Cost of Living in Prague

This differs for everyone, but generally, this is what my friends and I have for monthly expenses as students living in the city center.

Quick Breakdown of my Monthly Expenses:

Rent: 10,000CZK ($428); this is typical rent for a room in Prague

Food: 2,400-3,600CZK ($100-$154); I go grocery shopping every other day or every three days and spend about 300CZK ($12.50) each time

Transportation: 120CZK ($5.15)

Drug Store Stuff (Toiletries & Cleaning Supplies): about 500-750CZK ($21-$32)

Entertainment: 400-2,400CZK ($17-$100); depends on what you like to do for fun and how often you go out but a night at a club usually costs me 400-600CZK ($17-$25)

If you're someone who looks at numbers and your mind goes blank, here are some easily comparable prices for things:

(I'm from Connecticut, so that's my basis of US prices, just fyi)

Prague US

Cappuccino: 60CZK ($2.50) $4

Cocktail: 100CZK ($4.30) $12

Beer: 30CZK ($1.30) $6

Dinner at an average restaurant: 150CZK ($6.50) $20

Additional costs that don't occur monthly but you should factor in:

Health Insurance: 1,000CZK ($42); each month of coverage with Uniqa, most students have this plan. You need to prove you have it for the duration of your visa, so for a year visa, it's 12,000CZK ($514) paid upfront.

Flights: $375 round trip from Prague to New York. It depends on where you live, but this is what it will cost for me to visit home this Christmas

Visa fees: 2,500CZK ($107) each time you apply, usually yearly or half-yearly

Also, keep in mind that when you apply for your visa you have to provide proof of funds. For 6 months its 55,000CZK ($2,400). For one year, I believe, it is $4,000. However, you just have to keep that money in your account for 24 hours in order to get the paperwork from the bank. What I do, along with most students is borrow money from a parent, family member, or friend for a day, transfer it into your account, wait a day, get the paperwork from the bank, and transfer it back to whomever you borrowed it from.

Tuition: Obviously, this depends on the university. Public universities are like $300 a semester, and private universities are like $3,000 a semester.

Hope this helps you figure out if living in Prague is financially feasible!

xx Liza

Edited by Sophia Pedigo

enjoy a photo of me and my new plant because my phone is broken so I can't make a Pinterest cover

Dealing With Homesickness Abroad

Living abroad comes with endless perks, but even with all the benefits, you're still half a world away from family and that can be hard.

I'm not gonna lie, I don't really get homesick. Of course, sometimes, but when I rarely do, it's not very severe. Don't get me wrong, I love my family and I miss them dearly, but I don't often get caught up in it. Maybe it's just me or maybe it's my ADHD causing me to struggle with object permanence. Plus, I've lived away from home for more than three years now and Prague feels more like a home to me than the US at this point. What I'm trying to say is that I'm probably not the best person to be writing this, but I'm going to try.

Nevertheless, here's what I do to help curb any potential homesickness.

1. Call my family, a lot. I go through times when I call my mom every day; at the beginning of the pandemic when I was bored in quarantine, it was twice a day! FaceTime is also nice, but I find that if I'm seeing them it actually makes me more homesick and I start longing to be back in my childhood home. (I guess it kinda is the object permanence thing)

   1. If a phone call doesn't do the trick, I watch a movie from my childhood. Something about being wrapped in a comforter watching Harry Potter or the Lizzie McGuire Movie makes me feel at home.

   2. I also love baking family recipes. I keep a few of my mom's best baked goods recipes on hand for whenever I miss the smell of home.

   3. When I'm missing a food I can't bake on my own I go to the American grocery store and pick up some American foods, like Fig Newtons or Goldfish.

   4. My parents were big gardeners so I also keep some plants that were in my garden back home on my windowsill and it keeps my room smelling like home.

   5. Or, if you're like me and doing all these things just make you even more homesick than you were in the first place, ignore it until it goes away. Okay, that sounds like awful advice but it's what got me through my first semester! Don't dwell on what you miss from home and rather embrace the best aspects of your life in your new home! Romanticize the fuck out of your life! Go out with your best friends and have a picnic in a field like the cottagecore princesses you are! Or buy a baguette to hang out of your tote bag as you walk around the city looking like a Y2K Parisian icon! Or, my favorite, book a $50 flight to Italy, or Spain, or Turkey, or wherever for the weekend because you couldn't have done that if you still lived in the US!

This might be awful advice, this might be great advice, I really don't know but I hope it helps someone! xx Liza

Edited by Sophia Pedigo

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