Preparation for holidays

When I checked my schedule for the rest of the month I was quite surprised. I found out that I already had a lot of plans for almost every day in August and I don´t even have time to say goodbye to everybody (same as in December). Firstly, I went home to Hradec. Subsequently I am going to the festival for a whole week. After that, I will be working and I don’t even know if I will manage to go to David´s cottage and in the end of August I will move to Amsterdam. It is crazy how fast everything goes. Therefore I realized I should make a list of things I need to finish before my departure and additionally, I realized I really needed to start making a video about my Erasmus – finally.

On Wednesday, I went directly from Provident home to Hradec Králové. We went exercising straight away when I arrived to Hradec. We already found a way to go there with my sister because she fell in love with a big exercising ball there. Therefore, she spent one hour of playing with the ball. She can be really well-behaved if she wants to. It was funny that when we left the place she was in a lather of sweat. I was so tired when we got home. The only thing I managed to do was watching The Vampire Diaries. It feels awesome not to have any school or obligations to worry about. In my free time, I can do whatever I want to. I can write my blog, make a video, learn English while watching movies and serials without any subtitles, exercising and much more. For instance, I started to play my favourite song on piano - River flows in you. When I was with Torres in the bar in Prague I wanted to show him I could play but later I realized that since I did not practise I was not so good. That´s why I decided to learn some awesome song to play it publicly. I don’t have much time because I have small piano only in Hradec. I enjoyed learning a lot even though it was not easy for me at all.

Video

During the afternoon it was time to finally start with my Erasmus video. I don’t know why but a lot of people from France uploaded their video exactly this week! At least they made me start doing it. Firstly, I was searching for some good program for it. Many friends advised me to use iMovie but the problem is that it is only for Apple computers and I don’t have it. Therefore, I just try to find something similar on the internet. I found an amazing program called Filmora. On their website, there was written that the trial version is for free. I managed to download it and I also found a YouTube tutorial to learn how to use it. I was amazed! It was possible to do everything in the program! In general, they have two options – basic one and features one. The basic one is for very beginners and you don’t have to understand anything, you just upload pictures, videos, music and the program will do everything for you. I was more interested in a featured one mode. After few seconds, I loved that program. It could do seriously everything I could even think of. I went through the tutorial and I tried to remember the options. The last step was check the whole video. I just made one short video from random pictures. When I checked the video my excitement was gone. During the whole video there was a big sign Filmora everywhere. I knew that I underestimated it. The thing is that this program is not for free. Subsequently, I tried to find a loop and use it anyway but nothing worked. Therefore, I had to change to program. Unfortunately.

David recommended me just basic Movie Maker from Windows. I was not happy about that but I was at least sure it was for free. Later, when I was watching the tutorial, I found out that the program was not bad. In fact, it had a lot of options too. Among the basic ones, you can cut videos, change visual effects of pictures, add music, mute video or rotate video. The environment is user-friendly which was convenient for me. I also tried to make a short video from random pictures and when I managed to do basic stuff in the program I started to do the most important part – choosing the right pictures.

It took me around 4 hours! It was crazy. I went through all files – from Messenger, from WhatsApp, from Facebook and from my camera. It was endless. I came up with the idea that I would like to start my video with some pictures from introduction week, then continue with all the trips I did and I already had a perfect ending of my video – thanks to Alberto – how I am closing the door. Moreover, I wanted to include some videos and quotes. Lastly, I chose the music. It was crazy because I already spent a lot of time with it and I did not even start. Hopefully, I will do a progress today. It helped me a lot that I have a big monitor in my room and I used it. I am sure that I don’t have all the pictures and videos we took in France but since I had more than enough pictures it is okay. Going through all pictures and videos made me sad not surprisingly.

Thursday was a really lazy day. When we got up, I had breakfast and the weather was amazing after a long time. Therefore, we went to the swimming pool with my sister just for a while. That while just took longer than I expected. The sun was shining, we were getting a suntan, swimming, sinking and enjoying ourselves. I was shocked when I found out that we spent there more than 4 hours! It was such a long time. When my mum came home she was talking about her interview because it was the longest one she had. It was funny because she applied to the job about graphics but she had at least two tests from English. I wish she was accepted so much! More than everything. Although I don’t get why the companies do so many tests. It was the same with me. I did bunch of tests to Provident from English, Excel, carefulness and then I did not use any of them in practise. Maybe it will be different here.

Sziget

Another important thing that happened was that we finally started to plan our holidays in Hungary. Unfortunately, the tickets were again more expensive because it is already August. Therefore we decided to buy only two days and we will buy the other one later probably through Ticketswap. Honestly, the tickets are fucking expensive. I really hope we will find some way to stay at the festival longer. We still need to book the bus, accommodation and so on in Hungary. We bought two days – Friday and Saturday each for 65 euros. Then we also bought a citypass for two days for 12 euros. It is quite great because during these two days you can use transport in Budapest for free, you can go to the thermal baths for free and you can even use a boat. I already downloaded the application for this festival. I am wondering how it will look like. Since we bought two days in a row we should be allowed to use their camping. I literally can not wait to be there, swimming in the river, listening to the amazing music and experience festival atmosphere. Moreover, we can also meet there my friend Orsy who I met in France. She is going there with her boyfriend. I think that I am looking forward most of course for the Muse and for Sum 41. I remember that I started to listen to their music during Rock for People a few years ago. Since that time I did not stop and I always listen to them when I go running. I don’t even mind staying in the tent this time. I hope we will be there only four nights and then we can take a rest in a nice accommodation in Budapest. I was thinking that I could continue in my tradition and we could go to the wheel there. Nevertheless, there is still a possibility to Greece in September or October. I know it can be difficult but if it will go well we can save a lot of money and go later, not in a main season. I decided to check the tickets from Amsterdam regularly and travel a lot again. There is also Ryanair. The problem is that there is not so many connections.

On Tuesday, I managed to see Lucy after long time. We had finally three fours only for ourselves and we were talking about everything. We planned that she would visit me in Amsterdam soon. She was speaking about their plans for holidays, about her new job and future plans. Tomorrow I am going to Prague to work four days in a row. I hope it will stay like last time and I will enjoy working there. Unfortunately, I had to say Kristy about Amsterdam. I felt relieved after that and sad at the same time. And then, a whole week of holidays!

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