After being steeped in anticipation for months we are finally here! Prague! Despite half of our group’s bags being missing, everyone seems to be eager to explore the city and experience all it has to offer which, from what I can see, is a lot. From what I have seen so far, Prague is one of the most beautiful and unique cities on Earth and its only day one of us being here. Given that it’s our first day in the city and we have only seen the smallest fraction of it and what it has to offer you might be thinking, “How can he be making such claims?”, well let me tell you how. Prague has some of the most beautiful architecture I have ever seen, and let’s not even take into account the famous sites and buildings, I am simply talking about everyday buildings like apartments, restaurants, and stores, they are painted bright vibrant colors, have detailing that is very intrinsic and beautiful, and whereas statues in America for some reason appear to be reserved for only the important and sacred buildings and people, amazing statues litter buildings across the city. This city certainly is a different breed.
Besides seeing the beauty of the city and its buildings we did have an objective to get done today. Today we went and were given a tour of the Czech Republic’s Parliament building. To get to the building we took the tram which is just one of many forms of public transit here in Prague. The tram itself is not particularly special but it does look very cool, like most things here, but it is by no means the smoothest ride ever so if you plan to visit and take the tram, hold on. Once we got to the building we watched a documentary on the Czech governmental system and its history. The Czech Republic is a Parliamentary Democracy, like many other European countries, with its origins going back to the early 1900’s shortly after WW1. Since its creation the parliament has gone through many changes due to the Nazi invasion and occupation by the Communist regime of the Soviet Union. The Parliament seen today was only recently formed in 1993 when the Czechoslovakia split apart into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. After the documentary we got a chance to have a “Q and A” with one of the members of Parliament who represented a smaller party that focuses on government at a more local level. After getting a chance to discuss various topics regarding Czech politics and the issues it faces, we were given a tour of the building. On the tour we got to see the equivalent of our House of Representatives, the original Czech Constitution created in 1918, and had a chance to look in the press room. Whether we made it on TV I don’t know, but I do know the tour was amazing. After we went our separate ways. Myself and some friends went and got a late lunch and then I came back to my room and took a nap to cap off an epic day.
PLU/PSY387 Transitions & Trauma 