Cookie Monster om nom nom

Me and my boyfriend, we love Cookie Monster. I am not sure how it started, but last few month I fell in love with this fluffy blue creature which can't resist cookies when it sees them. Then Cookie Monster started to infiltrate my life slowly. I got Cookie Monster tshirt for Christmas. Of course blue, with a bit crazy eyes and with soothing words: "Keep calm and nom nom nom". Then I got Cookie Monster mug to take it with me to Belfast. So suddenly I became a collector of Cookie Monster objects.

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One of the first days in Belfast I discovered that in Maggie Mays (café/bar/restaurant near university) they have Cookie Monster milk shake in their offer! So it was obvious I need to pay there a visit. Yesterday it finally hapenned! I went there with my friend from dorms, wearing my Cookie Monster tshirt and with my Cookie Monster mug in bag. I got giant milk shake with Oreo biscuits and I also ordered Bonofee Pie. The best pie in Northern Ireland with cookies, caramel, bananas and coffee. Bananas and coffee = Bonoffee. It is really delicious. I was so full that I couldn't move much when I went to the city for a walk. By the way, I bought there an irish flute. But that's another story :).

Motto of the day: Keep calm and om nom nom!

The ad which caught my attention

Me, Cookie Monster tshirt, Cookie Monster mug, Cookie Monster milk shake and Bonoffee Pie = heavens!

Speaking English, writting English

The time when I start to write about actualy studying here is coming. But firstly I decided to write about the most important thing which enables me to do so - English language.
Lots of people worries before going on Erasmus or even applying, that their English is not good enough to be able to study abroad. It can be true, but I think to study abroad is definately possible if you understand English in some way. The talking will hopefully come.
First days in Belfast where pretty funny. I was happy to have the girl who spent here last semester with me. The accent of locals is really strong and I feel like every person has his own. So I don't know if there is some possibility to get use to the Belfast accent. At university people talk in much more understandable way though. And talking with international students is much more funny and confused, but in a way it is much easier to understand too. Most of the international students who are here since September say that they can really tell the difference and improvement in their language skills. Talking with non-native speakers has it's disadvantages too. Everybody uses some words which has the closest meaning to what we want to say and not everytime it's working as we hope. Very funny is when we transform words from our own languages so that they sound somehow englishish. But the only person, who sees any meaning in the new word is you. Sometimes you don't realize it and still repeat the nonsense getting more and more desperate, trying to figure out why nobody understands you. Also when you figure out meaning of some fake word with somebody, you start to use it even though it's not sure if the word really exists. And you start to create completely new language, not usable with other English speaking people.
I started to attend the chamber choir and go every week to the stand up comedy club because I wanted to be more in contact with local people and local language. The stand up comedy is still very difficult for me, in choir is a very lovely girl which I talk to. She is the fastest speaker on the planet Earth = sign of a true Northern Ireland inhabitant. At the lectures I struggle the most so far. Often a discussion is required or I have a question but it is much harder to say what you want if you need to be very precise and use specific words and terminology. One of the main (dis)advantages is that here everybody is native speaker from shop assistants to all of my classmates and teachers. So the only person who doesn't understand everything in lectures and who struggle to express herself is me. I still have feeling that the teacher is never replying to what I ask and I don't know if it's the teachers here or me, giving them not understandable questions. So I came up with a law of conservation of energy. Don't worry, I won't try to drag you into physics here, but I really think that my amount of energy usable on English communication is constant. The more of effort I need to put into understanding and translating for me, the less of the energy remains for translation back to English and speaking. I believe that's why the discussions at lectures are hell for me :D. And I am still not in the phase when I could think in English. Sometimes it hapens, but with minor stuff like counting and everyday problems. And I don't think much (in words) overall.
When I decided to write my blog in English, I think it was a good decision. Firstly because I now write a bit quicker and secondly because it is perfect way how to really get used to the british keyboard. But in the same way as when I speak I do lots of mistakes. I lack the ability to use articles, sometimes I forget English really needs a subject in every sentence and that czech syntax doesn't work here. I use only past, present simple and continuous and future tense. It's a special event when I use the tense in shape have + seen, been or some other 3rd form of a verb. I don't have to mention spelling mistakes, missing "there" (is) and so on. I am a bit afraid how my essays and courseworks will go because of these errors. Also I write the minimum words possible to say an idea, because it's exhausting to keep in mind meaningful long sentence. So when I write something to school I'm done with 2 sentences where they require 3 paragraphs.
The best is that even though my English is really not perfect, I am able to do all the needed activities here, I am able to solve basic problems, when I don't know something, I am able to ask. Sometimes I even can have more philosophical talk :-P. And if you think about it, it make some sense. You are probably learning English for very long time. I started to learn at age of 9 so now it's 13 years. Scary. But maybe like me you don't have much places where to actually use the language. English is now everywhere. You can watch series, you can play computer games. I couldn't study and do the necessary readings at my faculty without English.  Anyway, when I started to use it on daily bases, it is pretty much different than just reading. And because this post is getting horribly long, I will finish with saying what was actually my motivation to write about this topic. So thank you, mom, dad, sis, international friends who were patient with my bad speaking, thank you my teachers from elementary school to university for all the time and effort you've spent educating me. Because I am here and it's working quite well :).

Motto of the day: Do you understand English fairly? Don't worry and give it a try! Go study abroad!

Accommodation adventure - part 2: Dealing with Qflats

My friend inspired me with idea to make a series from my accommodation adventure. If you read my first posts, I had a problematic start in Belfast concerning accommodation. I met owner of the private sector house I left, to give him keys and try to get my deposit back. It was another trip into amazing world of human creativity.

I paid the deposit in advance to book the room where I wanted to spend half a year of my life. To me it make some sense that I should be able to live there healthily and I should also get the deposit back in case the room is not suitable for living. So 2 days after I left this house because I couldn´t even sleep there, I met an owner to show him what doesn´t serve well to health of any tenant too. When I came he was "cleaning" the kitchen with a sponge, saying "I don´t have to do it, but still I´m cleaning it here." Actually it was very funny picture. When I showed him the totaly green shower and gray ceiling in bathroom he was just silent. I guess there was not much to say. Still he managed to say lots of things during the meeting, which are absolutely not fair in such communication and they are also nonsense. I felt like Alice in Wonderland. Maybe I should rename my blog. So let's see what is according to the spanish owner of the house relevant to our issue.

• "This is Belfast." Thanks for the information!
• "Belfast is humid place. That means blight is in every house and it´s not possible not to have it." Damned rotten city! Maybe in Spain they don´t know half of the world is more humid than their country.
• Owner touching the blight: "This is not humid." So where does it come from? Bathroom and my room are not in Belfast anymore?
• "Nobody else in the house has problems with state here." Well, when I asked one tenant where is vacuum cleaner he pointed at mop and said, "I think others use this for cleaning".
• "Owner of the house can´t force his tenants to clean the house", therefore it simply will be messy and there´s nothing to do about that. Owners of house only collect money and wait until the house falls apart.
• Carpet looked like it was never cleaned. Never means at least 5 years. What about owner? "But we took vacuum cleaner with us today."
• "You have to open the window." Really? Never did it in my life. I would like to open this one for more than 2 cm. Unfortunately it wasn´t possible even though I wanted to try it for the first time :(.
• "If you would give me month to fix everything, we could be able to solve it." That make sense to live here for another month when I´m explaining to him there is not even possible to sleep.
• "The house is in perfect shape." I can see it, I can smell it. I really don´t know why I needed to go away.
• "We can´t give you your deposit back. This is contract." Which we even haven´t signed yet. And technically, none of the rules in the contract was broken. But I understand this point.
• "I understand your problems, I´m asthmatic too, but when I have such problems, I use my medication." What is meditation? We don´t know this word in the Czech Republic. And I don´t have such big health issues that old house should cause me problems like this.
• I told him it is not healthy to have blight in a room where you sleep. "You won´t die because of it." Guy, thankyou for giving me hope...
• "You created lots of problems for us. Now we have a free room." Yes, I like to create problems. I don't have any problems because of the state of the house. Except loosing all my scholarship for new accommodation, not having place to stay and sleep and needing week for health recovering.

I really don´t recommend Qflats.com, Carlos Quinteiro is the owner. Please if you are looking for accommodation, look for it elsewhere. They have nice webpage, nice photos, they are very communicative, but some things are just unbelievable. They put a lot of effort into giving a good service to you in terms of communication but care about houses is very poor. And if something is not alright, it´s ok to make a fool out of you.
We´re still not done. Our email history is getting longer and longer. Before leaving the house the owner tried to soothe me a bit and said that this is problematic for both sides so if they find a new tenant soon, they could give me part of my deposit back. It was better than nothing, so I left. I know I am not a good negotiator :-D. I wasn't expecting they will give me an echo, but hope dies the last. I am in contact with an advice center now and I will see what will come.
So keep updated, this is not over yet and I believe more creativity will be involved. If you have any advice how to get at least half of my deposit back, you can write me. Thanks!

Motto of the day: You won´t die because of a blight. That doesn´t mean you should be ok living with it.

Elephants on Cavehill

Last Sunday I finaly went for a touristic trip. In the morning, we had a meeting at Student's Union with few other students. It's a great meeting point right opposite of the main campus building. Destination of our weekend trip was the Cavehill - a hill with caves (surprise, surpriiise) behind the city. You need to take a bus to get there, but it is worth the money for ticket.

Top of the Cavehill

It was my first trip to nature here. And I have to say - I loved it! There is something about the forest and trees and hills which makes you feel like in the Shire or on an elf path. And surprisingly we were out on sunny day so even though it was very windy as always, the views were just amazing.

Sometimes I wonder why paths take the way they take

In the world of elves

Green romance

Our bus stop was near the Belfast Zoo. On our way we got aquainted with a giant marmot and going up the hill we had very interesting view over the Zoo to the sea. Imagine you are standing on a rocky mountain knowing it's February (that means snow in my home), still it's green everywhere, you can see the sea (we don't have sea at home), two elephants and a giraffe. It's beautiful sunny, windy and really cold day. What is hapenning?! I don't know what was the strangest part of the view for me. The elephants and the cold or the fact that I see the sea or the green colour all around and February feeling of spring? Who knows.

Boris and a marmot

See how the grass is sticked to the ground thanks to the wind?

The sea and the sun

Looking where we came from

Green land in February

More of the green :)

Cavehill got his name thanks to the caves in it's rocks and people always fancied this place. There is evidence about stone age occupation of the hill. Since then people always loved to come back. One of signs of people's favor is a castle from 19th century which is beautiful too. Gardens of the castle are full of cats. We thought the cats has some meaning like the castle lady loved them or so. But apparently the cats are quite new and serve only as a tool how to make your kids busy when you need to have a rest. In the castle itself you can walk freely and use any entrance you find to enter. We tried to use small elevator in 8 people, walk through the rooms and dance on the castle floor, watched a short movie... Special visit. But the castle is mostly used for conferences, so the atmosphere is not so historical anymore.

A cave on the Cavehill

Castle

Nice conference surrounding

A cat

A cat!

Where's the cat now?

On our way down the hill we met more and more of blooming bushes. I still can't get use to the fact that something can bloom in February. It's still shock even in the city. After a short break when a german scout girl offered everybody home made pancakes and ginger tea we went back to the bus. I think pancakes are really cool snack for a trip. And they were still warm! I don't have to say how much we enjoyed it after few hours on a windy hill. At the end we agreed that this was not last hiking we've done. So there is more beautiful experience and pictures comming! As a bonus I tried for the first time the city transport doubledecker second floor ride. And it was cool :-P!

Blooming bushes

There's more of them!

Just a casual doubledecker ride

Motto of the day: 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.

We live Game of Thrones

Belfast and Northern Ireland are home of Game of Thrones series. Game of Thrones is the most popular and succesfull fantasy series ever made. There is lots of places throughout Northern Ireland, which creates the beautiful and specific sceneries of the series like Cushendun Caves, Murlough Bay, Ballintoy Harbour, Larrybane, Antrim plateau, Castle Ward, Inch Abbey and Downhill Strand (Yes, there's really lots of them).

Transitions of Castle Ward into Winterfell

Cushendun caves

I already wrote about importance of Titanic studios, where the series is shot right next to the Titanic Museum in Belfast. It was used to store parts of Titanic before actually building the ship. Now it is officialy named Paint Hall Studios and it brings to life on screen one of the best fantasy book series ever written.

Life here is life in the land of Game of Thrones. Not only because of the nature, but also because of how people here talk. My french friend describes it like "strong Stark accent".  Most of the locals also use the tough "Ay!" instead of saying simple "Yes." And you won't believe me, but Tyrion is living close to university! Or at least he has been seen :-P.

Tyrion Lannister waiting for a death sentence

I was thinking what possibly could be a motto of the day today. And so many wise words came to my mind. So I will do something different. I listed some of my favorite quotes from Game of Thrones I find cool or useful for life. Here you go. And brace yourselves!

Mottos of the day:

Winter is coming. Brace yourselves.

When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die.

The great thing about reading is that it broadens your life.

The North remembers.

A lion doesn't concern itself with the opinion of sheep.

You are grown so very great now, yet the higher a man climbs the farther he has to fall.

There is only one god and his name is Death. And there is only one thing we say to Death: “Not today.”

Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength, then it can never be your weakness. Armor yourself in it and it can never be used to hurt you.

Tears aren't a woman's only weapon.

Woman? Is that meant to insult me? I would return the slap, if I took you for a man.

The singers make much of kings who die valiantly in battle, but your life is worth more than a song.

Even the truest knight cannot protect a king against himself.

In the game of thrones, even the humblest pieces can have wills of their own. Sometimes they refuse to make the moves you've planned for them.

Why ask for truth when you close your ears to it?

There are no heroes...in life, the monsters win.

Oh, ‘monster.’ Perhaps you should speak to me more softly then. Monsters are dangerous and, just now, kings are dying like flies.

All men must die.

- I have done things I am not proud of, things that brought shame onto my house and my father's name.. But to kill your own sire? How could any man do that?

- Give me a crossbow and pull down your breeches, and I'll show you. Gladly.

- You think this is a jape?

- I think life is a jape. Yours, mine, everyone's.

Swift as a deer. Quiet as a shadow. Fear cuts deeper than swords. Quick as a snake. Calm as still water.

Love is the death of duty.

To live or to party? That is the question...

So finaly I'm writting in the blog again! The problem is not that nothing is hapenning, rather that I am still busy doing something else. I was telling myself that I will write a post per day. But sometimes I just don't feel like writting or sometimes I don't know which is the topic that suits the day. I just like to write when I feel the inspiration inside me. The first days here in Belfast were really full of strong experiences, so in a way all the feelings wanted to find their way out. Release the tension. But now I found my routine in life. And that made me think.
I don't have much lectures and I often don't feel like reading something to school. So, believe it or not, I started to feel bored. I am bored during lectures as normally in school or when I watch too much series during one day. And sometimes I feel hopeless here too. Especially when I imagine writting essays in english. I can study if I want. And I feel I should because Erasmus is a study programme. I was surprised I can feel like this. Erasmus is exciting and cool, right? So why am I bored? And I feel angry at lectrures because the study style here doesn't suit me much and they have totaly different approach to psychology here. But I will write about this some other day.

When I moved to the university accommodation I realized I missed getting to know other students. But I also wanted to have fun. Thank God, there is still something going on and especially some people still organize common activities for international students. At my dorms people are very nice and friendly. So it's possible to talk or socialize with them too. I don't know how, but suddenly it's not even possible to have a free evening during the week. But I also need to study, to have time to call home and so on.

I found out that when there is an event but I decide to stay home, I feel that I'm missing something. I was always like this a bit. Just now I also have the feeling that I am not enjoying the Erasmus stay to the full when I'm at dorms. And no, it's not about Erasmus being just one long party and drinking! What are you thinking about?
First of all, the beer is so expensive that it's not possible to get drunk. Secondly, going out is not about getting drunk, it's about getting to know other people. And meeting people is one of the most important benefits of Erasmus stay, in my point of view. Today most of the people I know went to a pub crawl - walking around the city and buying alcohol in different pubs. It's not my style of party. On the other hand, the belgian pharmacist Jan summed it up quite good: "It's the closest I can get here to being drunk." Btw: On Sunday we went hiking and he skipped the trip because he was hungover. Even though his argument was very strong, I was still convinced today is not a party day for me.

I realized that I am here for half a year. It's a long time. I just can't party all the time. It's not healthy. So even though one other friend wrote me about going to the cheapest pub in city, today I decided to stay home. I wanted to finaly write a post, call with my loved ones, study a bit and other calm and my activities. It's very nice to spend one evening home too. In the time you'll be abroad, enjoy company of other people as much as possible. But don't forget to take time for yourself.

PS: I'm trying to get used to a british keyboard. This is my first post written using it! I'm happy about it! :)

Motto of the day: 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.

St. Valentine´s rugby

Today is a day of showing love, being with our loved ones. Well, when you´re abroad, it´s kind of hard. So when international students think about what to do, rugby is a possibility.
People here seems to be totaly crazy about rugby. In the university area there is Rugby Road, every Friday it´s possible to visit one of the local rugby matches. When there´s rugby on TV, streets are somewhat emptier and social life is moved into pubs where you can support your team with shouting and drinking beer. Once we went to see live music into a bar and the music was at least hour late. We left before it even started. But visitors were totaly satisfied because there was a rugby match on TV. I suspect bar staff that they postponed the music because of rugby.
Today was match Ireland vs. France. Most of the international students in bar was from France so the fan bases were obvious. In the Czech Republic you can never watch rugby though. Some other people with me haven´t known anything about rugby rules. So for us it was challenge to try to figure them out. For guys, rugby is obviously manly stuff. The more dirt and blood is on your face and body, the more you are attractive and happy person. My theory is a bit different. After all, it´s St. Valentine´s.
Principles of the game are still hidden to me but obviously it´s about hugging. They can try hard to say it´s about manly strenght but obviously it's not truth. I just think man going to war are actually missing their women´s tenderness. That´s why they needed to make up a sport in which they would still look tough, but they could also receive a lot of love. In rugby game it is a big privilege to give a hug to somebody, so you need to try to hug just a few people so that hugs remain a not so easy to get article. Problem is, that if you have a ball, everybody tries to hug you. So you need to try to escape them. And if you manage to escape far enough (behind the final line), you get 5 points for your team, you are saved for a moment and closer to a happy winning hug of whole your team.

Hugging victim trying to escape. But it's not gonna hapen.

It is very hard to reach the final line. In 80 minutes it hapenned only once. In the field, you fight for every few centimeters and the ball is always in someone's hand, so there is still excesive hugging going on. I really think the most dirty and bloody men are so happy because they have been hugging so much. There is even a big group hug on regular terms. Honestly, I think it is just opportunity for one big hug and touching other's guys asses. See for yourself.

Preparation for a big group hug

Sometimes the game even looks like dancing. They have special kind of jump which looks like Dirty dancing last scene and it serves to catch balls in big hight. Also when it comes to art, rugby players are very creative performing different kinds of pirouettes. Rugby is just filled with love, joy, happiness and blood. On the other hand, there is lack of teeth. Players are violent to reach their hug but still they obey some rules to hurt each other a bit slowlier than they would like to. I have Killing me softly song in my head.

Dirty dancing

Ireland finaly won 18:11. In a raffle we could win a jersey of Ireland. The happy owner of Ireland jersey is french of course. But he seemed happy about it. And why not. It is St. Valentine's and love is all around us.

Motto of the day: Even a tough butcher is capable of love.

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