By: Hannah Montgomery
Hannah Montgomery is a sophomore at PLU majoring in Communications and Global Studies. She is currently studying away in Prague, Czech Republic with the approved organization, CIEE. She would like to share her experience with fellow lutes so as to encourage others to study away and to allow others to understand the perspective of an young American traveling abroad.
It smells too sweet here, rotting apples and berries line the sidewalk as I walk to the Metro station. My Czech host-father, Tomaš told me that the neighborhood apples are not for eating, since the trees are not cared for by anyone. I think they’re good, at least the ripe ones are that fall to the ground before my eyes.
The other afternoon, I picked one up that had been laying in the midday sun, warming the fruit to taste like apple cider in the Fall. The first time I traveled to the Metro station, I stepped on the berries, squishing them into the tread of my shoes. I haven’t made that mistake again, as I now choose to walk in the street, except when a car comes barreling towards me and I have to hop back onto the sidewalk.
I pass the neighbor’s cat, who lies on the concrete wall above me next to a basket of red flowers, and affectionately call out “kočka!”. She curls herself into a ball, basking on the hot stone as I reach up to pet her striped fur. Sometimes, I fear that her owner will come shouting from the house in Czech, telling me to get away.
Across the street at the school, children greet each other, “Ahoj, ahoj!” as they play outside. I can hear the voice of my host sister, Eliška, calling to her friends and a little boy sits on top of the fence. His teacher, presumably, tells him to get down, and he carefully slides off the pillar to the ground to join the other children.
When I reach the Metro station, I see a couple kissing on the escalator opposite me. Public displays of affection are not commonly seen, but when they happen, it seems that they are always between young people. Commuters glance at them with contempt as we pass the advertisements lining the tunnel’s walls. I quietly take a seat on the subway, only four stops until I reach my destination where I will have my first class, Survival Czech. I hope that the streets will have been cleaned of the fermenting fruit by the time I get home later this evening.
