A Conversation with Caitlin and Isaiah: Humanities and Social Sciences at Charles University in Prague
As part of their positions, CGIS Advisors embark on site visits to visit students and ensure that our programs are the best they can be. Senior Study Abroad Advisor Callie Rouse recently traveled to Prague, Czechia to visit students participating in the Humanities and Social Sciences at Charles University program. Continue reading for insight from LSA Communications major Caitlin Hagen and SMTD Acting major Isaiah Crawford.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Callie Rouse, Senior Study Abroad CGIS Advisor: Why did you decide to go on this particular program?
Caitlin Hagen: I’ve never been to Prague and I wanted to try something different. I also liked that this program didn’t start ‘till February and it ended in the middle of May. I thought that was a good timeline and I was comfortable with that. I’m from Michigan, I only live like an hour away from Ann Arbor so it was nice that it was my roommate's birthday and I got to go school for that but got to be home for the majority of the month of January. It was nice to be there when the football team won.
CR: What is something that you have taken from this experience?
CH: I think, even though it’s still pretty early on, I think I’ve gained a lot of self confidence. Also my ability to do things: Which sounds weird but obviously I’m from a smaller town in Michigan where there’s no public transit or anything like that. I’m not from a big city. And moving to Prague, I was a little nervous just being in a different environment. I honestly think I've done pretty well. I mean, obviously I was scared at first, like when I took the tram for the first time alone. But then, I was like “oh, it’s fine.” Even traveling around Europe, I went to visit my friend in London and that was the first time that I”ve ever flown alone in Europe and I was like “oh, I can do this!”
CR: I feel like solo travel is so important. I did a lot with my friends, but when I did experience things solely by myself, it’s like, you just gotta get used to being alone.
CH: I feel like a lot of things, they just seem so scary. Like coming here, I was like “oh, this is gonna be so different, I just wanna be in Ann Arbor” and then I was like “no, I have to do this” and then once I do it, I’m like “It’s completely fine.”
CR: So with your classes, how did they differ from classes in America?
CH: The class sizes are a lot smaller. I’m used to my professor not even knowing I exist. And now I feel like I already have a personal relationship with all of my professors, which is really nice. Obviously, they’re all very supportive and I think that it’s a nice change. We also have Erasmus students. I'm sure in some of my classes I would’ve had exchange students but you wouldn’t really know that, the classes are so big, but it’s nice to have relationships with other students like that. Obviously, in Ann Arbor I can’t just walk around the city before class. It’s usually just me in a lecture hall. I feel like I get more hands-on experience here.
CR: How much homework do you get? I know that’s generally drastically lower than what you’re used to at U-M.
CH: I would say that for a lot of my classes, my homework is just reading. And then in almost all of them, we have a presentation to do for the final or the midterm. And then I have a couple of papers and stuff. I feel like it’s a lot different from classes at Michigan. I was taking Spanish up until last semester and every night we had an assignment online. So, I feel like the assignments here, it’s not as consistent: It’s not constantly “oh do three pages of this a night,” it’s more like the big projects and then obviously we have the lectures and stuff.
CR: So you guys all have to take the Czech class, right? How do you like it?
CH: I was really scared and I felt like “I’ve just finished my Spanish requirements…doing a whole different language is crazy”–but honestly, I think my professor is really helpful and also, it helps that everyone is in the same boat. Nobody has learned this before. I think it flows at a really nice place. Our last class, we were learning directions so she had us go out in old Times Square and we had to ask a Czech person. So, it is the experiences like that that I wouldn’t get home that are so cool.
CR: What is your housing like?
CH: I really love my apartment and also the location is really great. It’s a 15 minute walk. It’s more of a residential area, which I like because it’s a lot quieter. I went in random for my roommate and she’s from Lewis and Clark college. I think they placed me really well, we get along and I’ve honestly met so many people. Everybody in my building I love. We travel and try new restaurants and things like that. So, I really do like the housing. I also get my own room and we share a bathroom and kitchens and things.
CR: I know a lot of students will be like “oh I really really want to have my own room,” and that’s really hard on a lot of programs to achieve and you’re just like “how can that happen?” But for this program, it’s guaranteed for everybody.
CH: That was one of the draws, being in an apartment instead of like a dorm or a triple or quad.
CR: So, what is your day to day schedule like? Do you have classes each day, do you have free days, or anything like that?
CH: So I am in class Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and I don’t have Thursday or Friday classes—and I kinda did it like that because I wanted those free days. Also, we don’t have Friday classes here at all, which is really nice. I start at 9am on Mondays and Wednesdays and 10am on Tuesdays, so it’s pretty much the same time. On Mondays, I have my Czech class for an hour and a half, then I have back to back classes, which isn’t that bad. I’m usually done in the afternoon, but the only day I have a night class is Monday. So I’m in class usually until 9-3pm and then I’ll go to the grocery store and get something for dinner, make dinner, go to the gym, and then do homework. It’s very similar to my schedule back at school. But what I like about here is that because I’m in an actual city so if I want to go shopping, I can—it’s right down the street.
CR: You said you have a night class—do you ever worry about your safety when you have to come home from that class?
CH: Honestly, no. I feel very safe here and that was one of the concerns for me. I was like “I’m gonna be in Europe and I don’t know how it’s going to be different,” but honestly, I’ve never felt unsafe…even on the tram. Everyone’s very chill. Usually my class ends at 7:30pm so I usually take the tram home but that’s because it’s cold.
[Isaiah Crawford (IC) joins the interview]
CR: Why did you come on this program?
Isaiah Crawford: So I am in a very specific program at Michigan. I'm in the Theater Performance: Acting program, where it's basically a conservatory-style program. So I don’t get to experience a lot of academic classes. They describe their program, like verbatim on their website, as 75% SMTP classes, 25% LSA classes. Which is not a lot honestly, when it's like 1/4 of your course load. Most SMTP students pile on about 16-17 credits a semester. It's different requirements mentally, so you cannot work. But I wanted a break, because I was reading this acting book, and it was basically talking about how life experiences and everything are so valuable in acting and performance because you really need to understand life from a lot of different perspectives to be able to get into another person's body and character and stuff like that. And I was thinking, God, I've been doing theater since I was 12—and I honestly haven't really done much else. When I first got here finding hobbies was like – because theater was my hobby. So making that a career path and a choice was like, a big whammy for me. People in the theater program were like, "what do you do outside of it?" And I was like, "nothing". I picked up cooking and stuff like that, but I did want to get into traveling and I saw the opportunity.
In my Shakespeare class, my professor brought in this lady who does the Shakespeare Prague festival, where you can go perform a Shakespeare play here. There was an Acting Program in Prague I could have done. I specifically did this program because I wanted a break from acting. And also, when you're doing acting training, you're not doing much exploring of any city you're in, you're in a rehearsal room the whole time. You hear about these like traveling Broadway people [who are going] everywhere - they’re not, they just happened to be in a rehearsal room in a different city. They're not doing much. So I really wanted to separate myself from theater this semester and be sort of an outsider of observing art.
CR: Though amazingly, Prague is a big center for film and things like that and things being shot here.
IC: I’m in a film class here, but I don't have to do it. I just wanted to experience something different. I've never been outside the country for more than two weeks, so this is a big one for me.
CR: How is your academic experience different here?
IC: Really different, I'm not gonna lie. It's a big difference because in theater performance we don't have chairs in our classrooms. We don't sit down and listen to someone. You get in a classroom with 20 people that you've known for like the past two years, get on the floor and start meditating. And then it's like alright, now you get up and bark like a dog or some shit like that. This is different [from the LSA classes] because I'm taking like five, where I'm used to taking like one a semester [at Michigan]. I love the content of the courses.
CR: What's your favorite class?
IC: I love my class with Peter Mooha. He's teaching art history and he's just such a cool dude. We go on field trips, and he just talks about stuff. He talks to us about himself and I always like personable professors. My second class was from today, it was Contemporary Art: Odyssey in Prague. We just go to museums and study and talk about how the museum presents itself, who goes to museums, we're not studying the art necessarily, but we're studying how the art is placed in the museum, which is cool.
CZECH CULTURE
CR: Czech people are kind of notorious for being kind of standoffish. What is your experience with Czech people—have you been able to make friends with Czechs and things like that?
IC: It's not true. I go out by myself a lot. I have this app called RA Guide, which is literally a guide. And then it basically tells you about what clubs are happening. And that's mostly what locals do.
CH: I think Czech people are really nice. If I ever have a question, I'm at a store and I asked a worker,, almost everyone I've encountered speaks some English. And also they're really nice. I just thought that me speaking English to them, they'd be like "no, you're American and I don't care." But actually, I think they're all really friendly.
CR: Especially if you try some Czech with them.
IC: This one guy was talking to me about the Czech education system. You're required to learn two foreign languages in the education system, one that you have to be completely fluent in and one that you can kind of get away with being mostly good at—most people do English and I’ve met a lot of Czech people that also speak Russian.
CR: How about you? Have you been able to meet with locals and things like that? Or mostly the Eramus students?
CH: I haven't met locals and had more than just, “Oh, where are you from?” kind of like conversation but the Erasmus students, I really like having them in our classes because I think they offer a different perspective. I'm in Ideas Behind Politics and I realize that I don't really know any history about Eastern Europe. But they do. Also they're all really friendly and nice—and I think they want to be friends with us, too.
CHALLENGES & WHAT TO KNOW
CR: Is there anything you’ve found challenging about the program or things you would like to change?
IC: There’s no problems that you guys could actually fix. It’s mostly just social issues, but that’s just everybody has social issues, especially meeting new people.
CH: Yeah, I agree. I think if anything it’s been a really smooth transition because of everyone and the way they set up orientation. Freshman year it felt like you were on your own, and it didn’t feel like that. They did a really good job of mixing us with different kids in our program. They also did a really good job of familiarizing us with our areas because we did tours around the apartment and of the old town. That was really helpful. I can’t really think of anything that I would change.
CR: Is there anything you wish you knew in advance of coming, other than a 3 hour layover?
IC: I wish I would have packed a little differently. I spent so much money when I first got here on things that I definitely could have brought, like towels, and I didn’t. Then I would have loved advice about booking hostels and about travel to other places. That would have been nice because I had never traveled by myself to another country. I wish I knew what the sketchier ones were. But I was told I got really lucky. The people in my house were like "this is the best possible situation" and I was like "this wasn’t that good."
CH: I would agree because when I went to London, I thought all hostels were separated by gender. I didn’t know they weren’t. So yeah, just more information about when you travel, do this and this.
IC: And maybe thinking about surrounding areas. I know there’s definitely some common spots from Prague that you could definitely be like "this is what you can do in Berlin.’" Just 3 cities would be super cool, like the places people frequent at least once when they go to Prague. Just saying "this is what you can do, this is why you shouldn’t do that" would be really helpful.
With being Black in Prague, it’s just an immediate tell that you’re foreign. Which is fine, they’re used to foreign. I think I was actually expecting something a lot worse. [...] I see kids staring at me, but that’s cool, they just haven’t seen a Black person yet. It’s hard to explain. It would be nice to have other Black people in the program. But also it’s kind of refreshing because there’s not many systemic issues [in Prague].
IDENTITY
CR: The Czech Republic is very white and very Czech. Did anything come up related to being American, or being a woman, or being a person of color; things like that?
CH: If I’m walking with a group of friends, I don’t feel unsafe at night. I don't think I would walk alone at night a far distance, though. Being American, I was a little nervous at first, but I haven’t had any bad experiences with that.
IC: With being Black in Prague, it’s just an immediate tell that you’re foreign. Which is fine, they’re used to foreign. I think I was actually expecting something a lot worse. I went to the seminar for Black students abroad, and this woman was making me so scared. She was like ‘"people are gonna walk up to you and stare and look at your hair," but it’s not like that. I see kids staring at me, but that’s cool, they just haven’t seen a Black person yet. It’s hard to explain. It would be nice to have other Black people in the program. But also it’s kind of refreshing because there’s not many systemic issues [in Prague]. I’ve had less people stare at me here than Ann Arbor, and you know Ann Arbor likes to think it’s so woke. It’s weirdly refreshing that no one gives a f*** about my skin color, they’re just like "oh, that’s different, alright." They don’t have systemic racism here, so they were making jokes. I don’t know how to explain it, but they’re not from America. It’s almost oblivious, like they don’t understand. They don’t know it’s not okay to say this is funny.
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
CR: Did you receive any financial support to study abroad?
CH: I got a scholarship, like the normal one that I get for the semester, but then a couple of weeks ago I randomly got money deposited. I didn’t know what it was from, but it was from Michigan, so I don’t know if it was my housing stipend or something. But yeah, the scholarship and my normal aid.
IC: I’m a Go Blue Guarantee student, so it got put into my account. But, It was really easy. I was worried about getting it, but I’m always worried about it.
Have questions for Caitlin Hagen and Isaiah Crawford about their experiences with Humanities and Social Sciences at Charles University? Contact them at [email protected] and [email protected], respectively.
