Dear end of semester,

I wanted to let you know how impatiently I’m awaiting you coming every half a year, when struggling with the mind-boggling research on final papers and craving for all the incredibilities of summer time and freedom from school. Those few months of battling the university go as quickly as a snail around the world and poor students need rest. I thank you for coming, semester end, I really do. If only you didn’t come with the other one, the hated one, the cursed-upon one, the one-who-should-not-be-spoken-of-aloud. The EXAM period!

 

I would say I love you so much for finally coming to my life and inserting the notion of approaching summer into my poor-student mind, but… why do you always have to bring the exam period with you? Is it not plain torture to make us all happy as lectures are over and we can sleep longer, while bringing sleeplessness into our days and nights just because of those few hours spent taking exams? I myself would suggest a reason. Is it because things in life are never only black or white? Maybe the reason is that everything bad actually brings new light into life, new opportunities, new viewpoints, new beginning… Is that the reason? The end of semester initiates exam period to keep us focused on the subject we freely decided to put upon our shoulders. It summarises the knowledge we should have gathered throughout the semester lectures and our work. I understand it is an evaluation of our eligibility to stay at the university and progress well. Also, if semester is over, there has to be something else filling holes in our precious time left after lectures disappear. I would only suggest a little change – why not having summer instead? Everybody already has summer in their minds as soon as the imaginable bell rings at the end of the last lecture. The Sun is shining, birds are singing, and teachers are waiting for our research papers. Suddenly the few months at school seem to be of too little time to manage cramming for my exams and finishing my papers. Suddenly I want to have my lectures back only to gain more time for figuring out the whole exam period struggling. I could believe you have a reason to bring your exam friend with you. I could believe there is a deep, a very deep purpose in what you always do, dear semester end. I could believe all of that, but I am a student whose exam period has just begun - and so my feelings stay unchanged – antagonistic towards the bittersweet reality:  

End of semester, what a perfect time to arrive.

End of semester, how I hate you for coming so quick!

B for Brno, B for Bike!

As the Sun brought full colours of the spring to the country, people brought bikes to the streets of Brno. It have never occurred to me how hard it may be to bike through the city centre – until I have brought my own bike to Brno. It’s a beauty – a pink half-track half-road bicycle, brand new from the factory of bike Cadillacs ready to go into action. I have never really been much into pink and this pink lady is the first pink thing I own, but I must admit it does not strike me a little as girlish or barbie-like, rather as a funny recession. And of course I plan to upgrade its very face – drawing black something on the pink body will make the one be even more unique than it is now.

Nonetheless, the first thing that should interest bikers is how useful and how well-running their bikes are. You have plenty of chances to try it out on the roads and tracks of Brno. As there is little space for bikers next to all the cars in the city centre, you can perfectly test your brake action at the lights and acceleration when running down the hilly streets, not mentioning your physical strength when coming back – up those hilly streets. There is a long hilly street like that between my flat and my faculty, and I can tell that my face must be the same as the colour of my bike when cycling to school.

Source: Brnonakole.cz

If anything goes wrong with your two-wheel friend, there is an ocean of bike shops to fix it. There even is the International Bicycle Trade Show and exhibitions taking place once a year, where bikers eagerly tune up their rovers and get the hold of the newest hits. Bike devotees organise events such as the great spring bike ride through the city. If you get into a massive ride of such sort, you better be on bike than on your feet – both cases being a lot of fun, though. Another big thing is the project ‘Bike to work’ – a perfect combination of exercising and releasing stress before gathering it up in your office chair again. 

Source: Dopracenakole.net

 My curiosity also found out that there is the amiable possibility to join cyclotours organised by Masaryk University usually during the spring break, or closer to the end of spring semester. I have never been on such tour, but my instincts whisper that it must be huge fun – cycling across picturesque places with enthusiastic people, preferably on a pink bike to colour up the whole image. 

 To conclude things up, I would say that Brno offers a lot concerning biking, if your interest brings you to the right source of information. Despite the fact that many roads lack side track for cyclists, there is always a crowd of them happy people on two wheels riding across the city. It is not so desperate as it seems though, as there are some tracks worth taking the trip, as the one directing bikers to the lake and further away. When you take it, be careful not to fall, as apart from other bikers on the track, there are also these enjoyable distractions of trees blooming all along the track, birds singing odes to the reflection of the pure blue sky on the Brno lake, the sun shining bright into your face, and a girl on a pink bike!