Busy week

Again I didn't post anything for a week without even noticing. I had an intensive (mimosemestrální) course on Thursday and Friday. It would not surprise you that I prepared both the paper and presentation on Wednesday night. These two days I recalled my summer lifestyle when I was living solely on coffee and no food. But hey, it was worth it. I have already 35 points for the Economics class. Later on Friday evening instead of dropping dead on the sofa I went to the kitchen and baked a cake for the Saturday picnic. (shocking, I know)
The picnic was fun with an interesting mixture of people. We ate home made food and played games. Definitely less crazy than the one last year. (Note for Marťa: I did not blog about sucking someone's toe at that one! It was you. Except that it was not sucking a toe.)
The next day I went to the airport, did my work, saw an exhibition about history of Czech aviation and Prague airport (quite interesting) and watched the planes taxiing to the runway and taking-off. As I heard the roar of the engines I got this familiar shiver in my stomach. I have to pack my suitcase soon.

Guess what's new!

Hint:
tests ......... 18 points
activity ...... 12 points
total ......... 30 points
minimum ... 25 points

Three more weeks to go. From now on it will be just a bonus to the oral exam :)

Certainty

Look at the picture above. Is there anything special about it? No, nothing. Some old buildings, cars, street lamps, traffic signs, pubs. An ordinary street in Prague. It's interesting how we take things for granted. We don't even notice them untill we lose them.
Guess what I missed the most in Tajikistan ... the lines in the sky. Here anytime you look above you see at least one airplane or it's path. And there ... nothing. From all the differences - habits, religion, food, weather, nature - this one was the most disturbing. I don't know why. Maybe just from the simple fact that it really felt like at the end of the world, with one flight to Europe per week.

Sunday trip

I enjoyed. Thanks for taking me with you. Just a few general comments:
- I didn't feel guilty at all about not preparing for my classes
- Prachovské skály are not for fat people
- I felt naked in that sleeveless top. It was first time since I came from Egypt when it was warm enough to wear something like that. This is funny. I suffered there all summer in very conservative shirts and now I feel inappropriate in European-style clothes. Heh, did I get accustomed to the Arabic culture or what? :)))

Are Czech men spoilt?

I keep hearing it quite often: Czech guys suck, Czech guys are spoilt by their mothers, Czech guys can’t behave like real men… But is it really so?

All of my closest friends date foreigners:
Marťa – Indonesian
Jiřinka – Bolivian
Zuzka – Hungarian
Jana – Slovak (OK, at least this one was raised in the Czech Republic)

And now … is it really A => B (Czech men suck hence girls date foreigners) or is it rather A <= B (They don’t appreciate Czech guys because they tend to date foreigners)? I still hope for the latter but when was the last time I dated a Czech ... four years ago?

BTW "my foreigners" were not a big win either. They didn't keep promises, they let me wait for longer than excusable time, they didn't keep promises, they were jealous, they didn't keep promises... To tell the truth I don't see any reason why foreigners should suck less than Czechs. Come on, we are speaking about men here. There isn't any perfect one.

Men and their toys

I finally understood why there are more male scientists than females. Today at the Financial Modelling class we learned how to use some simulation software and a new side of the teacher's personality revealed. He was excited to show us his favourite toy. He was literally shining with happiness. I bet he simulates stuff just for fun in his free time.
It is nothing new that the difference between boys and men is the price of their toys, but for the first time I've noticed the relation between big boys, expensive toys and science. Before I perceived it only the limited context of smart cars and high-tech cell-phones. I'm happy to finally see some positive aspects of this childishness :)

I went to the theater tonight

OK, I didn't literally go to the theater. The performance took place at the university. It was an amatereur production of Girls' war - Dívčí válka, comedy about emancipation in ancient times. It was superb. Bylo tam několik hlášek, který mě totálně rozsekaly. I had a good laugh.

I'll think of you night and day

Holiday is over and I was reminded in a very drastic way. You know how it is with semestr... teacher farts and semestr sends you a notification about it. So today I was notified in 9 different emails that the registration for the Economics exam is open. To tell the truth, I prefered not to think about it. I feel a bit nauseatic now.

Work, airport and old people

There is a travel agency in GB for which I work on a very irregular basis. It is nothing complicated - more or less just meeting the clients at the airport and accompanying them by bus to their final destination.
What is interesting about this agency is that their target group is retired people. It cares about all the comfort, special diet the clients need and also prepare programme in a way that anyone can participate. These clients are really amazing. Instead of sitting at home and complaining about their pains they choose to see places that they could not visit before (cold war, iron curtain, blah blah blah).
I like the job because with them I see my country with different eyes. And it's fun. Imagine standing at the airport, watch people leaving the restricted area and thinking: "Too young, too young", then an old lady with a stick - "this could be ours..."

Yesterday while waiting for the belated flight we had a conversation with the British delegate. It was her first time in Prague so she had some surprising observations that I have never heard before:
- most places begin with S,H,D or P and all names sound the same (heh, she should go to Armenia for awhile :)
- I don't look Slavic. I could very easily be considered British (if I keep my mouth shut)
- She was shocked that people take their dogs to the airport. No-one would do it in London. (Come on! Dogs are part of the family. My dog was also at the airport when I was coming back home.)

Balance please!

I'm so unbalanced that it starts to be tiring. I wish I finally knew what I want. I have some three reversals of opinion a day in average. The options I consider range from Big 4 through medium enterprises to non-profits. Also the short-term goal to find a part-time job distracts me from the plan to go for a traineeship in autumn. I simply prefer to behave as I'm staying because what if I'll really have to stay? I could be unemployed if I did nothing now. And then, how to find a good job abroad? I don't look for a culture experience (been there) or just some work experience abroad (done that). I've lost my faith in @ traineeships. I'm not sure if I'm willing to take the risk again. It is quite likely that my experience with @ in Egypt you know who definitely cured my foolish notion about the organization. Plus I haven't seen there many good TNs anyway. On the other hand staying in Prague for the rest of my life? Scary.

Update on the job hunt

Ehm ehm, one would think that when I quit applying for a job on 16th March I will have quite a lot of free time by now. Well, not at all. From all the communication with HR people and interviews I usually have one of the following feelings:
(a) I've just applied to the mad-house
(b) I'm on the highway to hell
(c) wtf
(d) combination of a-c

Here are the highlights of the past week:
(a) 2 out of 2 meetings were postponed after I came to the company because the managers were too busy.
(b) I had to fill-in tests of accounting knowledge and German even though I applied for a corporate finance position and my second foreign language is Russian.
(c) I'm good enough to work for "big 4" except that they are concerned if I actually can behave properly.
(d) yesterday I was invited for an interview to the company where I applied on 28th February. (I agreed because I really want to see what kind of company this is :)))

Hehe

There is a piece of truth in every joke. Admin says: Because of the increasing number of Russian speaking students at our university the official student web site is since now in Russian. We hope it will not affect the rest of the students in a negative way.