Highlights: The highlight of my trip was making so many friends. Not only did I make friends from the Czech Republic but I also made friends from all over America who I am still in contact with. I loved all of my opportunities to travel with these friends and we took advantage of these. We went to Octoberfest together and to Paris. Our program set up the most amazing excursions so we got to go together to Berlin and to Austria as well.
Another highlight of my trip was being able to see Prague as I was learning about it in all of my classes. In my architecture class we learned about the history of architecture and we particularly focused on Prague and it was amazing that instead of our professor showing us a slide he took us around the corner to the church we learned about in class that day. Or in my class on Kafka we saw the building that he wrote “The Trial” in. It was the most marvelous thing to be able to experience these topics so intimately.
Morning: My typical morning included a five-minute walk to the metro where I could buy my breakfast. Inside the metro stations they have little bakery type stands where you can get croissants or even pizza anytime of the day! There was also this open market next to our metro stop that was open Monday and Wednesdays and sometimes we would get breakfast there because you could get fresh omelets! After that I would spend my morning in class. ISA set up our classes really conveniently so they were usually two and a half hours long so you only had to travel to that class once. Our school was only a twenty-minute commute from our amazing apartment in the center so it was never difficult getting there on time.
Afternoon: My typical afternoon might include lunch with my roommates at our favorite pizza shop located right next to our apartment! Or the amazing Chinese restaurant located right across from our apartment. There are so many beautiful parks in Prague that I would always read or do my homework in one of them if weather would permit it. If not my roommates and I had a really spacious apartment so we would all spread out our work and do it together in the afternoons after we were finished with our classes. My favorite thing about the parks in Prague was that there are so many different types. You can go to a quiet one to read or listen to music or if you’re in a more excited mood you can go to a louder more entertaining one.
Evening: We lived near a lot of little markets so most evenings we would go shopping together for dinner and then we would all help to set the table or to cook that night. We never had any trouble with cooking because there were really easy pasta and rice and vegetable dishes that we could cook on our stove or with our microwave. After that I would finish up any homework or maybe Skype with a friend or a family member. Usually on weeknights we would stay in together or maybe go to a bar and meet up with a few friends from our program. We all lived really close together so we sometimes ran into each other accidentally. On weekends we would head into the center together maybe to a club or a bar. We usually ended up making friends with some Czech people or other international students like ourselves so there was always interesting conversations going on!