Exploration!

The past few days have involved more exploring and more settling in. My roommate finally arrived home from his travels so I got to meet who I'm living with and I think we'll get along well... no immediate signs of crazy or conflict.  I ran more errands yesterday- and thanks to Carmen's tip on my last entry, I knew to check the electronics store for a hairdryer and straightener.  I also bought some tupperware to take my lunch to school, researched phones a bit, and walked around a bit... mostly just the neighborhood I live in.  It was a Sunday, so not too much was open, but it was nice to explore the area that I live in.  Lastly, I figured out the tram mystery, which is really just that sometimes the machines towards the back of the tram are finicky but if you board up my the driver they work fine.  I have no idea if this is common or I just had bad luck with my initial sampling of trams.  

Today I was much more productive.  I hung out with my roommate this morning and he showed me the corner market where he buys produce.  Then, I headed off to get a sim card for my phone.  I have no real concept of how many minutes a month I'll use, but I bought a prepaid card/account and I can re-load that when it runs out.  Then, I headed to a bank near Wenceslas Square that has an expat center.  In the Czech Republic, it's common for banks to charge a monthly fee for their services... the one I went to wanted about $20 a month though which seemed like a lot for checking, so I'm going to do some more research.  

After deciding to hold off on a bank account, I wandered through Wenceslas Square.  It's pretty, but largely a tourist trap.  I preferred to wander once I got to some of the tinier side streets a few blocks away.  After awhile it got really hot (I never thought I would say that about Prague but it hit 99 today and no where has air conditioning!) so I wandered back to my apartment for a smoothie.  After resting up, I decided to take another walk in a different direction and explore a new area.  I wandered north east from my apartment towards Riegovy Sady which is a nice park on a hill with beautiful views over the city.  On the way, I stumbled upon a gorgeous old church.  It turned out to be the Church of St. Ludmila and while it turns out that it's really not so old (late 1800s) something about it felt really medieval.  The nerd in me thought it looked like something I might see in Kings Landing straight out of A Game of Thrones (the books, not the HBO series since I have no idea what they'd portrayed it like on t.v.).  Anyway, after soaking in the church, I walked on to Riegovy Sady and read Anne of Green Gables (childhood favorite) and drank a pilsner and just enjoyed the beautiful weather.  

On the way home, I stopped again at the church and settled down in the green space out front to read some more.  Tonight I've skyped with mom and made a simple dinner (sauteed mushrooms, roasted cherry tomatoes, warm bread and a bit of pesto).  Tomorrow I plan to head out to see the school where I'll be working and work on getting a year's metro pass (by far the cheapest option).  I'll keep y'all posted!