Praha 3, or Follow the Cobblestone Road
(Written 1/2/107)
Today was the last day of orientation proper – tomorrow, we start intense Czech lessons, with supplementary orientation stuff. To “celebrate”, the directors split us into groups of six, and sent us out into the city with six postcards and a list of scavenger hunt items. The objective: to find the site of every postcard (mine was a picture of the church I love so much in Old Town Square), and photograph a member of your group. In addition, there were things like figuring out what movies were playing, a stamped metro ticket from a certain stop, and a copy of the Prague Post, a paper that comes in English and lists local events. The final “item” is to meet at a restaurant for dinner – the first Czech restaurant I’ll actually get to eat in.
My group got along surprisingly well, for being assigned to this incredibly hokey exercise. Other groups, we found out, didn’t fare nearly so well. Our hunt took us all over the city, mostly on foot. Only for the very last stretch did we hop on the tram and the metro – my feet are killing me!
I’m glad I have sneakers for these streets – anything else would have me tripping over the cobblestones. They warned us about the dangers of wearing heels, saying “Not only will everyone stare at you and know you’re a foreigner, you’ll trip and fall, and then they’ll laugh.” Also, the rain we’ve had has alerted me to the fact that cobblestones – some of them with centuries of wear – are amazingly slippery when wet. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve almost fallen.
I have a mailing address! If you want to send me things, leave your email address in the comments and I will send you my address (immediate family/significant other need not reply – I’ll send it to you).
Still missing luggage, by the way. Count: 3 ½ days.
7 comments:
begging for pressies are we???/
:-p glad you're having a good time. me on the otherhand, sexiled myself last night instead of listning to amber and random guy. i went to go sleep with jamie instead, and when i came back it smelled like ciggarettes with a beer can on my dresser.
grawr. im gonna have to talk to that girl.
We just read your Praha 2 and Praha 3 reports and are enormously impressed that after such full days you still have the energy to write so much. The description of the services was excellent, especially the mixture of homey familiarity and annoyance. But it seems that you did not manage the performance of the Zauberfloete, as you had intended.
I think the church that impressed you was the Tynsky Kostel, which is indeed one of the jewels of Prague, although its facade is hidden behind a palace constructed in its front.
We can hardly wait for the next sequel and will be watching for it all the time.
Love you, P&M
Ya know, Dad isn't such a bad shopper aftr all.. Right sneakers, right place. :-)
Glad to hear your finding your way around and that the location is everything your could hope for.
Usually 3-5 days till sleep retuns to normal... the 2am wake-up is SOP no matter when you get to bed. Add pleanty of water to you routine, it seems to help some.
How are the roomies?
have u located a supermarket?
Did u make the Opera?
Hi Dana,
I'm glad you (barely) made it to Prauge without too many major mishaps (except for the luggage). Ah, well. Did I ever tell you about the time I went to Chicago? The plane landed just fine... after circling for about 20 minutes. And it was something like another hour before they let us off.
Ah, the beauty of sneakers. I never travel anywhere where I might do some walking without 'em.
I'm glad you're finding you're way around okay, and I hope your jet lag wears off soon!
Love,
Emily
You're all right - I didn't make it to the opera, because no one wanted to go with me *sniff sniff* I might have better luck convincing people to come to Candide, if I tell them that Bernstein also wrote the music for West Side Story.
Yes, I did find the supermarket (and a few vegetable stands run by Vietnamese folks).
Roomies are okay - we're adjusting to one another, and learning to live in an apartment where the only way to not be heard is to lock oneself in the toilet and whisper!
yes, i am using you to procrastinate from midterm studying. cosine's inverse value is overrated.
address me - mjbrody1 at gmail dot com
thanks. it helped. :)
afeldman@wells.edu
Glad you're having a good time so far!!
I saw Deanna and Liz yesterday; it was the perfect way to wrap up my break. I'm headed back to school on Sunday - yay!
Much love!!
--Anna Banana
Post a Comment