My Town

Advantages and disadvantages of country life and city life
The countryside is more peaceful and quiet. We can find here more flowers and more green areas. You breathe there better air, there is no air pollution. Countryside could be better for children, their health and grow, because of family-houses with big gardens. You can go walking to the nature and breathe fresh air.

But people usually must commute long distances every day, it spends lot of time. There are only small shops and if you need something special you have to go to the city. In countryside, there is mo cultural life.

In a city, we can find here more job offers. There are big department stores and we can buy everything we want. There are more people and more traffic lights, so it is safer.
But there is big noise and greater criminality.


Where do you live? Your native town or village
I was born in Ostrava on 22nd June 1990. Ostrava is the 3rd biggest city in the Czech Republic and its population is about 330 000 people. It is an administrative, cultural, education, entertainment and industrial centre. It is situated in north-west of the Czech Republic – it is far away from the capital city, but very close to borders of Slovakia and Poland. Industry branches in Ostrava consist of steel industry with steelworks (ocelárny) and blast furnaces (vysoké pece), metallurgical industry, chemical industry and brewery (pivovar). In the past there were numerous coal mines, but they have been closed down (Mine Museum in Landek, Mine Michal – national heritage). For the first time, the city was mentioned in the 13th century. The most famous music festival in the Czech Republic is Colours of Ostrava which take place in Ostrava every year. Janáčkův Máj is the festival of classical music. Factories, cars and traffic cause bad air conditions and air and water pollution. but there are many shopping facilities and department stores, education centres (universities and secondary schools), more job opportunities, but higher unemployment rate, cinemas, theatres (Antonín Dvořák’s Theatre, Jiří Myron’s Theatre, Petr Bezruč’s Theatre, the Puppet Theatre and Aréna), sport facilities (Bazaly football stadium, Vítkovice ČEZ Aréna – multifunctional arena for hockey and concerts, tennis courts, swimming pools), parks, pubs and clubs especially on Stodolní Street. Our transport consists of buses, trams, trolleybuses, train but no underground because of mines. There are at least 4 train stations in the city and 1 airport – the Leoš Janáček Airport. The motorway is only a topic for the future. Our places of interest:  St. Wenceslav Church - the oldest church from 13th century, The Old Town Hall on Masaryk Square, The Old Wooden Church = St. Catherine’s Church - it burnt down, nowadays replica, Silesian-Ostrava Castle - place of cultural events (exhibitions, Shakespeare summer festival), The New Town hall - built in 1930s, there is a lift paternoster and the ZOO. Places of interest in our region: Beskydy Mountains, in Štramberk -the Old Square and tower TRUBA, cave Šipka - there were found some remains/pozůstatky/ of ancient people and their activity, Kopřivnice – museum of Tatra cars and lorries, Hukvaldy - birthplace of Leoš janáček, ruins of the castle, statue of little cunning/mazaný/ fox, Pustevny in the Beskydy Mountains - the statue of pagan/pohanský/ God Radegast, Helfštýn - ruins of the chateau/hrad; mn.č. chateaux/, Opava-Silesian University, Rožnov (the wooden city) - Open Air Museum, CHKO Poodří, CHKO Beskydy - natural reserves, places protected by our republic


Describe the house or apartment you live in
We live in one-family house with two floors, an attic (a garret) and a cellar.
in our cellar there are 4 rooms including wash-kitchen, storage rooms and a room for our cats. They have there their beds and bowls. Downstairs, there are an entrance hall, a kitchen, a dining room, a sitting room, a bedroom, a bathroom and a pantry. Upstairs, there is a bedroom, a sitting room, a study room, a bathroom and my bedroom.


Describe your room
When I open the door and enter my room, I can see a small blue carpet on the floor. On the right side I can see a book-case, a chest of drawers and few shelves. On the left side we could see a bed with a bedside table and a lamp, a book-shelf with books and a PC-table with a screen and a printer. Then we could see a big wardrobe, a window with a flower on the window-sill and a writing table with a table-lamp opposite us. The furniture is made of light wood. I could use my wheelchair when I am working on my PC or when I am writing anything on my writing-table. A beige painting hangs above my bed.

Household chores
Every family must keep their households clean. So people, including our family, must do uncomfortable activities like vacuum cleaning, wiping out the floor, dusting, washing, ironing clothes, cleaning windows, and so on. My tasks are vacuuming, hanging clothes and dusting. My mother wipes the floor and irons clothes. We also use Roomba and Scooba which are mobile robots helping us with wiping and vacuuming.

Housing in GB
British houses are usually smaller than American houses. Many people love old houses, which are more expensive than modern ones.  British people love gardening; there are lot of gardens in Britain. Be careful when you are using words flat (B.E.) and apartment (A.E.). Typical British family-house consists of two or three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs, a sitting room, a dining room and a kitchen downstairs. Home owners borrow money from a “building society” and pay back a little every month. Council houses are rented state-owned homes for British people. Tower blocks are high-rise council flats, which were built after WW II. Allotment is a piece of land rented from the local council to grow vegetables and flowers if you don’t have any garden. There are not enough homes for young people, who got just married and want to start family. It is quite impossible to find cheap housing for rent – it is a real problem for poor people and unemployed.

You can live in many types of housing: for example big and small houses, old cottages /chalupy/, bungalows, mansions/venovské sídlo/ or new high-rise buildings/věžák/ with flats, detached houses/samostatné domy/ in expensive suburbs/předměstí/ and quite far from town centre and near to country-side, semi-detached houses /dvojdomek/, Timber-framed houses, terraced houses/řadové domky/ and blocks of flats which are mostly in town centre. If you don’t have money, you can live in a mobile home or caravan.


Housing in the US    
When people leave school, the move away to shared apartments or studio apartments – they could do their own cooking, cleaning and so on, they share it with other students, but it is cheaper. They usually go to the family house for weekends. Many young people live in apartment blocks, but young married couples often move to suburbs. If a family’s income goes up, they usually move to bigger houses with 2 garages, swimming pool and everything they could want because owning your own home is a part of the American Dream. Condominium (shortened condo) is home that is situated in the city in an apartment building and some parts are yours and some are under joint ownership. Housing far away from their work is cheaper, so they commute long distances by car, train or bus every day.