A New Decade - Part II

Here is what I've been up to this past week!

My Birthday: Last Monday, I turned 20 in the Czech Republic, and I couldn't have asked for a better day! My day started out with a very rare occurrence- a run... to Globus. This was followed by grocery shopping and a long walk back with everything I just bought. Side note- I will never take grocery shopping for granted in America ever again. Customers have to pay to use shopping carts (we usually just carry our items around in bags), most of the labels are not in English, so its a huge guessing game, and we're faced with an intimidating cashier and quickly trying to cram all of our items back in our bags at the end. Also, in America, most of us have cars to load our groceries in... that's not the case here. We definitely have to limit what we buy (which is hard for me because I usually want everything).

After Globus, we went out to lunch at a place called The Crack. This might sound unappetizing, but it was one of my favorite meals yet! The Crack serves Indian food buffet style, and it was amazing! With our stomachs full of Indian food, we decided to head over to the student agency to plan our trip to Brno. They were very friendly, and we had our transportation booked in no time! This might be a huge shocker to some of you who know me (sarcasm), but we decided to go shopping before class. How could I not at least by one thing on my birthday?! I should also mention that my study abroad family here is getting to know me quite well. A couple of girls bought me some nice flowers, and I was also showered with food... You know its a good day when you get a chocolate and strawberry crepe, a gyro, and a huge birthday cake!

Class seemed to take forever, but once it was finally over, I rushed back to our room to get changed. We had plans to go to the St. Wenceslaus brewery here in Olomouc. I decided to try a cherry beer and a carmel beer. They were both pretty good, but I definitely preferred the carmel beer! It meant a lot to me that so much of the group I came here with went out to celebrate with me. After thinking about it, I realized that this was probably the first birthday I've spent away from home and my family. It definitely helped being surrounded by people that I've grown so close to in such a short amount of time! I couldn't have asked for a better day- it was simple but perfect. So, that's how my 20th birthday went. :)

My birthday cake!

Ali, me, and Taylor at St. Wenceslaus brewery. 

Brno: The rest of the week after my birthday was pretty uneventful (which I've been learning to appreciate these days). Life around Olomouc has been pretty great, but a group of us were ready to get out and explore again. We decided to go to the second largest city in the Czech Republic, Brno. On Saturday morning, we headed to the bus station, hopped on our student agency bus, and arrived an hour later. My first thought after getting off the bus was, "What have we gotten ourselves into?" The town was a bit rough looking compared to Olomouc, but we quickly found our hostel and things were looking up. I was surprised at how much we were able to see in the small amount of time we were there. We walked around the town hall, visited 4 different churches, found an incredible park with a castle at the top, went to the crypts, walked through several vegetable markets, and found some amazing places to eat.

Spilberk Castle: There is a huge park in Brno with a giant castle at the top. We had a lot of fun walking through the park, and once we found the castle we decided to come back and tour it the next day. This old castle was turned into a prison, and we were able to freely wonder around and explore it. The atmosphere was a bit eerie, but we had a great time.

One of the cells in the prison. This is what the prisoners' beds looked like. 

Capuchin Crypt: If I thought the prison was eerie, I had no idea what I was about to get myself into at the crypts. We were basically walking through a museum with dead bodies on display. There were no pictures allowed, but the bodies were all black and clearly decayed. I wasn't too impressed until we did the math and realized that the bodies we were looking at are older than America. They were very well preserved for how much time had gone by. The part that struck me the most was a quote we found on one of the walls. It said "What you are now, we were. What we are, you will be". To be standing in a room full of dead bodies and read that quote was one of the most humbling experiences I've ever had. I don't think I'll ever be the same after visiting the Capuchin Crypt!

Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul: This cathedral was absolutely stunning. My jaw dropped the moment I walked through the doors because my eyes went straight to the stained glass windows at the front of the church. I could have sat there taking in the floor to ceiling masterpiece all day. It was an incredibly peaceful place to be. Once we found out there was an option to go to the top, we decided to climb yet another set of stairs to check out the view. We were literally walking right under the bells in the bell tower, and when they chimed, we all freaked out. It definitely caught me off guard! 

The Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul

View from the top of the bell tower in the cathedral. 

All in all it was a very fun weekend full of adventures, and there are a several things I learned:

1. When in doubt, always pack a coat. I was under the impression that it was going to be warm while we were in Brno. Although the weather was nice, it was cooler than I expected, and it decided to rain on Sunday morning. I had to go purchase a coat because I didn't want to freeze the rest of the day. On the plus side, the coat was only $25, and its pretty cute. :)

2. I am willing to do whatever it takes for ice cream. Molly and I found a cafe that sold Ben and Jerry's ice cream. We couldn't control our excitement even though the price was $9. After paying for our over priced American ice cream and getting our cheap plastic spoons, we promptly found a place to sit and devour it. Of course we chose to sit at the rocket statue- a focal point in the town square. We were completely oblivious to everything going on around us while we attempted to eat our ice cream. The whole thing was extremely comical- especially when my spoon broke leaving plastic in the ice cream. There was even an older woman sitting on a bench across from us, I remember looking up at one point to see her laughing right along with us. All in all it was a great time, and I would buy that ice cream again in a heart beat!

3. Brno is not the place to be if you want to get any sleep. The bells can be heard all through town, and they start ringing in the very early hours of the morning. We were also trying to take a quick nap in our hostel when we heard loud chanting. I was worried there was a riot going on outside, but it turned out to be hockey game. The game was sold out, so there was a huge screen in town that people crowded around to watch. Hockey is the biggest sport in the Czech Republic, so I guess that makes sense!

The town hall in Brno. 

One of the awesome views from the park. 

The town square. 

There were little flower stands everywhere, and I loved it :)

I will have more to come about this week soon (hopefully). We are headed to Vienna tomorrow, and we'll be gone for two weeks! I can't believe how fast time flies! Na Shledanou!

A New Decade - Part I

If I were to fly away on the wings of the dawn, and settle down on the other side of the sea, even there your hand would guide me, your right hand would grab hold of me. -Psalms 139: 9-10

After spending a little time with the Lord on my quick bus ride back from Brno yesterday, this verse hit me like a ton of bricks. Since my last update, I've been on several trips, and I've also reached a new decade in life- 20. God has been present through it all, even when I'm an ocean away from every familiar thing I've ever known. He has been the one guiding me through this entire experience, and He's taken me to some incredible places recently! If you plan on reading all of this, prepare yourself because this might be my longest blog yet!

Prague/Dresden: Our group departed from the train station in Olomouc last Thursday. We arrived in Prague, dropped our things off at the AZ Hostel, and began our adventure led by our intelligent and kind guides Jan and Martin. Our first stop was the town square. Although we had been there a couple of weeks earlier, it seemed like an entirely different place. The whole town just felt more alive than the last time we had experienced it, and I would have been content with sitting there all day watching all of the tourists, bubble blowers, mimes, and other sources of entertainment. After being torn away from the town square, we were led to the Charles' Bridge which was also bustling with people. One of my favorite parts of the day was seeing the John Lennon wall just on the other side of the bridge. The John Lennon wall started out as a tribute to Lennon (hence the name), but today it is more or less a huge graffiti wall. I loved the artistic, mellow atmosphere. There was a guy singing in front of the wall, and a girl came up and started singing a duet with him, then everyone joined in. The whole thing gave me goosebumps! My only regret is not having a marker to write on the wall with, it is my goal to make it back and leave my mark on the wall before I leave. :)

The John Lennon wall

After the John Lennon wall, a smaller group of us went out to lunch followed by one of the best afternoons I've had on this trip. One of the guys on my trip, Thad, has a sister living in Prague. She was kind enough to meet up with us and take us to the mini Eiffel Tower. The tower was built a couple of years after the original in France, and it sits on a hill over looking the town. It is the same height as the actual Eiffel Tower when measured from the bottom of the hill that it sits on to the top of the tower. After some extremely steep hills and stairs that seemed to go on for eternity, I finally found myself at the top of the tower taking in an incredible view. It was well worth the climb and $3 it took to make it to the top!

View from the top of the "Eiffel Tower"

I also need to add that we had a blast on this journey. The park we walked through was absolutely beautiful- it even smelled incredible with all of the blooming trees. Our main entertainment came on the trip down. Taylor got pooped on by a bird and didn't have anything to wipe it off with. Just when we thought things couldn't get any more comical, Molly wiped out after running down a small slope in the park. I'd say that we laughed for a good 5 minutes, and everyone around thought we were crazy- I guess that's nothing new. After our little journey through the park, we went to eat supper at a restaurant called the Tavern. The Tavern served American food, and we were all incredibly excited. I shared pulled pork fries with Jessica, and it was amazing. I'm pretty sure we all zoned out on our food and the entire table was silent which doesn't happen too often. It was the perfect end to the perfect day!

Sunset view outside of the Tavern. I still can't get over how pretty the sky was that evening!

We toured the Prague castle on Friday. The "castle" was not like the castle I was expecting. There were many different buildings within the gates, and we were able to tour a few of them. One of my favorites was the St. Vitus Cathedral. Although there was some construction going on inside, it was still a beautiful church. I also thought it was neat that the patron saint of Prague, St. Wenceslaus, is buried there. Another neat thing we were able to see at the Prague castle was the changing of the guard. It kind of reminded me of the changing of the guard in Washington D.C., and we tried to fight the crowd and get as close as possible to see it!

The very first view of the cathedral after walking through the tunnel. 

On Saturday, we went to Dresden. Ahhh Germany, I liked it there much more than I anticipated! The town holds so much history, and it was such a fun place to explore. My fondness of Germany also may be due to the fact that there was a Starbucks right by the train station. After going without a familiar coffee shop for the last few weeks, I was very happy and content with my caramel macchiato! There were also ladies on the street passing out free samples of cheese. In my enthusiasm for free things, I eagerly took one. After examining the package, I realized that the dipping sauce that came with the cheese was peach flavored... My next mistake was opening the cheese and trying it and then regretting it and trying to wash it down with coffee. Needless to say, I had a bad taste in my mouth, and I will never take free cheese on the street again!  

I believe that the museum we went to was called Residenzschloss Dresden which translates to Dresden Castle. This museum was an old castle containing some of the most expensive treasures in the world. My favorite part of the museum was the jousting/weaponry room. We weren't allowed to take pictures in any part of the museum, but the displays of the horses and armor suits was pretty cool to see. After the museum, we decided to journey across the bridge for lunch. We came across a nice little restaurant with a friendly waiter, and the soup we had there was delicious! After lunch we headed back to the church. We were planning on taking a tour, but it was unfortunately closed, so we climbed to the top, took a few pictures of the view, and headed back down.

 At the end of our trip, we were strolling back through town with over a 10 minute walk to the train station ahead of us. All of a sudden one of our guides, Martin, casually announced, "We might want to pick up the pace, the train leaves in 5 minutes". So, picture this: Half of the group frantically deciding to sprint through town in a desperate attempt to make it on time and the other half jogging along already knowing that none of us are going to make it. I found myself in the group jogging along- partly because I was laughing too hard and partly because I'm too smart to waste all of that energy for a train that was going to leave us. I should also mention that the streets were crowded with people. I can only imagine how silly a huge group of Americans looked running through this town. We even ran through a break dance performance... Lucky for us, another train was scheduled to arrive in a couple of hours, so we had a little extra time to explore the train station and the surrounding area, and I guess I got my cardio in for the day. 

The church in Dresden that was destroyed during WWII. The church was completely rebuilt. The dark stones are
original while all of the light stones are new.

Sunday was our final day of this trip. We were able to tour the Jewish museum in Prague which included the cemetery, a synagogue, and several museums. This was by far the most humbling part of the trip. The first building we entered listed every Holocaust victim from the Czech Republic. There was over 80,000 names with the birthday, death date, and place each person was from. After walking through this area, we went upstairs to see art work created by the children in Terezin-a concentration camp in the Czech Republic. A woman who taught art lessons to the children in the camp packed suit cases filled with their work and hid them in the walls. The art was discovered later on, and it was very sobering to see the Holocaust through the eyes of the Jewish children. We also had the chance to walk through a Jewish cemetery which depicted just how unfairly they were treated. The Jews only got so much room to bury their dead, and they literally had to layer the bodies on top of eachother to save space. The headstones in the graveyard were also very disorganized, and it broke my heart that their final resting place was in shambles. 

One of the walls with names of Czech Holocaust victims. 

The Jewish cemetery in Prague. 

I think we're all ready for a break at this point in the blog.  I feel like I've done an overwhelming amount of things since I've been here, but I'm doing my best to keep everyone up to date! I will have a post about the past week by tomorrow, but this is definitely enough information for now!

Falling in Love With Olomouc

"We do not remember our lives as one long video, but a series of pictures with memories."

The beautiful city of Olomouc

As I sit here in an attempt to wrap up the past few days, I keep thinking about this statement that is equally simple and true. These wise words were spoken by a man who was kind enough to tell us about Olomouc and give us a tour this week. It was truly incredible to hear about World War II and see the city through his eyes. I can only hope to have the amount of life experiences that he has had. I can't help but feel overwhelmed when I think about how incredible this trip has been so far. I wish I could watch it all again in one long video, but I guess small snapshots with various memories attached will have to do. 

Since I last updated this, we have started classes and have finally begun to get settled into our new lives here. Class has been going great. Our Czech language class is fairly easy, and we always find ways to make it fun. Our teacher Katherine, Katka for short, is very nice, and I think she gets a chuckle out of us silly Americans. On the other hand, our history class has been a little different than I was expecting. We've had several different professors come in and give lectures. I would be lying if I said that the material wasn't extremely dry-especially at night- but I'm trying to get as much out of it as possible. 

Other than classes, life here has consisted of exploring various restaurants, stores and new parts of town (there's surprisingly quite a bit here). I think we're all getting the hang of things, and our explorations have been quite successful. I have discovered that I love gyros- we've ate at several different gyro places now, and I have yet to get sick of them. We have also discovered an incredible park here. The weather has been beautiful lately, and it seems like everyone in town floods to the park to go biking, roller blading or running. We have also seen people practicing martial arts and photography- we've even witnessed a guy walking a rabbit on a leash. The park is definitely one of my new favorite places to be, and I can't wait for the flowers to start blooming! Another new favorite place is Cafe 87. Yesterday I had a white hot chocolate and carrot cake before class. Its simple things like relaxing at a cafe while watching people go by outside that makes me love this place. 

Some of my other successes so far are getting my laundry done and getting the hang of the trams. I feel like I've been adjusting very well here, and this experience has already exceeded my expectations. God has without a doubt taken me to places beyond my wildest dreams, and I feel immensely blessed by it all everyday. The next step is to plan spring break and some weekend trips. We will be going to Prague on Thursday, and we'll make it back just in time for my BIRTHDAY on Monday! I'll do my best to stay in touch and keep everyone posted :) 

A group of us girls in the "union" before going to a party for the international students. A different country hosts it every Wednesday, last week it was Finland's turn. 

A view of the beautiful park we found. 

My favorite view on the walk to Globus.

My First Week in the Czech Republic

What a crazy week this has been! Things have finally settled down, so I will sum up this past week as best as I can. After a day of traveling, we hit the ground running the moment we landed in Prague. Dragging 50 plus pounds of luggage through buses, trams and cobblestone streets was definitely a struggle (I regret packing so much now), but the feeling of being back in Europe made it worth every step. We finally got to our hostel called the Mosaic House, and it was a lot nicer than I expected it would be. Our first few days in Prague flew by. We spent a lot of time taking in the new culture while seeing the sights and getting familiar with our surroundings. I was impressed with the beauty and history of Prague, and it is without a doubt one of my new favorite cities!
On Sunday, we headed to the airport to catch the bus that took us to Olomouc. A group of us girls decided to take a shuttle straight from our hostel to the airport instead of dragging our luggage through town again, and I'm so glad we did. Our driver's name was Ihab; he was an awesome guy! We also rode with a couple who is originally from South Dakota. They are currently working in London, and they had a lot of great travel tips for us. It has been nice running into fellow Americans from time to time. We also met a law student from St. Louis who is traveling around Europe by himself. I have huge amounts of respect for anyone who can do that! It sure is a small world- no matter where you are!
 The bus ride to Olomouc took about 4 hours. It was a perfect opportunity to take a little nap and check out the countryside. We finally made it to the Palacky University dorms and got all checked into our rooms around 6 in the evening. My roommate Abby and I are on the 4th floor.We have a room to ourselves with quite a bit of storage. I was also excited to find out that we have a patio which will be perfect for relaxing and even drying our laundry on. Our flat includes 5 rooms all together, two bathrooms, a kitchen, and a few closets. It is all pretty modern and much nicer than I expected. We met a couple of our flatmates right away, but there are some that I have yet to meet. From what I gather, there are two women from China, one from Poland, and one from Slovakia. We also have a man from Slovakia and one from France as well. Our flat is very quiet, we haven't spent a lot of time here in the past few days, but the only noise I hear from anyone is when they come to the kitchen area or use the bathroom. I'm pretty sure I overheard the French guy singing an American song today, but that was more entertaining than anything!
We ate at an amazing restaurant our first night here in Olomouc. The food was incredible, and it was my favorite meal yet! After we ate, we came back to our room to unpack and get some sleep. Yesterday morning was very eventful. We had orientation which included learning about the university, getting our tram passes, and touring the town hall. We had to go to a photo studio to get our pictures taken for our tram passes. We all laughed because it felt like the good old days when we had to get our first day of school pictures taken. We even got more than one picture so we jokingly thought about trading them or using them as decoration for our rooms. (My pictures will never see the light of day because I think they look horrible haha.) As I mentioned earlier, we were also able to take a tour of the town hall. This included going up the clock tower to get a view of the city. The journey up felt like it took forever. I was a little nervous, but it isn't everyday they let people go up in the tower, so I felt pretty special! The view from above was also worth the climb, and it was absolutely beautiful! After our tour we were set free for the day. A group of us girls decided to do some shopping at a few of the stores in town. Olomouc has a nice little shopping center with an H&M that all the girls are pretty excited about. After the mall, we decided to take on Globus (European Walmart) for the first time. Let's just say that was quite the experience after an exhausting day... but, I got most of the things I needed and I'm going to put off going back as long as I possibly can!
Today has been quite the experience as well. We started off in the same place this morning. After this morning's lecture, we were taken to see these caves in another town. I took a train for the first time which was not as exciting as I thought it would be. After we got off the train we began our journey through one town and into another. We literally walked through two towns. It was very cool to see towns smaller than Olomouc. The towns were perfectly simple, and the parks we passed through were very serene. There was a healing spa in the second town we made it to. The water is supposed to heal all sorts of things, so we tried some at a local fountain. It tasted like regular carbonated water, but I thought it was kind of neat. We finally made it to the caves which weren't too exciting for all the work we went through to get there, but the experience in general was worth it! After we toured the caves we were led to a steep, winding path that led to a huge abyss. The view was incredible, and the abyss was very interesting-it is so deep that explorers still haven't been able to find the bottom of it. After our journey back down the hill, we took a train home. It has definitely been a long day, and I'm bracing myself for some sore legs tomorrow!
I feel like I have just been along for the ride this past week while trying to take in as much as I can. People here are very easy going, so I'm just taking things one day at a time. There's been a lot of things that we've had to figure out on our own, and I feel like I've experienced so much already!

Things I Have Learned Since This Trip:
1. This seems crazy to say, but I have never realized that people here get married and have families.  When I thought of Europe, I was more concerned with the food and scenery, I didn't think about all the people who simply live here. I have been so surprised at the amount of children I've seen (it makes me miss all of the kids I babysit). We even got to see two newly married couples in Prague the other day. As funny as it may sound, I enjoy experiencing how people do life here.
2. H&M stores are everywhere in the Czech Republic, they are very popular.
3. Apparently no is actually a form of saying yes in the Czech language.
4. Strawberries here are amazing- so are the croissants.
5. Globus is a hobby lobby, pharmacy, best buy, and grocery store in one. It is very unorganized and overwhelming-especially when the labels are written in a different language. They also do not give you grocery bags, you have to bring your own.
6. I am out of shape.
7. It seems like everyone owns a dog here. People are always out walking around with their dogs, and the dogs are very well behaved for the most part.
8. We have been blessed with amazing weather. The temperature at this time last year was much cooler than it has been this season.
If you have made it to this point in my post, bless your soul! I tried to wrap it all up as best as possible, but so much has happened in such a short amount of time! I'll try my best to update this more frequently. To everyone back at home, I miss you and love you and the offer is always open if you want to come visit! ;)

The Final Countdown

Saying Goodbye to America For 3 Months

This post may not be as exciting as the ones to come, but it is part of the experience which makes it important. I also want to mention that I am currently writing this at 12:37 in the morning, so if it doesn't quite make sense, I apologize!

I can't believe that I am about to board a plane in 12 hours... As surprising as that may be, it is even more surprising that I managed to cram my life into two suitcases and a book bag. Packing has been extremely challenging for me, and I delayed it as long as I possibly could! Since moving home during Christmas break, time has flown by. I managed to find a couple of part time jobs that kept me busy and helped me save up some money. I also spent a lot of time with Mamma Suz (my mom) and Darrin. I hate to admit it, but I spent quite a bit of time with Netflix watching way too many hours of Grey's Anatomy as well. More than anything, I would say that being home was a time for relaxation and preparation. I wouldn't trade reading and journaling in the quietness of my room, scrapbooking with my grandma, watching TV with Darrin, and bonding with my mom for the world.

The group I'm traveling with leaves Omaha tomorrow at 1:10 p.m. with a layover in Minneapolis before flying to Paris. We have about a 5 hour layover there before heading to the Czech Republic! If all goes as planned, we should arrive in Prague around 3:00 p.m. on the 13th. With the 7 hour time change, it will be a very long day of traveling... please keep us all in your prayers (we may need it after the 8 and a half hour trip to France).

It seems like just yesterday I decided to apply for a shot at studying abroad, so to be here right now preparing to leave is truly incredible and a little surreal. I feel beyond ready to take on the Czech Republic!