Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened

Today is my birthday and more than one year since i last saw my family. Going home in one week and trying to sort out everything going in my life right now.
My biggest concern right now is place to live. One of my flatmates went completely crazy and i even had to ask for legal help. She didn't clean after herself, cut us off from internet, hidden the contract and took the rooter and  continue to freeload (didn't buy anything for the flat for months). I learned lesson hard way - never live in place where you don't meet the landlord (ours communicates only with crazy flatmates as she was first to move in) and live without contract.
On more positive side, there's beautiful autumn in this corner of Europe.

This was one of first caught my eye when i first moved to Brno - beautiful autumn. While in Lithuania autumn is also very colorful and pretty, there it is just different due to various hills around the town and much bigger trees (i think it has something to do with climate as same trees are bigger there than i'm used to see).
I recently joined pleasure walkers community in Brno and now try to enjoy weekends walking around Brno.
Also i recently enjoyed my first (!) opera there in Narodni Divadlo. It was Nabucco.

Since i had no expectations, i enjoyed it a lot. While subtitles (i actually didn't expect opera to have subtitles) were only in Czech, it was relatively easy to understand what's going one - two girls loves one guys, some occupation, some killing and so on. Although i probably should have read script before going there to understand performance better. Since one lady of our group knew one guys who was singing, we were invited to backstage which was really cool.
Recently was first time to try raw food in Kiwi. While i really enjoyed it (had mix of champignons, had no idea how it was prepared without cooking), i realized that it requires lots of time to prepare food like that. And creativity. While i could switch to vegetarianism quite easily as i don't like or need meat tthat much, being vegan or raw food eater is just not for me.

La primavera!

After such a late spring nice weather finally came to Brno!
Near my work even gardening season began. That's on of the things i really like down there - if people are trying to make surroundings more enjoyable for eyes only little percentage of other people tries to destroy them. Even if locals drink like born with this habit, smokes (everything) like chimneys and they usually don't throw stuff where it doesn't belong.
Last week my mom visited me so after half a year of not seeing each other we enjoyed out time together, although for that i had to overdone myself and work two weeks 7.30 - 18.00 to have that week shorter. We went to the zoo with is now overloaded with screaming kids and blooming live. We especially liked some wild pigs family - they just had two new members and everybody was protecting them - shielding and following around. That's how family should work.
We also checked Mendel's museum of genetics, which although small was quite interesting. Just some stuff was only in english so my mom, who is biologist-genetics enthusiast explained me lots of stuff about Mendel's work. Garden outside abbey (next to that day overloaded Starobrno brewery ) was simply stunning. It still never ceases to amaze me how many unknown species are there, south.

And If All...

And when i thought that spring is finally there, weather turned into total crap. Life is also kinda slushy.
Last week new pope was elected, some Argentinian cardinal. I always trust my first instinct so kinda liked this one, although later after reading more about his life and activities back across the pound - not so much. I remember how after first looking at photo of previous one was repulsed at instant - he just looked angry and like hiding something bad. Usually i don't care much about religious stuff but after starting to regularly go into weekly pub quizzes at U Palečka started reading more about weekly events as it's common topic.
That's how i know that flamboyant basketball player went to Vatican, in Ukraine they trained dolphins and some other random stuff. This week presenter was quite bad though, i wanted to take over after first few sentences. He told it was his first time, but come on, shouldn't one train a bit before it then?
To make my brains rest a little, i started watching 30 rock and imagine i work in company like that. That would be pretty awesome! I love challenges and freedom to think, so now sometimes have to restrict myself not to propose great ideas so i won't be hit to the head like

experiment's (true or false) description
Lesson 'never propose anything great in case not to make people who are not that smart but has to be to look they true selves' was learned hard way.
I'm thinking to start studying again so i'll go to one of many many events there in Brno about research. That's the only thing which makes me feel stupid sometimes - lots of people there does what they call PhD (in my language it's 'doktorantūra' and nobody really talks in abbreviations that much anyways) and i didn't even really defend my master thesis due to financial reasons (if you finish, you have to pay full price for everything and since there's no jobs for young people, it's not fun), so sometimes i'm totally lost when people starts to talk about science and other theoretical stuff.
One very very active guy named Fulvio created Living in Brno guide which can be really useful sometimes for ones who are totally new there. I go to some of events or plan to as although most of them consists same people (some of them i would like to avoid due to harassment) but are trully enjoyable. I'm interested how 'baltic' Morena celebration looks like. Def not the same like Morė burning at Užgavėnės. I was in Saint Patric's event and it wasn't very enjoyable mostly because of lack of space and bad organizing of games.

"My milk tooth" celebrated fourth birthday! Gotta love them :)

Appraisal

So, after five months in lovely town of Brno i finally have my ways of doing things and know what i like. What was really helpful for me in beginning was facebook groups. Now i classify ones i use like following :)

1. Living in Brno - probably most useful one, although fairly new. Many great events and nice people one can meet in them (with few exceptions, but it's probably only me attracting idiots)
2. English in Brno - their events gives opportunity to practice language, hear insults that one's accents is 'russian' and feel smart after meeting many idiots who don't know anything about geography
3. Couchsurfers in Brno - mostly hardcore drinkers club
4. Brno expat women network - that one is the worst. Most members are kid-crazed to lowest point and can talk only about diapers and doctors. Most of them don't know how to use internet so asks extremely stupid questions. Some of them are just posh to the extreme. Not very useful group for me. 

Best places to eat - definitely AVIA and Spolek.

What i miss there is longer working second hand shops. I miss having unique clother and some i would like to get just don't exist in shops. Also there in czech republic most clothes are XXXXL size although one would rarely see fat person. And i don't like stuff hanging on me. I like Gate shop in Avion because they have some nice stuff for fair prices.

Little rant about vain people

Yesterday i went to yet another great event organized by Brno expats center. This time Brno culinary. While it was interesting, i was unpleasantly surprised by the same time. Well, maybe not really unpleasantly, but it left some uneasy feeling how distant people can be for one another. This meeting was for posh people in very posh place with costumes, pretending ones understand stuff about wine and splashing on stuff worth many times less. One thing, i like cozy, not chic. Another thing, i consider myself simple and very unpretentious person and bad liar as well. So i felt extremely uncomfortable.
Also i realized once more how vain and plain stupid people can. Why to go to live in another country if you don't even learn local language and then complain how unfriendly to foreigners local people are? Here's very nice post how to feel local (or at least almost) in Czech republic. I read it several times and can't agree more. According to my very subjective experience and observation quite a lot of immigrants are rich and well, to put it slightly, boring. Rich people are rarely interesting to me because there's not much to talk about with them. Especially when they start about travels. With plain. To capitals. And call it 'traveling'. In my humble opinion it's even more absurd than some people posting questions in let's say Vilnius Tripadvisor forum. When people like that gets cheated and complains about it nobody even feels sorry for them as 99 percent of times it happens it's because they event didn't read about the country they are going to.
So back to where i started, exactly the same stuff i see in the part of expat community here in Brno. Native English speakers expecting that everybody must speak English and putting zero effort in learning beautiful and funny Czech language and getting agitated when somebody don't and later complaining that Czechs in Czech republic can't communicate in foreign language in their home country. Most of them are able to speak only about flying, restaurants, stuff they bought and that's it. Some of foreigners are nice but actually living stereotypes of their home countries. Because of their behavior in my home country i always was careful around British and south European people but only there, abroad, i noticed that i can detect them very easily as they behave like typical tourists there most of the time.
I try not to think stereotypically, but well, people act stereotypically. Brits drink a lot. South europeans shout instead of talking. Americans think that north europeans speak russian. Central europeans not knowing a thing about neighbor countries. North europeans being very sceptical and allergic to stupid and ignorant people and so on. I espeacially notice that when after stating a fact i am called rude/ignorant/angry/little sad/etc. by people not used to truth. What can i say (think most of the time)? Grow up and get a life.

Missing

New year finally arrived and started pretty well, except some things at work. I met them in main square of Brno and when i had to cross it, felt like in one of those war movies - lights, fireworks and shouting. But all my body parts are luckily still there.
I'm honestly afraid of my boss and think that he hates me, so i feel pretty stressed and exposed at work. I try to learn as much as i can, so i won't get fired, but thing i don't really feel comfortable around is that i'm not expected to have questions and every time i ask something people get annoyed.

I hope in this year everything will turn for better.
My sister stopped in Brno for few hours on the way from her trip to italian mountains and was tired and hungry, so i decided to lead her and her friends to restaurant close in Hotel Pegas. After that i wrote in their facebook page "horrible service at bar most of the time. if you go with locals it's o.k., but if you try to order in english waiters turns very rude (it happened 3 times already, with different waiters) and still speak in czech. my friends had same experience several times as well. last time waiter named Petr went full mental and made faces behind my friends backs, was so rude we had to choose bravest person to ask for bill. also included some stuff we didn't order. he served other tables around us where people spoke german and czech and behaved almost normally around them. i apologized for his behavior but decided better to avoid this place and recommend others to do so as well.". Never in my life i was at the place where foreigners are sincerely hated, but Pegas is exactly that.

Holiday spirit

Been a while since i wrote something, because my mind was really occupied. I love my new job and try to be good at it, so i study a lot and res a lot as well.
I'm very happy to live in location where i can reach lots of cities kinda easily. So i went to Bratislava last week. Ridiculously expensive (well, in my eyes) although nice city. 11 euros for lunch in cheap looking bistro Sbarro. I think i paid for plate weight as well, but still, was nice to come back in Brno with normal prices. Christmas market is in full swing (here's night post with list of activities) still and city is getting more and more empty as people are leaving for holidays. I'm staying though as i see no pint going home as i would be able to spend only one day there due to stupid bus shedules and see no point on wasting money on a plane.

I only miss my guinea pigs. There i have only cat at home but he's way too active for my liking so i don't enjoy having him in my room as he likes to destroy things. But not wanted guest is even worse. Now there's some mentally disabled girl in my flat who keeps coming late and then shouting in the kitchen. I just wish she will go way as i was awaked by her shouting three nights this week. And of course my flatmate didn't inform about her.
Also i just had one of weirdest CS experiences. Since i'm stuck in Brno in this holiday period, i decided to go to one meeting in tow. There's one dutch guy visiting and from profile he looked okay but it was huge dissapointment. We went to one pub and he and other guy started smoking without asking if other mind that and making stupid remarks about non smokers. Later everytime i was trying to say something they just cut me off and kept making quite not smart comments about russians. I was kinda relieved to get home after that. So much for trying to be less realistic and more positive...It seems that i'm simply allergic to stupid people.

Self absorbtion and politics

I managed to almost score a job I really wanted and know that I will be good at so I’m really happy nowadays.  Now I’m not thinking about stuff which always stressed me out at home and just enjoying life there. And moving on. So far most of the people I met was really nice and helpful, aside liar without social skills Klara (since she attacked me with messages, I tried to get her off me telling that I found her interesting as person and wish positive experiences). Thing is I think she’s quite boring and maybe due to her age lack social skills. One thing is when you lie in some reference, another – when you keep telling person that (s) didn’t do something (s)he knows was done. That was really weird. And I wish she will get as negative experience as mine just to know how it is. She was so afraid to tell something in the eye that she lied only in reference, maybe to defend her actions. When I asked in forum how people would write reference in such situation I got few essays about me and that experience but nobody answered how they would react in case of negative experience – be truthful or careful. So I dropped it off. Now I’m being discussed in one of forums by some Norbert as not able to take answer I don’t like when there were no answers. Some nationalities never cease to surprise with their self absorbance…

I keep read news’ blogs from Lithuania from time to time just to know how it is. Now, few days after elections everybody talks about it. And I’m happy I left just on time as some people never learns. Main winners were social democrats, labor party and conservatives. Main coalition will be first two plus ‘law and order’ party. Hmmm… where to start… Social democrats are not bad per se. it’s just they talk a lot but do very little. They were ruling party before and pffff… Nothing. Labour party is party of criminals. Quite a few there are charged of some crimes, mostly financial. I actually like their leader Viktor Uspaskich as talker and business person, but as politician he's extremely bad. He is extremely layered person and actually it would be really interesting to talk with him a bit. He reminds me Artūras Zuokas a bit - talks a lot, has some nice ideas but in the end - pffff... And Rolandas Paksas party, well, i don't even know what to say about that. At least positive. I'm not really into politics but i believ that conservatives was best choice - they did some non popular decisions but it gave positive results during financial crisis.

Our Mushroom is also interesting. She expressed her opinion loud and clear, like she always does and it's actually first time i agree with her. Usually Mushroom appears as dictator, not president, and quite self absorbed one - thinking that her opinion is one and only and everybody has to agree. So many such persons in one small country gives big mess and lots of unhappy people. And highly sceptical me.

Bits

I’m still getting to know city which I now consider as mine. When I was coming with bus from Prague I thought ‘finally home’. Guess that’s it.

I still don’t feel stable though. Looking for a job and meeting new people. Most of them there are quite party persons, so it’s difficult to find somebody interesting to talk with.  I won hour of bowling in one of ‘social’ events so maybe i will meet somebody interesting before i'll be able to use it.

On tuesday i was at singing by campfire event. Weather was just perfect and company was nice. I wanted to hear some czech folk songs and it was a chance. They have quite few about America which was quite surprising for me. 

On saturday i went to small town called Jedovnice not far from Brno to see fishing market. I went with few latvians, one czech and one slovak. And it seems i was only girld not afraid of such bad weather (it was raining all day long). Hike plans didn't work though as everybody got frozen.

In the evening there was Halloween party at Brno, but i didn't went there as i was just cold and wanted to rest hugging a radiator.