HOW TO SEND A LETTER FROM CZECH REPUBLIC

Hello!!!

After a few months living in Czech Republic, I was thinking that sending a letter to my family and friends it would be nice, even if I keep in touch with the current technologyes. However, I  have not sent letters since when I was a child, so I completely forgot where to write the address, where to put the stamp...But I learnt again and finally the letters arrived well :). Here I explain how to send letters from Czech Republic:

1) First thing you need to do is to is to go to the post office and buy the stamps and envelopes. Most of people that work there do not speak english so it would be better if you ask in czech:

 -Stamps: známky. Important detail: do not forget to say známky do zahraničí if you want a stamp to send the letter abroad. If you buy the normal stamp (známky A), it will be useful only inside of Czech Republic. Each stamp for abroad costs 25 CZK.

-Envelopes: obálky. Each envelope costs around 7 CZK.

2) After writting your letter, you will need to put the address where you will want that your letter arrive, and your adress of here. So, step by step: in the front part of the envelope, or in the back on the left, you have to put your address of here, and in the back on the right, the stamp and the address where you will send the letter. The stamp must be situated up and on the right side, and the addrees , down and right side. Usually it is better if you follow the order:

- Name and surname

- Name of the street and number

-Code and town (if you live in a town)

-City

-Country

Because you will send it from Czech Republic, it is better and more understandable for the people that work here in the post office to put the country destination in czech language. For example: Spain in czech it would be Španělsko, France is Francie, or Ireland Irsko.

3) Here the letter boxes are a bit strange. They have two holes and you can be confused. But do not worry, the two of them have the same objective, So never mind if you put the letter in the right or in the left hole. And that is it, once you send the letter, you just need to wait that it is arrive. Always it depends, but usually it takes two weeks more or less ;)

By Elena from Spain

ADVENTURE IN BUDAPEST

The weekend of Easter I went with Marion and other volunteers of Czech Republic to Budapest, Hungary. I was very excited because I was going to see a new country of Central Europe. The trip from Prostějov was around 6 hours in total by train.

We arrived on Friday afternoon and we went for a walk in the evening. We tried the typical sweet that also it is found in Czech Republic, Trdelník, with chocolate, and it was sooo good.

We also saw one of the main square in the center and in the night we went to Simpla, a famous bar for its original old decoration and friendly environment.

The next day we did a tour and we saw Andrássy Avenue and the river Danube, we crossed the Chain bridge (the one which connect Buda and Pest) and in Pest we saw the views of the Basilica, the Parliament and others monuments.

In the evening we saw the Gresham Palace and we went to the famous terms Széchenyi, pools outside with hot water, and I enjoyed a lot because I was fed up with the bad weather and the cold of the winter (we Spanish people really enjoy to be warm, the water and swimming pools). We were lucky that weekend because the weather in Budapest was no so bad.

It was a full day and we finished very tired.

Next day we saw the Synagogue and we came back to Prostějov. I loved Budapest and I enjoyed a lot this trip. It was the kind of places where I would like to return in the future.

*Useful tips if you visit Budapest:

• If you want a cheap accommodation, I recommend you Frankys Hostel. This is the hostel we stayed and it was quite good and near the center. 
• The money there is Hungarian forint and everything is really cheap. One euro is 100 forints. With Poland, it is the cheapest place I have seen if I compare with the rest of the countries of Central Europe. But bit careful, the money is a bit strange because the amounts are huge (there are banknotes of 500, 1.000, 2.000, 5.000, 10.000 and 20.000 forint). So do not think you are rich when you have that money ;)
• Try the Hungarian Guláš. It is different from the goulash of Czech Republic and also quite good. The difference is that in Hungary is more a kind of soup with beef stew, paprika and other ingredients.

By Elena from Spain

NIGHT WITH ANDERSEM

This month we prepared a special night for children called Noc Andersen (Night with Andersen). It is a night in which the children sleep in some schools or libraries and there are activities related to some fairytales or books such as games or workshops. This event was created in honor to Andersen, a famous writer from Denmark who wrote stories like the little Mermaid, the Ugly Duckling or The Little Match Girl, and some of them were brought to the screen for Disney.

We were very motivated with this activity and we tried our best to organize a good night of Andersen. After plenty of time preparing the program, the day came.

Honestly I was a bit nervous because of two things: Czech language and activities, as I did not know how were going to be the children and if they would like the activities we prepared.

Before the children arrived, we prepared the rooms we were going to use for activities and sleeping, the decoration, the gymkhana, the materials for workshops...

Also we put our costumes, of course! As the topic was Little Mermaid or stories related to water, Marion and I were Mermaids, Katka a shark, Stanka an octopus and Aniska the sea.

Nineteen children applied for the activity. They arrived around 17:00-18:00 and we helped them to leave their bags in the sleeping rooms. The children who were ready came to Oaza to do card names. When everybody was ready, when played some games together to learn the names and speak about our favorite books.

Later we had dinner, and Marion and I did a small theatre to introduce the next activity. The story was about a girl, Marion, who lost her fish. I was the Mermaid who was going to help her to become Mermaid to find her fish in the ocean, but I only had one tablet to become Marion mermaid, so if the children wanted to come with us to the adventure, they would need to create a diving glasses and go to the sea with a submarine.

We learn the dialog in Czech to do this theatre and for me it was very funny.

So we started the glasses workshop and the children created and painted them in the most creative ways. When everybody had his glasses we took pictures with the decorated background.

Later, we continued the adventure and we started the gymkhana. The objective of this activity were to get 5 keys to find the lost fish of Marion. How? The children needed to divided in groups and every group needed to get a key by entering in some rooms of school and perform different tasks there.

We prepared activities in every floor of school like to find 7 differences, draw a picture they could see in a screen, find the lost word of some famous songs, etc.

After this activity, me, the little Mermaid, went with the keys to rescue the lost fish, which was hidden in Stodovna with other rewards and sweets for the children.

We finished late this activity, around 10:30. After we did some workshops: origami, wool dolls and bookmarker. 

Before going to sleep, Katka and Stanka read a book to the children in the sleeping rooms and they quickly fall slept.

To sum up, I enjoyed a lot this day. We were very lucky with the children because they were very good, they did not complain, they liked all activities and they payed attention everything we said to them. It was great fun for everybody and one of my best memories of my EVS :) 

By Elena from Spain