10) Perosnal Excursions

Wow what a wonderful 21^st birthday weekend spent in London with my family! We had so much fun traveling around London with my family friends and staying in his flat. I arrived in London at 8:00AM in the morning and toured his flat while waiting around for more of his friends to show up. Our family friend name is Adrian and it was his birthday the day I arrived so the whole weekend we were celebrating each other’s birthday.

The first night I was there we ate next to the river and went to a play afterwards called Billy Elliot. Billy Elliot was a play about a boy wanting to be a dancer but lived in a mining town where it would never be accepted. After the show we went to a nice Irish pub and had drinks to celebrate Adrian’s birthday. Adrian is originally from Ireland but is teaching dance in London.  

               The next morning we woke up and walked next to the river until lunch time. For lunch we had afternoon tea at a place called Savoy which is a really nice old hotel. However, Adrian was ready to go to do his birthday shopping at D & G and Louis Vuitton. This was the first time I had ever got to go with someone to these kinds of shops. The shops closed in two hours so he was sprinting around the stores saying I want these and that. At the Louis Vuitton shop we got to sit in there private shopping room. Adrian must go there a lot because they all knew who he was and had a birthday cake and champagne waiting for all of us in the room. That night we ate at a salsa dance restaurant and dance the night away after we ate.

Sunday was my birthday and we had a great private room at an Indian restaurant called Amaya. Everyone surprised me with a birthday cake from the Savoy and gave me birthday cards. That night we all went to a restaurant called the blue bird which was where they built the fastest car in the world in the 1980’s. All and all the weekend flew bye but was well worth the hours of traveling.

Social Life

Today I will be writing about social life here on my study aboard. I think that social life is the most important thing on this study aboard. I love getting to know new people and learning about where they came from and there culture and history.

Not only have I gotten extremely close to the people that came here with me from UNK but I have met so many people from around the world on their Erasmus program. Everyone from the Erasmus program is so kind, they are here to learn but have a good time also experiencing another country.

The first people I met from the Erasmus program was my suite mates. Three of them are from France and one is from Turkey. Anytime I come back to my room we like to chat and see how each other’s days are going. Also whenever they are going to do something they invited Jon and me to go with them. So that leads me to meeting up with other Erasmus students that have a good time where ever they go. I have met people from Estonia, Slovakia, Italy, Korea, and Bulgaria.

I have gotten to sit down with each and everyone one of them and have conversations about their home life and there life in the Czech Republic. They always have a positive attitude and comfort you if you’re feeling homesick at all. I have come back to my dorm room after classes once and learned how to make crepes which will come very handy later in life.

I am very happy that they are here; I wouldn't want to picture what it would be like in Olomouc without these people here. They are always planning events for all the foreign exchange students to do. I think without them here I would be very bored on the week days. 

Field trip

            On this field trip our group went to Vienna the capital of Austria and Venice, Italy. The first day in Vienna we went to the treasury where all the jewels over the years have been collected. After we toured through the treasury I decided to walk around.

This was the first day where I started to really walk long distances throughout the day looking at everything. On my iPhone I have an app that tells me how far I have walked in a day. Before this trip I was averaging around 5 miles. But on the start of this field trip my daily walking doubled to 10 miles.

The second day of the field trip the group met and watched a horse show and toured the natural science museum. The natural science museums was my favorite museum I have been to on this study aboard.

The third day we packed up and went to Venice which took the number one spot of my favorite places in Europe. Venice has 117 small islands separated by canals and linked together by bridges. Our group had an amazing time, the first day we walked to the main square and was let go to go wonder off and get lost within this amazing city. With a few other people from the group we went on a gondola ride in the night looking at all the old buildings. That night we met up with some other people in the study aboard program and just wondered the city some more until our 1:00 am curfew. We stumbled across the main bridge and hung out talking there for a couple hours looking at the water and enjoying each other’s company.

The next day our group met up and did some more tours of museum and we were told ok you are on your own now. Have fun and be safe on your spring break! Everyone was really excited and we broke off into our groups that we were traveling with on spring break. I had an amazing time on spring break. My group went to Cinque Terre, Florence, and Rome for the week. One of the best spring breaks I have ever had. 

Academic Life

Over here in the Czech Republic I go to school Monday through Friday. There are usually three classes which include two lectures that are both an hour and a half. The professors giving the lecture are usually different each time so that gives us the opportunity to hear from all different thinking processes of different topics in the Czech. Some of the lectures have been about: the history of communism in the Czech, German Czech Relations, and religion. All of the professors are so excited to teach us about their topic. I can really tell that they do love teaching other cultures there culture. Learning is hard sometimes because the professors are translating into a different language and might have long pauses gathering their thoughts.

               One of my favorite professors that we have had a few times is Martin Lecbych. He has a very unique thinking process that makes you look at different topics in a whole new angle. Martin as we call him also travels with us on our field trips and is a guide that knows a lot of information of the places we visit.

Besides the lectures we have a Czech language class every school day for 45 minutes. This is my favorite class time, our professor is so nice and she makes us talking and having a good time. However, when I get back I will probably not be able to talk much Czech. The Czech language is extremely difficult to learn and we don’t have that much time to learn it. When I get back I will be able to say some basic sentences.

The last part of the academic life that is my favorite part about the program is the field trips. I have learned so much being able to go to the places we have talked about and seeing what it looks like in person. The field trips are truly a magical time going back into history and learning it at the source.