Provincial Life Goes Global: Day to Day

At this point in my journey I have traveled to 7 different countries and visited numerous cities, but in between my travels, I live the life of a normal college student in the Czech Republic. I go to class, hang out with friends, do homework, and drink way too much coffee. So today I thought I would change it up and write a little about my day-to-day in Olomouc.

Typical morning view

Most days start with me getting up (a little later than I say I am going to get up) and heading to a coffee shop, whether it’s for homework or just to relax and get out. Our classes are scheduled for mid- to late-afternoon, which I love because mornings are not my cup of tea. On days that I am feeling productive, I’ll head downtown to the city center and walk around, go to Globus, or run errands (but let’s be honest I spend most morning just hanging out in a coffee shop). I then grab lunch and a snack for class and go sit for three or more hours listening to our various amazing professors' lecture. By the time we get out of class, a lot of places are closed (out of the customs of the city) but some restaurants are open and sometimes a few of us go out for dinner. On Tuesday nights, we watch a Czech film (usually about WWII), and then head to a nearby pub for a drink and discussion with our professors. These are usually great discussions that end up with us learning about our professors’ crazy travels.

On top of the normal day-to-day, we do have random excursions. Some examples include a day-trip to the local zoo where we got to hold an owl and play with baby goats. We also went to a garden and a castle in the suburbs of Olomouc. My favorite ‘day adventure’ so far was playing paintball in an abandoned fortress with some of the Czech students. (The welts were definitely worth it.) I also enjoy experiencing the differences in doing the everyday things I would go back home. Like this last week, a couple of my friends and I decided to go to the new Avengers movie. Some of you may be thinking “How could you understand the movie in Czech?” Fun fact: due to the insane amount of money it takes to make a movie, there are not many Czech movies made. Because of this, most of the movies played are big blockbuster American films with Czech subtitles. They also have some movies dubbed in Czech, but since that costs more money, they only really do it for really big films and children’s movies.

I only got 4 welts from paintball but it was definitely worth it!

I am truly blessed to be having this experience, and while the crazy adventures are amazing, I catch myself being just as thankful for all the mornings just sitting in a café doing homework with my friends as I am for all the wonderful days (and weeks) of travel. Studying abroad has been a bigger and better experience than I ever even imagined it could be, and I can only hope that these last few weeks take their time, because I’m not ready to come home yet!