A student’s surprises...

Having arrived in the world's second most expensive capital, I was happy when I finally made it to my dorm. A little bit of paperwork later, I was shown around and ushered into my room. It was a beautiful, new, modern room with a small bathroom, commanding a vista of a playground. When you are tired, there is just one thing to be worried about - even shocked by: there is no blanket or pillow on the bed. The next shock comes in the morning when you find that what appeared at first to be a nicely stocked little kitchen is actually not quite so well equipped. There are no dishes. Everybody knows what comes next: shopping - something that we men are not very fond of. The only thing that made the shopping a little more pleasant for me was knowing that I would be sleeping in bed with a blanket and pillow, and not just on a mattress, the next night.

Once you have slept there for a few nights and actually start going to school, you find it weird that you only see rain six times a month in London, which everybody had told you was the Rainy City. And I never experienced in London the sort of rain that I was used to in the Czech Republic. When it rains in London, it's a shower or a drizzle. Not surprising, then, that natives - unlike tourists - never use umbrellas in such "rainy" times, because getting a little wet never hurt anybody.

Back when I studied in the Czech Republic, I used to claim what I had heard from my older friends, which is that a student's life is a happy life, and that high school students and especially university students have a lot of spare time. Now, being a university student myself, I've had to correct my statements somewhat. I struggle with time every day. I spend quite a lot of time on my way to school and back. Then I spend time shopping and cooking as well. In addition to the several hours of preparation for school, hunting for a job eats away another chunk of my time. You could find me in a gym on the rare occasions when I have a little truly spare time left. For now, I don't have much actual leisure time, but I hope this will get better over time.

You start to get a bit pessimistic after many unsuccessful attempts at finding a job. I learned something that I had known for a long time - I don't look like someone who cares about fashion. Sadly, this handicap prevents me from being a good salesman in a clothing store (there are no jobs for students at other shops, or at least I could not find any). Having failed in this field, I tried something else. I realised that becoming one of the IT crowd somewhere was another option, although I had promised myself back in high school that I would never do that as a steady job. I sent a few e-mails to IT companies in downtown London, and a few of them invited me for an interview. Sadly, those attempts failed too. First, I have none of the required IT qualifications (certainly not on paper), and it's also clear that, in this time of crisis, companies want IT staff who will work full time. Also, I guess I turned my potential employers off by being able to only work half time, and only three days a week at various times of day. Oh well. I am sticking to the motto: never stop starting, never start stopping. Hopefully I'll find something one day...

I am in London to study and I feel I have made a magnificent choice. Nothing beats looking forward to every subject and enjoying the flow of information, because you only listen to what you want to learn and know. Every high school student knows it - occasionally you cannot understand why you should learn such a boring subject, and what good it is at all. I am happy now to be only learning what I want to, and I know the reason why I want to learn it. It is even better when your tutor opens your ignorant eyes to something you had no interest in at all before. It's truly invigorating when you finally understand something that perhaps millions of people already know, but you only realise now - such as that art is connected with everything, and business in particular.

That's it for today, because I have to start researching information for a group project on art, specifically London's Tate Modern. See you next time, and I'll tell you about that and much more.

Martin Ciklamini, a student at London Metropolitan University, UK
Martin Ciklamini's studies at OPEN GATE and at the London Metropolitan University in the UK have been supported by the Educa Foundation.