New year with new beginnings

After my first year at the University of Reading I was a little confused and unsure with my place amongst the people in the UK. An uncertainty in the cultural unconsciousness always dragged me to the ground. This year I thought that I needed a change and the best way to achieve that is through something I know best - psychology. I thought to myself that it only matter how you approach a problem is a lot of positive energy I stepped forward to my second year in Reading.

One of the first things that I wanted to change on my drawbacks was my ever present inability to concentrate for more than few minutes. I'm not entirely sure what caused it, maybe it was the endless stream of information available on social media, I do not know, but I did/do have a problem with it and I wanted to change it. I decided to join the Chess club. The people who went there were exactly just as I expected - 90% does mathematics and there was about 3 girls. This  was a big change from the kind of people who go to psychology, so ones that I usually come into contact with. I must admit that chess are much more fun than from what I remember as a child. After a few weeks that I attend this club I think my ability to concentrate improved at least a little bit, which is something that can be said about my chess skills as well. Overall I would judge this activity as a very nice relaxation combined with great conversation and an important opportunity to train this unusual skill.

At the beginning of the year I really thought to myself that there is a lot of things that i want to change and I decided I wanted to learn Japanese. Our university offers language courses as a part of the course so I thought it might be useful to use this opportunity. That is why I decided to learn the basis of Japanese. Not only does the language fascinate me, but I can also use it in my part time job in my home town Český Krumlov, where I work as a tour guide. Japanese tourist are one of the most frequent tourists there, because they are very interested in the UNESCO historic sites. At the beginning the lessons were interesting and fun, but the more the semester progressed the harder and harder they got. The fact that I had an increasing amount of work from my other subject did not help this at all. At the moment I am able to write in Hiragana, which is one of the three alphabets that they use in Japan. I have 3 more weeks to learn another alphabet, Katakana. It is hard, there is a lot of it, but i believe that I can do it. Wish me luck!

I also found a new job. I got bored by working in the ice cream shop so I thought that I would try the career of a bartender. The place I work in is called Revolution de Cuba. It is a beautiful bar with the amazing atmosphere of Cuba. The work is very hard, mainly from the point of view of knowing all the cocktails by heart, but once you get to make some of them 50 time during one evening, it is not hard to remember, in fact it is hard to forget. The best thing about this job is the collective of people. Everyone there is fun and does not take life as serious as most people. My shifts are going by really fast and it is fun.

From the point of view of studying it is already much more demanding than last year, but I am already continuously preparing myself from the beginning. Hopefully nothing will surprise me this year. Overall I am trying to take part in a wide range of activities so that I will improve myself in as many things as possible. University work is going without major issues to far so let's hope it stays that way. I´ve got a great job and I am enjoying life!  I do miss Czech Republic, my family, my friends, cheap beer and schnitzel with potato salad!

Last but not least I would like to thank the Kellner Family Foundation for helping me be able to continue studying here in Reading, because without them I could not be here, thank you!
 

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