For now that is pretty much all the Czech I know, though I am hoping to pick up at least some of the basics while I am here. The locals especially appreciate if you use some Czech words like dobrý den (hello), prosím (please) or Děkuji (thank you).
Prague is, as you all probably know, the capital city of the Czech Republic and with “only” around 1.3 million inhabitants, a rather small city. I got here on September 5th, one day before Orientation. I took the train from Berlin and it only took 4 hours and 30 mins to get here. Just by looking out of the train windows you can tell that Prague is a beautiful city with gorgeous architecture. I am staying in the Belgicka student Apartment, which is just around 10 mins away from Prague Central Station and 15 mins from the Old Town. What’s even better is that the University, UNYP, is only 250m/a 3 minutes‘ walk away! The public transport is very good here in Prague too but most importantly very cheap! For a student 3-month ticket you only have to pay around 15€! The trams, metro and buses will take you wherever you want.
I am taking 5 classes here at UNYP, which equals a 15 hour week. This may not sound like a lot but as UNYP uses the American University system, the workload is higher than back at Macromedia. In all classes there are two exams (a mid-term and a final), a presentation and an essay; plus, attendance is mandatory, if you miss more than 12 hours in a course, you automatically fail it. For homework, you usually have to do some readings and maybe even a written assignment. Nevertheless, it is all manageable, so do not worry! What I love the most is that the student body is super international which makes the experience even more interesting!
There’s always something happening here in Prague. When I’m writing this I have only been here for a week and there were already two festivals, one was just two streets from UNYP and if you like Mexican food and burgers, I would highly recommend you go, it’s called the Americka block party. For something more traditional, Old Town square, the Charles Bridge and Wenceslas Square are great places to check off of your bucket list. Other than that, there are several parks around the city, if you are a dog lover or wanna see the prettiest sunset over the city I would recommend you go to the park Riegrovy sady.
That is it for now! I hope you enjoyed my first blog post about Prague! Let’s see what the next weeks have in store!
