Praha 1

Ahoj, Lovely Family (aka probably only Safta, Ellen & Cathy, my parents and my FND aunties whom my mother will inevitably force this upon), 
Here is my bbbbbbllllllloggggg that maybe I will use more than once :) 
Well, I'm in Prague! I keep having to repeat that to myself because it still doesn't feel real. I'm writing this from my apartment, which I share with four other people on my program. There are three of us in my room: myself, Laurel (a friend from Grinnell) and a Czech girl named Veronika. Veronika is also a student who usually studies at university in Moravia, right on the border of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. We are all participating in the Central European Studies track. The other room is host to Eli and Bruce, from American University and Tufts, respectively, who are both in Film Studies. They're both nice; we don't really interact with Film students that much because they study at a different location than we do, which is sort of a bummer because most of the people on our trip are film students, and definitely a lot of the cool ones.
I've been hanging out mostly with Laurel and Amanda (another girl from Grinnell) but have also been interacting with people in Central European Studies. It's weird (as is the beginning of any program like this) because there's a lot of pressure to make friends quickly regardless of the fact that everyone is bewildered/jet-lagged/confused/etc. It's been fine, though, and is really only getting better. I also need to keep reminding myself that this is only my fifth full day in Prague, which is nuts because it sort of feels like forever.
I started a week of intensive Czech lessons (5 hours/day!) on Monday. It's going splendidly so far (not). Apparently Czech is one of the hardest languages ever (who knew?) and I can't stop trying to talk in French and/or Hebrew which proves awkward when I walk up to Czech people and start manically asking for directions in French. We start normal school next week. My classes are: a Holocaust seminar; Film Analysis; Prague, Vienna, Budapest (which includes visits to both Vienna and Budapest); Political & Cultural History of Central Europe and a Czech class.
The food and beer (sorry, mommas) is, like, unbelievably cheap. The first night out, Laurel and Amanda both ordered beer and I got water (tap water doesn't exist here and waiters become very offended if you ask for it) and truly, the beer was cheaper than water. The food is good - I've eaten fish, goulash, lots of potatoes, not much fresh produce. We've started cooking dinner and stuff. For breakfast I usually eat apples and yogurt and cornflakes, so far they've provided a variety of ethnic food for lunch and a few days ago, we made this huge pot of lentil stew thing that has lasted us until tonight. Cooking is hard.
I've explored a lot of the city so far, which is nice. We all got passes to ride the trams and metro for free, which has been amazing. I've gone to the Prague Castle, Charles Bridge, the Jewish Quarter, have hung around Wenceslas Square a bunch, etc. (I keep forgetting to bring my camera around because I keep forgetting I have one, but soon I will start to remember, I swear, probably.) We did a scavenger hunt around Prague and today we rode paddle boats along the Vltava, which was really pretty and relaxing. Tomorrow, we're going on a walking tour around Prague.
That is all I can really think of to write about right now but I will keep you updated when exciting things occur!
Love you guys, miss you a lot a lot,
Cuao,
Leah
P.S. Sorry that this isn't prettily written and/or has a lot of grammatical errors but I don't have time to read over it because I HAVE LOTS OF CZECH HOMEWORK.