Chinese mission

As promised—an entry to my new language adventure. I am going to learn Mandarin Chinese. It has always been one of the languages that I wanted to learn. If you are curious about the details, check out the video below.

The French Mission

There it is. After two months of preparations, my new mission begins. This time it will be the language of Voltaire and Luc Besson. I write you from a tiny, cute flat in Toulouse, where I will stay for the next four months. I left Madrid almost a month ago and in between I was looking for a stable accomodation. I had to leave from the first one I had found in Toulouse. The house looked like a copy of the Addams Family villa. The inhabitants were also that creepy. I would not mind anything of that, I love the Addams Family, but my food was getting lost. Now I got my own place. With a parking place. And a gym. Suck that.

My goal this time? I wanted to be in Slovakia in July already, and the exams of the Alliance Français don't fit me well. But if I go for an exam, it will be probably B2 at the end of May or C1 at the end of July.

I kind of thought about Paris as well, but then, Paris is relatively expensive, and I don't want to spend the entire mission working just to pay for the rent. And everybody, absolutely everybody who has an experience with the city, told me that people are horrible there. Even the people who grew up there. People usually defend their own city, don't they? So I chose to believe them.

 Toulouse - First impressions

I know I should not compare them, but after Madrid, Toulouse seems small. There is less rubish in the streets, with the exception of dogshit. There is definitely more dogshit in Toulouse than in Madrid. And on Friday nights, the inner centre smells from human pee for a change. It is interesting that in Madrid, the streets of which are so much fuller on the weekends, the guys did not pee in the streets that much.

It is quiet. I was walking on the Rue d'Alsace Lorraine, one of the busiest streets and at that time it was full of people. But everybody walked silently. In Madrid, there are always people chatting, kids playing football and shouting, or at least there is some pub nearby with a football match in the TV. There was always this buzz present. After that, France seems to be a kingdom of peace and quiet. It is not much different in Slovakia though, it's just a change after Spain.

The people, although they don't smile as much on the street, are incredibly helpful and polite, when you ask them something. And... (although it might be only Toulouse) They speak English. Almost everybody I met had a communicational level of English. The knowledge of Spanish is also common.

It's a city of students and also of the aerospace engineering (yuppi!), so I don't think I will be bored here. Stay tuned.

Happy Clio—survived the Pyrenees

Snow and palm trees

Le Capitol—The town hall

Garonne

Spanish Mission

So there it is, I changed Porto with its rainy winter for sunny and dry Madrid. There was a lot going on in between. I will write about those events and about the end of my Portuguese mission in the following days.

But now: The next 7 months I will spend in Spain. On the 17th of October I will sit for a C2 exam at the Cervantes Institute. Spanish is the first language of which I never had any classes, but it is so similar to Portuguese that I am pretty confident. I can already communicate and understand short responses. So I am curious to watch my "portiñol" turn into true castellano.

It is March and in Madrid it feels like August in Slovakia already. I am curious about July here. Hm, maybe Ibiza for the summer? :P ¡Hasta la vista, baby!

Portuguese Mission: Tomorrow We Ride, Till the Planets Colide!

Hi guys. I know, it took a bit longer, but here it is: My next mission. It will take place in Portugal and the target language will be European Portuguese. Wait for details, for now, just enjoy the music and the flow. Now I am going to bed, 4 hours of sleep is better than none and a long journey awaits me. See you soon!

P.S.: I fell in love with this song at the age of 14, when I fell in love with one blond, two-year older girl on a school skitrip. It is from the Armaggedon OST.

Travel blog—The rules of the game

Packed and ready to go. Now, just not to forget something.

I will tell how this game is going to be played. This will be a blog about my language targeted travels. My travels will usually last for three months. I will keep posts short, because I know you want to read them in your short moments of boredom at work. I will post pictures.

NASA has a nice tradition since the days of Apollo. Every morning, the astronauts out in space are woken up by a song, that is chosen by their families. And because via songs it is easy to communicate emotions, every my post will contain such a song, which you can play in the background (recommended :) ), or after reading the post.

Let's kick it!