My New Year's Resolution is...

... never say never.

Jamie Cullum - Twentysomething

Run, Jamie, run! :)

And what am I going to do about being twentysomething?

Unravel by Bjork

She's beautiful. The song is beautiful.

Favourite words and phrases...

Or better - words and phrases I'm using a lot lately... So here comes the list:

• I don't understand.
  
• Aha.
• I'm so tolerant/understanding... actually naive.
• I'm the rational choice.
• I don't know what to do with life.
• I don't like my school.
• I'm gonna be fine.
• No, I haven't eaten yet, I don't have time to eat.
• I don't have time to sleep.
• I'm tired.
• I want to scream.
• I want to go to Africa.
• I wish I could do something I'd enjoy.
• I don't know much about this.
• I don't know anything about this.
• Should I start wearing make-up? :)

Just a few simple sentences and it says so much about your life, right? :) Don't take it too seriously, though. It's just that I was on the bus and it was long and I got bored (no light - no reading) so I thought I could come up with a couple of phrases that I've been using a lot lately. :)

A lecture on Introduction to Literary and Cultural Studies... Who'd think it's so much fun?

I am not going to write anything here, just put a link to my freind's (and fellow student :)) blog... HERE

Or maybe... My motto for today is

"You aren't in love. You're in love with the idea of being in love."

And then...

"that's why we get so angry when our object [read: the one we think we love] sleeps with somebody else. Because it's our toy! And that other person is playing with my toy!"

Seriously, aren't you jealous that I could be at such a lecture? :)

And in case you don't get to read the comment on the above-mentioned blog:

"Can you imagine how dangerous it would be if there were more terms for love?"

"A person screaming I hate gays, I hate gays, I hate gays... obviously has issues."

Oh well... And it so much fits my current state of mind.

Bobby Mcferrin - Don't Worry, Be Happy

Thanks, guys (R+V+M).

Bush or Batman?

My photo has been posted in an online travel guide :)

You might think that I turned my blog into a video blog. That is not true, it was just under the circumstances of the first November week... :)

I've got a photo news this time. My photo has been used in an online guide to Denmark and you can check it HERE.

It was this photo:

To be fair... McCain's speech

I give credit to this man for being able to accept his loss with such grace. If only the Czech politicians (and some in more than others) were able to do that, life would be so much sweeter. :)

Sarah Silverman and The Great Schlep

Sarah is strange... :)

The lamest of lame ducks...

Who's that according to Hillary? :)

A sick website or a bad joke?

A friend of mine sent me a link to Shelley the Republican website. First, I thought it was a joke but then, after reading the God's Hitlist and some other stuff (especially on sexuality, very "interesting" reading), I'm not so sure. Well, have a look and decide for yourself. I think it's real and very sick.

Don't vote... confused? :)

Don't vote, dear Americans :)

This is gooood. And Sarah Silverman is funny. :)

Czech UNICEF commercial - 15000 children die from hunger every day...

While looking for HIV/AIDS commercials for one of my classes, I got to this. I had seen it before, at the Adeaters festival last year. And it still make me want to cry...

1968 Soviet occupation in Czechoslovakia - When Russians came to "save our freedom"

Tomáš Klus - Malčik

This song - its lyrics - always gives me the willies... And even more when I know that the guy who wrote it is my age. Non-Czech speakers, I'm sorry for a song in Czech. :) It's soundtrack to a new Czech movie about 1968.

The vice-president does it all! and so on... :)

It's always good when you can make fun of high politicians. :)

I agree with them.... diagree with you....

What was I saying? Aaah, it doesn't matter because you're the most God-loving, the most patriotic... you're the best and I don't know what I'm doing here. :)

Hrušovany - photos

Castle in Lednice
Originally uploaded by baryka

As promised, the photos are online and accessible by clicking HERE.

Southern Moravia in August

The last week of August was a week full of sport. We spent three nights in Hrušovany nad Jevišovkou in a lovely hotel Penzion Monika and three days biking around Hrušovany. Southern Moravia is wonderful and great for biking - lots of roads for bikes, lots of places to see, lots of wine... :)

On the first day, we arrived, went for lunch and then decided to go for a shorter bike ride. We went from Hrušovany to Jevišovka, Drnholec... then something went wrong and we ended up in Litobratřice (I actually don't remember anymore where we had been going originally :)), then Břežany (and its wind power plant), Pravice and back to Hrušovany (the route's map is HERE). It was easy and short (32 kilometres). Then we went for dinner and had some wine from the hotel's wine cellar and started planning our next trip...

Day 2... By the end of the day, I was really surprised that I can still walk. We did almost 99 kilometres, which is a loooot when you realize that either of us hadn't biked for quite some time. It was a great trip, though. We biked through the Lednicko-Valtický areál and everyone who's been there knows how beautiful it's there. It took us some 5,5 hours. And it was worth it! The weather was really good, too, not too hot, but sunny so we enjoyed it as much as we could.
The route is here (almost):











In the evening, we went for dinner with some friends and then were looking forward to bed after such a long bike ride. :)

On day three we were going for a shorter ride. And we ended up with doing 76 kilometres. Oh well, that's what happens when you plan something carefully. :) It wasn't as good as Lednice-Valtice but it was good as well. It was a little warmer, we might have been a little tired, too. We learnt about a specific Nové Mlýny group that we had had know idea it exists. Nové Mlýny fishermen. Sitting in their tents with friends and beers, it seemed they don't really care about the fish. Some of them, however, thought that they were so funny that they had to comment on every biking girl who passed them. They weren't funny.
Anyway, we biked around the whole Nové Mlýny reservoir, didn't go to Dívčí hrady (because you can't get there on bike and it was pretty steep... :))

We made it back to Hrušovany (after going through Drnholec, Brod nad Dyjí, Pasohlávky, Strachotín, Nové Mlýny, Milovice, Pavlov and Dolní Věstonice) - the route is HERE - and relaxed... What else do you think we should be doing? :)

Day four was the day when we had to leave. I would have loved it to stay but we couldn't. We got on the train again and went all the way to Olomouc where Jirka met Honza and left with him and I - not having enough of biking - decided to bike from Olomouc to Prostějov. That was pretty easy. :)

And why am I writing about this? Because photos are coming soon! :)

Photos: From Pittsburgh to San Francisco, the last stop - San Francisco, California

Golden Gate Bridge
Originally uploaded by baryka

The final stop - San Francisco, one of my favourite cities. Hiking with Sam, walking around, not giving my phone number to strangers. That's what San Fran means to me. :)

Photos from my San Fran wandering are HERE.

Photos: From Pittsburgh to San Francisco - California Zephyr

Looking out the window
Originally uploaded by baryka

And then we spent hours on the train. Amtrak doesn't rule but it was better than I had expected. No delay... Which would be great if the train had done through all the places it was supposed to... So we saw nothing instead of the "most scenic train ride". But we got to San Francisco and that was the point.

More photos HERE.

Photos: From Pittsburgh to San Francisco, stop #5 - Denver, Colorado

Dinosaur's footprint
Originally uploaded by baryka

Our next stop on the way to the West of the US was Denver. We saw dinosaurs' footprints, stayed at a pretty clean backpackers, missed the REM concert in the Red Rocks and walked around the town. Photos can be seen HERE.

The future...? :)

Photos: From Pittsburgh to San Francisco, stop #4 - Boulder, Colorado

Biking around Wonderland Lake
Originally uploaded by baryka

Biking, hiking, walking around Boulder, that was the stop number 4. We enjoyed it, but I had probably expected something more. It was beautiful, though!.
Photos HERE.

Photos: From Pittsburgh to San Francisco, stop #3 - Omaha, Nebrasca

Ducks in Omaha
Originally uploaded by baryka

Our third stop was Omaha, Nebrasca.. We didn't stay there for long (fortunately :)) and it was probably the least favourite stop, probably partially due to the bad weather. More photos (but not many :)) are HERE.

Photos: From Pittsburgh to San Francisco, stop #2 - Chicago, Illinois

Cloud Gate (The Bean)
Originally uploaded by baryka

After we left Jill, we made it to Chicago. Chicago is an amazing place and we had lots of fun there. If you want to see what we did in Chicago, click HERE.

Photos: From Pittsburgh to San Francisco, stop #1 - Cleveland, Ohio

Having fun in a park
Originally uploaded by baryka

The first stop was Cleveland and it was lots of fun as you can see from the photos HERE.

As promised - my new apartment

The kitchen
Originally uploaded by baryka

I really live here! And I really like my new apartment, it's an amazing place. It's nice, original, and (probably most important) my flatmate is a really nice person. More photos are HERE.

Life is crazy

I have no idea what happened. Last week, I was writing here how much I was not looking forward to school but I had no idea how hectic and crazy it would be! So I'm officially in the second week of the semester, only one class of the week left for tomorrow, then I'm done. The school hasn't been bad, I'm actually looking forward to some classes, they'll be fun and interesting, I think. I think I'm also done with changing my schedule. I know I'm going to have a LOT to do during the semester, most of the classes have several requirements so when somebody tells me how much more work students have, say, in the US, compared to the Czech Republic - my programmes are not the case... But I don't mind, I prefer more work during the semester and less work during the exam period. People are changing and so am I - I wouldn't have said that some three years ago, I enjoyed doing nothing and didn't mind much learning everything during the night before the exam. :)
Anyway, things around are making evrything complicated... The internship, or better - the fact that I never hear from them when they're supposed to call/e-mail is one thing. Another is paying for school. Yes - we have university education for free, but only under certain conditions. The truth is I always learn these conditions when it's too late. This means another thing I have to take care of and that makes me tired and stressed because it isn't easy. I'll manage, though, I know that. And I'll buy the red hat I liked in the store today... Well, I do that sometimes, too - buying something just because I'm sad/tired/stressed (pick any negtive feeling :)). I just didn't know if I should go for the red one or the beige one. Tomorrow, I'll get one! And do everything I have to do.

I believe that you all know this feeling so you'll forgive me this post.

New (Czech) post on Ježišmarjanánku!

A very short post about a trip to Ostravice is HERE. It is in Czech so if you can't read Czech, you can at least check the photos HERE.

Back to the students' life! And all the news of my life

I found a great place to stay in Brno so I can officially say it - I love my new apartment! I'm pretty sure that not many people can live in such a cool place. For the money... :) I'll take some photos next week and post them here to make you all jealous. It's great because I hadn't been living in Brno for quite some time so it's nice that I don't have to start sharing apartment with some strangers that I have nothing in common. Talking about that, there are four rooms in the apartment and I'm going to have two flatmates; one of them is already there, he's from Poland and he's such a nice guy. Yes, I'm lucky. :)

I'm not that excited about school, though. It actually hasn't started yet but I'm not looking forward to it much. I had one class this Wednesday and it was fun, but the next, I'm not looking forward to... I envy Linda who says she's looking forward to being at school again. I wonder where my excitement got lost on the way. It isn't that bad, though, and I believe it's going to be fun.

I'll start working, too, in October (hopefully... the need for some cash is getting bad :)).

And... I got a phone call from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Those people seem to be sooo busy. :) They tell you they'll e-mail you in a week, then you don't hear from them for almost three weeks so you start living your life happily again and just take it as a fact that you didn't get the internship. And then they call you, suddenly, Friday afternoon. And they're sorry because they didn't have time earlier and you should have called because of course we want you here. Funny. :) Do I want to give up my wonderful Brno apartment for the internship? Or should I stay and still take the internship? Can I afford it? How much time do I want to invest into the internship? All these questions need to be answered so that I can e-mail the head of the department... Any suggestions? :)

Also, I got to the third round of the Fulbright applicaiton process and was invited for an interview on October 1. Wish me luck, please...

Lots of new photos online!

Robberg
Originally uploaded by baryka

Well, they aren't really new photos. But I managed to put all the photos from our South African road trip (the Garden Route) on Flickr! So check them out by clicking on the link below!

Garden Route photos.

News from my other blog...

I updated my nieces' blog a little, there's one post in Czech that you can read, about our trip to the Brno zoo. Just click here.
And if you can't read in Czech, you can still see the PHOTOS.

Summer 2008 - Ostružná

This summer wasn't bad at all. I spent one week in Jeseníky with my friends and plenty of other people at a summer sport week course. Hiking. Lots of hiking. I think the first hike to Paprsek almost killed us all. But we survived, sore, but survived. The second day Linda joined us and went we hiked to Rejvíz. Well, that was the plan. We never made it there because we took a wrong turn somewhere. But we didn't really care. Instead, we went to Zlatý Chlum and Čertovy kameny and then had a long coffee break in Jeseník with Linda and Radka. We deserved one! :)
The third day was supposed to be the hardest - a hike to Šerák. In fact, it was the one I enjoyed most, although the weather wasn't very nice at first and we couldn't see much from the top. Day 4 - Smrk. I loved that place! I've been to Jeseníky many times, but usually during the winter and there's obviously no time for hiking. :) There were so many blueberries that I could live there until November! It was amazing and they were sooooo good. Going down from Smrk, however, wasn't so much fun.
And the last hike was shorter - from Ostružná to Branná and back. There we went to a nice coffee place, enjoyed a piece of cake and then some adrenaline on the way back when trying to catch a train. We asked a local guy with a car if he couldn't give us a ride, but he couldn't as his car was full. He have us advice, though, so we "ran" up a meadow, the grass was taller and taller, we were so short of time... But we made it! And got home safely.
And if you want to see some pictures, click on OSTRUŽNÁ where you'll find my photos, or on OSTRUŽNÁ GROUP where you'll find Linda's and my photos.

Rest of the Cape to Vic Falls tour...

... is going to be online only in pictures. Click on CAPE TO VIC FALLS and you'll find them.

War in Georgia and American radar in the Czech Republic

I haven't paid much attention to discussions about the US radar that's supposed to be in the Czech Republic. The only thing that worried me a little was that it was possible for the American soldiers to be placed here not to be forced to behave according to the Czech law. Otherwise, I didn't care as I thought that all the referendum talks and all that was political bulls*it and nothing more, as always (the elections are coming).
I didn't care until now. Now I do get angry at all those people saying that we don't need radar here, that there's no danger, that they just want to build the radar to make Russia angry, that it's going to be against Russia and not Iran as they say... bla bla bla and so on. Well, dear anti-Americans, anti-whatever-the-reason-for-you-is, I believed it didn't matter whether we have the radar here or have not, I don't think so any more. Why? Because Russia, that poor country that everybody's against and that we are going to hurt if we build the radar, that country just attacked Georgia because... because that's what they do since they know nobody is going to stop them! I don't remember 1968, of course, but I know what happened. How different is that? And the world is letting them do that because it's the Olympic Games time and it's more important... because Russia is big, the mentality of the ruling class is the same it was 40 years ago and that's it. Now - tell me about the "no-threat" from Russia.

Sorry, Croatia!

In my mind, Croatia had been one of those countries full of tourists lying on crowded beaches with nothing more to offer. How wrong was I! Seriously, I am sorry, Croatia, that I had thought of you as such a country as the opposite is true.

This was the first time for me in Croatia, which all the people who were there with us found funny... Anyway - I went with my parents, my nieces and 11 other people, mostly my parents' friends from university. We spent a week at Vir, a nice island with perfectly clean (and incredibly salty) sea. I admit I didn't do much (but I enjoyed doing that :)) but still... just swimming a little farther offered a wonderful view of the mountains of the island Pag. And driving through the continental part of Croatia offered lots of beautiful views as well.

The water was salty and the weather was warm and sunny, which, of course, had to have some effects on my skin that is very allergy-prone. I still enjoyed it, though. I had lots of fun watching Marketka jumping into the sea and swimming like crazy (she's the happiest child in the world when in water), trying to make Lucka swim (she's afraid of water still), sending them both for ice-cream (yes, they are able to buy ice-cream in Croatia by themselves, Lucka can even say thanks in Croatian :)) when we found out that the scoops are much bigger when a kid is the buyer. :) We also had fun watching Croatian and other tourist lying on the pier from which Marketka was jumping into the sea... Imagine - there's a tiny little child in an orange lifejacket running across the pier without even slowing down and jumping into the sea. With no adults around. There was always a tourist of various nationality looking puzzled, obviously thinking if he/she should jump into the sea and save the child. Then Marketka got out of the water and jumped again. What followed was always a relieved laughter of the tourist. And our amused laughter.

Also - Croatian ice-cream is great and although it's more expensive than here, it's worth it as they don't care how much they give you. They simply give you as much as they can. On the other hand, Croatian shop assistants are about 100% worse than the Czech ones. They probably never heard of the little nice thing called smile. But that's ok, I can forgive them, I was on holidays and didn't care. :)

To sum up - go to Croatia, if you can. Try to avoid the too crowded areas. The part of Vir where we stayed was great - the house we all occupied was right next to the beach so we didn't have to take anything with us when we went for a swim as we had a huge terrace just for us, what a luxury! Also, "our" sea was usually really "ours" as people tended not to stay there, although it was probably the cleanest part. I did like the place a lot. :) (Picture will come soon.)

I'd love to go to Croatia to travel around a little to see more of the beauties of this diverse (naturally) country. And please, don't underestimate the country as I did! :)

PS: Croatians did a wonderful job with their new highway, it's seriously amazing.

Canoeing on the Vltava river

Canoeing is a very popular sport in the Czech Republic during the summer. I believe that nowhere in the world is canoeing so popular as here from June to August. :) It isn't because Czechs are so good at it (some are, of course :)), but because it's more of a social event than a sport.

Just a couple of days ago, I came back from one of these social events. I spent 5 days with a group of people canoeing from Vyšší Brod to Boršov nad Vltavou, with stops in Rožmberk, Český Krumlov and somewhere around Zlatá Koruna (closer to Boršov), sleeping at campsites by the river. The weather wasn't the greatest this year, especially the first day when it was raining (it's much less fun this way), but it was fun, and lots of fun... Only when I got back I found out who was one of the people canoeing with us. Quite an important person at my university and also the funniest guy on the river. :)

What does it look like when Czechs go canoeing? :) We take it easy. No hurry, lots of wine (you need a plastic bottle and a string to attach the bottle to the canoe so that it's kept cold and you don't lose it :)), lots of stops at various campsites and "pubs" by the river, lots of alcohol, but not just to get drunk, it's somehow part of it, and nobody is forcing anyone. Anyway, we agreed that nowhere in the country is so many drunk people for a square kilometer. :) Most of them are fun, though. One guy took a picture with me so that he could tell his mum that he has a girlfriend so that she wouldn't bother him with silly questions. :) He didn't even know my name... :)

What was new to me was a "drive-in" pizza place. You simply don't have to leave your canoe to get a delicious pizza (and also a drink, we had mojitos :)). Which reminds me that canoeing is also lots of unhealthy food.

And sure, lots of water, too. What you get on the Vltava river that you probably don't get autanywhere else is the history of the places you go through. It's beautiful. I especially like arriving in Rožmberk since the castle is amazing.


Český Krumlov is registered at the UNESCO heritage list. I think it't much more beautiful from the river than from the city center. It seems it's more taken care of for those on canoes, kayaks and rafts.

And the nature... Going through a forest with no cars around, just you, your canoe and the water... and well, sometimes some other people, but all of them very nice and friendly. Who wouldn't like that?

I miss the river already, although I believe that 5 days are just enough (also because sleeping in a tent in summer is not the best thing, sometimes... It can get cold at night, so you want to have your sleeping bag and your tent closed, but it gets warm in the morning really fast... and inside the tent, it gets even warmer even faster, so you jump out of the tent to save your life because it's so hot that you think you wouldn't survive staying there for another minute... that was my last morning there :))

English language and wife beater

I bought a great book in San Francisco, its name is I just want my pants back, it's written by David J. Rosen and it's very funny and smart at the same time. Anyway, in this book - and it wasn't the first time - I encountered, once again, the word "wife beater"... She was wearing a wife beater, that's the typical sentence... I never really needed to know what exactly she (be it any female character in any of the books I read) was wearing and that's why I never looked the word up in a dictionary. I guess it might have been the fact that I was reading the book on a plane (and the plane's air :)), or whatever, I really wanted to know what piece of clothes can have such a weird name. So I looked it up, finally. My dictionary - Macmillan - doesn't know the word, neither does Longman Online Dictionary. So I tried to google it first to see what it looks like. I was a little surprised, I must say, as I expected it to be something different (for those ignorant as myself, wife beater is sleeveless shirt. Anyway, does this information gratify your curiosity? It didn't work with me, I still wanted to know why on earth would someone call it this.
So I tried Wikipedia. :) And here we go: "The nickname wifebeater originates from its association with aggressive, underclass males, usually living in poor conditions, such as a dilapidated trailer, especially as frequently depicted in television shows and movies." Seriously... Wanna a graphic version?


What can I say... I'm for equality and all that but I strongly believe that men shouldn't wear anything like that. :) Then it should be stopped called a "wife beater" since it's a little weird that a girl is wearing a wife beater. Isn't it? :)

Ok, that was a very serious post. One more thing about how I acquire a new word every day. I just found out that I never knew how to say "Vídeň" (the capital of Austria) in English. I thought I knew but I didn'd. I believed that it's Wien in English, but it's Vienna, could you believe that? I had a BA in English Language. What a joke. :)

The place where we spent more days than anywhere else during the trip - Boulder, CO

We arrived in Denver in the morning pretty tired because it was really cold on the train and thus we couldn't sleep. We left Denver immediately and using the public transport system, we got to Boulder. We had some troubles trying to find the hostel, but after a-little-longer-than-necessary walk, we found it, checked in, took a shower and then Jirka went to bed and I was doing some school work for a while.

Our plan for the first day was to realx and so we did. Later, we visited the Information Center, got some maps and tips, went for dinner and walked through the Pearl Street Mall which was really nice.

Some negative things... I think I had expected Boulder to be something like Banff so I was a little disappointed, although it's definitely a nice place. Not as beautiful as Banff, though. Also, the people there are a little weird. They don't smile much and some are scary weird, which made me believe that I wouldn't like to live there (although I thought it's a pretty cool college town :)).
And the hostel... Probably the worst one I've ever seen. Boulder International Hostel, definitely the cheapest place in town, but - does it mean that I want to live like a pig when I don't want to spend a fortune on accommodation? Seriously, it was very very dirty. In the ladies' bathroom, there were four toilets. Three out of them didn't have doors, just shower curtains (I heard about public toilets without doors in Russia, but in the US, I didn't expect that :)), one of them didn't even have proper walls. The showers were disgusting, the first time I used them I was a little afraid that I'd be more dirty after using them than before... If you go there, you definitely have to have flip flops... The mattress wasn't the cleanest either and there was often no hot water in the kitchen which made it a little hard to wash the dishes...

But enough about the hostel, I don't want to think about it anymore. :) The surrounding area was really nice and is great for biking as there are real bike paths (not like in San Francisco, for example, where you can meet a bus on a bike path :)). So we spent the second day on bikes which was quite hard, with all the mountains and the wind, but it was really nice. Jirka got completely sunburnt, though.

The second day, we decided to go for breakfast to Lucile's where you have to wait for at least 20 minutes to get in. It's worth it, though, it was a great breakfast, although quite pricy, too. After that we decided to stay in the hostel for a while and wait until it gets a little less hot to go for a hike. We went in the afternoon to the ARCH, which was a little harder than we had thought. It was a nice hike and we met some nice people on our way back.

Our last day in Boulder wasn't the nicest... We had to cancel our hiking plans as it was raining heavily and went to the movies instead because we didn't want to stay at the hostel the whole day. We watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall which is a really funny comedy, and the last Indiana Jones which, in my opinion, isn't that good. Also, we had to walk all the way there because the buses weren't running due to a festival going on... We really trusted what it said at the bus stop, though, and thus believed that there was a bus going from the mall back to downtown. There wasn't. Don't trust the American public transport! :) Well, at some places, anyway.

And that would be it 'cause we left Boulder the next morning.

"Exploring" Omaha

I told you about Chicago and then had no time to tell you the rest. And now it's over, and so is my stay in the US. I'm going to tell you a little about the rest of our trip, if you want to. If you don't, just stop reading now. :)

So we made it to Omaha and it wasn't a very pleasant morning... It was raining, the Greyhound station was too small to have a lugguge storage area. That was to start with. We decided to walk to the Amtrak station, from which we were leaving the same night, but it seemed that nobody really knew where it was. And then we found out it is closed until about 9 pm, which is about an hour before the train leaves. What a lovely town! :)
We were lucky and found a hotel where we could leave our backpacks. Then we found a place for brunch, which wasn't anything particularly special, but it was good enough. Plus - we were soaking wet so it was nice to sit inside. :)

Then, after some time, it stopped raining, we walked a little around the Old Market, which is probably the only area interesting for tourists :), and then went to the library where we spent a couple of hours reading books. Being tired, though, it didn't work that well, so we went for a walk when the sun finally turned its nice face to Omaha. :)

I'm going to make it short - we walked around, waited and it seemed that we had too much time, all the time we needed in Chicago and didn't have, we had here and didn't know what to do with it. When the right time came, we went to the train station. The train was late, of course. :) But it wasn't that bad and the conductor was a really nice guy. And we left Omaha at aroun 11:30 pm and agreed that we wouldn't miss it at all.

Chicago is a wonderful place!

Stop number 2: Chicago. Well, Jill was telling us how awesome it is but I was rather skeptical since I am not much of a cities fan. I must admit, however, that I loved Chicago. It's true... I love that city. :)

We stayed at a hostel called Arlington House. It wasn't bad, but given the fact that we stayed at hostels in South Africa and camps in Southern Africa, I simply wasn't impressed. It smelled kind of weird, but nothing that an open window wouldn't solve. There was no hot water the first night. It seemed quite clean, though and good enough to sleep at. :)

We spent our first day walking around, starting with a breakfast at Nobel Tree (which was ok, amazing apple pie, not so amazing sandwiches).
We started at Lincoln Park, through which we walked to Lake Michigan. Then we walked alongside the shore until it was time to get back to downtown. We had lots of fun at Millennium Park, especially with the Cloud Gate (aka 'The Bean') where we were trying to take some good pictures of ourselves jumping... When you see the photos, you'll understand. :)

Our next stop was to be John Hancock Center which didn't happen as easily as we thought. We walked to Sears Tower (the the USA's tallest building... but we just don't go to the tallest ones :)) to realize that John Hancock Center is on the other side of downtown. Only a little disappointed, we ended up at Pizzeria Uno having Chicago's famous deep-dish pizza. I liked that place.
We found John Hancock Center eventually and went up to the 94th floor (only later we realized that we could have got to the 96th for free if we bought drinks up there). The view was amazing, with only one little flaw - a bunch of high-school kids being there at the same time as us on a school trip. :)

When we were done there, we decided to go back to the hostel and rest a little. And that was the first time we used the public transport which, I must say, was one of the reasons I liked Chicago so much. I was impressed by the public transport system (you know, I'm usually very skeptical about public transport in the US :)) and I loved the trains!

Later that night we went back to Millennium Park to watch the Buckingham Fountain. The Lonely Planet guide claims that it "squirts on the hour" - which is true - and that it is "accompanied by at night by multicolored lights and music" which is not true. It was just red and with no music, but it was nice anyway.

On day 2, we had breakfast at an amazing Algerian cafe called Crepes and Coffee Palace, then we went to the Greyhound station to get the tickets to Omaha, left our luggage there and went to Museum of Science and Industry. Unfortunately we got there quite late - at about 2 pm - and since it was closing at 4 pm we didn't have time to see everything. I had fun, though, we saw a German submarine from WWII, Jirka tried snowboarding, we saw the Earth :) and also went to see a special exhibit called Smart Home which was fun mainly because there was a bunch of school kids taking notes about everything the guide (who was really nice) said. I took a picture of them, although it wasn't allowed to take pictures in there (I didn't know that :)).

We wanted to go to Adler Planetarium next, but had no time to do that. So we went to Giordano's for lunch-dinner instead, having deep-dish pizza again. Their portions are so huge that we ended up taking more than a half of the pizza with us.

Having some time still, we walked to Navy Pier which was quite touristy, but that's just the way it is with places like that.

Our bus was leaving at 21:45. We had reserved our seats so we didn't have to be there an hour earlier which was good. Well, the fun part was to come. We left Chicago late (which didn't surprise us - it's Greyhound :)). We had the weirdest guy sitting in the seat in front of us (first, he asked Jirka if I was his girlfriend or sister... then he asked me if my glasses were brown or red... just like that... out of nowhere... :)). And then, after about two hours, the bus broke down. Our driver was a funny guy, too, a little like a strict school teacher. It took about 1,5 hour before another bus arrived and by that time, I felt as if on a school trip. You know, people who travel by Greyhound are kind of funny... :)

Back on the road...

A year has passed (almost) and we're on the road again. It is not going to be such a marvelous trip like last year in Africa but we're hoping that it's going to be amazing and great and wonderful anyway. :)

Right now, we're at our first stop - Cleveland - where we attended Jill's graduation. It looks much more fun in the movies, my dear European friends who haven't experienced this yet. :) Anyway, it's good to see Jill and her family again so we're happy to be here.

The next stop is Chicago. We're going to get there tomorrow evening (after an 8-hour bus drive... I hate Greyhound, but I guess I've already told you that :)). We spend two nights in Chicago and then move west to Omaha. Now, you might be asking what's in Omaha? Nobody knows and that's why we're going there to explore it a little bit. But don't worry, we're going to be there just for a day, we aren't even spending a night there... Although we might regret it later... Probably not. :)

That was the Greyhound part of our trip. The Amtrak part starts in Omaha where we get on a train to Denver. We leave Denver as soon as we get there to spend about five days in Boulder and here comes the fun and my favorite part - the Rockies!!! Yay!!! :) But later on, we're going to spend two days in Denver, too.

After Denver? There's not much time left. We get on the train again and go directly to San Francisco (which is, in the ideal world, about 30-hour ride... in the real world, it's probably going to last longer due to all the delays and stuff). Jirka is attending some Fulbright event there and I'll just do my best to entertain myself, possibly go on a hike with Sam. I'll enjoy it anyhow as I plan to go play kickball again in the Golden Gate Park. I like the San Francisco people, too. :)

Besides that, we have no exact plans fr what to do and what to see. We have one plan and that's enough - we're going to have fun and enjoy it as much as we can! :)

Mammoni... wanna marry one? :)

My friend sent me this link and I must say it's hilarious. Well, it's also sad but since I don't have to live there andlook for a normal guy among these, it's just hilarious... Enjoy the videos:

Mammoni

How paranoid am I?

Seriously, guys... I don't know what to believe anymore. I think I'm getting to the point where I'll just doubt everything. About four days ago, we watched Clerks 2 (which is, by the way, hilarious, I love Jay and Silent Bob, you have to watch it!)... The two main characters - Dante and Randal (who worked at a Quick Stop in Clerks 1) - work at a fast food called Mooby's and the movie begins with them coming to work and getting all the "food" ready. And here happens something that just made me wonder about where things come from for a couple of days... There was something that was supposed to be served as an egg in all those burgers they sell. I was staring at the screen with my mouth open in disbelief. What the hell was that??!!! My boyfriend looked at me, in disbelief, too, saying "that's what they use instead of real eggs" - ok, how am I supposed to know that? I've never seen anything like that before, it was very disgusting... The truth is, my boyfriend worked, many years ago, in a fast food in the US, so he probably had the chance... But for me, it was just shocking. So this, alongside with all the environmental articles and all that stuff, just makes me wonder what is real and what isn't all the time.
So I read an article about anything... And instead of thinking "this is intersting", or "this is boring", I think "well, and how do I know that it's true, who's the author? who is he working for?"

So - how do I know who's right - those who say that global warming (what kind of term is that, anyway? There's nothing such as global warming, it's just that the media like to use it... it's global climate change! :)) is going to kill us, or those who say it is not? Al Gore who made a nice movie, got a Nobel prize (one of the best jokes of last year, I'd say) and tells us how the US Republican government is destroying the environment and that we (or probably the Americans) have to do something about now? That Al Gore who did nothing about it when he actually had some power to do something as the US vice-president?


Please, tell me - are we ever going to know the truth about things? I just hope I won't end up not believing what I said myself... Who am I working for? Who's paying me to write this? :)))

The paradox of choice

How lives in the developed world can be difficult. No kidding... I'm sure you'll know what Barry Schwartz is talking about. It's a very intereting talk and I also like his presenting skills. Enjoy!

What is important and what is less...

This guy - Bjorn Lomborg - talks (quite fast :)) about a research a group of economists did and tells us what the world should focus on. I don't think I was surprised by what they put on the top... But I can tell you that I've read way too much about our environment, climate changes, and all that this semester that I don't know anymore what to think. To every point, there's a but, believe me... Anyway, I'm still going to reuse things and recycle, eat organic food and ride a bike or walk if I can... :)

Enjoy the video!

Our sunflower

Slunečnice

(Click on the picture above and you will see how it is growing :))

The Digital Dump Official Trailer

The next movie was called "Exporting harm" and was about e-waste export to China. Both are worth watching.

E-waste - ever heard of it?

It seems that I'm becoming an eco-freak. Whatever... :) So - we just bought biodegradable laundry detergent, laundry softener and dishwasher soap. We try to buy organic food as much as we can (well, that probably wouldn't bother me that much back home, but since I found out how it is with genetically modified food in the US, it just seems much better this way). I don't use the dryer for my clothes (I never did, really, we don't have one at home, there's no eco reason for that :)). Well, there are still plenty of things that I could do and I don't do them. Perhaps it will just come gradually. And I guess that one of the reasons behind that is one of the classes that I'm taking this year. I've learned so much from the Environmental Sociology class so far! And also from other things... For example - did you know that laundry detergents often contain oil-based cleaners (or whatever it's called)? I did not. Also - my family has always recycled paper, plastic, glass... I had a hard time in South Africa where I couldn't recycle but I somehow understood that. But why is it harder to recycle here than back home?

Anyway, what I wanted to share with you today is the problem of e-waste. I don't know much about it. I just watched two documentaries yesterday about e-waste and I was shocked. In short, some developed countries just dump their e-waste, which is highly toxic and dangerous, in the developing countries, which, of course, have no facilities to deal with it. The result? Poor people work on "recycling" old computers etc. which is slowly but surely killing them and destroying their environment completely. Often, some developed countries claim it's actually help - they claim that the computers and other stuff they send to Africa or Asia is for the people to be used. Well, very often, it can't be used!
There are four international treaties that deal with that: the Basel Convention on the transboundary movement of hazardous wastes (1989) with the Basel Ban Amdendment (1995) effectively banning hazardous waste exports from OECD and Liechtenstein to all other countries; The London Convention Protocol (1996) on forbidding most forms of ocean dumping; the Rotterdam Convention (1998) requiring prior informed consent on export of certain dangerous product chemicals; and the Stockholm Convention soon to be adopted in May 2001 which will effectively move to phase-out and reduce the release of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) (you can find more about them on the Basel Action Network website). On the BAN website, you can also find out which countries signed and ratified the treaties and which have not (the list). When you look at the list and watch the videos that BAN made about this problem, you'd find out that the biggest exporter of e-waste is the US, also the only developed country that hasn't ratified any of the treaties, thus exporting safely, because it's legal, and killing people (besides that, it was found out that it's often US state governments and other state agencies that do that and thus you can actually find lots of information that should be kept confidential when you go, say, to Nigeria to one of the e-waste stores and get a computer from there).
Well, all I can say about this is that it's terrible. I wouldn't like to see my kids playing at a place like that:

Or have all this carcinogenic stuff in my neighbourhood. I guess nobody would like that, including the US government members. How can they be ok with doing this? I mean - what other countries than the developed ones should be able to deal with e-waste in the right way?

Well, so if there's a time when I need to get a new cell phone, laptop, computer because the old one isn't working anymore, I'll just make sure to dispose of it in a way that doesn't harm other people's healt and other people's environment. I guess we should all do that.

Petroleum Hike (March 2008)

It's been a little while... It was Saturday and we headed towards the Oil Creek State Park with Jeff (driving) and Noam. After a two-hour drive (I was half-asleep all the time so I'm not really sure about the time) we got to the oil area and, after going through Oil City, we got to Petroleum Center where our hike started. I was a little surprised when I saw all the snow there. Analyzing the situation, I soon became quite comfortable with the fact that it's going to be a very wet hike (I didn't mind during the hike, but later, I did...). So we started and walked and saw a well from time to time, a pipe... fake wells... not-fake pipes and used-to-be houses and even less fake graveyards (two, to be exact - one was really small, the second was bigger, both in the middle of the woods... I remember myself thinking "now, that's the real ghost town").
So Petroleum... From what I found out, it was one of the town established during the oil boom in the area. It managed to attract thousands of people in a few week. When there wasn't much oil left, all the people left as quickly as they came and all that was left (how many lefts am I going to use in this sentence? :)) was what I've already said we saw. Not much... But honestly - would you like to live in a town called Petroleum? I certainly wouldn't. :)

It wasn't either Africa or the Rockies... or anything that is really beautiful and offers plenty of photographic opportunities. :) It was, nevertheless, interesting to see it. Also - it was interesting to go through Oil City and think that that is the real ghost town although people do live there (it definitely looked like a ghost town to me... but then - Pittsburgh looked a little like a ghost town, too, when we got back from NYC :)).

Probably the most exciting thing happened on our way back when we heard a weird sound from under Jeff's car and then tha car started behaving weird and then Jeff stopped. And we could see there's something wrong with the car as there was something hanging down from somewhere (I found the situation rather amusing, although my feet were freezing in my wet shoes :), because I was there, with three CMU PhD students, some of the best brains, and none of them could do anything :)). So Jeff called AAA, they said they would come in an hour, but they couldn't take more than two people (nobody seemed concerned about this). Many a cary passed, some slowed down to look at us (and laugh? I mean - you don't want to help, why do you do that? :)), some didn't care at all... I do want to believe that people in the Czech Republic still stop to help others in emeergencies :)). Anyway, after an hour, one car actually stopped. This made our inability to do anything even funnier. The driver was a woman. A middle-aged man with a beard and a bear left the car and asked us what's wrong (he added several f-words and such :)). So we told him. Hi lay down, looked at it and said that it's just oxygen something and that we can go that it's safe. Then he asked us if we didn't see a hitchhiker there (we did, but about an hour ago), looked amused (probably thinking how useless we were :)) and left. And we got back into the car and left that place, whatever it was, in a rather loud car which, nevertheless, took us back to Pittsburgh safely. And that's the end of the story.
Wait - it isn't! We were also supposed to go to a performance downtown, somewhere, that night, which we, of course, didn't make (but Pan said it wasn't good anyway... :)).

If you want to see some pictures, just click here:

Petroleum Hike (03/2008)

Europe... once again... :)

If you look at this map, what do you see? I know... Europe... :) But does the Czech Republic seem to be an East European country? I don't think so... (does it say Czechoslovakia somewhere in the map? :)) I probably know where all this comes from. The Cold War. Europe was divided into the Eastern and the Western bloc (as the whole world was) and we were obviously in the Eastern one. It didn't have much to do with geography, it was rather a political concept. But we moved on. The whole world moved on. The Cold War is over and there is no need for political divisons of this kind, right? (Well, now it's more like the EU and the rest of Europe).

I promise that's all I'm going to say on this topic :) (well, probably until somebody asks me again if I can teach them Russian... :)). Just have a look at what Linda says here. I totally agree with her. :)

My likes and dislikes :)

I've been watching Friends a lot lately and Phoebe's newly found half-brother was telling her what he liked about their weekend together... One of the things was when he was telling her about his likes and dislikes... Phoebe was confused... He explained: "How I liked melting stuff and dislike stuff that doesn't melt." :)
Soo...

I like/love:

• Friends
• That 70s Show
• Africa
• nice people
• carrot cake
• my mom's mushroom soup
• English
• my home country
• travelling
• good books
• sleeping
• my parents, my nieces and my brother
  
• my family
• Jirka
• mangoes in the countries that grow mangoes (I pretty much love all fruit and veggies :))
• good movies
• documentaries that don't lie and that have a clear message
• meeting new people
• "discovering" new places
• people who are able to admit that they don't know something instead of asking stupid questions pretending they know what they're talking about
• the South African flag
• Damien Rice, Jamie Cullum, Jack Johnson, Regina Spektor and Kate Nash
• organic food
• walking outside when it's sunny, watching the flowers and listening to the birds
• and many other things...

I dislike/hate:

• when abroad, phrases like these (and yes, I heard all of them):
• So you're from the Czech Republic, you can teach me Russian, right? (Yeah, it is as probable as you teaching me Korean - I probably never met anybody who speaks Korean...)
• Where are you from? - Czech Republic. - So where in Czechoslovakia do you live? (What the hell? Why do you ask me and don't listen to the answer?? Or are you just so dumb??)
• Do you have the Internet where you come from? (This one I kind of love because it gives you a great opportunity to tell the people something that if they later use, it will make them look really stupid. :) I've done that once when I was asked something like that in Canada... I told the guy that we don't... And that we actually don't have airports either... That I had to go to Germany by a ship first and only then I could fly to Canada from there.)
• The Czech Republic is really poor, right?
• Czech Republic? That's quite exotic! (What is so exotic about Europe, dear Canadian doctor? :))
• So you're from the Czech Republic... When you're done here, are you going back to Russia?
• Are you from Prague? (Ok, I admit that this is not so bad... But it's like asking everyone from the UK if they're from London... :))
• Chechnya! You had a war there, right?
• I can find you a job here [that was in Switzerland] in a restaurant, or something like that... [After I told the guy that I'm a student and that yes, I'm going home because I only went to visit my friend... Why do they think that I'd rather be a waitress in Switzerland than a student in the Czech Republic? We are not a developing country!!! :))
  
• PLEASE, IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING THAT COULD BE ADD HERE, TELL ME!!!
  
• documentaries that:
1. don't make sense
2. don't tell you anything new
3. don't have a clear message (this means that in the end, you're thinking what the hell it was all about)
4. focus on unimportant things while ignoring things that actually matter
• horror movies
• spicy food
• waking up
• parents whose lifestyle leads to the obesity of their kids
  
• dry hands
• pops
• melted snow in cities
• arrogance
• people who ask you questions and don't listen to you when you're asnwering... They do that because they want to look polite and they're too stupid to realize that it's actually much more impolite than not asking at all
• violence
• and probably many other things...

What are yours likes and dislikes?? Do you like melting stuff? :)

PhD, MA...

"These days, everybody has a BA, MA, PhD, MSc... bot not many of these people have a J.O.B." :) The cartoon just reminded me of that... :)

Pictures from NYC!

I just remembered... The cool place where we went for tea was The Chelsea Market. There was this shop with a very nice name - Fat Witch (and their website is quite nice :)).

Also - I didn't tell you about our flight attendant... The best way to describe him is to use the first words Pan said after we left the plane: "I didn't know that child labor is allowed in the US." Later, we were trying to figure out whether he was just so tired, or high... No decision made... :) It was fun watching him, though. :)

And here's the new album:

New York City (partially bilingual / částečně dvojjazyčné :))

Go (back) to Europe! The world is going crazy...

No, I haven't met anybody anti-European who'd like to send me back where I came from. :) I just had an unpleasant experience at the optometrist's when I went with my crooked glasses in the belief that they would fix them. How wrong was I!
Because the place where I had been originally going (Jirka's lab mate recommended it to me) was for no particular reason closed, I went to another one on the street where I was (here: I really don't know Pittsburgh yet and I don't feel comfortable walking around places that I don't know that's why I didn't go anywhere else :)). My experience from where I come from :) told me that it was ok, that they were just going to fix them and that's it. I would even pay! Although they do that for free back home...
The conversation with the guy who worked there went something like that:

me: I need to get my glasses fixed.
the guy: What's wrong with them? [looking at them] Did you buy them here?
me: No, I didn't.
the guy: Well, then I can't repair them. I can't take the responsibility for breaking them. You have to take them where you got them from.
me: But I bought them in Europe.
the guy: Well, I can't take the responsibility [and all that crap, I was getting upset, as you can imagine, thinking if he even knows where I said I'm from...]... Take them back there.

So that's it. I know - it was just one place and I really do believe that they'll be able to repair them somewhere else. But still - that just doesn't make any sense. The world is going crazy. People are scared to do stuff because somebody could sue them. People are scared to say something because it could be politically incorrect. And I still don't have my glasses repaired.

New York City

We managed to realize our plan and spent a few days in New York City. The flight there was tiring, as usual, mainly because it was delayed and all that crap. Plus - the shuttle we wanted to take never came, so we walked in the rain to the campus where we found out that we missed the bus to the airport (it left about 4 minutes earlier than it was supposed to). Which sucks, considering the "high quality" of Pittsburgh public transport. We made it to the airport on time, though. :) You know how it is. We got to New York, anyway, and went to Manhattan to spend our first night at Nikos' (Pan's friend's) place (where we stayed for the rest of our time in NYC). The first night was fun - we drank some Ouzo, ate some feta and some other food, too, and enjoyed the Greek hospitability while watching some American stand-up comedians until 4 am. Yeah... :)))

As the weather was really bad the next day, we decided to go for brunch (to a place with a very bad waiter :)) and then spend the afternoon in the Met (The Metropolitan Museum). It was amazing and huge and as it is, walking around a museum and watching art makes one really tired. We managed to see about 2/5 of what we had planned, but I still think it was worth it. Pan says that the size of the museum can be compared only to Louvre and if it's true, than it's pretty amazing, isn't it?
Then we got back to Nikos' and later headed to the downtown for dinner with another of Pan's friends and his wife. The dinner was good, although an hour long waiting for a table isn't my favourite activity and although I felt sick later that night.

Sunday was devoted to some sightseeing which started in the Chinatown with a brunch again. The restaurant was amazing - it was huge and the way it works is something I had never seen before. They just walk around with trays full of food and you just grab whatever you want... We tried plenty of different stuff, I don't even know what it was, plus a dessert - a coconut pudding and a green tea pudding. The latter had nice green colour, but no taste. So then: Chinatown - the Little Italy - Soho. Then we walked to the Hudson river where we alsmost froze (it was very very cold :)) and then headed to a very nice place for tea. Unfortunately, I have no idea what the place was.

Times Square and then the Rockefeller Center. This was interesting and nice - we managed to be there just before sunset, so we watched the sunset from the top of the building. And then all the skyscrapers... We went to see the famous ice-skating rink where the famous Christmas tree is (not now, of course :)).

Hungry and tired, we went for dinner to the Cafe Luxembourg where we waited for a table for some time, of course, and then had the most expensive (but delicious) dinner of my life.

Monday was another sightseeing day, only for me and Jirka, this time. We started at the Brooklyn Bridge, then walked to the financial district to see the Wall Street (really - what kind of name is that? :)), Times Square again (where we tried to find a Starbucks with chairs to end up at a different place, but very good for light lunch), and then we walked to the Central Park and through the Central Park all the way to Nikos' place (that would be the 98th, or something like that :)).

Monday night was devoted to a poker tournament which only the guys attended (and yes - I could have gone, but didn't want to). And then it was Tuesday, the day of our departure. We took a train (the Amtrak) which takes about 10 hours but I must say it felt much better than the plane.

A funny story from the train - Jirka and Pan wanted to play poker with money (read: some cents which are probably worth less than their manufacture) and they had to stop because it's illegal...

So my impressions: NYC is definitely cool and all that. You can find everything there and if you're rich enough, you can do plenty of things there. For me, it was too many people, too many cars, too many skyscrapers and too expensive. Also - not a city for me who can't remember numbers, I'd never get anywhere :). I liked our trip very much, though, as I think that the city is definitely worth visiting.

I'm Fucking Ben Affleck - The Response

I like the one with Matt Damon a little better, but this one is hilarious as well. Especially the part with the FedEx guy. :)

The Band

TG and a CS Talent Show

I had the chance to meet some of the people Jirka studies with. It was mostly kind of weird, but I met some very nice and friendly people, too. Since they mostly talk about school, I don't pay much attention. This can be considered rude and impolite, or a way to save myself. :) I pick the latter one. :) Seriously - I have no idea what they're talking about most of the time. BUT - there are people that I wouldn't mind hang out with!

What I wanted to share with you it this event that took place yeterday. It's called TG (an acronym :)) which stands for Thank God (It's Friday). I don't really know what it's all about but we went there yesterday and it was a special one, I guess, since there were some important people from Yahoo (Jirka says they were important) - Ken and Don - and it had something to do with some smiley competition/award... I probably looked quite lost (I mean - I tried to talk to some CS students and they just left without saying a word... :)) so these two Yahoo guys introduced themselves to me and started to talk to me. It was actually a very nice talk (sure, first they thought that I studied there... :)) and I think it made the whole event much nicer for me. Then I met some of Jirka's friends who were also very nice. So I know that I can survive a CS event without any bigger troubles! Yay :)))

Also, I just remembered that wanted to share a video with you. Last week we went to a CS talent show. It was very entertaining (to be politically correct :)). I had lots of fun, although it was rather mean... But how come those people didn't know they can't sing?? There was one good performance, the very first one... it was a professor who could sing, but it was rather boring... And then, there were two people who couldn't sing, a band whose singer couldn't sing and a Bollywood dance. What I wanted to share with you is a video of the band I took. They were hilarious, although I'm not sure if they meant to be hilarious... I just hope, I really do, that it was supposed to be fun.

I'm Fucking Matt Damon by Sarah Silverman

I had to post it here because it's hilarious! :)

The "retirees' in public transportation syndrome" ...

... is international. Those of you who use the public transport system (and now I'm mixing British and American English, have you noticed that? :)) often know what I'm talking about. People seated comfortably suddenly start to stand up and leave their seats and move to the doors, despite the fact that they still have way too much time before the tram/bus/train/trolley-bus (pretty much anything that moves people from point A to point B) actually stops. I call it the "retirees' in PT syndrome" because it usually applies to a certain population group. Guess which one :)
It's ok when the vehicle is empty enough so that everyone can sit and there's enough space for the ones who need to be at the doors first to move there. It isn't ok when the vehicle is crowded and you yourself don't have any space around you where you could move to let those people go where they want.
Of course, as a Brno student, I have this experience from there (I think I coined the term in one of the Brno trams - and I admit that there might have been people before me using the term, I just don't know about them :)). In Stellenbosch, there was no public transport in the town. But in Pittsburgh, there is. Probably not the best one in the world but it is here and I've actually already used it three times (plus this one time when we used the CMU shuttle but I think it doesn't count :))! And the very first time I had the opportunity to see that the syndrome mentioned above is truly international! It made me laugh and get angry at the same time. The bus was really crowded and these people moving... without actually leaving the bus really drive me crazy. Am I supposed to become a bat or something and get to the roof?? Like how - really - do they think this can work? I mean... it always works for them, but I just hate it... :) Anyway, it's funny to see that it's international. And it's also funny to see that the word "retiree" in the name of the syndrome isn't really accurate sometimes... No, it actually isn't funny, it's sad. But it's better to laugh at those people and not cry, right? So let's join in the struggle and laugh at them every time they do it again! :)))