What about English version?

My dear friends,

I just want to give you update about my living in Iceland. I am fine guys, but missing all of you of course. I am sorry for those, who didn´t read first part which was in Czech, but there were some descriptions of the things u could maybe not understand as foreigners :(.

I am in Iceland for five days and I had to get used to lot of new things, which seems as a simple things for me now.

Reykjavik is not so big city as it looks like on first sight. I am able to walk without map throught it now. Of course I don´t know all the places still, but the main ones I do, and this is important for me now.

Nearly around whole Reykjavik is sea. Every day I am walking around, because I live really close to it. I love watching the water and mountains here. Especially if there is nice weather. Usually is here windy, no sun and sometimes is raining during the day. But today and yesterday was really nice weather. Just sun on the sky, nearly no wind... I think summer

is coming finally also to Iceland. Temperature is around 12-15 C if is bad weather, if is nice even more. Now is 18 C and it´s really hot :)

What I hate on Reykjavik is it´s public transport - Straeto. They are using only yellow buses and bus stops are quite random here. It stops nearly every three minutes and has neary not-identificatable bust stops. Drivers are quite crazy and even I have normaly no problems with any kind of public transport, I think I will be sick soon from this one. They are driving so crazy that I am scared of being in the bus. I hope I will survive. If not, I can walk from home to office. It takes under one hour by feet.

I live with one girl and boy from Iceland, one girl form Germany and one women from Holland. We are sharing one house, where everybody has own room. It is a nice place. They seems nice, but mostly I am just with the Hollandian womand, because others are often out of the house. Close to it is the biggest thermal swimming pool, I am looking forward to go there soon.

Last Saturday we have international evening. It was great event. Icelandic and Czech table had the best presentations :) See the pictures. I met here one Czech guy from Prague´s IAESTE, he was also keen on presenting Czech republic. There were also some people from France, Germany, Spain, Poland and Hungary. Pity, that most of them are leaving at the end of summer.

I also started to work at Fosshotel Baron, 3* hotel in Reykjavik. I am working in the kitchend, taking care of serving food for breakfast. My boss is from Algeria, i am working togeather some Icelandic people and also one girl from UK (Oh my God, her accent is really awfull and I have problems to understand her. Hope I´ll get used to soon). I have to get up early in the morning and always walk 30 min. to work.It´s because there is no bus connecton between 12p.m. and 7 a.m. and my work starts at 6. But it is a nice walk and I can put some weight down :)

My MC team workers, Thordis and Tomas are really nice people. They are always helping me with everything what I need. Today we had real EB meeting, we set up some task what we need to do and did some overview about the situation. One who is now missing is president :) Sandra is now in Lithuania, visiting her parents and friend and she was in Dublin at WENA Presidents Meeting as well.

Icelandic people generaly are nice. The always help you if you ask – in the store, at the street, in the bus... everybody speaks English, some more or less good. Just have funny accent for me. I don´t think I will speak like they do.

I am trying to learn some icelandic, but it is quite crazy language. I know just simple world like yes, no, maybe, good day/evening... I was learning how to pronaunce name of my street for one day! (For Czechs: Laugarasvegur cti jako lejgarasvegur.)

Next week (from 2nd till 9th of August) I am going for Scandinavian Leadership Conference to Oslo. I hope I will enjoy it a lot :)

I created photoalbum, i hope all of you got invitation from me. If not, just write me an email and I will send it to you.

Enjoy your summer holidays and don´t forget me :)

Prvni zazitky

Ahoj vsichni,

tak jsem se konecne, po umorne ceste dostala k pocitaci a muzu v klidu napsat par radek o tom jak se mi vede.

I kdyz je to teprve den a pul co jsem pry z Ceske republiky, uz jsem stacila zazit nekolik zajimavych okamziku, o ktere se s vami rada podelim.

ODJEZD:

Z Prahy jsem odletala v 9.50 rano a za necele dve hodinky jsem byla v Londyne. Kontrola v Praze spocivala v rentgenu prirucnich zavazadel a "ojeti" tela necim na kovy.

Horsi uz to bylo v Londyne. Zde mi vytahli uplne vsechny veci z batohu a skoro kazdou si prohlizeli jako by to mela byt bomba. Mela jsem tam takove malinke radio na baterky. To si dononce skenovali jeste nejak extra. Pak se me ptali, co ze to mam za lahev – tak jsem jim musela vysvetlit, ze je to nej neskodna Becherovka J. Me osobne prohledavala nejaka zenska, zkousela jestli nema neco v botech… No, mela jsem z toho srandu. Kdyz uz jsem si mohla konecne naskladat veci zpatky, gong ohlasil, ze se musi drzet 2 minuty ticha na poces obetem teroristickeho utoku z minule stredy. Vsichni staly jak sochy, ani se nehli. Neprala bych vam to.

Let do Reykjaviku probehl bez problemu. V letadle jsem se seznamila s manzelskym parem, ktery mi daval rady do zivota… jsou to fakt mili lide. A prekvapive umi velice dobre anglicky.

PRIJEZD:
Na letiste do Keflaviku jsme dorazili s pulhodinovym zpozdenim. Vse probehlo hladce, jen se na me neduverive divali na pasove kontrole a velice chteli videt moji pracovni smlouvu.

Cestou do Reykjaviku, ktery je asi 40 minut jizdy autem jsem pozorovala prirodu – no jestli se to tak da nazvat (jen same kameni, sem-tam nejaka trava a nikde nic).

REYKJAVIK:
Reykjavik je docela rozlehle mesto, o asi 170.000 obyvatelich. Vsechny baracky vypadaji skoro stejne, prijde mi jako by je udelali z betonu, pribili na ne nejaky vlnity plech a namalovali do svetlych barev (blede modra, zluta, bila).

Bydlim v severo-zapadni castli Reykjaviku, 25 minut autobusem od office. Je to takova pekna ctvrt s rodinnymi domky, plno zelene. Kousek od baraku mam termalni koupaliste a jeden z nejlevnejsich supermarketu

CENY:

I kdyz jsem nakupovala v druhem nejlevnejsim supermatketu ve meste, tak jsem za nakup, ktery se skladal z masla, syra, salamu, rybicek, toastoveho chleba, mleka a dzusu, zaplatila pres 1100 ISK, coz je v prepoctu skoro petistovka!

Za mesicnik na MHD (platne na cele mesto a par dalsich v okoli) jsem vyplazla 4500 ISK.

OFFICE:

Je to docela mala ctvercova mistnost, i kdyz by se dala zmerit na ¾ ostravskeho. Jsou tu dva pocitace, radio, nejake nadobi a waflovac J, asi dalsi 3 stoly, telefon, fax, tiskarna, pohovka a spousta filu. Office je umisten v male budove, kde sidli jeste dalsi studentske organizace. Je tu spolecna kuchynka, vybavena mikrovlnout, varnou konvici a nejakymi dalsimi vecmi.

ZVLASTNOSTI:

Tomas mi koupil na uvitanou typicky islandsky drink a sladkost. Drink s nazvem “Malt” chutnal opravdu zvlastne J Ma to takovou chut cerneho piva, s velkym obsahem cukru, bez alkoholu a jeste k tomu s takovou neidentifikovatelnou prichuti. Sladkost “Draumur “ se sklada ze dvou cernych pendreku zalitych mlecnou cokoladou. Taky to chutna zvlastne, i kdyz jsem si po asi trech kousancich na to zvykla. Co urcite vim je, ze si tyhle dve veci nikdy nekoupim.

Co si ale stoprocentne kupovat budu je tocena zmrzlina. Je proste uzasna! Kam se hrabou ty nase. Kremova, husta, s bajecnou chuti… no proste lahudka.

Dalsi zvlastnost jsem objevila pri jizde autem. Za 1. Islandani jsou sileni ridici, skoro nepouzivaji blinkry a prejizdi z pruhu do pruhu kdy se jim zamane. Za 2. maji bezva dopravni znaceni. Krome oranzovych znacek s cervenymi signaly, me prekvapily semafory. Krome klasickeho umisteni semaforu na krizovatkach je maji umistene i za hranici krizvatky (nazorneji asi na fotce).

V byte me prekvapily 3 veci.

Klice – nejsou klasicky kulate jak u nas, ale maji tvar trojlistku – a to vsechny bez rozdilu na co jsou.

Zamykaci system – jeste ted s tim bojuju. Musi se tam povysunout nejaky cudlik, aby se mohly dvere jen zabouchnout a nikdo se tam bez klice nedostal, no… tezko popsat. Je to ale SYSTEM J

Voda – studena je vpohode, ale kdyz pustite teplou, zacne se z ni linout silny oder siry a vy premislite jestli vam neutekl nejaky ten duch z brucha nebo zda se nekde podarilo rozbit zkazene vajicko.

Dalsi, a asi zatim posledni prekvapujici vec, jsou sami Islandani. Kdyz jsem jim rikala, ze jsem cetla o tom, ze jsou nejzdravejsi narod na svete, tak se smali. Musim priznat, ze oba moji kolegove maji pekne brisko a nejak dietka ci sport by jim neuskodil. Maji strasne radi sladke, jezdi vsude autem (ale fakt vsude!) a na bazene se jen vali a kecaji jak v hospode.

Vesmes vsichni mluvi hodne dobre anglicky. Hlavne lide z Reykjaviku, coz je vice nez polovina obyvatelstva. Patrala jsem proc. Je to tim, ze vsechny programy v televizi jsou anglicky, pouze s islandskymi titulky. Jen je ale to takova divna anglictina, ani ne prizvukem, ale tim, jak vyslovuji slova – je to takove sislani, a jeste k tomu mluvi docela rychle. Nekdy je umeni jim rozumet.

Zitra nas ceka OPS pro asi 8 DT SNek, a vecer pak international evening. Uz se tesim jak budu prezentovat Ceskou republiku :).

To bude pro dnesek vsechno.

Icelandic adventure has been started

14.7.2005 become a historical day for me. I left my lovely Czech Republic and made first steps into new life.

I am going somewhere, in the middle of nowhere - to ICELAND. I hope this year will be unforgetable for me and I will get lot of new experience and have lot of new friends.