A map of my experiences this summer would exist across seven countries and would include some of the most amazing experiences of my life. For the sake of this blog post, however, I have chosen to loosely map the day-to-day activities of the country I am spending the second most amount of time in (behind the USA) this summer: Czechia. Here, specifically in Prague, I am spending five weeks studying genocide and the international human rights regime with a cohort of Social Work and International Affairs students.
To map out my day-to-day in Prague, Czechia, I have included seven pictures from throughout my trip so far.
The first two pictures represent my living situation. I am living in an apartment with five lovely FSU students in Prague 3 (all of the students in our program are in the same building). As you can see, the view is absolutely lovely, and the accommodation is perfect. I share a room with my great friend Ellen. She is in the Social Work program and has been a dear friend of mine since my first days at FSU.
The third picture is of our classroom space in Prague. The building is right next door to our apartment, which is very convenient. This specific picture is from the day a representative from Amnesty International in Prague came and spoke to our class. Her speech was very informative and I was honored to hear from such an impressive individual who dedicated her career to protecting human rights.
The fourth and fifth pictures represent two of the many out-of-class learning experiences we have had in Prague so far. The fourth picture is from the Communism Museum in Prague where we learned more about life in the Czech Republic when the country was occupied by the Soviet Union. The exhibit was excellent, and after reading about this period of Czech history, we listened to the stories of a local Czech man who spent his first fifteen years in communist Czechia. The fifth picture was an informal outing some of my peers and I went on during our first week in Prague. This picture is from a festival at the Prague Castle Gardens that celebrated Prague’s 20 years of membership in the European Union. To celebrate, there were tents from every country in the EU selling cultural items and national foods. Both of these experiences represent how hands-on and immersive learning about a country’s history can become when studying in the places where it occurred. This is what makes studying abroad, especially in a program like this one, so valuable.
The last two pictures represent eating (the most financially painful aspect of this experience since my program fees and flights were covered by scholarship money). Besides the expense, I have really enjoyed bonding with classmates and experiencing culture through food these past few weeks. As a vegetarian, I did not know what to expect in terms of options, but I have been very lucky to be surrounded by amazing restaurants. As a big tofu lover, I have been pleasantly surprised by how many tofu dishes are common in Czechia, such as the smoked tofu salad pictured in the final picture.
Overall, mapping my day-to-day abroad is difficult because there is no real routine with such constant adventure, but I am absolutely loving every minute here!
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