Amy's Czech Republic Adventures!

I can’t believe I have already been in the Czech Republic for a month! My internship has flown by so fast. When I first arrived in Ostrava, I had no idea what to expect. Luckily I was greeted at the bus stop by an AIESECer, who helped me navigate the confusing public transportation system. The people I met throughout the day were no exception to that first friendly face, and I finally began to feel at ease in this new place after all my traveling. Following all the welcoming, I prepared a presentation about the United States, which was actually much harder to do than I anticipated. How do you explain American culture to someone who has never been there? When I finished, about ten of us walked to the location where I would present and it turned out to be a lot more legit than I thought! My presentation was part of a series of different cultures, and there were pamphlets on the chairs with my name on them and everything. So crazy! Afterward, we all went to a pub and had an interesting talk about our different cultures.

I headed back to Brno for a few days before my internship officially started, glad to have the opportunity to see even more of the Czech Republic. There, I had the chance to hang out with some more AIESECers, and some were from more familiar places like Madison and Colorado, while others were Brno locals or from China. We watched the Euro Cup in pubs and explored the sights of Brno. The next weekend, I even had the opportunity to go to Berlin, which was absolutely incredible. I’m glad I took advantage of the opportunity to travel while in Eastern Europe.

Eventually, it was time to head to our first summer camp, where we would be for the next 3 weeks. After a long, hot day of traveling and many mishaps along the way, we finally made it to our camp and settled in! I quickly became friends with the other AIESEC intern, Ellie, who is originally from Canada and currently living in Bulgaria. It was definitely nice to be living with someone else who spoke English as a first language, since polished English was rare to find at camp. The first few days were a little difficult, as I felt very much outside my comfort zone. It seemed that almost no one spoke any English, and the kids were extremely shy to even try. At that point I had no idea what to expect of the next 3 weeks, but I was definitely nervous.

Luckily, those circumstances quickly changed as both the children and other staff members quickly warmed up to us. Within a couple days, we would come back from dinner to find 10 eager children on our cabin porch, waiting to try and talk to us. The kids were shy but curious, and the language barrier became less of an issue as we played games, danced, and learned to speak Czech. Once we realized that English was not going to be very prominent at camp, Ellie and I set out to learn Czech ourselves, asking the kids as many questions as possible. The girls would pop into our cabin just to point to different objects and quiz us on their names! I’m proud to say within the first 10 days, we had learned all the body parts, numbers, animals, colors, clothing, objects in our room, greetings, and phrases like “what time is it?” “how old are you?” and “do you like..?” Our basic Czech always broke the ice with the kids, who were either impressed or collapsed into fits of giggles at our accents.

The camp itself has been a ton of fun, and we have been involved in all sorts of activities. Some of these games and adventures have involved painting our faces like zombies, sprinting through neck-deep water of an obstacle course, riding horses in the meadow, playing human bowling, and taking day trips to a nearby swimming pool. It’s been a blast! We even showed them a little American dancing by expertly shuffling to Party Rock, and I even surprised the boys by proving that girls can play soccer, too. Dancing and soccer have definitely been two of the best activities to bond with the kids, as it doesn’t really matter what language you speak for either of them! Overall, this camp has been great for learning about the Czech culture, language, and food as well. Today is our last day at this camp, and then we will be moving to another one very soon for one more week. I am eager to see what the next chapter has in store.

The beautiful view of our camp that I get to wake up to every morning

Some of my favorite 10 year old girls at camp! (and now 4 new facebook friends)

The main square in Ostrava
-Amy D.