My first week...

     I meant to be updating my blog more often, but this past week has been absolutely insane! Things are falling into place now though, so next week should be much better than it has been. Getting to Olomouc took an excruciatingly long amount of time. From Omaha, we flew to Minneapolis; Minneapolis to New York; and New York to Prague. Once we got to Prague, we still had about a 3 hour bus ride from there! Throughout this long weekend trip, I was sure that I'd gotten about 2 hours sleep--maximum.
     The ride through the Czech Republic was very interesting. Although there were many hills and old old old villages, it reminded me a lot of home with lots of fields and farms along the way. I also noticed that all people here drive crazily!! They weave in and out of cars, drive fast, follow way too closely, and pull out in front of others. The road  to Olomouc was not like an interstate, but more like the highway and it was some of the longest 3 hours of my life.
     We arrived in Olomouc at about 1pm (which is about 7am at home) and after all the traveling we'd done, there was still no stopping. We moved into our rooms and headed downtown to look around and eat. Needless to say that by the end of the night, we were all exhausted and ready to sleep.
     My first week here in Olomouc has been a little rough on me. My credit card was flagged the first day I was here so I had no way to pay for anything. I felt bad, but there are so many nice people here who offered to pay for me when I needed it, so I am very thankful that they were willing to help me! We have also been constantly on the move; tours around town, orientation, classes, and wandering all over the place during our free time. It's been very exhausting but on the plus side, I have met some really great people and got to experience a lot already. Language has been a bit of a tough thing to work with so far (we don't know any Czech and not everyone here can understand English) but it is only our first week and I hope that our class will help improve our abilities to communicate here!
     Overall, I'm already glad that I decided to come here. Even though it has been a challenge, I love being around all of this language and diversity (my dorm houses the international students). It is interesting to see things from this new perspective; I'M a foreigner now.
      There's a lot more that has been going on, but a lack of internet in my room has kept my from using the internet often (it's driving me crazy!!) Hopefully I will get it up and working by tomorrow and give updates more often. And I'll make sure that my writing is not so scattered =)

Čau!!!

Karen and I by the fountain at Náměstí Republiky