My home for the autumn 2013 - O Porto

Porto, sweet Porto. I expected it to be pretty, but one has no other option, just to stare with an open mouth, when the sun sets over the river Douro. Damn, they could just make car commercials with this in the background. But I am sure they have.

Ponte Luís I

After four days of travelling and one day spent in Bordeaux, I finally came here. And it just all seems perfect. There is bamboo growing behind the house. Palm trees all around the city and peacocks strolling in the parks. I got cool flatmates—Anna from Germany, Dessislava from Bulgaria and my landlords—Patrícia and Rui—are from Porto. Anna cooks and I had to vehemently insist when I wanted to do it once too and Dessi speaks nice Portuguese, so I can always ask her what some word means. So I just feel like a sucker that is just enjoying life.

My place

Bamboo!

Oh, I did not tell you: My parking place is just next to the appartment. And I already managed to swim in the Atlantic, see the centre with the famous iron bridge and drink three bottles of Portugal wine (those of you who know my relationship to wine know it's a big thing).

Oceano Atlântico

But hey, the language mission. I am going to live here until Christmas and in November/December I will go for the C1 language exam. I can already speak, because I had one semester of Portuguese back in Brno and the whole summer I was studying at home. People have to slow down considerably when speaking and I don't know all the words. But I am already able to enjoy a movie dubbed in portuguese or read a magazine. From now, it can get only better.

And I am going to definitely enjoy this autumn. I already am :)

River Douro with me as a foreground

Promenada close the mouth of Douro

Sunset over the Ponte da Arrábida

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.

End of my German Mission and the C2 Certificate

Six months passed since October, when I commited myself to reach C2 in German. The time I wanted to devote to it was four months. Eventually I had some 20 days more, mostly because there was no closer examination date. From the beginning, I was willing to fail. And... I did. Today I opened my results from the C2 exam in Mannheim. I passed in reading, listening, writing and failed in speaking. Minimal number of points for passing was 60 and my results were the following:

Writing	68/100
Listening	79/100
Reading	86/100
Speaking	53/100

It is interesting that the results roughly correspond with how much pleasure I got from those activities. I knew that I had the biggest reserves in speaking and eventhough I was trying to talk to anybody and anything that would respond in German, at the end of the day I would still look forward for the moment with the book "Die Stadt und die Sterne" by A. C. Clark.

I must admit that I am really proud about this failure. I reached for the Moon. Did not get right to it, but I ended up among the stars. Now I am quite relaxed when using my German, my comfort zone was expanded by three European countries and I worked in the language (not using English) and managed so well that my employees want to keep me. Moreover I explored one of the biggest cities of Europe, I met very interesting people and learnt, that some things can be done differently. A big win.

And if you think this lowered my expectations from myself, you could be not more wrong. I am indestructible. I am even hungrier for the next mission. I will let you know about it soon. ;)

Similarities Between Certain German and Czech Expressions

Snowy Hamburg was replaced by rainy Mannheim. And they have trams here! And it looks generally much more like Brno. I have behind me the writing and listening modules of the exam, I will let you know the results after I get them.

Short stop at Göttingen

View from my room in Mannheim

Rhine River

In between I would like to talk about something else. During learning the German vocabulary, I noticed similarity of some expressions to Czech expressions and namely I speak about expressions whose meaning is not easily derivable from the structure.

An example of what I am talking about: "auskommen" means "to get by". "aus" = "out", "kommen" = "to come". The verb "vyjít" in Czech means the same thing and also its structure is similar: "vy" = "out", "jít" = "to go". Although when constructing a new artificial language, I would never connect the meaning of "getting by with money" with "going out". However, this connection somehow works both in German and Czech.

I tried to make a list of these Czech/German expressions. Here it is:

• auskommen - vyjít s penězy (to get by)
• Das wird uns teuer stehen - To nás bude stát draho (That will cost us)
• durchfallen - přepadnout (to repeat a class)
• sich etwas vorstellen - představit si něco (to imagine something)
• Darauf kannst du Gift nehmen! - Na to můžeš vzít jed! (That's for sure!)
• jemandem einen Korb geben - dát někomu košem (to leave a boyfriend/girlfriend)
• bringen sich über etwas - přenést se přes něco (to put up with something)
• in einer Prüfung bestehen - obstát ve zkoušce (to pass the exam)
• schwerfällig - těžkopádný (cumbersome)
• durchsetzen - prosadit (to accomplish in the face of the unwillingness of the others)
• anwerfen - nahodit (to actuate)
• die Aufgeblasenheit - nafoukanost (pompousness, conceit)
• auf Achse (literally: "on the shoulders", the meaning "on the move" ) - there is a Czech expression "vzít nohy na ramena", literally "to take the feet on the shoulders", used in the meaning: "to run away"
• auffällig - nápadný (noticeable)
• erhalten - obdržet (to obtain)
• die Angelegenheit - záležitost (issue)

What interests me: Is the similarity of the expressions just a pure coincidence, or did one language get inspired from the other one? Czech has been for long centuries under the influence of German, so the second explanation sounds more plausible. However, if you have another one, I will be happy to hear it.

Aaand... Goodbye Hamburg!

So the day came. After almost five months I am leaving Hamburg behind. Tomorrow, I will say goodbye to my Egyptian flatmate and set off for Heidelberg, where I will sit for the exam. I am leaving behind strong memories, good and bad too, but all of them worth it all the way.

Hamburg from the tower of St. Petri Kirche

My German employers liked me so much that they offered me the possibility to work for them through the Internet. Hell yeah! And in my last day, I got a package as a way to say: "It was really nice having you around". On Saturday I spoke after a long time some Slovak, as I was showing Hamburg to one friend that studies in Göttingen. After spending the whole day and night walking the streets of the city and then drinking with my colleague whiskey in a student bar for supermarket prices I needed the whole Sunday to recover, but worth it again.

The package from my boss

See you people!

Hold the fingers for me guys, 21th, 22th and 25th of March. See you soon, Hamburg!

P.S.: I will miss the duckies...

Déjà-vus

It is interesting to watch yourself go through Déjà-vus. But not those that last only 5 seconds. Here I mean very similar life situations that repeat themselves. One of them was when I found work in the water park in Constanța. Several years ago, I had a very similar summer job in USA. And now another déjà-vu crossed my path.

To make the story short, after a series of conflicts with my landlord, I was kicked out in one evening. When I came to Elmshorn, I found my things on a heap. I will just never understand some people. After two nights spent in a hostel I found a place for two weeks in student dormitories. And it is so nice and peaceful here, it is unbelievable. What's more, my flatmate actually uses heating :) How is this a déjà-vu  Some time ago, in Brno, I also went through a similar experience. After living with really horrible flatmates, I found peace at, for me, probably the nicest room of the world at Vinařská dorms.

To make the situation even more interesting, from all the possible houses in Hamburg, in which its 2 million inhabitants live, I am living in the one, in which I spent my first two nights at my couchsurfer host Caren. Life is funny sometimes.

10 Things About Hamburg And Germany, That You Can Live Without Knowing, But Are Still Fun To Read

1. Internet Connection and Cashless Payments

Germany is without questions one of the most developed countries in Europe. But still: The DSL internet is expensive and thus many people buy the USB GSM surfsticks instead. With a randomly met Romanian girl we agreed on that, that in Romania the internet connection offer is better than in Germany.

Another thing is the acceptance of classic embossed payment cards. For example, at the main train station in Hamburg, they take only one special type of card, neither VISA, nor Mastercard is accepted there. The same situation is in my nearest supermarket.

2. Quality of Services

I was prepared that the services will be better. But it doesn't cease to amaze me how much better, compared to the countries I had lived in. One example for all: Here, the first time in a gym is for free, so that you can try it out. I did that. When I was done, I went to the showers quite late and showed up at the cash desk 23:05, five minutes after closing time. I wanted to ask a few questions, so I was mentally prepared for somebody impatiently waiting at the door. The assistant was still at the desk and she explained me everything I wanted to know, gave me fliers, and told me that if I have more questions, I can write an email. Wow.

3. You Need to Pay for the Whole Year

Yes, the first time is for free, but then, here you cannot simply walk into a gym and pay for one entry. In most of them you cannot even pay for a month. Three months is a minimum, most of the gyms prefer one year membership. And it's not only the gyms, where this tendency can be seen.

4. Past

Remnants of the cathedral of St. Nikolai,
destroyed during the Operation Gomorrha

Germans are taught from the little age that the years 1933-1945 were the darkest part of their history. One Australian guy told me, how he appreciates how the Germans coped with their past, in comparison with, for example, Japan, where politicians still visit the graves of the war criminals. I agree. And I must add that I am sorry that Slovakia is not there yet. There are still so many Slovaks that say how Slovakia prospered during the war. In Germany, not a single human being mentioned that Silesia is theirs, or similar bullshit.

5. Finding an Apartment in Hamburg

I heard stories about people that have been looking for a flat in Hamburg for a year. Well, it's hard to find a flat here. The reasons:

1. More and more come to live to Hamburg and the construction rate of new buildings cannot match the speed of moving in
2. Right now, the prices grow, so the landowners wait and postpone entering long-term contracts
3. Because of price speculations, there is a huge number of empty flats, intended to be instantly sold
4. Hamburg is not really a student-city, so the landlords are not used to big demand for short-term accommodation

6. Huge Windows

Hambur buildings

Huge parts of Hamburg were destroyed during the World War II so one can find modern-looking buildings directly in the historical centre (not talking about the fact that there is 6 lane road through it). Most of these buildings have huge windows, they should probably get as much light during the winter dark days as possible. And also: The offices are located often directly at the first floor, so people working there are kind of like in a ZOO. A lot of working places in Hamburg are lot "open space" like.

7. Prejudice: German Girls Are Ugly

Certainly not. I don't know who made this myth up, but the girls here are pretty, just like everywhere else.

8. Food

Currywurst is a traditional fast-food. Looks terrible, tastes great! And generally lots of Wurst (sausages) are eaten here. Except for that and fish-sandwiches I did not find here anything really new for me, because the German and the Czech/Slovak cuisines are very similar. Cabbage, pork, potatoes, dumplings... And the beer is kind of too alcoholic for me, so now I buy the alcohol-free version. A nonalcoholic drink that you can find here in every pub is Apfelschorle - it tastes like an Apple blended in water. Not worth the money.

A fast food dish that I laugh at every time is a big boiled potato with salty whipped cream. Yes, just a potato. For 3 euros :)

Currywurst

9. Prejudice: Germans Are Detached and Cold

My closest friends here are either from Couchsurfing.com or programmers. Both groups a bad sample to examine this prejudice. The first group of people is always more open, than the general population, the second always a bit more introvert (or at least at my workplace it is so). 

However, I kind of use people on the train in order to get speaking practice, so I was able to test this myth there. The only difference is the beginning. The Germans do not start speaking to you first. There is a smaller chance that you meet and old lady that automatically starts telling you her life story, than, let's say, in Romania. But if I tried to open a conversation, in half of the cases, the dialog flew on naturally. So I would say, it is pretty much the same as in Czech Republic/Slovakia. Myth busted.

10. Prejudice: Germans Follow the Rules

Well, it depends. They do separate the trash and I am telling you, the rules for separating are quite complicated here. On the other hand, a lot of people ignore the smoking ban on the train stations, Czechs seem to me more respectful in this area.

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Tu sum it up, Germany seems to me like a cleaner, richer and politer Slovakia. Many things are similar. New Year's Eve is here caller Silvester too, the Christmas presents are brought by Christkind (although Weihnachtsmann/Santa Claus is a fierce competition). Romania was a bit different. Different religion, different food. It is interesting to be able to see these differences.