Monday, October 08, 2007

Hello to everybody,

Even though Sarah said that all of you already know each other, there is always an exception. Well this time it would be me. I am an Erasmus student here in Padova and I will stay for this whole academic year. I suppose you wonder where I am from. I was born in Prague, CZ and have lived there for most of my life.

The picture I chose is supposed to represent my passion for traveling. Being a student it usually ends up just like in the picture..:)

I was thinking of some websites that could be useful for you but most of the ones I browse through are in Czech (sorry). Anyways being in Italy with very little knowledge of the Italian language I found this smart website, where you can translate anything in whatever language.
http://dictionary.reference.com/translate/
As a student of linguistics I have to stress the fact that the translation is rather rough, so don’t get too excited! It is great though when you want to know at least the idea of what the text you are looking at is talking about.

The second wesite that I use very often and you might be interested in is the skyeurope.com. The prices are simply amazing and you can get pretty much all over Europe!

If you'd like to meet other Erasmus students check out the Erasmus association in Padova . There are lot of activities organized for erasmus students which you can join as well and get to know people from all around Europe.

3 comments:

Caroline said...

Hi Nina,
you're from Prague? That's a wonderful city. I've been there several times.Last time was in 1998. But it has definitely changed a lot since then, doesn't it? I'm from Berlin but I've always been signed up here at the Padua university, so I'm not an Erasmus student. And, by the way, some of us might know each other because we have attended several lessons together throughout the years but as far as I'm concerned I don't know anyone in our group...so don't worry about that. Are you going to stay in Italy during the first semester only, or are you going to stay here until next summer? I came to Italy to do nine months of "Au Pair" (you know, that Babysitter program) and now I've been living here for 6 years. So be careful, once you love this country, you can get stuck here for much more time than you initially thought.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to see you in the lessons.
Caroline

Laura Zock said...

An Erasmus student in my group…it’s fantastic! Thanks to the Erasmus project I went to Vienna two years ago…it was the most beautiful experience I ever had, I’m sure it will be the same for you! Your picture is very nice because it exactly represents the needs of Erasmus students: good shoes to visit the city, a rucksack on your back for the essential things and (I add) great enthusiasm on each occasion!
If you need to practise or to improve your Italian I can help you…it would be a pleasure for me!

Crazy Journalist said...

hey Nina
i'm sorry i didn't leave you a comment before, i just didn't see your post: i search the blog for 'group k' and there were only Caroline's post, Laura's and mine. i'm really so sorry.

anyway, i think it's great that you're from Prague, it's a fantastic city, i've been there and i found it beaitiful and intreaguing, it just has so many levels, what with its mixed austro-hungarian + slavic background and all. and of course the jewish folklore and the fact that one of my top 10 favourite writers lived there (dear Franz Kafka, of course...!).

oddly enough, the best memory of the time i spent in Prague is about a cemetery, that is the cemetery were Kafka is buried. that was surreal. at the gates of the cemetery there was a small building. we went past the iron gates. a tiny old man came out and stopped us (i was there with 3 friends from the university actually... and i dont really know what happened to 2 of them now... i saw one this summer, he's in Spain finishing school... but what about the other two?..). he told us to wait. he went back inside the lodge and then came out with 3 kippas (only for the males, you know). he gave them to us and turned back. he's hard to describe, he looked so old. ancient would be more appropriate, only he was a human not a gargoyle. and yet...

well, that old cemetery janitor was as impressive as the place itself, as impressive as Kafka's grave. because i didn't expect that, i guess.

well ok.
sorry again for not leaving you any feedback before!