Happy in Prague :-)

Unbelievable... Yesterday, after the whole week of running around I realized that I am happy again, that I enjoy my being back and that actually, there are so many good things happening now. There is a lot of work ahead and April will be probably one of the toughest months of the whole studies so far. But it is really good. I realized that I enjoy my studies MUCH MUCH more than before. I like going to all classes and lectures and I really attend the university regularly. Comparing to my Bachelor studies, this is totally new feeling for me :-))

Moreover, I have met so many nice people since I came back. I really hope that we will get to know each other better and have a good time all together.

And I like my ballet classes and ceramics course :-)

Oh, I like being back here!!!

CEMS Business project in L'OREAL

Today we have officially started our CEMS Business project in L'OREAL. We had the first meeting at the company with the director of the Professional division. It was definitely interesting. We fixed meetings for the rest of the semester and he provided us with short introduction. It looks like real thing. They are launching new brand in September and we are supposed to do the marketing research. A lot of work ahead. Which is not really surprising as it counts for 15 ECTS credits at our university.

At the end, he asked us about the brand that we use for our hair. I felt a bit uncomfortable about discussing this with him. But the result of this discussion was that we got L'OREAL products for our type of hair (I think I have enough shampoo and different hair care products for the rest of the year heh :-))

Concerning CEMS Business Projects there are seven or eight teams working with different companies in Prague. Some of them are really demanding and time consuming (the team cooperating with McKinsey is supposed to spend 15 hours per week working on the project!!!). In the end, I think our project could be useful for me in order to find out, if marketing is the right thing for me :-))

Disorganization

No idea, what is happening to me. I am completely disorganized. I should use more my agenda and take notes of everything I would like to do and especially, promised to do.

1st proof: Yesterday my classes were starting at 11am. No idea how it could happen, but I was persuaded that the beginning is at 9:15. I came to my class, looked around, wondering, how come there were no familiar faces. I thought they might come later, and it is normal, there are some new people in the class (in the 5th week of classes, really stupid idea). Fortunately, friend of mine was there, he came to me and told me that I am probably in a bad class. Surprised, I checked the number of the room. It was ok. BUT the time was not... So I took my stuff and left. Heh...in five years at the university, this never happened to me. I think it never in my life happened to me.

2nd proof: I promised to Janka to prepare paté chinois with her on Sunday. Then, another Janka called me and I promised her to go for a trip with her on Sunday. Afterwards, I realized that I have test and pre-case study and some homework due the following week. Just total mess. I should stay home and study.

3rd proof: This is mostly proof of the total mess in my head heh Nice guy (room mate of a friend of mine) invited me for a coffee. Instead of accepting his offer, I told him I have to finish some stuff (which was obvious lie as it was just 4th week of school and there are no urgent homework to do). Unbelievable, I have no idea why I refused in that moment heh

I should work on my time-management and my self-organization. Otherwise, I will be complete mess for the rest of the semester heh Well, will be again in a shape soon :-))

My new hobbies :-)

Yesterday I went for the first time in my life to ballet class. For those who know me it is probably difficult to imagine me dancing ballet. But this class is really good. It is for total beginners and even if I am the less flexible one from the whole group, I just do not care :-)) I think I will keep attending the classes. We did just the very basic things such as plié and first position and second position etc. But I felt so good afterwards and moreover, it is really good exercise for my body.

Moreover, the next Wednesday the ceramics course begins. I am so much exited about it. I just love everything connected to hand work and have never tried ceramics. So this is really perfect opportunity to do it. Really curious about that.

Missing NATURE

Few weeks ago Jar* told me that he does not like my way of visiting places. He was having impression that I am visiting just for one reason - to be able to say that I have been there. Honestly, not true. For me the true and real visiting is equal to discovering, enjoying the original and unique spirit of the place and admiring of everything that cannot be seen anywhere else. There is nothing better than finding the secret coin that sometimes even people from the place do not know.

On the other hand, I have to admit that during my last weeks in Belgium I was quite tired. I was lacking energy for being enthusiastic about every detail. The reason was very simple. I kept visiting from beginning of the September - every single weekend with some exceptions was spent on journey. And that is quite a lot, I suppose. Even for such a traveler as I am.

Then one day, after short walk around the neighborhood of the house where I was staying, I realized one thing. How much I am missing the nature, walks in the forest, singing birds, flowers, the smell of mushrooms and wood noises. Mountains. Lakes. Trees. Every single detail. As it was one of those early spring days, the smell was even stronger. Just like the village in the countryside.

Birds were singing, people were working on their new houses, the smell of burning leaves reminded me of my childhood. It made many memories come back to my mind. I remembered all those summers spent at my grand-mother’s place with all my cousins, wonderful walks in the forest, the huge amount of mushrooms, green meadow with all bugs bothering me from time to time :-)

And suddenly, in that moment I realized that probably going back to Prague would not be so bad :-)) Instead of visiting cities I would be enjoying walks in the nature. Two weekends are gone already, have not started yet. But hopefully, soon I will be heading somewhere out of Prague.

Oh, actually, this is my second new year's resolution. Even if it is probably quite late for that. I will try to spend much more time in the nature during this year. In order to have much more "hiking" kilometers in my shoes :-))

Working for NGO

After my stay in Peru I started to think about working for NGO. I wanted to give sense to my life and have good feeling about the result of my effort. I was very glad to meet Ivana in EP, she talked a lot about her job in Človek v ohrození, which is NGO operating in Slovakia. According to what she was telling me, I thought I really might like it.

When I came back from Belgium, I decided that it's time to start doing something. The result of my effort was that I joined one group in Amnesty International. There are really interesting people there (some of them with dreadlocks :-)) I have impression to be in a different world. These people are really concerned about what is happening, and according to my first impression they are not so much into business as the most of people I know.

On the other hand, it is not exactly the kind of work I was looking for. At the moment we are organizing demonstration for Tibet in front of the Chinese embassy. I would love to work on some concrete project and see some concrete results. For example fund raising money for school in Africa (current CEMS Humanitarian Project) or improving hospitals in developing countries or organize educational trainings where it is needed etc. I think I would love that. But so far no result and it does not really seem there will be any. So I keep looking for.

Coincidences

Few months ago I read wonderful book written by James Redfield, the title of the book was Celestine Prophecy. I just loved it. It was about coincidences and how everything is connected. Very interesting point of view. Since then, I was thinking about the topic. Do I really believe that everything is based on coincidence? And that somehow we still have the power to influence it by our way of thinking and acting?

Few days ago I put my AIESEC T-shirt on after quite a long time. Thanks to AIESEC logo on it we started discussing with my room mate one guy that both of us know. He used to be member of AIESEC as well. She told me he is leaving soon for a traineeship and later on, he would like to get the scholarship in Hamburg. Since then I could not prevent myself from thinking about the scholarship. Is there any real opportunity to leave and finish my studies abroad?? I was determined to look for it on the Internet, maybe I would be lucky and possibly find it out. It was not really necessary.

The following day I decided to buy the hair dryer. While whenever walking in the center of Prague I hardly meet someone who I know. Coincidence or not, I met this guy. He was actually leaving the same day for Germany, so I was really lucky to meet him. Of course, I asked him about the Hamburg thing and we discussed it a bit. He was no more motivated to pass his Master studies in Prague. None of us is. Then I wished him good luck and we said bye to each other. I had really mess in my head. Big mess. I was asking myself if this was the sign that I should try to get abroad again. I had crazy idea. If I meet him one more time that day, I will do that. I bought my hair dryer. And decided to buy some chocolate. And I ran across him again...

Then I was trying to organize somehow my thoughts. Was that really coincidence? Should I try to find some way of finishing my studies abroad??

Maybe I would not be so worried about spending one and half year back in Prague. So far I am slightly getting used to it, even though I am missing Brussels a lot. What I am afraid of is the lack of motivation after one year and half. I remembered myself when I came back from Strasbourg. It was more or less the same feeling. I was so determined to get back there for my university studies. But only 5 months passed and I had decided not even to apply for that. What if this happen to me again just because I am too lazy???

Relaxed state of mind

I used to be so much hyperactive, always in a hurry, with no free time left for myself. I realized that I have slightly changed, or at least, I am trying to be more relaxed. I would say that I am in a bit different state of mind at the moment. We will see, for how much time I will be able to keep this approach heh

Actually, last two weekends were so much relaxing. The first one at home, the second one here in Prague. I was being spoiled by my Mum, it was just wonderful to be in Bratislava for a while. This weekend, on the contrary, I stayed alone in a dorm, my dorm mates left on Friday evening. I spent the whole Saturday reading a book and later on, finishing one motivation letter. I was wondering, how it is possible that it still takes me so much time to write one. I have already written dozens of them heh In the evening I met Lucka, she is Slovak and from CEMS as well. Really nice girl, she invited me to spend a weekend with bunch of Slovak people. I am really looking forward to that!!!

On Sunday I met Andrej, the son of the eurodeputee I used to work for. He is studying in Prague as well and we met in EP when he was there for internship. I really like his company, I always learn something from him. Moreover, he is nice and open, just perfect person for interesting and relaxing chat. We went to see exhibition about Albrecht from Valdstejn, quite good one. And then for pizza, yamiiiiiiiiii :-))

The week ahead will be probably a bit busy, but I like being busy. In a relaxed way :-))