I think I am fully settled into life in Prague. I start my day with a quick and pretty tram ride to the Old Town. It’s very nice in the mornings because the square is usually empty. It is one of the very rare times before it is overflowing with tourists. I have settled in nicely to my job as well. I think I have improved a lot at communicating with my bosses, and figured out how to be proactive with my task management. This week I am working on reaching out to Ashoka offices across the world to invite people to the big conference in Hamburg! I am having to send a lot of messages and have them translated so I have had to adapt to not being able to understand sometimes. It has been awesome to be able to network with so many people across the globe and I am excited to continue this process.
In terms of assimilating, in my work environment, plans can change very quickly. Sometimes a scheduled meeting will be changed just minutes before the start time or the time I need to be at work in the mornings will fluctuate. This has been a bit difficult for me as someone who likes to plan and stick to a schedule. Additionally, with it being summer, a lot of my supervisors have been on vacation. This has forced me to become even more proactive and independent because I don’t have the support of my supervisors if I get stuck. Being here, I have learned to be more relaxed and go with the flow. The plus side of this though is that work feels a lot lower stakes, and my employees trust me to handle myself and get my work done without constant check-ins or meetings. I have a lot of freedom in my position which is interesting and fun as an intern.
This past week my boyfriend was in town and we did a lot of touristy things. We took a trip to the Narodni Museum (national museum) and it was full of lots of different history and art. The best part was the grand entryway, which was quite a photo spot! Luckily we were both able to get student tickets at a reduced price. We also visited the Museum of Communism which was super interesting. They had a lot of displays and memorabilia from when the Czech Republic was under communist rule. I love history and as a political science major, this museum was especially intriguing to me. It was cool to see records and photos from the student protests and how much of an impact the students had on the movement. It makes me think of protests like that at Pitt and wonder if 50 years in the future some of those might have a plaque in a museum somewhere!
For food, my co-worker recommended an awesome kebab place near us so we tried that out. Prague has a lot of different cuisines, but Mediterranean and middle eastern cuisine has become one of my favorites. It was different from the kebab I’ve had in the US and had many more grilled vegetables and even carrots, two ingredients missing from my kebab at home. For dessert, also on the recommendation of my co-worker, we tried the “best ice cream place in Prague” (according to him) called Creme de la Creme. I got the passion fruit and dark chocolate salted caramel. It was delicious! It has been quite hot, reaching the 90s this week, so ice cream and gelato have been extra delicious.
This upcoming weekend my friends and I are traveling to Croatia! We are super excited to be near the water and explore a new city. Since Prague is landlocked, the hot days have us counting down the hours until we are near the ocean. We decided to go to Split over Dubrovnik and hope it will be a fun time. Before we go though, we are excited for the EUSA fourth of July Picnic in which we can celebrate the holiday just a little bit while being abroad. This week is projected to have nice weather so hopefully we can spend a lot of time outdoors. Prague has amazing parks and river walks and I hope to see as many as I can before I return to the US. The city is a great mix of history and nature, and there is always a fun activity to do after work. It is hard to be bored in Prague!
