Prague practice

Today it is time to say goodbye. Of course I'm very happy to soon be on my way home to my beloved ones, but it still feels sad to leave. The time here at Leaders Magazine have been very good and the office is packed with nice people that I truly will miss.

I have learned and hopefully achieved a lot and the stay has on my behalf been most valuable. When it is your turn to go on practice I can highly recommend you to try to do the time somewhere here in Prague.

Tomorrow is gonna be a day of cleaning and packing and on Thursday we will be picked up by the organizers and dropped of at the airport to go back after one of the fastest months in my life. That is if Eyjafjallajökull can keep her temper under control of course.

Some small reflections on how to make the stay in Prague a success. The first thing you do when you get here is to get yourself a travel pass for the public transportation's. The Metro and the trams will take you anywhere you like in no time at all and with the pass you don't need to worry about tickets. Just step on the nearest ride and start exploring. Remember though to be polite. Leave your seat if someone old enters the tram.

And don't worry about the language. There is no possible way on earth to learn Czech even in a lifetime. English and sign language is quite enough to get you through the day.

If you plan to eat and drink, and of course you do, then stay out of the old and little town. A meal is half the prize just a few Metro-stations and the wonderful Czech beer is even cheaper. An example. A beer in the town center costs at worst 90 Czech crowns and outside the center down to 20.

The city is quite safe to walk around in, even late nights. But as everywhere the pickpockets are busy in crowded areas.

As a tourist you are often busy looking up on all beautiful buildings in Prague, but remember to look down every now and then. It seems like everyone owns a dog here, and the pavement is filled with nasty things that these dogs has left behind.

In the Nordic countries we obey the holy asphalt. We poor it out a little here and a little there and almost everywhere. In Prague they have chosen a different approach.

In my neighborhood you can here machines all week round; hammering, pounding and drilling to remove the asphalt from the pavements, to replace it with cobblestone in beautiful patterns.

More nice to look at than to walk on though.

Before:

 

After:

Today was kind of a big day. We had a meeting with almost everyone involved in the web of Leaders Magazine. The issue was the document I produced about how to make improvements to the site, mainly in order to increase the income, and how to be more present in different social medias.

And Hannele also presented her extensive work with checking the functionality of the site. The meeting went well and the discussions were interesting and filled with new ideas and angles.

For the moment the washing machine is doing service and after that it's of to an evening to watch the second match between Barca and Inter in the nearest sports bar.

Hopefully Ibra will get his thumb out this time.

Sorry for the silence. This Friday I woke up with fever and a bad throat. I had a cold! You know, that kind of evil disease that could kill a man if not treated with respect.

So of course I have spent the whole weekend in slow motion. I don't want to die young. But now I'm back on track.

Do you remember when you where small? When you played the mind-game where you're not allowed to step on the grey tiles of the pavement. If you happened to do that then bad things would happen to you. Or to make it first to the entrance, reporting the race silently in your head. “-Mats is now up in the lead! Oh no! The guy from Brazil is closing in on him, but with a last effort Mats is touching the door as a winnnnneeeeer!!!!” Or maybe you don't remember, maybe I was the only one doing that :)

Anyway, I now realize I haven't grown up yet. Today I came in as second last in the subway race to the escalator at the Florenc station. Damn!!! Quite a failure compared to yesterday when I finished second in the race. How did you make it today?

Now back to work. Since I didn't win today I didn't get a day off :)

Later today there will be a get together with other foreign students, in a big park, Letná, close to where we stay. More about that tomorrow.




(click on the picture to enlarge)

Many of us are dreaming of that new idea that's gonna make us rich. Like the inventions of Facebook, Skype and many other things that has brought incredible wealth to the inventors. In times of despair it is easy to think that everything is already invented. But rest assured. There is always a new idea! Let me show you the next next one.

 
Look at the picture below. This is a shop in the near neighborhood. I pass by it every day and it is never open. The sign says “Nonstop” and “24h”. That gives me the signal that this is something that goes on round the clock..


That brings me to the conclusion that this might very well be the first Nonstop closed store in the world. Ever! Remember where you heard it first :)

And Yihaa it was. Igor's band Pretty Old Sound came, played and delivered. We went to see the gig in an other part of town. And it was just about as cool as it can be with live music. Rough, raw, beers stains on the floor and smoke in the air.


Igor beating the guts out of the drums, Azalea So Sweet teasing the bass and Dimitar, behind the guitar, with a voice made of whiskey and cigarettes gave us an unforgettable evening with a merge of early Rolling Stones, Troggs and Ramones, and tons and tons of cool attitude. I woke up this morning with quite a numb feeling in my ears. Thank you Pretty Old Sound.

In the corner of our kitchen we keep are families and friends. Or at least that's where the connection to them are. All three of us have our own laptop but there's only one connection. And furthermore, the connection has it's own ideas about how a it should provide the service. If I connect my laptop for a while then it is impossible for Sirkka-Liisa or Hannele to connect theirs when I'm finished without restarting the modem. And then my laptop is unable to connect again. And so on. Quite annoying.

Our sweet and helpful landlady is eagerly working to solve our problem. Yesterday she came by with both a router and a friend to connect us all to the net at the same time. The friend worked up quite a sweat but the connection defended itself successfully. After one and a half our the standing was friend 0 – modem 1, and they gave up.

But today is a new day and they will return, full of new power and fighting spirit. Beware modem, beware!

And above all, it's Saturday. Saturday is fun day. In the evening we will probably go to to a gig performed by Igor, the guy that met us at the airport, and his band. Yihaa!!!


Sirkka-Liisas' chatting away

To finish of the presentation of the people working at the office, I'm happy to introduce you to Vladimíra Václavíková who is the marketing and editorial director and Benke Aikell, the publisher and owner of Leaders Magazine.

Strange enough Benke comes from Sweden, but he has lived in Prague for about 15 years now.

 
Vladimira                   Benke