Orientation Part 2

Ok I really need to finish this because more and more awesome things keep happening that I want to write about and I'm getting so behind!

Tuesday: Same old boring Czech history lecture in the morning followed by a film screening called "Power Of The Powerless" at a local cinema. The movie was actually really interesting; too bad most people slept through it from going out the night before (I, too, am guilty of dozing off here and there). If you want to know about Czech history in regards to communism and WWII, I suggest checking this movie out. After the orientation events this day, I went home and slept for 14 hours. Jet lag was really getting the best of me and I needed to give my body a rest. Boring day, but I got some much needed rest.

Lexi, Elyse, Me, and Timmy on Charles Bridge

Wednesday: Wednesday commenced our Czech language classes. I LOVE my Czech teacher. He is so fun and loves to talk about Czech night life, give us beer and wine advice, and tell us cool places to check out. He even took us out for beer and/or Irish coffees on our last day of survival Czech! After our Czech class we had another history class (I was really getting sick of these) before we were free to roam the city. My roommates, Timmy, and I decided it would be a good day to walk across Charles Bridge, the famous bridge named after Czech's most revered king, to check out the other side of the river. This was such a beautiful walk with great views of both sides of Prague. When we got to the other side of the river, there was a totally different atmosphere. It felt more small townish, quaint, and antique. We chose a restaurant close to the river to enjoy some Pivo and authentic Czech food on an outdoor patio. I ordered Bramborak, which is basically a latka and tasted amazing. We also sampled some cheeses and breads. Heavy food but soooo delicious. Great for the winters I'm assuming. When we got back to Vinorhady (our neighborhood) we wanted a chill night so decided to hit the beer garden again and have a quiet beer-filled evening.

Elyse and I on the Pubcrawl

Thursday: Same old same old with the language and history class during the day. Thursday night, on the other hand, was by far the most fun night i have had so far. We decided to check out this pub crawl sponsored by a local bar called the Drunken Monkey. An ambassador had come to our campus earlier that week endorsing the event and trying to get NYU kids to attend by informing us that we could enter our name in a raffle to win a free trip to Oktoberfest if we go. We had nothing else to do on Thursday so we decided why the fuck not. When we arrived, we were a bit hesitant because the cover charge was so steep. The owner of the bar was really nice, though, and offered us all half price (Most likely because we were girls and there were maybe only 20 other girls in the bar out of 200 people) Of course we jumped on the lower price, which came out to something like 15 dollars and included free drinks for two hours, a free round of shots at each new club we went to, and transportation. We got as many free drinks as we could in the short time we were at Drunken Monkey to get the party started. On the walk to the next club we befriended the owner of Drunken Monkey, which was smart on our part because now Liza (my roommate) has somewhere she can DJ in Prague. The first club we went to was called M1. It was pretty loungey, a bit small, and very crowded. They were playing fun music, but we realized that Prague is pretty much 5-10 years behind in music than America is. We have to get used to listening to throwbacks pretty much anywhere we go. Although I must admit, it's pretty fun to dance and sing to these classics. Like California Love. When that came on, we went crazy because Liza, Lexi and I are all from California. Side note: when Czech people find out you're from California- especially San Francisco Bay Area- they get super excited for some reason and immediately want to be your friend; I don't even get the same reaction when I say I live in NYC, so there must be something about SF that Czechs love. Anyway, M1 was fun, but after about an hour we all made our way to the second club: club Nebe. This club was soooo awful. They were playing old music (like from the 70s and 80s) that you just couldn't dance to. Plus, everyone in the club was much older. We pretty much just got drinks here and sat around a table and talked to each other. Not worth going back here I don't think. The last club we went to was the real winner, though. We got to Radost at about 1am, right when it was getting really busy, and it was motherf***in hip hop night! I am a sucker for good hip hop and rap in a club. House music, dubstep, EDM, and pop are fun, but nothing compared to hip hop. My roommates and I danced FOREVER here and didn't want to leave. I'm pretty sure we didn't end up leaving until 4AM and that's only because our other guy friends forced us. Side note again: I'm so lucky that I have so much in common with my roommates; I really lucked out with these three girls. When walking home, we decided that Hip Hop night at Radost would be our go-to every single thursday because we don't have classes on fridays and it's free for girls. In fact, we did go back last night and had the time of our lives yet again. I even got to teach a Czech girl how to dance to hip hop- highlight of my night. 

Pool at Mecca

Friday: Going to class at 9am this morning was the bane of my existence. It took so much willpower to pry myself out of bed this morning, but if you miss one orientation session you fail the Pass/Fail Orientation class, so it obviously wasn't worth sleeping in. The only good thing about this morning was that we got to sign up for our free NYU trips and I got all of the trips I wanted. I'll be going to Terezin, a Jewish ghetto form WWII in Czech, to Brno, Czech Republic to explore the famous underground Brno caves, and a daytrip to a castle to go hiking. So excited to explore different areas of the Czech Republic for free! Thanks NYU! After orientation classes, we went to beer garden to pregame and watch a soccer game. Apparently, this game was a big deal here because the beer garden was completely packed. We met up with other NYU kids and got a couple tables. Three glasses of white wine later, we were feeling pretty tipsy and ready to go check out another club. This time, we went across the river to a club called Mecca. It was a bit of a trek and public transportation becomes pretty unreliable after midnight due to the different nighttime hours, so we took a cab (which ended up only being about 2 bucks a person- if only NY cabs were that cheap). This night got a little hazy... that white wine was killer! We got a round of shots at the club too. Pretty much the only thing I remember from this night was that it was mostly NYU students there, and they had a giant blow up pool in the middle of the club that my roommates and I all got in at one point. We were those girls... the crazy ones at the club who are dancing and not giving any fucks. I don't mind that at all though, because we had so much fun. I also remember the DJ being pretty horrible, but we obviously didn't let that ruin our nights. Like I said, I don't remember much more other than cabbing back really late and passing out pretty quickly when we got home. 

Jay Does a Blowjob Shot

Hockey Game

Saturday: Today was ROUGH. White wine was a horrible choice because it pretty much guarantees a shitty morning the next day. I was so hungover, and we had a boat cruise at 3pm. I woke up at about 10am feeling so nauseous and not willing to get out of bed. At about noon I ended up throwing up. That's about when I decided that going on a boat cruise probably wouldn't be the best idea... I unfortunately had to skip out on this free event- mostly because I know that I already get pretty seasick on boats so adding a nauseous hangover on top of that would just guarantee trouble. The pictures that everyone posted looked so fun, though. They had a champagne brunch on the cruise with gorgeous views of the city. And it was a beautiful day, which doesn't happen very often here. Oh well, I slept a lot and got rest and rehydrated like crazy so that I could rally for Saturday night. I don't remember exactly what we did saturday night, though...oops.

Vyserhad Fortress

Sunday: I had a tour scheduled on Sunday morning to the Vyserhad fortress: a medieval castle and fortress on the hill with a breathtaking church, an eery underground tunnel that leads to a cool hidden fort, a cemetery where famous Czech artists and royalty are buried, and gorgeous views of Prague. After this tour, we had a quick lunch break and then we got to go to a Sparta v. Finland hockey game. We were really tired and the game wasn't very rowdy, so we ended up leaving before the game was over, but what we did see was very fun! It was also my very first hockey game, so that's exciting. Elyse, my roommate, was really stoked about going because she's a professional figure skater and wanted to check out the rink. Maybe we'll go back again at some point- tickets are super cheap (like everything else here). I don't have classes on mondays, so after some rest we decided we wanted to go out Sunday night as well. We weren't sure what we wanted to do, so we ended up kind of going all over. We started out at this club called Duplex, but we did not like it. Not only was it way overpriced, but it was feeled with sketchy people and guys that could not take a hint. The music wasn't that great either, so we didn't stay long (and probably won't go back). From there, we aimlessly walked all around the city trying to decide what we wanted to do next. We ended up near campus and it started to rain outside, so we ducked into this bar called Coyotes that's literally next door to one of our school buildings. The bar resembled the bar from Coyote Ugly. People were doing body shots on the bar and all of the waitresses and bartenders were drunk. We ordered a round of shots and were chilling enjoying the music and rowdy atmosphere. Our friend Jay did a blowjob shot (video above), which was pretty hilarious. After our drinks, we went to this club called Chapeau Rouge that had three stories of dance rooms to explore. We stayed for a while, but the club was all underground and the ventilation was horrible so we were all getting really hot and sticky and were kind of over it. As soon as we finished our vodka redbulls we caught a cab home and called it a night. 

View From Fortress

And that's a wrap for "Orientation" week! I'm going to write up another post real quick that highlights my first official week of classes at NYU Prague! I hope you're all enjoying living the Prague Klub life vicariously through my hazy and half-remmebered stories.

Orientation Part 1

Alas I have time to write something about my first week in my new home!

It's been a whirlwind of a week- so jam packed with activities I can't even see straight anymore (not from the Pivo I swear)

I guess I'll take this day by day. I actually was keeping a running tab of each day's events, but that document accidentally got deleted form my computer so now I have to try to recall each day from memory. Bear with me; I'm sure a lot of information will be missing.

Saturday: Our first night out in Prague! This night we had a complimentary pizza dinner at a local restaurant. The food was mediocre but the company was great. We got to meet all of the students- NYU students plus visiting students using our facilities. We met our RAs who are all local Czech University students. After dinner, my roommates, Timmy, and I wanted to get margaritas (How American can we be, honestly?) We found this Mexican restaurant in our neighborhood of Vinohrady called Las Adelitas that had the best margaritas ever! We ordered a pitcher of classic, a pitcher of strawberry, and a pitcher of mango. Apparently this place was also featured in Times Magazine as the best Mexican food in Prague as well, and there is another location literally next door to our campus building. I will probably be seeing this place again!




Sunday: This was the first day of our orientation classes. After navigating the metro and successfully finding campus in Old Town Center, we were greeted with a catered sandwich lunch followed by a lengthy lectures on surviving in a new city. Very boring stuff, but some valuable information received about public transportation, quiet hours, and general Czech cultural norms that we have to get used to. After our much needed coffee break, we had a more lively session where we went on a walk around campus with an RA. The RAs were supposed to act as tour guides; however, Czech students don't make the best tour guides. Not because they don't know their city- they all do very well and have a lot of pride in their culture- but rather because they're so damn quiet. Pavla pretty much just led us on a nice walk because no body could hear her "tour". I'm not complaining, though, because Prague is a beautiful city and sometimes it's just nice to walk the streets and soak it all in. We eventually made our way back to our dorms (about a fifteen minute metro ride) and were eager to go out again (go hard or go home has kind of been our motto since we arrived). After dinner we went on a hunt for a hookah lounge nearby, which was more of a task then we initially thought it would be. Not only was this place was very hidden and off the beat and path, but none of us have google maps because our iphones and 3G don't work in another country. We have been struggling to find things the old fashion way- fold out maps and asking locals for directions who barely speak english. Struggle is an understatement to be honest; it felt like we were walking forever. To top it off, when we finally found the hookah lounge, it was closed. Sunday. Damn it. At this point we were determined to go out. We had been walking for too long to not have some sort of light at the end of the tunnel. So we kept walking- toward our dorm this time. We were walking down side streets going any which way that looked promising, peering into any restaurant or bar that looked even the slightest bit lit. Our odds were only getting slimmer seeing as it was already midnight. The only places open were either Hernas or Casinos- both of which we were told to avoid due to pick pockets, Czech and Russian mafia, and general sketchiness. Finally, when we were two blocks away from home, we stumbled upon a hole in the wall bar. It looked a little sketchy, but we were desperate so decided we'd give it a try and make the best of it. Turns out this place was an absolute winner: open late on Sundays, awesome Ukranian bartender named Alexandr who gave us free shots, chess champions frequent this bar to drink themselves silly, they tolerate rowdy Americans playing drinking games (Na zdravi, govna!), and they are host to real local Czech beer- the only place in all of Prague to get these brews! We decided that Holba would become one of our regulars when we are craving a late night pivo. Also note: this was our first taste of Czech beer! WAY BETTER THAN AMERICAN BEER IN ALL POSSIBLE WAYS.

Monday: Today begins the most boring part of any orientation ever: Mandatory Czech Republic in a Global Context lecture. SNOOZ. So early too! We got another catered lunch and a small break (during which we obviously went out for a pivo) before the next part of Monday's orientation: a walking tour of medieval and Jewish Prague. This was actually very interesting and I learned a lot about the buildings surrounding my beautiful campus. Now when people visit I feel like I'll be able to provide some history, context, and interesting information about the city and its culture. After this, we got free pizza during our health and wellness lecture (what a paradox) before we were finally released. Things get a little hazy in my memory from here. I think this is the night that we checked out the local biergarten (about a five minute walk from our door!). It's a giant fenced in area with picnic tables, a giant theater-sized TV screen where they play sports game (fotbal!), foosball tables, pinball machines, a grill, and three bars- all located within a beautiful park. The beer is cheap, the wine is cheap, the atmosphere is awesome. Since this first night that we tried it, we have already gone back two other times, so we will most likely frequent this spot (great for pre gaming or whenever there's a game on!)

Unfortunately, it's getting late now and I have class in the morning so I'm going to have to leave this one on a cliffhanger: what happened on Tuesday? Wednesday? Thursday- Sunday? It's all so mysterious! Will fill you in tomorrow.

Dobrou Noc, blogging world.