Erasmusblogs

         Here´s a simple example of what´s wrong here. The dark side of the Erasmus experience, if you want. Ana and me need an English grammar book for our proficiency course. We have searched for it in some bookstores but failed. So we go to the Rectorate where the Central Library is supposed to be. "No Central Library," says a German-like guy at reception. He gives me a phone and a number. "I´ve lived through this before," I think while I dial information. A metallic distant voice (like from Mars or something) informs me that we must go to the library in the second Faculty of Ed. in Rett. Street. OK.

         At reception in Rett. they don´t speak English. They offer me another phone. No thanks. Enough calls for today. I ask a bookworm-looking guy. He points politely at a dark narrow hall and says, "But you need to fill some papers before taking books." Ok, no problem. Long queue; we stand in as cheerfully as possible though. Ana types the name of the book in a computer. Bad luck. There is only an old edition. Hmm… Well, let´s try. We ask for it, and they send us to the Reading Room. In the Reading Room a tall pale guy helps us to find it. Finally he says the book is not here. We must go to the first Faculty of Ed. and take it from the library´s English department. "Tomorrow we´ll try, ok Manu?" Ok.

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I´ve bought an internet card for the call center in Tierpark. I just couldn´t resist myself, even though I´ve tried hard not to do so for over two months; now that I´m going back home in a few days, I felt the need to come and get used once again to this dear old friend. I´ve been trying to connect the mIRC, but it just doesn´t seem to work; too bad. The reason why I couldn´t wait is because I should have received an e-mail today from the hall of residence administration, confirming my new room in the Sewanstraße. Last week I came up here to Tierpark to sign a new contract and I wasn´t told that my current flat, together with the whole building, were already sold to a company and that we´ll all have to move in 2006. I was dead angry when I saw the tiny notificiation hanging on the flat´s door the day after my contract enlargement. I wrote an e-mail to my so beloved Binkowski, saying I´d like a new room from January onwards, and HERE, of course. I won´t move to another hall of residence such as Siegmunds Hof…

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         National Day Celebration Party. Let’s do some sightseeing. Ana, Maria, Pilar and I leave early to see the city. We start in Wenceslas Square where there is a medieval theatre show, Braveheart style. When the knight in shining armour defeats his enemy and get the princess, we clap and go for a stroll in Old Town. There we step into toy stores crammed with Pinocchio and Harry Potter puppets, buy postcards, hang around in Staromestke Namesti with our eyes wide open before Tynn Church. And then we come in a bohemian cafe hidden in one of these labyrinthine narrow streets in Old Town. We have fried cheese, big beers and one hour-and-a-half session of Yann Tiersen. For me this means heaven. The place is called Literarni Kavarna Retezova. Ah, the most lovely waitress in Prague works here, I promise.

         After lunch we cross Charles Bridge to the other side of the river where we run into Michal, a Czech boy who organizes activities for the Erasmus. Since he has nothing to do, he offers to show us some interesting places. First we go to his faculty. "Faculty of Mathematics! Take out your calculators, girls." We look out of the WC’s windows. Wow. Dream-like views. Prague is so amazing… Terrific sights even through the toilets’ windows in the Faculty of Maths!!

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