Just The Tip of the Iceberg

I have been here in Prague for about three days now and already I have learned so much. I am starting to know my way around the areas where my hotel and the institute are. We've learned about the money system, the metro, and even some of the language.

The Czech use crowns and the exchange rate is about 15 Kc to every dollar. Its really weird spending the crowns. Its almost like play money...which is bad because its not. Lunch will be around 120 Kc and it seems really cheap when in fact its more like 8 US dollars. So it sneaks up on ya. But we have found a couple good eats that arent too expensive and then there are grocery stores where we've bought food for lunches and whatnot that keep down the costs.

Transportation has been a lot of fun too. So far we have only used the metro to get around. I have never been on a subway type system before I dont think and it is really an experience. You take this escalator down this huge tunnel, which the way the lines of the tunnel are constructed make you feel like you're off balance. Its a really weird feeling. But we have figured it out mostly and are able to get around at least.

We also had a class on Sunday where we learned some Czech phrases...which has helped because people cannot speak english as well as I thought they would here. Here are some basic phrases though:

good day - dobryden (dobre-den)
goodbye - nashledanou (nas-kla-dan-o)
thank you - dekuji (deh-kwee)
youre welcome, please, and excuse me - prosim (pro-seem)

I'm sure that this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to all of the things i will learn about the city and culture of Prague. Im excited to see what else there is.

School started today as well and we're going to be shooting some images in the next couple days as we jump into our assignments. We are split into groups of three and we'll be taking trips around the city to capture images from these different areas. So look for those to come soon.