My new sites about the USA - PoznejAmeriku.cz

As you might have noticed I didn't update this blog for a looooong time. After I got back from more then a year in the US, I had just so much stuff to do that I didn't find any time to inform you about my adventures.

However, tomorrow I'm leaving for the US again - I'm going to study at Louisiana State University for a year Mass Communication in Master's Program. The University is obviously in Louisiana ;-) , in capital - Baton Rouge, very close to New Orleans... And because new adventures, which I would like to inform you about, are ahead I decided to create a brand new site not just with my blog but also with much useful information about USA.

So please since now follow my adventures in my blog from Louisiana.

See you there...

Pavel

Special Robitschek wishes...

Because I'm still very thankful for a great year in Nebraska which I spent also with this special people -- my co-scholars and our advisors, this card goes to them... Thank you, guys!

If you are interested in information about the scholarship I was awarded and maybe wanna apply as well, go to this page. For more info go also here.

PF 2008

I would like to wish to all my readers all the best to the NEW YEAR 2008!

Video from the wine cellar. Enjoy!

Still alive and this time in Brno

After long time without posting I wanna assure u that I'm still alive. Just too busy... I have ddl for my bachelor's thesis on December 5 (de facto I have to hand it on November 23, because my supervisor is leaving for Brussels), I have to study for my other classes that I have again many. And the brand new news - I got a job in an internet advertising agency.You can find it on http://www.robertnemec.com/ and just started to work there for couple hours a week yesterday. The agency is focused mostly on inovative internet marketing like Search engine optimization, link building etc. So, could be pretty interesting... We'll see, I'll keep u updated.

And to this wine cellar thing - it was great. About 20 people came, one of them was Marcelo, Brasilian guy who studied with us in Nebraska. We had an awesome wine-testing and plenty of food and of course wine. And we had our own cimbalom's band. Perfect music! Who didn't come missed a lot. Anyway, tried to post videos from the cellar, but have some technical difficulties, so I'll try it tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Wine meeting in the South Moravia

Still hangovered from yesterday burcak party (typical Czech type of short-time fermented wine) in my home faculty I wanna invite all friends to wine cellar in the South Moravia. Wine-tasting is a typical South-Moravian custom well known all around. So, come to experience great Moravian wine in this very special setting on November 2nd... Looking forward to all people who can come! Let me know who wanna come...

Back in my homeland. How is it in the Czech Republic?

It's cold here. One of the differences between my former "home" in the US - last time Washington, DC and my "old and current" home in Czech. And believe me that it can make your life more difficult. No more t-shirts and shorts this year. However, the cold weather out here is just one of differences. Others I had an opportunity to remind myself very quickly. No more "American smile" (even it got much better since past and now more people are smiling). Although it might seem to many people like fake and they are many times right, I still do believe that many Americans really wanna be nice to u and expect the same from u. However, don't expect the same in the Czech Republic - you'll find most people in hurry, not looking at other people and if so with disinterested face.

What I can't stand anywhere in the world is bureaucracy. And there is a lot of bureaucracy in here - especially old white collars who stay in their offices from the Communist period. It takes a lot of time and stress to arrange anything. For example I wanted to get a discount card for student transportation but I didn't have my ID with me. However, I had my passport which normally works like a regular ID. But the older lady behind the glass didn't want to accept this because I didn't have my permanent residency address on it. I showed her other ID cards with pictures I had but she didn't wanna see anything else than this official ID. I couldn't explain her that I probably lost my ID and in my passport there is a place of issuance of passport which is identical with the town where I have a permanent residency... After five minute arguing I left the place because I didn't wanna insult the woman. And I got this card in my university town Brno without showing any ID ;)

Anyway, last time when I posted here I was still in DC. So to my flight back to Europe. After some small problems in Dulles International Airport close by Washington I got on the plane to Copenhagen (well, small - there were so many people waiting for check in and security control I thought that I miss the plane, but everything had a happy end and I got on the board on time). We were taking off in the late afternoon, so I saw sunset above the USA and when we got to Europe (thanks to time change) we caught a sunrise. So, it was kinda symbolic - something is ending but on the other hand something new is starting ;) Well, we live in time of symbols so we see it everywhere ;)














We got safely to Copenhagen, when I had about 8 hours layover. Because they cancelled my flight. When I found it out in the US, I was kinda pissed because I planned that I get to Czech on Monday morning and at 2 I'll be sitting in my class in Brno ;) So, this plans didn't come through, but I had at least an opportunity to see Copenhagen. Pretty nice "Nordic style" city. However, after a day without sleeping and with jet lag little demanding ;)

About school and other things next time...

Last week in DC is coming

After over a year spent in the US my time here is coming to its end. Last week and it's over. Next Sunday, September 23 I'm leaving the States for the Czech Republic... Do I look forward to going back home? Yes and no. I feel that my time (for this year) is over, so I know that I have to come back home. On the other hand I like it here and I would like to stay here. Nevertheless, I have to admit that it's not so awesome and new as at the beginning. And it's different that I don't study any more here. It's totally different to study and work here. And I wanna say that I enjoyed studying much more ;)

In other words - if I studied here I would like to stay here, but my scholarship is gone at the moment and I must come back to my university to finish my bachelor's degree. However, after I'm done with me bachelor's I wanna work on my master's. And now priority one for me is to do it in the States. We'll see how it will work out. But it's still far, for now-look forward to me because I'M COMING HOME SOON!!!

P.S.: Enjoy this pic of Washington as I did when I took it from Arlington National Cemetery...

Primitive man and goat in the Natural History Museum

Well, I was just wondering what is this primitive man doing with this goat. Maybe you can help me and tell me your opinion. Drop here your comment on the skeleton scenery from National Museum of Natural History in DC ;)

Weekend and Labour day traveling - Baltimore, Mormon Temple, North beach and Holocaust Museum

I took advantage of this weekend and additional free day - Labor day to do some traveling around DC and in the city. We were talking about doing some small road trip with my friend Katka, who is interning with me at the Czech Embassy, before and this Saturday we made it real.

Baltimore is surprisingly neat city hour far away from Washington. The downtown is located to Inner Harbor which makes nice contrast of modern and tall skyscrapers and water. I think that every city with some river or ocean around just has to look neat in some way and Baltimore just proved my theory. Further from downtown there is an older part of the city with many historical sites. In this area there was written of modern America, so there is plenty of interesting stuff. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to explore all those places so we just basically drove through this neighbourhood. We were supposed to meet up with friend of Katka and explore some night life of Baltimore, but unfortunately she went to some party even before and wasn't able to either come to Baltimore. So, we went back to DC...

Next day we planned to go to Sand Point State Park on some beach. Before we left DC we stopped in the Mormon Temple in the suburb of DC. When we saw it last night my friend thought that it was some Disney land. It really looks like from different world, especially during the night. Huge white stone temple without any windows... Look at the pics below, it's really very weird architecture fitting to this weird church. I was saying to Katka, don't go to Visitor center - you'll get at least hour lesson about their church and Jesus. But she wanted to talk to them and have some fun - and we had, but for me little long. I was looking forward to the beach. After a long while we finally hit the road.

Not just we had the idea to go to the beach this day. We got stucked in the traffic jam, because many people wanted to take advantage of prolonged weekend. When we finally got close to the park, there was a sign Parking full, so we even couldn't get into the park. Never mind, we decided to head to some other close beach. We decided for one hour far away North beach. Now I know that it wasn't very good choice, because when you wanted to get on the tiny beach with dirty sea you had to pay $7. We were there just for a while and we really didn't wanna pay for what we saw. We continued walking on the sea shore and got on some even dirtier (but unpaid ;)) beach with similar dirty water. OK, maybe it was my last time by the ocean this year so I went to the warm and stinky water. Not so good, but at least it was OCEAN!!!

Today, on Monday it was a labor day so I didn't have to go to work. So, I could visit another Washington's museum - this time Holocaust museum. I've heard it's very good museum. And it was... great, I spent there 6 hours today. The history of holocaust and the raise of Nazism were explained in very good and live way... I've been to Auschwitz already, which was very natural adventure. This museum helped me understand all the conditions and the results of this monstrous time of our history. When you have opportunity and you'll be DC, you should definitely visit this museum! But come early morning, many people wanna do the same as you ;)

Baltimore, Mormons' Temple and Holocaust Museum

Trip to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

During whole last week I had my friends from Nebraska here, so I didn't have time for writing posts. I was exploring a night life in DC and having fun with my friends. It just reminded me how much will I miss some people I've met here... Well, unfortunately my friends had to leave DC on Saturday morning, so I tried to disperse my sadness through exploring new places. Saturday afternoon I visited great (but overcrowded - it's most visited museum in the world) National Air and Space Museum and National Botanic Garden. On Sunday Bob, owner of house where I'm staying offered me if I don't wanna go to Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, famous for it's fighting history. And I wasn't against...

Gettysburg is one of the biggest battlefields in the US and a place that raises lots of emotions. At this place the armies of North-Union and South-Confederation met which led to bloody battle where many people were killed or injured. This battle took place July 1-July 3 1863 and Union won. This battle is considered like a breaking point of Civil War where South slavery states were defeated...

Gettysburg lies in Pennsylvania close to border with Maryland, hour and half far away from Washington, DC. It's neat and small east coast town. However, you can see the bloody history of this place all around. There is a big cemetery in the town with buried bodies (or just ash of bodies, because there were so many corpses that they didn't have time and room to bury all of them). And in the countryside around the town, on the places where the soldiers died there are many (at least tens, maybe hundreds) monuments and memorials for these people. Perhaps every troop from different states has its own monument. And in addition to it, every fighting state has it's own memorial. Especially Pennsylvania one is huge and amazing.

This is typically American I would say. They appreciate everybody who fought for their ideals and freedom. We have hardly main monuments for all the people killed in different wars and they have memorial for every person killed. Well, it's possible here, because America hasn't seen many conflicts on its homeland. Which you can't compare with European bloody history.

Gettysburg-battlefield

Greetings from Washington, DC

So, I'm finally here. In the capital of the USA, the center of politics, neat city without so typical American skyscapers but on the other hand full of museums of different types.

Camp finished on last Sunday, August 12th and we were leaving the facility next day, on Monday morning. I don't like saying good buy, but this went pretty smoothly. I forgot about worse things that happened in camp and concentrated to say goodbye to people I wanted. And even to people I firstly didn't want to, like to Jonesy, cook from kitchen who I didn't have very good relation with. He thanked me for good job, but it can't so easily fix what happened (well, it wasn't so bad, just annoying sometimes). We left later than we were supposed to and in addition we stopped in another camp to drop some guys who are working for a postcamp there now and in the town in the bank so some guys could withdraw poor money they earned ;) That's why we got delayed, which was for me, Tom and Vita, other 2 Czech guys pretty bad, because are bus from New York to DC was supposed to leave in 1:30PM. Well, we got close to Port Authority, main NYC bus station at 1:20 and we were running to find our bus. Very nice experience, especially when I need have to piss sooo badly...

At the last minute we found our almost leaving bus and we got on the board. And thanks God they had a bathroom in there, so I didn't have to destroy the glass to get out of the bus, because it was really very urgent. Anyway, I'm not gonna annoy you with my past urinal problems ;) So, after four hours ride we got to Washington. And fortunately there was Bob Doubek, I was supposed to stay with in DC, waiting for us. We dropped guys in their hostel and continue to my new home. We stopped by the Tomas Masaryk Statue at the Embassy Row Street. Bob is a president of organization called American friends of the Czech Republic and he was also director of building of this memorial to first Czechoslovakian president. Bob is very interested older guy among others interested in the Czech Republic, with Czech heritage and working for American government. He was a projector of Vietnam War Memorial, one of the most important memorials in DC. All around his house there are pictures with Clinton, Gore, Havel and other famous and important people.

We are leaving in neat family house in beautiful (and probably pretty rich) neighborhood with his 22 years old son James, James's friend Jessie who is attending college here and Bob's friend Bob, the director of golf courses. All of them are very nice and interesting people. You can check out some pictures of our house and my room:

(btw. about work and other things later, now I'm going to bed to be fresh for tomorrow)

The right house is ours.

Back of our house.

Well, this is little messy, but it's still my room ;)

Pics from Pittsburgh

Lot of work and just little time for other things. It caused that I'm posting so late.

Anyway, we have 5 more days to spend in the camp and on Monday morning I'm leaving for Washington and on Tuesday at 11AM I have to be on an Embassy ready to start working. I can't wait to get out of here and try to live in the capital of the US. I'll be there just over month so I'll try to get from it so much as I can. We'll see what's gonna happen there. I'll keep u updated.

And here enjoy the pics:

Pittsburgh

Random thoughts

Today, I'm in such a lazy mood that I'm even lazy to think of what to write here. But in the situation when I haven't written here for a long time I'll try to make up something what can help u orientate what's going on with me those days...

Why not to say it loudly - I'm starting to be sick of this camp and can't wait moment when I leave. I'm not just this type of person who follows orders of others without thinking and this is sometimes expected here. All those rules you have to follow and all those people u have to allow to. Some people here are just so damn and envy (OK, I'm here for the first year and I'm doing work which belongs second and more timers, but if I can manage it, why not?). But on the other hand there are very nice people who I can talk to and they keep me in a good mood. And of course, I'm leaving for Washington, D.C. for my internship in 11 days, which I can't wait for. I'll be able to move around without restraint and do whatever I wanna do again...

And what else does keep me positive? Oh yeah, awesome days off when we can get out off the camp and travel. Actually, in couple hours we are going to Pittsburgh, second largest city of Pennsylvania where is our camp. We plan to stop by in some outlet mall close by as well. Sooo, raise your drinks we are HITTING THE ROAD AGAIN!!!

Boston pictures

There is a lot of work in our camp right now, so I'm posting the pictures from Boston where we went last weekend later than I expected. Yesterday, we had a visiting day here, which basically means that the parents and relatives of kids are coming to see their children. We had 3000 people here, which is to normal state of 800 people big difference. We had to prepare for them special food etc.

But here are the promised pictures...

Boston and Cape Cod

After the trips to Niagara Falls and Boston...

Back to work. My days-off-season ended. Two days in work and I wanna travel again ;) However, back to my trips. On Thursday night (at 2 AM!!!) we set off to Buffalo and Niagara Falls. All together in ten people and two cars we hit the six hours lasting road to USA-Canada borders. I was driving and I have to tell u, it's not the best thing to drive during the night without getting any sleep before. But, at this time I still didn't know that it wasn't so bad in contrary to trip to Boston, where we went to a day after Niagara Falls and with even less sleep.

Anyway, during early morning we got to Buffalo, which was my idea to stop in on our way to Niagara Falls, because it's only half an hour from the falls. And I'm really happy that we stopped by there, even longer than we planed, almost for whole morning. Buffalo is kinda industrial city with this special type of architecture typical for those cities. This architecture is combined with historical buildings, especially build in the 20th century, kinda art deco style, which I like very much. The city hall is an example of this architecture. And there are, of course, couple skyscrapers. All together it makes an interesting mix of postindustrial city. There is a strong student's element in Buffalo, when there are couple universities with beautiful campuses and many students around.

From Buffalo we got to Niagara Falls, unfortunately just to American side, which was beautiful, but there is a better view on the fall from Canadian side, from where you can better see the main falls. Because there are the biggest Niagara Falls and right next to them artificially built American Falls that are still very impressive, but aren't the original Niagara ;) Finally it didn't matter that we didn't see it from Canadian side, because we took a cruise on the boat so we got right to the middle of the lake where was water falling from the falls. You can see the pictures from there and from Buffalo in a gallery below. And about the trip to Cape Cod and Boston where we were during the weekend later...

Buffalo and Niagara Falls

Gas Station, 5 AM, Saracause, NY

So, very quick post - we stopped in the gas station near to Saracause, about 2 hours far away of Buffalo. And that's the end of my message to you, because the guys from other car we waited for are here, so we're hitting the road again. I'll keep u updated what's going on...

Trip to Niagara Falls and Buffalo

After 3 weeks without day off I'm finally taking one. It's 11 PM and in couple hours we are leaving camp to Buffalo and Niagara Falls. As I said we are setting off at 2 at the night, so there are at least 6 hours of night driving ahead of us.

We are going in 10 people (I'm going with other guys from kitchen and dining hall) in 2 cars. Btw. the rental of car - it's an another story. I almost freaked out today when we were renting a car. The guys from a car rental (big American car rental - Enterprise) were supposed to pick us up at 5 in the camp. As it normally happens it started to rain 10 to 5PM. In spite of raining we were waiting for them by the main gate to our camp. 10 minutes, nothing, 15, nothing... then somebody from the rental called me that they will come in 15 minutes or so. But the didn't and we waited there for another hour before they finally came. I almost stopped believe that they'll show up and i started to say bye to my another try to get my day off.

But finally we got our car and we can hit the road soon! Viva Niagara's!

My camp address

So, if somebody wanna send me something, now you know where... All types of gifts, money, checks, invitations are welcomed...

Pavel Mrazek
Camp Towanda
700 Niles Pond Road
Honesdale PA 18431
USA
Universe - Milky Way

News from the camp

I'm sitting on the porch of the farm house, only one place in whole camp where we can go online now (btw. you have to walk here about 10 minutes from our bunk and the main camp through the forest, which is awesome, especially when you are walking here during the night, alone and without flashlight). I'm trying not to fall asleep and write you finally how I'm doing here. And what I'm doing.

So, here are the answers that are very connected. I'm good but tired, most of time working... To start from the beginning, I came to camp Towanda in Honesdale in Pennsylvania to work like a support stuff to earn some money for my internship in Washington DC, where I'm going after the camp is over. I didn't know what I'm exactly going to do (possibly in the kitchen). After 5 weeks spent here I'm baking all deserts for 900 kids, counselors and other stuff. Without any previous experience with baking... In the pre-camp, that was some kind of preparation of camp for arrival of kids and in which I spent 2 weeks, I worked couple times in kitchen and chef cook favoured me and decided for me that I'm gonna be his help cook and gonna make special projects. And those special project aren't anything smaller than deserts.

To say something about our Food service director, that is his formal camp work name, but everybody calls him chef...he is just crazy... But crazy in the right way. He is awesome cook, who cooked all over the world and even for Puff Daddy (or however is this raper called now). However, he still sometimes behaves like a five years kid. I guess he has never grown up and never will. Especially in pre-camp he was doing such things like scratching all iron things in the kitchen with a fork that nobody who was there at this moment couldn't stand or spraying water on us. In spite of those things he knows what he's doing and many people who have been here last years say that this year is much better food. Anyways, for some reason Chef favoured me and telling me always that I should have my own bakery or cook business and that I had to be a cook in my previous life.

It's nice to hear something like this but not all the time ;) as he says it.

The baker here in camp is kinda hard work. Especially when I have to cook everything on my own, which means 12 pans of cakes or similar pastry every day. My work depends on daily menu. When there are 2 deserts a day I'm working through whole day without break. I start about 9AM and finish after 7PM. But for example today I don't have such a difficult day, so I have 2 breaks, which is fantastic. So, now I'm going to take a short nap to be ready for the dinner at 5...

P.S.: Tomorrow desert menu - fruit cocktail for the lunch and chocolate fudge brownies for the dinner. So, medium hard day. Maybe one break...