Week 1 is in the books and I think I’ve hit most of the basics: Confusingly asking for help at the airport, getting scammed by the cab driver to my dorm, awkwardly introducing myself to everyone I come in contact with and immediately forgetting their names. All of these events became so trivial however once I settled in and began to actually tackle the obstacle of understanding the city. For my first week I undeniably and unashamedly took on the role of a full blown tourists. It seems almost impossible to act otherwise, the city is absolutely amazing, which sounds cliched so i’ll try my best to describe my first impressions. The first thing i noticed was the cobblestone roads, almost every road and sidewalk was patted with square stones the the size of 2 to 5 inches, the attention to detail beneath every step I took was something i simply was not accustomed to back home. Next i look around, every building is magnificent, the streets are a collage of buildings from the Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque era(Honestly I could not tell you which each of these architectural descriptions mean, however it seemed the best and only way to describe what was unfolding in front of my eyes). The sidewalks are white stone, the buildings are all sorts of complimentary colors with red roofs. And this is simply all i’m seeing in the taxi. If my writing seems a little overwhelming and somewhat unnecessary than i succeeded in conveying my emotions first entering the city.

Luckily my program accommodated our initial travels, taking me and fellow members on a tour of the city center and making us somewhat familiar with the transit. Seeing the rest of the city was simply unbelievable, trying to describe it in my own words seems like a crime. What I can describe was just the awe in my thought that “people actually live here”, and slowly coming to the realization that “now I live here”. I’m thankful i had a full week of orientation before my internship began to take everything in at a steady pace and really come to terms with the how my summer will play out. I am excited to say the least

The main aspect of culture shock i experienced which i’d like to talk about is not necessarily specific to this culture, just the notion of being so far from everything i’m familiar with. Before coming to Prague, this place was for the most part an abstract idea, i knew a lot about the city and what it might be like but everything still had an ambiguity to it like it did not even exist. Now that i’m here i’m slowly feeling that effect on my world at home. It feels like all my friends and family are frozen in time back home and actual reality has just begun here, as if Prague was waiting for me and now can presume its everyday life now that I’ve arrived. Meanwhile America seems to be frozen in time until i return, which is nothing more than an odd sensation i can’t quite escape.