Last weeks

It's really a long time ago since my last notes (not counting the ones few minutes ago :)) so I have to look to my calender but as I usually don't make that many notes there I guess I'll forget to write half of the things that happened.. But anyway, at least I'll try. So here is a kind of list of the most important events from the passed weeks:

There was a UG Festival in CZ the week after the one hear. From the first impressions that reached me I think it was a very succesful one and I'm really happy about that. Especially that the thing with the castle went ok.. Must have been really nice there.. reminds me to the IYC in Blansko... wow... "damals"..

On 28th June the Young Voices organised a public party in In House club in Köpenick. The atmosphere was great, the team worked really well, I learned how to make 3 non-alcoholic cocktails... the only little problem we had was the lack of people coming to the party. 29 is not much :( And we could have earned such a lot of money... Well, but we won't give up, there's already another one planned for autumn!!

On 1st July the International Office organised a guided tour to (in) Reichstag. That was really interesting, cause we got to the parts that turists usually don't go to and our guide was also very nice.

The day after we did the Czech movie night :) I played "Pelíšky" and people seemed to like it. Unfortunately we started too late and since it was Wednesday the S-bahns were running only till half past midnight, so we did not manage to see the whole movie.. pity..
The next day I showed them another one - "Samotáři". But both Max and Marie were so tired that they fell asleep. Funny :)

On Friday 4th we celebrated Gerona's birthday and on Saturday the week after there was Marie's birthday party. Both really nice. After Marie's party we went to the last party here inEichkamp but as usually it was nothing that special. But at least we took some nice group pics. And then some of us went to QDorf and had party till the morning.. the last ones on the stage - me and Max :)

I know, I know, I know

I was actually expecting it from the very beginning.. what? That I won't be able to keep this blog updated due to several reasons (lack of time? hm, I'd say laziness maybe even more). It's exactly like my diary (yap, I admit I did that crazy thing.. I like taking notes about experiences, events, people, feelings..).

I think nobody noticed as nobody reads this but just in case - sorry!!!

I'll try to at least sum up some of the important things that happened here in Berlin during the last weeks and days, maybe write a bit more about some of them later on..

Maxime's Birthday

On Friday night I "escaped" from the Festival to celebrate Max's birthday at his place. There were a lot of people there and a lot of alcohol as well :) Marie unfortunatelly couldn't join but at least she cooked a wonderful dinner for us including the tiramisu! The Dutch were playing against the French (who eventually lost so it was not the right gift for Max..)... Gerona came back from the Neatherlands around midnight and joined us straight.. Of course we could not celebrate without the Danish drinking games.. to cut the long story short, it was a real party. Pity for me that I had to leave early after midnight to get back to the camp cause as I saw the photos and heard the stories of what was going on afterwards.. I missed something :)
But it's always difficult and tricky to connect 2 completely different worlds, like UG and Young Voices with Erasmus students.. impossible. So actually I did not enjoy the party as much as I would do normally even though it was very nice. But somehow the melancholic mood was there in my mind and I just couldn't..

United Games Festival Berlin

Time here in Berlin passes even quicker than back home. The day when I arrived here seems to me like yesterday and suddenly I realised that it's June already.. Crazy. But June, except for a promise of nicer and warmer weather, is also special because of one particular fact - because the UG Festival takes place in June!! And this year made no exception..

So on Sunday 8th, after a trip to visit the East Side Gallery, I went back to my place to pack my things (very clever but still better than visiting the gallery with all my backpacks..) and then went back "to the East", to Jugenddorf Müggelsee, where the Festival took place. I was quite lucky to catch the last conection to the Licht- und Luftbad Müggelsee stop cause otherwise it's a looong way to walk from Rahnsdorf (and full of wild pigs in the evening as we found out later on :)) Most of the Young Voices were already there, preparing all the stuff and the place so that it could all start in a couple of hours..

Well, I will not describe the whole festival here as that would take ages and ages. (Maybe I'll do it later :)) The only thing I want to say now is that I really enjoyed my time there, it was a wonderful experience and I felt great. I have to say that the German Young Voices group is a great team with so many wonderful people.. and that made the Festival so great and special. For me it was also an intensive German course which I liked a lot! Actually I have to admit that I really had difficulties speaking Czech the first few sentences after picking up the Czech delegation in Hauptbahnhof!! Strange.. :)
The program was also very well prepared, with a lot of highlights including the Opening performance, the Body Talk - our common nightmare that went on really really well finally; the European Dinner; the Night walk adveture with wild pigs (no, there weren't any, I think we scared them with our screaming when we were coming back with our "big alternative tour" group :)). Our workshop (Intercultural Communication) was interesting and the Final presentation on Köpenicker Sommer was also wonderful thou there were some mistakes.. But all in all it was an amazing and unforgettable week...

Soccer Maddness

I really have to say that since the soccer EM 2008 started, the life in Berlin (and probably in the whole Germany) has changed. It's gone crazy actually. Everytime when there is a match, streets are empty (except for those where there is a public viewing), you nearly don't meet a car without a flag on it, same with shops and houses. And do not try to go out during the night after a match, especially after German or Turkish one.. Places like ZOO can get very noisy, crazy and also dangerous.

Of course we cannot miss such an important event, so besides keeping our old traditions like museums' Thursday (we're alredy done with the Museums Insel by the way, after seeing the last part of Pergamon and Bodemuseum) we keep watching the soccer matches together, supporting our teams.. Well, actually seems like we're not that good at that, as CZ and FRA are already out.. :(

I really don't want to see Berlin after the match tomorrow (GER - POR), whatever the result will be.. and especially after the TUR - CRO game, that will be hardcore as well I guess..

ILA Airshow

Saturday the 31st May was a big day for me :) Because there was an international airshow at the Schönefeld airport the whole weekend and when I found out, I said to myself now or never! I have always wanted to visit such a show in the Czech Republic but never managed so now it was a perfect chance and I caught it!
And it was definetely wort it. Although it's a long way from my place and although it was such a hot weather and I got sunburnt, although I had to wait nearly one hour in the queue... still the positive experience is much stronger than all those little problems..
The show was just amazing. There were lots of interesting planes, army ones as well as civil ones, old ones and also bright new ones including the Airbus A320, which is, by the way, an amazing plane, so smooth and sooooo incredibly quiet! But the best were of course the fighters and the choppers. I really really enjoyed my time there..
Later in the afternoon Max joined me there, bringing me some spare batteries as my camera (with a new card, juhuuuuu) was on the whole time :) Well, poor camera was too hot so it stopped working.. We stayed until the end and then we went to his place, tired like hell. During the way he kind'a scared me with the sunstroke danger but fortunately I did not get any although I was on the sun the whole day. Uffff ;)

Afterwards, as I said, we had a nice dinner at Max's place and I guess there was a party later on but I was very tired so I went straight to bed :) But it was a wonderful day!

German-Soviet Museum and Bowling

On Friday we had nothing to do so we decided to explore another museum (there are lots of them here and not so much time left..), this time the German-Soviet Museum in Karlshorst. It's a bit far but it's very interesting. It's in the building where the capitulation of Germany was signed after WW2, so you can really feel the history there. Inside there are many different objects such as posters (propaganda etc.), short movies, uniforms, official documents, parts of military equipment and much more, outside there are some tanks and military vehicles. And the museum is for free!

Afterwards some of us went to Max's place to have dinner and then we went to Osbahnhof to play bowling. It was the first time that I played the real bowling (the one with the holes) and I was quite scared of breaking my fingers (you know me, so there was a hingh chance it can happen although normally it doesn't happen..). So everybody was making fun of me but they challenged me and so I tried.. and finally it is not so difficult. First I quite sucked but I improved slowly. And it was a lot of fun!