Aveline Bies

Introduction

Arrival in Brno

Orientation week

An orientation week was organised by the Mendelova University to let the students experience the city and to give them the opportunity to get to know other Erasmus students. This week was not obligatory but it is recommended to participate. At the start of the week you get information about practical stuff, like how does the information system of the university works etc. After that your buddies show you the university and you can ask them everything which is unclear to you. It was also possible to buy a SIM-card during the orientation week and a lot of students bought this card because the university had a special, profitable deal with a telephone company.

Ice Hockey

Last Friday I went to an ice hockey game, together with a group of Erasmus-people. This sport is practised widely over the country and the Czech Republic has one of the best nation-playing teams in the world. The ice hockey club of Brno is named 'Kometa Brno' and is one of the best of the country. This time the club was playing a game against 'Sparta Praha' in the stadion of Brno. This rival is really their biggest rival. When we were going to the stadion we took the tram and the bus which were filled with Kometa fans. So we knew we were in the right bus and tram. To recognize Kometa fans is easy since they all wore their blue-white striped Kometa scarf.

Citytrips

Brno is geographically ideal situated to visit several big cities. Bratislava, Prague, Plzen, Vienna and Budapest are relatively close to the city. The first city to which I paid a visit is Olomouc. It is an old city which you can reach in one hour and a half from Brno. I visited the city for one day together with a group of Erasmus people. One person of this group bought a train ticket in advance because of the special discount you'll get. He got only one ticket for the whole group for the way to Olomouc and back to Brno. So it was not a good idea to lose that valuable ticket.

Skydiving

One of the most special experiences since now: skydiving! A Finnish friend, Janne, told me that two other Finnish boys, who are doing their Erasmus here as well, went skydiving. He showed me the movie where you could see that one of the boys was flying through the air. It made him feel jealous and he wanted to try it himself as well. After having seen the movie, I wanted to jump too. Together with a group of Erasmus students we made a reservation for a tandem jump. We had to travel for two hours to get there and we bought the tickets in advance. First, we bought the wrong tickets but fortunately we discovered it on time and were able to buy the right tickets.

Tramparty

One of the most interesting and brilliant parties I've experienced in Brno is the tram party. Before the party started, we gathered in one of our rooms to make a toast and to prepare ourselves for the party. The theme of the party was 'hippie' and everybody had to be dressed up. After we had drawn peace signs, peace -pigeons, flowers and hearts on our cheeks, we were ready to go!

Cooking for the homeless

Recently I helped to cook a dinner for the homeless people of Brno. This activity was organized by ISN. Together with a Spanish girl, I made a rice-salad. Also other groups would cook a dish and we had a budget of approximately 5 euros.

Imitation of "Battle of the three Emperors"

A famous battle which took place in the surroundings of Brno is the Battle of Austerlitz, or maybe more well known under the name Battle of the three Emperors. This struggle was fought on December the 2nd in the year 1805 during the war of the third coalition. The French army won and defeated the Russo-Austrian army. Although the French were fighting with 75.000 men against 90.000 men, they won.

Celebrating December 5th abroad

The charming tradition of St. Nicholas falls on the eve of St. Nicholas Day, December 5th. People will walk the streets on that evening and a group of strange characters is walking the streets as well: St. Nicholas (Mikuláš), the Angel (anděl) who represents the Good, and the Devil (čert) representing the Evil. All wear costumes.

Pre-Christmas dinner in Brno

Because almost everybody of my Erasmus-friends goes home during the Christmas-holidays, we planned to organize a Pre-Christmas dinner together. Our Czech friend, Klara, said it could be held in her parents' house. She also wanted to prepare everything and she wanted to prepare everything herself. Although we offered our help a thousand times, she wanted to do it alone. She wanted to make us a typical Czech Christmas-dinner and everybody was looking forward to this. A couple of days before we had our dinner together, she posted on facebook a picture with envelopes. On every envelope she had written one of our names, this was our invitation. She also posted a picture with the menu of the dinner. She really put effort in it because the menu was nicely decorated. We all had to buy a Christmas-present for somebody. I bought Klara a kind of bag which you can put in the microwave for a couple of minutes and after it'll stay warm for a long time and you can put it in your bad for instance, to keep you warm.

The last weeks

The last weeks of my Erasmus, after new year and Christmas when everybody had returned, were good weeks. It was a busy period because I had three weeks of classes and also four exams during that period. It was also a period that I slowly had to say goodbye to the ones who were leaving and to the places in Brno which I value the most.