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.