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...