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:-)