{"id":3922,"date":"2021-12-01T23:34:25","date_gmt":"2021-12-01T23:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-the-words\/?page_id=3922"},"modified":"2024-07-31T17:25:44","modified_gmt":"2024-07-31T17:25:44","slug":"lily-in-prague","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/the-words-december-2021\/lily-in-prague\/","title":{"rendered":"Lily in Prague"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">by Alice Asch \u201822<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lily Duquette (she\/her), a senior with an English Lit major and a Psychology minor, has spent this semester abroad in Prague! She was kind enough to write to us about all her amazing experiences. Enjoy her letter below.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft wp-image-3937 size-medium\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/603\/2021\/12\/IMG_8213-scaled-e1638399982389-300x217.jpeg\" alt=\"Prague\" class=\"wp-image-3937\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Prague&#8217;s beautiful scenery!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dear <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Words <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">readers,<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">At the beginning of 2021, I wasn\u2019t sure if I would make it to my study abroad program in Prague but by some miracle, here I am, wrapping up finals and buying tickets to come back home.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I had decided on the CET Prague program almost a year before, and looking back, I\u2019m glad I did. We had a small program this semester, only twelve people in total, but I think that might\u2019ve been my favorite part. All of my classes had only about five to seven people, so we each had a very personalized experience and the chance to connect with our professors. One of my favorite classes was the \u201cFranz Kafka and Central European Literature\u201d course. Now, Kafka\u2019s writings are not always my favorite, but our class was led by a wonderful professor and I found myself looking forward to it much more than I thought I would. Another reason for this was because the novels we read deal frequently with popular places in Prague and Central Europe, so each of the authors\u2019 references connect to places I\u2019ve seen in person.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And really, all of our classes were centered around this applied learning. We\u2019ve easily spent a third of our class time outside of our program\u2019s buildings exploring Prague. We\u2019ve gone to places like Prague Castle, the Kafka museum, the National Film Museum (NaFilM), and many, many more, each for a different course. Of course, in my own free time, I\u2019ve explored plenty of the city myself as well.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As another little summary for my time in Prague, I\u2019ll talk about two of my favorite spots here. The first is a beautiful, centuries old library, tucked away in the tower of a much larger complex. It\u2019s practically something out of a dream, with frescos covering the ceilings and ancient globes lined up on the floor below. Naturally, the final touch with this magical library is that no pictures are allowed of the space. Although many exist on Google anyway, I\u2019ll just pretend that it\u2019ll stay hidden away. (Oh, and it&#8217;s called the Klementinum Baroque Library, if you\u2019d like to look it up for yourself.)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright wp-image-3932\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/603\/2021\/12\/Lily-in-Prague-225x300.jpeg\" alt=\"Lily with Kafka\" class=\"wp-image-3932\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/603\/2021\/12\/Lily-in-Prague-225x300.jpeg 225w,  https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/603\/2021\/12\/Lily-in-Prague-768x1024.jpeg 768w,  https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/603\/2021\/12\/Lily-in-Prague-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w,  https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/603\/2021\/12\/Lily-in-Prague-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w,  https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/603\/2021\/12\/Lily-in-Prague-scaled.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Lily with Kafka&#8217;s head!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The second place is somewhat less magical, but one that I visit nearly everyday. It goes like this: in Prague, there is a large statue of Franz Kafka\u2019s head. It is a fun monument to visit because, on the hour, the whole thing will begin to rotate. Well, by some coincidence, it also happens to be right next to our course buildings and, on my way to Kafka class on Monday and Wednesday mornings, I get to pass by the statue and see it begin to rotate. Sort of anti-climatic, but it really captures the essence of my experience in Prague. Each day, I sit in a classroom learning about Prague and when I step outside, the faces in the books are looking back at me.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now currently planning for graduate school in Europe,<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lily&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Alice Asch \u201822 Lily Duquette (she\/her), a senior with an English Lit major and a Psychology minor, has spent this semester abroad in Prague! She was kind enough to write to us about all her amazing experiences. Enjoy her letter below.&nbsp; Dear Words readers, At the beginning of 2021, I wasn\u2019t sure if I [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":913,"featured_media":0,"parent":3887,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3922","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/913"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3922"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7179,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3922\/revisions\/7179"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}