Week Nine Through Seventeen

Well it was nice while it lasted but I have to say I think I fail at this whole blogging thing.

Week Seven/Eight

Week Seven: So this week was a whorl wind of traveling - and it isn't stopping until next week. I spent four days in Munich, Germany. It was a great experience! We arrived at 4:30am, after spending eight hours on an overnight bus. We thought "oh we'll just drop off our bags at the hotel and go out and explore until we can check in"... but the not so surprising thing is that - things are not open to explore at 5am generally. We all ended up dozing off in the hotel lobby until we overheard them chatting about charging us for being there - which is when we hit the road: FAST! We then continued our string of falling asleep in random places to a coffee shop for a few hours (of course we bought something so we weren't total bums) and then a park (specifically Englischer Garten - bigger than Central Park and very beautiful). We had a lovely paddle boat ride.. even though we almost got involved in a fairly savage goose fight. We saw a lot of the major sights in Munich and of course consumed copious amounts of beer and pretzels (as one should do while in Germany).

Week Eight: After a short 48 hours home in Brno I was off again, but this time by plane to Barcelona, Spain. I loved this city! I would definitely stay somewhere more centrally located next time but hey, who wouldn't love to say that they stayed on a boat in Spain for a weekend? My big thing was the Sagrada Familia - it was beautiful! It was probably my favorite thing of the trip. It definitely lived up to the hype! It was a great time filled with lots of great people and great food! Definitely a good place to celebrate Carina's 21st birthday - success!

I am still having a ball in my study abroad experience! I can't believe that my time here is almost half over but I am still loving every moment of it! Next stop: Krakow, Poland!

Week Five/Six

Week Five: This week was pretty chill, but we did have a rocker party that was a lot of fun and we dressed up for the theme with face paint and all. There was also the international student ball where everyone dressed up fancy (probably equivalent to mock wedding for those U of S people). There was a live band for a large portion of the night and then after 1 am there was a DJ. There was also demonstrations of ballroom and other dances and those were pretty interesting to see. For the weekend I chose to stay in Brno and had a couple good nights with some good fourth floor people.

Week Six: This week was a good one, we had a lovely game of pool (Canada/Poland vs. Finland/USA). Karol and I lost terribly but we're not sore losers so that's okay! The fun continued with a trip to Budapest, Hungary. Which may have been my favorite city so far, it was beautiful and there was so much to see, I wish I would have been there longer... but who knows, maybe I'll be back! We went on a "booze cruise" on the Thursday night when we got there, which was a beautiful way to see the city by night and have some drinks of course! We also went on a bus tour (yes, I know, super touristy) but it was great because it took us around to all the major sights and it was hop on hop off so you could get off and then get back on the next bus that was coming. That night we went to Széchenyi Thermal Bath which was huge and had pools of all temperatures and sizes. Very relaxing and I definitely missed swimming! It also had sauna's but they smelled a little like dill pickles so I skipped that part. Topped it off with another great boat tour by day this time and then headed home to Brno (it was a short one because no buses came back to Brno on Sunday - that we could find anyways).

Other things that happened over these last couple weeks were:
- not one, but two Polish pierogi nights!
- plenty "the cafe" meals
- forty's pizza's
- interesting food 
- and may more laughs!

Its getting to the point in exchange where I actually get to know people better and I'm loving every minute of it! Having a great time but missing all the people in Saskatchewan! Next stops, Munich and Barcelona and I can't wait!

Week 2 Through 4 and 1/2

So this whole "updating every week" thing didn't really work out too well... so lets see if I can catch you up.

Week Two: My first week in Brno was crazy, so many things to do and so many new people. It was a lot of fun during the orientation week and I met so many great people! There was a city game where we went around the city completing various challenges, a welcome/Valentines party, and an international dinner where there was food made from all over the world. I made the worlds most worst pancakes - but it just wouldn't be Canadian without maple syrup. We toured Spilberk Castle (one of the major landmarks in Brno) and it was very interesting. I also learned some survival Czech which did happen to come in handy when I got lost and got on the wrong bus. I have been showing everyone how it's done in beer pong, our first entrance into the tournament got us a 3rd place finish, out of 24 teams entered (it ended in a shootout due to a three way tie for first - yes apparently that can happen).

Week Three: First week of classes I had only two classes, each an hour and a half long on Monday and Tuesday. Very different from my schedule back home at the U of S. I think I am going to like it, lots of time for traveling and that's exactly what I did with my time. I spent three days in Vienna, Austria and it was amazing! Such a beautiful city with lots of sights to see. We went skating one night in front of a lit up Vienna City Hall, which was a lot of fun. A downfall of being here is the complete lack of Olympic watching I was doing (at home that's just how reading week is spent) - but I of course made time for hockey. I didn't ever miss a mens game. Even in Vienna we made sure that we caught the Canada USA game in a pub! Another downfall I just have to, as a Canadian, complain about - I AM MISSING ROLL UP THE RIM. This is a sad time for me... they put two rims on the cups this year.. end rant because I think I'll take Europe over Tim Hortons but I still just have to put that in there.

Week Four and 1/2: This week school was getting slightly more intensive (and by that I mean a ton of readings). Still not that hard though, just have to keep up with it. I attended a Czech wine tasting and it was awesome, some of the wines were very good, others - not so much. The second time team "Fat Andrea" entered the beer pong tournament didn't have the same outcome at the first time around. We sadly lost out in the first round. I spent this last weekend in Bratislava, Slovakia. It was just for the night but it was a lot of fun and came with our own personal local tour guide. (Thanks Matej!)

Now I think I've caught everyone up. I probably missed tons but I think this is the just of it. Missing everyone back home, but not the bone chilling temperatures. To everyone who is currently living in -50 degree wind chills, stay warm! Also, if it ever gets to -40 without the windchill do the boiling water trick and video tape it for me!

p.s. The most shocking moment of Brno so far has been when I first walked into my dorm.. there is a sink in the shower people.. now that is just strange.

Week One

Well, my first week is up and it went by very fast, it was hard at first to be in a huge city on my own but I adapted and have had a great week! I've met people from a variety of places and they have all made my stay in Prague that much better! I've seen a lot, almost too much to name and I haven't even put a dent in all the city has to offer. Here are a few of my favorite sights: The John Lennon Wall, The Jewish Quarter, The Charles Bridge, The Ice Bar, and a strange statue of two men peeing at each other. It's a great place to visit and I would recommend it to anyone (but especially those who enjoy a good beer). It is true what I had heard before I got here and that is that beer is cheaper than water, and it as good as they say. I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings when I make the journey to Brno to start school.

jumping through the first hoop

In case you were wondering, its semi-official! My application has been accepted through the University of Saskatchewan to participate in an academic exchange. Given that I get all my paperwork in order and in on time I will be heading off to Masaryk University in Brno next year! It took a while to prepare for the application but it was just the first step of many towards a semester abroad. As you can imagine, I am extremely excited but also nervous! Questions about what this experience will be like are always bouncing around in my head and as my friends would tell you, it probably gets annoying to hear about all the time. SO to solve that problem, I will be posting updates on the process here in a blog. AND of course while I'm over in Europe this is going to be the best place to see what's going on with me (if you want to that is). There won't be that many posts until I actually go over - just on the important stuff. This post is pretty much a trial run because frankly, I've never written a blog before... so if it stinks, you know you don't have to read it.