Update from Alex: Notes on a term in Prague

Posted 05/04/01

In mid-March, Alexios Monopolis '03 embarked on a spring break excursion to the Arctic Circle to learn about international wilderness management at a World Wide Fund for Nature (formerly World Wildflife Fund) conference. From there, he continued on to the Czech Republic for his spring term participating in Dartmouth's Foreign Studies Program (FSP). The following is our second update from Alex. His first letter back to us here in New Hampshire described his experiences in Svalbard in northern Norway.

Throughout the FSP, we have been learning a great deal about the geography of the Czech Republic through traditional lectures and field excursions. The combination of the two approaches - one academic and the other hands-on and based on experiential learning - has proven very successful.

For the most part, every two-hour lecture is performed by a different professor who discusses an issue related to his specific field of research. This way, we are able to learn from the experts and also focus in-depth on a diversity of topics such as European Union accession, the urban spatial structure of Prague, market-led economic transformations, tourism, international migration, health inequalities, regional development, unemployment, industrial growth, agriculture policy, and environmental problems and management.

The excursions (which have included trips to the "black triangle" region of Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic, towns and factories in Bohemia, a former Soviet military base, a nuclear power plant and hydroelectric dam, UNESCO World Heritage sites, and the vineyards of southern Moravia) compliment the lectures by allowing the students to actually experience the issues that were just discussed in class.

Today, we officially finished with this part of the program and are now moving on to the last third of the FSP. During the next month, every student will write an extensive research report on a personal area of interest dealing with the Czech Republic and at the end of May, we will present our findings to a panel made up of Czech faculty members and our fellow students.

Aside from the academics, Prague itself is an amazingly beautiful city, practically untouched by the devastation of World War II. Its cultural heritage is unparalleled. In short, Prague is what you make of it. Social, artistic, and cultural events abound and, for the quieter spirits, there are numerous gardens, parks and green spaces throughout the city (not to mention the beautiful Vltava river itself) to relax and seek solitude in. Although I don't have any other FSPs to compare this one to, I cannot recommend the Geography FSP enough for any student wanting to study and experience up-close a post-communist society in transition, a city that redefines "culture," and a country that has something for everyone, and everything for the curious and adventurous.