Made It!

Good evening, all! I am currently enjoying a bageta pikani—a sub sandwich with salami, swiss cheese, and what I can only discern to be mayonnaise mix with red pepper—washed down with a Coke, of course.

The flight—which I am sure is everyone’s first question—was exhausting. However, modern technology has made it impossible for me to complain about its quality. My iPod and two square meals coupled with three movies that I would never waste a subscription to Netflix on—but, were enjoyable on such a long flight—made 20 odd hours of traveling go by swimmingly.

Sadly, I could not fall asleep on any of the three planes. I am sure, by the time our group arrived back to the hostel from dinner, I appeared to be the walking dead. This, however, worked well in preventing any major jet lag thus far.

Our hostels…are made up of quad-units with two people per room with two bathrooms in each quad. I managed to score a room to myself because of the odd number of girls in our group. In my quad there are two-to-six other people—none of which I have met. I did see one of the men as I was walking back from the bathroom last night, but was not fit to hold a conversation. My individual room is small but clean with lots of shelves to hold all of the stuff my mother bought me. The bathroom, on the other hand, is a cesspool. Not to speak too much in a generalization but its atmosphere has led me to believe that all of my quad-mates are male with single-male hygiene. The kitchen also speaks towards my generalization. I mean, I am all for saving the environment but am also really tempted to break out the Clorox and ammonia in copious amounts.

Classes…this morning we started our orientation—which consisted of two short presentations and a guided tour in the afternoon. The first presentation was similar to what a person would hear when going on a college visit, “This university has been around for yada, yada, yada…There are small classes with only blah, blah, blah students.” The second speaker was a little more interesting—and an interesting look into the lack of European prudence. Nothing bad or wrong, just different than what would appear in an American classroom. It was enlightening really, and the majority of our group found it downright hilarious.

On our afternoon tour, we visit all of the major cathedrals—that were open—in Olomouc. The man giving the tour was a professor at our college and a very funny little man. In the first church, our entire group stood in awe of the beautiful carvings and paintings while the professor remarked that this is a less impressive building and he promised to show us better.

Tomorrow our group will go on another tour and begin our lessons in Czech, but today I am planning to call it a night. I will post photos and write to all of you again soon.

Best,

Laura

P.S. For anyone wanting to send me letters, gifts, small unmarked bills…my address at the university is:

PALACKY UNIVERSITY

International Liaison Office

Křížkovského 8

771 47 OLOMOUC

Czech Republic.

(CORRECTED!)