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.

Accommodation Adventure - part 3: Belfast City Council

Your favourite series is back! :-P
I was thinking whether I should continue writing about this topic or not because I got a little reminder that Q Flats, the company which is handling the houses in so clean way and they are also very nice to you when some problem occurs and obviously doesn't stick to many moral rules, so these guys, are reading my blog! Cheers, buddies ;).
The main point of my effort was all the time based on a simple law - every deposit taken according to a tenancy have to be protected in governmental scheme for deposit protection. Never mind the contract haven't been signed. When it's deposit, it's deposit.
When I was talking with my landlord, we agreed that if they have new tenant, I can get part of my deposit back. So I waited and then I asked how is it going and also whether they can at least send me information about protecting my deposit within the governmental scheme, because that's what they were supposed to do. Since then I received after few of mine reminders, that they won't send me my deposit back and that they "are sure that [they] are doing the right things". Surprisingly they didn't say anything about the deposit scheme information. And I was really interested in what is possibly a reason not to send few numbers if everything is alright. After all, they didn't have any reason not to protect my deposit.
Also I started to be annoyed with my landlord because in his email he was still reminding me to double-check the contract we signed. And I need to admit, it feels kind of funny and kind of frustrating to talk to a man, who even doesn't know that you didn't sign any contract together yet. And he still doesn't know even when you tell him many times. I started to think he has really some kind of delusion problems, also considering what he told me when I was meeting him at the green mold house.
So I wrote nice email to Belfast City Council, asking them to check if my deposit was protected or not. And guess what! They replied to me! They replied to me that they contacted my landlord and he told them my money was payed as a reservation fee and because I never started to live in a house, it never turned into a deposit. So it is not their concern anymore. This I consider quite an interesting philosophical question actually. How money, which were payed as deposit and always talked about as deposit, are suddenly not a deposit? If you know the answer, just let me know :D. Also I find interesting that one call and lame explanation is enough for them. So I asked the council for their philosophical ideology, which depicts this complex reservation/deposit issue.

And I waited...

I waited...

I waited...

...

Motto of the day: 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".

From Murals to the Wall aka Still Easter Break in Berlin

To be honest, Berlin as a city is often just ugly, smelly, dirty and with creepy people. A lot of them. Half of the houses in Berlin, especially out of the city center, is abandoned and loosing it's match with nature. But when I got used to all of these, I even started to like it because it creates very specific atmosphere. You feel that anything you do is still part of norm and it feels kind of free and safe, a bit hippie. I think this city had really painful history and life developed amazing diversity in ideologies, styles, expressing and just being in order to survive with mental health.

One of many abandoned factories in Berlin. Still beautiful.

Mauer Park. One of the places you don't know if it's dreadful or nice. And with looots of creepy people.

I have been to Berlin before and always I think a lot about the past times. Being in the city center is not possible without noticing the line on the ground marking position of the Berliner wall, the Jewish Memorial with very powerful atmosphere or Checkpoint Charlie. In a way it is strange to me. I am from postcomunist country and these places are very powerful to see. And it feels a bit more alive when you are biking along the East-Side Gallery, the longest remaining piece of the Berliner Wall where artists send their messages to the world and young kids are spraying there ugly tags because it is badass. Walls separating people. So Belfast and also so not Belfast.

Checkpoint Charlie, welcome to the West

It surprised me, how the Berliner Wall is low. You couldn't climb on it, probably even not with help. But in comparison with the Belfast walls it is just a tiny piece of fence. In Belfast the problem was preventing people from killing each other. I heard the Belfast walls were more act of protecting the communities than separating the people. In Berlin it was enough to prevent people from climbing over. It was the higher power which decided the people shouldn't talk to each other even though they would love to. When I see both those places, it just comes to my mind, what a stupid and frustrating idea it is to build walls between people and sadness takes place in my heart :(.

The wall in Belfast

The Wall in Berlin. See the TV tower from Alexander Platz?

TV tower in Alexander Platz with cathedral at Museum island

Berlin is not only about nazi stuff and the Wall. There are other amazing historical buildings too. The building of Reichstag is beautiful and majestic.You can even make a reservation and visit the building for free, take a lift up to the roof and make a tour with an audio guide which will tell you about history of the building and point at the most important things you can see around. It is a very good way how to start a stay in Berlin because it gives basic overview of main sites in the city center. That's why I've been there the last day of my stay :-P. And if you want to go around more, the Museum Island or just getting lost in the connected courts inside houses and all the little alleys are a great place to spend time too. The problem is that after 3 weeks I have too many things to write about that it is hard to talk about all of them. But if you want some advice where to go, write me ;).

Reichstag awaiting

Potsdamer Platz with crazy buildings

To sum up my stay, I think in a way I fell in love with Berlin. It is really amazing city with so much diversity and it will be great pleasure to come back again sometimes. As I am now experiencing more other countries and cities than Czech on long term bases, it is great to really feel how every place has something interesting and beautiful to offer and still it remains totally different from other places in the world.

Motto of the day: Anywhere abroad you will go, it wasn't a bad choice.

Parks and Rivers aka Easter Break in Berlin

One of the crazy advantages of studying at Queen's is that we have 3 weeks of Easter break without any lectures or duties. 3 weeks of nothing in 12 weeks long semester seems kind of funny to me but for Erasmus students it is amazing opportunity to travel a lot. So we do. One of the most favourite locations to travel is Scotland - Glasgow, Edinbourgh, Loch Ness and Northern Highlands. Other destinations to go are London of course or some circuit around Ireland. Some people are also heading back home to see their family or girl/boyfriend and some people are just crazy and go to Germany, US, Portugal and then back to Belfast. So I chose to combine travel and visit my close ones. I went to Berlin to see my boyfriend for whole 3 weeks. After all, it is half of my stay in Belfast and it is appropriate time for such a visit.

When the plane was landing in Berlin, I was surprised and thought something is wrong, because I saw just woods and lots of rivers and ponds. But it turned out to be really Berlin and it stayed like this for whole 3 weeks. There is just so many parks and the river Spree and other smaller rivers are just everywhere and it gives the city very dynamic/relaxed feeling. Amazing thing about parks is that nearly everywhere you go, you can go around river or under trees or just through forest. To describe Berlin - it is many smaller, cute and sometimes even countryside looking towns plus busy modern city center. Each of the little towns has totally different atmosphere. But even in the city center there is a giant park right next to Reichstag and Brandenburg Gate. So even if you would like to hide from nature, you can't.

The parks are huge. It is not so hard to feel like in the middle of nowhere in few meters from street. That means there is also lots of different spots and fun places. There is a mini zoo, football stadium, concert stadium, little lake, train circuits, building model park and some other interesting things only in the park close to our flat. I could walk in this park for whole 3 weeks and I would still have things to explore. I even made there few new friends - 3 lamas, woodpeckers, singing blackbirds, fox!!! Do you understand it? Fox in the capital... I still can't believe it. Oh, and I was running there! I can't believe this too. You can? I can't.

The park starting 200 m from our appartement from sky

If you start to be bored with walking and running in parks, there are still the rivers and ponds and lakes. It is possible to borrow different kinds of boats probably nearly everywhere in Berlin. With an engine, without engine, with paddles or steppers. We took kayak for beautiful 2 hours on a sunny day. If you stay out of the way of the big industrial boats, you can sail pretty far. So we visited
Köpenick, which is just beautiful and cute, with cosy atmosphere... Until you find out that there took place so called Köpenick blood week, described as one of the earliest great atrocities of the Nazi period in 1933 with 500 arrested, interrogated and tortured people. The cosiness of the place is making the feeling even much more scary. It's like looking at a baby serial killer. Well... History is sometimes strange to understand from nowadays perspective. Especially if you don't know much about it as me :).

Me looking like a professional sailor

To cheer you up - there is the strangest abandoned place I've ever heard about in Spreepark next to the river. A big ferris wheel visible from a big distance is preparing you to meet an old abandoned entertainment park. I have to admit I firstly did not see the wheel, so I was suddenly surprised by a dead dinosaur lying behind a fence. And there was more of them all together with other fair attractions, everything covered with grass, dirt and obviously not used. We even found it in a list of the most beautiful abandoned places in Germany (if you want to see some pictures, see number 2 on the list http://www.buzzfeed.com/awesomer/beautiful-berlin#.sf1ll3g0K)

Dead T-Rex under ferris wheel

In the same park I also met the greenest grass on planet Earth. All the place was smelling like an onion and it felt so strange. Have you ever smelled onions in a forest? My boyfriend said it is grass which is normally considered weed and they feed it to rabbits. Because I like onions, it was like claiming it is not poisonous and I gave it a try. Firstly I enjoyed the onion taste but after some time I started to feel something is not alright and rest of our walk I was spitting all around. I really don't understand what the rabbits like about this grass.

The greenest grass in woods ever. Isn't it just refreshing under the sleeping trees?

There is just lots of fun in Berlin and you even don't have to see the city itself. But if you would like to know a bit more about it, the next post should offer you some more information and my experience ;).

Motto of the day: Do not eat things which smell like onion, but are not onion.

Concert for BBC

I am starting to feel ashamed how long it takes me to write something. So even though I have prepared 2 posts from Easter break in Germany, I will share with you a short story from yesterday concert of University Chamber Choir.

As you maybe recall, I was really missing my university choir here so I joined Queen's University Chamber Choir. And yesterday there was finally our concert in St. Nicolas church on Lisburn Road. And at noon before the concert we received an email:

Dear All

Please find attached the programme for this evening’s Spring Concert.
Remember there is a rehearsal at 5.30pm this evening at St Nicholas’.
Concert Dress: Plain Black shirt/blouse; skirt/trousers, shoes (no boots please).
BBC Radio Ulster have agreed to come along and record the concert this evening with a view to putting out some of it in one of the Sing Out series over the next few weeks.

Kindest regards
Audrey

Ooookey. I will be on BBC radio :D.

The concert was lovely. I like the songs we sing because they are very lively and the approach of our director is also refreshing. So I sang at the concert with choir old sacral music, spirituals and even a traditional song in Irish language. It was great fun even though I still wasn't much confident about the songs. But our director is so amazing, that he shouts at us things like "Move a bit!" or "Believe in yourself!" and that's just great in comparison with our choir director from my university, who shouts more like "Solve it yourself!" or "Stop vomiting into the music sheets and start singing!" When I hear something like "Believe in yourself", it makes me feel more cocky than humble, but the results are huge when you listen to the new atmosphere of the song. And it has great impact on your voice quality.

I am really interested in whether on BBC Radio Ulster will be whole concert with all the speeches because that would mean UK will hear about German girl Birte and Czech girl Pavlina who sing with QUB choir and that would be cool :D. I would be personally on air in another form.

The university choir in my university city Brno is now taking part in an opera in the National Theatre so I was a bit sad I can't be with them to have such opportunity too. But I got new opportunities and even tried really different approach of leading a choir. I also have seen another university approach to choir singing. And that's not bad.

So if you want to hear this university choir, Birte's great solo on recorder or men's part of the choir (they are actually very good) singing Barbershop blues, you are welcome to turn on the radio in 2 weeks Sunday (hopefully 10th May) at half four (16:30) on BBC Radio Ulster. 

Motto of the day: When you miss something home, believe that you will gain amazing experience elsewhere too. I will be on fockn' BBC :D.

Irish song we sang - Siúil A Rúin

Marshmallows and Sprinkles

One of the first things I found exciting about Belfast when I came here is that they often offer milkshakes, cocoa or hot milk with marshmallows. To me it is very interesting usage of these bonbons. And when I was on my hunt for a new laptop there were other things going on, I  felt a bit down and I needed some sugar boost. So I bought in an university cafe a Babyccino - steamed milk with chocolate, marshmallows and sprinkles. Perfect for kids!

I got a cup of milk with a bit of chocolate on the top and 4 marshmallows. And the most important question came. What should I even do with the marshmallows? Firstly I tasted the milk. The milk was kind of low fat, so not much of a taste. So I put 2 bags of sugar in the cup which didn't help much. Then I tried to put one marshmallow for a while in the milk. It seemed to melt a bit and create some kind of goo on the surface. The marshmallow itself taste a bit differently then marshmallows we sometimes eat at home. And I am also pretty sure my childhood marshmallows doesn't melt so quickly.

Stage 1 - Marshmallows next to the cup

Stage 2 - Melting marshmallows

So I was experimenting more. Actually it takes really a lot of time to melt a marshmallow in hot milk. It seems that the goo is also some kind of protection against proper melting. So I needed to help it a bit with spoon and press a bit the marshmallows to the side of the cup. It takes long time and lots of effort to totally melt a marshmallow. Eating the marshmallow in half of the process is disgusting thanks to the strange viscosity of the goo which is kind of tasteless but still you can taste something disturbing. Melting marshmallows create kind of thicker foam on the milk and probably they also finally gave some sweetness to my milk. I played with it for quite some time, but I still wasn't sure, why they sell the milk with the marshmallows and what exactly is best to do with them.

When I was paying for this interesting funny drink, I asked a waitress what do they normally do with the marshmallows. If they dip it or just let it melt in the drink. Do you know what she replied? "We just eat it."

Motto of the day: When you have a marshmallow, just eat it.

Land without Laptops

My laptop died.

After 4 and half years of fun together he decided to leave me for good. Or not for good. But he seems to be working on a different time than me. And we are not soul mates anymore. When I need to work, he just passively turn his back on me and turn himself off. My lovely computer... What happened that we can't work together anymore? Well... I won't mourn for you forever. I can' t get rid of a feeling that he is just playing for being a master of the situation. But baby, this doesn't work with me. I am done with you...

Actually he started to protest against normal functioning few days ago, when I was on Easter holidays in Berlin (wait for some of the following posts). So I was thinking whether I should buy a new laptop in the last 2 days in Berlin, because he was still cooperating from time to time so I could search for stuff. (I like the word stuff. It saves me.) Finally I decided I don' t have enough space in luggage for another laptop and I felt it is better to buy it in UK from other reasons too - like my favorite British keyboard.
I started to care about situation in UK and I wanted to find out in what shops it would be nice to see some laptops. And it seemed strange to me because online there was quite empty search result page. Anyway I found the best lead and they even had 3 selling stores in Belfast. I found the store quite easily, but it was only a place where you could collect your online order. No physically present laptops. So I spent another 3 hours walking around city center and 2 biggest shopping malls in Belfast. I made few observations:

• Shopping malls are for buying clothes and eating. Nothing else.
• The management puts a lot of effort into getting you lost.
• If you find a place in mall with shops present on the floor you are now, there are only their names which don't say anything about what service they provide.
• There is only one place in whole mall where the categories of shops are written. I thought laptops could be in Media and Eletronics.
• Mostly it is stores of O2 or Vodafone.
• There is no way to see a single laptop in whole city center.
• But there is at least 10 shops with mobile phones.
• Other electronics like fridges, vacuum cleaners, kettles and so on are not reachable too.
• Kettles and kitchen stuff is possible to buy in Tesco.
• Mobile phones can be seen, touched and put into service. Laptops obviously can't.
• It is scary how we can't study, work or talk with our loved ones without these gadgets now.

I am really wondering where people here buy laptops and put them into service. It seems there are 2 main websites, Amazon, eBay and maybe third, Argos, where you can buy laptops and accessories.

My friend told me that there is a shop with laptops in Student's Union at University. I was happy and went there. They sell 1, in words one, laptop. One (1). I was offered 70 pounds (2600 CZK) discount in comparison with normal price. Probably because no one buys the laptop and they need to sell at least something. I didn't like the colour (it was freaking ugly) so I was offered a bit different type with only 50 pounds (1900 CZK) discount but in white colour. I checked internet and decided to buy this one. I was happy I have a person to talk who will maybe become a doctor of my new techno-partner and who will give me some advice and confirm the things I read on the internet about warranties and so on. Even though I couldn't understand him much thanks to his accent.

After one hour I had my new baby in my arms and I was heading home. Now I am writing on my new amazing white English keyboard and it feels so good my new laptop haven't turned off on his own so far. And the screen is so welcoming and big. I am really happy with my new partnership so far. And because he's elegant and white and my Windows 8.1 is light green and orange, I decided to call him Paddy after realization that I unconsciously chose colors of Irish flag.

Welcome to my life, love!

Paddy's model

Motto of the day: Everybody need his own iPaddy.

A song dedicated to all people who struggle in life:

Get get get get get over it! La la laa laaaa la laaa laaa...

Coins and Banknotes

Money in Northern Ireland is funny. As it is part of the United Kingdom, it also uses the same currency - pounds. One pound equals to a hundred pences. This is the sign for a pound - £. I think that when I write the sign by hand, I am still doing it wrong. Really, try it. Try to write it just from your memory. It is so unnatural :D.
Actually in the United Kingdom there is more than one bank which produces its own banknotes. There is 12 different sets of banknotes including Isle of Man set and Gibraltar set. That causes kind of a mess. I just can't go to London and pay there with banknotes I use here. In London simply nobody knows how Bank of Ireland banknotes look like so they don't accept them. On the other hand, banknotes produced by Bank of England are accepted everywhere but these banknotes are the least creative. You can recognize them thanks to the Queen on every one of them. Thank God, coins are the same everywhere.

Front and back side of Bank of England banknotes

Bank of Ireland banknotes I mostly use. See? No Queen.

Using coins was a bit confusing for me at the beginning because the shapes and colours change a lot, but for me there is no obvious sequence in the shape or size. The biggest coin is 50 pence, then 2 pence, or 2 pounds, then 1 pound, then the small ones but in a strange order. I don't know. It's messy :D. 50 pence and 20 pence are polygon shaped, the rest of coins is round. The colour also changes but the only 2 colour coin is 2 pounds. There are different pictures on the coins, but of course on each there is the Queen. You can try to find coins with special pictures, one from each kind of coin, which together form the Royal Shield. That's pretty cool. So far I collected only one thanks to a nice guy in kebab stand, who was examining the coins in a cashier with me to find tha last missing 50 pence.

Imagine the Queen on the other side

The Royal Shield

Because I spend my time with Erasmus students, it is also not uncommon to meet foreign coins or currencies. One of the first evenings I was in Belfast we were sitting in 3 people in a pub, drinking our first Guiness and we put together not only pounds, euros and czech crowns, but also mexican, indonesian, chinese, hungarian, serbian, swiss and maybe some other coins and banknotes. I even don't remember. But I have to say, it is sometimes interesting to see, how much money can be diverse in colours, shapes, writtings or materials.

Motto of the day: The Queen in your wallet opens you door to everywhere.

Few pictures of money we gathered

Even tough mexican banknote paper can't overcome everything

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

St. Patrick's day. What a phenomena. Sometimes also called St. Paddy's day with all the love irish people have. Lectures and work were cancelled for this day so that everybody could just enjoy the celebration of irish nature. St. Patrick is a catholic celebration, so it is really IRISH. And as one person well notted: "To go outside on St. Patrick's day with a british flag is a suicide." Remember this for later.

I feel now St. Patrick is celebrated worldwide. In the Czech Republic too. I've never seen much sense in celebrating St. Patrick's in the Czech Republic. To me it appears like mixture of pleasure from green beer and from idea of getting drunk in clothes you normally try to hide you have... Hm... Actually it sounds quite czech.

In Belfast, we gathered as Erasmus students, dressed with at least some green accessories and went to the city. We had meeting at 11 am, some of the people were already really drunk in the time I was trying to wake up. When I saw our group going through the city, it seemed a bit funny. We went kind of crazy about the dresses. With guiness beer hats on heads, hairbands in shape of leprechaun hat, big green hats, green braces, trousers, jackets... Locals we met on our way to the city center had green sweater if anything. So it seemed that the only crazy people excesively buying all the green and giant stuff in souvenir shops are tourists and kids.

Ready for action

The city was truly living during St. Patrick's day. There was a parade starting at the city hall and then concert near the Lagan river. Both of these were really lovely, filled with irish dance, music and culture overall. There was live music in every pub through whole day. Mostly it was one of the best bands I've heard in Belfast so far. Obviously irish people have few favourite songs which every band plays at least once in 2 hours. So we heard them 4 times a day at least.The atmosphere in the city was just amazing. BBC news shot a nice video from the official celebrations. You can see it here and listen to amazing Belfast accent of Ms. Mayor. Interesting was also a lot of bagpipes in the parade, which I always considered scottish. Scottish influences infiltrated the celebrations even more. At least in form of a spanish student wearing a scottish traditional hat with tag "Ireland" and ginger wig atteched to it. Typical Catalan. It was amusing to look at him - always made my day.

Wild Rover - irish classic song of classic songs :)

The Belle of Belfast City - you can probably guess why this one is so popular in Belfast

Do you remember how I told you the connection between british flag and suicide? When we went back from the concert, there was a small camp with cca 50 british flags in front of the city hall. The camp was there few times before, but St. Paddy is St. Paddy. So suddenly all the streets around the City Hall were crowded with mostly kids, 13 to 18 years of age I would guess, with Irish flag on their shoulders, making mess and bad stuff like pouring lemonade on the ground and stepping into puddles of icecream (I am not exaggerating, they were really doing it like a bad stuff). And between this crowd and little british camp there were 3 rows of tough policemen in the black hard suits. Overall in the city there was few little "troubles" and arresting people who were delinquent or on drugs or both. I think this is only a sign of the vivid atmosphere in the city.

As the time was passing, people were getting more and more crazy. Around 3 pm we went back from the city center to spend some short time at the university area to get back into the city for evening fun, dance and music everywhere. But university accommodation is probably the wildest environment for the St. Paddy's day. There were policemen going through streets every few meters to watch the law and order. Probably really only to watch it and not intervene much with hundreds of drunk students. Gathering points were ATM, shop and frontgardens. The frontgardens of houses were crowded, naked people were dancing on walls, furniture was dragged outside, everybody was really drunk and doing the most stupid things they could think off. During this day I saw the most of bleeding people and fighting couples in my life, most of them in the univeristy area. Last but not least, the only SOS bus we saw in the city this day was in the university area. SOS buses are another opportunity for you to volunteer and make communal life smooth. So SOS buses are in the streets on Friday nights and other drinking days to offer you free coffee, tea, water, even bread. And if you feel sick, they will take you inside and give you time and space to recover. I find this public service a bit scary.

We spent some time in the crazy university area and it resulted in a decision to go to party to the city again and my friends being in very lovely mood. So we went to the Cuckoo's for another round of live music. To make it short, one of my friends was gently removed from the bar by bodyguards, because he was sleeping on the stairs. Then he decided to go home on his own. He didn't have keys, only his housemate had them, he went to wrong direction and got lost, we found his wallet in the bar and his passport was lost for good (luckily the other day it was found back in the bar again). Thank God some genius compassionate person put him into taxi and sent back to the center (all of this before 10pm). Even though this could seem like a sad story, the saddest thing about St. Patrick's day for me was that I was sick a bit, so I had one hot whiskey in the afternoon. That meant I just observed other people being in their creative mood dancing naked on the walls and loosing passports. Not that I would like to join them.

Motto of the day: Allways know where do you have your keys, passport, and friends.

My favourite St. Patrick on a big yellow bike

Studying Psychology at Queen's

Soooo... I am still struggling with writting about school. I normally like to say what is better and what is worse. I like to distinguish these two possibilities based on some criteria. But with school here, I can't. And also I was probably expecting that I am going to study to place, where most of the thing is better. But I feel, that maximum level of studying here is on par with my faculty.
Now, I finaly have some schoolwork to do and spend my time with. I have so much free time here, that it is great pain to finaly start work. So today I was whole day trying to start working. But I only listened to a lot of amazing music, ate and checked in for a flight to Berlin. Instead of studying psychology here in Belfast I was studying portuguese and french a bit, going to the choir, listening to live music, just walking outside, I started to run again, I learned a bit how to play irish flute. And now I am not able to work. This education system destroyed my motivation to study. And now after whole day of torturing my soul with trying to do something, I write blog post. I will burn in hell of laziness :D. But firstly you can read about my comparison of studying psychology at Faculty of Social Science, Masaryk's University, Brno and School of Psychology, Queen's University Belfast.

Less Time in School vs. A Lot of Time in School 

Obviously I have serious problem here, because I am just not in school. I go to school 2 days in a week. And the only effect is that during the other 5 days I do lots of things I like and none of the things I should do. I would just love to go to school every day, even for 2 hours or so. Only to have some schedule. And I love to go to lectures and listen to somebody who understands the topic. I just crave for more lectures here. Obviously they have so many interesting research projects from very different fields. So they could give us much more of the knowledge university is producing. And honestly, it is so much more interesting to hear about things then to read about them for me.
Even here, technical fields of study and other sciences are with much more work and time in school then social studies. And when you look at more technical people, they are used to working hard and with high effectivity, spend lots of time with work and still have hobbies and fun. I would like to have this routine too. But 5 days of free time... not good. Maximum I did for my psychological development is that I borrowed few psychological books in library. They have there some cool titles. I have Vygotski's book with old and very dirty cover now and it feels sooo good :).

Theory vs. Empirical Driven Approach

I am a bit concerned with absolute lack of theory here. It seems that talking about theory is taboo. We have 3 modules per semester and to each of them we have few articles to read every week. But probably it is the same articles which are then presented to us at lectures. So I choose not to read them but go to lectures. There is actually not much added value in lectures to articles or vice versa. Which is really a pitty. I think we got books recommended only in statistics class.
It is actually strange to me, that they never talk about some theoretical approach or background. What matters is previous research results, design, usage of results, ethical approval, economic sustainability and practical effectivity. They are much ahead in neuropsychological literacy. Not only in reading much more articles with neurological background but also about knowledge and even taking it more into account. On the other hand I feel they see many things much more unavoidable or fatal because of it. Which especially in psychology and psychotherapy can be very limitting point of view. And in a way it makes me think when the time will come that psychological treatment will mean reconnecting the wires in your brain.
In a way in Belfast it is much more sober and practical approach, which I really like. But it feels like something is missing. My teachers would call the missing part "psychological thinking". Talking with usage of concepts and knowledge we gained during our studies. I feel that talking only about specific study results or practical thoughts is creating much less consistent picture, because we talk a lot about the numbers and means, less about connecting these studies in some coherent picture. So far I saw only one teacher which did really good job in this connecting. But it seems very little to me. Also it was the only teacher who dare to give some negative feedback to class so far. He was external by the way.
Interesting is that the Master's degree is a lot about writting your thesis, so it should be more scientifical let say. And it is pretty amazing because all of the people here have their supervisor, who is tutor of their thesis. With the supervisor students consult most of their essays and they write the essays on kind of similar topic. And I have to say I am doing this too now, that I am fitting the topics more to my bachelor's thesis topic and it is much more enjoyable to write anything. Also you are still broadening literature you read in your own field of research and it is always handy. The supervisor is your guide through Masters. And teachers here are very nice and helpful. So this part of their studies is just amazing. If we should be inspired by something at my home university, it is this.

Wide vs. Narrow Spectrum

One of the main differences I see so far is that in Belfast no emphasis is put on history of psychology as a science or field and only accepted approach is very empirical and evolutionist. On the other hand at my faculty we pay a lot of attention to history of different paradigms in psychology. And psychology is a multi-paradigmal science. There is still no "right" perspective. So it makes a lot of sense to me to study all of them. The history, even sometimes very boring and not idealy taught, is important to understand what stands behind nowadays research, to evaluate how much something can be taken as "reality". It gives you more perspectives to see one problem. That's starting point for criticism and evaluation. If there is no alternative, there is no questionning. So even though students here are encouraged to criticaly evaluate the literature, the approach itself is not object of the critics.
So I am wondering if the studies here are going more to depth, if the critics seems kind of week. In a way people in my class in the Czech Republic are much more diverse with even look at psychology as science and you can find much more alternative views. I am not much of a fan for alternative directions, but in a way it amazingly serves for broadening of your own view, if you have the opportunity to listen to different attitudes then yours.

Activity vs. Pasivity

In psychology, diversity of people and thoughts is one of the most important ways how to even learn something psychological. And I am really interested in thoughts and ideologies of people around me. It seems that in UK the discussion is not so rich during lectures. There are some questions and discussions, but mostly result is of stating something obvious from the lectures. Technicaly these are things the teacher just wants to hear. Questions which are not of the same opinion or mood with the teacher's are handeled as not so valid to the discussion. Also when we discuss something, the people does not share their opinions or ideas. Mostly it is talking about observable or kind of "obvious"things. I kind of miss ideological or more abstract point of view. So in this way it seems to me people here are more passive.
On the other hand, there is a lot of free time, so they all have most of the week to work in some organization. Also volunteering is supported a lot and it seems everybody is doing something. So at least at practical experience students here are much ahead. Or it seems like it to me.

Theoretical vs. Practical Educating

Talking about practical issues, university is also offering some placements into practice, but it is only for the best students. Which I think is not so good, because university should take care about their students having such experience in my opinion. At my university we have compulsory placements in educational, clinical, organisational psychology and councelling. Again. It is much wider experience and at least it gives you the opportunity to really try more fields and find out what suits you the best.
I like how in Belfast, everything is much more focused on policy implications, possibilities of intervention and practical issues in general. Also when I see their material and technical support and possibilities... It is really crazy. There are guys whose thesis was based on 3 month intervention in Congo, I was participating in thesis research with eyetracking, another friend is measuring babies's brain activity in connection with language development. There is whole floor for animal experiments. Nobody is doing such projects at my university. Somehow I feel this is partly about money, but partly because psychological research is seen here as very important part of science. And because of the more evolutionist/biologist approach.
Also during lectures we work quite a lot with measurement tools. We can see some of them at my university during lectures too, but here we really had fun testing ourselves during seminars. So now I know that I am lost case with more than 2SD over mean on attention deficit scale of measurement tool for adults' ADHD. And more than 1SD lower than mean on hyperactivity scale. So I guess that's the reason why I can handle just sitting and listening during lectures. And live my life day dreaming. But I have some suggestions why I wouldn't trust this scale.
By the way, we can borrow many measurement methods from office for how long we want. That's amazing. Also because there are very well standardised methods and tests. They have sometimes even special norms for Northern Ireland. When I see how many methods are just not standardised in czech, with missing norms and missing latest version, I just see how much easier some issues are in english speaking countries.
Another amazing thing is that at my university, we still write essays and some academic or scientific stuff. Here we do much more funny stuff as writting policy briefs (short document for not academic audience about latest research and it's policy implications in some specific issue) or doing posters for parents about children atypical development. (I like the word "stuff". It explains so much.) I feel too old for being assessed for beauty of my poster, but it is kind of refreshing, that we write something with not so strict form and it feels much more "real" and useful.

Western countries experience

I was actually going to Belfast because it is one of the best universities in UK and in the world. Also UK looks good in CV. I was really looking forward to going to "the west", to study a lot at this amazing place. I love United Kingdom history and architecture and Irish culture. The best place to go study is simply Belfast.
Well, in a way nothing like epic world rank education is hapenning. But still I see a lot of western stuff. Like much more money or just the fact we are in UK. That means great international connections. English is spoken here and everywhere, so they can basicaly go anywhere and they don't have to study another language to study abroad and they won't struggle with it.
Measurement tools are developed in English, with norms for anything you can imagine. One of the repeating suggestions of classmates on following research of some study is that the research should be replicated in Northern Ireland. In a way for me it is kind of funny. I was imagining how a czech expensive study would be replicated in Slovakia just to try if it works the same. It can hapen but normaly we are just happy with results from any other country. No money, no people, no interest...
I also think that because for them it is not so important to be able to evaluate imported methods or care about bad translations or missing norms and so on, there is lesser emphasis put on statistics education and learning about constructing methods. But the shortcomings I see in system here are probably same for every module I am attending here.

So what about the quality?

I heard and saw here few very crazy and unbelievable things for me. And in a way I would be interested with what students from Belfast would be shocked in the Czech Republic.

• "Cognitive behavioral therapy wouldn't probably work with this poverty based problem, because the problem is on neural level." I am sorry, I don't remember what exactly it was about, but it was a lot behaviorally based. In my opinion, every psychological problem is somehow neural too. And if CBT can't "cure" it, because it is too much based on physical level, why CBT can't be effective as a facilitator of behavior and cognition? So what can we do? Are psychological problems possible to solve only with medical treatment?
• "So Piaget sth sth... Have you heard about Piaget?... Nobody?... Ah... OK. So he is very important." This was very crazy for me. We talked about Piaget even on high school. And I definately couldn't go through Bachelor's without knowing him. In UK people studying Master's from Childhood Adversity and Childhood Atypical Development never heard about him. Sometimes at home I really don't understand why we care so much about names and not about principles and processes itself. But this is not only about a name. It is more about the theory itself. And Piaget's theories are quite crutial for early development.
• First seminar in Assessment and Intervention module we did little test in groups about interpreting percentiles. It was very simple. Something without which we couldn't make it through first semester of statistics in my home faculty. So my group had 10 out of 10. But other groups had 7, 5 and 3 points. This was also scary. The statistics module focused on analysis in SPSS ended already. We wrote a test. I had one mistake because I couldn't understand few words in one question. 3 other people also had one mistake and remaining 50 people were behind us, having sometimes half points from a test based on one reading of all 5 presentations from lectures. I was really surprised by this. I wonder how this statistics level matches the great possibilities for research here. And also the proclaimed level of university. How is this measured? That a university is among 200 best in the world?
• Another thing is that we are provided here by exact examples how to do our essays and other works. When I went to consult a case study we will write, I basicaly got served everything I needed to know for preparation. In statistics we were writting a portfolio with few analysis. Nobody expected us to have some other knowledge then to repeat what we already did during lectures with teacher. I don't feel here I am expected to study more then is content of lectures. And it seems nobody does it. Also when you ask a question at a lecture, teacher's often don't understand it not only because my English is not perfect, but it seems they are replying to some less complex question because they just don't expect you to ask something beyond what they want to tell you. That made me stop asking questions because it gives me nothing. And other people seem not to ask much. But often when they start to speak, they have interesting ideas, practical,.... Maybe they are not used to sharing them. I don't know. But this sharing between students often teaches you the most.

So what is about these students after school so much better then about students from the Czech Republic? Studying at my faculty is much harder, much more critical thinking and independent study is needed to study in Brno then in Belfast. So what is the advantage? Lot of free time to work on your CV with more internships and so on? Or being native English speaking person? Or just the fact that everybody knows UK and half of the world think the Czech Republic is still Czechoslovakia (in case they know there is something like the Czech Republic)? Or the fact that UK is more economicaly and politicaly important, so they have more connections and probably put more money into research and so on?
I was thinking what could possibly be the cause of these strange things I wouldn't expect to meet in one of the best universities in UK. And I think there is very little feedback. I have modules, where we don't have exams, only work during semester. But the topics and content of work is kind of unrelated to what is content of the module. And there is no feedback on what we learned during the semester. There is no feedback telling me if I even understood what the readings were about. Or if I even read the articles itself or some notes. Teachers from my faculty often complain that students read so little. Honestly, I think teachers at my faculty are a bit underestimating the amount of work we do during semester and what everything we read for this work and also the quality of our work. At home I can get my essay back with thousands of notes on what is horrible about it and that I should make it better. And it is very very useful. Here if students know nothing in assessment module about interpreting percentiles on Master's, teacher will be surprised that somebody actually knows something. I have to say, last semester at home I screwed up in epic style. But if I would be here, I would be sweet.
I am finishing this horribly long post, happy that I finally wrote all of it down. I have very ambiguous feelings about studying here. Some things are totaly amazing about style in Belfast, some things make me question what is purpose of studying at all. Is it preparation for working and practical problems? Or is it building up the continuity of science and knowledge and being able to apply it? I think one without another doesn't make much sense. And in combining those two, I feel my faculty is doing much better job. So I hope we will still receive feedback, we will be still expected to work, expected to deliver good results and most importantly being helped, but expected to move forward and be independent. I think so far this is quite working. And maybe one day education from the Czech Republic will be considered on the same level as anywhere else from EU at least.

Motto of the day: Thank God for feedback! It's needed.