Whoo, what to do firstly???

Beginning of March isn't a very good time. Especially here. There is too many deadlines. Internships, scholarships, projects, midterm exams... And everything in one moment. And you just desperately telling yourself - why I didn't start to work on all this stuff sooner? But, it's too late to change it.

At the beginning of each semester I promise to myself that I'll start working and studying since the first day of classes. However, I haven't succeed with this wish yet. I'm simply a deadline type - only upcoming DDL forces me to start working.

However, this time is even more stressful for me, because I really wanna get an internship for this Summer and stay in the States for couple more months. So, I'm trying to apply for my dream internship and unfortunately almost all DDLs are exactly at the beginning of March, in worst case in March 1. And in addition all these exams and project... Cross your fingers for me to manage it and not to go mad...

I remember last end of February when I applied for Robitschek Scholarship - write an motivation letter and resume in couple hours and hope that I send it on time. But I managed it and I'm enjoying a wonderful year in Nebraska. So, guys finish reading and go ahead writing your own papers to aim your dreams. You have still couple hours left. Remember - March 1, midnight ;) Good luck!

Unexpected meeting in New York

After the experience in Denver hockey game we were prepared to repeat it again. The chance to meet some famous Czechs in the US appeared in our New York trip before the Christmas... Honza went to hockey game of Rangers and me and Monica decided that we are gonna come there after the game to meet Jaromir Jagr, Petr Prucha and other Czech players.

We met Honza after the game in front of the back entrance to the Madison Square Garden, home stadium of Rangers...

We knew from some fans that if the players will appear they will go through this entrance. However, Rangers lost for the fourth time in a row so we weren't sure if they appear at all. We waited there for a long time, fortunately there wasn't very cold. But from the door just crew members were coming... Shoot, are we waiting there in vain? Then something strange happened. From the door there was coming short man who didn't look like a hockey player at all. In the middle of huge bodyguards... I stared at him and just said with surprise to Monica - "Ty vole, to je Havel" - "Waw, that's Havel". And Monica just said "Who, Havel? What the hell are talking about?". But it was him, Vaclav Havel, former Czech and Czechoslovakian president, dissident and dramatic.

He stopped by for a while with us having a talk and giving us signatures and taking the picture with us.

After the meeting with this huge man, the meeting with Jagr, Prucha and other famous hockey players wasn't so excited. Otherwise they lost and they weren't very talkative, especially Jagr. So this day for me was primarily about meeting Vaclav Havel. That is another benefit being in the US. You can meet a lot of people from your home country you admire and talk to them, that probably wouldn't happen back home...

Guess who did I meet here?

It started in Colorado when me, Czechs and one our American friend were there for the fall break. We met there the cousin of our American friends. And he just couldn't stop buying us drinks in Rock Cafe in Denver, capital of Colorado. No matter that famous Rock Cafe is one of the most expensive bar chains in the US... However, the bar wasn't our last destination this day, we were supposed to go to a NHL game. So after couple drinks we decided that at this game we have to meet some Czech players and get signature from them. Hmm, kind of difficult goal, but you don't think about that when you are little tipsy ;)

In the huge stadium played this day home team Colorado Avalanche with Chicago Blackhawks.

And a lot of Czech players, like Havlat and Hejduk. Everything was going well. We even got to better seats very close to ice (some tricks for passing through bodyguards aren't difficult ;)) so we saw everything.

We saw the Czech players, but we still didn't get their signatures. So our second mission (impossible?) started... After trying to get to their changing room, or team bus, for what the bodyguards weren't very happy we got strategic place by the parking place and the road where the players were leaving in their cars. We met other hockey fans who learnt us the art of getting the signature and the picture of players. Some players even stop by us and gave us the signature, but still no Czechs players...

However, finally the guy who we waited for appeared... Miland Hejduk, the star of Colorado team was coming to parking place. So, finally we succeeded and talked to Hejduk! Nice guy. He gave us the signature and here is the proof that we really met him:

Are you curious who we met next? Who is the worldwide know person (or persons?) who we met in New York last Christmas? Try to guess... Stay tuned and check the solution tomorrow here!

Mardi Gras (masopust) in America

I didn't know that they celebrate Mardi Gras, day before Ash Wednesday (Popelecni streda), in the US. I thought that the largest and most famous festivals are just in Brazil... However, it's a big surprise that they have this tradition in the US, too. Especially in the South - the largest festival of Mardi Gras (also called Fat Tuesday) is in New Orleans. Thousands of people come every year watch this huge unpaid show ;) Go here and see some crazy pictures from this festival.

I didn't know about this holiday yesterday. My friends just told me today is a party day and there are some specially offers in the bars. So we went to Lincoln bars. You can notice that there is something unusual happening because of special decoration in bars and that everybody wears the necklaces or feathers boa or both.

So, that's the celebration which take place in Nebraska and most of other American states. Old tradition with a new image...

See New York like a bird...

It's again here. It captures me again after almost two months... I just love travelling and I can't wait for another trip. Travelling is one of the most important parts of my American experience. And the US is great place for travelling.

So let's leave Nebraska for a while and go to New York, amazing city with its own soul and atmosphere. And let's have a look at it from the unusual view - top down. And in different times - at night (from Rockefeller Center) and during the day (from Empire State Building)... Enjoy!

Building of United Nations (OSN)

Famous Flat Iron Building, one of the oldest skyscrapers...

Lower Manhattan, two islands on the right side are Ellis Island and Island where is the Statue of Liberty...

Typical New Yorker's cabs (taxis) - most of cars driving in Manhattan are this yellow cabs...

Empire State Building and Middle Manhattan during the sunset.

Chrysler Building, my famous skyscraper.

Coffee with Larry, our adviser

Robitschek scholarship isn't a normal scholarship. Not just I say it but I guess everybody who passed this great experience agree with me. You aren't one of many as in most of other scholarship. You are special. Or you can at least feel like that ;) We are 5 students here and we have three advisers who have helped us whenever we need.

We are a family. And as a family we meet each other often and talk about everything... We have breakfast meetings every month. Sometimes we just go to have a coffee. As yesterday when we went to Mill (coffee house in the downtown) with Larry and his wife Caroline.

Gag of the day:

Me: What's that, Larry? (I asked which type of pastry Larry just ate showing on empty package of it)

Larry: That's piece of plastic. (seriously said)

Me: Thanks, it helped...

So, that's our advisers and meetings about. Ironic, funny but helpful. Thanks for that, guys!

Lincoln - city of colleges and football

Lincoln is Midwestern city totally different from cities in Europe. The Lincoln downtown is just couple streets with some bars, restaurants and stores. Nothing like the main square as is typical for Europe is here. Even not many people walk on the streets. Everybody has a car and that's why a public transportation isn't very good here (I don't wanna say sucks :-)).


My imagination of typical American city is a downtown with lots of tall skyscrapers. That's not Lincoln's case, there are just few taller buildings in the downtown and the tallest and probably most beautiful building in the city is State Capitol as you can see on the picture.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln is very quality university. In the US it is not so prestigious and not so expensive but still very good university. UNL has some very good colleges. One of them is College of Journalism and especially advertising program where I have most of my classes. I've heard that this college is among top 10 American journalism colleges. Proud to study here ;)

However, Nebraska and Lincoln is know mostly because of football (for non-Americans American football ;)). It is "just" college football but they have stadium for 80 000 people! Huuugeee!!! The color of Nebraska team - Cornhuskers (loupaci kukurice;)) and of Nebraska in general is red. What does it mean in real? Everybody who goes to the game put on some red piece of cloth - shirt, sweatshirt, pants, cap or whatever and you can see whole overcrowded stadium in red. Amazing experience!
Back to numbers - in Nebraska live about 1,5 million people and in Lincoln 230 thousand people and to every game go 80 000 people. That's pretty crazy! Americans just love football, but about that next time...

Thursday = party day for international students in Lincoln

Unfortunately, I don't have much time today for writing. As the headline says today is for internationals in Lincoln party day... Every thursday we are going to explore Lincoln bars. Our most famous bar is a bar simply called The Bar. It is situated nearly to our campus, so it's convinient for us to go there even without car. And the prices today are very nice. Beer and drinks, everything for $1. It's even cheaper than in Czech!!!

However, the quality you can't compare. Especially the US beers can't be compared with Czech ones. Czechs have the best beer in the world (OK, my german friends, you have very good beer, too...)!!! How just I miss it ;)

So, sorry but I have to go. The party starts...

My astrological sign-Taurus under the moon :)

Ese toro enamorao de la luna..., originally uploaded by *Glauka.

USA - great place for travelling

It's a paradox that the US is so huge country but travelling is here much easier than in Europe. In Europe you plan your trip for example to France a long time in advance and you think how far away it is even in fact it's up to 15 hours by car from Czech Republic. You take care of lots of things and you are permanently scared what can happen there. Here you just rent a car and drive couple hours (sometimes days;) ) to far away state like California.

Perception of a distance is here just different. And it's not just because Americans use miles instead of kilometres... American are get used to travelling among states and it's natural for them. And for foreigners it's not difficult to get used to it, too. Rentals of cars everywhere, cheap gas (two times cheaper than in Europe), quality net of interstates (highways). All that helps...

So, me and my friends have already travelled twice to Colorado. Beautiful state next to Nebraska, but from Lincoln you drive there about 15 hours. No problem for us, just rent a car and let's go... Here is a picture from skiing in Colorado from Thanksgiving break. Btw., is snow already in Czech mountains?

Travelling catches you and don't let you go anymore. So now we are planning the trip to Florida for Spring break. Don't you have a tip for a cheap accommodation near to Orlando? ;)

Czechs in Nebraska

Nebraska isn't just a place with a lot of corn but it is also known for its strong Czech community. About 6% people here have Czech heritage. And even after many year when their ancestors came the "Nebraskan Czechs" has still strong relationship to the Czech Republic.

There are very interested what's going on in Czech. They still cook some Czech food (even it's a little different than original one), have Czech Cultural Clubs where they listen to and dance (well they are mostly older so rather just listen to) Polka-typical Czech dance and share experience about the Czech Republic. There are couple "Sokolovny" here - typical Czech gym and physical training community. We went to visit one Czech cultural club in Omaha (the largest city in Nebraska) and had presentation for that club. Funny story, I will talk to you more about that later... However, here is picture from "Sokolovna". Look exactly like a Czech, doesn't it?

So why are we, Czech students (Eva, Monika, Lucka, Hozna and me) here? To make Nebraska even more Czech? Maybe ;) The truth is that our thanks is going to very generous man called Paul Robitschek, Czech who emigrated from former Czechoslovakia during WWII. The story of our scholarship is exiting prove of good and strong will of the great man. Thanks, Paul!

Sunset Cliche

Sunset Cliche, originally uploaded by LynchburgVirginia.

This is just a psycho picture...

Isn't the weather in Nebraska just weird?

After more than one month of snow in Nebraska, it looked that there is the end of the snow time. Today almost all snow melted. There are just some leftovers like that in front of our dorms and main building of University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) on the campus.

However, the weather is here just crazy. One hour is here warm weather and another while there is cold, wind and whatever you can imagine. So it happened that it is snowing outside now... And not little. After couple hours there is few centimetres already.

This is the view from my room on the parking place ;)

The weather is changing here every moment. That's just Nebraska!

Typical American bar

Three older women wearing tight cloths trying to pretend that all that years they have aren't true... It was my first impression when I came to one bar in Lincoln. It wasn't typical student bar where we go with my friends. The bar isn't situated to the downtown, but it's kind of far away from there.

Inside the bar it looked like in a bar from the American movies - mostly older people wearing farm-cowboy cloths, tough guys playing the billiard, half naked waitress with the weird haircut... The typical American bar with a special atmosphere.

I went there with my friend to see the concert. And I have to say that it was excellent concert. The band is called Judd Hoos and they play rock music. They have a lot of their own songs, but they play a lot of know hits from Nirvana, Audioslave, Maroon 5 and others, too. The great band! They played unbelievable 4 hours, with couple breaks. Good job, guys!

I was great to go for a long time to the awesome concert and experience "typical American bar". Hope that I will come back to the similar one soon...

You can go here and see how does it look like there.

Shooting of the crazy commercial in New York

My stay in the US isn't just Nebraska. So far, me and my friends, we've been to Colorado (twice - first time Rocky Mountain National Park, Denver, Colorado Springs and for the second time we went skiing to Copper Mountain), Iowa (casino!! ;) ), Minnesota (climbing with my climbing class), some places in Nebraska and before the Christmas we went to New York.

New York is a huge and really cosmopolitan city where you can experience a lot of crazy things. Second day of our stay we were going through the street near to the Wall Street. We were wondering why there are so many people. And then suddenly we saw some guys coming to a car. They started dancing and taking off their cloths. What was going on? They were shooting the commercial for Chevrolet there. I shot the video on my camera, so you can see the real unedited commercial for Chevy...



Last Sunday I was working in the cafeteria and because almost nobody was there, we watched for a while TV. The reason why nobody was there was that on TV they released the Super Bowl, which is final game of American football league. Americans just love football (they call normal world football soccer) and ratings of the Super Bowl are over 120 million people. Another reason why people watch the Super Bowl are commercials. Companies invest a lot of money to have their commercial during the game on TV. And most of commercials are produced just for this one night. They are creative, funny, not just annoying ads.

So I was watching the Super Bowl and saw exactly the same commercial which we saw in New York... Right after that my adviser in my scholarship called me if I saw it. We showed it the video I shot to him before. So here you can see final version of the commercial for Chevy which was released during the Super Bowl 2007...



However, I still think that our version from New York is better. Don't you think that the final version isn't so good?

Welcome to my world and blog...

Before I came to the US I wasn't able to imagine how it can look like here. Is it really so huge country with fat people who don't perceive the world around? Is the permanent smile on their face really just a mask? I had a lot of questions for which I didn't know the answers. And I can imagine that a lot of you have the same questions. That's one of the reasons why I established this blog - to inform you how does it look like here, maybe motivate you to experience the same adventure as I've been experiencing or just tell you how I am, how it's going here...

A lot of guys ask me how it happened that I came here. And that's another reason of my blog - to tell you about my scholarship - Robitschek scholarship which I got for this year to study (in better words said to experience the life in the USA :-) ) at University of Nebraska-Lincoln in Nebraska. And I have to say now, thanks God and especially Paul Robitschek for it!

As you probably noticed or you know I'm not American or English, but I'm from the Czech Republic (proud citizen of Prostejov and Brno ;) ) so why the hell I don't write in Czech?! Well, as I live now in a kind of international environment I have a lot of friends from all over the world, so I wanna inform them as well... And on the other hand it's good for me and other Czechs to practice our English ;) However, I guess I will write some parts in Czech or translate something, so don't worry ;) Especially about my scholarship which is intended just for Czechs (and our brothers Slovaks ;) ) I will write in Czech. And don't hesitate post comments in Czech, too.

So, hope that you will enjoy reading my blog. I'll try to post some quality flow of my thoughts and ideas every day. So stay tuned...