Marketing is fun

I saw an advertising banner today: Cinderellas, forget about the glass slipper. It's important how the jeans fit you. So I wonder ... what kind of party it had to be if she lost her jeans there.

Getting up early makes me stupid

This getting up at 6 a.m. has strong negative influence on me. I found out that my intellectual abilities decrease by 50% at least on Mondays. Too bad because it is my intellectually most demanding day. I have two examples to document it.

(1) Dialogue with Marťa (who also got up at 6 a.m.)
Me: What?
Marťa: What?
Me: What “what”?
Marťa: What „what what“?
Both having the WTF expression on our faces.

(2) Me, Marťa and Jana ... while studying economics we started to discuss different alphabets used in post–Soviet countries and we wrote down the names of Azerbaijan (AZƏRBAYCAN or something like that. I am not yet an expert on this country) and Tajikistan (ТОҶИКИСТОН).
Jana: Write also Armenia.
Me: АРМЕНИЯ
Jana: Well, I meant in Armenian letters of course.
Me: Oops, error.
After some time thinking, puzzled.... I don’t know some of the letters.
Checking some Armenian coins....
Me: I know why. It is called Hayastan in Armenian, I was trying to write Armenia. So now I know how to write it: ՀԱՅԱՍՏԱՆ
How could I forget something like that!

Please start using Firefox

I've just spent one hour on trying to write the special signs in a way, that IE displays them properly, while Firefox showed them correctly after first attempt :/

Attention please!

So watch some video and don't bother me with your proposals, OK? I'm not in mood for dating till ...ehmmm ... 2008.

It’s Monday!

I got one point in the Economics lesson again. That makes two points in total. Fifty four more and I pass this subject. Exciting, right?
Three Mondays survived, eight more to go.

Cultural differences II

This one is probably more interesting for guys. The original name is "Find the German". Hahaha.

Outsourcing

It feels like the amount of my work is growing by geometric progression. One more PowerPoint about cellulite or wrinkles and I will start screaming! It is already more than two months that I spend mostly with translations. Give me some Excel sheet to analyze please !!! I am really desperate. Therefore I decided to outsource some of the work.
I offer: 500-1000 Korun českých per PowerPoint, according to the number of slides and technical details provided + extra bonus for shitty topic like cellulite. The translation doesn't have to be perfect. You can skip the most tricky parts and I will also provide you with consultations and some support materials.
Requirements: Czech or Slovak native
This is a wonderful opportunity for you! You will find out how the skin works and how to take care about it. You will learn a lot of new impressive words (e.g. innocuousness, ubiquitous, cutaneous...). Leave me a comment if you want to earn some extra money :)

Bronze for the Czech team

Eventhough this was the most typical picture from Torino, Czech team won today :) Surprise!

Yes, she made it :)

Katka got the gold medal. This was probably for sure her last chance ever. Her daughter Lucinka was waiting in the finish area.

My current life

Yesterday:
8:30 – 13:45 work
14:30 – 19:30 school
That means leaving home at 7:30 and coming back at 20:30
Today:
9:00 – 17:15 work
18:00 – 19:30 school

It is a bit tiring schedule, especially if you have to watch the ice-hockey quarter finals till midnight :)
Good points about today: I could sleep till 7 a.m. I had time to have a lunch.
I still have no plan for tomorrow. I should organise following events into my schedule.
9:00 test (approximately 2 hours)
9:15 lesson (I guess it can be postponed to 11 or 12:45)
7 hours at work (anytime)
creating draft version of the presentation for next week + send it to other team members
Well, I can be a time management master but still I see no option of doing all this unless I call to work tomorrow and pretend to be sick.
Saturday:
returning books to the library (no chance during working days)
preparation for the Monday test

So now you know. Imagine my mum today morning asking:
Will you be at home today afternoon?
What would you answer? I admit, I lost my self-control and started to scream.

Another Monday survived

Only nine more Mondays like this. Great!
I got one point during the Economics lesson. Fifty five more and I pass this subject :))) (note my deep irony in this post)

ECTS = extra cruel troublesome system

First week of the semester is over. First semester in the ECTS system started. Not much good news. Each subject has a detailed calculation on how many hours should be spent on it. I wonder how they counted it. The major change is that teachers really want us to spend that much time on their subjects.
I have 5 subjects according to the recommended study plan. The total time calculated is following: 3x156+182+78=728. The semester is 13 weeks long. That makes it 56 hours per week. Oops, I thought. I have to count also the exam period +3 other weeks. Then I already need to prepare for the State exam (which is also according to the recommended study plan). 728/16=45,5 This is still more than legal weekly working hours! What about my social life? And what about those 20 hours per week that I work?
Yes, I feel a bit under pressure.
No, I will not have free weekends to relax, because I will have a test every Monday.
Let’s go for a coffee or for a beer sometimes ... I will have a free evening ... at the end of June.

Блядь

Unbelievable. I always thought that the people at department of Russian language are quite sensible and easy-going. I changed my opinion today. After yesterday’s traveling there and back I came again to take the exam.
Teacher: but I cannot sign you this confirmation that you speak Russian well enough to study there.
Me: Why not?
Teacher: We have the internal policy that we approve only people that passed the Bachelor exam.
Me: Well, people that passed the Bachelor exam don’t need this confirmation, because their results are tracked in the system.
Teacher: I can confirm that you speak Russian but not at this official form.
Me: I cannot apply without the official form.
Teacher: Sorry :(
I wonder why they didn’t tell me yesterday. That much about department of Russian language, Marťa.

Some days just suck

...and this is another of them. It started with getting up at 6:20 because I needed to be at the office early enough to be allowed to leave at 12. As usually my boss found out that she needs some new analysis at 11:30 so I had a lot of fun in that half an hour. Then I had to go to Jižák (60 minutes of traveling) to take the Russian exam. Guess what, the teacher was not there. I was waiting there for 30 minutes and gave up. I went to Žižkov (50 minutes) to ask at the Department of the Russian language and was told to wait for another teacher that would come in 75 minutes. OK, why not. I missed a lecture but the first week of the semester is not that important ;) She came 25 minutes late (aaaargh) and told me to come tomorrow (double aaaargh). By that time I missed another lecture. At the end of the day I realized that one of my subjects is much more time demanding than I expected and the teacher absolutely ignores the time when the lesson is supposed to finish.
My today’s achievements: 2 lectures missed, no exam taken and I have to take some time off at work tomorrow. At the other side I improve my waiting skills :)

Valentine and other holidays

Oh, it is Valentine today. I have completely forgotten about it. Actually, I don’t celebrate most of the holidays. I especially try to ignore Easter, Christmas, Halloween and Valentine. The reason: first two are Christian and the rest is Anglo-Saxon - it was imported to the Czech Republic just to sell more stuff. I also more or less ignore my name day and birthday. Well, I am forced to ignore the latter one because it collides with Christmas.

So to sum it up – why I don’t like Christmas: I am atheist and this is a Christian holiday. It stole my birthday. It is not much fun to celebrate “family holiday” when you are a child from incomplete family.

At the other side I respect historical holidays:
28.10.1918 establishing Czechoslovakia
17.11.1989 the velvet revolution - the beginning of the end of communism here
I would also celebrate other historical holidays like 5.-6.7. but I am usually abroad.

Thanks to Daniel for inspiring today's post :)

The language of beauty

the language of beauty = selling dreams = bullshit + bullshit + bullshit

Whatever will be, will be

In 2004 I planned to go to USA and I went to Armenia.
In 2005 I planned to go to Armenia and I went to Tajikistan.
In 2006 I rejected to plan anything because I realized it is completely useless in my case. My current attitude is that whatever will be, will be. Right now it seems it will be in Bulgaria. Yes, anytime I chat with Megan we create some completely foolish plan. As usually it started with innocent joke... She was telling me about her new job and I told her that I plan to go abroad for summer. We also discussed the possibility of visiting her in April.
Megan: I work for a Czech company now. I can show you to my boss and you can boast with your Czech language - we are now looking everywhere for people with Czech. hihihi
Me: Can you get me a summer job?
Megan: why don't you send me your CV???
This sounds crazy enough to become true.

First medal for the Czech team !!!

Katka Neumannová got silver medal in 15 km cross country skiing :)

She is 33 years old and she is a single mother of 2,5 year old girl. She already has silver and bronze medal from Nagano and two silver medals from Salt Lake City. I wish her good luck in next races to get the gold as well. She deserves it.

Back to school

The summer semester starts tomorrow. Doesn’t matter that it is freezing and snowing outside, still it is called “summer semester” :) My schedule for Monday is:
7:30 Economics - lecture
9:15 Economics - lecture
14:30 Economics - practice
(90 minutes each)
I expect a day full of excitement :/

LCP election

Yesterday was fun. We went together with Reetika – the MC patron of LC Plzeň. Instead of sleeping on the bus we were chatting the whole way long. The election itself was not at the office, but in another part of the city at the rectorate. I remember being there before, but I had no idea why. This was really weird. I asked Verča and she suggested that I had a meeting with Markéta or we had some recruitment presentation there. Oh, meeting with Markéta sounds familiar. I don’t know who she is, but definitely it is the reason. It happened in September 2003 at the very beginning of @ PZ so no surprise that I already forgot.
The quality of the LCP candidates says a lot about the whole LC. The questions for the candidates do as well. From all what I saw yesterday, Plzeň is an excellent team. If people enjoy their work the results will come.
Chairing the election was more fun than I expected. It was run according to the new compendium for the first time. Several times during the day I had a chance to decide what to do because it was not clear from the compendium and in these cases “chair is the boss”. Nevertheless the imperfections they have one very cool rule: maximum 60 minutes for the Q&A part per candidate.
We even had one VIP visit: the rector himself came for some half an hour. Poor guy had to witness also the process of opening the Legislative Assembly and for seven times he heard:

Discussion for this motion....
Discussion against this motion...
General discussion...
Because there was no discussion against, I suggest approving this motion by acclamation.

I really wonder: is this a global trend in AIESEC or is it just Czech tradition?

Tomorrow: Plzeň

I will chair the LCP elections in Plzeň tomorrow :) That is 100 km far from Prague. The agenda starts at 10 a.m. That means I need to be at the bus station at 7:15. That means I need to leave home at 6:30. That means I need to get up at ...ehm...6 a.m. (if I skip breakfast and have it somewhere on the way). I should have counted all this before I said “yes” to them.

My brother & his internship

My brother is an aviation fan. He has a pilot license for gliders. He is in the last year of secondary school - specialized mechanic of aircraft. One week of the month he spends at the airport in Hradec Králové as an intern. This picture was shot there and the article was published in local newspaper.


OK, now you know whom to call if you need to have your helicopter repaired.

Sex before stressful events keeps you calm

Very useful research conducted by University of Paisley, UK. Now I know what to do before exam :)
Read more
Note for those who are too lazy to click on the link: masturbation is not enough!

USA 'has negative role in world'

I read this news yesterday at 11:30 p.m. at the metro station. Being slightly drunk I found it quite inspiring :) I love this concept of projecting news on the wall while people are waiting for their train.

Iran is the country most widely viewed as having a negative influence in the world, with the US in second place, a new poll for the BBC suggests. The survey for the BBC World Service asked how 39,435 people in 33 nations across the globe saw various countries.
The US has lost ground in some key allied countries, the survey suggests. In France, 65% had a negative view of the US, up from 54% in the 2004 poll. In Britain the numbers went from 50% to 57%.
Read the full aticle here

Me personally, I have nothing against Iran. In Armenia they were percieved as one of the good neigbours (compared to Turkey and Azerbaijan - the bad guys). For Tajiks, Iranians are like true brothers. And yes, Iranian biscuits helped me to survive there - it was undoubtedly the best thing I ate in Tajikistan :)

Memories

I had a meeting with MCVPTN on Tuesday morning. Topic: how the visa process used to work in my term (01/02). So many stories forgotten long ago were back in one second. Visa process was the worst of the AIESEC work in my times. Countless hours at the office of labour, police and other institutions. It was frustrating both for the trainee and the AIESEC member responsible. I am not sure how much the meeting was useful for the other side, but for me it was priceless.
You know, I regretted many times that I didn’t apply for the MC after my LCVPTN term. Now when I think of the visa process, bitching trainees and communication problems with team leaders at those times, I know why I decided not to have another VPTN term. Even more, I would probably do the same again. Thank you for reminding me.

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