Kiksun

I have passed final / state exams and now I am done with University =) I am psychologist =) Hurraaaaaaaaaa!!!!

I have passed final / state exams and now I am done with University =) I am psychologist =) Hurraaaaaaaaaa!!!!

...is my treasure.

For those who understand slovak very well:

Som si pozerala nejaky damsky casopis, v ktorom predstavovali trendy doplnky tohto obdobia. Jednym z nich bola penazenka a pod obrazkom bol napis: "kaki s dvoma cvokmi"
Velmi lakave =)

Hehe..tak som sa zasmiala =)

Always when I have to write it down I wonder whether weather is spelled weather or whether;-))

Yesterday it was still very warm. Today it is raining a bit and snowing a lot and everyting is melting even more so I guess I will put some plastic bags around my shoes when I will go out with Dante (and he will be packed as well..hihi)
But back to the weather. Tomorrow we expect arctic cold directly from Scandinavia. And I take it as a personal message for me. "If Kristina doesn´t go to Scandinavia, comes Scandinavia to Kristina" I thnk it is very nice of Scandinavia that he/she/it has sent some cold cause I don´t want to face the weather shock when I am back. So I am very thankful =)

And the final countdown has started...

..with phrase.."It´s too good to be true"

It is saturday again. I was outside running with Dante again. It was warm again. I usually come to some revolutionary (hmm) thoughts when I´m running in nature. But not today. I ran too fast ;-)

It is still 18th of januray here. 23.14 show my watch. But in Bulgaria it is already 19th 00.14 and it means one very very special person has a very very special day =)

I have to admit that I am not a huge fan of the socialistic architecture which is very common in Slovakia. But sometimes even such a grey "thing" looks nice. This time - thanks to sunset...

  

A classmate of mine has surname: Angel. I consider it very cool!

Today I was running in the morning in the near forest (if we can call it like that). The weather was like in a late spring (just without leaves and flowers).  I was thinking a bit about nature and human beings and our respect towards nature and life in general. How we are worried about global warming in these days but still do not change our behaviour. Farmers are praying for a change so plants survive and I came to one conclusion which I would sum up with one sentence (so I basically quote myself):

I pray everyday. My lifestyle is my pray.

This is what happens when my brother cleans a room. He forgets rags on lamps etc. But seriously this time the rag ended in a very interesting shape. Can u see it also?

Dante is very funny right after he wakes up. He is not very much aware of the world around him..so he just walks around trying to get back into the reality.

I am missiiiiing Sweden and ACTIVE and the office... Aaa..today I feel it very intense! I would be able to pack all my stuff and go there tomorrow.

Some days ago I watched news and we were told that Slovakia wanted to follow swedish example. Sweden wants to be independent from oil untill year 2050. All the cars, machines etc working on another source of power. Nice.

And Slovaks are very fast. From yesterday Russia stopped all the oil supplies because of some conflicts with Belarus. Since Russia is our main and the only source we get oil from, we are cut off it. Our own supplies are enough for 73 days which is more than 10 weeks. Experts say that we do not need to be worried, that the problem will be solved out very soon.

I would suggest to start searching for alternative sources. This could work like wake up call! 
OK..I know it takes more time than 10 weeks. More than years but still...I would really appreciate if our country started doing long term decisions finally. The same with schools. Our school system is going down.  The salaries for teachers are so low and the conditions are so bad that there are no new, young teachers entering the system. Only the old ones, many of them burnt out are left, classes have many pupils, the working methods are from the 1st republic. BUT the changes would cost lots of money. So I ask. Doesnt it cost too much now, that all a bit educated people are leaving the country, not enough teachers cause gaps in education which leads to early drop out of students, criminility etc. I really do not want to draw it black here, but I think some radical, maybe high cost but long term changes are neccessary in Slovakia.

A friendship comes with time or with a sudden smile..
(Pam Brown, 1928)

My irrational fear. Yes it is irrational so it is not so easy to understand but I would like to. I do not have any bug fobia. I can let bees and wasps to sit on my finger. They can fly around me while I am eating. No fear. That´s why I really do not understand why I was not able to touch another bug (you know that one which starts stinking when bein in danger) which was trying to get out of our appartement, clmibing window, fallin down, climbing again. It wasn´t any tarantula or huge huge cockroach. I felt sorry for the buggy but I was afraid just to come and take it out. First I had to get a huge towel, keep distance from the bug, then somehow take it very fast and throw it away from balcony (it is warm outside so it will not freeze). I was sure it would not bite me, the maxmum damage would be a bad smell which is most probably not that bad and does not last for a long time... What was I afraid of?

I am still amazed by the play I saw yesterday. I really can not find the english name of the play but it was written by french writer Georges Feydeau and my translation from slovak language would be: "And thus she got stuck on me" which is for sure wrong translation.

Slovak actors are really good at theater acting. Yesterday they were unbelievably natural, spontaneous, they enjoyed during the play and they radiated the joy towards the audience. I believe that they had lots of fun during practicing. One would like to join them. I wish I could go more often to the theater. I think one of the "things" I miss in Sweden are slovak actors. So from now on every visit of Slovakia will include going to see some theater piece.

And one never knows..maybe one day I will join some theater group. I think I owe it to myself...

It is already 2007 so I am a bit late but I have my reasons. As said better later than never I am going to sum up my 2006 here. By one sentece: this year was a year of finishes and new starts. And now month by month:

January:
I had my last University exam and except of the thesis everything was done.
I learnt that not everything I think is the best for me, IS really the best for me.

February:
When I look into my aganda I do not see any traveling or a huge task. I just found an appointment with Felicia from MOTDRAG - a magazine of the swedish temperance organisation. We (the volunteers at EGTYF -I am aware of the name change - office) were interviewed. The main topic was of course European Voluntary Service. Hmm..to be honest I did not like the result. It was too cut, the text would never motivate me to go abroad as a volunteer. The intention with the article got lost somewhere on the way.

March:
The best preparatory team meeting I have ever had. Kadri, Linn, Marcus and me met in Berlin and prepared the seminar: Prejudice is hidden, tolerance is transparent. We had lots of fun from the first minute we met. Except of fun, we were really productive and prepared a very special seminar.

I took part at the EGTYF board meeting in Hamburg. I felt very good there. And can not forget the basketball game. Pictures from the game speak for everything.


The preparations for the summer bus tour and the congress have seriously started.

April:
After being twice in Germany (in March) I went home to Slovakia to the NOM congress, fixed my thesis things and went back to Sweden to go to Ukraine to take part in a very special EGTYF seminar. Except of the cold in the building there was nothing to complain about. The atmosphere was incredible. The reason for that I see in a very good relations between prep.team members and a great involvement of participants. VERY SPECIAL!!!!

The bus tour and congress preparations are going on.

May:
EGTYF EC committe met in Orebro. One of the results of that meeting was my nomination for the vice president of IOGT International. I remember the exact day and the whole situation when I got a phone call about it.  I was just taking this picture...


In the end of May I went to Slovakia again to carry out the slovak part of my thesis research. News paper analysis and focus groups gave me a lot. I realized that I really liked the topic of the thesis and that I could do a European tour with the focus groups cause I just loved listetning to the discussions and facilitating them.

And the bus tour is being planned =)

June:
The theoretical part of the thesis is done.

The congress preparations are really intense.

July:
Office took a day off and went for a picknick (or how to spell it). It was very very needed to get out of all the congress talks and papers and writings and just enjoy the perfect swedish weather and strawberries.

My parents came to visit me. I hope they had a nice time. One day I was playing a swedish - slovak interpreter and it was fun. I decided to do something to improve my swedish as soon as I have more time for that.

Congress preparations are finishing and Bus tour started. With lots of improvisation and flexibility, with great bunch of people we got on the road...

The Congress was unforgettable. Rush (for me), lack of sleep, many friends, great programme, new experience, surprising reactions of some people (positively surprising), support of strangers (relative strangers since we all are a part of one family)...all these left lots of impressions on me.

August
Still the Congress..EGTYF has changed name (except of many other things)
IOGT International elections. Getting elected. Expectations and excitement.

Chill out after the Congress. Bye byes to people I spent almost 12 month with. Saying bye to Madlena who has enormously contributed to my personal growth.

Holiday in Croatia with the best friend of mine. Just few days but very rich on events and experience. In four days I managed to see mountains, swim in the sea, visit  wonderful lakes, meet Ruzas friends and family, roller skate, go to a cinema, be sick, get better..

Back to Sweden. Alone. Working a bit in the office. Doing swedish media analysis for the thesis. Getting a bit into swedish elections., meeting Maik - the first one of the next period volunteers and by this meeting starting my new/old life - meaning doing sports: basketball, volleyball as I used to do in "old" times in Slovakia (I really missed this part of my life)

September
The other two volunteers arrived - Maja and Tiina and the new adventures have started.

First ACTIVE board meeting. Getting know each other.

Me being very busy with the thesis...

October
I see in my agenda that I attended an UNF seminar and presented ACTIVE there. It was just half an hour activity but I really enjoyed. So I decided to mention it here.

I finished swedish focus groups for the thesis. Now all the discussions are done.

I wrote the statement on behalf of IOGT International. Something new I have never done before. It was fun.

The first IOGT Int. meeting in Copenhagen filled me with a really nice feeling and enthusiasm. I cant wait to be done with all my studies to be able to start working on my tasks on 100%.

November
Ufff...the most busy month of the whole year. I managed to analyze all the focus groups.
Finished reports in the office. Was in Slovakia, Brussels, Helsinki and then went to Slovakia again. I think I mentioned all the events in my blog already.

I also had the greatest birthday =)

I left ACTIVE office for two month to focus on my studies. Was a bit sad but as a very good friend of mine said: I have never left ACTIVE which is true so there was no need to be sad.

December
The thesis is done and handed in.
Xmas with a really cute ARTIFICIAL Xmas tree
Going for one week holiday - seminar in Estonia. Great decision to go there. Great feeling to be there =)

Seems the 2006, the people who enetered my life during this year, the people who spent a huge part of it with me, all the events just gave me a lot and I am very thankful for everything that has happened.

To make Dante happy is really easy. I just left our appartement for 1 minute and when I came back he was happy like I was gone for 2 weeks...

The best thing is that I am happy when Dante is happy so I actually make myself happy by leaving the appartement for one minute.

No..I never liked them. We had a masque ball every year at school, at all the "pioneer" camps I have been to..and I had only troubles with the masque all the time. Since I did not want to have a classical masque which was either princess or clown, I had complicated masques which were always falling apart during the ball or I was a witch several times which never won cause it was not pretty enough.

When I read in the programme for Estonian seminar that we would have a masque ball - I really did not pay attention to that and I have not brought any masque. BUT..those who know me probably know that I am not able to ignore things and not to take part. So I was thinking how could I improvise. On the day of the masque ball during lunch I found Xmas tree lights on the wall as a decoration and I got the idea - I will be a Xmas tree. I took the lights, I plugged me even into electricity =) Was fun!!! (If anybody has a picture of that please send it to me and I will publish it)

The topic of the masque ball was "World Village"..hmm how to fit in among all the maroccans, russians, americans, indians as a Xmas tree. We had to have a reason for our masque. And I found it.

I was a Xmas tree representing Xmas. Holiday known around the whole world (almost) althought not celebrated around the whole world. But generally it is considered a holiday where all the porblems are forgotten, all the bad things forgiven, when people, families meet together and cherish a moment in peace. And this spirit I wanted to bring to the "world village".

And btw..I won =)

I promised to publish an abstract of my lecture about gender so here it comes. Feel free to use it or contact me if u have any questions or comments =)

Difference between gender and sex

Sex as a biological construct compared to gender as a social contruct. Why do we mix them? Is it important to differentiate between sex and gender?

 

Theories of gender stereotypes

There are different approaches to gender. Almost all of them support the idea of gender division. What if gender would not matter in our society? Would it work out like that? Or is this division crucial for having a system in our lives? Is it important for effective functioning of the society?

 

Sources of gender stereotypes

If a person decided to "violate" all the traditional gender roles and expectations? Would he/she survive in peace? Is it possible to change gender stereotypes by bringing up children in untraditional way? What is stronger? Media or family?

 

Need of gender stereotypes

Can we give up our gender schemes? Do we need them from our personal point of view? Could we understand the world without them? How would society look like if we were not divided into men and women?

I think I can´t imagine better end of 2006 and beginnig of 2007 than I had. I mean better for me. Of course I am convinced that many people found great ways how to spent their last week of the year. I spent it with people I love and care about, doing things I consider meaningful, learning and having fun.

I liked the programme. I really enjoyed having lecture about gender, I liked the other lectures that made me think ( for example language and prejudice). I liked the evening events. I liked dancing with Maik, I liked crazy Santa and Snegurka =), fun Amercan, I liked being Xmas tree and all the spontaneous crazyness which popped up from time to time...

So I want to say THANK YOU all who organized this event and who have been there..I feel I have gained lots of strength to continue and develope our organisations.. 

A favourite question people in Slovakia ask me is when I am leaving to Sweden again. I have been asked today too. I answered that I go on 1st of February. A long paus followed and then I heard: "You are leaving our beautiful Slovakia"
Hmmm...and here we go again. I have written a blog related to my attitude towards nationality already. So I can just repeat what I claimed there already. The world is my home. I am not leaving  from anywhere. I am  going to a place where I can realize what I believe in and contribute by my tiny part to make my home - the world a better place to live in.