Dobrý den! We are Lauren Bolzan and Emme Edwards presenting on our trip to the beautiful city of Olomouc. Yesterday, after a slightly extended road trip, some fascinating lectures, and a fun-filled festival, we prepared for the beautiful day in this new city.

This morning, we were greeted with a lovely Czech style breakfast at our hotel, and met together to have a talk with Andre, a renowned youtuber who does most of his content in the Czech Republic. He was joined by his wife who is from the Czech Republic and his two adorable children. Andre is originally from the UK with his parents being from the country of Jamaica. In the words of his wife “he did not know the Czech Republic was a country before meeting me.”

In our discussions, we covered many different topics, from how he sees the Czech Republic differently from the UK, his ways in which he continues to honor his Jamaican roots in another culture, and why he chose to start his own YouTube channel. When he first started coming to the Czech Republic, he enjoyed visiting smaller towns and villages outside of Prague to kind of “force him” into the culture because the inhabitants were not as familiar with the English language compared to those in Prague.

However, one of the most interesting conversations we had with Andre and his family was the discussion of the difference between the Czech Republic and the United States. Throughout the conversation, the entire class was shocked to see, as Dr. Svec put it, that “the American Dream was far more accessible in the Czech Republic.” From our understanding it is clear to see that The Czech Republic is not built on the same infrastructure as America is, as Andre said everyone had the same opportunities in terms of education and therefore, jobs, in the Czech Republic. Any Czech of any social standing could end up with whatever job they wanted including doctors, lawyers, and other esteemed positions. Us Americans were astounded at this and wanted to know more. We later discussed how public schools are more esteemed than private schools and that American paranoia of safety is very high compared to the Czechs.

After meeting with Andre, we had a group lunch with lovely Czech food and went for a walk around Olomouc starting in the park that used to be a moat around the city. We went to the Church of Saint Wenceslas which had a beautiful interior and the skull of Saint Jan. Our last stop was the Trinity column which is a plague column placed in the 17^th century. A unique thing about this column is the cannonballs stuck in it from when it was bombarded during communist times.

We are very sad to be leaving this beautiful city, but quite excited to get back to the hustle and bustle of Prague, just in time for the burger festival!