Emma McCullough from the University of California, Santa Barbara is a scholarship holder of the Fulbright Commission. She is currently spending a research year at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague.

Writing an article on the election for a head of state is something of a novelty for me. Coming from Scotland, we have Queen Elizabeth as our head of state. We have elections to Westminster, to the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, but none for our highest representative of state.

“You’re the first person from Iceland I’ve met.” This is a comment Björn Reynir Halldórsson, a young historian from the University Haskoli Islands in Reykjavík heard a lot when making new friends during his time as an Erasmus student at Charles University in Prague, in the academic year 2011/12.

For many, the Erasmus exchange is too short – especially if they arrive at their host university only for the few short months of the winter semester – and their home university requires them to return for the start of the next term already in January. For these students, the month of December is mostly about preparing for and attending exams. The more lucky ones, allowed to stay longer – be it till the very end of the winter semester in February or even until the end of the summer term in June – can join the various programs of the International and Erasmus Clubs prepared especially for the Christmas season.

Who would have guessed, that in a first floor room of a hospital, tucked away only metres behind Karlovo náměstí, beautiful music would be being produced. But that is exactly the case. The room is the Charvátův sál (Charvát Hall) belonging to the campus of the First Faculty of Medicine of Charles University and the music is coming from the Charles University Chorus (Sbor Univerzity Karlovy). Founded in 2001 by the then Rector of the University, Professor Ivan Wilhelm, it has been conducted by Haig Utidjian since its beginning.

University of Udine (Italy) belongs to universities with a well-known study programme in Czech language. Students from this university visit Charles University frequently, mainly through the Erasmus programme.

Paola Antonelli studies Art History at the University of Chieti (Italy). She decided to spent part of her final year at the Charles University in Prague and joined the Catholic Theological Faculty in October 2011. After the initial search for the best Czech or Czech-Italian topic for her MA thesis, Paola decided to write on the Society of Patriotic Friends of Arts, which was the foundation of the National Gallery in Prague.

The Charles University has been fortunate enough to be able to host some very active Erasmus students, who have, besides the obligatory attending classes, socializing with their Erasmus peers and exploring Prague and the Czech Republic, also found the time to take up an internship or voluntary project while studying in the country.

It’s a tradition of the Erasmus Club at Faculty of Arts to invite the Erasmus students for a Czech Easter Afternoon on one of the Fridays before Easter holidays. This year, the Czech tutors (Jana, Tanja and Ivana) met with about 30 Erasmus students on Friday 30th March to share with them how Czech Easter is celebrated.