Montauk: Revisited

The trip over here was loooong. My dad drove me to the BB bus station at 3am on Tuesday. The bus arrived in Bratislava at 6:30 or so. The plane to Prague took off at 10:30. In Prague, I ran to the other terminal, just in time to see Zuzana board her plane to JFK. I had to wait 4 more hours, and then my plane got delayed. I was getting worried that I won't make the connecting flight from Paris. Luckily the Air France people were waiting for us (people w the connecting flight) and drove us expressly to the next plane, we only had 20 minutes until the next takeoff. Amazingly the luggage made it on time as well! So after cca 30 hours, I emerged from at the arrival gate at JFK, where Casey and Zuzana were waiting for me. Niice. The drive to Montauk wasn't sop smooth, Casey's car had a gas leak and we had to stop in the middle of nowhere. Luckily, he was able to fix it (with the help of my great little cell phone light;-) and we made it to Montauk eventually (2am).
The Romanians were here already...
Couple of words on our accomodation. We live in a house with a big terrace in "smurf village", up one luxury level from last year. Now it can be awarded 1 star. Andrei and Roxana have 1 room, Zuzana and two other Romanian girls share a big "room" in the middle, we'll put a curtain to separate it in two. Vierka and I will have our own room as well, niiiiiiice! There's a spacious bathroom and a non-equipped kitchen. There's a fridge and a gas stove, but no cupboard or pots and pans or table. They promised we'll have those when the landlord/lady comes back. Hopefully soon.
I started working in Gosman's on Friday, it's quite busy. Made some money already. Yesterday was a crazy night, the kitchen was slow, customers were unhappy, I was exhausted. But I walked w more than 220, not bad for 5 hours. I'm looking for a second job as well, I was offered a bellboy position in the Montauk Manor, and I might get a job in the post-office as well. I need the international driver's license though...
Before we find a cheap and suitable car, we are riding bikes that we "borrowed" from Kmart (we'll return them at the end of the summer:). We're also going to borrow a TV, microwave, AC...;-) We also have a new phone installed, along with a 100Mbps internet (nice) and a 200channel cable TV. The phone number is in my skype profile if you want to call me;-)
The weather is hot hot hot and humid. At least it's good for business;-)
Gotta run now, work starts soon...
Hasta later.

It's been a while...

Ok, found some time to post a bit finally...Let's see, the last post was 3 weeks ago, a lot of things happened since.
The last days at HEC were great, I did the last exams and presentations. The final presentation at EDS was cancelled, and Susana had to present my part to our academic tutor because the presentation took place on Friday, and was gone already. I got the grades this week: Business Project B, Management Instruments C, Network Economy A, Energy&Finance A. I'm satisfied;-)
Back to the last day on campus, the party was great. It was too big to fit inside the building so they fenced off an area around the building as well. There was the obligatory DJ, a really great live ragga band and a djembe steel band. Nice. It finished at 7am and I had to pack super fast because I had to return the keys to the room by 8am. Tom and Patrick saw me off to the train station, we said goodbye. I miss them, they were loads of fun and good friends. I'm sure I'll see them again.
The trip back to Prague was ok because I was extremely exhausted, so I slept most of the 15 hours of the bus ride. Prague was great, met the old friends again, had good beer finally. The embassy took too long to process my visas so I left for Bystrica on thursday instead of Tuesday. We went in Nakli's broken car;-) It was great to be back home, see my parents, brother (Viktor was gone in CZ already), dog...And friends. We did the usual Friday night out, Hi-Fi and Ponorka till dawn. Zaba, Nakli and I went biking one day, I missed biking a lot (I bike a lot here in Montauk now...) Other than that I pretty much just enjoyed my stay home, so much that I forgot to take care of my international driving license again. Hopefully my dad will be able to get it again this year. Tuesday, Last day in BB, Nakli and Miso(Urda) drove to Donovaly and enjoyed some Kofola in the mountains. I miss mountains as well. Paris has one little hill and Montauk is as falt as it gets. Maybe att the end of the season we'll go to the Rockies...

Happy Shiny People

Last week(s?) have been great. We had a barbecue by the lake on Friday. On Saturday I went to Cyrilles's housefor another barbecue. It was awesome. He has a mediterranean style house in the suburbs, huge garden, pool...We drank fresh caipirinha, grilled great meat, watched the world cup, fooled around in the pool, ate some more...great day, it was very warm, and as always, getting out of campus is a treat in itself.
Oh, last week I passed two exams - Energy and Finance and Network Economy. They weren't too difficult, epsecially the former one as it was open book;-) We had yet another presentation on wednesday in EDS, it was alright but there was low turnout so it kinda missed the point. That is why they cancelled this week's final presentation, yeeeeehaaaaaaaw8-)
I just got back from my last exam, Management Instruments and Social Behaviour. I have no idea how I will be evaluated, the questions were quite general...but I'm sure I wrote enough to pass, especially since the test accounts for only 30% of the grade.
Now it's party time!!! Actually I need to pack stuff first, take care of a lot of paperwork etc...and then its party time!!!
As I said, last weeks were beautiful, sunny, warm...horrible weather to be sick. Yeah I am sick again, I can't bring myself to take it easy so it keeps coming back.
I'm going back to Prague on Friday, I don't know how though. Carpool hopefully;-)
K, i'm gonna end my random rants here, got a lot of things to do.
have a good 1

Another LOL

Apple wil be giving every MBA at HEC an iPod with the school's logo.

About half of all lectures will be captured in digital video and saved in massive network servers, where students will be able to review them, in the form of video podcasts, as little as an hour later. The iPods also will be stuffed with a wealth of useful tools and information, such as campus maps, class schedules, RSS feeds of news stories, and language training courses.

Visited countries map

There's a LOT I haven't seen yet!!


You can create your own visited countries map here

P.S. Emil reminded me that I HAVE been in Spain, San Sebastian, so I updated the list

LOL

I have heard comments from many of you saying what a great time I'm having here. Let me set the record straight. I am having a good time, I met great people, I'm in a great city (well, close to it:) and I will miss it. But it's not all party and laid-back time. Let me describe this week for example.
Yesterday I woke up early (9am), got the same shitty breakfast (baguette, butter, jam), prepared for the afternoon class of "Management Instruments and Social Behaviour", then spent 3 hours in that class. Had dinner and went back to my room to work on my business project presentation, watched an episode of the Daily Show before going to bed at 1:30am.
Today I woke up at 9am, had the same ol' breakfast, talked to Vierka a bit, now I'm gonna study for tomorrow's "Energy and Finance" exam and finish thee presentation with my group for the business project, we are presenting Wed. afternoon. Then I'll run back and study for my "Network Economy" exam.
As you may have noticed, I have not been posting for quite some time, this is solely due to the fact that nothing, nothing worth mentioning happened, I just stayed on campus, went to class and worked on BP, all the while being sick. Voila. My blog might make my stay here seem glorious, and thats great, because thats how I want to remember it. I dont' want to remember all the administrative problems, the horrible bureaucracy, bland food, the boring people, not to mention business project and bank problems! This post will be a thorn i the otherwise almost idyllic, fun and party filled picture of my semester here at HEC.

A great read

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17726

Summary of three books dealing with differences between Europe and USA. Very sober, doesn't take a preference, rather points out strong and weak points in both.

Consider a mug of American coffee. It is found everywhere. It can be made by anyone. It is cheap—and refills are free. Being largely without flavor it can be diluted to taste. What it lacks in allure it makes up in size. It is the most democratic method ever devised for introducing caffeine into human beings. Now take a cup of Italian espresso. It requires expensive equipment. Price-to-volume ratio is outrageous, suggesting indifference to the consumer and ignorance of the market. The aesthetic satisfaction accessory to the beverage far outweighs its metabolic impact. It is not a drink; it is an artifact.

This contrast can stand for the differences between America and Europe —differences nowadays asserted with increased frequency and not a little acrimony on both sides of the Atlantic. The mutual criticisms are familiar. To American commentators Europe is "stagnant." Its workers, employers, and regulations lack the flexibility and adaptability of their US counterparts. The costs of European social welfare payments and public services are "unsustainable." Europe's aging and "cosseted" populations are underproductive and self-satisfied. In a globalized world, the "European social model" is a doomed mirage. This conclusion is typically drawn even by "liberal" American observers, who differ from conservative (and neoconservative) critics only in deriving no pleasure from it.

To a growing number of Europeans, however, it is America that is in trouble and the "American way of life" that cannot be sustained. The American pursuit of wealth, size, and abundance —as material surrogates for happiness —is aesthetically unpleasing and ecologically catastrophic. The American economy is built on sand (or, more precisely, other people's money). For many Americans the promise of a better future is a fading hope. Contemporary mass culture in the US is squalid and meretricious. No wonder so many Americans turn to the church for solace...

Awesome tornado pictures

http://www.weatherstock.com/tornadocat3.html#TTT00

Gerrup outta that

It's been a while again since my last post, so here's a rundown of what happened, or at least what I remember happened.
First of all, I had Edo visit me here in Paris for a week, it was nice. I was a terrible host though, I was really sick (almost pneumonia) so I stayed in bed for days and couldn't show him around Paris. I even forgot about my birthday until my folks phoned and congratulated me. LOL.
Not being able to organize any party, my friends showed up in my room suddenly and we had some fun, but kept it mellow. It was nice to see they remembered even if I didn't;-)
What else...yeah we had to present our work to the CEO of EDS Consulting on Wednesday. I admit I was very nervous, presenting in French for the first time. In the end it went rather well, i.e. we weren't the worst:-) No, I have to give some credit to our group, we did a good job.
Edo was leaving that day, so after presenting I went to meet up with him in the Tuileries, walked around a bit, and went to his friend's flat near Montparnasse to pick up his luggage before leaving. Things turned out differently though, I saw Edo off and then stayed with his friends in the flat. We ended up drinking Ricard and having a dinner, and in the end I slept there.
Came morning, I helped clean a little, put on my suit that I was wearing all the day before, and headed back to the campus.
My friends found it quite amusing to se me walk into the canteen, after not having seen me for a day, in my suit and my briefcase, with the tired look on my face;-)
Did some work in the afternoon, and then it was time for the infamous Thursday party. It was a good one, Pepa (a CEMS guy who studied in Dublin last semester) visited, great guy, had a lot of fun.
Friday morning we presented our "project" for the Network Economy class, which did not go too well, I have to make the presentation more coherent before submitting it...But the effort was there;-)
Evening was celebration time again, as it was Eamons birthday (he's the Irish guy who we crashed at before going to Dublin). It took place in a small bar in the 11th arrondisement. It was absolutely packed, and we loved it! It was incredibly refreshing not to see the same old HEC faces at a party. The thing about the bars and clubs in Paris is that they have a lot more bouncers, and they make their presence felt. The bouncer in this tiny bar threw out 3 or 4 people while we were there, for such things as bringing a can of beer inside etc. Funny thing is, the guy who got thrown out tried to fight back (he was thin, almost transparent) and kicked the bouncer, resulting in having his face smeared on the sidewalk. I mean, how dumb can u get, picking a fight with someone who's biceps is thicker tah your leg?
Anyway, Alex, his girlfriend, and two other friends came from Holland at around 2:30 am, picked us up, and after some searching we got our bearings right and drove to the campus.
Saturday was work day. Alex and his friends went to Paris to do the tourist. I stayed and pretended to work, but it was soo nice out, warm and sunny, that I didn't get much done. Instead, I went to the campus lake to watch a horse-jumping competition, a very chic event indeed.
In the evening we went to Paris again, and I've seen it like never before. It was warm and people were everywhere, having drinks and enjoying themselves, music everywhere, just a great atmosphere. We ended up going to the Bastille area, which I've never been to before and which is absolutely amazing at night. Bars everywhere!, I mean everywhere!, lights and colors, music and happy people all around, nobody stressed out. It's probably time to define we, I've noticed I haven't been doing a good job at describing this crucial variable. We on the 3rd June meant: Tom, Eamon, Taylor, Richard (all Irish or British), Mallory (an American girl doing an internship at a law firm here, earning copious amounts of money), Tomas (Czech guy here at HEC) and his girlfriend, Vasek (architecture student in Paris), Pepa, Stepan (VSE CEMS guy studying in Belgium now), Sonia and Christoph (French and German CEMS).
After some bar hopping (about 5 hours of it), we decide to take a taxi to Eamons and crash there, and this is when a surreal thing happened. We flagged a taxi, it stopped, and we were explaining where we wanted to be dropped off, when this black guy with a white girl jumps into the taxi and basically tells us to piss off. We objected, it was our taxi and was hard to find one there, the taxi driver objected, and this is when the most ridiculous threat I ever heard was uttered. He(the black guy) said, in an angry voice, that he was gonna call the cops because this is an act of racism. Flabbergasted, we stared in amazement, didn't know whether to laugh or what, when Mallory said he was full of shit and told him to get out of the car. He got even more aggressive, "You're saying my people are shit, you say my brothers are shit????!!", he gets out of the car and tries to come on to Mallory, a girl for chrissake!!! What a loser. He starts threatening us, a group of 5 much taller guys. At this point I just started laughing in his face and we let him go, even if the taxidriver didn't want him. He just repeated his racist argument, poor bastard. It was like from some Hollywood comedy where a black guy blames everything on everyone else being racist...;-) Long story short, we came to Eamons place, talked for some time, and took the first train back to Paris. Unfortunately we fell asleep on it, got off a couple of stations later, so we ended up missing breakfast at HEC.
Today I'm staying here, Alex and co. are in Paris sightseeing, coming back later in the evening. I need to prepare for a painful class tomorrow, very boring and obvious stuff described in an unnecessarily complicated terms...

That's about it I guess. This next week is crucial, I have 2 exams and have to present to all the managers of EDS on Wednesday.

iCryptex

LOL
http://www.icryptex.com/

Bordeaux: Revisited

Zuzka & Emil
Originally uploaded by empty007.

Let me say that TGV rules! I was in Bordeaux in 3 hours. And it wasn't even going top-speed all the way. By car it would take 5h:31mins and cost more than 83EUR. This way I paid 70 for a return ticket. When are they going to build something like that between Prague and Banska Bystrica? I'm afraid we'll having flying cars and cold fusion, if not teleports, before that happens...
So anyway, I enjoyed my stay in Bordeaux a lot. The first day we just chilled, ate home-made sushi and talked and talked. Friday was natural-park time, the weather turned out alright. We've also paid a little visit to Arcachon, a small town on the coast, but it was deserted as it was quite cold. Canard for dinner, kudos to Zuzka for excellent cooking! Saturday was lazy day as it rained, so we just slept in, had a great breakfast and lunch, exchanged movies and music...at around 4 we wet out to have a walk in Bordeaux before seeing the Da Vinci Code. Befroe I say that the movie was dissapointing, I'll have to say that I like Bordeaux a lot. It is small, but not too small, it has a distinct atmosphere and is just overall very enjoyable. Did I mention that the movie sucked? I did, good. Moving on.
Sunday, last day. Beautiful weather, not a cloud in the sky and very very warm. Figures. Too bad it wasn't so nice all the time, we planned on going to Biarritz among other things...Oh well, at least I have a reason extra to visit again.

It was awesome catching up with Emil and Zuzka again, we had a great time (I did at least), great food and great talks. I really needed to get out of campus, I started to feel imprisoned here.

Monday bloody monday, had 6 hours of class, back to the routine (haha, I just thought of a great line from Scrubs: J.D.: "...nightly routine: Pleasure myself, weep and repeat"; great show by the way, random humor at its best)

Back among the living

I'm feeling much better today, I knew it was nothing a couple of blankets, a good 12-hour sleep and two shots of Becherovka wouldn't fix;-)

I'm sick of something else though, the business project. I'm beginning to hate it. It seems to me that we are not doing anything really helpful to the company, that we're just used to raise awareness among students about its existence. Right now I'm translating into French a paper that I did for the company last week. Apparently our self-proclaimed team leader thinks they can't handle English, which wouldn't be a problem if he'd told me in the beginning so I wouldn't have to do it all over again. Translating is a pain, even into English. French uses different syntax and everything, I'm really struggling with the 15 pages here. And it was supposed to be done yesterday.

Can't wait to go to Bordeaux! The TGV leaves from Montparnasse at noon, so I'll have to leave here at 10 since there are some works on the rails, meaning the otherwise very punctual trains will run late. I'll be in Gare St. Jean at !5:25...planning on spending lots of time on the beach and having great wine and food (DIE! restaurant universitaire, I'm sick of you)

Ok, enough with this ranting n raving, back to translating...

penguin

I was repairing the link to Nakli's blog and thought I'd include this penguin...Sorry for the waste of bandwith, lol 8-)

Sick

I woke up on Sunday feeling weird. At first I thought it was just muscle ache from working out the day before (yes, i went to the gym:), but later I realized I was having a fever. So here I am still sick, trying to get better. I don't feel too bad, just tired...
My "Network Economy" class started today, I went to check it out despite my sickness. I t seems to be interesting, there's quite a bit of math though, and the Danish teacher's English is funny. He talks like the Dutch, only worse.m "Hello, my name ish Mich Tvede, I will be your teasher for thish courshe...";-)
In other news, the "Mercuriales" started, which is a European business-school sports competition. About 400 foreigners invaded the campus, competing during the day, partying at night. It will last till Friday...

I have also received my vote-by-mail papers, I'll send my vote tomorrow (general elections in Slovakia).

That's about it for now, have a good one everyone...

Pandora

hey, check this out: www.pandora.com, you can create your own radio station with the music you like, it searches for similar rythms, instruments, samples etc to offer music u enjoy...in quite high quality...and it plays in your browser...sweet!

BOOM

It's the BOOM tonight! Biiiiig party! Used to be even bigger back in the day, they had groups like Led Zeppelin over...Now its a bit smaller I guess, but they're still awaiting 3000 to 4000 people to show up. We're having a picnic by the lake before, since the bar won't be open this time;-) Happy time8-)

Mission impossible : 9 mois de négociations avec l’administration, 37 versions du powerpoint de présentation, 436 entreprises démarchées, un budget plus gros que celui du WEI, 1342 heures de sommeil manquées, 2.5 tonnes de moquette, 5.8 kilomètres de vélums...

Après tous ces efforts acharnés, les BDE Pulp it up et Guerill’Eros réinstaurent le BOOM au BATZET !!!

Votre mission, si vous l’acceptez, est de vous réapproprier ces lieux qui furent jadis les vôtres, avec un cocktail à la main au son des Wampas et de la techno, et si vous ne tenez plus sur vos deux jambes, notre espace lounge vous ouvrira ses portes...

Cool night shot

from Nakli's blog

Title goes here

The first interview for our business project was with the director of "banque de detail" of Caisse d'Epargne. It was quite a disappointment, we dressed up and dragged our asses all over to the east side of Paris just to hear very general stuff, no concrete things. We didn't come back before 9, meaning that I almost entirely missed a great picnic down by the lake. It was quite fun, lots of people, they were grilling chicken (I have to show them how to do that, it was terribly burnt;-) and eating and drinking loads, there was even a brass band.
Waking up after the obligatory party, we had another interview, this time with director of strategy for the biggest French bank, Credit Agricole. This one went a lot better. The guy was extremely nice (maybe because he was an HEC alumni), gave us lots of info...we took two hours of his time!
Then it was time to meet Nakli at Montparnasse, enjoy the sunshine a bit and go back to the campus on time to have dinner. We watched Scrubs afterwards in the MBA building till 2 p.m.
I had to work on Saturday so Nakli went to Paris alone. I was preparing for a presentation for the director of EDS that we have on wednesday. I joined Nakli at 11 at Chatelet and we went straight to a party HEC was organising near Cambronne in the 15th. Domenico was there as well, it was great to see him again! He left at around 2, Nakli and I stayed until 5.














There was a crazy saxophone improvisator, a weird sight but very enjoyable;-)


We walked back to Domenico's place - it took us an hour to get to the Grande Arche. But it was cool to see Paris without any traffic or people, the Eiffel tower completely deserted, Trocadero empty, the boulevards empty...
Waking up at 11 on Sunday, we bought breakfast at an outside market (fresh baguettes,camembert,fruit,coffee), ate it and went to visit some museums. The first one was Marmotan, where they have a big collection of Monet among other things. We thought it would be free since it was the first Sunday in the month (all the museums are free), but this one was a private museum, so we had to pay. It was well worth it though. Afterwards we just walked around, profiting from the beautiful weather. We wanted to see Musee de Rodin, but we decided to visit the Eiffel tower instead. For 3EUR, we walked to the second floor. We wanted to go the 3rd floor, but the line was enormous, a 45 minute wait at least. So we did the natural thing: as people were getting out of the elevator that brought them down from the 3rd floor, we quickly stepped in before the cabin filled up with people entering from the other side of the elevator."We forgot our cameras up there!" was enough to convince the elevator-lady not to throw us out. She didn't even check the ticket, which we didn't have of course;-)... The view was amazing, it was a nice and sunny day...
By the time we were done, it was already time to head back. We came back 1 minute before the student restaurant closed. We were extremely hungry, so we ate like pigs. It's easy here, for 2.87 u get 4 courses...:-) Other than hungry, we were tired and we stank like hell, so after the necessary shower we watched some movies and had some beer before going to bed.
And here I am today. Nakli left in the morning, he's already in Lyon. I'm working on my Energy&Finance assignment. Back to work again.

the video might not work in Internet Exploder, again, you can download it here. It's in .3gp format

Paris metro

they were playing Vivaldi so well that everyone stopped to listen, making it impossible to get in or out.

the video might not work in Internet Exploder, you can download it here

Times are changing

It is beautiful outside! It is very difficult to force myself to work. Like now, I'm posting this instead of preparing for tomorrow's interview for the business project. And we have another one on Friday. It's all starting to come down like an avalanche: interviews, exams, project, bachelor's thesis...I guess it's time to work seriously now.

Long weekend

I'm sure you've all been dying to hear from me! Have no fears, I'm back in the blogosphere! (I've grown very modest here;-)

We got the results from the oral part of the language exams the day after it took place. My prediction came true, I got a C1, meaning that I

"Can understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognise implicit meaning. Can express him/herself fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Can use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Can produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, showing
controlled use of organisational patterns, connectors and cohesive devices."

Oh well, don't know what went wrong, I believe I should have gotten a C2, but after having learned how other people did, I don't care anymore. There were several guys who spoke really painful French and got a C1, so I have my doubts about the integrity of the examination.
In other news, there was the obligatory party on Thursday. It was much better than expected, they actually played normal music instead of the 7 stupid-house hits they usually loop.
I've spent Friday enjoying the sunshine. Went biking, there are nice trails in the forests around here!
Yesterday I went to Paris with Tom and his girlfriend who is visiting for the weekend. We walked around the statue of liberty area, I took some pictures with my nearly repaired camera...I was supposed to meet a friend from Prague and go out, but I had nowhere to sleep so I had to turn her down and go back to Jouy. Came here around midnight and found the campus overrun by Czech people. Actually there were about 15 of them, but the campus is deserted this weekend so it seemed they were everywhere. I heard a Richard Muller song played on a guitar as I was walking towards my apartment, very unexpected;-) Long story short, I partied with them quite long, so I missed breakfast this morning:-(

Tomorrow the campus restaurant will be closed, I have to find out how to feed myself since the supermarket is closed on Sundays...drat!

And on Monday, we're having a picnic (pique-nique:) by the lake on campus,niiiice!

Oral exam over

It wasn't hard. There were 2 parts to it: a presentation of a case study and group discussion. The presentation didn't go as well as I would have liked, I got stuck for a second or two...(I blame it on the incredible heat and stuffy air in the room:)
The discussion was better, I was the chair of the group so it all went well, excellent even...
I guess I can say goodbye to the best mark, but then again I can take it one more time in Prague...so no worries. It's beautiful outside, I'm going to try and borrow a bike from someone...

It's my nameday;-)

And I didn't know until I read my mail this morning, lots of people remembered, THANKS! I bought myself a present, 2.1. speakers...they're cheap but they do the trick, I feel a lot more at home in my room now (although I'm not sure my neighbors are as excited;-)!
I spent the day with Tomas (Lauko) after seeing his girlfriend off to the airport (I forgot how far CDG is!!)...it was a nice laid back day, we had some croques and coffee in the Quartier Latin, enjoyed the sunshine by the Seine while catching up on what's going on in our lives, it was great to see him again.


Oral English exam tomorrow, I gotta go check out some guidelines about how they want us to present. I'm not stressed, well maybe a little because I don't want to get a lower than best grade just because of failing to meet some stupid formal requirement:-/
Good night everyone and thanks for remembering my nameday, I would have completely forgotten otherwise :-D

Back

Im back in Jouy on the campus, its a real ghost-town. Everyone is gone, there are only a handful of people. The weather is great though and it is much greener here then when i left. Also, the food is much MUCH better, maybe because they don't have to cook for so many people;-)
Prague was awesome, sunny and warm after Tom and Pirmin left (bad timing guys:), I enjoyed being a tourist for a change.
The trip back wasn't too horrible, but 15 hours on a bus and then hauling my huge backpack plus a smaller one from Galieni to Jouy was painfull!!! And it was hot too:-(

This morning I picked Tom(as) and Mylene up from the "lively" train station in Joy-in-Jesus (as Tom calls it now;), I borrowed Pirmin's car. They are staying for 1 night, Mylene is flying home tomorow...

Nothing else worth mentioning happened, except that I will (hopefully) get a French cell nr on Monday. Finally!!!

I'm back...

Its been some time since I posted anything so I'll be brief (I can't remember every detail;-)
Last week was filled with school work. For the "Management Instruments and Social Behavior" course we had a visiting professor from LSE, Michael Barzelay, who held two all-day sessions in a row on the subject. It was more demanding than normal, but also more interesting. Now that I mention it, I remembered our group has to turn in a paper on the subject soon...crap. In EDS, we have finished preparing our questionnaires and worked on a strategy to get through to the people we need to talk to in banks (to pass the secretary firewall;-)
The weather is finally starting to behave like it was spring, so hopefully when I return to Paris (did I mention I'm in Prague now?), the trees will be blooming and everything...

Weekend was fun, Tom and Pirmin came to Prague with me, I showed them around, did all the touristy things to do...
Yesterday Edo and I went to RadostFX, wawaweewah, I forgot how good looking czech/slovak girls are!

Now I'm working on my bachelor's thesis, I couldn't do it at home (that's why I didn't go, although I'd LOVE to!!!!) and here I have access to stuff I need...

I'll be back in Paris Saturday afternoon (I'm taking a bus, I'm outta money), spend the rest of the weekend with Tomas and Mylene, and then hooray, CEMS language exams!!!

That's about it for now, howgh

Bateau Mouche

...I forgot to post about the little trip we (CEMS) had in Paris on Sunday Apr. 2nd. Basically it was a boat ride on the Seine, really touristy but the weather turned out nice so it wasnt too bad. I finally saw the original statue of liberty as well, another "must-see" off of my list...Later on we went to have crepes in a nice place around Montparnasse...
That's about it, it was a nice day....

....thursday

blood &mud ...
howgh

...last day of campaigning

i just got back from the last soiree. I was hungry so I ordered a panini from the hotline. I got it in 2 minutes, along with a pizza, some pasta and a goodnight song from 5 girls with a guitar!!!!! It's gonna be tough to get used to not having this luxury every day!!!!

Campagne BDE cont.

So its Tuesday now and I can report on the two last days of the campaign. To sum it up, there are 3 groups of students competing to hold the student office post next year. They all spend incredible amounts of money for it...
So what's happening actually? The Batzet (study building) is completely transformed, loud music all the time, people dancing, the whole place is decorated with the colors of the 3 "listes" (groups of students). There's air hockey, PS2 stations, a CounterStrike setup (5 computers networked), a Formula 1 racing machine, a place to get your hair cut by people from L'Oreal, Indian billiard/pool, all kinds of other games, a casino, free food (subway sandwiches, pizza, cookies, cakes, chips, chocolate, cereal, salads, fruit, chocolate fondue...) and drinks (soft and energy). Outside there are 3 food stands, they make hotdogs, sandwiches, barbepapa (cukrova vata, don't know the name in English), pasta, salads, toasts. There is a pizza oven and guys from a pizza place bake it fresh right there. Did I mention loud music is everywhere? Close to that is a human fussball/calcetto playground (you strap yourself to a pole and try to play football haha lots of fun), an inflatable castle for jumping around, an inflatable rodeo, an inflatable wall with a trampoline that you jump off of in a velcro suit and stick to a velcro wall (FUN!!!), a laser game/quasar or whatever u call it (people running around with "laser" guns shooting each other). Right in front of me in the parking lot there is big attraction that I told u about I believe, right next to it is a BIG trampoline...

The restaurant doesn't serve dinner, instead the students make it. There's free wine and a show they put on. Last night there was a boxing ring with girls in bikinis and guys dressed as boxers, there were competitions like tug-of-war (my hands are still burned:) or football tricks or whatever...Whenever the host shouted: "Cussons les (someone)", those people had to chug their wine (e.g. all the 3yr students or all the foreigners or everybody). If they said "Pichons les...", they had to down the whole pitcher of wine...Oh yeah and there's the hotline that I already talked about, that is absolutely great! I've just ordered strawberries and breakfast for the morning;-) Let's not forget the soirees, there's one every night, free entry for HEC people, free alcohol, many stages w different kinds of music...I went to bed at 6am, and had a skill seminar all day yesterday and today, it was horrible (the seminar was very interesting actually, but I was absolutely exhausted). Tomorrow I have a free day, we're going carting in the afternoon, niiiice!

But don't get the idea that I'm just partying. There's more and more work to do. There was the skill seminar, the core course is more demanding every week, and the language exams are near as well, not to mention the business project...

Aaaah who am I kidding, I have fun most of the time;-)

Campagne BDE!!!!!!!

This is crazy! The BDE campaign has started tonight, the hotline is working from 22:00 till 4:00am and will be working all week long. I have ordered about 10 panini's, 10 pizzas, fruit salads, normal salads, a massage, a game of bowling, couple of DVD's, drinks, posters, performances, perfume...all for free, its crazy!!!!

P.S. I have ordered breakfast into my room right now, niiiiice!!!!!

Haha, test results...

You're a bold, confident orange. A warm, powerful color that indicates a strong, welcoming personality, orange is the mark of people who are social and extroverted by nature. Vibrant, with an upbeat attitude, you have a bright, inviting demeanor. Energetic and fun-loving, you're a real friend-magnet. Your easy charm and unassuming manner make you the sort of person people want to meet and get to know better. Well-rounded and fun to be around, you enjoy helping others, so it's no surprise that orange also symbolizes attraction. Orange is an extraordinary color — for an extraordinary person.

Anybody could write those...

Ireland - part 3

Sunday Niamh took me to Dún Laoghaire (read Doon Leary, that language is messed up:), we walked on the pier, I liked it even though it was raining cats and dogs. Must be gorgeous in summer. Saw a movie aftrewards, Inside Man, quite good. In the evening Tom joined us and we went to the part of Dublin called Temple Bar to see what it's like. It was Sunday though, so not much was happening, but I imagine the place is mad on satrurday or wednesday.
More sightseeing in Dublin as Tom had to do his own stuff and Niamh had to study, took loads of pictures but I'm afraid they're no good. I lost the lens cover and it was raining most of the time, so I didn't have time to fiddle with composition and things. Back in Beauvais at 11pm, we missed the last train to Versailles, so had to sleep at Eamons again. Tom's handbag got lost/stolen on the metro:-(, and I forgot my camera at Eamon's, I'll see him Thursday after the business project, so I'll upload pictures then. Anyway, there was a general strike on Tuesday, made it jusst in time for class (was 15 mins late:)

Ireland - part 2

We met Niamh in the center, had my hair cut, walked to her dad's place (which was under reconstruction so there were no concerns about trashing it:-) Walked around Dublin, saw the Trinity College and the center, had a sandwich...Dublin is, well, cant describe it in one word:
- they drive on the wrong side of the road
- the traffic is absolutely disastrous
- therefore crossing the streets was a royal pain, I always looked at the wrong side, thought it was clear, and almost got hit by traffic coming from the other direction on several occasions
- the buildings are 3 floors high max
- it mostly grey or brick red
- people everywhere
- its small (well the center is)
- their traffic signs and everythiing is in Irish first, then English (An Lár, City Centre)
- the Irish are fun
- I was walking down the street, listening to the people: "Watch out you fucking gobshite wanker!!", "Aah piss off you cursethegod fuckin eejit of a knacker!!"... folkolore everywhere:-)
- their beer is nice, cheaper than Paris, I tired real Guiness (tastes different than anywhere else), Murphy's, Oyster (brewed with oysters) and Brain Blasta
- there's construction everywhere!
...
Anyway, in the evening we took a bus to Tom's mom's place, took a shower and drove to Waterford to meet Tom's Spanish friends who study there. We went out that night,  had loads of fun.
Saturday morning Tom showed me Waterford, made Shepherd's Pie, and I left to Dublin to meet Niamh. Sarah got on the bus in Carlow so it wasn't too boring:-) After dinner at Niamh's, we went out to these posh places, but I didn't spend a cent since the girls (especially Sarah) got all the guys to buy drinks for them, and they passed them on to me, haha. Just for the record, the typical Irish girl is not to be touched by a 10 foot pole, they're ugly:-) Well the girls got really tipsy and we had to go home.

Ireland

So before leaving the campus for Paris on Thursday, I managed to lose both my student ID and restaurant card, so I had to go hungry and have Gabor open the gate for me (it opens with the card). I met Tom at St. Michel, had a cafe and went to m eet his friend Eamon where we were supposed to sleep, get up at 5 and get a bus at 6am from Porte Maillot to Beauvais airport. This simple plan was easily shattered by an invitation to a party of science-po people in someone's appartment. The appartment ended up being the whole floor of a very old Paris buliding, very chic. The people there were quite interesting even though we didn't know anyone before, food and wine excellent...We stayed untill 4am:-)
Back at Eamon's we set 3 alarms, but they all failed to wake us up, we woke up at 7. Having missed the bus, we had to take a taxi. 130EUR. Ouch. Very ouch. But in the end it wasnt that bad, the whole trip (plane there and back +taxi) cost the same as flying Paris-Prague-Paris. That's my rationalization and I'm sticking to it:-)
Let me say that Beauvais is a joke, a lame excuse for an airport. It's in the middle of nowhere 70km outside Paris. First they didn't want to let me board the plane because Slovakia wasn't on their list of visa-free countries. Idiots. Then they made us wait in a big tent until the plane arrived,  then we had to walk all the way to the plane...Never ever go to Beauvais, Orly is well worth the extra 50EUR, especially when the bus to Beauvais and back costs 26EUR.
We arrived in Dublin half an hour after liftoff , due to time change;-) As I was stepping out of the plain, I got a real hard and wet slap to my right cheek by the typical Irish weather. This was going to be fun:-(

Ireland

Right, so after 3 parties in a row at the campus, the next one will be today in Paris. I'm just waiting for the dryer to finish so I can pack my clothes and set off, coz tomorrow morning I'm flying to Dublin.
WOOT!!!

In my country there is problem...

:-D This is too funny not to post :-D
Ali G as Borat, singing country...
Fot those of you who think I'm antisemitic, well, I don't care, you're wrong.

Work in France pics

me with some random people


Alexis, Christoph, Tom, Igor

Places where I live

So I was fooling around with Google Earth the other day, trying to find the HEC campus, which took a lot of time (Google really should do something about indexing cities and making the earth searchable). So here goes, this is the building I stay in at HEC.



Yes, the lake and football field and forests around do belong to the school...
While I'm at it, here's my Prague crib:-) (my school is just south of me, the white building, close eh?)



and our good ol' house in Dolna Micina in Slovakia (you can even see the white "sun-shield" we have put on our terrace that summer; also check out the gypsy colony just north of us:)



P.S. Here are Google Earth shortcuts to those 3 places:
HEC | Prague | Banska Bystrica

the links might not work due to stupid hosting, in which case try ftp://empty:kanur@ftp.host.sk

...

Friday - woke up after the party @ 12 or so. The party itself was good fun, there were two stages (one with a progressive and house DJ and the other with a chillout/nujazz live band), lots of people, alcohol by the gallons, girls...all the atributes of a great party. No cuts and no mud this morning though;-) Afternoon we went to check out St. Patrick's - Paris style. It was a bit of a dissapointment. We went to 2 Irish bars, they were full of people, they served green beer, it was loud, everybody was drinking...but the crowd was sooo boring, mostly French people in suits talking about serious stuff. Boooring.

Saturday - nothing to report

Sunday - there is some country-wide film-week right now, all the movies everywhere are 3,5EUR, so we went to Versailles to see "Capote". It wasn't too horrible;-)
School starts again tomorrow morning, and in the afternoon we're going to a Work in France forum in Hotel Crillon. Not that I'm particularly interested in working with those companices, but the hotel is one of the best in Paris and they're famous chef will be cooking for us...I'll be like a sow with a turnip, can't let that pass right?

La Tribale

BIG night coming up! Student groups wishing to hold the BDE (Bureau des Eleves) seat for next year are presenting themselves (in the best light possible),  people from ESSEC (another school, big rival in everything) r commig as well, every association will have their own dresscode (i just finished spray-painting our CEMS tshirts)...should be a lot of fun. Free drinks of course, lots of sponsors...Dunno how to describe it. Everyone here is quite excited, its supposedly the second biggest thursday during the year (after "return of jeudi" in sept.). I'll let u know how it went tomorrow, if I remember:-)

Another week

Lets see, what did I do this weekend. Nothing really. Saturday we went to Versailles to have dinner. Sunday morning I woke up early to go to Paris (the far east of it) to pick up my suit that Zolo sent by bus from Prague. It was almost 2 hours late, and waiting at the station in freezing weather in a dodgy neighborhood wasn't all that fun. But in the end, I got the suit so I'm happy.
I was extremely tired this morning (think I'm catching a cold), so the cancellation of the morning class was great news. Lunch, Energy&Finance class, shopping (I took Cathrin's car:), arsing around (another Irish expression) with Tom, and here I am writing this post.
Kat is asking me if I'm going to the Zinc for a drink...bye 

EDS

So the EDS business project seems like a sweet deal. Their offices are in La Defense, which is nice. They are the second biggest IT consultancy after IBM. Which is nice as well. It also seems like the job that we were assigned will not involve too much finacial crap, which I like. Plus, the person responsible for our team in the company is young and easygoing. The only "bad" thing is that we have to dress up all the time, so I had to buy an emergency suit for the forst meeting. Zolo is trying to send me my real suit, if that goes well then Bob's my uncle (an Irish expression meaning everything's fine:)

In other news, there was another Thursday party. First we (all 60 cems people) went to a restaurant, where we had open wine bar and pizza. We had to play some sort of a traditional drinking game...I for example had to drink a bottle of rose bottom-up. Then I woke up covered in mud and with bruises on my hands again. Mud and blood, it's beginning to be a routine Friday morning:-)

Nothing else worth mentioning happend. We have to finish (i.e. start) a paper that is due on Monday, and I should look into some things I've been putting off fopr the last 2 weeks. Like working on my bachelor thesis and such:-)

Hope you're all doing well and not working too hard...8-)

Monday

Getting up was a pain, again. The fisrts course, Management Tools and Social Behaviour, was first of all long (as all the courses, 3 hours) but could be interesting. Seems like we'll be doing a lot of assignments though. The other course in the afternoon was Energy and Finance, taught by some high ranking Deloitte guy who is a key figure in the GDF/Suez merger (for those of you who follow these things). He is really into energy, maybe too much. E.g. he is in love with coal and argues that it'll be the energy source of choice in the near future. At least he understands what he's talking about. I'm a little worried about the finance part, but at least I'll have challenge in front of me. Speaking of challenges, I was assigned to a Business Project with EDS in Finance, so it seems I'll be doing more finance stuff than I ever wanted. Oh well, maybe in the end I'll be happy this happened, who knows...

Road Trip

So after the thursday party (it was amazing, free drinks, tons of people. I stayed until 4. In the morning I found out that I cut my leg pretty bad that night, but it's healing fast....) Waking up was painfull, we were still "tired" while picking up the car from Montparnasse at 3. Tom was the one renting the car, so he was supposed to be the driver. BUT, in Ireland they drive on the other side, plus he was "tired" as well...Long story short, we had an accident 200m from the rental place. Tom hit the curb really bad, the front right tire exploded and we had to emergency park in front of a police station. An armed policeman told us to get the fuck out of there, so we did, changed the tire and returned to the Hertz garage. They gave us a new car (Opel Meriva) which I then drove all the way to Utrecht (needless to say, we got lost at least 5 times) where we stayed at my friend's (Alex) place. Right after arrival we had a little Indonesian food and went straight to a party, danced until 6 am (yes, I did "dance", it wasn't too bad since the Dutch are horrible at it as well:). Next day (after having slept 3,5 hours) we visited Amsterdam in the most random weather ever, but it was good nevertheless. We visited a local brewery, saw the Red Light district (the girls there were far nicer than the last time I was there!), had a couple of drinks, the girls got their boobs stamped in a random bar...Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that "we" means Tom, me, Madison and Brat. They're these two Californians who everyone thinks are the prettiest girls on campus (They call Madison Paris Hilton;) and envies us spending the weekend with them, haha;-) We smoked some in a coffee shop and were too exhausted afterwards to do any partying, so we just chilled at Alex's place. We returned to Paris on Sunday at around 6pm after an uneventful journey (no accidents, no getting lost...), and to the campus just in time for dinner. Then it was just a bottle of wine with Honza and Tom, watching Starsky and Hutch...
I slept less than 16 hours in 4 days, and Monday was the first lecture day....:-(

Party ahead

Sitting in my room, listening to Pearl Jam, sorting out yesterdays photos. We (Honza, Gabor, Ditta, Kay, Anneke and Ingrid) went to Paris for the day. For some reason we went toa quartier called Belleville, which was ok with me since I've never been there before. We then went to Parc de la Villete, seen a show in La Geode. The show was amazing, just the thing I always wanted to see in IMAX (it was called TOP SPEED btw)! On the way home, after eating alone in a Chinese restaurant, we spent an hour on the train back to Jouy (we bought some beers to make the time pass faster;-).

Tonight is the supposedly awesome "thursday soiree", so we'll see how that goes.

Oh yeah, and we're going to Amsterdam tomorrow. NIICE!

Routine?

More drinking tonight at the Zinc, a bar/club at the campus. Twas good thoug, I spent a lot of time talking to Cyrille, Tibo, Tom of course and Ingrid. After they closed I watched Road Trip at Cyrille's, it wasn't as funny in French but oh well.
I finally opened a bank account today(although I'll have to wait for my card a couple of days), turned in my business project preferences etc. Also in the news, I took a French test, which I probably screwed up, we'll see. Doesn't really matter. I can feel my French improving every day now.
Tomorrow I'm supposedly going to Paris with Cyrille, I'll see about that in the morning depends on who else is going...There's nothing to do this week, so I might as well take advantage of it.

Cool school

This school kicks ass! VSE is shit compared to HEC. They have some many activities, over 100 student clubs, very good relationships with companies, getting an internship  is a matter of a couple of clicks on the intranet, the professors seem to be experts in their field etc etc etc, i could go on all day. I would need at least one year to exploit most of the possibilities that I'm offered.
Other good news, we're going to get 500EUR for the business project. SWEET!
They also have a huge sports area, with a rygby, 2 football, tennis and god knows what other fields, a lake with a couple of bridges, a man-made waterfall...

It's amazing!

Today the agenda was quite boring, we were told how the school functions and how to take advantage of the numerous resources at the library. BNP Paribas did bring a couple of champagnes, but they didn't really promise anything, so I don't who I'll open an account with. They also "stole" the last bottle and took it home with them. Bastards;-)

Oh, I picked my courses today. I'll be taking a "Management and social behaviour" course; another one called "Network Economy" and another called "Energy and Finance". I also have to choose a businnes project before tomorrow afternoon. It's a tough decision, because we don't have a lot of specific information, but I'll let you know when I decide.

We drank again tonight, just came back from Sonia's room and from Zinc, one of the local bars. It wasn't too bad, we had many a laugh with Tom again;-) But I'm looking forward tio the Thursday party. I luckily don't have any courses in Friday, so it should be good.

Ok, my eyes are sore, gotta get some sleep.

Have a good one everyone!!!!!!!!!!

Another day gone...

So we (Honza, Tom and Gabor) just finished two bottles of cheap-yet-excellent red wine and I'm going to get some sleep.  In the morning the official bullshit is starting, we'll decide which courses to take and in the afternoon BNP Paribas is bringing cases of champagne, to get us drunk and make us open accounts with them...:-)

Good night

First days

Friday night was a small get-together party in a snail-shaped church/chapel here on campus. It was my first time getting drunk in a holy place, surround by books like "Catechisme":-) There were around 15-16 of us, everyone brought their local alcohol and there were some refreshments. I didn't get a chance to talk to everybody, but the one's I did talk to seemed like ok people. There's Igor, a Spanish speaking Japanese guy from Brazil guy; two girls from London one of whom is Kate(I think); there's Gabor and Ditta from Hungary, Kay and two girls from Norway and...I'm terrible wwith names. There's thos guy Tom from Dublin who I think I'll be good friends with, he's got my sense of humor and is relaxed and easy-going...

Yesterday I went on a little sightseeing trip with Honza's parents and his brother. They are a family straight out of a Czech movie. Dad is a bussiness-man with a typical sense of humor, mom is always worried and the son is bored:-) They were very nice to me, didn't let me pay for meals, so I'm going to pay for Honza's beers I guess:-) We strolled around Pigalle and Montmarte and then around Champs-Elysees and La Defense. I've never been to La Defense before and was impressed, it's a very nice business-centre, and the Grande Arche is really amazing. Too bad the weather was crap so I couldn't take better pictures. We came back after getting a bit lost in Versailles at around 9 (I think), had dinner at a achinese restauarant (ever eaten frog legs in a chinese restaurant??:-). At around midnight my friend Tom called, and we had some drinks in Sonia's place with Christoph (a crazy German studying in Ireland) and another French guy whose name I don't remember. We tried to watch a movie, Domino, but since the sound quality was bad and it was getting close to 5 a.m., we fell asleep before the first half of the movie was over.

I woke up at noon today to get lunch in the cafeteria. There's a nice choice of all kinds of stuff to eat (including avocado with shrimp, yum) and you don't pay too much; in fact it's really cheap for France. I still wish I could cook somewhere! There's nothing like enjoying your own pasta in your room, watching a movie:-)
I think I'm just going to relax today, maybe meet the Norwegians in the afternoon, sleep a little and get my room organized (you can imagine it's a mess already:-)

Hasta la vista

Settling in

I have arrived at the HEC campus here in Jouy-en-Josas about 2 hours ago. Wasn't a bad trip, Slavo drove me to the Bratislava airport at 7 in the morning, so I had plenty of time to catch the plane (which was finally 20 min late). The lady at the check-in counter fortunately didn't seem to think that 4kg of baggage-overweight was a big problem. I slept through the whole flight, landed at Orly at around 10. Getting here from the airport seemed to be quite complicated. There was a huge line to buy RER tickets, but in a moment of rare lucidity I have packed a couple of Euro-bills in my wallet so could use the lonely ticket machine and skip ther line. I had to change 3 times, but it was ok.

When I finally got here, I was a bit lost, and trying to find the accomodation office with 30kg on your back isn't exactly fun. I moved in to building E, room number 21. The rooms here are equivalent to Prague's (VSE) "A dorms", but instead of three people they house just one. No kidding, for EUR385 a month!! There is no private toilet though, and the shower is in a kind of mini-room between two rooms. Each room has a semi-transparent glass door leading to it, so you can see when someone is taking a shower (and many more details I suspect:). I had to call the acccomodation office to get a special internet cable (it is quite unlike anything I've seen before, these French have to be different in everything), and then had to find a internet-service centre to get passwords to access the net.

Needles to say, I got lost and somehow ended up in the HEC directorate building. When I was beginnig to get desperate, I overcame the fear of speaking French and asked some lady where to go. She didn't know what I wanted so she led me to Britta Delhay (nice name, Britta:-), the head/chief/boss/overlord of all things CEMS here. I felt like a stupid 5 year old who lost his mommy at the swimming pool:-/ Anyway, we got things sorted out and now I'm writing this nonsensical post...

Next on my to-do list: Find a place to eat! My walnut-cake my mom made was sooo good it just ran out right now, and I don;t want to eat Horalky and cheese the rest of the weekend:-)

P.S. Oh yeah, speaking of speaking French, I have been speaking it the whole day now and seem to be getting by just fine, although I'm clearly missing a lot of vocabulary, and sometimes slip into a different language (for some unknown reason, I said danke instead of merci to a ticket controller...I'm weird)

my flickr

Ehm, I forgot to say that I'll be uploading pictures to my flickr account from now on, until I finally buy some server space to serve my storage needs.

Renewed activity

So, since I'm leaving to France next month, you can expect a bit more activity here...soon...

Madness

Madness
Originally uploaded by empty007.

Just fooling around with Flickr.