A Hectic Period Ended with a New Chapter in Life

What if my next “summer vacation” only happens when I’m retired, in about 45 years? After I make it through my final exams and find a job, I can pretty much forget about having two months of free time. If I was at least getting paid for going to school, I probably wouldn’t desire such a long vacation but I’m actually the one who has to pay for my education. If I was a pretty girl I could work as a model or a hostess and enjoy lots of fun, traveling, and so on in my job. But I’m not a pretty girl. So I just have to toughen up, study hard, and graduate, send out CVs, and hope that someone shows interest in a fresh journalism graduate.

With the development of our current timetable came quite a bit of chaos. The school management published the first version a week before the winter semester started. The second version appeared a few days later. And less than twelve hours later, the UJAK system was hosting a third draft. The timetable changed about four times before the new academic year started and then at least twice afterwards. Right after printing out the timetable for odd and even weeks, I threw it into the wastebasket and the printer was already producing an updated version. Eventually I figured that it’d be better not to print anything and to just show up at school at random – maybe I’d accidentally make it to one of my classes. This, however, didn’t work very well and so now I’m relying on a quite reduced and hopefully final version.

In May I was sure that I had chosen the right topic for my final thesis. This feeling has faded with time and currently I’m thinking about changing it. I’m still undecided, hesitating between children’s homes, which I had wanted to tackle originally, and soccer, which is a topic that is close to my heart and which I would enjoy writing about much more. The longer I think about it, the less time I’ll have left to actually write, and so I would like to resolve this dilemma by mid-November. My thesis supervisor approves of both options, but I still have to think through the pros and cons thoroughly. I don’t want to underestimate anything.

In Prague, I’m staying with the Procházka family, as in previous years, but in Senice na Hané I was faced with having to move. The municipal authority had switched my small apartment for a larger one, but the tenancy would end at the end of September 2018, with no option of extending it, unfortunately. This means two things. First, I have a roof over my head for less than a year. But at the same time, I have about ten months to find my own place to avoid ending up living in the streets. The near future will be hectic—working a temp job, fulfilling school obligations, taking exams, writing my thesis, taking final exams, leaving the children’s home, finding a job, and finding a place to live. And all that without the slightest chance of obtaining a mortgage or a larger loan. OK, maybe I’ll star in the next Mission Impossible movie. If I’m as successful as the hero, Ethan Hunt, I have nothing to worry about, and will resolve all my problems easily. But if stress causes what’s left of my hair to fall out, I’ll look more like Marek Vašut than Tom Cruise.

The final exams are slowly creeping closer, while Christmas is just around the corner. Last week, I started preparing for that thoroughly—or, more precisely, I bought wrapping paper. A good start. Now, it’s only about buying presents, finding and decorating the Christmas tree, baking Christmas sweets, cleaning up... and surviving all of that in good health. Merry Christmas!

I had a lot of work to do in the new apartment with my father.

I have not come to hate soccer. I went to a European League match in the Eden Arena in Prague.

A walk through Prague in the fall.