Pragueress!

Prague has me speechless already; I've only been here for about 24 hours and I have no idea where to begin. My first impression is that the city is very Cool. It definitely has rough edges, but it has a good heart, and for me, it seems very comfortable. The biggest shock this morning was finding that everything here really is written in Czech-- it was a shock to go into the Metro station after being in the airport, where everything was written in both English and Czech. It's pretty exciting, though, because it seems like we're going to learn Czech really quickly just out of necessity. Sara, our academic director, said that she learned the language "through osmosis," and she's fluent now. Today we went to our school site for the first time, but first we stopped in the cafe and pub underneath it. We all started to order drinks at the cafe, and Sara told us that the people there (and at the pub) were instructed to only speak to us in Czech. Needless to say, it was a bit difficult to order, but we got through it and it's so exciting to think that soon I'll understand the entire interaction and be confident that I'm really getting orange juice.

The place where we have our school is breathtaking. It is in what used to be an apartment, but it spans three floors and totals about ten rooms. All of the rooms are white and have high ceilings and big windows. The best part is a terrace off of the top floor that overlooks the city. Expect pictures soon. The worst part is that the computers there (which will be my main access to internet) have Czech keyboards, so things are all messed up. Funny thing is, I'm used to a messed up keyboard :-/. In any case, it's a sweet place to learn, complete with a library and lounge where we can work.

Today we were pretty touristy, probably the most touristy we will be on the trip. We must have been a hilarious site getting on the metro. There are two things I like about the metro. The first is the escalator down to the trains, which is about the length of six or seven normal escalators. The second is the wall of the tunnels. I'll have to put a picture up, but trust me, it's cool. We went on a walking tour of the city, then hung out at a pizzeria with a few Praguians ($5 to the first person who tells me what you're really supposed to call people from Prague.). It was really interesting to hear them talk about the city; they love it, but they kept saying, "We've lost it," meaning that the tourists and West has really taken it over. It was depressing, but really neat to see how passionately they felt about the city. In addition, they were almost all artists, and it was so so interesting to hear how they were using their art to sort of perpetuate the Prague that they love. One of them was a theater manager, and he invited us to his show that night-- a one-man Japanese modern dance. I went with another girl on the program, and it was wicked wild (I don't ever use the word "wicked", so that should show you how much I mean this). It was in a tiny theater, and we were clearly the only Americans there. Sometime ask me about the dance, it should be shared in person.

Agh, I did not do my first day here justice at all. Can you tell I'm pretty out of it? I'm still rather jet-lagged. It's midnight and I'm very tired but also very wide awake. I promise a more interesting post soon.