Prague Blog Fall ’24: Academics etc. (Yes, I promise we’re learning too)

30 September 2024
By Margaret Tiennot

Hello hello from Prague! Our third full week in Prague, we finally began to feel more at home as we settled into a routine of classes and studying at new cafés. This routine was only broken by… our first clinic visit!

This was actually the part of study abroad I had most been looking forward to. I’d never had the opportunity to speak directly with clinicians and patients about their experience at an inpatient clinic for Eating Disorders. However, our visit with Dr. Papežova and her patients was very worthwhile. I think I can speak for the class when I say the experience gave me much more insight on the some of the more practical treatment aspects of clinical psychopathology.

From left to right: David, Mathew, Ken, Eva, Kristiana, and Owen
From left to right: David, Mathew, Ken, Eva, Kristiana, and Owen at the clinic

Also this week, we had walking tours in both our Art and Architecture and Czech History classes. For Art and Architecture, we returned to Prague Castle and were able to tour St. Vitus Cathedral and other major buildings, notable for their Romanesque, Renaissance, Gothic, and Baroque styles.

From left to right: Chris, Eva, Dene, Meg, Sadie, Sam and Brady note the Renaissance architecture on the Summer Palace at Prague Castle.
From left to right: Chris, Eva, Dene, Meg, Sadie, Audrey, Sam and Brady note the Renaissance architecture on the Summer Palace at Prague Castle.
Stained Glass in the St. Vitus Cathedral
Stained Glass in the St. Vitus Cathedral

In Czech History class, we visited major public memorials from WWII located around the city, including the National Memorial to the Heroes of the Heydrich Terror, Jan Opletal street, and a memorial to Nicholas Winston.

From left to right: Audrey, Owen, Dylann, and Brady in front of the
From left to right: Audrey, Owen, Dylann, and Brady in front of the Heroes of the Heydrich Terror Memorial
Our history class in front of the memorial
Our history class in front of the Nicholas Winton memorial in Prague’s train station

We spent our three-day weekend in a variety of ways. Students celebrated birthdays, spent time traveling internationally, or continued to exploring the city. A few students visited the Petřín Lookout Tower which overlooks Prague, built in 1891. The tower (plus the added elevation of the mountain its built on) stand as high of the Paris Eiffel Tower!

Thea on the Petrin Tower
Thea on the Petřín Tower

My weekend highlight was a solo trip I made to the Opera. In fact, I chose to return to watch Othello because I so enjoyed our first visit to the Estates Opera. This time I visited the State Opera and the tickets were very reasonably priced for students, which made it all the easier!

Margaret at the State Opera
Margaret at the State Opera

Word of the week was “na zdravi!” or “cheers!” for all our celebrations. That’s all for this week — cheers!