Back from Prague. .

First things first, the dentist went fine. She put some medicine in my gum and it's pretty much healed. I have to go back on Monday for a final check-up. The dentist didn't speak any English, but the nurse spoke a little. The x-ray machine was exactly like the one they used at my dentist in the US. I took some pictures!!

Prague was really awesome!! I'm sad that I can't post any pictures yet!! This is a public computer, and my roomate is still trying to get the right converter for hers, so until then I can't post them.

The typical day (In Olomouc or in Prague) goes like this: Get up and meet everyone around 8am. Go on a tour or go to class until around 12. After this we walk around looking for a good place to have lunch, which usually includes wine because it's as cheap as water. After we eat lunch we either go shopping, to Globus or take a nap. Around 5pm we get ready and go out to dinner. I've taken pictures of the food, so I'll have to post them here later. I had goulash!! It was not like the junk I cooked either!! Anyway, so we go to dinner and then usually to a pub or a club. Everyone stays out very late, thus the naps in the afternoon. Then we get up and do it all over again.

I have never been the kind of person to sleep on public transportation, but here whenever you get the chance to take a nap you do!! We walk EVERYWHERE and then we stay out late so we're always tired. I just slept most of the way back from Prague.

When we were in Prague, Morgan and I were wandering around looking for a place to eat lunch. We were walking down the block from the American Embassay and there were all kinds of people in black masks. Morgan was talking about something and just stopped mid-sentence. They were holding American flags upside down. The whole thing was really eerie. I guess that the US just made an agreement with the Czech Republic to put a missle defense base here. It would be able to shoot missles from Russia out of the sky. Obviously, Russia doesn't like this, so there are a lot of rumors that we are also putting radar here to secretly observe the Czech Military. When we were walking up to Prague Castle, someone had spray painted "Yankees and Radar Go Home!!" I didn't even find out about this until we went to Prague. I guess there were like 1,000 people at the demonstration.

I feel like we've been here a long time already. I'm not homesick, but I'm still not used to everything. I believe that this program is a really good value though, because you can learn as much or as little as you want. Our tours around Prague were led by Professors from Olomouc. It was nice because you could just ask them random questions wherever you are and they usually know the answer. Last night a few of the students went to the theater. Some friends and I plan to go back next weekend to see the Symphony. Because it is Easter, most of the Parliment should be there. We hit most of the main points in Prague: Jewish Quarter, Prague Castle, More Cathedrals than you care to know about, Charles Bridge, the Lenon Wall, the Astronomical Clock and the Old Town Square.

The hostel was nice. Six of us slept in one room. The beds were really hard but since we walked all day, we slept really well. There were windows from apartment buildings looking over the showers, so that kind of sucked. Plus the water pooled on the floor, and there was no real place to put your clothes.

Other random stuff:

Spray paint, it's everywhere. They don't bother to cover it. Quite a shame actually, because things would be a lot prettier.

Toilet paper is weird here. We purchased some from Globus, and it's scented!! The kind they use in public bathrooms is like recycled paper or something, it's really absorbent! I thought it was just in the hostel, but they use it everywhere.

We had to pay to use public restrooms. Something like 3 crowns to pee and 5 to. . well you know. They just charge women 5 because they can't really monitor it. . and you don't get paper until you pay.

It's really hard to order food at fast food places. At least for nice restaraunts you can point! I ate food from stands almost the entire time in Prague. Mainly because it's cheap. Anyway, I was trying to order a chicken sandwich, but ended up with a cheese sandwich. It was like a huge mozzerella stick with a bun. It had mayonnaise and ketchup on it. It was kind of weird but it tasted okay.

The weather here is very mild. I have only had to wear my winter coat 1 day. Most of the time a jacket is fine. A couple of our tour days it has rained, but that's the worst we've seen. The landscape kind of reminds me of Council Bluffs. Very hilly (not sure if that's how to spell it!) with lots of trees.

Women wear shorts or skirts with a kind of UGG boots. They really don't care if it's cold, as long as they look good.

This computer cannot spell check because it doesn't recognize English. Sorry for the errors!!