czech-ing in.

Our apartment number.

Well kids, I made it Prague. After eight hours in an American plane, eight hours in a French airport, and 2 hours on a plush czech plane (with way more leg room and free sandwiches and wine..i might add), I finally arrived. When Rachel and I arrived at our sweet new pad (see video), we were super pumped. Its HUGE! It puts my Italian study abroad apartment to shame...and it even has an elevator.

We were starved after our long plane rides and decided to grab some czech grub. I tossed my wallet and my stun gun in my purse and headed out the door. Our program coordinator had had some trouble getting the door open so we decided to try to figure it out before we left. Bad move. We realized that we had no clue how,  and certainly not enough brute force to get it open. 

We assumed it was just user error, and since one of our other roommates was inside sleeping, we didnt panic. We tried for like 20 minutes with no luck. Then we decided to start ringing the doorbell. Keep in mind, there's a noise ordinance after 10pm that results in large fines and jail time. The doorbell sounds like the loudest, most annoying kitchen buzzer your grandmother ever had. Our roommate was as close to dead as you can sleep, (after the plane ride, who could blame her), so needless to say, the doorbell might as well have been whispering. Our next plan was to figure out where our teacher (or anyone else in our program) was staying...so, we go down to the mailboxes and locate three of our programs apartments. At 1am Czech time, we start knocking and ringing doorbells.  All of those people were also dead to the world. (Side note for aunt marty - as we're hiking up and down the stairs, i see a balcony in the stair well and think 'oh how cool!' so i walk out there a push the door open and a GIANT pigeon flew right at my head and TOUCHED me and i let out a rather loud shriek that echoed in the building...awesome) 

Finally, we hear someone come into the building so we went sprinting down the stairs to see a young guy entering his apartment. I said "excuse me, is there anyway you can help us get our door open? it's our first night and we're locked out," he said " hmm. mm. mm. SLAM" and then he was gone. Although most czechs speak english, we're going to assume he didn't, so that way i don't have to think he's the biggest jerk on the planet. With failed plans 1, 2, 3, and 4 under our belts we opted for plan  5 - hold down the doorbell indefinitely. -- FAIL. 6 -- start almost crying and bang on the door -- ALSO FAIL, and 7 -- make enough noise that echoes so that maybe the police are called and they can actually open the door...regardless of fine or jail time -- FAIL AGAIN. and then finally plan 8 -- young czech girl comes into our building after a night on the town and we ambush her and beg her to help us. After about 15 more minutes struggling, her strength and czech know-how opened the door. It was a pulling-pushing-holding-the-key-one-way-while-making-sure-you-unlocked-the-other-lock-and-not-break-the-key type umph that finally did the trick. Needless to say we didn't eat. Or leave the building.

When we came back in, we raided the cabinets and found one edible item - a split pea/black-eyed pea concoction with czech directions. Our first czech meal was probably the best we'll eat, partly because it was pretty good, mainly because it was the only thing to eat.

On a positive note, there's a bar around the corner, a grocery store not too far away, and an interesting couple that live across the street (but our windows our the same height)....so this is going to be a good summer. 

Tour of our House: