Last Day in Olomouc

I can't believe that the end is almost here.  I have learned so much over the past couple of months, not just about the Czech Republic, but the world as whole and even more importantly about myself.  These last eleven weeks have without a doubt been some of the most important weeks of my life.  I really wish that everyone could be as lucky/blessed as me and be able to experience something like this in their lifetime.  I can honestly say that I have learned more in the last eleven weeks than I have in years.
Traveling to new places so often and experiencing new things has without a doubt helped me to grow into a more educated, cultural, and all around person since I have arrived in Europe.  I wish that I could keep doing this forever; although I really am starting to miss family and friends from back home.  This trip has taught me a lot about myself and what I want to do with my future.  I really hope to come back over here soon, even if it’s just for a couple of weeks just to be able to relive some of my favorite memories and to be able to experience some of the places that I haven’t been able to travel to yet. 
It’s really weird that tomorrow morning I will have to be saying goodbye to the city that I have been calling home.  It feels like just yesterday I was getting off the bus here being checked into my room, and now tomorrow I already have to check out.  I will definitely miss this quiet, interesting, and fun little city that I have been fortunate enough to call home for the last couple of months.  I will still be in Europe for the next 13 days, but I will be traveling the Bohemia region of the Czech Republic for the next 5 days and then traveling to Croatia and soaking up some sun before heading back home to the States.  It is just so weird to me that I am already having to say goodbye to my city of Olomouc!

Locals (3)

The character of Olomouc is really unlike any other city that I have been to.  The people here for the most part are really nice, and the ones that speak English are even nicer. Most of the people are really helpful; however, at times the language barrier can be really frustrating to deal with.  However, it is usually possible to communicate main ideas to people who speak little to no English with a little bit of time and patience.  Most food establishments usually have at least one employee who is fluent in English, and many places have English menus.  Like I said, for the most part people seem really nice, but it can be difficult to really have a conversation with most Czech people as most only speak basic English.  It's also been kind of hard to meet Czech students and Czech people in general.  We live in the multicultural dorms, where none of the students are Czech. There are people from literally all over the world that stay in our dorms, but no Czech students live here.  It's also kind of challenging to meet new people because of how much we traveling that we do.  However, I have met a few really nice Czech people, and even got invited to a house warming party this month from a couple of students that I have met.
Like I said earlier, MOST of the people here in Olomouc that I have talked to are really nice; however, no place in the world is completely perfect, and Olomouc is no exception.  There have been a couple of instances in which I had to deal with some pretty rude people, which is to be expected anywhere you go.  Surprisingly enough though, nearly every time that I have had to deal with someone rude it is usually always an employee at Globus, the Czech version of Wal-Mart.  I posted in an earlier blog about one of the encounters that I had with a cashier who tried confiscating my credit card, which was by far the worst encounter that I have had here.  I had another bad encounter with the cashier while I was there today, and thankfully I had my card signed this time because she was really double checking the signature on my card versus the one on the receipt.  They mean business there when it comes to credit card theft/fraud I guess!  Overall the character of Olomouc is a friendly small city with very nice and helpful people, but like everything else in life, it does have its imperfections.  I really do hope that someday I will be able to return to this friendly city that I currently am calling home.   

Daily Life (1)

The days are going by so quickly!  Like where did the last month and a half go?  Looking back at everything that I've done since I've been here is almost like watching a movie on fast forward, everyday has been so eventful, and each day is passing so much quicker than the last.  For the days that I have been in Olomouc, the days for the most part are fairly productive and fairly similar.  On most of my days I usually wake up a little after 10, get ready for the day, make lunch, and then work on my business statistics homework, which I'm taking online through UNK.  I then start to head to class sometime between 2 and 2:30, and class starts at 3 and runs until 7.  After class I then usually go home and make dinner and work on statistics some more, or I will go out to eat with some friends and then get ready to go out for the night.  Of course there are some days that are different from this, but the only difference is usually sleeping later to about 11:30 and maybe working out.  Ever since we have arrived here I have been really wanting to work out, but the opportunities for it are pretty limited.  However, ever since we have been back from spring break I have been trying to go running a few times a week for about 30 minutes or so.  I have also been trying to use the gym that is in our residence hall, but it can be a challenge to use.  The maximum occupancy of the gym is 2, and the front desk literally won’t let you in if it’s full. Also, the only equipment in it is some free weights, a bench press, and a pull up bar, and it’s about the size of an average person’s bedroom.  However limited this “gym” may be I’m still trying to use it, really just due to the fact that I feel super lazy without doing any type of physical activity other than walking and running.  On Fridays, the days are usually a little bit different because class is at 10 am instead of 3 so that we can have more time to travel for the weekend.  I’m hoping that I will have more time to explore the city once I get done with my business statistics course this week.  This here is pretty much what your average day in Olomouc is like!