third. I admire them all so much for this! It is also impressive that they must read articles in English that are even challenging for me… so like I said – this is something I admire as a person who only speaks one language fluently.
With all of our language differences, class discussions are quite entertaining. At times it is hard to understand what people are saying because of accents or the level of their English speaking skills. It’s funny – I am in many classes with a guy from England, and some of the other students find it hilarious that I have a hard time understanding him at times! Yes we speak the same language, but British English is so different from American English. It is the same when all the Erasmus students are together. They are all speaking in English because they come from all over Europe, but the English is usually quite broken. My roommate was telling me that while it’s good that she has the chance to work on her English, she worries that it won’t get much better because of the broken English they all use. So, they want me to correct their English – which is fine with me! Usually I feel bad doing that, but they want to improve and I am happy to help as one of the only native speakers here.
Along with the language differences in my classes, the nationalities of the students makes for very interesting discussions. I am taking political science and history courses about Central Europe before, during, and after communism. This topic can be quite controversial for many people in my classes because they come from Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Germany, Romania, the Czech Republic, and other parts of the world as well. And, since they’re political science students, they’re all very opinionated and quick to speak their mind about everything. It is only the beginning, and I can tell there will be some interesting and heated discussions in the future.
These are just some of my musings and observations in my classes and daily life here in Olomouc. It definitely keeps things interesting!