Olomouc Adventures

Finding My Way Around Olomouc

1.  I am directionally challenged. Always have been and always will be.
2.  I am originally from a town with a population of about 10,000 and I would still confuse my streets downtown sometimes.
3. Kearney, my college town, has a population of about 31,000 and I've still managed to get myself lost here and there.
4. Olomouc has a population of about 100,000 and I have to take trams
   
    or walk in order to get to class. Go figure how that’s worked out for me.
5. People here think Olomouc is small. I can’t even imagine how big their hometowns are. One of my flat mates from Slovakia told me her hometown has a population of about 250,000.
6. It amazes me how big Europe is, and it amazes Europeans how small Nebraska is.                        

Okay, enough of that; surprisingly enough though, I’ve been able to get around Olomouc quite fine on my own. Something I am extremely proud of considering I can’t even do that back home sometimes.

The other day I was running super late to class and had to take a tram by myself. I had 10 minutes to spare before class started when I set foot in the tram – the ride itself takes about ten minutes. As I was sitting there anxiously, all I could think about was how the heck I was going to find my way to class. I had never gone by myself. How was I going to find the History building on my own!?

It felt like every stop the tram took lasted for an eternity. I didn’t have any time to figure out where I was going so I needed to get to my stop as soon as possible.

I arrived at my stop with 2 minutes to spare. I knew I wasn’t going to make it on time at this point, but I made it my goal to just be 2 or 3 minutes late. I don’t know if it was the pressure, the anxiety, or my mindset on my newly founded goal, but I found my way to class with not much struggle AND I met my goal. What’s even better, the professor was also late that day to class so technically I had made it on time and now I knew how to get to class all on my own. It all worked out perfectly at the end.

I’ve also found my way to class taking a different tram which leaves me at a different stop. I’m pretty proud of that too. Now I don’t have only one option, I have two. J

My next goal is to find my way to Globus and back on my own. I have a slight idea of this already so it shouldn’t be too hard. Experimentation is bound to happen soon with this.

There is also a beautiful park here that I will be taking advantage of to go for runs, walks, do homework, and just hangout. Last time I went to it, there were people rollerblading, breakdancing, hockey players doing drills, people walking their dogs, people going for strolls, etc. I have never seen so much liveliness in one park. It was relaxing just to sit there and take it all in.

The weather has also been awesome lately so I will have to learn how to get to that park and back to my dorm as soon as possible. 

Erasmus Theme Parties at Belmondo – Mexican Night

There are about 80 Erasmus students on campus. What constitutes an Erasmus student you may ask? Erasmus students are those students who study in the Czech Republic from different countries. So basically international students; however, many of the Erasmus students are actually from neighboring countries or from somewhere in Europe.

In order to share a little bit of these students’ cultures, there is a themed Erasmus party in a club called Belmondo every Wednesday. The first party I attended was the Finland party. There were two girls from Finland putting it together.

So at the entrance they had their welcome drink, which was a shot of what tasted like black liquorish and they had their welcome snack which were crackers with smothered egg on top. At the entrance you also have the choice to get their flag drawn on your face which is pretty neat, AND at midnight there is a midnight surprise which represents something fun done in that culture. The Finland girls did a little cheer/dance and wore Finland jerseys. It was adorable!

Anyways, to my surprise, I found out that the next Erasmus party was Mexican night!

Best news I had heard in a while! I was surprised to even find out that there were four girls from Mexico studying in the Czech Republic. So, Karina, Jammie, Maria and I contacted the girls and asked if we could help plan out the party as well. They gladly accepted and we got to work.

We decided on what we were going to do for the welcome drink and snack first. Of course, we chose tequila shots for the drink and guacamole and bean dip for the snacks. We then got to work on the midnight surprise. This was a lot of fun! We did a compilation of different genres to dance. We decided on bachata, cumbia, tribal and the famous caballo dorado (a traditional Mexican line dance). 

Needless to say, the party was a complete success!

Since we were at the entrance half of the time distributing shots, snacks, and painting flags, I was able to meet many students.

Not only that, I was in charge of the shots so I got to teach everyone how to properly take them with the salt and lime. It was tons of fun and I was surprised to see many students from various countries in Europe already knew exactly how to do it. It was impressive, really.

The next Erasmus party is Slovokian themed so I’m really looking forward to it since most of my flat mates are from Slovakia. It should be a great time again. J