Last Sunday 23 of us students from UNK rode a bus from the Prague airport to Olomouc, our home for the next 12 weeks. When we got here I knew that I would have multiple roommates but I wasn't expecting to have 4! Our flat has the perfect combination of people. There is Dani from Spain, Luca from Italy, Martha from Poland, and Thibault from France. Everyone was very welcoming and it has been great so far getting to know them. We even made signs for our doors with our names on them and some information about ourselves. Luca even made me Italian coffee and fed me some great Italian cheese.
During the first few days in Olomouc we went on multiple tours of campus, city hall, and of the town. While touring the city hall we got to go to the top of the clock tower where we were able to see a birds eye view of the city. I was blown away! The architecture is amazing and so beautiful. What I love most about it is all of the different colors of the buildings.
I am finding that it is very easy to get around Olomouc thanks to public transportation. The only difficulty is the language barrier. After we arrived and unpacked my roommate, Billy Yaw, and I were starving. It was dark already so we just started walking and went to the first place we could find which was a little pub right down the street. We walked in and the server didn't speak any English. Thankfully there was a wonderful woman named Jitka there who was nice enough to translate for us and order us some food. Jitka is original from Brno and she speaks Czech, English, Spanish, and Portuguese. That night we spent about three hours sitting with Jitka, learning basic Czech phrases over a pevo or two.
Unfortunately there isn't someone like Jitka at every restaurant I go to. Some places have English menus but most of them are in Czech. Since I am not a picky eater and I was feeling a little adventurous I decided to order from the Czech menus without having any idea what they said. On some of the menus I am able to pick out a word or two that is similar to an english word. At one restaurant I ordered Pečeny jitrnicoví a jeltíkoví prejt se zelím, vareny brambor. My waiter looked at me funny when I placed my order. I am sure he was thinking I was crazy. To my surprise I ordered steamed potatoes, sour kraut, and ground sausage similar to jaternice. I was thrilled by this because we make jaternice, a Czech sausage, at home. Another one of my mystery meals was chicken with a tasty tomato sauce and polenta. Sometimes it's nice not knowing what you're getting!
Classes began this past thursday and that's when I realized just how complicated the Czech language is. It's not uncommon for words to have three consonants in a row. Multiple letters also make different sounds with the use of a háček or čarka. For example č makes a [ch] sound, where as c makes a [ts] sound. There are a lot of rules to remember but little by little I am figuring out how to read signs throughout town (even though I might not know what it means).
We also learned that there is a magical word in Czech and that is "prosím". It can mean pardon?, please, go ahead, here you go, you're welcome, and not at all. So basically if you are ever unsure of how to answer just say "prosím". There are also a handful of common phrases that we learned as well. Knowing these has made walking into shops easier and I am able to interact with the people that are working.
I look forward to going to more Czech languages classes and eventually being able to have a conversation with someone in Czech.
Na shelandou, Dobrou noc!
(Goodbye, Goodnight)
