All Czeched In.: First Full Day in Czech Republic

I arrived in Hradec Kralove last night around 5pm. A gentleman on the train was nice enough and spoke a decent amount of English to help me out with the train stops and helped me get my suitcases off the train. However, after that I was on my own and had to lug both suitcases up the stairs. At least I worked out my arms a little :). One of my program directors, Marketa was already waiting for me with her son (adorable, I asked him to be the guard for my purse while Marketa and I put my suitcases into her car. He was happy to oblige.) Marketa drove me to my flat (I think it's actually supposed to be a janitor's flat since it's attached to an elementary school). It's bigger than I had imagined but it's only a one bedroom flat so my bed is in the living room. I don't care so much, as long as I have a warm place to sleep, I am okay with anything.) Something I found to be strange is that there is a separate room entirely for the toilet and the shower and sink are in a separate part of the flat. Not exactly so common in the US but hey it's not a squat toilet haha).

After getting a little settled, Kristy (roommate and another teacher) and I went out to dinner with an older American gentleman. I guess he's kind of the American to know in the city since he's lived here for four years. He's incredibly nice, his name is Ralph. We also met a guy from California (Brett/Britt, I'm not sure exactly), a guy from England (Tim) and his wife (Helena, Czech), and Dušan, a funny Czech dude who works at the university here.

Because I have a weird sense of energy all the time, of course I still woke up early on Saturday (8am) but forced myself to sleep a little more since I was traveling for quite some time. Around noon, Kristy and I went on a litte tour of the city. It's so pretty here and there are tons of shops and cute cafes. I am not used to the smoking inside the buildings which I'm not super happy about since my clothes end up reeking of smoke but there's a lot I have to get used to. I am still figuring out the money but Kristy and I got breakfast at a cafe and it came to about 118ck which is somewhere around $5 for everything. Kristy told me whatever it is in crowns, divide it in half and move a decimal point up. That works for me.