3 Weeks in, More of Praha

So it has been almost 3 weeks since i last wrote here so i figured i would give everyone an update on my adventures in praha. Since my lat post my Austrian flat mates have arrived, I have explored praha much more, I have gone on a retreat to the boonies with my classmates, and i have started school.

So the day after my last blog post, Ruann's and I other two flat mates arrived. These two guys (Lukas and Martin) are from Austria. We lucked out with this roommates and we all get along very well and hang out mostly together. What i was amazed was how sweet of a deal it is for them to go on exchange. By them going on exchange they 1) get to live in a flat together that is only 100 euros a month (compared to back home for them which is 300 euro a month) 2) Courses are pass or fail like ours 3) Everything is much cheaper here than back home for them 4) By going abroad (4 hour bus ride) they are entitled to free tuition and a 900 dollar subsidy for there travels. (this means subsidy 900 euros - 400 euro's for housing = 500 euros for beers and such)

Heres a picture of my roommates and there buddys (who were have been hanging out with alot)

Next i went on this retreat called Ice Breaking Weekend at "Czech Kanada". This was a retreat organized by the buddy system where 100 exchange students went to a cottage 2 hours from Prague. The retreat was amazing as everything was super well organized and you got to meet your other exchange students on a more personal level. What i got for my $85 dollar retreat was 4 meals a day, 2 nights accommodation (which was better than what we have at home :)) and a bunch of activities, one day we did ice breaking games, and the second day we had sort of an amazing race type event (which my team won, our prize for a buddy t-shirt and i giant bowl of Long Island Iced Tea which we had to finish in one go.)

Here is a picture of my winning team (our team name was lucky number 7)

Here is a picture of me on the second after the bar where i found a cat on my way home, and stole him and brought him to my room

Classes so far have been harder than i expected but still very relaxed. One class i am taking mark is based 100% on a final test, and to pass this course all i need to get is 40% of the top person in the class's mark and did i mention the test is only T/F! My other classes seem very interesting one teacher even printing out a picture of everyone in the class and tried to guess everyones names. All and all classes are good, and i only have class Mon, Tues, Wed. For those who are interested in the classes i am taking they are

1. Corporate Finance
2. Financial Dervivates
3. International Financial Markets
4. Comparative Economics
5. Drugs and Economics
6. Globalization of Sports
7. History of Economics (though i am not in this class officially yet)

Finally i would like to post some observations i have had about prague.

• Most things are not refrigerated. Ie the majority of milk is not refrigerated.
• Eggs are not refrigerated and are almost all egg white.
• It is incredibly hard to find natural water, everyone here much prefers sparkling water so that is what you find in the fending machine and grocery store.
• Food here is hit or miss, almost all brands are czech and fully in czech so it is hard to find a good pasta sauce for example.
• I got a whole green Pepper for 1.9 Korunas (ie 10 cents)
• You can chill as long as you want before you go to the dance club or bar, many nights we haven't made it to the bar till1am (as most places close around 5 or 6am.)
• I am starting to miss Vancouver, some people, the food, the olympics
• I went to Ikea and it was awesome!
• School food is crazy subsidized
• All soup is dry soup (just add water)
• Me and Ruann's first laundry day took 8 hours (that is not included grabbing the clothes after they finished drying in the drying room)
• Goulash and Dumplings are Delcious