Problem-solving realtime

I do not expect myself to be either the first or the last one to arrive at a university campus and feel completely awestruck by the world around me. Over the past few weeks I have been surprised uncountably many times and there were numerous sudden problems to prove the so frequently mentioned problem solving is so much easier in theory than reality.

The first deviation from the plan occurred just before leaving for university, when I accidentally found out there are no dining halls on campus (this is what happens if you do not handle your axioms with extreme care). To be honest, at the beginning this was a mild cause of worry, although it turned out to be a rather advantageous condition later, really: not only honing my culinary skills I get to practice German vocabulary (such as die Hausfrau) every day. At times I even entertain the idea with such a talent I could have opened a profitable café in central Prague.

The second surprise followed the first one closely. Despite it may not seem so, the university campus is rather spacious with a lot of greenery. Still everything one can possibly need is within immediate walking distance – lecture halls, library, swimming pool. The university management is clearly aware of what fields of study are worth spending a fortune and they have recently built a completely new building for the maths department hence.

Our maths course is quite famous for an incredibly high number of modules available, which is a serious nightmare at the same time, since students end up taking more than they can possibly manage. The lectures remain rather attainable so far, including the infamous analysis (another nightmare apparently), but on the other hand I do not feel bored by any means.

At the end of the day, it is the different educational philosophy that I find most interesting. The approach to academia seems to be rather complex and participation in extracurricular activities is virtually as important as academic excellence. Perhaps, since a university degree makes you no longer special nowadays and you need to offer a little more in order to stand out. Given the choice of about 70 different sports and 230 societies it is not actually impossible. As for myself,  I decided to attend frisbee sessions, not only as most of the players are maths students and despite the sessions have lately born striking resemblance to mud wrestling. Finally, not even arts are forgotten – just very recently we have had a classical music concert by Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra performing the New World Symphony by some composer called Dvořák or so.

All in all, I would say so far so good and as long as the surprises follow the current trend, by the time Christmas is come it might be a fairly big deal!

 

Problem-solving na vlastní kůži

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