Hmm...

... it looks like that I am writing this blog only for myself. If it is not like this, write me some coments how you like it ;-).

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Winter in August?

Today morning, when I was walking to work (around 5:30 a.m.), was quite cold. I was just guessing what is the temperature.

Unexpectedly I realized, that there was only 1°C - how suprizing at the end of August!!! But actually, it was even colder some days before.

But be honest, it is not so cold as when is 1°C in Czech republic. Why, how come? I have no clue, but it is not really so cold. But I already got used to wear sweater under my jaket every day morning & evening, so maybe that´s why I don´t feel it so much.

News of last few days

Hæhæ everyone,

there had been happening lot of things in last 5 days, so I will try to describe them one by one.

Reykjavik Culture Night, Saturday 20.8.

This event was held in downtown (city centre) , started at 11a.m. and was running for hard party people till late morning, official end was around 11:30 p.m. after fireworks.

Main event for morning&afternoon was Marathon, where were around 4.000 participants. And of course lot of people on streets to watch them. Because this was almost only one thing what was happening, I and my friends decided to go to centre after 7p.m.

Then, there were concerts on the streets from some unknown bands, lot of people (i have never seen so many people in Reykjavik before), sweets.... We went through the city, listen some music, visit Art museum, and at 9p.m. we attended main concert done by Red Cross and other organizations. Red Cross was there fighting against racism, using slogans like Let´s build up better society. There was slogan even in Czech - Budujme lepsi spolecnost. My voice was used two weeks before for their advertisement in TV and radio :).

At this concert we could hear some well know Icelandic bands (of course i don´t remember their names), even around 20 policemen were singing for us :). And at 11p.m. there were fireworks. Everybody was so excited, that nobody spoke and it was so silent immediately. Imagine, 40.000 people (this amount of people I have never seen in Reykjavik before) at one place without any talking, looking at the sky and watching fireworks. And at the end of show everybody clapped his hands. Pity, that i couldn´t go to party, because I had to get up early for work.


Blue lagoon, Sunday 21.8.

Me, Arturs (trainee from Latvia), Gunnar Örn (aiesecer) and his girlfriend Björk went to Blue lagoon on Sunday afternoon.

Before we went to Blue lagoon, we went up one hill nearby. Just for fun to see nature around and experience real Icelandic wind! (it was so windy, that i had to use pressure in my hands to hold strongly my camera and make a picture).

Blue lagoon is one of the most famous tourist attraction. It´s well know for its´positive influence to humans health. Water is really BLUE and you can see only 5 cms under water. There are some special bacterias living in, and somehow is also silica made up at the bottoms of stones in water.... (i don´t know how exactly it works).

Even if I wouldn´t know that, I could believe that it´s really healthy. Only price for entrance should persuade you about it - 1.400 ISK (app. 18 euros).

Relaxing, almost sleeping in warm water, having silica-mask on face, ... nice time after hard-working week.

Swimming pool, Monday 22.8.

I met my foreign friends from other student organizations and we had unusual farewell party with Sabine from Germany (on pic from left is Nicole-aiesec trainee from Germany, me and Sabine).

Finally, after more than month of stay in Iceland I was able to go to swimming pool, which is app. 10 minutes by walk from my home.

It was also cool! I cannot compare with Blue lagoon, because it is not comparable. Here is also warm water, there is also big swimming pool where you can swim (but not deeper than 1,5m). And popular hotpots. There are 4, each with differently warm water. The lowest is around 37C, the hottest 43C (I just tried with my feet, because it was really hot!). These hotpots are well known also as meeting/chatting place for icelanders and also from time to time foreigners.

Meeting my Danish friend, Tuesday 23.8.

It´s just 2 weeks I came back from Norway where I met lot of Scandinavians, and one of them came to Iceland. Of course not only because of me J.

I met Tom in afternoon and we had lot of fun together (also with his friends - on picture Jesper, Mikko and Tom, behind Heba and me).

We also tasted some fish-food, as lobster soup (mnam) and some fish sticks (spizy). Tom´s friends also tried shark which was laying few months under the ground… oh God, it was so bad smell! That´s maybe why they had to eat it together with drinking Icelandic Brenivinn (some kind of drink which taste as really cheap vodka with cumin flavour). Be honest, I was not so brave to try.

It was great time with them. I got invitation for Danish Christmas-eating time, so I have dilema now! ;)

Meeting with president Prof. Vaclav Klaus, Wednesday 24.8.

All Czech people, living permanently in Iceland, got invitation for official reception with president V. Klaus. He was in Iceland for his official visit of president and prime minister… you could read it in newspapers.

It was nice to meet him (even though I am not his fan), I have chance to talk to him face to face, shake his hand, make a picture with him and also I got his signature on his photo

… and of course eat some nice food and drink some wine. I was so in hurry in the morning that I even didn´t have breakfast, so I was a bit drunk from two glasses of wine... :-)

That´s all for now, other news later on :)

Omluva

Ahoj vsichni cesky mluvici kamaradi,

moc se Vam omlouvam, ale svoje zazitky jsem se rozhodla psat v anglictine. Mam hodne pratel cizincu (hl. praktikanti) a bylo by to vuci nim nefer. A abych se priznala, dvakrat (anglicky a cesky) se mi to fakt psat nechce a ani na to nemam cas.

Takze kdo to nedava anglicky, tak mi prosim dejte vedet a ja zkusim vymyslet nejakou kratsi verzi v cestine, nebo nekoho poproste o preklad.

Diky moc za pochopeni ;)

Czech ... what a beautiful language

Today at work (hotel) i heard two old ladies talking in Czech. I couldn´t belive what I hear! Usually I hear only English, German, French, Spanish... but Czech? NO WAY!

I was so happy! It´s true, that there are two Czechs in Reykjavik, but I am not meeting them very often (let say, I spoke to them twice).

So, why not to use opportunity to talk Czech now? I started to talk to them... it was really cool. Trully, they had a bit problem with ears, but be honest, I had also problem to speak. If you speak English whole day, whole week, whole month, and Czech is used only in written form... it´s not easy.

I am a bit afraid, that I will not be able to speak normaly Czech after I come back.... So, that´s why I have skype ;) (my user name is svetlanasenajova). So please, talk to me to help me not to forget my mother tongue.

Picture for business card?

Yesterday we were making photos for business cards.

What do you think about this one? Is it serious enough?

note: on this picture is our MC VP ICX & ER Tómas :)

Setkani s V. Klausem

V patek jsem dostala od Honorarniho konzulatu CR na Islandu oficialni pozvani na setkani s prezidentem V. Klausem a jeho manzelkou.

Akce se kona 24.8., tak jsem zvedava, co z toho bude.

ScaLDS in Norway

This message I would like to use for sharing of my experience in Norway where I was last week.

I left Iceland on 2nd of August. My main target was Oslo, the capital of Norway. In plane I was watching nature of Noway.... wood everywhere, some towns around. It was nearly like coming back to my lovely Czech Republic.

In Oslo I oversleeped in one aiesecer´s flat. Sharing room with other 3 Dannish guys was really cool ;). In the morning we plus other delegates took a bus to some town 2,5hr far away. We were travelling for Scandinavian Leadership Developement Seminar (ScaLDS) done for MCs and EBs of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland. (+ one international participand from The Netherlands).

ScaLDS was FIRST conference ever for those Scandinavian countries. It was planned from 1998 but never come true. And finally this year Norway become a host country for it. I was not expected something really great, it´s enought if I compare WENA and CEE. But, unfotunatelly it was very good conference. MCs were in faci team, so conference was mainly for EB members – I can compare it with our NTM but not in quality of course :). My main aim was to establish network of contact and understand deeper Scandinavian culture and way of thinkink. Which was, I think successfully fullfiled.

Just to show you how AIESEC works:

OC consis of 1 OCP and 2 OC members. Confernece was for around 100 delegates... so, guys, you should think about it.

Faci team – all MCs of all countries (not Iceland and Netherlands), + chair = 20 people. Wow!

Really nice suprise for me was oficial dinner held on Saturday evening. They don´t do oficial dinner as opening for conference, but as something like closing. We had 3 parts of dinner, wine, coffie. There were speeches for womens and men, singing english and nordic songs, every guy was taking care of girl (partner for evening).... lot of fun. It was really nice. I think we should start up with this as well :).

I am not gonna describe how ScaLDS looked like, what was happening and so on, because it could be boring for you. Just maybe that AIESEC Iceland established close cooperation with AIESEC Norway (see picture), that there was army party and also other parties. lot of fun, new friends ... :).

So, let´s jump back to Oslo.

I had 1,5 day for siteseeing of Oslo, because my flight was on Tuesday afternoon and conference ended on Sunday evening. Oslo is big city, but without any great architecture as I am used to from Czech republic (I am not thinking only about Prague).

On Monday me and Heba (member from Iceland) were siteseeing of city centre – Royal palace, Town hall, harbour, University, and all the things around. In afternoon was raining like a hell (prava letni bourka) so we sayed at MC flat.

On Tuesday I went to Vigeland Sculpture Park. It was amazing! Guys, if u are going to Oslo, u gave to go here! See the pictures in my album.

Generaly, I have to say, that Norway is nice, but fucking expensive country. Beer costs 70 NOK, we had discount to 30 NOK but i mean many other things (food, tram tickets…) But still Iceland is more expensive in some areas. I am really happy that I am coming from Czech Republic :).

And how is Scandinavian culture?
Lot of people is blond or red hair and blue eyes, but nowadays there is lot of foreigner in all of those coutnries, so it´s hard to recognize where is who. … many people told me that I can be easily Scandianvian ;)

People are more closed, but if u make a friendship with them, they are very open and talk about EVERYTHING without any borders.

They are not so social-sensitive as we do. We were sleeping in MC flat and they didn´t even offer us a cup of tea (I am not saying that we expected that they will take care of us, but this was a bit rude for me). But that´s their culture and way of behaving. What I really hate is, if they don´t understand and want to repeat your sentence, they say just “HA?” Instead of “Sorry?” or “What did u say?”.Ahhh,… I have to go over it.

But be honest, I was really looking forward to come back to Iceland. Full of motivation, new ideas and also really looking forward to see my MC team :) (we were ALL only on Monday before I left to Noway).

Now I have really busy time by doing recruitment planning and everthing around, but I am enjoying my work and also we have lot of fun togeather :).

Next time more about Iceland and icelanders :).