Third year Bachelor's student
My Student Exchange in Czech: Buddy System
In my third post I will tell you about the Buddy System and student events at Tomas Bata University in Zlin, a small Czech city where I spent my exchange semester. You can also read my first and second post about my student exchange in the Czech republic.
The first person I met in Zlin was my buddy Marek. He was super friendly. Marek helped me with my suitcases and to settle in the dorm. Later I met him many times, because Marek is the president of the Buddy System and he organised a lot of events for us.
So, what does the Buddy System do? During the first few days, we had a Welcome week. The Buddy System organized some parties, like a bowling night, tour de pub, walking with dogs, trip to Czech city Olomouc. Moreover, these guys organized some trips to such amazing places as Budapest and the Tatra Mountains in Slovakia. In my opinion, their best idea was to go to Auschwitz and Krakow. The message of the trip was to remember the terrors of the past to prevent them from happening in the future. I guess it's really important to give as many people as possible the chance to understand and learn about our past. Students could realize the true horrors of the Holocaust, and challenge prejudice, discrimination and hatred today. Unfortunately, I didn’t participate in these trips, but all international students were really impressed.
My favourite event was Country Presentations.They were held every two weeks and intended for both international and Czech students. It was a competition between 2 teams from 2 different countries about who would prepare a better presentation about their home country and their traditional food.
The Russian team cooked pelmeni, okroshka, blini, told a lot about Russian traditions and culture of Saint Petersburg, because almost all Russians were from this city. Our rivals were students from Turkey. They also gave a great talk and cooked delicious things, so as a result of student voting, the score was equal. Someone even said that this was the best competition, because the Turks and Russians were very emotional and they were engaging to watch.
I think the coolest presentation was the one the French guys made. Although there were only eight of them, they managed to cook a lot of fantastic food and prepare a really interesting presentation overnight. I suppose the reason was their incredible pride in France. They made traditional crepes, chocolate desserts, and baked vegetables. They also brought French wine, cheese, baguettes and made a huge bowl of fresh vegetable and tuna salad for a hundred students (imagine how expensive it was). My French friend Arisoa said that they bought too much food, so they had to take a taxi to the dorm, where they were going to cook all the dishes. As you already know, Zlin is a small city, so it was really astounding. They wanted to bake vegetables, so by false pretences they got into a dormitory, which had an oven in its kitchen. All dishes they cooked were packed in containers collected all over the campus dorms and successfully delivered to the presentation hall in suitcases. At the beginning of their presentation, they sang the French national anthem Marseillaise (by the way, one day they even sang it in a bar). So they created a real feast! In the end of the term we voted for the best country presentation. It’s easy to guess that the French won!
Moreover, the Buddy System organized a cool Goodbye Party. The dress code for the event was the style of the seventies. I suppose it was a really great idea, because people at the party looked very cool and the photos were fantastic. In the photo you can see our outfits!
Summing up, the Buddy System has done a lot for us, exchange students. Without those friendly guys, we didn’t have so much fun, we would feel lonely in a new place and we wouldn’t get acquainted with the culture and food of other countries so closely. Now I’ve applied to become a buddy in our university, because I want to help foreign students and introduce them to a lot of interesting things here at ITMO and in St.Petersburg.