Day #2: We had orientation this morning which was very hard to stay awake during! There was so much information and so much that needs to be done. It was a little overwhelming especially when all I wanted to do was sleep!
Afterwards, they were going to take different groups to go open a bank account, get a transportation pass, etc. My tutor, Veronika, had offered to help me do those things and I really wanted to go back to my dorm and meet her. I had left my local phone that she had given me in my room and had no idea how to get back by myself. Luckily (and when I say "luckily" or "lucky", I mean total God moments of Him revealing His love and protection for me--these have happened many times on my journey thus far!) there was someone who needed to go back to the dorm to get money and he knew how to get back! I went with him and then called Veronika once I got back to my room. She said she could meet me in about two hours and take me around to get some of those things done that I needed to! It was so perfect because I desperately needed a nap.
I have been using my iPhone as an alarm (that and the occasional wifi is about all it is good for here) and had set it to military time the other day to help me get used to how they express time here. Well, I sort of forgot about that when I set my alarm for my nap so next thing I know I am getting a call from my tutor 10 minutes after I was supposed to meet her! Oops! I felt really bad, but thankfully she was very understanding. :) We then started walking to the tram stop and then I realized I left my folder of important documents I needed in my room. Oh boy. My lack of sleep really affected me today!
We finally were on our way and got my transport pass and opened a bank account! We tried to go to the foreign police to register, but they were too busy. We then went to a canteen (one of several university cafeterias they have throughout the city) near the city center. It was my first time eating at one and I ordered chicken schnitzel and the Czech version of mashed potatoes! They also have free water here which is extremely exciting news!
Day #3: Today was the first day of the survival Czech language course during orientation week! My roommate, Taira, and I left extra early because we didn't know where we were going. We ended up running into Emily and Anthony. They were going to go get drinks and maybe some lunch before our class so we went with them to some Czech restaurant that I don't know the name of! I tried to order water, but the waiter did not understand. I was really excited because I remembered the Czech word for water ("voda") and he was able to understand me! We didn't know if we would have time to order food though. I was just wanting something small to eat like soup, but didn't see any on the menu. All of a sudden the waiter brings us all soup. We must have shown our confusion on our faces pretty well, because then an ENGLISH speaking man (rare!) comes and explains to us that they automatically bring soup before the meal. He was such a nice man to come and help us! The waiter let us just get the soup and it only cost me 28 korun (a little over $1) for the soup and water!
Next, we went to Czech class! We were all split up into different classrooms. My class had 4 French students and 5 American students! Our teacher was super nice and helpful. Czech is such a crazy language, but I am really enjoying learning basic phrases and words that are already making living here so much easier! It is also the coolest thing ever when I recognize a word on a building or sign or understand a word or two someone is saying! I know how to pronounce things too, which is a huge help!
Our class is 3.5 hours, so we were all pretty hungry by the time it let out. We went and ate at the canteen at our dorm. We couldn't find the menu in English at first, but I saw something that resembled "tortilla" and "salsa". We found the English menu and found out it was a chicken and pork burrito. That sounded really good all of a sudden, so I went with that. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't quite the burrito I was expecting haha. I think I'll stick to Czech food from now on. :)
The internet at our dorm had not been working very well (we don't have wifi), so we decided to head down to the coolest little restaurant to use their wifi! I wrote my previous blog post from here. I went with a group of Americans and we were all just on our computers. We are obviously becoming very accustomed to hearing Czech all the time because when all of a sudden we heard people speaking English, we all perked our heads up and looked around haha! Just a normal day in Czech Republic... :)
Awesome, I learned some new things that we hadn't talked about!
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