Monday, August 18, 2008
Letni Lounske Vabeni and more
Now that my second year in Prague has ended, I realised that I have lost sight of this blog. It's time to post updates again, so why not start now?
This weekend I went out of Prague on a trip with Kaca from AIESEC CZU. Her hometown Louny was having its annual festival "Letni Lounske Vabeni" (Louny summer temptation) and she invited me to join to see the concerts and stay with her family overnight.
I saw 2 Czech bands play. David Koller used to be the singer of the band Lucie, but is now performing on his own. His songs were very nice pop-rock music. Mig 21 is a totally different kind of band. Their performance is all about fun. They made a lot of jokes which I couldn't always understand completely and their songs were funny, with a big variety of different styles.
During the day we also met Bara from AIESEC CZU and a whole group from AIESEC Praha. We went for dinner all together in what must have been the restaurant with the slowest service I ever experienced in Czech Republic. Luckily, I received nice food in the end. In the evening, there was a big campfire at the festival, and we still went for a short walk around the city.
On Sunday, I had breakfast with Kaca's family, and then we went for sightseeing in the surroundings. I visited the local archeological open air museum of Brezno and the castle of Jimlin. We also went to Rana, a village with a small airport for sports planes and glider planes. Next to it is a high hill where people go paragliding. We walked up to the top and had a great view of the landscape. We finished the sightseeing tour with a visit to "pramen Luna", the natural spring of Louny and the local park where we had a raspberry lemonade.
Afterwards we returned to Kaca's house for a nice lunch and to meet some friends who were visiting with their little kids. In the late afternoon we returned to Prague.
I am very glad that Kaca and her family gave me the opportunity to get to know another side of Czech Republic which a tourist would never experience. Thanks a lot, it was a beautiful weekend.
This weekend I went out of Prague on a trip with Kaca from AIESEC CZU. Her hometown Louny was having its annual festival "Letni Lounske Vabeni" (Louny summer temptation) and she invited me to join to see the concerts and stay with her family overnight.
I saw 2 Czech bands play. David Koller used to be the singer of the band Lucie, but is now performing on his own. His songs were very nice pop-rock music. Mig 21 is a totally different kind of band. Their performance is all about fun. They made a lot of jokes which I couldn't always understand completely and their songs were funny, with a big variety of different styles.
During the day we also met Bara from AIESEC CZU and a whole group from AIESEC Praha. We went for dinner all together in what must have been the restaurant with the slowest service I ever experienced in Czech Republic. Luckily, I received nice food in the end. In the evening, there was a big campfire at the festival, and we still went for a short walk around the city.
On Sunday, I had breakfast with Kaca's family, and then we went for sightseeing in the surroundings. I visited the local archeological open air museum of Brezno and the castle of Jimlin. We also went to Rana, a village with a small airport for sports planes and glider planes. Next to it is a high hill where people go paragliding. We walked up to the top and had a great view of the landscape. We finished the sightseeing tour with a visit to "pramen Luna", the natural spring of Louny and the local park where we had a raspberry lemonade.
Afterwards we returned to Kaca's house for a nice lunch and to meet some friends who were visiting with their little kids. In the late afternoon we returned to Prague.
I am very glad that Kaca and her family gave me the opportunity to get to know another side of Czech Republic which a tourist would never experience. Thanks a lot, it was a beautiful weekend.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
My birthday
Today was my birthday. This morning I took candy to work to share with my colleagues, and I was surprised to find my desk decorated with colourful flags. At lunchtime we went to the Italian restaurant with the whole team. I really had a nice day, and even if there was a lot of work, the atmosphere was perfect. I am not going out tonight as all the other nights of this week are already booked with parties and visits to pubs. I guess I'll give myself a nice sleep as a birthday present.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Local Training Conferences
I spent my last two weekends at conferences. One was LTC for Praha and Plzen, the other was LTC CZU Prague and Pardubice. Both weekends were really nice, each in its own way.
At the first one I was enjoying that I could get to know many new people, but at the same time there was a big alumni reunion, so I could also see many familiar faces, sometimes after a long time. It was also great to see Geoffrey from Belgium having his first experience as chair of a conference. I was involved in some sessions like the parts about mentoring and a discussion on Sunday about what specific skills from AIESEC companies are interested in. On Monday I went back to work with lots of energy.
This last weekend, the conference was a very intensive language course for me. Almost all the sessions were in czech (or slovak) and it was quite a challenge for me to actively participate. On Sunday I went for a relaxing walk in the forests with Lukas. There I discovered more about the different berries and mushrooms that grow here. I have to say that this was really a weekend where I learnt a lot. Some new words added to my vocabulary: dopad, kosa, and last but not least: vyprostovak.
At the first one I was enjoying that I could get to know many new people, but at the same time there was a big alumni reunion, so I could also see many familiar faces, sometimes after a long time. It was also great to see Geoffrey from Belgium having his first experience as chair of a conference. I was involved in some sessions like the parts about mentoring and a discussion on Sunday about what specific skills from AIESEC companies are interested in. On Monday I went back to work with lots of energy.
This last weekend, the conference was a very intensive language course for me. Almost all the sessions were in czech (or slovak) and it was quite a challenge for me to actively participate. On Sunday I went for a relaxing walk in the forests with Lukas. There I discovered more about the different berries and mushrooms that grow here. I have to say that this was really a weekend where I learnt a lot. Some new words added to my vocabulary: dopad, kosa, and last but not least: vyprostovak.
Sunday, September 30, 2007
A weekend of unexpected events
For this weekend I did not have any plans. However, on Friday, Kachne called me to meet up and get introduced to Slaven, the new trainee from the USA. We had a nice evening going restaurant Hybernia and to a bar near Mustek afterwards. I spent most of the evening chatting with people and improving my Czech, trying to read any piece of text I could find (advertising, packages, etc.).
On Saturday after waking up around lunchtime I cooked some food and then played around with Facebook until I got tired of that website.
Then I gave Jenny a ring to find out what she was up to. Jenny turned out to be at Karavanseraj, a Lebanese restaurant and travellers club.
I joined her and had some Lebanese food and tea, and then, from 21h00 they were hosting the Manhattan Short Film Festival. I ended up voting for the Spanish movie "The Prestidigitador". Afterwards we went partying at Nebe.
Today I wanted to go for a short walk in the local park, but unexpectedly a burning (?!) bus passed by our building and then stopped. The people ran out and soon it was like seeing a Hollywood movie in my own street. Stuff does explode and the firemen had a pretty tough job putting out the fire. I am unsure what caused this but it all looked very dramatic. Luckily nobody got hurt.
Now I am off to Andel to go for a trainee dinner.
On Saturday after waking up around lunchtime I cooked some food and then played around with Facebook until I got tired of that website.
Then I gave Jenny a ring to find out what she was up to. Jenny turned out to be at Karavanseraj, a Lebanese restaurant and travellers club.
I joined her and had some Lebanese food and tea, and then, from 21h00 they were hosting the Manhattan Short Film Festival. I ended up voting for the Spanish movie "The Prestidigitador". Afterwards we went partying at Nebe.
Today I wanted to go for a short walk in the local park, but unexpectedly a burning (?!) bus passed by our building and then stopped. The people ran out and soon it was like seeing a Hollywood movie in my own street. Stuff does explode and the firemen had a pretty tough job putting out the fire. I am unsure what caused this but it all looked very dramatic. Luckily nobody got hurt.
Now I am off to Andel to go for a trainee dinner.
