Starting off with something very helpful – Charles University offers a buddy system for international students! You create a profile and give some information about yourself: the languages you speak, the course you study, where you’re coming from, and any interests and hobbies. Then students who live in the Czech Republic will choose people to pair up with and help where they can. I highly recommend using this resource. You aren’t guaranteed a buddy as it is up to the students but it is important to note that its never too late to try – I signed with a week to go till my move and got a buddy 2 days before departure. She ended up picking me and my parents up from the airport and teaching us about the transport system. Any questions I had about the city she answered, and she also took me to some interesting restaurants. We even go to an archery club that she recommend. Obviously, you can just ask your buddy questions and get answers, if you prefer, and many people only talk to their buddy once, as most people figure things out with their friends, but having the option is helpful.
A bit of an awkward jump in topic but I do want to address the incident in December – specifically the response of the University. During and after the events, all staff at the university were incredibly helpful and showed immense care and professionalism to make sure everyone was safe and well informed. The university constantly provided assistance, be it psychological or physical and kept a constant flow of information where possible. New security measures were immediately implemented and they were doing all they could to make people feel safe at university again. This allowed for a relatively smooth return to classes and everything quickly went back to normal – though they did add a therapy dog to the the Arts faculty building in case anyone still felt anxious.
Moving back onto a nicer topic, I managed to join a pre-planned trip to Vienna!! I’ll go into a bit more detail in the recommendation section but I wanted to note here that this can be an excellent way to visit neighbouring countries without the stress of figuring everything out yourself. I have heard of other trips to Poland and Slovenia but I didn’t attend those myself.
This blog will be shorter than the others as the Christmas holidays cut my time in Prague short but I’ll add a few places to visit and check out to end on a lighter note.
- Christmas markets
Are they a tourist trap? Yes. Are they over priced? Yes. Well they get in the way when you’re trying to commute to university? Absolutely, but they are still a very fun experience with some interesting finds. You can find them in nearly every major square around Prague though I recommend going to the smaller ones – they are generally more peaceful and slightly more authentic but not by much.
- Astronomical Clock
I wouldn’t necessarily say to plan a whole day for this unless your hitting multiple tourists sites, but it’s right between two of the main faculty buildings for Arts students, so you can always pay a visit in-between lectures or when its not busy, which is usually only early in the morning.
Staroměstské nám. 1, 110 00 Josefov
- ESN Trips
So ESN does a lot of trips both within the Czech Republic and to different countries. The prices can jump around a lot but I do recommend keeping an eye as a lot of them a very good. A friend and I ended up going to Vienna with a group for 3 days and it was a great time for a great price. They plan things for you to do but also give you a lot of freedom, you can choose to join them on pre-planned tours or go off on your own, but they always give you time after the tours for you to explore regardless.