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.