I have been in Prague for a little over a week now and can't believe how lucky I am to call this city home for the next four months. Last week, our school arranged a tour so we could see some of the many major sights of Prague. We went to the Prague Castle, Monastery, Old Town Square, and Wenceslas Square just to name a few places. It is so historical and I just walked around in awe of how absolutely beautiful everything is. Prague definitely does not get enough credit out there in the world and I urge you to come take a look for yourself. It isn't called "Golden Prague" and "The Mother of Cities" for nothing! There is still tons to explore because the city is divided up into three sections, Old Town, New Town, and Jewish Quarter and there are about a million things to see in each section.
The food here is delicious and most everything is extremely affordable! Traditional Czech food is not vegetarian friendly though, with pork, beef, duck, gravy, and dumplings as the main staples. Also, I think they feel bad that we are missing out on all those calories so they just fry EVERYTHING on the vegetarian menu (cheese, potatoes, cauliflower, etc.) and try to sneak pepperoni on it. At our tour the other day, the vegetarian alternative to eating goulash was fried cheese, with a side of french fries and ranch. Don't get me wrong, it was really good, I would just prefer most of my dining experiences to come sans heart attack.
There is always something to do here, which is quite different from Brunswick and Ashland. The nightlife is incredible and we have only gone to a few places so far. Saturday, we went on a Pub Crawl that only set us back $25 and gave us free drinks and VIP admission to 5 clubs. We totally danced the night away and had the time of our lives. (Side Note: European boys take their dancing seriously and are very forward; very amusing and kinda awesome.) Everyone survived until the end, a rare occurrence from what our adorable tour guide told us, and the last club on the crawl was Karlovy Lanze, the biggest club in central Europe. This place was massive, equipped with 5 floors to dance on and each floor had a music theme to it, such as Black Music (their words, not mine), Oldies, Techno and so on. The bottom dance floor was made of lights that changed colors to the beat, so of course we chose that floor and techno it was! We survived the entire thing, finally got home at 4:30 am and went straight to bed.
I start my first day of school tomorrow! Prague literally means "Threshold" and how fitting that I begin my senior year here =D
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Nealko=Tourist
Prague is beautiful!! I got here on Saturday; luckily with no problems. When I arrived, I stayed in the sweetest hotel room ever; imagine a fancy, modern, New York apartment in the middle of downtown Prague. After I spent a day recuperating from 20 hours of train, I went out to explore the city on Sunday. Let me tell you, it is absolutely beautiful and I have only seen a small part of it so far. Everything here looks ancient and antique-y and there is so much history behind it. So far, I have see the enormous National Museum and some cathedral that I'm not exactly sure of the name. We go on tours starting tomorrow, so there will be plentyyyy more sights to write about!
I moved into my apartment yesterday, which is located in a cute, quiet street a little outside the city. It was one other girl and me who moved in first so we got first pick on a room. Of course, we chose the best room in the house, with a balcony surrounded by grape leaves that has an excellent view of the city. As the day went on we met the rest of our roommates, all of whom are really cool and outgoing. We have a maid, sweet little Olga, that comes in everyday and states that we do not clean or wash a thing because she will do it all. She insists, so who am I to stop her?
Today, we went to the Vietnamese marketplace to find huge bowls of authentic veggie noodle soup and have a look at all the shops. The soup was well worth it and the cheap, imported, fake goods were amusing. If you ever need 50-packs of socks, that is the place to go.
For dinner, we attempted to find a place near our apartments and at first went into this seedy, old-man pub which had about two meals options. It felt like I was going to suffocate from all the smoke in there (there are no anti-smoking laws and pretty much everybody here smokes). My roommate, Kayla, decides which beer to order and points to it on the menu. It was called Nealko and to others just followed her and ordered the same. The bartender looked at us puzzled and tried to tell them that they didn't want it, but finally relented and brought back not three, but four beers for the five of us, even though me and one other girl didn't even order anything. Interesting way to make money, I guess. Well, they noticed that something didn't taste right and then we put together that "ne" means no in Czech and "alko" means alcohol, of course. SO, here are five blatantly American tourists, drinking non-alcoholic beer in a hard-core men's bar. We made a quick getaway soon after, but at the very least it was a learning experience.
Then, we found a really great place down the street with traditional Czech food and the nicest waiter in the world with very good prices. The cost of living is really cheap here, which is awesome, and my huge dinner with a side and soda only cost seven bucks!
I moved into my apartment yesterday, which is located in a cute, quiet street a little outside the city. It was one other girl and me who moved in first so we got first pick on a room. Of course, we chose the best room in the house, with a balcony surrounded by grape leaves that has an excellent view of the city. As the day went on we met the rest of our roommates, all of whom are really cool and outgoing. We have a maid, sweet little Olga, that comes in everyday and states that we do not clean or wash a thing because she will do it all. She insists, so who am I to stop her?
Today, we went to the Vietnamese marketplace to find huge bowls of authentic veggie noodle soup and have a look at all the shops. The soup was well worth it and the cheap, imported, fake goods were amusing. If you ever need 50-packs of socks, that is the place to go.
For dinner, we attempted to find a place near our apartments and at first went into this seedy, old-man pub which had about two meals options. It felt like I was going to suffocate from all the smoke in there (there are no anti-smoking laws and pretty much everybody here smokes). My roommate, Kayla, decides which beer to order and points to it on the menu. It was called Nealko and to others just followed her and ordered the same. The bartender looked at us puzzled and tried to tell them that they didn't want it, but finally relented and brought back not three, but four beers for the five of us, even though me and one other girl didn't even order anything. Interesting way to make money, I guess. Well, they noticed that something didn't taste right and then we put together that "ne" means no in Czech and "alko" means alcohol, of course. SO, here are five blatantly American tourists, drinking non-alcoholic beer in a hard-core men's bar. We made a quick getaway soon after, but at the very least it was a learning experience.
Then, we found a really great place down the street with traditional Czech food and the nicest waiter in the world with very good prices. The cost of living is really cheap here, which is awesome, and my huge dinner with a side and soda only cost seven bucks!
Friday, August 20, 2010
Pain au Chocolat
I can't believe it is my last night in Chambery! I had a lot of fun, learned a great deal, and met some really cool people with amazing stories. School has definitely been challenging, but it has made me appreciate the French language so much more. The other day we did this awesome activity where we got together in groups of four and discussed our own cultures in comparison to the French. My group had a German, Chinois, Venezuelain, and me, the American/Macedonian. How interesting it was to hear how people lived in other countries and see how similar we are and the differences among us. Also, I realized how ignorant we Americans can be. Most people go through life knowing English and English only, without thinking twice about it, but all the international students I've meet speak English well and are learning French on top of it all. Crazy how much information the human brain can hold! SO, I really want to work on becoming fluent, which may mean (gasp!) more French classes down the road.
Can I just talk about the food? If I only moved to Europe for the food, it would be a worthwhile decision. Everything is fresh and its crazy eating things that aren't laden with preservatives! It has such a strong flavor and it will be interesting going back to American food in December. Some of the greats here were the praline brioche with REAL strawberry filling inside and the beignet with nutella inside, which I'm pretty sure should be illegal. My favorite by far though, is the numerous pains des chocolats I consumed during my time here. I should have taken a picture of these lovely things, but I maybe, probably ate them too fast. I'll just honor them with the name of this post.
Tomorrow, I begin my journey to Prague, CZECH REPUBLIC(not Spain haha). I start by taking a three hour train ride to Paris, then a five hour train ride to Kolen, Germany and finally, a ten hour overnight train to Prague! Let's hope that it goes a lot smoother than last time! I'm very excited to be in the big city that I've heard so many good things about. Wish me Luck!
Can I just talk about the food? If I only moved to Europe for the food, it would be a worthwhile decision. Everything is fresh and its crazy eating things that aren't laden with preservatives! It has such a strong flavor and it will be interesting going back to American food in December. Some of the greats here were the praline brioche with REAL strawberry filling inside and the beignet with nutella inside, which I'm pretty sure should be illegal. My favorite by far though, is the numerous pains des chocolats I consumed during my time here. I should have taken a picture of these lovely things, but I maybe, probably ate them too fast. I'll just honor them with the name of this post.
Tomorrow, I begin my journey to Prague, CZECH REPUBLIC(not Spain haha). I start by taking a three hour train ride to Paris, then a five hour train ride to Kolen, Germany and finally, a ten hour overnight train to Prague! Let's hope that it goes a lot smoother than last time! I'm very excited to be in the big city that I've heard so many good things about. Wish me Luck!
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Lyon
Yesterday, seven of us went to Lyon, the second biggest city in France. Our train dropped us off right in front of an enormous mall; which is veryyy dangerous for a group of girls. We had a look around inside and of course the stores and the things inside them were amazing, but I exerted a considerable amount of self control and only bought presents for a few people so far! What a loved about the mall was that there wasn't a huge food court, but patisseries and delis every couple of stores. Even the McDonalds had croissants and tartes on the counter! After that, we wandered around the town for a bit, saw a couple of cathedrals and then found a place for lunch. We sat an an outdoor cafe and I got the salade feta et mozz. It was one of the best salads I've ever had, very fresh and colorful. Then, we made our way past more expensive stores and took a very tourist-y picture with the huge ONLY LYON sign they had by the tourist center. Next we weaved our way through a maze of restaurants and candy shops and finally had to run and catch our bus!
Today has been very stormy and cloudy and the first day I have been able to sleep in and do absolutely nothing. I went for a run near the Alpes (the mountains surrounding Chambery) which was awesome, and I'm about to do some homework. I do have to confess, I also watched a few episodes of The Real World and Jersey Shore.
Today has been very stormy and cloudy and the first day I have been able to sleep in and do absolutely nothing. I went for a run near the Alpes (the mountains surrounding Chambery) which was awesome, and I'm about to do some homework. I do have to confess, I also watched a few episodes of The Real World and Jersey Shore.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
"You're skinny for an American!"
Greetings from Chambery! French living is as amazing as I hoped it would be, but it was quite the journey getting here!
I left Cleveland last Saturday and flew to Newark, then from Newark to Warsaw, Poland and finally to Paris. Wellll, lovely Truman State University sent me directions to Chambery that simply said, "Take the train from Charles-de-Gualle Airport to Chambery." So, I go up to the train information booth and ask the man working which train I should take to get to Chambery. When I said that his eyes got really wide and he asked me to spell it for him; then he proceeded to look it up. Bad omen. He told me I needed to take the Paris metro, which is infamous for pickpockets, to the Austerlitz Train Station where the train was departing at 11:02 pm. So here's me with five months worth of stuff packed into three suitcases trying to navigate the Paris metro with no ramps or elevators, but oh-so-many STAIRS. I honestly thought about just getting on the next plane to Cleveland, but I called the emergency contact at the school here instead. That wasn't too comforting because the guy didn't understand why I was alarmed and told me to just get a hotel once I got to Chambery in the early morning so as not to disturb my host family. Thanks a lot. The metro was a disaster and I seriously thank God for all those kind strangers who helped me carry my things and give me directions. Whoever said the French were mean was seriously misguided. I finally make it to Austerlitz, bruised and sweaty, and the lady informs me that the train was not going to come, but there would be one at 6:50 am the next morning. I lost it then, but proceeded to go to the ticket counter and reserve my seat for the next morning. The man working there was also nice enough to reserve a hotel room down the street from the station. So, I lugged my baggage through the streets of Paris and made it to the hotel (Side Note: if you look under things in Paris, homeless people look back at you!) By that point, it was 1 o'clock in the morning but I was so shaken I got maybe 2 hours of sleep when I woke up at 5:00 am. That made it less than seven hours of sleep for three days, and I was exhausted. I finally made it to Chambery, but that first night was the scariest night of my life.
On a much lighter note, Chambery is wonderful! My host family is the sweetest group of people I have ever met. Elisa and Dennis are the mom and dad and they have two daughters, Julie who is 16, and Emma, who is ten. They are very kind and have set up this adorable, bright yellow and blue apartement for me. Elisa loves to run long distance as well and we are going to go for a jog later! Yesterday, I went with Julie to her grandparents and we all had a great time talking about the different places we have been and about how Americians are so fat because of our huge portion sizes (hence, the title of this post). Julie is the only one who speaks English, the rest is all French, but they do say I speak well, which was shocking to hear!
The actual school part of my time in France is really difficult, but I can't say that its not rewarding. My first day was Tuesday and right away I took a placement test and spoke with one of the French professors to see what group I should join. The groups range from 1-6 (one being the most elementary) and much to my surprise, I tested into Group 3. Class began and it sounded like everyone around me was speaking fluent French and I almost bolted. Then, I realized that they all have different accents and no one could really understand the intermediate French the other was speaking. Prior to my arrival in Chambery, I expected my class to consist of mostly American college students, but man was I wrong! I am one of two Americans in my class. We have people of all ages coming from countries such as Brazil, Germany, Ukraine, China, Georgia (the country), New Zealand, New Jersey, etc. The diversity is truly amazing and I really do enjoy improving my French with them. The professors are awesome, my impression is that they are all taught by sassy little French women who have a great sense of humor.
A group of us are going to Lyon this weekend, I will update more soon!
I left Cleveland last Saturday and flew to Newark, then from Newark to Warsaw, Poland and finally to Paris. Wellll, lovely Truman State University sent me directions to Chambery that simply said, "Take the train from Charles-de-Gualle Airport to Chambery." So, I go up to the train information booth and ask the man working which train I should take to get to Chambery. When I said that his eyes got really wide and he asked me to spell it for him; then he proceeded to look it up. Bad omen. He told me I needed to take the Paris metro, which is infamous for pickpockets, to the Austerlitz Train Station where the train was departing at 11:02 pm. So here's me with five months worth of stuff packed into three suitcases trying to navigate the Paris metro with no ramps or elevators, but oh-so-many STAIRS. I honestly thought about just getting on the next plane to Cleveland, but I called the emergency contact at the school here instead. That wasn't too comforting because the guy didn't understand why I was alarmed and told me to just get a hotel once I got to Chambery in the early morning so as not to disturb my host family. Thanks a lot. The metro was a disaster and I seriously thank God for all those kind strangers who helped me carry my things and give me directions. Whoever said the French were mean was seriously misguided. I finally make it to Austerlitz, bruised and sweaty, and the lady informs me that the train was not going to come, but there would be one at 6:50 am the next morning. I lost it then, but proceeded to go to the ticket counter and reserve my seat for the next morning. The man working there was also nice enough to reserve a hotel room down the street from the station. So, I lugged my baggage through the streets of Paris and made it to the hotel (Side Note: if you look under things in Paris, homeless people look back at you!) By that point, it was 1 o'clock in the morning but I was so shaken I got maybe 2 hours of sleep when I woke up at 5:00 am. That made it less than seven hours of sleep for three days, and I was exhausted. I finally made it to Chambery, but that first night was the scariest night of my life.
On a much lighter note, Chambery is wonderful! My host family is the sweetest group of people I have ever met. Elisa and Dennis are the mom and dad and they have two daughters, Julie who is 16, and Emma, who is ten. They are very kind and have set up this adorable, bright yellow and blue apartement for me. Elisa loves to run long distance as well and we are going to go for a jog later! Yesterday, I went with Julie to her grandparents and we all had a great time talking about the different places we have been and about how Americians are so fat because of our huge portion sizes (hence, the title of this post). Julie is the only one who speaks English, the rest is all French, but they do say I speak well, which was shocking to hear!
The actual school part of my time in France is really difficult, but I can't say that its not rewarding. My first day was Tuesday and right away I took a placement test and spoke with one of the French professors to see what group I should join. The groups range from 1-6 (one being the most elementary) and much to my surprise, I tested into Group 3. Class began and it sounded like everyone around me was speaking fluent French and I almost bolted. Then, I realized that they all have different accents and no one could really understand the intermediate French the other was speaking. Prior to my arrival in Chambery, I expected my class to consist of mostly American college students, but man was I wrong! I am one of two Americans in my class. We have people of all ages coming from countries such as Brazil, Germany, Ukraine, China, Georgia (the country), New Zealand, New Jersey, etc. The diversity is truly amazing and I really do enjoy improving my French with them. The professors are awesome, my impression is that they are all taught by sassy little French women who have a great sense of humor.
A group of us are going to Lyon this weekend, I will update more soon!
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Preface
Finally, after three years, 3 jobs, the most annoying summer ever, and mountain of paperwork later, I am about to leave for Europe! I wanted to study abroad since freshman year (since I knew something so fun could be related to schoolwork) and in less than two days, I will be flying a Polish airplane towards Chambery, France for two weeks of intensive language courses. After that, I will be taking a 12 hour train ride into Prague, Czech Republic, where I will be taking classes for the semester. Hopefully, I'll have a million other travels too! I'm pretty much all packed, except I can't find Visser 3 anywhere and I'm scared to think he ran off somewhere. Let me know if you see him.
I will miss my amazing friends and family severely though <3 I'm so lucky to have the funniest, kindest, most beautiful, loyal people surrounding me. That being said, this semester will fly by and I will be back before anyone knows it!
I'm SO excited to start this adventure and I will attempt to update this bloggy weekly, so I don't forget anything when I come back!
Au Revoir, America! =D
I will miss my amazing friends and family severely though <3 I'm so lucky to have the funniest, kindest, most beautiful, loyal people surrounding me. That being said, this semester will fly by and I will be back before anyone knows it!
I'm SO excited to start this adventure and I will attempt to update this bloggy weekly, so I don't forget anything when I come back!
Au Revoir, America! =D
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