Category: Europe

Becoming a CzechMate

Published on by jillianec516Leave a comment

As I was getting prepared for my semester abroad, I definitely felt the constraints of time closing in. My anxieties the weeks prior were masked with excitement, but now that I am here the excitement outweighs my worries. This is my first trip overseas, and an experience I was unsure I would be able to have during my time at the University of Denver. My personal medical history with cancer scared my family about my decision to leave the United States by myself, but it also is allowing me to not be scared of interning at a Children’s Hospice, Dum Pro Julie, in the Czech Republic. 

Emails were coming in everyday reminding me that there were only a handful of more days before I start classes at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic.  My personal prep had included a week full of different doctors appointments, meetings to discuss my internship in Brno and registration for classes, while squeezing in any moments with family and friends I could get. Between spending my summer in Denver and visiting my hometown of El Paso, Texas, I think I was able to tell everyone important to me about the adventure I was about to partake in, and recieved the affirmations I needed from others to be confident about this program.

Other students from the U.S reached out in group chats, which has been a godsend for planning and feeling more secure around my general anxiety.  Some of the girls have been extremely helpful with packing and travel reservations. As previously mentioned, this is my first time crossing the ocean. I was never taught how to pack for a trip like this, nor given a list that provided a general idea. I was confused and beginning to panic but messaging others was truly all I needed to do for some clarity. Except I did still forgot to bring a EU plug adapter, luckily everyone was so kind and willing to lend a charge until I went to buy my own in the City Center. When I was struggling with buying my train ticket from Vienna to Brno, I found out one of the girls in the group was landing around the same time as me. She told me she also was feeling anxious about traveling alone, so I’m thankful that for the last leg of our journey to Brno we had each other. Upon my arrival in Vienna, I was unlucky and experienced some nausea, which had my new travel buddy a little worried, but she helped me out so much. Everyone I have met so far has been sweet, social and overall excited to be here so it’s already becoming comforting to be here. 

Orientation Day 1 @ MUNI in Brno, Czech Republic

It is intersting to be learning a languge I didn’t think I would have ever have much interaction with, especially while planning to be an intern for an orgnaization that only speaks Czech. I started with a daily Duolingo lesson in Czech prior to coming, and I will be taking a Colorful Czech course while attending MUNI. We are required to take a survival Czech class during our orientation week, which feels necessary because the stores and restraunts I’ve gone into so far definently have raised an eyebrow when they hear the American accent only speaking English. Hopefully over the next four months I’ll catch on to the language or at least remember important phrases. Maybe I’ll even pick up on some Polish, as my roommate is from northern Poland. 

A day at the beach.

Published on by lhnevarezLeave a comment

For some background, my school abroad, John Cabot University, has optional trips that students can pay to attend, filled with a bunch of activities and exploration. I signed up for a couple, but this trip was to the Italian beach city named Sperlonga.

We packed onto the bus at 8 AM to begin our 2-hour drive and the conversations began with plans of what everyone wanted to do once we got to the beach. It was great to drive down the Italian highways and see the stretching landscapes fall behind us as we left the city and began entering the more rural parts of the country. The quieter areas of Italy have their own charm, especially after spending so much time in the hustle and bustle of a tourist town like Trastevere. It was amazing to see the expansive agriculture and farmlands as we moved further and further from the city as we made our way to Sperlonga. Unfortunately, there is not much to say about the drive beside that because I decided to take a nap to help pass the time until we arrived.

The trip officially began at a museum on top of a hill with olive trees lining some of the outdoor walkways leading to ruins about 15 minutes from the city. The museum, Museo Archeologico Nazionale e Area Archeologica di Sperlonga, held many statues of great significance to the history of Sperlonga and the several other coastal cities due to the mythos behind the Greek and Roman legend of Odysseus. The statues have so much to them that if you allow your imagination to take over, you can picture the events of Odysseus tricking a Cyclops into a drunken sleep before stabbing the Cyclops in the eye to guarantee his and his crew’s safe escape from the Cyclops’ lair. They had other Statues that represented other tale such as Zeus’ transformation into an Eagle to kidnap Ganymede to join him in Olympus. For those who would like to, here are some Statue Pictures I took for you to get a glimpse with brief descriptions of the scenes captured in stone.

After looking at statues inside the museum, we moved onto the ruins of a coastal city as we descended closer to the ocean to enter a cove that was once used for meetings and parties. It was truly a beautiful reminder that nature always manages to outshine humanity’s architecture to create a site that simply takes your breath away. When we got into the cove, the water pool in the middle was mostly clean so it was providing a beautiful reflection of the rocks and people walking around within. If you stood at the back of the cove, you could see the city reflected in the water to create a breathtaking view that I was not able to properly replicate on camera. The tour leader had us do an exercise where we sat in the cove, closed our eyes, and imagined ourselves hundreds and thousands of years ago when bands would come to play within the acoustics that the cove provides and imagine ourselves being a part of the history of the land.

Once we were done experiencing and learning the history of the cove, we moved on to a lounge area that gave us direct access to the beach. We had a quick lunch before going to swim but the sight of the ocean was magnificent. The water was so clean that it sparkled with the sun beating down on it. It was so refreshing to be enveloped by the cool waves and look down and see small fish swimming around our legs as myself and a group of students began passing a volleyball within the water. Every part of the beach was far more beautiful than any beach I had been to in the U.S: the sand had a beautiful ripple pattern that showed under the water that I was not able to capture, the water was incredibly refreshing despite how salty it was, and the horizon seemed to go on forever in a sparkling blue blanket across the Earth.

Finally, after several hours at the beach, we were able to go to the actual city of Sperlonga and the buildings were an amazing white with an open-air market and band setting up as we arrived. The shops and restaurants seemed a bit too “touristy,” but it was still a wonderful area to walk through. While we were there, I was able to spot couple taking their marriage photos. The city had its own magic that made you appreciate the small details and I hope that the couple I saw got to capture some of that magic alongside their love. Sadly, we were only given an hour to actually explore the main plaza, so I was not able to see the city to its fullest but even the parts I saw from afar were amazing.

Unfortunately, everything must have an end and this trip could not be the exception. We left as the sun was setting and the way the ocean changed from a deep blue to a sparkling crimson was something straight out of a movie. It is definitely on my list of places I would like to return to and visit fully but for now, this experience added to my appreciation of the vast history and beauty of this country I am lucky to study in. I hope that my pictures do the city of Sperlonga justice, but I know that no amount of camera work could truly capture the depth of its beauty.