Between terms

I decided to write a post in English this time. Since some people asked me about this. However, posts on my blog are written as I go and they consist mostly of random memories, which I want to preserve.

It is going to be about my summer in Czech republic.

Highlight of my summer are two weeks spent camping at castle Templstejn. We mostly worked in the mornings and played in the afternoons and it was wonderful. When I think about it, both were mostly consisted of carrying heavy objects up the hill.

Work was reasonably hard. We built stairs to a tower, destroyed some plants - but we had to be careful, since the castle is in national park and there are some rare trees and flowers, we carried stones for wall...

The castle was built in 13^th century by Knights Templar as the name suggests.It was then owned by various aristocratic families, both rich and poor. It has really big core, where people lived. It was built to get an influence in the area not for military reasons. Outer newer wall is not finished. It literary has a gap in it. Nobody knows whether they planned to build there; gate, tower or something else. They probably decided that it is pointless and let it be. Later the castle was abandoned, because it burned out and the owners moved to new castle in more appropriate place.
It was also occasionally used by bandits.

And in 19th and 20th century some festivals and balls took place there. I really don't know why. There is not a single flat place and it is about 12 km from nearest town.
When we wanted to dance on the final night we had to climb up the hill. The ball on the final night was more of a celebration of successful camp. We spent most afternoon cooking and getting ready for it.
Mountain are always great place to be.

I have been to Beskydy with mathmos mostly from Charles University in Prague. We made some trips to nearby hills, sang and relaxed. Cottage, there we stay, was just above ski slope. However there wasn't any flat place to play frisbee.

 

I meet Czech mathmos quite often. I met few friends in Brno. They organize competition for young high school mathmos, not unlike the one I occasionally organize. However, it is more introductory and it is intended mostly fo younger students. They were about to organize a camp for participants. They told me to come there and to tell something about Cambridge and study abroad. So I did. I believe that it is important to spread these informations. Czech students are mostly afraid of or uncertain about study abroad.
I believe they liked the talk, since vast majority of participants came to it despite the fact that some of them returned from night game just few hours ago. I even saw few, who skipped breakfast, but came to talk. They asked various questions to find out more. Then I gave them sample test for interview at Cambridge. Most of them just started to solve it straight away.

Then I went to Bohemian-Moravian Highlands for a fencing sessions.

It took place in areal of abandoned pit mine, it is one of my favourite places. It was attended by frencing groups of Brno and Ostrava and also SKUB, which is also my club. SKUB fight with swords, practice old techniques. It also make public shows. The session was mostly about theatre this time. We studied basic acting and how to create fencing show.
I wondered what is the best way to learn language and I also looked for useful hobby, which is not based entirely on logical thinking. So I started to learn Russian, because it is Slavic language, which makes understanding much easier.
Also camp of Historical Seminar took place. HS is a competition for high school students. It arised from necessity to make history fun and to create a base for community of people interested in history. I am not involved in organizing camp, since I left CR before it happened. This was the very first camp we had. And feedback was very positive. Some people were surprised that the seminar is ran by mathmos.