My Minor at VSE

VSE is the school I go to - or University of Economics. This year I had to choose from a number of Minor specializations just "the one". After a long time, I chose "Financial Manager" and this is what happened.

















I came at 3:30 in the morning on Monday in front of VSE, because on Monday at 8 a.m., the secretaries open their office and you can sign up for this specialization.
I came this early to make sure I get a spot, usually it gets crowded and the system just works like this... the first 50 people get the spot. Then all you have to do, is guess the right time, get to the university and sign your name on a piece of paper.

Well...guess what... I was too late. The last spot was filled at 3:08 a.m. These crazy people were standing in front of VSE from 10 p.m. the previous day!!!
There was a list (picture above) of all people who got the place. You can see that it was pretty much full at 1 a.m.!!!
But I signed up anyway, I was the 54th one. Sometimes they took a couple of people over the capacity so I thought I had a pretty good chance.

















Shortly after 4 a.m., the cleaning ladies let us in the main building - because really...it was quite cold - this is the inside of the building with students sitting around. No one was allowed further - just to the entrance hall. There was a special atmosphere - a night spent in an empty building, talking to all the other crazy people, studying, drinking hot tea, red bull or just sitting around and trying not to fall asleep.

















We all had to wear a lot of clothes. Normally, you have to stand in front of the building until 6 a.m. - when the building officially opens. I guess we were lucky this time.

















In this picture, we are finally inside of the building, 6 a.m. People are doing the same...just sitting around, chatting and waiting.

At 7 a.m., the secretary finally comes and the "managers" (that is - the three extra active students who are actually standing there from 10 p.m. and guarding the list with names) start reading the names, checking your ID and letting you inside the office of the secretary.

At 9 a.m. - the specialization is closed. I was the second one bellow the line and therefore didnt get in - but at least I had a feeling that I did my best :-)

So the advise for Czech students next semester? Get a sleeping bag, a big cup of hot tea or coffee and spend the night in front of VSE. Get there around 1 a.m. and youre cool... OR

talk to the school and make them do a selection procedure - write a test before, take into account grades or whatever - just dont make us do these things ever again!!! We dont deserve this. It is undignifying.

Btw. after that I had to choose another minor - Accounting and Financial Management - here I come :-)

New Years Eve celebration

Our NYE party place in Pilsen :-)






Me and Filip laughing about the prices in Pilsen.... 0,2l of Coke for 12 Kc, 0,5l of Gambrinus for 17Kc, smazeny syr for 30 Kc.... come on - I
wanna live here!!!

















Love is in the air even between the horses :-)













More horses...














More horses... :-)

The year 2007

Okay, lets say that I gave up on writing about my USA round-trip... Maybe - but really maybe I will write something later, but for now, lets leave it like it is.

There are 5 days to the end of the year 2007 and I couldnt help but remember, what all happened during this year. I wont lie if I say, that it year brought most changes into my life ever...good or bad ones - hard to say yet.

The beginning of the year was rather difficult. I was ending my Bachelor studies and all I remember the whole January was studying studying, being really stressed out and studying again. I did 3 bachelor exams during this month - Obchodni podnikani (business studies), statistics and the state exam - international trade. Uff... I am getting a headache just thinking about it.. :)
I had a looot of luck - I am that honest :-) - and managed to finish everything and in February I became the Bachelor of Science :-)

Not much was happening from February till April - just that I started to think more about my future, what I want to do, and I was being a bit disappointed with where I was going to. I started to be more active - I took dance, swimming lessons - and decided to go to the US during the summer. Went to Amsterdam in February, was participating in International Week in Prague and went to Sweden at the end of April.

I think that going back to Sweden, I realised that I can really change my life if I dont like it the way it is and thats what I did.

Summer in the US was great. I met a lot of cool people, made a couple of good friends, learned useful things and traveled the US from East to the West. I was very pleasantly surprised by what US can offer to people. It was my first time being there after 10 years and it was just amazing. People were really nice - they give you so much positive energy; the beautiful nature and cities just take your breath...

After the US it was time to get back to the "real world" - for me it was back to school, moving to a new apartment in the city and finding a job...

It was hard getting back to school after such a great summer of just swimming, boating, travelling and basically having no worries.. I still have many exams in January, but I think I did so far ok.. Concerning school, I think I can always do better, but at least I have one success behind me and that is being the best team in presenting the strategy of repositioning of juice Jupi :-) We are now still waiting for the first "exciting" price and that is dinner with the marketing director of Kofola :-)) Just kidding... I think its a really cool price.. :-)

In August, I moved to an apartment with my friend Verca - which was a very positive step. I live now only 15 minutes from my uni, and its close to go anywhere... My room is still kind of empty, but I think that after I hang my pictures and get another carpet, it will look much better... The only negative thing about the apartment is the air.. Its really dusty here and since its in the centrum, the quality of the air is really bad...

And finally work. I was looking for some kind of a job for about 2 months. I was sending CVs to many places - although I knew that I wanted a "real job". No more short-term work, no more teaching English and no more folding files... This Friday, I found out that they chose me to ABN AMRO. I consider it as a success, because there were about 25 of us and they had only 2 places... I dont want to make any premature conclusions (I havent signed a contract yet), but a word and handshake is enough for me :-) The money should be good as well... I am not sure yet, but it should be ok :-)
For about 2 week, I have been working for Vodafone - which is a cool job as well. The work itself is quite boring - I am doing some reports - but I am working in a very nice environment and have cool men colleagues and got maaaany X-mas presents... (from Vodafone - really cool employer :-) )

So this was my year 2007. Moving 2 times, living in 4 different places for a period longer than 2 months, being single again after 3 years, becoming Bc, travelling a lot, having a "real job", my own budget and being really happy with myself... Very turbulent times, but I think the benefits are greater than the losses.

The funny thing is that you never know what happens next. Life itself brings you so many challenges and so many crossroads where you have to decide whats best for you.
The difficult thing is then to decide how you want to live - because you cannot choose two opposite things and you cannot rewind if you change your mind... Sometimes I wish I hadnt known my choices - things would be much easier :-) Staying with my former boyfriend, being satisfied with what I have and not wanting more. But I think that by wanting more and doing more for yourself, you position yourself at least a bit higher than you were before and thats always positive, even though not very easy...

So, to sum it up... Thank you whoever for such an amazing year!

More Yosemite photos

And here is the promised "posing bear"


Be careful, this really happens


Half dome on the top-left

Yosemite

I still havent given up on my blog... although updates dont happen very often, I am still trying and I am still writing :-)

So, San Francisco was the last, Yosemite was the second last - one of my favourites as well.

Its a national park about 3 hours drive from San Francisco, so you can imagine it gets very crowded during the weekend.. and thats exactly when we arrived.
Yosemite is a paradise for rock-climbers and women :-)) The rocks are perfect for rock-climbing, so people from all around the world come here to climb (women to look at the rock-climbers) ;)

As in every national park, you could spend weeks here, there is always something to do. We didnt have that much time, so took only a couple of trails. The longest we took was the "waterfall trail" - we saw two beautiful waterfalls while climbing pretty high. A reward after the first waterfall was a small lake with crystal clear cold water and a flat plateau where the water was just sliding down in a wide but shallow stream.

But when you come to Yosemite in the late summer, dont expect too many waterfalls. The biggest ones - Yosemite waterfalls were all dry. Luckily we didnt spend much hiking to the waterfalls, so the disappointment of looking at many rocks where you could see that something somewhere was a little darker (wet).

The biggest tour of Yosemite is the Half-dome tour. Its about 26km return hike, but you climb to the very top of Half-dome which is pretty amazing. The last few hundret of metres are made by ropes, where the terrain is so steep and smooth that there is no other way how to get there (see the picture) This time we didnt make it, but definitelly next time! ;)

Not to forget - Yosemite was the last park and the first bear we saw :-) It was eating some grass in the forrest near the highway not too much bothered by the photographing freaks surrounding it. It made a very nice pose of laying on the back and scratching its belly, though ;)

Flowers of SF

There are flowers everywhere and I just couldnt help but taking photos...here are my favourites :-)



Ok, the above is not a flower... :-)

San Francisco photos

Golden Gate bridge


one of the steep streets


Lombard street


biking the bridge


Pier 39 - sea lions

San Francisco

I decided to describe the journey backwards.. why? Firstly - I hope I will remember the most recent things more than the ones that happened earlier. Secondly - San Francisco was my most favourite part of the journey.. Hopefully it wont be too confusing :-)

So....San Francisco...what to say..

After 3 and something weeks of traveling with 3 other Czech people, we separated our ways in SF. They drove back to New York to return our rental car (it is way cheaper if you rent and return at the same place) and I stayed in SF for almost 4 days..

The first highlight of my stay was a fact, that I absolutelly accidentally, not-intentionally met a friend I met about 3 months ago at a lifeguarding training... I was buying some bread at a local supermarket (somewhere in the streets - not even in the centre) and who do I see there...? I had even no idea that she was in San Francisco. After that we found out we were staying in the same hostel... was it just a coincidence?? I believe it was destiny!!
After that we spent days sightseeing and nights partying :-) :-)

San Francisco highlights

Cable-cars
The most famous public transportation of SF - cable cars - very convenient because of the hilly terrain. They look like from all the movies :-) Operated by one man who moves a strange stick. The other man is a ticket-man. I took a ride once (they cost USD5 for 1 ride...) and it was definitelly worth it. Even though I didnt want to at first it was just an unique experience. You have to hold yourself all the time, because the ride is not smooth at all and you are either going up the hill or down the hill.. Straight ways are not that common.

China town
My favourite part of the city was china town. You will definitelly know you entered it, because it seems like you entered a different world. Streets are FULL of chinese people, you dont hear any English, just Chinese. Signs on houses are written in chinese characters, only sometimes in English. There are very distinctive smells all over the streets, markets with fresh fruit/vegetables/meat (many exotic ones), chinese restaurants, shop with chinese groceries... My favourite part of the day was walking around, buying my favourite fruits that I havent eaten for a couple of years and eating a real chinese food that tastes like real chinese food (not the "Czech-chinese cuisine"...) and hearing Chinese and sometimes even speaking it.

The only thing that seemed worried me, was the fact, that some of the people that lived there dont really live in San Francisco. They speak very bad English (I wonder if some of them maybe dont speak English at all) and it just seems weird that after such a long time, their culture hadnt changed/adapted to the American at all..

All in all - San Francisco is a very beautiful city. Its very clean, streets are wide. Everytime you climb a hill you have a beautiful view. Houses are often painted white/or light colours and it gives the city a specific "light" athmosphere. Even though its quite a big city, there is a lot of green everywhere. Parks, flowers, trees all over, light wind from the ocean, beaufiul beaches (even though its not very good for swimming - I was even told you are not allowed to swim there because of the sharks and dangerous currents)
Its not very good for biking though. There are many bike-rentals all over the city that suggest that you bike through the Golden Gate Bridge, or just bike around. We did that (mistake!!)- I thought it will be a nice, easy bike around..but it was really exhausting.. Just imagine - up the hill, down the hill, up the hill... Ok, to be fair, biking through the bridge was nice, but the rest of the day was just full of pain.. :(

Yes, I am still alive

For those of you who thought that I vanished from the world I have good news (hopefully).. I am still here.

For the past 3 and half weeks I have been traveling with 3 cool people around the US. I am in San Francisco now, the most west I will get on this journey. I will spend 4 days here and then I am headed to New York and after a day there I am going home.

I think I will try to write a couple of notes for every place we have been to.. so just to make a short list, we started in Bradford, New Hampshire on the 19th of August. Went mainly to National parks (for example: Rocky mountains, Arches, Grand Canyon, Death Valley, Sequoia, Yosemite, etc... ) did a lot of hiking, camping and especially driving. We drove all the way to the west coast, so that was about 6000 miles on our counter. Today my friends dropped me off in SF and I am on my own and on the internet after a veeery long time. And tonight will be the first time sleeping in a proper bed after a loong time (about 3 months with only 1 exception)

4 weeks of travels, many great experiences. Stay tuned for the Cross-American journey :)

Camp pictures

Last day at camp, tomorrow we are leaving for Niagara Falls.


Waterfront


Two lifeguards - me and Ariel :)


Shopping gang...


Teddy