Family Stay!

Dobry Den!

It’s Rachel again, this weekend our group split up for the family stays! Each of us went to stay with a Czech student and their family in groups of two and three. Some students went to Slovakia, some to Pilsen, and others to smaller villages in the Czech Republic. Renee and I stayed with Jana and her family in a village in South Bohemia, near the Austrian border.

We drove down from Prague (about 2 hours), and stopped by a castle to have a picnic lunch. Afterwards we hiked to a small waterfall with Jana and her sister and then had a delicious barbeque with whole family. We grilled cheese, sausages, peppers and zucchini and everything was delicious. After the barbeque, we spent the evening playing pool and sharing stories. Her family was very welcoming and very good at pool!

 

In the morning, Renee and I woke up early to make an American breakfast, eggs and bacon! After breakfast, we took their dog Bruno with us and hiked “cow mountain” which had a gorgeous view of the countryside. Then we drove over to Lake Lapno, the largest lake in South Bohemia. At the lake, we went on a bob sledding ride (pictures below!) but unfortunately it started to rain so we couldn’t stay long. Instead of spending time at the lake we toured another nearby castle (they’re everywhere!) that belonged to the Rosenberg family, a Czech nobility family that had a lot of influence. Before taking the train back to Prague, we stopped in the capital of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, where Jana and her sister went to high school and tried some of their local raspberry beer.

Renee and I both had a great weekend with Jana and her family. While we were sad to leave, we enjoyed being back in Prague with the rest of our group and hearing about their family stays.

First Thursday in Prague!

We started off our day with classes including our first class on the Czech language and a lecture in from a former US Ambassador. While we struggled with pronunciation, we learned many useful phrases in Czech including “dobry den” (hello or good day) and “jak se máš” (how are you). Czech sounds very similar to Russian but has a much easier alphabet to learn. After a couple of classes on agriculture business and Czech history, a former US Ambassador talked to us about his experiences with Europe and the EU and what the future might hold in terms of global relations.

After class, some students stayed at the dorm to rest before going out in the evening while others went to the mall to buy hockey jerseys and a couple more went to watch a hockey game between the Czech Republic and Russia.

We all met back up at 6pm and had dinner at the Giraffe cafe, a French restaurant near campus, before heading out to join some Czech students for a local sports tournament.