Home Sweet Home

When I left off in my last post we were still in Prague and had not made it to our “home” yet. Well, we are here now and I am loving it! Olomouc reminds me A LOT of Kearney. Olomouc is way smaller than Prague and less of a tourist attraction, which makes it less crowded.  The first day we got here we got our room assignments. Me and my roommate lucked out and got some pretty cool flat-mates. Two girls, one from Italy and one from Sweden and one boy from Slovakia, and they have been very nice to us and haven’t had any problems yet (knock on wood).

Monday and Tuesday we had “orientation” which was nothing like I expected or how we do orientation in the USA. It was very chaotic and not as informative as I think we were hoping. We still do not have our student ID cards and we missed our first two classes, which probably isn’t the best start to the semester. However, we have a schedule now so we hopefully will make the rest of our classes! On Tuesday for part of our “orientation” we went to some caves. We took a train to a town about 30 minutes outside of Olomouc and then walked forever to a different town. The caves were pretty cool but not all that exciting. Then we went to go see this Abyss, which was literally a huge a hole in the ground.  Again, kind of cool but not all that thrilling after walking over 5 miles and were exhausted.

For part of the orientation we had lectures about the Holocaust. One of the speakers was a very old man who was a boy during that time period. That was incredibly interesting to listen and learn about. Being here in Europe really makes the Holocaust seem so much more real. These towns were part of it and the people living here were directly affected. When walking around the city there are gold bricks in front of many buildings and those are there to symbolize someone who lived there that died during the Holocaust. Seeing those bricks and the names of people really hits my heart and I know going to Auschwitz later in the semester is going to be a life-changing experience. Another speaker gave a lecture called “Silenced Voices: Music of the Holocaust” which gave me a new perspective. It talks about the musicians who had to play songs in the concentration camps for death marches, roll call, and whatever else the guards made them do.  It was all very eye-opening and heart-breaking.

 

Once we finally made it to our classes we had to start to learn Czech. As most of you know I am HORRIBLE at learning new languages.  I have learned some words though and really do want to learn this language because there is nothing more frustrating than trying to find your way around a store without knowing any words. I have bought many mystery meals that I just sometimes close my eyes and hope I will like it! We found this crepe stand though and I am obsessed with it! It is the most delicious thing I have eaten here and I am planning on getting another one tomorrow. I am slowly becoming less of a picky eater but I am already missing my steaks and Chipotle back in the USA! :)