20 décembre 2007
THE END
Voila.
Mon SVE est fini.
Mon blog aussi.
18 décembre 2007
LAST DINER
Repas d´adieu hier soir au U Pastyře.
Le compte a rebours a commencé...
Jarda - Věrka - Moi - Linda - Ilonka
Linda - Martina
02 décembre 2007
IT´s BEEN A LONG WEEKEND
Olomouc thursday night, and Prague from Friday till Sunday. Christmas time is well engaged now, they were just installing the Christmas Market and the Xmas Tree on Staromětska Naměsti, under the vigilant eye of Jan Hus, whose statue is now visible
avec six months of cleaning. And it is even better by night. Of course, there are also a lot of nativity scene everywhere, as this one at the foot of the South Tower of the Prague Castle.
Also, i took the time to go to the exhibition Wallenstein and His Era, about the famous XVIIth century general, born in Bohemia, and set quite judiciously in the palace he had constructed for himself in Mala Strana and which bears his name. More pictures of the exhibition to see on Prague´s album photo. This weekend Prague hosted also the third Film Asia festival, and I was lucky enough to get tickets (merci Jana!) for the new Park Chan Wook movie I AM A CYBORG, BUT THAT´S OK. Unfortunately, the movie is not so ok. Review to come on www.cutlarevue.fr
And of course, some volunteer party here and there in the evenings. As you can see, too much beer, but not enough sleep.
25 novembre 2007
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NORA !
Saturday night, invited to ČESKÁ Třebová by Nora, the new German volunteer who took over the post of ZOÉ, to celebrate her birthday ! Quite a nice evening and night ! There were four other volunteers, from the same ´prom´ as Nora : Valeria (Italy), Cristina (Finland), Jana (Austria), and Nara (Armenia, who is also Nora´s flatmate and co-worker). Yes, it is all a story of A !
On the 1st pic : Jana + Nora + Cristina. On the second : me and Valeria.
It was first quite weird, because obviously they didn´t know I was EVS and French, they told me they thought I was Czech, because I looked like a Czech ( !! ty vole !! ) and also because I spoke English without the French accent (good!). So, as soon as my true identity was unveiled, the party could get started. First, in the famous Modry Trpaslik... But it was considered too noisy, and 70 Kč the entrance !
So we went to Pod Skalkou, 40 Kč. However, it proved unbearable there, with the techno music, and the youth in the place made me feel sooo old ! So, we stayed only 30mn, and went back to Modry Trpaslik to watch and listen the marvelous locals bands as you can see on the picture :)
It was fun to see the new generation of EVS in Czech Republic. Funny thing also to be able to tell that Valeria is replacing a volunteer I knew, and Cristina also ! I feel like the Memory of 2007. The (not so) funny thing is that probably no one will replace me in Lanškroun in January. The three candidates considered eventually gave up for one reason or another... Sad.
Here : Nara is expressing her dislike of the noisiness in Modry Trpaslik.
25 octobre 2007
VISITE A LA MAISON EN PAIN D´EPICES
Le 25 et 26 Octobre étant fériés pour les scolaires (pour cause de fete nationale dimanche) DDM a organisé aujourdhui une visite a Pardubice. J´avais déjá mentionné le fait que la ville etait célebre pour ses pains d´épices (en Tcheque : Pernik).
Vérification encore 
aujourdhui avec une visite au ´musée´, dans un village appellé Rubý, juste a coté de Pardubice. Au programme, visite de l´atelier (avec Ježibaba pour guide, c´est elle/lui qui montre les moules en bois sur la photo), jeux, et bien sur dégustation.
28 septembre 2007
Ce n´est qu´un Au Revoir !
Bye Bye Zoé ! :(
Derniere soiree hier soir au Modry Trpaslik de Česká Třebová, avec Zoé pour feter si je puis dire la fin de son SVE.
Soiree pression, soiree émotion !
Encore un autre volontaire qui part.
Et qui me rappelle que mes jours ici sont comptés pour moi aussi. Un peu moins de 100 jours avant la fin.
19 septembre 2007
UNE VISITE !
Oyez oyez liseurs de blogs, amis, confreres, anciens camarades de classe, sachez que la premiere personne un tant soit peu courageuse et aventureuse (et sans lien de famille) pour me rendre visite en République Tcheque est arrivée ce weekend ! Elle s´appelle Liza, et, a trois mois et demi de la fin de mon SVE, il faut bien le dire je ne l´attendais plus, ce visiteur envers qui je puisse faire étalage de ma bouleversante maitrise de l´idiome slave et du Ř, du Š, du Č, et du Ž ! I am glad to announce you that my first visitor who is not related to me by the family has arrived this week in Czech Republic to do me the honour of a visit. Her name is Liza, and, at three month before the end of my European Voluntary Service, i didnt expect anymore any visit from a friend to whom I could show how good I master the Czech language :)
Donc, j´ai pu la chercher a Prague lundi midi grace a la complaisance de mon association qui m´a laissé secher une journee, et apres une visite express de la capitale - ponctuée d´une haletante course poursuite parallele pour attraper l´ultime train pour Lanškroun ET récupérer la valise laissée a la consigne, nous sommes arrivés sans encombre chez moi. Au passage, un petit clin d´oeil a Désirée en forme de patisserie : tu reconnaitras surement de quoi je veux parler sur la photo ci-jointe, prise lundi matin dans les rues de Prague ! I fetched her in Prague monday at noon at the airport, and, after an express tour of the capital city, ended by a breathtaking race to catch the train AND fetch her luggage left in a lock at the bus station, we eventually arrived late in the night at Lanškroun.
Apres une premiere journee a Lanškroun consacrée a rencontrer Radka et Linda, a se familiariser avec bravoure avec la cuisine tcheque et a s´initier au billard et au bowling en compagnie de Radka et d´un Anglais ailé, nous sommes allés aujourdhui a Brno faire un petit tour. Ce qui m´a permis de faire les attractions que j´avais zappé les fois précédentes. Comme par exemple la Crypte des Capucins (photos) ou sont entreposés depuis le 17e siecle les cadavres de dizaines de nobles et religieux liés a l´église attenante. Comme l´air est tres sec dans ces caves, ils n´ont plus que la peau sur les os ! C´est glacant, bien plus que l´ossuaire de Kutna Hora ! Les cranes gardent encore les expressions de ces personnes au moment de la mort.
After a first day in Lanškroun devoted to discover Radka, Linda, to taste the unbelievable Czech kitchen (with a great courage i must say), to learn playing bowling and billiard at Pivovar, we made a little excursion today to Brno. Which enabled me to visit some landmarks i didnt have the opportunity to visit before. For example, as you will see on the pictures : the Capucins´Crypt, where are left dozens of corpses from people, nobles and religious ones, realted to the church, and kept in the dry and cold air of the ceilings, so that they remain in this... mummified state. Its creepy ! Even more than the Kutna Hora Bonehouse !
Et apres ca, je m´étonne que personne vienne me rendre visite ?
And after this, how could I be surprised that no one wants to come to Czech Republic ?
01 septembre 2007
VOTE FOR THE BEST BANNER !
I became aware (after 8 months!) that my blog lacked something crucial : A BANNER !What is a banner ? A personalized title, a little more visual and interesting than this sad 552 SOKOLSKA. So, here are 4 propositions. Votes and advices are welcome ! I will listen everyone, read anything, and if any artist wants to make me one... =)
J´ai pris conscience que mon blog manquait de quelque chose de crucial (qui a dit de talent ?) a savoir une BANNIERE ! C´est-a-dire une sorte d´en-tete personnalisée, un titre un peu plus joli que mon 552 SOKOLSKA, la-haut ! Donc vous trouverez ci-dessous quatre propositions... Les votes et les avis sont ouverts, laquelle mérite de figurer comme banniere ? Bien sur, si des artistes veulent se proposer pour m´en faire une, pourquoi pas !
First Proposition : The Postcard One
Second proposition : The Tube One
Third Proposition : The Bo-Bo One
Fourth Proposition : The Bucolic One
25 août 2007
UN PEU DE LECTURE / NOW READING...
It sometimes happen that we find ourselves interested from the first glance in complete strangers, even before we have spoken to them.
That indeed is why I drink, to find compassion and feeling in drink... I drink because I wish to multiply my sufferings!
These Schilleresque beautiful souls are always the same : up to the very last moment they hope for good and not for evil, and even if they have some misgivings that there is reverse side to the medal, they refuse to admit them even to themselves, they shrink from the very notion, they wave the truth away with both hands until the very moment when the over-idealized person appears in his true colours and cocks a snook at them.
Kill her, take her money, on condition that you dedicate yourself with its help to the service of humanity and the common good : dont you think that thousands of good deeds will wipe out one little, insignificant transgression ? For one life taken, thousands saved from corruption and decay ! One death, and a hundred lives saved in exchange - why, its simple arithmetic !
He felt that he had, in that moment cut himself from everybody and everything, as if with a knife.
The fact that I am in error shows that I am human. You will not attain to one single truth until you have produced at least fourteen false theories, and perhaps a hundred and fourteen, and that is honourable enough in its fashion. But we can´t even produce our errors out of our own heads. You can talk the most mistaken rubbish to me, and if it is your own, I will embrace you ! It is almost better to tell your own lies than somebody else´s truth : in the first case you are a man, in the second you are no better than a parrot !
The thought occured to him that it was when they are absent that he really loved them.
Eternity is always presented to us as an idea which it is impossible to grasp, something enormous, enormous ! But why should it be necessarily enourmous ? Imagine, instead, that it will be one little room, something like a bath-house in the country, black with soot, with spiders in every corner, and that that is the whole of eternity !
What must we do ? Demolish what must be demolished, once and for all, that is all, and take the suffering on ourselves ! What ? Dont you understand ? You will understand afterwards... freedom and power but above all power ! Power over all trembling creatures, over the whole ant-heap ! That is the goal ! Remember this !
He had joined the forces of progress and ´our younger generation´ out of conviction: He was one of that countless and multifarious legion of nondescripts, putrescent abortions, and uniformed obstinate fools who instantly and infallibly attach themselves to the most fashionable current idea, with the immediate effect of vulgarizing it and of turning into a ridiculous caricature any cause they serve.
´It is the duty of every man to develop others and disseminate propaganda, and perhaps the harsher one´s methods the better. I might throw out an idea, a seed... From that seed might grow something real´.
... that special pride of the poor which makes many poor people, in observing some of those social rites obligatory in our way of life for all and sundry, exert their utmost efforts and spend the last penny fo their savings, simply in order to make as good a showing as their neighbours and not be ´criticized´ by them.
You see, I kept on asking myself, ´Why am I so stupid that when other people are stupid and I know for a certainty that they are, I dont even want to be cleverer then they ?´ Then I realized that if we have to wait for everybody to become clever, it will take too long. Then I saw that it will never happen, that people don´t change, and nobody can change them, and its not worth the trouble of trying. (...) And I know, Sonya, that the man of strong and powerful mind and spirit is their master. The man who dares much is right in their eyes. The man who tramples on the greatest number of things is their law-giver, and whoever is most audacious is most certainly right. So things have always been, and so they will remain. Anyone who is not blind can see it.
I didnt commit murder in order to use the profit and power I gained to make myself a benefactor to humanity. Rubbish ! I simply murdered, I murdered for myself, for myself alone (...) And most important, it was not money that I needed, Sonya, when I killed, it was not money, so much as something else... Understand me : perhaps, were I to pursure the same course, I should not commit murder again. I needed to experience something different, something else was pushing me along : what I needed to find out then, and find out as soon as possible, was whether I was a louse like everybody else or a man, whether I was capable of stepping over the barriers or not. Dared I stoop and take power or not ? Was I a trembling creature or had I the right... ? ´
They destroy millions of people themselves, and count it a virtue !
A strange time began to Raskolnikov : it was as if a mist had fallen round him and enclosed him in unescapable and dreary solitude.
I am sure lots of people in St Petersbourg talk to themselves as they walk about. Its a town of half-crazy people. (...) There are few places which exercise such strange, harsh, and sombre influences on the human spirit as St Petersbourg.
I finally brought into play the greatest and most reliable means of subjugating a woman´s heart, which never disappoints anybody and always produces a decisive effect on every single woman, without exception. I mean, of course, flattery.
Never try to answer for what is between a husband and his wife, or a lover and his mistress. There is always one little corner which remains hidden from all the world, and is know only to the two of them.
´I am going to foreign parts, brother.´
´Foreign parts?´
´To America.´
´America?´
Svidrigaylov took out the revolver and cocked it.
If I had succeeded, I should have been crowned, but now I will fall into the trap !
What would he have to live for ? What could be his aim ? What should he strive for ? To live in order to exist ? But he had been ready a thousand times before ready to sacrifice his existence for an idea, a hope, even for a fancy. Mere existence had always meant little to him, he had always desired more. Perhaps it was just because of the strength of his desires that he had considered himself a man to whom was permitted more than the others.
He had dreamt in his illness that the whole world was condemned to fall victim to a terrible, unknown pestilence which was moving on Europe out of the depths of Asia. All were destined to perish, except a chosen few, a very few. (...) People who were infected immediately became like men possessed and out of their minds. But never, never had any men thought themselves so wise and so unshakable in the truth as those who were attacked.
He had joined
I read in English because there is no French section in Lanškroun library. But who cares with a Russian book ?
22 juillet 2007
CAMP D´ÉTÉ A PEKLO
Du 8 au 21 Juillet, j´ai participé au camp d´été de DDM ČESKA TŘEBOVÁ, un peu contre mon gré je dois dire, avec une cinquantaine d´enfants a gérer, en plein foret, sans electricité, ni eau courante, et juste une douche par semaine. On comprend donc mes réticences a me laisser entrainer dans cette aventure. Cependant, tout cela ce n´etait que de vains détails en comparaisons avec tous les problemes, toutes les tuiles qui ont eu lieu durant ces deux semaines. Problemes que je ne pouvais pas deviner.
From the 8th to the 21st of July, i was in DDM´s summer camp with 50 children. No electricity, only one shower per week. You can understand why i was not looking forward this ! Even if eventually, i couldnt guess the main problems which have happened.
DECOUVERTE DE PEKLO
Peklo, c´est le nom du petit village le plus proche du camp ou nous etions, a une trentaine de kilometres au nord de Lanškroun. Et ca signifie aussi ENFER en tcheque, ca ne s´invente pas. En enfer, comme j´ai pu le découvrir, il pleut aussi. Les cinq premiers jours nous n´avons vu que la grisaille, l´humidité, les nuages, et un fleuve de boue se développer lentement sous nos bottes (que je n´avais pas d´ailleurs). Sans compter que la pluie fait gonfler le niveau de la riviere qui longe le camp, et peut menacer de déborder comme cela est arrivé une fois.
Une charmante facon de faire connaissance avec son nouvel environnement, peut-etre plus dur encore pour les organisateurs (obligés d´adapter leur programme a la météo) et les volontaires (completement déprimés) que pour les enfants que pluie et boue n´ont jamais empechés d´aller jouer, bien au contraire !
The camp happened near the little village of Peklo, near the town of Vamperk, 30 km away from Lanškroun. And Peklo means also Hell in Czech language ! What i discovered is that in Hell it is also raining ! We had rain and storms the first five days, and saw mud spreading everywhere, and the level of the little quiet river steadily rise and threaten the border of the camp. A delightful way to meet our new way of life, more difficult though for the organizers than for the childrem, who have been afraid by rain and mud.
AU BOULOT
Dans ces cas la, il faut bosser, il faut s´occuper, mais pas la peine de dire que notre inexpérience des choses de la vie en camp n´arrangeait pas l´affaire. Il faut faire du feu, donc il faut couper du bois (et chopper des ampoules dans mon cas) et il faut allumer le bois qui est bien humide, donc beaucoup de fumée. Il faut ramasser les affaires humides des jeunes au matin pour les faire secher dans un sechoir improvisé. Avec le retour du soleil, il faut construire un sechoir a energie solaire (comprendre : un etendoir) avec quatre planches de bois totalement pourries. On donne un coup de main a la cuisine, on épluche les patates, on beurre les tartines, etc. L´ennui c´est qu´il n´y a pas assez de boulot pour quatre volontaires. Du coup on se marche un peu dessus, et sinon on s´ennuie ou on se la coule douce (cf. photo)
Mais la principale activité pour laquelle nous avions été recruté, cela consistait a organiser un jeu quelconque chaque matin pour réveiller les gamins. Une belle gageure comme nous nous en sommes vite apercu avec Zoé. Les enfants nous considerent vite comme un double ennui : d´une part parce que c´est nous qui les réveillons, et ensuite par qu´on devient aussitot un obstacle entre eux et le petit-déjeuner. Sans compter que notre niveau en Tcheque nous pose parfois probleme pour expliquer.
A part cela, on assiste comme on peut les jeux organisés tout au long de la journée, on prend des photos, on s´assure que les enfants ont bien rangés leur tente apres le repas, on joue avec eux au frisbee, ballon, football des qu´il y a un creux a boucher, et on s´échange les derniers potins.
My work and the work of the other volunteers consisted mainly in cutting woods (and having blisters), making fire to dry the wet clothes of the children after a night rain, to help in the kitchen to prepare the meals of the children and ours, and so on. But above all our main task was to organize a game each morning just after children´s waking up. Not as easy as it seems because the children quickly hated us : first because we wake them up, and then because they have to play reluctantly our game before to get their breakfast !
AMBIANCE !
L´ennui principale de ce camp, c´etait le manque d´organisation et de communication. Rien que pour nous autres, volontaires, c´etait déjá difficile d´exister a l´etat de fantomes. C´est a peine si on réussisait a tirer un bonjour, ou meme ne serait-ce qu´un sourire chaque matin de la part des autres membres de l´équipe. Mais ce comportement n´etait pas dirigé spécialement contre nous. Il révélait simplement un malaise bien plus profond au sein de l´équipe, et d´ailleurs je ne sais pourquoi je parle d´équipe, je n´ai jaimais constaté le moindre esprit de corps entre les organisateurs. Ne serait-ce qu´au repas de midi par exemple : chacun prend son assiette et va se trouver un coin pour manger, éparpillés un peu partout.
Le seul moment ou une vague camaraderie semble s´installer, c´est lors du feu de camp chaque soir au cours duquel on discute, on chante, joue de la guitare mais surtout au cours duquel ON BOIT !
Le comble du comble viendra dans la nuit du Vendredi 13 (brrrr!) au cours de laquelle, en plein feu de camp, un organisateur débarque et demande au reste de l´équipe de faire un peu moins de bruit. En meme pas cinq minutes, la tension accumulée toute la semaine explose et une discussion tres animée s´ensuit entre tous les membres de l´équipe et les volontaires écoutent et regardent, ébahis.
The main problem was a communication one. After a few days, we, volunteers, noticed that it was quite difficult to catch a good morning, a smile, a glance from the Czech organizers and team. We were like ghosts for them, as it seems, except when they had sthg for us to make. however, this was just a symptom of how everyone was in a mood. We can´t even talk of a team because there was no spirit. the only moment when a vague kind of friendship seem to arise was during the late night camp fire, where we talked, sang, and above all DRANK ! But the situation reached its main peak on Friday 13th when the whole team argued around the camp fire and for at least one hour they talked and talked and talked...
AUTRES PECCADILLES
Pour aller vite, autres tragédies du camp :
-pas facile de vivre dans une tente avec a coté de la sienne celle d´une petite fille qui pleure toutes les nuits apres sa maman !
-une crue soudaine emporte toutes les réserves de bieres qui rafraichissaient dans la riviere. C´est le pire qui pouvait arriver. Un pecheur aura une bonne surprise un de ces quatre !
-en pleine foret, lors d´un jeu de piste, une équipe (devinez quoi ? c´est la mienne!) tombe sur un nid de guepes. Six piqures pour l´une et deux pour un autre.¨
-un petit garcon se pete le bras
-la numéro 1 se choppe une diahrée fulgurante la veille du dernier jour et est évacuée a l´hopital.
-trois enfants découvrent tout étonnés que se pulveriser de l´anti-insecte dans le visage et la bouche c´est pas tres tres bon !
-un petit salopard prefere faire caca derriere les tentes plutot que d´aller tout au bout du camp dans les ´toilettes´installées la pour ca !
Others little tragedies : the little girl in the tent next to me crying each night after her mummy / a sudden flood of the river flushes out all the beers which were cooling in the river, the biggest tragedy of the whole two weeks / in woods, during a game, one team (my team) finds a bees nest. 6 stings for one girl and 2 for a boy / a little boy breaks his arm / the Number 1 of the camp catches a diahhrea just before the end of the camp and is driven to the hospital / three children discover that to spread insect repellent in face and mouth its not very good / a little bastard prefers to pooh behind the tents rather than going to the other side of the camp where are the official toilets.
BONS SOUVENIRS
Heureusement, il me restera quand meme de tres bons souvenirs de ce camp. Ne serait-ce déjá que les enfants ! J´ai particulierement sympathisé pour ma part avec deux petites filles : Anička (cf.photo) et Adelká, deux petites terreurs qui n´ont pas tardé a me transformer en leur martyr favori. Il y a eu aussi la sortie a Ratibořice, pour voir le Zamek/Chateau du XIXe siecle parfaitement bien conservé. Et puis il y avait aussi les autres volontaires avec qui travailler et rigoler : particulierement Zoé et Rianna. Merci a elles !
Et bien sur les feux de camp chaque soir... :-)
Fortunately, the best memories of this camp will be the children, who really adopted us. And for me, especially, i found a new family with Anička and Adelka, two little lovely bullies. I also enjoyed the excursion to Ratibořice and the XIXth century mansion which is worth seeing. And of course i loved being with the other volunteers, especially Zoé and Rianna. God Bless Them ! And of course, i loved the camp fire by night :)))
