Fear and Loathing in Czech Republic

Hi everyone.
The last days in Czech Republic were crazy.. specially the last weekend (in Prague).

I've been having serious problems with concentration.. in the last 2 weeks I missed some classes and I wasn't able to study anything. I'll try to change it... in fact I already started today to study again.

It's kinda hard to be motivated when most of your teachers can't explain the subjects in English, some of them have the courage to say "you have very good English"... wtf? They have their PhD (some of them more than one!), they are supposed to speak perfect English. How can they present their investigations in conferences if they are not able to explain nothing in English?

Well, enough of University, let's talk about what really matters. Last week I went to a couple of parties in Ostrava and had lot of fun. I think I have some good friends here. Not a lot of friends, but good friends and for me it's more than enough.

Here you can see me with the Portuguese and the French guys. From left to right: Sérgio, André Lima (me), Etienne, Miguel and Maxime.

The French guys turned out to be great people - very simple, kind and funny. The kind of friends you need in Erasmus.

I have good friends here but sometimes I miss my friends from Portugal. In fact I know amazing people in Portugal... I understand now 'cause I'm far away from them.It's hard to find people like them... artists, true believers in good causes, dreamers, sensitive people... in fact I think I'm very lucky to know them, I don't know lot people with this interesting circle of friends.I have those kind of friends with an amazing sense of humor that can make you cry laughing with no effort. Some of them can understand how I feel just by taking a short glance at my face.

Enough of friends, let's talk again about the parties.I went to the halloween party in Ostrava and it was great. I had my face painted and wore black clothes as you can see in the next picture:

Thank you Darina for the makeup... I think the final result was great.

The next day, at 4pm, the craziness started.

Me, the Portuguese and the French guys went to Prague by car.Everything started on the IKEA, our first stop for lunch. Some funny events happened inside but nothing too serious compared to what happened 9 or 10 hours latter!

The trip was quiet and it was great to drive a car, again. I don't think so much about cars but the experience of driving can be a real pleasure.

After getting lost for 1 hour we got on track and arrived without problems on the flat of Saara and Satu (my Finnish friends).

We bought 1 bottle of whisky, drank it inside the flat, we went to Cross Club and everything started. I won't tell you lot of details because what happened was not so funny... I was not involved in the problems. Let's say that some people had problems with the security guys because of a bottle of becherovka and a rubber thing to put the beers on top (some kind of carpet)... and a bottle of salt.
Ah, I almost forgot the disappearing of the jacket of a friend... and the overreaction because of it (which can happen if you are drunk).

Fortunately everything went well in the end. But believe me, the things could have been a lot worse in that night.As you can see, our weekend was being very calm so far... but it was not enough.

Next morning I went for a smoke, outside of the flat, with Etienne and we realized that our car was blocked, there was a clamp on the wheel. I was so pissed off! Am I supposed to know that a blue line on the street means "parking for residents only"!? I called the Police and they asked for 1000 korun (around 40€). I went upstairs to take the money but I called a Czech friend (Jindrich) before. He told me that they were supposed to charge us 500 korun for the penalty and I told them that when I went downstairs again. They became a little bit nervous and I though it was was better to pay and tell them to go fuck themselves, in Portuguese.. dirty corrupt thieves.

Saturday night was great. No problems at all. I was very happy to see almost all my friends from Prague. I'm used to Ostrava by now and I don't think so much about Prague (I guess..) but the truth is that everytime I'm with my friends from the EILC I feel really happy.... some of them reminds me of friends from Portugal.

We went to Chapeau Rouge and had a lot of fun. Good music, good vibes, everything was fine.

Me and Roberto (my Italian friend from Trento).

I'll come back with more stories soon... but I doubt I'll have stories as crazy as this ones so soon. Believe me, there is much more to tell about all the problems that happened but I don't think it's appropriate to write about it online :D.

btw, someone asked me whats the meaning of the name of my blog. It's a character of one of my favourite books "Ensaio sobre a Cegueira" (Blindness), written by one of the greatest Portuguese writers ever and one of the 3 best writes (alive) in the world, in my honest opinion. It's a dog and... well, if you wanna understand you have to read the book.

Good night and good luck.

Already 2 Months Passed

... and this was the best moment:



I was waiting for Radiohead for 5 years, so I was really lucky to be able to see them on the 2nd week I arrived in Prague. I've already seen dozens of concerts but this was the best.

--------------------------------------------

The cold arrived in Czech Republic... while you (the portuguese people) have 30 degrees in Portugal, I'm facing -4 degrees in Czech Republic (and it's going down).

Lots of things are bad with this cold weather and I think they're pretty obvious, but surprisingly there are also some good things.
I think that listenning to music, writing, reading, watching movies now feels better. It's weird but it's true. Ah, I'm also smoking less than I was smoking in the summer... it's hard to go out for a smoke with a cold wind and rain (and snow in a few days) like this.

---------------------------------------------

These first 2 months of Erasmus (yes, exactly 2 months 'cause I arrived on the 13th of August) were awesome but now it's time to settle down a little, start to work and have some kind of routine.

I think I've already chosen my Final Project (Thesis)... that means that I have to start looking more seriously to the lessons. I already started to study for some Subjects, and it feels good... to be partying all the time can become boring - I think I enjoy more a party when I have the sensation that I've been working and that I deserve partying because of that.

Now abut my project - it looks like a big project that is being developed for 2 or 3 years and will end in another 2 years, at least. I'll just try to develop a little bit this simulation area of the project (which is very important). I'll have a lot of work and I think I'm motivated, for the first time I'll be working by myself, this is going to be like a test for me.

My Thesis will be about... hmmm, I think most of you who are reading this blog won't understand what I was going to write so I'll tell just that the name of the Thesis is something like "Determination of Pulverized Coal Thermokinetic Properties".
As you can see, the name is very charming ;)). Seriously, this looks very interesting (and hard)... it's about Energy, Efficiency of Coal in the Production of Energy, Environment... bla bla bla. I'll have to develop a mathematical model and make some simulations with a software called Fluent.
Probably I'll start working on my Thesis on the Winter Semester because it looks kinda complicated.

--------------------------------------------

Well, gotta go now, I have a birthday party.

Good night and good luck.

I need my Erasmus Grant...

... to go to Regina Spektor's concert in Vienna, on the 17th of December.

Pros and Cons here in Czech Republic

Hi.

Today I was studying alone in a small Café called.. hmm something Mozart and that thought came into my mind - "What are the pros and cons here in Czech Republic?"

Pros

- You can smoke inside almost all the pubs and Cafés, like we could, some years ago, in Portugal.

- Almost everything is chiper when compared to Portugal. Not so much cheaper, but a little bit, for sure. At least the beer, cigarrettes and housing.

- Location. It's really easy to visit some great cities, Czech Republic is really well placed.

- Culture and History. You can find monuments (huge monuments) everywhere... well, not in Ostrava, but everywhere else. I went to Olomouc last Sunday and I was really surprised - how can a small city have so much to show? And I certainly don't have to talk about Prague... this city speaks for itself.

Cons

- I'm Portuguese so I have to say the weather. Jesus, today was so cold... it already feels like Portuguese winter. Next week we'll have, in Ostrava, temperatures around 2 degrees... WTF? It's October!

- The food. Mediterranean food it's the better so I'm used to the best. Czech food is weird, heavy, "untasty"... bad, trust me. I miss so much my mother's soup! I never though I would miss a soup.

- The trains! Talking about it makes me nervous. I went to Prague 2 weeks ago, 9 hours of train travel, 6 and a half of them standing up... unbelievable.

- The weather and the food, again.

-------------------------------------------

As you can see, the balance is quite positive... I just have to cook, wear warmer clothes and use bus instead of train! :p

It's all for today.

Good night and good luck.

Everything in it's right place (maybe not)

Hi.

I arrived in Czech Republic on the 13th of August, so I'm living here for 44 days... and as I expected, this is amazing, a lot of things are happening.

I bought a guitar. Believe me, it is amazing. It's a Marris, a Slovakian brand of guitars. I was planning on buying a Takamine or a Ibanez but for the price I was willing to pay, I couldn't find a better guitar than this Marris I bought.
The sound is so warm and strong and the construction is pretty solid... I'm really happy with this business.



Finnaly I'm felling confortable in Ostrava. The centre of the city has some nice places to go and people here are more kind to the foreigners than in Prague. I know some nice people and I'm still alone in my room. The classes are starting slowly, but in a few weeks I'll have a lot to do.

This week I went to Prague alone, my portuguese mates didn't came with me. I went to Satu's birthday on the last Friday. It was really nice to visit some friends in Prague. I slept 3 nights in the Finnish girl's house and I went back to Ostrava yesterday 'cause the 28th of September is a National Holiday here in CZ.

Being here in Czech Republic is nice to clear my mind and forget some "ghosts" that were haunting me everynight. Most of all, I'm really proud that I didn't left any relationship in Portugal, it would be impossible (and most of all not healthy) to keep it alive when I'm so far from home. I want to be free to enjoy everything.. and there are so much things I wanna do.

Well, i have much more to say but I don't have time today, I'm going to celebrate Sérgio's birthday tonight... I think it's gonna be a hard night, if you know what I mean.

Good Night and Good Luck.

First Impressions of Ostrava

Hi everybody.

The differences between Prague and Ostrava are huge.
Here in Ostrava you have a street named "stodolni" full of pubs and klubs, really crazy! In Prague is different, you should choose one place to go because it's hard to go from one pub to another during the night, they're not so close.
On the other hand, during the day, Prague is far better than Ostrava. Ostrava is a "little" city, compared to Prague. Prague is magic, always full of life and with a lot of cultural events happening. Ostrava is also a big city (compared to Aveiro), but is mostly an industrial city... there's not so much animation during the day.

Currently I'm at the residence hall. There are 3000 people living here, it's crazy! You can party every night... but as you know, that's not what I'm looking for in Erasmus. I want to communicate, to know interesting people.
I've a single room! For now... probably my room mate will arrive in the next days, unfortunately. I'll try to get used to it, but probably I'll try to rent a flat, I want my own room to receive people and to be alone.

I'll miss so much the people I've know in Prague. It was a great month, exactly what I was waitting for. I went to Radiohead's concert (with my sweet little finnish friend Saara), I've known a lot of interesting people, I've known a great city that I'll visit more than once during this year and I learned a little bit of the Czech language (which will be helpfull during this year).

There's a problem here in Ostrava - too much portuguese people. I don't want to speak portuguese and, mostly, I don't want to communicate with people that went to Erasmus just to try to "bang" (and I'm sorry for the expression) foreign girls. They are the typical guys that have just half of the human brain (or less) and they can't have a serious or interesting conversation with someone. I think that I'll try to avoid they're company...

Well, now it's time to go to sleep, tommorow I'll have the first meeting with my Erasmus coordinator and I want to be prepared.

Goog night and good luck.

P.S. - (I promise that I'll post some photos here soon... I still don't have internet, I'm using the computer from a guy who lives next to me).

First Impressions of Prague

Viva!

If I had to choose just one word to define this first month of Erasmus, it would be "Intense".

Lots of things are happening, it's weird and great at the same time. The time is passing really fast, I can't believe I'm in Prague for almost a month.


This photo was taken by a friend of mine, Saara. We were in a Pub called Atmosphere, a very nice place to start the night.

I thought it would be hard leaving my family and my friends, but actually I don't think that much about it during the day... just in the end of the night, when I'm coming from the centre.

Sadly I'll have to leave Prague. Next Saturday I'll take the train to Ostrava and I'll have to start everything again... finding new friends, drinking, smoking... F&/#, I'd prefer to stay here in Prague for the rest of the year. I found here, in this EILC in Prague, some people that I really enjoy and that I'll probably miss a lot.

There are so many things that I should have done here in Prague... I have that strange feeling that maybe I should have been more courageous... well, lets not talk about it.

I'm loosing so much weight - around 4 kilos i believe. I have to be carefull, I don't want to get sick. The food here sucks, i miss my own country's food.

Well, it's enought for today... I'm tired, i went alone to the city centre for a long walk (3 hours) and now I should sleep for a couple of hours.

Good Night and Good Luck.