Motto of the stay

During my stay in Belfast I gathered lot of wisdom, I got older and I also killed some brain cells. In this final post I would like to offer you all the wisdom how it came to me. I created the ultimate list of my mottos of the day which is finished by motto of the stay :-P. It is interesting to see how at the beginning I was determined to you really some handy advice. At the end it turned a bit more personal and sometimes weird. But I decided not to change anything. So enjoy. Thanks to all of you for reading. It was pleasure to share my trip :).

The ultimate list of mottos of the day:

1) You will manage your travelling. There´s nothing to be afraid of. When you start to do things, they will also come to an end. Then you can be just happy to be free for another step.

2) You can try to prepare for everything and do your best. But the reality sometimes handle things differently than you would expect.

3) The university is good base for everything you need. They will have lots of organizations to help you with anything that could come up. They are here to help you enjoy your stay without troubles.

4) Only being in different university than yours is a great experience. You can see lots of cool stuff you couldn't see at your university. I´m thinking even university can make you love studying just by creating you lovely and nerdy environment.

5) Sometimes we close our eyes and don´t see the good stuff around just because some stupid idea was planted in our head. Open your eyes, look up to the sky and see :)

6) Every university city is probably quite old and has rich history. No matter what city you choose to study in, you will be surprised how many interesting things you can meet there.

7) Shit happens. Anything can be solved.

8) There´s nothing like bad weather, there are only bad clothes.

9) It´s never too bad time to study.

10) Don´t forget to save your work regularly (on the Queen´s drive). And don´t throw money into beer. It sinks and it´s not hygienic.

11) You can meet weird everyday stuff on your study abroad. Try to look for them before leaving. Then it won't be big surprise for you and you won´t be screwed for example when your phone runs out of battery.

12) Life is a stand up comedy. In (Northern) Ireland, you don´t understand it much.

13) Don´t stop your hobbies during study abroad. You will miss them. So find a way!

14) Even a tough butcher is capable of love.

15) You are studying and living abroad. It's part of your normal life. Life includes party, excitement, fun, but boredom, anger (and hard work) too. Also it's not healthy to party all your life.
16) Only small things in life (like elephants) can make us happy. And even though the things you meet abroad won't surprise you, the combinations of them will. For sure.

17) You won´t die because of a blight. That doesn't mean you should be ok living with it.

18) Do you understand English fairly? Don't worry and give it a try! Go study abroad!

19) Keep calm and om nom nom!

20) Even though locals say something is ugly, you can still find some touristic beauty in it. After all, who can say that he was in the worst place to live in Northern Ireland?

21) Try to prepare for maximum of issues in advance. In the era of internet there's only few things which you can't solve from home.

22) Love moves mountains. (Láska hory přenáší.) czech proverb

23) It can happen the education style won't suit you at your new university. Be patient and find something you can still profit from. Different is often just different, not better or worse.

24) There is no true living abroad without going to jail. Even if you would have to pay for it.

25) Thank God for feedback! It's needed.

26) Always know where do you have your keys, passport and friends.

27) The Queen in your wallet opens you door to everywhere.

28) Everybody needs his own iPaddy.

29) When you have a marshmallow, just eat it.

30) When you miss something home, believe that you will gain amazing experience elsewhere too. I will be on fockn' BBC :D.

31) Do not eat things which smell like onion, but are not onion.

32) Anywhere abroad you will go, it wasn't a bad choice.

33) Deposit is not deposit. If deposit would be deposit, it would mean deposit is deposit. But deposit is not deposit, therefore it can't be handled as deposit. If anything should be handled as deposit, it would have to be deposit. But deposit is not deposit, therefore it is not handled as deposit. So "we will not give you back your deposit".

34) Help people in need. People who are really in need.

35) Don't know what to do in kitchen?

Drink Pilsner Urquell with a chicken!

36) It's a great craic in Belfast!

37) The true (Irish) pub is the one where you feel like home :)

38) 1. Martin Luther King had dreams.
2. Some of them were fulfilled.
3. Obviously it is easier to fight racism than dirty dishes.

39) Home is where your heart is.

Motto of the stay: The time flies. So where to go now?

From One Home to Another

I am back in the Czech Republic! For a month now :D. It is important to note that I experienced really busy times when I came back. Concerts with choir and my beloved vocal group Illegato, meeting friends, family, visiting Berlin on my way back... And I put my blog aside for that time.
Before I came back to the Czech Republic, lot of people asked me if I am looking forward to go back home. When I came to the Czech Republic, people often asked me how is it to be back home. I didn't experience any big emotions moving from one country to another. I was in Belfast, I experienced what was meant to and the time to go back home came too.
I have to admit I was looking forward to many things. My friends, Czech bread and food, Czech hills and forests. And then I missed the Irish music and pubs and believe it or not the weather. Because in Czech Republic it was so hot I actually needed some rain. Nevertheless I appreciated I could take off my soft shell jacket after half a year. Everything has 2 sides, even coming back from Erasmus. And from some point it was also very hard to be home. I changed, my friends changed and sometimes gaps between us were created. Well, we need to fill them in again.
The questions about going back home or being there were interesting to me. As I was discussing with my friend Boris, we found our home in Belfast. I lived there, I had friends there, I felt good and I had my routine, studied, wrote essays... And I had my place, where I felt like home in my dorms. So I ended up thinking about home. Where is it? What does it mean? I went home to the Czech Republic. To the place where I was born, to my university. I was home even with my boyfriend in Berlin. Because home is where your heart is. And I found out I don't restrict my heart to one place. Every place is a home, just slightly different. I have many homes now, each of them very different.
When I had been still in my university in the Czech Republic, we were discussing home with my classmates. It is common now that young people are living equally in more places. With parents, with girl/boyfriend, in their university city... And some of my classmates even mentioned that they don't feel home at any of these places. With parents not any more and with boyfriend or flatmates not yet.
So I would like to end with my definition of home which I found in me. Except the fact my home will be a large house with a large garden and at least one tower, I also think home is where your heart is, where you feel you belong to, where you feel good and safe, where you feel you know the place, where you are part of the place and you are also creator of the place. That's the nice thing. I think you can create your home.

So goodbye Belfast, I came there to a new place, I am leaving it as my home to go to another one.

Thank you guys, it was brilliant!

Motto of the day: Home is where your heart is.

Hell in the Kitchen, Kitchen in the Hell

Kitchen is very interesting phenomena in student's life. For example in my accommodation, there is one kitchen for 16 people. 16 responsible, adult people, without their parents, but with cleaning responsibility on their own. So of course, there are some troubles coordinating all of the cleaning processes.
Kitchen is connected with common room. It is the place where all of the people from their single rooms have the opportunity to meet each other, to talk, to watch TV, to invite friends, have dinner together and just enjoy free time. So it is lovely place with huge potential. On the other hand, it would require us to keep it nice and clean for such usage. And that's a hard job :D.
Once a week a cleaning lady came, washed floor and surfaces, but to get to surface, she needed to take all of the clean and dirty dishes from all the 3 sinks and 3 ovens and put them on our dining table. There it kept piling and it took often whole week to make the table empty again. But in the meantime dishes were piling up also in sinks and then "cleaning lady" came :D. It was like Don Quijote is fighting the wind mills. Probably the only working system would be if everybody would wash the dishes immediately and also dry it and put back to place. But many people didn't have their own dish towel for very long time, including me and then the work ended with just washing dishes, but not putting them back in their place. That meant there were some clean dishes, but every newly washed dish was put on top of the old ones, which made them wet again and it kept piling up again. In the meantime there were still dirty dishes in the sinks, which weren't washed at all. When you wanted to cook, you needed to go through all of these piles and dirty dishes in sinks to find the things you needed to cook your dinner.

One of the smaller piles

Part of the dish pile is also fancy plant

Interesting strategy to do their dishes used by some was washing dishes, but putting them in place without drying them, or just putting them back into cupboards still dirty. Some people were trying to fight the desperate situation and sometimes wash at least few more pieces of dishes than their own. Others even washed everything in the kitchen, just to enjoy the place cleaned until next meal time came.  Well.. there was 16 different people, 7 different nationalities. And that means very different approaches to practically anything. And nobody wants to behave like mom of 16 adult people. So communication about our situation was not sufficient.
When I firstly came to my university accommodation, the kitchen was filled with funny pictures and memes. Like Martin Luther King saying "I have a dream that one day people will wash their dishes" and similar visionary pictures and quotes. That was funny. After few days and first complete cleaning by some anonymous savior whole kitchen was cleaned also from these pictures and we were just instructed not to be shame for our country and to behave like adults. It is sad that neither of these strategies was working. And it was getting worse and worse throughout semester. One of the worst days I took my parents for dinner to my accommodation. And it was a bit sad feeling, seeing my mom watching me to go through the piles, looking for pot, plates and cutlery, washing everything and only then starting to cook. My mom was really surprised we can survive this in long term and that we don't have problems with infections :D. What to say.. we are young and strong :D.

Motto of the day:
1. Martin Luther King had dreams.
2. Some of them were fulfilled.
3. Obviously it is easier to fight racism than dirty dishes.

What's the Craic? aka Pubs and Live Music in Belfast

The best thing about Belfast and generally Ireland is pub life. I will miss it so much! Firstly when we got to the city, we were of opinion, that we will find the best pubs by getting lost. And we found in a side abandoned alley a pub with definitely the cheapest beer ever - 2.5 pounds for Guiness. Normally it is 3.5 to 4 pounds per pint (130 to 150 czk). And on Tuesdays they have beer for 2 pounds! It was a little miracle. The Central Catholic Club, alias CCC is mostly filled with locals, older generation, very nice and talkative. Anyway, in all the pubs locals just start to talk to you freely and mostly it turns into very nice and enriching conversation.
If you would like to find a nice pub to go, I would recommend Cathedral Quarter. It is center of nice pubs, music and all kinds of art. Every year there is a Cathedral Quarter Festival, which is full of concerts, theatre plays and colours. The only problem with Cathedral Quarter is that it is really far away from university area and even if we would like to go there, there is too many great pubs on the way. There is lots of them and they have many things to offer. One of the main attraction of Irish pubs is live music. Another is that they are unbelievably cozy and comfy.

Cathedral Quarter life

One Irish friend enlightened me and told me that you know you're in true Irish pub when you feel like home. And I found mine in Kelly's Cellars and Fibber Magee's. Both in a city center, both with really amazing music. Kelly's Cellars is said to be the oldest continuously functioning pub in Belfast and you can feel that. There are old pots on the ceiling, funny cool old posters, the best choice of beers I found in Belfast. And the music is also the best, even though mostly it is not the Irish folk music I admire so much. On the other hand Fibber Magee's has plenty of Irish music and you can also dance. So we were there traditionally nearly every Thursday. After first beer some people there put aside their shyness and start to enjoy life. Often it ends with all the people in pub dancing and when Irish people dance, they don't care with who, so you are just still meeting new people. After a quite long dance with an older guy I received the most epic compliment ever. He asked me where I am from. So I told him I'm from Czech Republic. And he replied: "O' fock, I thought you're from Donegal!" Actually a day after St.Patrick's Day Fibber Magee's was filled with dancing people, but as the dance and talking went on, finally we discovered, the only survivors after St. Patrick's are Czech, Danish, Scottish, Belgian, Indonesian, Spanish, Serbian and one Irish person.

My beloved Kelly's Cellars

My favourite corner in Fibber Magee's where normally the band plays

The traditional Irish music is very specific, with lots of decorative additions to plain melody, which are dependent on the player himself. So in a way you need really great playing technique and creative soul to be good in Irish music. Traditional instruments are harp, tin whistle (flute), fiddles, bodhran (a drum), banjo, guitar and bagpipes. When you put these all together, the result is surprisingly cool. If you would like to listen to something more traditional and spontaneous I recommend Madden's Bar. It is nice, tiny place, really close to Kelly's Cellars. People just come there with their own instruments, play songs and drink beer.

Traditional Irish instruments

Madden's Bar

Just to make this post complete I need to share with you songs, which everybody in Ireland knows and any event is incomplete without playing these at least once. So enjoy and imagine whole pub singing out loud together with these melodies.

Wild Rover and Whiskey in the Jar - Irish classics of classics

Galway Girl and Tell Me Ma (also known as Belle of Belfast City - you know why this one is so much played in Belast :-P) - Songs to melt every girls heart

And my favourite song - The Lonesome Boatman played by the band we are going for dancing nearly every week. The young guy with bigger tin whistle looks like Spanish leprechaun according to a Spanish friend. Stylish poster of FC Celtic can be seen in the background.

Motto of the day: The true (Irish) pub is the one where you feel like home :)

Irish language

The first question people ask me about my stay in Belfast is: Do you understand to people there? The answer still remains: Not yet. But it's getting better :).
The thing here is that Irish accent is really weird and hard to listen, especially when you've never heard it. There is very heartbreaking moment when you start to feel confident about your English because you read a lot or because you can watch movies and then you encounter Irish people. And you know all your effort for many years is for nothing :D. One of the first sentences you can hear here is in the shop and among international students it's really legendary. It is: Do you need a wee bag? The staff in shops always asks this. And it is so sad when you realize the meaning only after 3 weeks of listening to it. One would say it is quite simple sentence. But trust me. It is not! :D
Some of you probably don't know how the Irish accent sounds. My friend received beautiful message describing it perfectly. The message said:

Did you know that when you say "Whale Oil Beef Hooked" fast, it sounds like "We'll all be fucked" in an Irish accent?

Did you? I know now. Talking in University is quite fine. The university accent as I call it is understandable just after few days without bigger problems. But when you go outside of the university, there is enormous diversity of different accents. I found nice video where some of the basic Irish accents are nicely said. Still with not so strong accent. I also add a video with girl, which is speaking normal Belfastish. Especially the "This is ridiculous" sounds sooo familiar :D. When you talk to bus drivers or shop assistants, believe it or not, the accent is getting even much worse.

Another thing is local slang. I don't hear it much actually, but it is always handy to know what it means. Only the simple words as yes and no are not the way you would expect them to be. Or when you hear something like norn iron, it means Northern Ireland. And these words are kind of important to agree on something. So here I add a short vocabulary to survive in Belfast.

Aye - Yes

Nay, Naw - No

Wee - a little, something small (e.g. a wee bit)

It was great craic - It was fun

What's the craic? How's she cutting? - How are you?

It was a cracker - It was good

Deadly/Class - Awesome.

I'm wasted, steaming. - I'm drunk.

Banjaxed - Broken

Da - Father

Ma - Mother

Me - My (One of the most famous songs in Belfast is called Tell me ma)

Eejit - Idiot

Fiddle - Violin

Poke - Ice cream

Tae (pronunciation) - Tea

Tea - Dinner

Just to make this complete, everything is lovely and fockn' brilliant. People call you love even though they see you for the first time and everybody is their mate or fella. I really love the way they speak here. Everything is like singing and it is also not uncommon to hear here the scottish "r" so I don't feel so bad when I use the Czech one which is really similar.

Motto of the day: It's a great craic in Belfast!

Czech impact

In the time, when Czech hockey players are making a success in Hockey World Championship 2015, nobody cares about hockey here. I am a shame, but I am watching only the results of the matches and videos with Bob and Bobek, our 2 rabbit mascots. The Championship takes place in the Czech Republic this year. Prague - the capital city and Ostrava. Because today first friend is leaving back home and I am starting to desperately miss Czech food (especially normal bread), I started to think what is the Czech impact on world around and what other nations think about us.
Actually, I heard some things about Czechs here, mostly from international students, and they amused me and surprised me. For example lots of students is going during their trips around Europe to Prague and many people have already been there. I wasn't expecting it so much, but I was flattered when an American student told me "Oh come on, everybody wants to go to Prague." Who wouldn't, right?  Lots of people also make some trip around Poland and Czech Republic, getting to know Krakow and Prague mostly. And I am happy they enjoy Prague more. Or at least they tell me this, possibly only to make me proud of my country. Well, it's working :D.

Prague - see? You should come too :-P

Of course, often the talking concerns beer and alcohol. For example now I know for Asians it is really weird to drink so much and for Irish it is weird to drink during day or just to have a beer with lunch. Often nobody knows which beers are Czech, but a little reminder is enough to obtain such an amazing fact that there is a South Korean study "proving" Pilsner Urquell is the best beer to have with a chicken. Top of all, obviously Czech people are famous for drinking a lot, but Polish people are famous for being drunk a lot.

Pilsner Urquell - probably the most famous Czech beer

I am not trying to be offensive here towards Poland, I just say what I heard. There is really a lot of Polish people in Northern Ireland so it is not so hard to find Polish guys and shops here. Still it made me very happy when I discovered a small shop with Czech, Slovak and Hungarian stuff like cheese, sweets, our favourite lemonade Kofola and other things. Talking about food - we have a tradition with my friends that we cook food traditional for our country and every week somebody else is cooking. I cooked bramboráky s masovou směsí (something like potato pancakes with mixture of meat and vegetables) and my friends liked it and even were full. We also ate everything, that's always a good sign :-P.

Poster which firstly caught my eyes

Kofolaaaa!

Piskotyyyyy :D

Sometimes I also discover very interesting details somebody noticed in Czech Republic. For example my friend pharmacist was on a conference in Czech Republic and he found out that Czech pharmacies are very good and provide a high quality service in comparison with other countries. But for me the best finding is that my friend from Spain was with high school in Prague and his classmates were so inspired by the city that they named their band after metro station in Prague. So welcome Spanish experimental music band from Barcelona called "Opatov" :D.

Motto of the day (today as a short poem):

Don't know what to do in kitchen?

Drink Pilsner Urquell with a chicken!

Begging business and homeless life style

My sister has been visiting me during this weekend. We saw many things. We went on Cavehill with the most beautiful weather I experienced here so far and then we were in Titanic quarter and just around the city and I showed her a bit the epic pub culture with live music here in Belfast. Actually talking with her about what is here to see was really interesting for me too. And thanks to her I found out I have really lots of observations about beggars and homeless people around.

I think these are 2 very different groups of people. Beggars and homeless people. Beggars are having job - begging. They start around 9 in the morning and disappear around 4. On Friday they sometimes end a bit earlier, because weekend is coming. On weekend there are no beggars in the streets. Beggars are very pragmatic in choosing a place where to beg. You can meet them at the entrance to shop, next to ATMs, in front of important buildings... We have a new one in front of my faculty so I am meeting the guy twice a day at least. I am still resisting. He is smiling at people with his toothless smile and rattling few coins in a little bowl. When you are nice to them and answer at least or smile back but you don't give them any money, they are angry at you, waving arms above their heads and complaining. Sometimes pointing at your recently bought groceries and accusing you of being selfish. In case of beggars I am kind of racist, because they all are darker skinned and local people say they are all Romanians... Which I don't know, I didn't ask them. But the way they act is making me very angry.

Then there are half beggars. I saw only very few of them, but I think these are acting a bit different. They are not accusing and not just asking for money. They address you and sell some kind of a magazine. We have something similar in the Czech Republic. People with financial problems sell a magazine, which is actually quite interesting. We know about this kind of business and giving them money is supporting somebody who is trying to make money with actual work.

Homeless people are also pretty interesting. They are not of any race specifics and surprisingly of all the ages. From very young people of my age to old people. Girls, men, anybody. Interestingly, they have very nice and new looking sleeping bags often. Which I've never seen before. But it make some sense to have at least a good sleeping bag if you are living in the streets. Some of them even seem to have very nice clothes too. Especially the young homeless generation. To me it sometimes seem just like some crazy young guys camping in the streets instead of woods. Maybe it is only some weird living style for some of them.

Do you remember the homeless guy in library I was writing about at the beginning of my stay here? I was never talking to him because the smell around him makes me vomit. But my friend talked to him. His name is Cyril and obviously he read every book in the world, not only in this library. He is very smart and educated. And now he is much more outside around the Botanic Garden, leaving the library behind. Thanks God for my nose. When my friend was talking to him, Cyril invited him to his home and gave him address! And hold on. My friend checked the address on Google Maps. It is just a normal looking nice house. I think I don't understand anything anymore. Why he does not wash himself at least if he wants to live with students in the library or around Botanic Garden with his plastic bag, book and old clothes?

It is weird for me to see here all these people. Even though I would be sometimes wishing to help somebody, I am just confused from the big diversity of people who look in need here. So far I donnated 50p to a guy who needed it for "phone" or something. He sounded desperate. I met him in 15 minutes, a bit more drunk, still asking last 50p he needs and not remembering I already spoke with him. I am not helping again :D.

Motto of the day: Help people in need. People who are really in need.