After 3 weeks

I have really enjoyed my time here - I do not regret at all coming to Czech Republic, all I wish is that I could have had the chance to stay a little bit longer. I think one month goes by too quickly but of course I need to get back to work and all that stuff.
 I think one of greatest things about coming here to me is the fact that I did not really know anything about this country and almost none of my friends have ever visited this place.
I think it made it feel even more like an adventure - not knowing what was waiting for me.

Weekend in Vienna was great - we met some of my friends I had not seen in a while, did some partying, went to a Christmas market and saw some beautiful places, also the apartment we rented was more than great and the location of it was perfect because it was in the centre, right next to an undergroud station. Magical city, especially close to Christmas. In Vienna I fell in love again.
So many things have changed in less than a month, it is crazy.

Vienna

Feeling like a hippie     

The following week back in Prostejov we did only sewing and I finally got my dress done!
I am quite happy with the results, especially because I barely needed to ask for help when making it - I think only once when the zipper got stuck. Also - I have never made a dress this quickly!
I think it was easier this time because I did not have such huge pressure put on me to make it perfect - I feel this way often in Finland. But it does not mean I did not try my best making it!
Also the fact that I had just finished my dress in Omnia helped me because I could still remember what I had learned from my teacher.
Last weekend we went to Bucovice where our new friend from school, Marika, lives.
We spent the entire weekend at her place - evenings we went to the second largest city of Czech Republic - Brno, Friday we did some partying again and saturday we went to the cinema.
After the movie we went to a restaurant where you sit on the floor, smoke shisha, drink tea and relax - you could even sleep there if you wanted to. I wish we had places like that in Finland, and if we do - please let me know.
Marika and her friends were so nice - happy to have met them! 

Marika, me and Sonja at the Brno Olympia mall

Now I have been struggling with a bad flu and I could not go to school on yesterday.Today I went there because I did not want spend another day inside, and managed to learn how to make idea pages on a computer. It was interesting and quite simple.
Most of the time here I have had fun - still I have not become an expert opening these extremely difficult doors, still I believe here the customer service is quite embarrassing at times and after this time I still I am not a fan of cakes for lunch but I feel lucky to have come here.

Needed to get a man to open the door for us. :D

Only one more week to go - I hope I will get rid of this cold soon!
Tomorrow we have another interview for the local magazine and also we need to have a photoshoot to get proper pictures of our dresses!
I can not believe all of this is soon over already.

Me and Sonja feeling like teenagers again drinking champagne outside in Brno

Here we make patterns on dolls

First 1,5 weeks

First a brief description - I am Anni-Siina "Annis" Ojala, I am 22 years old and I am studying my third - and the last - year of clothing design in Omnia Ammattiopisto, Espoo, Finland.
Now I am being an exchange student in Prostejov, Czech Republic and this blog is about my experiences here.

So... we arrived here with my classmate Sonja on the 4th of November.
Also two of our teachers were here with us for the first couple of days.
We started school already on the 5th and the day started with an interview for a local magazine.
The first week was so full of information and people trying to make us feel welcome that is was just overwhelming and a bit too much at once but we were still feeling excited.

We were given a project to do:

Making a prototype 

We have to make a dress, a moodboard, take photographs and make a portfolio about everything.
A few topics to build our project on were given to us - abstract, under the surface, Juliet and Czech national costumes.

Sonja chose abstract and I chose Juliet. (Juliet from Romeo and Juliet)
For me Juliet brings a thought of something very romantic and feminine but still girly - because Juliet was just a teenager desperately in love.
So I decided to design my dress with these ideas.

The most interesting things about our school here so far has been the facts that here students do not take measurements and calculate and make their own patterns to fit them or their customers perfectly but they make their patterns on dolls that are similar size.
I did this for the first time and for the first time my prototype fit me on the first try. Interesting.
Also here students focus more on arts and design - being creative - but in our school in Espoo the most important thing is that clothes have to be perfectly sewn and patterns nicely done.
In Designu a Mody Prostejov school your personal ideas and the will to experiment seems to be the most important thing.

Enjoying Prague

Sonja and mr. Shark in Prague

At the end of the busy first week we decided to head to the beautiful capital city - Prague.
We saw the amazing old architecture, a torture museum - yes, we wanted be sophisticated and go to a museum so we chose that one.
We walked around the city, did some shopping, enjoyed cheap beer, great food and even partied until morning with some German tourists we met. I have no bad comments about Prague - I loved our stay there - we had so much fun!

I am trying to make this short but we have been here for 1,5 weeks already and so many things have happened!
We have met many new people within this time and we have enjoyed our project so far.

Prototype fitted perfectly!

Negative surprises: many people here seem to stress quite a lot for some reason (without taking away the fact that they are nice), here for people it is normal to have cake for lunch - yes, cake... customer service is mostly bad and the doors here are incredibly difficult and superANNOYING to open or close but I guess practise makes perfect, haha.

Bowling and beer with some students of our school

Positive surprises: everything is cheap, beer is the best I have had, many students want to spend their spare time with us and we have been so efficient with our project that today a teacher was wondering what are we going to do on the last week - another dress maybe...?
Also I am really glad and happily surprised that living with another woman can be so much fun! We have not had any arguments or nothing and Sonja is more fun than I ever knew! I have shared the same classroom with her for two years but in two weeks I have gotten to know her more than ever - and only positive new things!

I am already making my actual dress. It is not yet finished but possibly next week.
Tomorrow we are heading to Vienna, Austria for the weekend with Sonja.
I am feeling so happy right now! Even though this computer is frustratingly slow and I had to learn how to use a Czech keyboard just write this, haha.

This is how far I am with my dress today