Done with bachelor studies!

Here is the piece of news: I am finally Bc. Barbora Houfková! I can not even describe my feelings. It is such a great feeling to be done with all bachelor studies! Two months of holiday are coming!

Firstly, I am gonna tell you what was before this happiness. When I was in Lille my Mexican friend Javier told me he was supposed to come to Prague around 9th of June. At that time I was hundred percent sure that I could spend with him three whole days without hesitation and show him Prague! Unfortunately, I underestimated my exams and I had to catch up with my classmates and I was not even able to spend with him more than one afternoon. In the beginning I did not know what to do. On the one side, I was really busy. I did not do anything except for studying and eating and I could not imagine to lose more time. On the other hand, I really wanted to meet Javier because he was leaving to Mexico after his Prague trip and it would be harder to meet him. Therefore, I decided to meet him just for a while and study a lot the day after (last day before state exams). In the end I was not just ready because it was so difficult to say goodbye.

Everything was according to the plan. We met at Malostranská and we went to the Lennon Wall. Last time everybody had many beautiful pictures from this place so I expected the wall to be amazing and huge. When we came there we were little bit disappointed. The wall was not huge at all and in reality it did not look so nice. We took one picture anyway and we were choosing what to do next. Nevertheless I like some quotes on the wall. Since Javier did not listen to me and he already went to the Prague Castle without me, I had two another suggestions. Going to the park with a nice tower from where you can see whole Prague or renting a pedal boat near a small island in Vltava. We decided to go for a pedal boat!

I was really happy to try it since I was talking about the pedal boat since I started studying in Prague but I never went. We bought two beers and we tried to find it. Javier was surprised we were allowed to drink on the boat. Everything is allowed in Prague. We successfully found an island where a small food and music festival took place. We had to ask another people where we could find a place with boats. I felt a little bit ashamed because it look like I never went to Prague because I had to ask people where to go and they were answering to me in English! The price was 230 CZK per one hour.

When we rent a pedal boat I loved it! We had time to talk about everything and I enjoyed sharing all memories from Lille with someone who was there with me. I was also interested in places Javier managed to visit during his travelling time. After I got jealous that he improved his French more than me. It impressed me that he was able to speak fluently. I should have tried harder I guess. Time passed really fast and it was almost time to go study. I also wanted to go to the Prague Castle but we were trying to figure out where to go long time until it was already too late. I hated the feeling that I wanted to stay longer but I knew I could not. We also went to the small park right next to the Wenceslas square but Javier did not find it interesting (haha). He walked me home and we had to say goodbye... I had such an nice afternoon with him and I did not regret not staying at all - at least until I found out that I had hundreds of things to memorize and no time.

When I came home I tried to concentrate only on my exams but it was impossible so I went sleep and I put my alarm really early to have more time for studying. I managed to get up early! I went directly to the library because I needed to use the whole day as much as it was possible. It was awful! I spent there 12 hours! I was already totally annoyed around 10 am and I knew I had a lot of things to study and a whole afternoon ahead. It was endless. Even if I accomplished to be focused three hours at a stretch I was not even in the middle of my first subject and we had three of them to study plus my defence. Horrible. The only good thing was that I met there my friend from high school so I knew I was not the only one studying. When I saw how much she had to study just for one exam I felt happy I chose studying Finance instead of being a doctor.

I prefer studying in the library because there is not chance to fell asleep. In addition, it is motivating to see all people studying. It was funny to see all kinds of people - someone was sleeping with his head on the table, some people were surfing on Facebook, some of them were really nervous studying and when I saw all the thick books I was happy that after this day I am done - hopefully.

I don't know how but I stayed in the library until 10 pm with breaks for eating, drinking and going to the bathroom. When I was leaving, the library was surprisingly crowded. After coming home I felt kind of relieved already. I was surprised I managed to read everything slowly at least once and I had time to read unpopular questions again. I went sleep around 2 am and I put my alarm at 6 am to revise something.

In the morning I had a good breakfast, I took my favourite dress and I just hoped everything would go well. When I picked my questions I was quite happy and I went to prepare it. The first subject was Microeconomics. I chose the best question ever. I even remember being in the swimming pool and telling my mother I wanted to pick this one! It was Intertemporal choice. I liked the topic and I knew about it a lot of additional things, so I immediately received 1 (the best grade in the Czech Republic). In addition, the teacher was nice so she did not even ask me about more than two questions. It was worse with other teachers. The next subject was European Economic Integration. I already had an exam from this class six months ago so I relied on the fact that I remember a lot of things. In fact, I did not remember much but it was better than other subjects. I chose Monetary Union in 1990. The teacher was an uncle of my friend from high school by coincidence. It did not help me at all as he did not even know, but I received 2. It was my fault because I was little bit nervous because I just did not say anything for few questions. After there was the worst subject... Macroeconomics.

I was scared of this exam because of the teacher. Normally you have two options at our university – you can study Macroeconomics in Czech or in English. I opted for the English one. However, the teacher who examined us was teaching the Czech one. We all knew that there was a big difference between these two because we did not study all topics so deeply as students who chose it in Czech. This teacher spent almost 20 minutes with each student asking a lot of additional questions.

Actually I did not like Macroeconomics at our university at all because we had bad teachers for Macro I and Macro II. When I chose my question I liked it. I wrote on the paper everything I knew about the topic and I was quite happy until the teacher came. He started to ask me about all the things I had no idea about since he taught it during the Czech Macroeconomic class. Nevertheless, he decided to give me 3 and I was satisfied.

The last thing was the defence of my thesis. I have to say that writing my thesis was not horrible at all. Everybody asked me how I managed to do it on Erasmus but thanks to our intensive/extensive classes I had time to write it slowly and because I started already in February I had enough time. I prefered the thesis over exams because it did not restric me. I could write the thesis during the morning and I had still enough time to travel, party and enjoy all of my exchange friends. I remember some of them did not believe I really wrote it but I did. Maybe it was because my topic was not hard to understand and I liked it.

I did not prepare anything for my defence because as I said my topic was understandable and I could talk about it a lot. It was more like discussion than examination. They just kept my grade that I received from my coordinator and opponent. When I left the room I felt so relieved and happy. I could not admit that I was finally done with Charles University and a new beginning was ahead. Three years ago I could not even imagine passing all exams. And I accomplished it without prolongation! I cared about these exams a lot because I needed to pass it in order to start studying in Amsterdam. And it went well!

Immediately after the exams we went for a lunch. I did not like I was the happiest person and my other friends just took it as a normal thing and some of them were even annoyed that they did not receive only grades 1 from everything. I enjoyed the lunch anyway. It was funny we felt drunk only after one glass of wine. Of course, we did not forget to take a picture in front of our university!

We decided to go home to sleep a little bit and after the celebration could begin. I did not sleep much as I was calling everybody and my mum was super supportive and delightful! I managed to sleep 30 minutes and after we met Marek. He was totally obsessed with going to Andel kebab. As I told you in Barcelona the guys who hosted us they loved kebab in Andel in Prague. We promised them to go there and take a selfie with the owner. That´s exactly what we did. I did not feel like the kebab was the most amazing kebab ever but it was delicious.

Later, we went to our favourite place Náplavka in Prague and it was crazy. I felt tipsy after the first glass as I was not used to drinking recently. It was really nice to see everybody from my class after a long time and celebrate together. I did not see most of them for a long time because in the first semester they went for an Erasmus and during the second semester I was in France. I felt again really lucky when my friend (who is really inteligent) told me that one week for state exams is not much. I did not realize it before but I really underestimated my exams. I should have started one week before I actually started! Even David told me he though I did not have enough time but he did not want me to be stressed so he did not say anything. We ended up the party in KFC with my closest friends Marek, Matej and Lucka. I was enjoying my time with them because it seemed to me like ages that we did not see each other and we were not together.

I felt terrible the day after. I was hangover. I could not even get up from my bed until 2 pm. Now I have to find my summer job and arrange everything from my list. The best part is seeing everybody – all my family and friends. Next day we had again a celebration with people who had their exams the second day. It was even better as I spoke to my former dance partner and I could listen all of his stories from last year.

Yesterday I had a good day. I did not want to interrupt my roommate because she was studying the whole day. That´s why I went shopping! During the evening I finally saw one of my best friends Lucy (another one) and we went to the Pub. I had a good time with my classmates from my high school and we were talking in English almost the whole night because Dan brought his friend from the U. S. It was funny but I felt so tired after all celebration that I went home early.

For today I have special plans – firstly I am going for a Thai massage that I got for my birthday, after I am going with my girls (from Charles University) to Pizza Festival and in the evening we have the last party of the semester – Party on the Boat! I can´t wait!

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