First week in Czechia as an Australian Student

While I’ve only been here a little over a week, it’s been super busy, I’ve done a lot of cool stuff. Seeing snow out the window as the plane landed in Prague really let it sink in properly that I’ve made it, I’m here, this is it. The drive home to Prostějov in the sunset, fog, and snow was magical.

During my first couple of days here I walked around the historic town center, went to my first rotary meeting (and met another inbound here), registered with the police in nearby Olomouc, and started school. At my second rotary meeting I got to meet the district governor, who governs Rotary in all of Czechia and Slovakia, and he performed both comically and very impressively Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World.

School is great, I’m glad to find that sometimes I can understand some of the lessons then teach myself a bit through my phone from the level I’m at. I’ve made two super cool and helpful friends already. School here seems so relaxed compared to Australia, so far at least.

My first weekend here was spent at a rotary meeting in Třebíč, a UNESCO site town. We had a guided tour around the town, which has a huge Jewish history, including an extremely old Jewish graveyard and two old synagogues. We then also visited the super old church/cathedral, which has wall paintings dated to around the 1260’s, and a crypt around the year 1220.

Beautiful historical Jewish graveyard

During this weekend, the inbound Australians here did a performance. We read the dreamtime story The Rainbow Serpent in Czech and had some physical elements to it. We didn’t have much preparation time however I’m proud of how we did, we even won 2nd place.

1260’s Wall paintings

On the way back to Prostějov we (the hosted inbounds in my club here + rotary member giving us a lift) stopped at the battlefield of Austerlitz, where Napoleon led France against Russia and Austria. We also stopped at a castle?!!?!??

All in all, extremely busy but having a lot of fun.

Rose TAPP, Australia, Rotary district 9660 → Rotary club Prostějov