Orientation Week - Day 01

p.m.

Michal (Czech), Matheau (French), and Michal (Varie's Czech Buddy)

Liana (American) and Petr (Czech)

Ian (Scottish) and Varie (Scottish)

Varie (Scottish) and Me

Praha at Night

Praha at Night

Church at Night

Dancing House at Night

Scary Sculpture at Night

Well today started out with me getting up before sunrise (yeah it's been a while) to get around and head to the Immigration Police Station. I ended up not getting off on the right stop at the metro, and when I realized it the next metro to head back left, so I looked at the map and noticed I didn't have far to walk to meet my Czech Buddy, Petr. So I went up to the surface and went to the crosswalk and waited for an ok to go. When I got it I started to walk and no sooner was I one meter or more from the curb I heard screeching tires and a car slamming on it breaks, it stopped, but I think my heart stopped for a bit too. I got down to the right tram and met up with Petr and told him about my heart stopping experience. When we got to the Immigration Police Station it was 10 till 0700 and there was already a huge gathering of people on the stairs, speaking multiple languages. I somehow got pushed to the front of the line and ended up getting 24 in line to get registered; it then took another 40 min for me to get called in. It was fairly simple, not too much, just wanted to check to see if I have insurance, visa, and such. Petr told me that I will get a number (kind of like a social security number) in the mail, but it could take up to 6 months, so it might just get sent home.

Next I had to head back to the CVUT Campus to go to our first required meeting of the week. I arrived a bit early and sat outside of the room. The meeting was basic information about metro passes (I got mine last week), Student IDs, and other important information. I then joined the ISC (International Student Club) so I could participate in different activities that they will be sponsoring this semester. When Varie and I got our passes we headed to the Menza to eat lunch before I went to go get my Student ID and my stipend for the month. I'm glad we did that, because it took an hour just to get through line and get my Student ID, which I now can put money on and use at the Menza for cheap meals (I've been paying Petr and Varie meals and they put it on their card). The government here gives so much money for student meals so meals are fairly cheap to eat at the Menza (and anyways meals were cheap to begin with). Next we went to the Rectorate and I got my food money for the month, since I have a complete exchange I get a stipend for each month to spend on food (which will be more then plenty). The room I had to go to was Pokladna, which means, roughly, cashier’s office. After heading back to Masarykova Koleji (dormitory), Varie decided to take a nap I decided to head to the Tesco.

Tesco is a Wal-Mart type building that instead of being on one level and one big store, it is multi-level with departments split into little stores. So you would enter in and look at a store guide (sign saying what stores are on what floor) and head to that store, get your stuff, and pay. Usually the grocery part is on the -1 floor, which is the basement and the others vary from Tesco to Tesco. It is all connected with a lobby type area that has a network of escalators connecting the floors. So I decided to go to the Tesco today for one main thing, a pillow. I found out that I have been feeling under-the-weather with really bad allergies, all caused by my feather pillow. So I looked up to the sign and it said that Domacnosti is on the +3 floor, so I got on the escalator and went up three floors (the ground floor is 0). It took me forever to find the right pillow, I had a few choices and I didn't want to just buy another feather pillow. I finally decided which one was the right one and went up to pay. At the checkout I was behind a lady. She asked me a question pointing at my pillow, I said Alergie, which is an allergy, in Czech and she said something back. I knew it was a joke because of the way she said it, I didn't know the joke, so the worst it could be she made fun of me, but I laughed with her anyways. That was the first time I felt like I understood the Czech language (even if it was just a little bit).

I headed back to the Koleji, so I could drop off my pillow before heading to the HotsPot - Welcome Party at p.m.; we were meeting up at the main entrance of the Rectorate. Once the masses gathered (seriously there was a whole parade) we headed down to the metro to go towards the bar. We switched lines and I lost Varie in the mass, but decided to keep going, since I caught up to a few I went to the Disco with Friday night. The p.m. was really nice; it was a restaurant and cocktail bar. We got in with only paying the coat rent of 10 Kc, which was cheap for dinner. So we nibbled, drank, while we met new people in the ISC. Later music picked up and we danced until I almost dropped (long day it was 11pm, I've been up since 5am). So Varie and I walked back with Michal and Matheau. We walked towards Matheau's Koleji (there is a Koleji really far away from campus) I took a few night pictures of Praha on the way. He went off towards his Koleji, which was a block away and we headed to the next Metro. We traded IMs with Michal so we could get copies of pictures from the Disco (I will post some pics when I get some!) and we said good night. After a long day I am ready for good night sleep, to continue with orientation tomorrow. Ahoj!