Invigilators, ecology and floorball

During these exams which happened in huge underheated gyms with the attendance of approximately five hundred students at each, I understood that English people take academic honesty in exams really seriously.The invigilators not only frequently crossed the lines in between the desks, they even examined all suspicious objects. Those students that brought their stationery in a non transparent pencil case were expelled from the exam. I have only experienced a few identity checks, when my face was thoroughly compared to my uni ID card photo by the invigilator and also one inspection of my pack of tissues, which could have potentially been full of hidden information that would somehow help me in writing all the essay based examinations... I have fortunately passed the exams successfully and so lets move to other events.

 I felt quite frustrated to be the last and only person to stay at the my accommodation for the last weekend before finally leaving home for Christmas - all other people were already gone as they don’t have to travel such distances. But as it happens in life, grief turned into happiness - I was offered to stay in an ecological yurt village instead of staying at the gray concrete Lafrodwa complex. First I’ve had concerns about sleeping in a tent in December, however all the yurts have stove in the middle so they are warm even if it’s freezing outside. We were cold in the early morning despite having two sleeping bags each, however our enthusiasm was renewed when we started to learn more about this community. The aim of Embercombe is to educate people from variety of social strata - children, students, employees and executives of corporations, criminals and wide public - about sustainability. Apart from ecological farming the community organizes courses that teach about the relationship of people and natural environment. Other courses in leadership, self-knowledge and assertivity are aimed to encourage the initiative of the participants to take the step to change their community.

 The management of my university was influenced by the ideas that are spread by Embercombe to such an extent that they created a Sustainability Department, which works on eliminating the environmental impact of the university. As an example of the initiative, there’s the recycling of waste, the usage of rainwater to flush toilets and the redistribution of unused student property. The university leads students and employees to lowering energy consumption, the employees are for example rewarded for car sharing and students can get free bike service. And as this week was the Go Green Week, I have engaged myself in volunteer work in Ebercombe and I am also going to join the Sustainability Department.

 I have had the opportunity to try how it is to establish and lead and international firm with colleagues from other countries thanks to school project called Business Challenge. In this Internet platform students design and create a structure of a firm with which they compete in the virtual market. Along with practical aspect of firm functioning we’ve had to deal with communication problems most of the time - I discovered that to cooperate with four Chinese people is not easy. Not only because of the language barrier, mainly because it was very difficult to meet up even in the virtual space due to different habits of each of us: what is an early morning to one is a late night to another...

Finally I would like to mention the fantastical evolution of my attempt to create a Czech-Slovak society here at the university. Thanks to various coincidences I have met around thirty Czech and Slovak people, which convinced me that it is the best time to create an official society to gather us, promote our culture and food. We’ll also try to establish a floorball team which will attract other nations into our society - so far we presume it will mostly be Scandinavians, as they enjoy floorball as much as we do. Even though I have never really been involved in team sports, I take this opportunity as a way to spread the knowledge about my homeland. Last week, after finishing the paperwork and collecting the petition signatures I have delivered the presentation about our goals to the Guild committee representatives who will decide about our authorization. Owing to the fact that part of the representatives has already preliminarily subscribed to the floorball team, I believe that we will be approved. I am already looking forward to the promotion of my country and floorball - it definitely is a challenge!