St Andrews, or To Prague and Back Again

 I was the only Czech speaker on the organising team and was therefore dealing with all the ‘Czech’ issues in Prague. On top of that I was also a part of the safety team making sure that all racers were safe 24/7. I really enjoyed this experience because it gave me the chance to show my friends around Prague but also introduced me to the great and fulfilling world of charity and from then on I am trying to get involved further with the University of St Andrews Charities Campaign.

The first chance to do this came a week after I got back to St Andrews when I was volunteering with RAG week (i.e. Raising and Giving Week). A week full of events around the town with all profits going to six charities students picked to sponsor in university elections. During this week alone, students managed to raise another £20,000! Moreover, now I am organising a charity event with lifesaving club. It will be happening at the beginning of April and will consist of series of events with all profits going to RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institutions) that saves lives at sea. Lifesaving is still an important part of my life here in St Andrews, although I do not have so much time anymore to take part in all competitions. The exciting news, however, is that we hosted our very first league counting competition (yes, lifesaving is a competitive sport in Britain, and not just Britain – check out this video from Grand Prix Moravie 2012) and it was a great opportunity to show St Andrews to other lifesaving clubs from England!

Finally, academics is doing well and I am pleased with my results from semester one. However, it is very obvious that all the coursework is stepping up and lecturers are more and more demanding with the amount of readings. As a result of that, one has to have a very good working morale in order to keep up with everything, but it is definitely doable. On a further note, I have finally decided not to do a semester abroad in Honk Kong and rather stay deeply involved with all the happenings here in St Andrews. Hopefully, if everything goes well, I might be able to do my master’s degree in some cool part of this lovely world!