24 hours and several time zones later...

Dobry vecher! (Good evening in Czech)

After a long and arduous journey (not really), I am sitting in a lovely little hotel room in the heart of Praha where they have conveniently provided us with free Wi-Fi so instead of sending many e-mails I can update everyone at once via blog.

After an extensive security check at the Atlanta airport (what exactly do they think I was hiding in my socks/the waistband of my jeans?) the trip was relatively painless. Air France was clean, on-time, and didn't lose my bags! I even had the entire row to myself from both Atlanta to Paris and Paris to Prague and enjoyed several lovely on-flight movies. By the way, Nick and Norah's infinite playlist=hilarious. I highly recommend it.

The Czech airport was easy to navigate and there was a nice little man waiting with a "Mr. Nishi Kumar" sign right outside customs. Glad we spent so much wasted energy worrying about the student visa...nobody even asked to see my passport! I guess not that many people try to sneak into the Czech Republic on a regular basis.

After a 45 minute taxi ride (the cab driver chattered in Czech and I smiled and laughed in what I hope were appropriate places) I arrived at the Hotel Proponka where the rest of the students in the program had already checked in. Because of my mishap at the airport ATM, I didn't have a tip for the driver but he seemed plenty happy with the stick of gum I offered instead. We had a quick orientation and then headed out to grab a bite to eat/find an ATM. The area isn't in the main district of Prague, but it seems very lively with lots of old churches and pubs lining the winding cobblestone streets.

Everyone in the program seems great although I can't remember anyone's names. We have a two-week orientation beginning tomorrow morning so hopefully by the end I will have found an apartment/learned how to use the metro/greatly extended my limited Czech vocabulary. Tonight I think the plan is to get lost in the Prague 1 district and discover some great underground nightclub or something of the sort.

Best find so far...full pizzas for about $2.50 US. Gotta love the exchange rate.