my zlin

Czech Effect

2010-03-06T13:13:00.000+01:00

On 19 March 2010, Turkish winds will blow all over Zlin. 4 young Turkish artists who studied and later on decided to live in Czech Republic are preparing a night containing illustrations, traditional prints, animations and audiovisual works. Talent of these young artists will be open to public for a limited time in Zlin. Moreover they are crowning this event with an special party where you can experience nice music with creative audiovisuals.

Actually Czech Effect is a one week exhibition which will take place in Galerie 12, Zlin starting from 19.03.2010 until 26.03.2010. But the peek point of this event will be the party on 19.03.2010. For more information about the exhibition and the party you can visit here.

If you want to see some Turkish style of art and mean time partying, this event will be the best choice. By the way, I will be there and waiting for you. So don’t miss this once in a year event.

Where is Galerie 12, Zlin

View Zlin Map in a larger map

Zlin from the Turkish Point of View

2010-03-03T13:58:00.002+01:00

Akile Nazlı Kaya is a talented Turkish animator who graduated from Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey in 2003. She continued her studies in Film School Zlin, Czech Republic and now working in Prague as a freelancer designer.

For us “Zlinners”, what makes her special is her short animation movies about Zlin and the life of foreigners in the Czech Republic. Her way of telling the stories and techniques she is using are brilliant. Especially her observations about people in Zlin and the places she used in her animations are easily recognizable by everyone who spent at least 2 weeks in Zlin.

Below you can see her movies and you can visit her vimeo page from here for more successful works of Nazlı.

Nazlı in Zlin (Lost in Translation)
This is a semi-autobiographical story about Nazli’s communication problems as a Turkish girl who arrived to Zlin (Czech Republic) without even knowing how to say 'hi' in Czech. It is her first cut-out animation.

Zlin Soup
A glance to Zlin which lived its golden age in the times of Tomas Bata where he established a world known shoe manufacturing company in this miserable town. The film questions 'why Zlin city is so strange?'

Official Selection Festival Animation de Annecy, 2008 (France), Best Short Film in 6th Green Film Festival in Seoul, 2009 (Korea). Best Short Animated Film in 19th Ankara Int. Film Festival 2009 (Turkey), Special Jury Price in International Film Festival for Children and Youth (Czech Republic), Special Jury Price in Early Melons Student Film Festival, 2008 (Slovakia)

Avrupa’ya En Uygun Para Transferi

2010-03-02T18:37:00.000+01:00

Avrupa’da yaşayan/yaşamak isteyen tüm Türk vatandaşlarının canını sıkan konulardan biri Türkiye’den Avrupa’ya yaptıkları para transferlerinde alınan yüksek işlem ücretleri ve komisyonlar. Maalesef, Türkiye Avrupa Birliği’ne üye olmadığı için bazı avantajlardan yararlanamamakta. Bunun üstüne Türk bankalarının aç gözlülüğüde eklenince ortaya çıkan sonuç pek iç açıcı değil.

Yurtdışında öğrenim veya çalışma gibi uzun süreli kalışınızı gerektiren durumlarda gittiğiniz ülkede sizin için en uygun gördüğünüz bankada hesap açmanız ve Türkiye’de ki hesabınızdan buraya transferlerinizi gerçekleştirmeniz en uygun yöntem-idi!

Örneğin 2008 senesinde Çek Cumhuriyeti’ne öğrenim için geldiğimde burada ki CSOB bankasında bir öğrenci hesabı açtırıp Türkiye’de ki İş Bankası öğrenci hesabımdan buraya transferlerimi yapıyordum. 1000 EUR’luk transfer için genelde 50 EUR’ya yakın bir komisyon+servis ücreti ödüyordum.

Bu süreç boyunca Paypal, Western Union vs. gibi çeşitli yolları da denememe rağmen en uygun çözüm bahsettiğim banka transferi idi.

Bildiğiniz gibi Yapı Kredi bankası bir müddet önce Uni Credito adlı İtalyan meşeli Avrupa’nın en büyük finans firmalarından birine satıldı. Bu satıştan sonra Yapı Kredi’nin adı aynı kalmasına rağmen aslında Uni Credit şubelerinden biri haline geldi. Tabii ki de bu satın alma biz müşterilere bazı avantajlarda getirmedi değil.

Universite Bankacılığı paketi altında Yapı Kredi’de açtıracağınız bir Vadesiz Öğrenci TL Hesabı ve size verecekleri bir World Play banka kartı ile Uni Credit’in Avrupa’da 16 ülkede bulunan 15.000’i aşkın ATM’sinden HİÇBİR ÜCRET VE KOMİSYON ÖDEMEDEN para çekebilirsiniz.

Ben bu hizmetten yaklaşık 6 aydır yararlanmaktayım. Şimdiye kadar 5 transfer gerçekleştirdim ve gerçekten hiçbir transferimden herhangi bir servis ücreti ve komisyon alınmadı.

YAPI KREDİ ÜNİVERSİTE BANKACILIĞI
- Yapi Kredi Üniversite Bankacılığı hizmetlerinden yararlanmak istiyorsanız 18-26 yaş aralığında üniversite okuyan bir öğrenci olmanız gerekmekte.

- Yurtdışında üniversite okuyan öğrenciler öğrenciliklerini kanıtlamak için;
Yurtdışında okudukları üniversiteden üzerinde kaç yıl o okulda okuyacaklarını belirten kabul belgesi (daha öğrenime başlamadılar ise) veya öğrenci belgesi (hali hazırda öğrenci iseler) almalı ve yeminli bir tercümana Türkçe’ye çevirtmeliler.(Noter onayı aranmamakta.)

- Yapı Kredi Üniversite Bankacılığı;
Vadesiz TL Hesabı (Hesap İşletim Ücreti alınmıyor)
World Play Club Kredi Kartı (Yıllık Kredi Kartı aidatı yok ancak Klüb üyeliği adı altında 10 TL alınıyor)
World Play Banka Kartı’ndan oluşuyor.

Sistem nasıl çalışıyor:
Yapı Kredi’de açtığınız Vadesiz TL hesabınıza örneğin 1000TL (siz yurtdışına çıktıktan sonra aileniz sizin hesabınıza hiçbir ücret ödemeden Yapi Kredi ATM’lerinden veya hesabınızın bulunduğu bankadan para yatırabilir) yatırıyorsunuz ve sonra yurtdışına çıkıyorsunuz. Gittiğiniz ülkede ki en yakın Uni Credit ATM’sine World Play Banka kartınızı sokup örneğin bana 50 EUR (veya gittiğiniz ülkenin para birimi ne ise, Çek Cumhuriyeti’nde Çek Kronu) ver diyorsunuz.

ATM 50 EUR’yu önce USD’ye (Amerikan Dolarına) Visa Europe’un o anki kurundan çeviriyor (Visa Europe’un kurları gayet iyi, ne az ne çok). Daha sonra çıkan USD meblağını, Yapı Kredi o anki kendi kurundan TL’ye çevirip Vadesiz TL hesabınızdan düşüyor.

Bütün bunlar olurken hesabınızdan ne servis ücreti ne de komisyon masrafı alınıyor. Tek alengirli nokta Yapi Kredi’nin o an ki kuru. Genelde kafalarına göre piyasadan 3 veya 5 Kuruş daha yüksek $ kuru kullandıkları için belli bir kaybınız oluyor ancak banka transferi seçeneğine göre çok daha karlı çıkıyorsunuz.

Bütün bunların maliyeti size yıllık 10 TL, o da dediğim World Play Kredi Kartı’nın klüb ücreti. Onun dışında hiçbir masrafınız olmuyor. Eğer Avrupa’da okuyor ve para transferi için en uygun yöntemi arıyorsanız şu an için piyasada benim bulabildiğim en uygun seçenek Yapı Kredi’nin Üniversite Bankacılığı gözükmekte.

Avrupa’da bulunan Uni Credit ATM listesine buradan ulaşabilirsiniz.
Yapi Kredi Üniversite Bankacılığı hakkında resmi bilgiye ise buradan ulaşabilirsiniz.

Uni Credit Zlin’de Nerede:
Cepkov (Kaufland)’a doğru giderken tren yolunu geçmeden önce Zlin’deki tek Uni Credit şube ve ATM’sine ulaşabilirsiniz.

View Zlin Map in a larger map

ICQ (Czech Way of Chatting)

2010-02-17T20:29:00.000+01:00

When i first came to the Czech Republic 1.5 year ago, i was so surprised by the domination of ICQ in the Czech instant messaging (IM) market. On my first days in CR, i have realized that, whomever i met were always giving his/her ICQ UIN as a main contact information.

This situation actually reminds me the old days in Turkey when usage of internet wasn’t used widely. Between the years 1998 – 2003, ICQ was the most popular IM software in whole Turkey. Actually it had 2 major features, the first one was the ability to search and find someone over the advanced search engine which was a part of the software. At that times due to the fact that social networking wasn’t developed as today, using ICQ was the best way to find someone to chat and meet over internet.

The second significant feature of ICQ was its special Unified Identification Number (UIN) system. According to this system, ever new ICQ registrant was given an UIN, with which he can login to the ICQ. UIN was something like a private ID number of every ICQ user. As i remember some people were even publishing this number on their business cards as a communication option.

Everything was good until 2004. I don’t know what happened and how it happened but in 6 months most of the Turkish internet users stopped using ICQ. It was kind a weird but it exactly happened like that. Suddenly people started to use MSN Messenger (now known as Windows Live Messenger) and since that time Microsoft is the only leader of the Turkish IM market.

With the clever marketing and localization strategies of Atlas.cz, ICQ is still the most popular IM in CR. Sudden boom in Czech Facebook users in 2009, ICQ make a clever move and with its new version ICQ 7, it integrated Facebook feeds and contact list to the software. I think this will prevent them losing users for a certain time, but i think the future of IM softwares -including ICQ- doesn’t look pleasant. With the developments in Facebook chat and services such as Twitter it seems like there won’t be any need for IM software in near future.

By the way, the new version of ICQ –ICQ 7- was released on January 2010. You can download the English version from here directly. If you want to see the new features of the software or if you want the ICQ 7 in another language (including Czech, Turkish, Russian etc.) you can click here.

Elections to The Academic Senate of Tomas Bata University in Zlin, 2010

2010-02-14T18:48:00.000+01:00

Now it’s the time to raise your voice! Academic Senate elections of Tomas Bata University in Zlin will be held between the dates 15-19 February 2010 in various buildings of university. For we students the most important part of this election is the part where we can vote for representatives of our faculties. For example in FHS (Faculty of Humanities) we have 2 major programmes;

Philology (Filologie)
English for Business Administration (Angličký jazyk pro manažerskou praxi)
German for Business Administration (Německý jazyk
pro manažerskou praxi)
Specialization in Pedagogy (Specializace v pedagogice)
Social Pedagogy (Sociální pedagogika)

I hear you say “So what?!”. Academic Senate is the place where all the discussions about the future of university, professors and we students are taking place. For this reason, it’s very important to have a representative of our programme English for Business Administration (Angličtina pro Manažerskou Praxi) in the senate. This time there are 3 candidates from our programme and they are all first year students. Hana Chronkova, Jakub Laska and Vojtech Prazma and there is one candidate from German for Business Administration (Německý jazyk pro manažerskou praxi) Alena Boukalova.

Elections will take place in every faculty between 15-19 February 2010. Here i am only giving the information when and where you can vote for student representatives of FHS.

Date	Time	Room #	Building
15-16 Feb 2010	09:00 - 16:00	237	U2
17 Feb 2010	09:00 – 16:00	321	U10

You have to vote for 4 candidates, so don’t forget to choose the names i mentioned above. Every single vote is important! Each faculty sends maximum 2 students to the senate. Due to the fact that Social Pedagogy students are so crowded, even when the half of them vote, they are always taking all these 2 seats in the senate. Now we have the chance to change this situation.

One seat in Academic Senate can change a lot of things. As all you know we have some problems with scholarships and tuition fees nowadays -because of these damn crises-. Also the master’s degree programme of our bachelor’s programme will be opened or not, isn’t clear yet. So our representative can revive such topics at senate and maybe some things can change.

P.S: I don’t know if you ERASMUS students can vote or not. But i think because you are considered as exchange students and still registered to your home university, it is not possible for you to vote.

Yes we foreign students can vote and should vote if we want our voice to be heard about scholarships and tuition fees.

Selection of Czech Music no.2

2010-02-05T17:47:00.000+01:00

Wohnout

Wohnout is one of the famous rock bands in Czech Republic. They released their debut album Cundalla in 1999. Wohnout is not famous just with their songs but also with their interesting video clips. Here i am bringing you one of these videos called “Rayda”. Video belongs to the year 2004 and tells us a strange story of old guys who wants to transform their wife's into young and beautiful ladies in a laboratory, but unfortunately not everything go as they planned and… just watch it :)

Krystof (Kryštof)

Krystof is a pop-rock band led by front singer Richard Krajco. Until now they released 5 studio, 1 live concert and a best of album. I think their success comes form the unique and smooth voice of the front vocal. Today I chose one of their best known songs “Zeny (Women)”. Unfortunately due to the damn copyright sh*t of EMI i can’t show you the video of the song, but i think audio is still enough to understand the emotions in the song. By the way actually song ends in 03.25, so don’t wait until the end :)

You can reach Selection of Czech Music no.1 from here.

The Foreign Nationals Integration Support Center in Zlin (Center na podporu integrace cizinců ve Zlíně)

2010-01-28T17:32:00.000+01:00

On 1st of July 2009 Czech Republic launched various integration support centers for foreign nationals in cities Zlin, Pardubice, Plzen and Ostrava.

Main aim of these centers are to support the integration of 3rd nation citizens to Czech Republic and to minimize their problems with social insurance company, foreign police etc.

As i experienced already in Zlin, if you can’t speak Czech it’s really hard for you to communicate with the officers at foreign police and other governmental institutions. If you have to visit one of these institutions it’s always better first to check the foreign support center in your city to get information in English. Officers of these centers are giving you the list of documents you have to prove or they are accompany you for your visit to foreign police or at least they are calling and informing foreign police about your situation beforehand.

If you go for the first time one of these centers, they want you to fill in an information form for their database. It’s a simple form which asks your identity, accommodation and residence permit type. By the way, only the holders of long term residence permit and permanent residence permit can benefit from the services of these centers. So don’t mix it up with long term visa (D or D+C). If you have this type of visa unfortunately these centers can –maybe- give you a free internet access (when you need) from their offices, but nothing more.

Also these centers are giving free of charge legal consultations with the help of voluntary lawyers. If you have some problems with your employer or with your social security company, or if you want to get detailed information about the regulations on visa and residence permits, these lawyers are there to answer your questions.

Another positive thing about these centers is, they have free of charge Czech courses for foreigners. In Zlin for instance, i am attending to the “Elementary” level course and it really helps. When you finish the course successfully they are giving you a certificate which shows that you have attend to the course and you have a specific knowledge level in Czech language. Of course this certificate is not the one which you should have when you are applying for permanent residence permit, but still it can help you a lot when you are applying for a job which requires knowledge of Czech language.

The officers of the Zlin branch are so kind and helpful. They are really trying to help you and solve your problem. I hope they will keep on working like this and we will see much more events organized by them on following days.

Centrum na podporu integrace cizinců ve Zline
The Foreign Nationals Integration Support Center in Zlin

View Zlin Map in a larger size

Address: Lorencova 3791 760 01 Zlín

tel./fax: +420 577 018 651

e-mail: iczlin@suz.cz

Working days and hours
Mon 12:00 - 19:00

Tue (Not open to the public)

Wed 12:00 - 19:00

Thu 8:00 - 12:00

Fri 8:00 - 12:00

I will finish my post with the drawings of Czech students about foreign students in their classes. As you will see, little kids are much more open minded then their parents when it comes to the foreigners : )

Weekend Skiing in Ramzova, Czech Republic

2010-01-25T21:15:00.002+01:00

This weekend i was skiing –at least trying- for the first time in my life. In Turkey we have many places to ski such as Uludag and Palandoken but i never have chance to try it. When my classmate Klara and her boyfriend David invited me and Hana for such a nice trip, we didn’t refuse it of course. On the way, David’s brother and her girlfriend and on the second day one more couple who is David’s friends joined us too.

On Friday we left Zlin and thanks to our professional driver David, who can drive without any problem on snow, we arrived ski area Ramzova on time. (Zlin to Ramzova takes aprox. 2.15 hours). Ramzova is just one of the ski areas on the north-east of Czech Republic. During our trip we stayed at Hotel Skiland in a room where all 8 of us were together. Our room was furnished with bunks and it has it’s own bathroom. I have to say that, hotel was quite, clean and warm. The only problem was the waitress in the restaurant. She was so much problematic and didn’t served us properly. Apart then her, everything was nice actually.

On Saturday we all wear our ski clothes at 12:00 o’clock and thanks to Klara, she borrowed David’s waterproof ski pants, boots and equipments to me. So i didn’t need to pay for these things but unfortunatelly Hana didn’t have required equipments so in Ramzova, from “Ski School Envy” she rent whole ski set (boots, ski and poles) for 300CZK for a day. –By the way on Sunday we discovered that near our hotel there was another rental shop which rents the same equipments for 220CZK” for a day but it’s little bit far to Ramzova ski area, so if you don’t have a car it can be a problem to carry them.-

When i started to ski for the first time, i fall down aprox. 15 times in 1 hour and maybe i skied only 200 meters in total. But when i decided to ski without poles i managed to stand and ski properly. I realized how delightful is this sport and immediately i figured out why most Czechs have these long extra trunks on top of their cars. After skiing 2 hours i have to admit that it’s really a tiring sport. When you are skiing down the hill it’s perfect but until that time, the preparation and walking until the lift is really killing you –especially if you are a lazy potato like me-.

For the lift which takes you up you can pay 25CZK per ride or you can buy a daily ticket which costs 200CZK. Also the prices of cafeterias and restaurants in Ramzova ski area wasn’t so high. You can eat 200g schnitzel with French fries just for 125CZK in a restaurant or you can drink nice Czech beer 30CZK for 0.5l. If you are looking for some snacks you can try hot dog just for 20CZK.

On Sunday, due to a problem in David’s brother’s car, we had to ski on the hill Osruzna, 300 metres far from our hotel instead of going Ramzova. The biggest difference between Ramzova and this hill was the gradient and the icy surface. In Ostruzna due to the icy surface it is so hard to brake and stop. Also because the hill is so vertical it’s giving you so much speed and when you don’t know how to ski properly this makes you fear. Moreover the lift which takes you up was in a button lift style. You can see an example of this type of lift from here. On the opposite, in Ramzova the lift was in the chairlift style. So it was much more easy to go up the hill. When you add all these together, i can say that if you are a beginner it’s better for you to visit Ramzova then Ostruzna.

So if you wonder how i skied in Ostruzna if it wasn’t suitable for beginners, my answer is Kids Area:)It was some special ski area at the beginning of the hill with its own small lift. So for 2 hours i skied there like a kid and at the end of the day i was almost dead because of so much falling and standing up.

The only good thing in Ostruzna was the prices. Almost everything was much more cheaper then in Ramzova. For example in Ostruzna you can get a hot dog just for 18CZK and you can use the lift for 10CZK for each ride.

On the way back from Ostruzna to our hotel we skied through the streets for 300 meters. I think it was the best part of the day.

After two tiring days, finally i am at home as one piece without any broken legs. I was expecting that skiing could be expensive and so hard to learn, but this weekend thanks to all my friends that i saw it is not something so scary or so much expensive. If you have limited budget and time, i can recommend you to get together with your friends and visit Czech mountains on the north-east of the country.

Worst Toilets of Czech Republic

2010-01-21T16:15:00.000+01:00

Brno Main Railway Station (Brno hl. n.) has the worst toilets in whole Czech Republic says Novinky.cz news portal. Results of the public questionnaire held by Mr. Tester.cz –a website where people can vote for certain surveys- shows that Brno Main Train Station is followed by Masaryk Train Station in Prague and other train stations such as Mladá Boleslav and Breclav.

People in questionnaire could vote for any worst toilet, but the first places in chart belongs to those "railway ones". Toilets in trains also didn't end well. Among the worst ones, toilets on Říp Mountain and toilets in Nový Smíchov shopping center in Prague attract attention.

People mind mostly dirtiness, but also short opening times and in some cases high prices like in main train station in Prague where toilets are completely renovated, but very expensive.

According to the Mr. Tester’s questionnaire,
List of the worst toilets in Czech Republic:
1) Brno Main Train Station (Brno hl. n.)
2) Florenc Bus Station in Prague
3) Toilets in Říp Mountain in Litomerice
4) Prague Main Train Station (Praha hl. n.)
5) Masaryk Train Station in Prague
6) Nový Smíchov in Prague
7) Toilets in TESCO Hradec Králové
8) Olomouc City Centrum
9) Karlovy Vary Bus Terminal
10) Břeclav Train Station

Public speaker of Czech Railways (Ceske Drahy) said that she's not happy with the results and Brno + Breclav Main Train Stations will be repaired as soon as possible. She pointed out that these toilets are also usually the target of vandals. Spokeswoman continued her words:

The level of our toilets match with the quality of our nation and its relation to public services but we should realize that in our towns there're no public toilets so train station toilets usually stands for public use. The common people we can find on our toilets are homeless, drunk or addicted people.

The questionnaire started last July and voted by 3000 people. From this amount, 1.300 voter consider the situation of Brno Mail Train Station toilets the worst.

Thans to Hana Urbankova for her translation.

Charles Bridge (Karluv Most) and “The Egg Legend”

2010-01-19T18:46:00.000+01:00

When i was in Prague for the last time, i wanted to take a short sightseeing tour on a bus. There are 4-5 companies in Prague which organize such excursions. I preferred “Premiant City Tour” company's “Prague in Brief” tour. It is a short bus tour which lasts 1 hour and 200 CZK for one person (250 CZK for adults).

Tour includes nearly all must seen places of Prague such as Old Town, New Town, Lesser Town and Jewish Town. In bus they are giving you a headphone from which you can choose your language. Company offers you 26 languages which include Turkish too.

When we were travelling through the streets of beautiful Prague city, story of Charles Bridge started to be told on our headphones. The most interesting part of it was, according to the legend when Charles Bridge (Karluv Most) was being built, a lot of egg was used in it’s construction to make it more stronger and last longer.

Also again according to the legend it was compulsory at that time that all the villages of Czech Kingdom should send some amount of egg every month to support the building of the bridge. The funny thing was, one Czech village misunderstood the order and sent boiled eggs. Of course this misunderstanding gave a lot of fun for the people of Prague.

Yesterday, according to Novinky.cz news portal, this legend was just a “legend”. It has nothing to do with reality. So –thanks to Hana- here is the basic translation of the article.

Through the years, specialists found out some eggs in the mortar (cement) of the bridge, but according to the recent research, it’s proved that just 80 eggs was used in the construction. In other words, the number of eggs are so little that, it can be seen as the pieces dropped from workers meals when they are eating their launch.

After several years of research, material used for construction of the bridge was named as roman mortar which's receipt considered as lost until today. According to the recently found receipt, the mixture includes silicate, carbonate and water, like the ones used in ancient Rome.

This type of mortar is very firm and modern. It’s structure resembles today’s light construct cement which is used on oil platforms in oceans. If you add egg into this type of mixture it can lose it’s perfect strength and stiffness. As we can see on Charles Bridge, it stands there for 6 centuries and as strong as it’s first day. So this proves that “egg” legend was just a legend.

Czech Health System and Pharmacies for foreigners (Poliklinika in Zlin)

2010-01-18T16:52:00.000+01:00

Last week i had to visit a dermatologist in Zlinska Poliklinika due to some problems i have with my skin. Nearly for 1.5 month my legs are scratching every night –nearly one hour- before i go sleep and I do not have any trace of pimples or problem on my skin.
For this reason i have decided to visit a doctor and i checked the list of English speaking doctors which Ms. Blahova gave to us. In that list the only dermatologist was MUDr. Svetlana Necasova who works in Poliklinika in Zlin.

By the way Poliklinika is some type of day hospital for non-emergency situations. Doctors from every field have small clinics where they accept patients on the basis of appointment. Poliklinika can be found on the way to Musicland and most of the doctors working there have an agreement with PVZP insurance company too.,

Of course when it comes to arrange an appointment over phone, as a foreigner you do not have a lot of chance. When you call the doctor, a nurse who is working near her answers and arranges your appointment and as i can see from my experiences none of the nurses can speak English. So in this case you have two options; either you will ask one of your Czech speaking friends to call and take an appointment for you, or you will go there without any appointment and you will try your chance. Phone numbers and working hours of each doctor can be found on the website of Zlinska Poliklinika. (Just choose ODDELENI from the menu on the left and click to the doctor whose information you want to see.)

I chose the second option and went there on last Monday. I found the doctors clinic easily -It was on the second floor- and started to wait for nurse. When the nurse came she asked if i have any appointment and when she understood that i do not have any appointment she told me that i have to come on Friday. She gave me an appointment card on which doctors phone and the date/time of my appointment was written. (Of course whole this conversation with nurse was done with my awful Czech and i succeed, so never give up!)

Although it was written 11:30 on my appointment card when i went there on Friday, nurse accepted me on 12:00. (I am used to it from Turkey so no problem.) First of all doctor was speaking so basic English and she told that my PVZP insurance covers only emergency situations.

In Czech Republic emergency has another meaning for foreigners. They consider your situation is urgent when your head exploded or when you have a heart attack etc.. If you have a flu or some important dermatological problems like me, you do not have much chance. Either you have to pay or you have to insist that your situation is urgent. Of course I insisted that my situation is urgent and i told that i can’t sleep because of it. After this, doctor approved that my situation as emergency and examined me but still i wasn’t sure if she got me right or not. So i called Hana and she talked with doctor in Czech and explained my problem. After this phone call everything was OK. She prescribed me the medicines and at the end of half an hour, i finally left her room.

It was strange that she didn’t took 30 CZK (1.25 EUR) from me. In Czech Republic even if you are a Czech citizen when you visit a doctor you have to pay 30 CZK service fee. But this doctor, she didn’t took money from me.

When i went to the pharmacy i knew that i have to pay for my medicines from my pocket, because of my shitty cheap PVZP insurance which doesn’t cover pharmacy expenses. But that day i also noticed that also pharmacies are taking 30 CZK service fee as well as doctors.
Now i can hear that you are saying “So what? 30 CZK is nothing. Don’t be so penny-pincher.” Yes you are right but the problem is doctors can prescribe just 2 medicines into 1 prescription. So this means that if your doctor writes you 6 medicines, he needs to write them into 3 different recipe. So when you go to pharmacy to buy these medicines you have to pay 30x3=90 CZK as service fee to the pharmacy for nothing. I had 2 recipes, so i paid 60 CZK to pharmacy plus the fee of medicines.

Anyway, after paying so much money, surprisingly i feel myself better. My advice to you is, instead of going doctor to find a cure to your health problems, go and spend that money in a pub. It’s more entertaining and less expensive then to visit a doctor in CR.

Foreign Police in Zlin

2010-01-16T16:38:00.000+01:00

If you are a 3rd nation citizen -I hate to use this term but it’s the official name for foreigners whose coming from non-EU countries- after you arrive Zlin for the first time you have to visit foreign police within 3 days with required documents and you have to declare your accommodation in Zlin.

The problem is, for newcomers it’s little bit tricky to find the way to FP. Here i will try to give a brief explanation on how to find the Foreign Police in Zlin.

Foreign Police (Cizinecka Policie) is located on Pod Vrškem 5360 762 48 Zlín. Best way to reach there is to use trolleybuses number 3 or 13. So that you won’t need to climb the hill. You can get on these trolleybuses from Skolni stop on the opposite side of Student Agency office on Stefanikova street. You have to get off from trolley on the Lazy Skola stop.

Then all you have to do is to walk little bit and find the street named Pod Vrskem. Then on the middle of the street you will see Foreign Police.

Refectory (Menza) of Tomas Bata University in Zlin

2010-01-14T15:11:00.000+01:00

Tomas Bata University has 2 refectories. One is in building U5 where Faculty of Technology (FT) can be found and the other is in building U4 where a part of Faculty of Multimedia Communications (FMK) is residing. Apart then these two refectories a small cafeteria can be found in building U2 where Faculty of Management and Economics (FaME) and Faculty of Humanities (FHS) are located.

Actually if you want to eat cheap and good food without having a onion smell on you, you should prefer the restaurant in U13. It has the same meals of U4 refectory but in a better place and without the smell of onion.

If you want more choices in your meal U4 refectory is the best solution. Everyday they are serving 2 or 3 types of pizza and wide range of meals. The only problem with U4 refectory is it’s awful smell and crowd. But if you go there after 13:00 o’clock you won’t see any crowd but also no food. :)

When you compare with restaurants around the Zlin, prices of refectories in Zlin are perfect. A huge pizza almost costs 50.00 CZK or a plate of meal costs 30.00 CZK for instance. Same type of pizza generally costs 80.00 CZK outside of the refectory.

Here is some photos from refectory in U4:

List of Insurance Companies Accepted by Czech Foreign Police and PVZP

2010-01-13T15:46:00.000+01:00

When you want to extend your Czech Long Term Residence Permit (Dlouhodobému Pobytu) you have to submit a health insurance policy which covers the length of your planned stay in Czech Republic (CR).

In 2009, Czech government updated the list of insurance companies accepted by Czech Foreign Police (CFP). Before there were some companies arranging health insurances for 1.500 CZK for a year and they were accepted by CFP too. Of course these type of insurances were just for procedure and they didn’t have any validity when you had to visit hospital. So for this reason i think the list is updated and such companies removed from it.

Me and most of my friends are using Pojistovna VZP (PVZP).
PVZP is the only governmental company in the list. As i know it has the widest coverage in CR. This means that most of the doctors and hospitals accepting it without any problem.
1 year Basic Medical Insurance is the best solution for students offered by PVZP. It costs aprox. 5.000 CZK and it covers only emergency situations. I think it’s the cheapest and the most popular health insurance among the foreigners living in CR. Also it is valid in whole countries of Schengen area. This means that when you will travel from CR to France lets say, you do not need to arrange a travel insurance.

The only problem with PVZP is, in Zlin they do not have an agreement with Bata’s Hospital (Batova Nemocnice). It’s the biggest and the only well equipped hospital in Zlin and with this insurance company you can’t use their services. Instead of this they are advising you to go Atlas Hospital (near the building 21) or incase of emergency Uherske Hradiste Hospital (It’s aprox. 45 minutes by car from Zlin!).

Imagine that a car hit you and they put you an ambulance and taking you to Bata’s Hospital. On the way you should wake up and warn the driver of the ambulance that your PVZP insurance doesn’t have an agreement with Bata’s Hospital so for this reason they should take you to Uherske Hradiste Hospital.
So to do this, either you have to be able to speak or you have to wear a t-shirt under your shirt on which it’s written ‘TAKE ME TO UHERSKE HRADISTE HOSPITAL’. Otherwise you have to cover all the expenses in Bata’s Hospital.

Anyway still PVZP looks like the best solution but if you are not satisfied you have always plenty of other choices. Here you can find the list of insurance companies accepted by Czech Foreign Police.

Pojistovna VZP (PVZP)
http://www.pvzp.cz/cs/

ACE European Group
http://www.aceeurope.cz/ACEEuropeRoot/ACECzechRepublic

AIG Europe (Chartis Insurance)
http://www.chartisinsurance.com/_878_208253.html

AXA Zivotni Pojistovna
http://www.axa.cz/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabId=-1&chosenMenuItem=5

Ceska Pojistovna ZDRAVI
http://www.zdravi.cz/

CSOB Pojistovna
http://www.csobpoj.cz/

GENERALI Pojistovna
http://www.generali.cz/

KOMERCNI Pojistovna
http://www.komercpoj.cz/cz/

KOOPERATIVA Pojistovna (Vienna Insurance Group)
http://www.koop.cz/

MAXIMA Pojistovna
http://www.maxima-as.cz/

MONDIAL Assistance
http://www.mondial-assistance.cz/cz/aboutus/homepage.htm

Pojistovna CARDIF pro VITA
http://www.cardif.cz/

Pojistovna CESKE SPORITELNY
http://www.pojistovnacs.cz/

PRVNI AMERICKO – CESKA Pojistovna (AMCICO)
http://www.amcico.cz/

SLAVIA Pojistovna
http://www.slavia-pojistovna.cz/

UNIQA Pojistovna
http://www.uniqa.cz/uniqa_cz/

VIKTORIA VOLKSBANKEN Pojistovna
http://www.victoria.cz/

VITALITA Pojistovna (CESKA PRUMYSLOVA ZDRAVOTNI POJISTOVNA)
http://www.cpzp.cz/main/index.php

WUSTENROT Pojistovna
http://www.wuestenrot.cz/

2009 Christmas (Vanoce) and Stepan

2010-01-12T16:06:00.001+01:00

As all you know, we Turks don’t have any Christmas. We only celebrate new year. Some of you who has already visited Turkey on December maybe noticed that we have pine trees as you have all around, but actually it’s just a lame attempt of shopping centers and some people who wants to celebrate upcoming ‘new year’ in a western style.
Actually these trees doesn’t have anything to do with Christmas. They are just connected with new year and celebrations for this. Also most of the Turks believe that Santa Claus is coming to the house of people on the 1st morning of the new year, not on Christmas. So whole this tree and Santa stuff is connected to new year in Turkey (just for some people).

In Czech Republic as i can see nearly whole population celebrates Christmas. Even if they are atheists they consider Christmas as a time of the year when whole family should be together and give presents each other when they are sitting around the Christmas tree and they are doing this on 24th of December.

By the way as i learned, real Czech Christmas tree should be without any lighting or decoration but i haven’t seen any single tree according to this tradition. Now whole Czechs are lightning and decorating their trees as much as they can.

Czechs are eating a fish called capr –which contains a lot of small bones inside- on Christmas dinner. The one i ate was really delicious and well cooked (as you can see from the photos).

In Czech Republic night of December 26 is called Stepan. It symbolizes the end of national Christmas , but for young Czechs (especially in Moravia) it means the day of drinking!. In Uhersky Ostroh all the pubs were full of young people who wants to drink as much as they can and because we didn’t reserve a seat in our favorite pub Osmek, we had to go to the main square and start the night there. Here is the photos from Stepan with my friends.

Prague (Yes! Again.)

2010-01-11T19:34:00.001+01:00

Again we were in Prague to deliver some documents to Turkish Embassy. This time we decided to stay 2 nights and to see as much as we can. But on the first day my camera broke down and it just let me take photos at night. It was really weird.

Because it was cold –actually we were lucky it wasn’t snowing- we changed our plan little bit and shorten our trips. So in this trip we travelled nearly all guard towers of Prague (of course the ones which are open to public).

We were there on 28-29 December nights and i can say that this period is called TOP HIGH SEASON. This means stay at your home/dorm and do not travel. Prices of hostels and hotels were doubled and it was so hard to find a free place. We found ‘Old Time Hotel’ and it was really a nice experience. Price for a ROOM for 2 people (bathroom and kitchen inside) was 800CZK without breakfast for one night and location of the hotel was very well. It was in 5 minutes walking distance to I.P. Pavlova Metro station and 3 minutes to Tram stop –it was a stop where one of the night trams is also passing, so it’s a good place for clubbers who wants to enjoy until late night-.

If you want to visit Prague, aprox. from January 5 until the beginning of April is the lowest season in hotels but do not forget that most of the time it’s damn cold!

As i told sorry for the low resolution and blurry photos. On June when i will visit Prague again this time i will be there with my new camera and i’ll record nice HD scenes.

A Brief History of English Literature (especially for E/BRLI students in Tomas Bata University)

2010-01-10T00:51:00.000+01:00

Here you can find my notes from EBRLI lessons. I tried to eliminate all the useless sh*t. I hope all these information will be enough cos i really don't know what we should study more.
If you have any questions or comments or if you find some mistakes please leave a comment. Wish you all good luck on the exam.

OLD ENGLISH (5th – 11th) (600 – 1100)

Mainly it was oral.
Themes were mostly battles, natural disasters, religion, hard daily life and monsters etc.
Kenning: Special way of naming things (swan road = sea, bone house – human body)
Alliteration: Use of the same consonant sounds at the beginning of each word following each other. (Dusk Demands Daylight)

BEOUWOLF
Features:
Easy to remember story because it was using;
Verse, Rhythm, Pattern, Alliteration and Kenning (NOTE! Beowulf wasn’t rhymed!)
Old Heroic Epic Poem.
It was an oral story.
Later transferred onto a goat skin by literate Christian priests.
Actual it was a pagan poem at the beginning, but when Christian priests are writing it down, they added Christian elements to it.
Beowulf is a mixture of Christianity, Paganism and Mystics.

Main characters:
Beowulf (Gaet warrior from Gaetland)
Grendel (monster, living in a cave and eating King Hrothgar’s people)
King Hrothgar (Danish king, whose people attacked by Grendel)

CAEDMON’S HYMN (CAEDMON)
Earliest English Poet.

OTHER WORKS/ARTISTS FROM OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE:

WANDERER: Old English Poem from the times Anglo-Saxons are turning into Christians. Wanderer is a warrior who loses his lord. Poem tells us how it was important at that time relationship between lord and his men.

SEAFARER: Old English Poem with the theme ‘Life is shaped by fate’.

ALFRED THE GREAT:
King of Wessex who fought against Vikings.
He wrote books about history of his people.
Because he literate he read the ancient Roman books and learned new war tactics and defeated Vikings.
He made reformation in education, arts and administrative things.
He wanted to be buried into a garden where rain drops can fall on his grave. But they buried him into a cathedral. Then a rain started and lasted 40 days until they carry his grave into a garden.

MIDDLE ENGLISH (11th – 15th Century) (1066 – 1485)

Started with French – Norman attack in 1066. Lasted until the end of War of Roses in 1485
at the beginning Courtly Love stories was popular but then satirical poems against church started to be popular.

CANTERBURY TALES (GEOFFREY CHAUCER)
it was written late 14th century. (Maybe 1372) and never completed.
It’s a social satire combined by stories of each character.
Author gives us the detailed view of the society at that time.
Group of noble people wants to pilgrim (go on a journey for religious reasons) to Canterbury from London. On the way they all started to tell their story by one by.
Story starts with a Prologue and then every character tells his/her own story.
Characters: Knight, Cook, Nun, Merchant, Beggar, Monk etc.
Geoffrey Chaucer was realistic according to his time and writing what he observes. He was a good satirist too.

COURTLY LOVE
it’s a way of showing the love of a knight or a noble man to a beautiful noble lady.
Man was doing everything to be seen by the lady.
He was in a huge love with her and he was expressing this love by singing or fighting for her.
Lady was always married with another guy.
And the love among the knight/noble man and that lady was secret and without sex.
In Courtly Love stories Lady and the Knight/Noble man can never be together or make love.
But whatever happens they love each other all their life.
Stories contains Courtly Love inside of them are;
The Greene Knight, Tristan – Iseult

LAND OF COCKAIGNE
Satire of church and we do not know who the author is.
Monks are living in luxurious world where everything is plenty and beautiful.
But after sometime they can’t distinguish what is good and what is bad.

RENAISSANCE LITERATURE (1485 – 1660) (ELIZABETHAN & JACOBEAN)

Church was uniting people by fear and they were making people live just for afterlife.
So by this way they are keeping the social classes.
Renaissance started by going down in deep human body and mind.
Scientists, artists, philosophies are started to study human body, universe and fears of human.
They didn’t think about afterlife and wanted ordinary people realize that the life they are living now is more important.
Renaissance was mostly based on ancient Greek and Roman laws, literature and science.

SONNETS
it came from Italy and modified to English.
Themes in it were mostly love.
It is a lyric poem, single stanza of 14 lines, IAMBIC Pentameter.
It had two types;
Italian and English (Shakespeare) style.

THEATRE (Before Shakespeare)
First it started in church.
Clergy decided to play religious plays so that illiterate people can understand the bible.
They started with thropes (small parts from bible)
Plays mostly based on bible, miracles in the life’s of saints and morality in daily life.
Morality plays were without religious themes but they had an allegory inside them.
Allegory: story with a hidden meaning. You can get it in two meanings. It has two sides like mirror.
First morality play was EVERYMAN. (Late 15th century)
After sometime also non-religious plays started to be shown. For this reason church decided to ban non-religious plays to be played in churches.
After this ban, numerous theatres are open in England. Especially southern England was the centre.
First fixed theatres in London were Globe and Swan.
But these theatres were outside (not in a building) and just playing in daytime.
Theatres were a place for all social classes.
Woman parts were being played by men actors.
There wasn’t any decoration. Everything was in audiences mind and imagination.

Before Shakespeare;
Tragedy was just including high class, Kings, Dukes etc.
Tragedies were being written in verse.
Comedies were for low class people.

THE FAERIE QUEENE (EDMUND SPENCER)
it’s the longest poem in English.
It has an allegory inside.
It’s like a fairy tale. It has angels, monsters and knights in it.

SHAKESPEARE
He was following aristocratic kind of drama.
In his plays characters faith was connected to their country’s faith too.
He combined tragedy and comedy and he created TRAGICOMEDY.
In his plays he used;
Hamartia: tragic error or mistake in judgment
Catarsis: strong release of emotions
He wrote 40 plays, most important ones are;
History and politics: Henry VIII, Richard III, Antony and Cleopatra
Comedy and women: Merchant of Venice
Tragedy and death: Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet

RESTORATION (1660 – 1689)

CHARLES II
Charles II defeated Puritans and started to rule the country.
He established the theatres which closed by Puritans again.
He supported theatrical inventions and theatres.
He declared himself as the Great Patron of the Theatres.
In Restoration time women roles started to be played by female actors.
Two people appointed to organize theatrical events. One was Thomas Killigrew and the other was William D’Avenant

THOMAS KILLIGREW
He patented all Elizabethan and Jacobean plays (Including Shakespeare plays).
He also changed the plays he patented or removed some parts.

WILLIAM D’AVENANT
Because Thomas Killigrew patented all important plays he had to produce new plays.

RESTORATION COMEDIES
they were full of sexual adventures of men and they were insulting women.
Charles II liked these plays so much because he was also such a guy in these plays.

THE COUNTRY WIFE (WYCHERLEY)
Main character was a man called Horner whose aim was to sleep as much as women he can.
He was banging even the wife of his friends.
He pretend like he suffers from an incurable illness and his friends invited him to their houses to make him feel better but even there he banged the wives of his friends.
At the end he wasn’t caught.

OTHER WORKS/ARTISTS FROM RESTORATION PERIOD:
JOHN DRYDEN
He was an important figure in that time.
He was a playwright, poet and critic.
He was the Poet Laureate (Official poet of the monarch who writes about government, victories and King’s birthday etc.)
He wrote a satire called ‘ABSALOM AND ARCHITOPHEL’.
It was a satire written in allegory to protect Charles II.

AUGUSTAN PERIOD (1700 – 1745) (1st half of 18th cen.) (CLASSISM)

It was a rational period. Books were not for heart.
They believed that everything can be measured.
The believed if you control your feelings, you can do everything.
Child was important, because in future it becomes an adult and being in society.
Cook books, travel narratives, medical manuals, novels and histories of true stories were popular.
Novels were observations of human.
They believed that social classes should be visible.
Language of the period contained symmetry, order and strict form.

THE RAPE OF THE LOCK (ALEXANDER POPE)
it was a mock-epic (funny – historical) poem.
Main character was a woman who was thinking so much about her beauty and dressing.
At that time all the women was like her.
She was waking up at 12:00, preparing to go outside for 2 hours.
Pope compared her dressing with the dressing of Homer before going to war.
But this lady wasn’t going for a war, but she was going to find a rich, noble man.
With this poem, Pope wanted to draw a portrait of artificial society in England.
His aim was to show people that such things are not important and beauty is something which is not everlasting.
Pope was a catholic, when being catholic is very hard in London. For this reason he couldn’t go school but his dad gave a good education to him at home.
He also wrote the satirical poem ‘DUNCIAD’ about the tastelessness in England at that time.

THE BEGGAR’S OPERA (JOHN GAY)
it was a satirical ballad opera.
He satirized poverty and injustice with the corruption at all levels of society.

JONATHAN SWIFT
He was a satirical writer who wants to improve society by his thoughts but this never happened.
GULLIVER’S TRAVELS (JONATHAN SWIFT)
Children book / travelogue.
He used allegory and exaggeration so much.
Motives: reliability, truth, description of human body, ideas of humanism
Criticism in the book was sometimes so directly sometimes very well hidden.
He was showing negative things about other societies to make us to understand our society’s mistakes.
Lupitans in the book symbolizes the 2 parties in England.
He criticized also scientists because they were inventing useless things.
He wanted to express that politicians were corrupted and wars were useless.

A MODEST PROPOSAL (JONATHAN SWIFT)
it’s a satirical letter.
His proposal was so rational and profitable for everyone.
He wanted to take the attention of English nobles and landlords to their lands in Ireland.
At that period there was a huge famine in Ireland but the land owners living in England weren’t doing anything about this situation and ignoring it.
So Swift believed that sometimes ignoring can be even worse than killing people.
He offered using satire in letter that whatever happens these children will die if they won’t help, so it’s profitable to eat them instead of letting them die for nothing.

ROBINSON CRUSOE (DANIEL DOFOE)
First novel in English.
It was an adventure novel. (Hero is a man; main question is ‘What will happen next?’)
In this novel Dofoe mixed adventurous events with daily realities and he created a realistic adventure, so that reader can see himself on a mirror.
Theme of capitalism was in it.
Spreading British colonizing.

PAMELA (SAMUEL RICHARDSON)
First psychological novel. (Novel shows realistic situations, women heroine, main question ‘Why it happened?’)
It was written in epistolary.
Epistolary;
Book formed by letters.
In whole book characters writing each other letters.
There were a lot of description and because they were mostly formed of six-seven editions it was so hard to read them.
Also people wanted to hear characters speaking.

Pamela was a story of an emotional war between a young girl (Pamela) who is under the service of a noble man called Mr. B.
Mr. B. wanted to be with Pamela, but she wanted to be treated well and to be equal to Mr. B.
Mr. B. tried to rape her twice but he couldn’t.
At the end Mr. B. accepted to marry Pamela and treat her well.

SHAMELA (HENRY FIELDING)
it was a parody of Samuel Richardson’s Pamela.

EVELINA (FANNY BURNEY)
it was a sentimental novel. (Human was not just rational, but also had some emotions)
This book was also in epistolary form.
It was full of humorous events similar to upcoming Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
Criticism of society can be found in it.

ROMANTICISM (1760 – 1830) (2nd half of 18th cen.)

New form of humor.
Expression of emotions.
Authors were aware of language.
They believed that we are all different.
If one person lost, it’s a loss of the universe.
They were sick of society and wanted to see the inner parts of each person.
In real life everything was dark, in literature everyone was important.
Child was something naïf, holy, innocent and close to god.
They wrote in everyday speech and wanted to be accessible by everyone.
They didn’t use any order, it was irrational.
They mentioned supernatural, mystical things.
They took drugs such as opium.
They explored different areas such as nightmares, perception of child etc.

TRISTRAM SHANDY (LAURENCE STERN)
it was a sentimental + satirical novel.
Narrative is not straight forward. Time changes most of the time.
In Tristram Shandy genres are combined.
Some people say that it was a parody. But we don’t know its parody of what.
Some people say its anti novel because of the concept of the time and place etc. In Tristram Shandy we can see;
Sermon: Speech made by priest in the church, some stories from bible.
Allusion: Kind of reference to some place or person or work of art, but author doesn’t mention why he referenced and he trusts the knowledge of the reader.
Metafiction: Style of narration where the author writes something about the process of writing.
Memoire:
Stream of Consciousness: Writer puts on anything comes to his mind to a paper. His observations, feelings, ideas etc.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (JANE AUSTEN)
She wrote in the romantic period. But she wasn’t a romantic, she was more like realistic.
She used a lot of irony which is not typical for romantic writer.
She wrote about England’s society at that time.
She wrote about Gentry (upper middle class), who don’t have any real jobs then going balls.
Mostly she focused on the lives of small group of people.
By this way reader can observe every detail.
Her novels were “novels of manners (behaviors)”.
In Pride and Prejudice she used motives such as;
Pride: Mr. Darcy, Catherine De Burgh, Bingley’s sisters)
Prejudice: Elizabeth and Jane
Love and Marriage, Reputation.
She created perfect and different characters.

FIRST GENERATION OF ROMANTIC POETS
LAKE POETS
William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
They wrote about common stuff, ordinary people, for uneducated people.
They published ‘LYRICAL BALLAD’.
Their work aimed to be accessible by everyone.
They were against institutions.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
He was one of the Lake Poets.
He was writing more about common stuff.
After Coleridge went away, he started to be popular.
He started to write sonnets for church.
He became POET LAUREATE
for these reasons he institutionalized at the end and all his ideas changed.
His most well known poem is ‘THE PRELUDE’.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
He was ill and taking drugs to kill his pains.
He had terrible nightmares and dreams.
He was good at short and mysterious poems. He was mostly writing about dreams and illusions.
His most famous poem is the never finished one ‘KUBLA KHAN’
He also wrote a book called ‘THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER’.

SECOND GENERATION OF ROMANTIC POETS
LORD BYRON
He wrote stories of impossible loves which includes Christian soldier falls in love with a Muslim.
He was sick of English society so he was writing mostly about mediterrian area.
He created ‘Byronic Hero’ in his narrative poem ‘Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage’.
BYRONIC HERO
Handsome guy with a dark secret.
Something deeply wrong with him that you know, but still he is irresistible.
He is individual and he has problems with society.
Wherever he goes he brings problems and destruction.
His motto is ‘I loved her so I destroyed her.’
He is very passionate.
We can see an example of this type hero in upcoming novel of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights as HEATHCLIFF.

Mr. SHELLY
He was writing lyric poets.
His most well known work is ‘PROMETHEUS UNBOUND’
He was writing political pamphlets and he was against authority.
He lived in Europe and never turned back to England.

FRANKENSTEIN (MS. SHELLY)
it was a gothic novel.
Gothic Novel;
All the danger and darkness is coming from outside.
Mostly written by woman and the heroine was a lady.
In these novels character hides something deep and uncanny.
Frankenstein was written by Mr. Shelly but Ms. Shelly edited and published it.
Frankenstein was not just a story of a monster but also in deep it was about giving love and care to children by parents.

VICTORIAN TIMES (1837 – 1900)

VICTORIAN NOVEL
BRONTE SISTERS

WUTHERING HEIGHTS (EMILY BRONTE)
It was a romantic book (it had a lots of feelings in it) but also it was a realistic book (descriptions were realistic).
It was something unusual for its time. Concept of time was complicated.
There were many time shifts and nearly the story was beginning from the middle.
Story starts with harmony and peace, violence appears and destruction happens, but at the end again peace comes.
It was written in a ‘Frame Narrative’ (Story in a story).
In the book;
Wuthering Heights (Earnshaws): Windy, turbulent, wild, passionate, and violent.
Thrushcross Grange (Linton’s): Quite, relaxing, stable, gentle, passive

JANE EYRE (CHARLOTTE BRONTE)
it’s a gothic fiction novel. Love story.

ANNE BRONTE
she wrote the biography of Charlotte Bronte.
Her best known book is ‘NORTH AND SOUTH’ which is about the differences in social and economical life between North and South of England.
South was in peace and in harmony.
North was in poverty and low social life.

OTHER VICTORIAN NOVELISTS
OSCAR WILDE
He was a gay. For this reason he is thrown to the jail and died soon after.
He wanted to live for the moment without borders, responsibilities etc. (DECEDANT TIMES)
He denied romantics and he loved the luxury of city.
He hated moral lessons and he believed ‘Art is for art’s sake’.
His only novel was gothic horror fiction ‘PICTURE OF DORIAN GREY’.
His most important play was a comedy ‘IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST’
He criticized marriage for Money and Victorian times, where people were living just for money and social status.

PYGMALION (BERNARD SHAW)
it was about language and accent.
By Pygmalion he showed how accents in language create a gap between the people.

VICTORIAN POETRY
MY LAST DUCHESS (ROBERT BROWNING)
it was a poet based on unvictorian men and women.
He used DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE.

WAR TIMES (WW1)

THE SOLDIER (RUPERT BROKE)
He was never been into war but he wrote naïf poems about war.

STRANGE MEETING (WILFRED OWEN)
He wrote shocking and realistic poems about war.
He shows that nothing is noble about war.
He described war areas full of mud, rats and dead soldiers.
Strange Meeting is about two enemy soldiers who met on the other world and can’t understand for what they died for.

MODERNISM (AFTER WW1)

Reality is not what it seems.
Mostly they believed in Stream of Consciousness.
They rejected Victorian style.
They used Internal Monologue (Author talking not anybody else but just him/herself.)
Topics weren’t important. Form was important.

ULYSSES (JAMES JOYCE)
He wrote experimental prose.

D.H. LAWRANCE
He wasn’t experimental, but he wrote a lot of stories which includes sex.
He believed sex is reality and the symbol of vitality of life.
Most of the time he portrait women as sexual creatures.
His most important Works are ‘Lady Chattery’s Lover’ and ‘Sons and Lovers’.

VIRGINIA WOLF
She defended the equality between men and women.
She was a feminist writer, literal and critic.
She wrote novels, short stories, reviews and essays.
She was in depression most of the time due to the fact that her parents death.
At the end she suicide.
Most of her works there is no plot.
Style is poetic and lyrical in order to catch the characters moods.
One of her well known work is ‘ORLANDO’.

She has another story ‘MARK ON THE WALL’
‘Mark on the wall’ has a plot but not much development in it. Not dynamic.
The plot is just away to present her feelings.
It takes place in the war time.
Time shifts from now to back to now.
There are many digressions.
First she focuses to the mark on the wall, and then she tells some other things and turning back to the mark on the wall at the end.
Motives: nature, old owners of the house, mystery of life, afterlife
Allusions: Shakespeare, some Greek philosophers, Places in London

ANIMAL FARM (GEORGE ORWELL)
Clear language
Animals are the main characters
Fable: Animals are showing the features of humans and speaking etc.
Themes: Utopia
Motives: Equality, Official history vs. actual history

POST MODERNISM (AFTER WW2)

DRIVER’S SEAT (MURIEL SPARK)
it was novella (shorter novel).
It was a psychological thriller.

Prepared by: Dogacan Yildirim Kanat

Winter for Zlin is on the way

2009-12-22T14:16:00.000+01:00

Here you can find photos of Zlin taken on 21.12.2009 mostly from the tallest building of the region “21”.

Christmas Ball 2009, Tomas Bata University in Zlin

2009-12-19T20:03:00.002+01:00

2009’s Christmas Ball for foreign students of Tomas Bata University in Zlin was held in Hotel Moskva R.E.M Lounge by International Office on 03.12.2009.

When i compare with last year’s ball, this year the programme was better organized. The nigh was started at 20:15 with our standard dance. Our dance was a mixture of Polonaise, English Waltz and Venice Waltz. Of course we tried our best, but we made a lot of mistakes too. Then the dinner was served. It was really delicious meal. You know we international students –at least me- are always hungry and ready to try new tastes. The night continued with our friends beautiful Latin-American dance performance and with a barmen’s show. It’s followed by a strange but funny dance show of an afro-american dancer. At midnight a lottery was held and of course i couldn’t win anything again but this time my friend Klara was one of the lucky students awarded.

The only problem was the Hippo! Yes, a hippo in a ball room. Let’s see if you can find him in the photos…

EBA Night Out

2009-12-18T20:30:00.000+01:00

On Wednesday 16th of December, we -EBA 2008 students- celebrated the upcoming holiday at KLID.
It was my first time in KLID. It’s a small club/bar and so near to U12 dormitory. For this reason, you can drink as much as you can. When you will get drunk, all you have to do is just to walk 3 minutes. I am sure you can handle this.
When it comes to our meeting, it was so nice. I am lucky that i have that much good classmates. They are all helpful and entertaining.

Christmas Interview with Foreign Students of Tomas Bata University in Zlin

2009-12-18T15:23:00.002+01:00

Christmas Interview with Foreign Students of Tomas Bata University in Zlin.

The interview was done by RTA Zlin and aired on 17.12.2009 in Czech Republic.

First snowfall in Zlin, December 2009

2009-12-16T16:04:00.001+01:00

First snowfall of the season, in Zlin on 16.12.2009.
Location: nam. T.G.M, 76001 Zlin, CZ

2009 Christmas Tree Lighting in Zlin

2009-12-05T00:58:00.000+01:00

Ceremony of Christmas Tree Lighting was held by the municipality of Zlin on 4 December 2009 in the main square of the town “namesti Miru”. Ceremony was started with the speech of Zlin’s mayor Ms Irena Ondrova, continued with the lighting of the tree and finished with Christmas hymns sung by a choir.

According to the mayor, this year they preferred a smaller Christmas tree to protect the nature of Zlin woods and to be more ecological friendly. But as we all guess, the decision was more economical than ecological. Also this year electricity consumption of Christmas lightings all around Zlin will be financed by e-on.

Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony of UTB 2009

2009-12-03T12:16:00.000+01:00

Every year on December, Tomas Bata University in Zlin (UTB) celebrates the approaching Christmas with parties and attractions in front of Faculty of Management and Economics (FaME) U2 building.

This year the Christmas Tree will be illuminated at 17:00 on Wednesday, 9th December 2009 in front of U2. First the brass quintet of Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra will sing some Christmas corals (This is the boring part for me :) and then in the Wichterle Hall inside of the U2 building at 18:00 the projection of the fairy tale “S čerty nejsou žerty (Give the Devil His Due)” will take place. The entrance will be free of charge. Here is a small part from the movie.

At 21:00 “Afterstorm” party with the performance of some Czech DJs will take place in the corridors of U2. Unfortunately the entrance to this party will be 40 CZK.

By the way, due to the lighting of the Christmas Tree, Rector announced an official day off for Wednesday, 9th December 2009 starts at 16:30. Be careful! Not whole day, just after 16:30. p.s Don’t be that cruel Rector! Make a whole day off next year.

Selection of Czech Music no.1

2009-11-18T15:28:00.003+01:00

I’ve decided to share musical culture of Czech people from my point of view. From time to time I’ll add Czech music videos to here. In the very first edition, i want to present you two different styles from Czech music industry. One is for babicky (grandmothers) and the other for teens.

Karel Gott
I think he is the most famous Czech singer among Slovakia, Germany and Austria. He is 70 years old but still rocking. For new generation he doesn’t mean much of course, but if you ask an ordinary Czech woman who is over 50 now, you can see how much they are in love with Gott. He covered a lot of foreign songs, he gave concerts in many places of the world and he still looks younger than me!

Here i chose his song “Trezor” from 60’s. It’s 1 minute song but from the beginning until the end it gives you a smile on your face.

Skyline
This guys are strange. They have nice songs mostly with English lyrics. That’s a plus for foreigners of course. It’s always easier to feel the emotional side of songs when you understand what it says. But in Skyline the problem is, they mostly sing about bullshit! Innovative music meets with strange lyrics and mostly with poor vocals and the result is Skyline. I haven’t seen them live but as i can see from the videos hey have a good live performance.
If you are studying in university that’s the type of music you should listen i guess. Anyway i like them.

Here is the song “Pretty Princess” from their album “Virginplatonicpoint” published in 2006.

You can reach Selection of Czech Music no.2 from here.