Hello from Brno

So I have been in Brno now for just over a week. I have moved into my lovely little flat and I have finally, officially become a student of the Brno Technical University. I have a card to prove it. On my arrival on Sunday I was kindly met by Kirstie, it was so nice to see a friendly face in a foreign land. From there we made the long accent to what is now called home. Our little flat is on, I reckon, the highest point in Brno. It is surrounded by woods and parks, and has a very family friendly atmosphere. A far cry from charming Hyde Park (Leeds). We are surrounded by parks and woods, all of which are beautifully maintained. Also in our vicinity is a prize winning swimming pool with a view of the town, and only a short walk away (dad you’ll be happy to hear this) a fully functioning Planetarium. All very exciting as you can imagine.

So my first night in Brno we were invited to an 8pm meeting on the university campus. However after we had finally got home (Sunday public transport is never what it should be) and had dinner it was 7.30 and we had to find and get to this place we had never been to before. Sadly, owing to the bad service and our lack of energy and enthusiasm, mostly on may part, it was 8.30 and we were standing in the middle of a road (somewhere on the edge of Brno) defeated.

The following day we didn’t know where we had to be or what we needed to be doing. This meeting we missed, we discovered later was quite key. But all was not lost, in the light of the day we managed to find the previous evenings meeting spot and we went along, dictionary in hand, to see if we could discover any clues to where we should be. It took a while. After speaking the worst Czech to a few unsuspecting receptionists we managed to find a lady, with a phone, and some idea who we were. We were given finally a time and a place. The time was wrong but thankfully the place was correct. PARK language school. We were enrolled onto a week of language classes. After everyone was asked a few questions in Czech to discover briefly what level we were, Kirstie and myself found ourselves in group D, the advanced class.

The class was populated by Russians, Lithuanians, Polish and us. A little daunting at first. But it turned out fine. Although our eastern European students learnt very quickly, they didn’t have any kind of basic Czech, so for a few days Kirstie and I were the brains of the outfit. However our new found genius has still not been as helpful as we would have hoped outside of the class room. But we have enrolled on further lessons, and I really feel that with continued learning it will become easier and easier.

So what of the other erasmus students...