Björn Reynir Halldórsson: From Iceland to Prague ****************************************************************************************** * Björn Reynir Halldórsson: From Iceland to Prague ****************************************************************************************** “You’re the first person from Iceland I’ve met.” This is a comment Björn Reynir Halldórsso historian from the University Haskoli Islands in Reykjavík heard a lot when making new fri his time as an Erasmus student at Charles University in Prague, in the academic year 2011/ University had 5 Erasmus students from Iceland last year; an increase from the usual 2 or students normally attending. However it still represents a very small percentage of the 12 came to study at Charles University for that year. There is much more to Björn than just the fact he comes from Iceland. He is one of the lea the Icelandic International Students of History Association (ISHA) and he also delivered a project on Iceland to Czech children as part of the Europe Meets School programme while st And, believe it or not, he met the current president of Iceland for the first time whilst programme at Charles University. We have invited Björn to share his experience with us. Björn, how did it feel to suddenly be perceived as “exotic”? Were you surprised that there Icelandic students at Charles University in Prague? Were you in contact with an other Icel who were at Charles University like you? I got pretty used to it, although it is kind of fun sometimes to feel special. It was amaz people were surprised to meet someone from Iceland. I was not that surprised that there we students from Iceland, as the population of Iceland is only 320,000; we are not everywhere However the good thing about Erasmus is that you meet people from all over the world. I knew that there would probably be two more students travelling to Prague from Iceland fo semester after speaking with the international representative at my home university. I gue number from university with about 15,000 students. I did not go out of my way to contact t the people I met during my stay in Prague, and got to know them instead. I found meeting p friends with people from countries all across the world very exciting. However during my s met another Icelandic student by coincidence at an Erasmus event, and then met two more Ic from Prague Film and TV School (FAMU) at a party held by a mutual friend from Greece. Even though you did not have many Icelandic friends during your year long study at Charles were definitely not alone. It is uncommon for students from such a distant country to arri already knowing some locals, and meeting them and becoming friends is even less likely. Yo one. Did your membership of ISHA help in that respect? Can you tell us a bit about it and member, prior to your coming to Prague? I actually knew one Czech student even before joining ISHA. He was with me in a Danish “Ho 2011 I went to the Annual Conference of ISHA held in Pula, Croatia. There were 6 students University separated into two of the work groups. I obviously made a special effort to get unfortunately I was unable to meet all the students at the conference as over a hundred at all over Europe. This was the second time I had attended an event by ISHA. The first one w seminar in cold Berlin, held before the Czech students joined ISHA. When I got to Prague one of the Czech students I met in Pula, Jiří, picked me up at the ai me the way to my hall of residence, Kolej Hostivař. Jiří helped me with a lot of practical to sort out, I called him my lifesaver during my first few weeks in Prague. I also learnt [ URL "http://www.ffabula.cz/cs/"] , the History students’ organisation at Faculty of Arts went to a few of its events in K4 student club [ URL "http://www.k4klub.org/"] . During your study stay in Prague you participated in several activities offered by ISHA, a many of your ISHA friends. Where did you travel during the year? I went to the autumn seminar in Turku/Abo, Finland at the end of September 2011, and there unfortunately missed the Orientation Week at Faculty of Arts. In April 2012 I went to my f held in Jena, Germany. I carpooled with two Czech students and it only took us 3 hours to and easy. In the meantime I took advantage of living in central Europe and did some travelling. When winter term exams I had some three weeks until the next semester started. I decide to go o Eastern Europe. I went to Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Austria. I staye friends in Osijek, Zagreb and Ljubljana. I also met some friends from the organisation liv and in Beograd. It was probably the worst possible time to travel as it was -20 °C everywh thought I would be used to the cold weather being from Iceland, however it was still above To study History in Iceland must be a very specific experience since your country’s langua parliamentary system has roots extending back to the middle-ages. The population of Icelan as you have told me many of you are at least distantly related. Are there any differences History in Iceland to studying it here in Prague? Studying history in Iceland is not any different to studying it elsewhere. It is based on methodology / theoretical courses, introductory courses about history of Iceland and the W can choose the rest of the courses (about 2/3 of the courses are elective.) Obviously a lo are about Icelandic history but there are also many on World history. Sadly, there are rar about the history of central Europe on offer, so in that sense the difference can perhaps regional. Then there is the obvious factor that it is a small department, so courses that on the teacher and what their specialism. I would say that the majority of History courses at my home university relate to different and 20th century history. For example, we have courses about communism. Surprisingly, ther courses covering the era the Althingi (the Icelandic parliament) was founded. There are al programs in Icelandic medieval studies, for example, one is taught together with other Nor Here one is able to learn more about the medieval period in Scandinavia.   Many students who receive a degree in History go on to teach the subject. During your stay joined the Europe Meets School programme of Erasmus Club at the Faculty of Arts. This gave opportunityto try teaching at a Primary School during the second semester of your Erasmus. this experience? Would I be correct in assuming you would prefer to work and teach at a un research institute, rather than a school in the future? Well, I enjoyed teaching those kids about my country, and they seemed to be very intereste had some experience working with children previously and I found passing my knowledge on t rewarding. However, I am still not sure what job I want to do in the future. The good thing about stu is it does not lead you into a specific job category, but instead opens lot of doors, with opportunities to choose from. For now, I am just enjoying gaining more information and exp the working world. Nevertheless I do like to contribute to the expansion of our knowledge, think I would prefer working at a university or a research institute. Or perhaps I’ll do something completely different like Michael Palin (from Monty Python) a comedian. (Well, on the other hand, I am not that funny…) My next question is to do with the visit we received from the President of Iceland, Mr. Ól Grímsson, at Charles University in spring 2012. Was it strange to meet your Head of State Republic rather than in Iceland? He greeted me in English rather than Icelandic, which certainly was weird. However, it was time I met our Head of State, but it was my first time meeting our current president. I ha predecessor, Mrs. Vigdís Finnbogadóttir. My father was her secretary in the early 80’s and a house just next to my grandmother’s. I think she is much more interesting than our curre as she was the first woman in the world ever to be elected as president in a democratic el At the moment I am not very fond of our current president. I didn’t like his campaign befo last summer. However, it was certainly interesting that he visited Charles University at t studied there. Last question. When the Erasmus Club of Faculty of Arts organized the trip to the Brewery Popovice and the small village of Hrusice, you were one of the few Erasmus students who we privy with the name of Josef Lada, amongst others a painter, illustrator and author of chi specialised in depicting the Czech traditional village life. How is it that a History stud knows a Czech artist, very popular in Czech Republic, but much less well known beyond its Well, I didn’t really know the name before coming to the Czech Republic, but I had read “G Švejk” (written by Jaroslav Hašek) and was very fond of Lada’s illustrations in the book. added a lot to the reader’s mental image of the characters. I think that Lada’s illustrations convey a kind of warmth in the characters, and his drawi of the various holidays and seasonal traditions (popular in the Czech Republic as Christma wishes cards) also give quite a romantic view of life in Czech villages and the countrysid where everyone seems to be happy. I almost want to start a good pub fight now, just speaki Lada’s most popular works is called a Pub Fight). Thank you for the interview.