Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Every time my computer logs me out of blogger account, the site reverts back to Czech and it takes me about five minutes to figure out how to log back in! At least all of my language classes are starting to come in handy and I can finally recognize some words.

Anyway, the last few days have been pretty uneventful - just class and a few CIEE activities here and there. A few of us are planning a trip to Karlovy Vary this weekend, the big spa town west of Prague. I'll have a big surprise story about that on Monday, if all goes well, you'll see why. I'm also probably going to Oktoberfest with my family in two weekends.

Eh, I'm a bit in a rush. I have a bunch observations about Czech life in general though, so I'll leave with that:

- Czech drivers: they're nuts. They drive about 100 kph in the city and stop for nothing. Of course not pedestrians.
- Trams have the right of way over pedestrians.
- Tesco labels their food in English, but the cooking directions are only in Eastern European languages. Tough for people like me who really don't know how to cook/estimate.
- Czech fashion: also nuts. Today, the women on the metro next to me was wearing snakeskin print cotton pants. I was worried I wasn't going to up to snuff with European fashion, but honestly, very very few of the Czechs would qualify as stylish under our (US) standards. A lot of women dress like US hookers, in Tesco...
- Czech "gangsters": this is as amusing to me as seeing my skinny, translucently white younger brother pretending to be a rapper.
- Although, Czechs and minorities: hardly any. I've seen two black people total while here. One was wearing a shirt that said "I'm not a rapper," I found this to be especially funny here.
- Food, in general, goes bad in about two days here. Milk, fruit, bread. This is why people go grocery shopping pretty much every day.
- Not an observation, but when I'm commuting alone, people keep approaching me and talking to me in Czech. Do I look Eastern European? Also, Czechs are supposed to be reserved, we learned that in Czech class.
- People (generally) LOVE IT when you try to speak Czech, even if you kill the pronunciation.
- Chocolate bars are amazing. Kinder Bueno especially.
- Czech love their dry cookies.
- Tesco bill a couple days ago: two bottles of wine, two bottles of liquor, soda, cookies = 400 CZK. Or, about $24.
- $1.50 bottle of wine, verdict: terrible. That was a dare though.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

No doubt computers/internet can be frustrating. Keep up your blog. I enjoy your observations as a student in Prague. Uneventful can be interesting.

Ellie Willow said...

*hehe* kinder bueno is wonderful! but try out the kinder maxi king. it will top it finally! :-)

well, dear emily, i am german. i live near the czech border and i was in prague and in carlsbad very often. prague is exciting and carlsbad boring. but you have to find out by yourself. i wish you lots of fun, also on the octoberfest. but don't think that this is all about germany. i have never been there. germany has got much better things to offer than thousands of drunken fat men in leather trousers and big busty girls *hehe*. little tip: try out berlin...cause THIS is the real germany!

sending best wishes your way from chemnitz. if you like you can leave a comment on my blog, too.

didiana