A Little Bit of Homesickness, a Little Bit of Culture Shock

My beautiful family :)

Recently, I have become homesick which is something that doesn’t happen often. Perhaps I can blame it on the Easter holiday that I missed with my family. Maybe it’s the fact that my little brother was recognized for honorable-mention all-state in the Lincoln Journal Star for basketball and I wasn’t home to congratulate him. Although I will be returning home in a little less than 2 months, it is very hard for me get through the days without my family and friends back home.

I have been trying to focus on the positives of being here which is very easy to do because I am surrounded by amazing people and places, but lately I have been focusing on the negatives. I find myself thinking about all of the things that I’m missing out on at home-especially the food. Almost every day, I crave Raising Canes, Runza, or simply making chicken and rice in the comfort of my own kitchen. I also miss my queen sized bed, my feather pillow and soft blankets. These are things that I knew I would miss while I was away, but I know that they will all be waiting for me when I get home.

Along with the little things I have taken for granted, I want to touch a little bit on the culture shock that I have experienced in the last month.

Pilsner Urquell and Kody

The pivo here is CHEAP and much tastier than Busch Light lol. The average mug at a bar costs about 30 CZK which is about $1.50. Back in the US, I can find the same thing for $6 which is usually fatal to my bank account. I also don’t get asked to see my ID when I order a drink at a restaurant or a bar, which is nice because the drinking age here is 18 years old unlike back home. While I’m talking about the beer, I might as well talk about the water. I think I took advantage on the access to water back home because it’s sometimes hard to find here. Water is also more expensive than beer when ordering drinks at a restaurant. It took me a while, but I’ve learned that nesycená means “flat water” and has a blue cap, but the green caps are sparkling water which doesn’t agree with my taste buds. After about a week, we finally found bottles of water that were only 6 CZK and have 1.5 liters of water! It doesn’t taste as good as the water from home, but water is water.

Something I miss doing back home that I also took for granted is driving my car. Here in Olomouc, we have public transportation in the form of a tram that takes us straight to class and the train station and then makes a few more stops along the way. There are also busses, trains, subways and very cheap flights that allow you to travel within the country and to other countries as well. A train to Prague only costs $10 and we purchased our tram pass before we got to Olomouc which will last us the whole semester so most transportation is fairly cheap. I have noticed that a lot of the locals take public transportation over driving a car. All of the cars here are manual and are seen as a luxury instead of a necessity. In America, I don’t use a lot of public transportation. I had never taken the subway up until I arrived in Barcelona this past weekend. It was such a new concept to me because I had only ever driven a car and used a bus a couple times to get to a Husker football game. Using the tram and the metro seems like a quicker way to get around a big city, but can be complicated until it becomes an everyday thing. I still find myself getting off at the wrong tram stop from time to time, but I’ll get hang of it someday!

Being a server at a restaurant, I have noticed some differences between restaurant etiquette in the US and in the Czech Republic. Here in the Czech the servers usually come to the table within the first 5 minutes like in the US, but they ask us what we want to drink right away and don’t allow a lot of time for us to think about what we want- usually I just order a pivo, so this is pretty easy for me. After the drinks are served, they ask us what we want to eat which is what happens in the US as well. When the food is served, they usually don’t come back to the table until the plates or glasses are empty. Even after they clear the table, they allow us to visit and drink as much as we’d like until we are ready to pay. I like this way of serving a lot because we can just get up and pay whenever we are ready- weather it’s as soon as we are done eating, or if it’s an hour later, they don’t really mind. Lunch time in the Czech is when everyone eats their main meal. If we are eating at a restaurant during lunch hour, the servers like to get us out of the way as soon as possible, just so they can keep their restaurant full and busy throughout lunch time which is totally understandable. I like to think that I have grown accustomed to the restaurant etiquette here so the next step is learning how to order my meals in the Czech language.. I’m still working on it. 

After a month in the Czech Republic, I have adapted to the differences but I still find myself missing home. This makes me appreciate what I have back in the US a lot more! By the end of my journey here in Europe, it will be hard to leave but I think I will be ready to go home to my friends and family and my comfy bed! I've also decided that the first meal I'm going to eat when I get home will be Raising Canes. :)