First day of Classes and More!

Third and fourth days in Prague are complete. The third day started off with breakfast at the University of Economics which consisted of meat, cheese, bagels, yogurt, granola and fruit. Pretty good stuff. Went to the Czech cultural class and quickly realized that the Czech language is nothing you can casually learn. Spanish - maybe. Czech - no way. After that wrapped up I went to the Global Marketing class. The professor asked us to write about marketing strategies for a new golf apparel company. I wrote down a few thoughts as if I knew what I was talking about. Then I proceeded to write, "My True Marketing Experience: I'm a Senior Electrical Engineering Student at Virginia Tech. The closest that I've come to taking a Marketing class is an Economics class that I took last semester. I'll let you judge my knowledge." We'll see how that goes.

We get to eat lunch at the on-campus dining hall. It's pretty good food. I had goulash soup, some sort of beef and rice. Not too bad.

We discussed potential research opportunities to present at the ACC conference. It looks like we are going to be researching a few pretty cool topics. We have a meeting tomorrow and I will be sure to keep you all posted in regards to our progress.

After class we went to DHL which is a worldwide
company that handles the delivery of packages. This particular building was strictly IT Services. It was interesting to compare TANDBERG (now a part of Cisco) with DHL. There is surely a difference in the level of service that the larger companies are expected to provide. To the right is a picture of the complex where DHL is located.

Later that night we went to a place called the Beer Factory. Coincidentally there were a lot of European tourists there as well. I met a few people from Germany, Switzerland and Norway. It was interesting to hear their opinions of America. Most of them were polite and talkative, however, a few of them were quick to say rude things about our nation (the greatest nation in the world) or the other students that I was with. Regardless, the Beer Factory was a good time. The bar has kegs under each table and multiple taps that stem from the center of the table. Whenever you are 'thirsty' you just pour yourself another beer. I had a couple pints that came out to be about $10 USD. Pretty good. Here's a picture of the atmosphere of the Beer Factory. Oh, did I mention that they played English oldies all night? Did Haddaway, 'What is Love' come on? Yup. Did I dance to it and sing as loud as possible? Yup.

The second day of classes went well. The marketing professor divided us up into teams and told us to derive a strategy to increase the number of EU land telephone lines. Failed miserably on that one. After class we went to the Museum of Communism. It's really wild to think that this country was communist just 21 years ago. There was a video that showed the Czechoslovakians protesting the Nazi party. The riots got so bad in 1969 that a 21 year old man by the name of Jan Palach set himself on fire in Wenceslas Square, shown to the right. Later, there was a statue built in his honor (you may be able to see it in the picture - it's right in front of the big building).

There's also a huge chunk of the Berlin Wall in the musem. The Berlin Wall is all painted up which supports my previous claims about the graffiti in Prague. One of the most beautiful exhibits is the Socialist Realism paintings. Czechs are given a large portion of the credit for developing 'Socialst Realism' as a style of art. Vaclav Cerny, (pronouced va-klahv chair-knee) a former professor of Romance Literature at Charles University, was quoted later on in the Socialist Realism era saying, 'I am ready to bow down to anyone who can explain to me in detail what any socialist realism painting means.'

Later that night we went to see a movie in the Czech theaters. I went with Adam, the Czech Student Advisor, and a few other students here. All of the girls wanted to see 'Twilight.' I told them that my girlfriend already suckered me into seeing that movie - I'd have to be hog tied and dragged into the theater if I were to see it again. Needless to say, we split into two groups and I saw 'Killers' which is 'Vrahouni' in Czech. The movies are all in English so the Czech's can enjoy the quality of the actors/actresses but they have Czech subtitles for clarification. Seeing the Czech subtitles helped me to associate words or phrases with the Czech translation. I think that would be an outstanding way to learn a different language. All of the trailers and advertisements were in Czech.

I forget when I went running because I've been a terrible blogger, but I actually brought my camera with me for once. Here's a picture of the view from the top of the park. It's a really big park with tons of benches. I don't think they would ever put a park that big in any of the urban cities back in The States. Nor do I think that us lazy Americans would utilize it nearly as much. The park gets to be quite the attraction for all of the locals and their dogs in the afternoons. Everyone here seems to have a dog. They are never on a leash and they are always very obedient. Amazing how the Czech's can get their dogs to listen but us American's can't even teach our dogs how to sit.

Saturday we all got a chance to go to Karlstejn Castle which is about a 30-40 minute train ride outside of Prague. Karlstejn was built back in 1380 by King Charles IV so he could keep his holy relics (bones of Saints) hidden and safe. Because King Charles IV wanted his castle to blend in, he had it built in a valley between four mountaintops. I couldn't really understand our guide, but I believe the Protestant Hussites built four camps on each of the surrounding mountains. The Hussites made an attempt to siege the castle from the four mountaintops but were unsuccessful. Here are a couple of pictures for you all.

This next picture is in the 'Heaven' room. The pictures on the wall are of the Church hierarchy. I believe King Charles IV is in the middle on the bottom row. Quick note on this picture: we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but I thought that was a stupid rule so I did it anyway.
Now for a quick note on how I'm doing - The food is mediocre, see the picture to the right. The beer is great. We have no hot water in our dorm. The city is gorgeous. The people are generally not nice. The toilets are not conducive for people of my stature. The trams are great. The metro is even better. The architecture is unbelievable. The juices are great. The bottled water is sparkling. The classes are thought-provoking. Prague is the second most visited city in Europe by Europeans (second to Paris). Yesterday was the hottest day in Prague in 82 years. Today is 91 and it deters me from walking. I love blogging but I'm terrible at it. Fanta tastes like heaven over here. Aloe water is unbelievably tasty. My camera is my best friend. I've met 300% more Germans than I have Czechs. I went to the 5 story Club last night, literally 5 stories tall, and I met people from Russia, Norway, England, Australia, Germany and many other countries. No Czechs - oh well. I love running and I'll have a better blog post later. World Cup Finals tonight in Old Town Square yet again - Hup Hup Holland!

THE United States of America,

Luke