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!

Wannsee and Bodemuseum

The weather here in Berlin got really nice, so since last week there is a lot of sunshine every day with temperatures around 30 degrees, just great! So what can you do during such sunny days? Go to the beach!!

Yes, you can find nearly everything here, also some real sand beaches. Our favourite one is n Wannsee. So we keep going there quito often. It is not so far from my place, so I am happy. The only prob is walking from S-Nikolassee to Strandbad Wannsee, which is about 15 min but I've heard in the radio that there should be a public bus going soon :)

So we went there last Thursday also, after the morning classes (and before the evening one for some of us). The beach was not very full, which was great (cause during the weekend it's quite full and you have to queue quite long before you get in). The water was not cold at all, the sun was shining... hard life of the exchange students :) We have also built a sand caste (that eventually looked like a nuclear plant a bit.. :)) and all in all we had a lot of fun!

After the class (btw. everybody was looking at us very strange when we entered the classroom.. well, no wonder, coming from the beach, sand still everywhere, a bit red skin from the sun.. :)) we went to the Bodemusem - it was Thursday!! ;) I have to say that this museum is a bit strange, because the collection inside (all kinds of medieval art) is a mixture of religious and secular arts and sometimes the combinations are a bit unusual. But the building itself is veeeeery nice, I have to say that I really fell in love with that one, especially with the purple marble.
No need to say where we went to afterwards, or? ;)

Another demanding weekend :)

The weekends in Berlin are always very hard.. the last two ones were no exception. First there was the one with the Erasmus party in Eichkamp. We decided to meet earlier, this time in my place, to have a dinner together. It was a challenge for me to cook for the others, so I asked Max to cook pasta in case my "bramboráky" would be not suitable for eating :) And I made a cake (yes, you have no hallucinations, I really baked a cake!!), which was very appreciated by the others :) And actually also the "bramboráky" were finally not bad at all. I liked them ;) And most of the others did as well. Only Marieke will probably not have the best memories connected to them :) :) :)
So after the pre-party in our small kitchen (coping to fit with 7 people in here) we went to the "real" party to the club-house here in Eichkamp. It was around midnight, there was nearly nobody and the music was not the best, but in spite of all that Marie decided she will start the party and she managed. Well, when she starts to dance, everybody just does. She's crazy but sooooo cute :)
I did not stay that long cause on Saturday I had to get up relatively early to go to the self-managemet class..

Yes, no kidding, we had a class on Saturday!! They call it a make-up class here (Ersatztermin auf Deutsch). I think in CZ we would burn the cars or something if we would be ordered to go to school during the weekend. But here it is pretty common. Germany is a crazy country, definetely..
Later in the evening I went to Tiergarten to Marta's place where she was celebrating her birthday. The party was in Hawaiian style so it was veeery veeery nice.

Sunday was more or less just a relaxing day. I went to FEZ to the Animation workshop for YV (quite interesting and useful!) and then to Marieke's place to a little bbq (aslo veeeeery popular here). We played table-tennis for a while then and then we went "home" to get ready for another "study" week ;)

Alte Nationalgalerie

Not to break our tradition we, of course, went to Museums Insel also on the 22nd May, this time to the Alte Nationalgalerie. Although we were a bit affraid that paintings will be boring, in fact it was the total opposite. And for the first time we were forced to leave the museum 'cause it was nearly ten and they wanted to close.. Apart from some famous paintings from Picasso, Monet and Manet (and many others) we were particularly interested in Marée, who was most probably a very sick guy. But his playboy painting is not that bad :)
The building itself was also very nice. It was definetely worth to go there.
And think I don't have to say where we went afterwards.. just not to break our traditions ;)