Thanksgiving

It’s not long time ago this holiday was celebrated in America. Of course that it’s crucial for Americans but here in Czech Republic we don’t celebrate it – we don’t have any reason to do so. However, I think that all people have something to thank for. We should be grateful for the opportunity to live that we were given and for life that we live. I mean that this is the reason why I want to say thank you today.

Of course I am complaining about hundreds of things in my life but basically I have a great life. I have a loving family. They have always supported me and tried to make me feel happy. I have never been one of those people who need to have a part-time job in order to earn money for school or clothing. And if it was possible, they bought me whatever I wanted. And that’s the first thing I should thank for. 

Another thing I should be grateful for is dancing because this activity helps me forgot about my troubles for a while and it helped me to increase my self-confidence and of course fitness as well.

Thirdly, I should give thanks to my boyfriend because he is the person who helps me the most, he supports me in everything I decide to do and he loves me as I am which no one else can do.

Last but not least I want to thank for my great friends who always make me feel happy. I am grateful for every single moment that I can spend with them because a life without friends is not a life anymore.

I must live in a way I want!

I must not live in a way that other people expect. But it’s not as easy as you may think because I always lived as my family expected and now when I grow up I realized that I have no chance to change my goals and behaviour without problems. I have never been drinking alcohol, smoking, playing truant or getting poor marks and now the whole family expect that I am the most intelligent and dutiful person on the earth and no one understand to the fact that maybe I am not this kind of person and maybe I don’t want to be.

They always wanted me to go to grammar school and then to a university and study and get an honours degree. But what if I feel lost because I didn’t want to get an honours degree? Maybe it would be better for me to have small shop with flowers and live simple and contended life. But nobody cares.  

I am always trying to make everybody happy although it makes me troubles. I feel bad when people around me feel bad, so I am trying to help them so much that then it’s me who is exhausted and feel even more bad than they did. But there is no one who would help me.

I think that I must start to live in a way I want and not to live in a way my family expect but it’s not so easy to change myself after 20 years of obedience.

The Film Review - The Invention of Lying

Today I was watching the film called The Invention of Lying. It's about a world where everyone tells the truth – and just about anything they're thinking. The main character – Mark Bellison – is a below-average screenwriter, who is going to be fired. He's short and chunky with a snub nose which means that he doesn’t match genetically with Anna, the woman he loves. At a bank, he firstly uses lying with surprising results. Then, when his mother on her deathbed, frightened of the eternal void awaiting her, Mark invents fiction. The hospital staff overhear his description of Heaven, believe every word, and tell others. Soon Mark is considered to be a prophet and his first made-up screenplay makes him rich. But he isn't happy because he still is not good enough for Anna...

Firstly, I thought it will be pointless and stupid comedy but the second half of the film surprised me very well because there were some deep thoughts although it was a comedy. I liked the film mainly because of Ricky Gervais playing Mark Bellison. He was excellent and I really appreciate his expression and humour.

However, the main idea of the world where nobody can lie seems to be pointless but I know that it was the point of this film. I couldn’t understand the fact that other people didn’t grasp that he can lie and I was waiting for some kind of disclosure the whole film. And without it this film missed unexpected twist. 

Music

I have no clearly defined style of music. I am listening everything that catches my attention somehow. Sometimes there is a song that I heard somewhere (for example in radio, film or in advertisement) and then it plays in my mind all day and I can't get rid of it. 

Usually there is only one or two songs from one interpret that I like, so it’s useless to have whole album from these interprets. However, there are few interprets that I really like. One of my favorite interprets is Florence and the Machine, who has a quite extravagant style, but some of her song have been played in radio recently.  The next author that I like is Adele, whose voice is amazing and many of her songs gladden my heart.

Another popular interprets are Ellie Goulding, Of Monster & Men or Parov Stelar who makes very engaging music – you can listen for example this song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ueJ4-lTa1s, which always makes me feel playful.

As I said there is hundreds of authors that made a song that grabbed my attention somehow so it would be a long list to name all songs that I like. 

There is one more view of music that I have. I’m a dancer so I am not only listening music such as many people around me, I am dancing on it. When I hear a song, first thing about which I am thinking is its musical rhythm and what dance I could dance on this music. It also means that music is really important for me because without music I could not dance… 

Climate Changes ..nonsese or the real threat?

Many people including for example our previous president Vaclav Klaus think that global warming and climate changes are nonsense. But scientists say something different and I think that they are right because I can see these changes on my own.

The first consequences of climate change can already be seen in Europe and worldwide. And scientists say that it is going to intensify in the coming decades. Temperatures are rising, rainfall patterns are shifting, glaciers are melting, sea levels are getting higher and extreme weather resulting in hazards such as floods and droughts is becoming more common.

Everyone could notice these changes during this year. Winter was long and cold while summer was very dry. It was really interesting to observe the end of this winter. At the beginning of one week it was about 3 degrees below zero and at the end of the week we were wearing T-shirts! Moreover, first weeks of summer holidays were in the sign of changes. Half a week there was a very hot weather while second half of the week there were so heavy rains that they caused floods. It repeated three times during one month. Isn’t it strange? 

Extreme weather events pose a direct risk to the health and safety of people. Damage to property and infrastructure imposes heavy costs on society and the economy. Flooding in the EU killed more than 2 500 people and affected more than 5.5 million over the period 1980-2011 and caused direct economic losses of more than €90 billion.

Moreover, climate change is happening so fast that many plant and animal species will struggle to cope. Warming would put as many as 20-30% of plant and animal species at increased risk of extinction.

Well, what do you think? Is it nonsense or the real threat??

Social Commentary - The Election 2013

The Parliamentary election was the topic number one during this weekend. We were voting new representatives who are going to form a government.

We can’t say that election ended up badly, because it would mean that democracy is no good and it is not true. I think that this election gave all politicians a bloody nose.

The purpose of this election was a change. People wanted to change conditions and intellectuals wanted to revive democracy because it fell into bad ways during last years. As I see it, almost all Czech people were annoyed and discontented with the situation in the Czech Republic.

Who won the election? In my point of view, the winner is Andrej Babiš and his ANO 2011. Only two-years-old party achieved almost impossible and fantastic achievement – a little less than 19 per cent and 45 mandates. It’s clear that Czech people think that this is the change that they need.

The results of election destroyed the dream of ČSSD about dominant victory because the real result is worse than the one in 2010, when they received about 22 per cent.

Finally, it is interesting that ZEMANOVCI, the party that was established by our current president Miloš Zeman, experienced election debacle because of conflicts within the party. Maybe it is also the opinion of Czech nation about Zeman’s rule.

Moreover, ODS received only less than 8 per cent which is a huge slump because it is the smallest number of votes since their establishment. It is probably the reaction on the scandal of Petr Nečas that showed how much is the party corrupted.

The Film Review - Diana

Almost everyone knows Lady Diana, the princess of Wales, however, only few people know her as an ordinary woman. This film is not a classical biography film because it deals with the last two years of her life, when she left the royal family and her life in Buckingham Palace. These two years were filled with charitable work, new will to live and new relationship with surgeon Khan.

It sounds like an ordinary romantic film. However, it is built on poor dialogues and on the fact that two people are arguing and being reconciled all over the time. This makes the film boring and finally it has no emotional effect.

Moreover, this film should be biographical, so I expected some political or biographical facts. But there are only few moments concerning Diana’s charitable work and almost no moments concerning royal family.

In fact, it is difficult to believe that this film has the same director (Oliver Hirschbiegel) as Downfall: Hitler and the End of the Third Reich, which was nominated for Oscar.

On the other hand, Naomi Watts, who plays the part of Lady Diana, portrayed Lady Di very well so at least one point is all right.   

However, in my point of view this film is a huge wasted potential. It could show why the whole world loved Lady Diana, but it became one of the most useless films of this year.

Me and English

When I was thinking about my English experience I realised that I have been studying English for 12 years now! I was really surprised and I have to say that it is quite sad that my knowledge of English isn't at a higher level now.

Well, my first contact with English dates from a nursery school. I remember that I had a very good teacher and we learnt how to express colours, family or parts of our body in English. At that time learning English was amusing and our teacher always thought up a new entertaining game for us. 

Then I met English at a primary school. We had a lot of different teachers and learning English became more difficult but still we played some games and especially at first school it was still fun. After few years we started to learn tenses and more complex vocabulary so we could express more thoughts in English.

Then I studied at a grammar school. English became much difficult and teacher’s primary goal was to prepare us for maturity exams so we started to practise reading, listening and speaking skills. However, there were almost 30 students in our class so I had only few chances to speak. Moreover, other schoolmates didn’t keep attention and made a lot of noise so I could never hear the listening exercises. It partly caused my current problems with listening and speaking skills. 

After I successfully graduated I started to prepare for entrance exams to the University of Pardubice where I wanted to study English for business. It was difficult and when I finished the test I was sure that I won’t be admitted. However, later that month I celebrated my admission to the University. 

And now I’m studying at this university second year and it’s really difficult for me, but I like it because it is one huge challenge and I have good friends here. And that’s my English history.

I always liked English. It is very melodic language and I was happy when I realised that I understand to songs or some English phrases from films. It made me feel special because not everyone can do this.  Moreover, I like traveling so I need to be able to communicate with foreigners. I love Britain as well because it is gorgeous country full of historical sights, new modern monuments and beautiful landscapes. I really want to spend some time in Britain.

However, as I said previously I have certain problems with listening skills. I understand to people who speak English but I don’t understand to records from radio during the lessons. Moreover, I am a quite shy person so I am afraid of speaking before people. When I am alone I speak quite well, but when I speak during to another person I’m not able to express what I want to say… And I usually realise that I can’t express my thoughts because I don’t know an English word or phrase – it annoys me a lot.

I am trying to improve my skills and I am sure that they are slowly improving, but still it is not enough.

About me

Hello! Welcome to my university blog.

My name is Monika and I’m ordinary girl from ordinary small village near Chrast, but during the academic year I live in Pardubice where I study at local university. As I said previously, I’m ordinary, but there is something that makes me a little bit different from other girls at my age – I’m a dancer. Now it is five years since I have tried dancing and have fallen in love with it. I started as a ballroom dancer but today there’s lack of dancers so I have no partner. It made me think what to do without a dancer? So I’m trying Latino and Jazz now and it seems to be fun as well.

And there is another thing that makes me a little different – I have six siblings. It means that there is noise, chaos and muddle everywhere in our house. Sometimes it’s like the series of Step by step! But it’s fine that there is life in our house every day – it would be a little bit weird for me to be alone at home.

What else? Well, I also help my mother with the organization called “Křídla pro pěstouny” which is the organization for those who have children in foster care. I prepare games and competitions for kids and a program for foster parents. I like it because they are grateful and children, whose lives were hard, are happy.

In my free time I’m very creative person – my room and house are full of my products. So I’m never bored.

I think that there is nothing else important... I like music, books, nature and animals like everyone in my surrounding  …so that’s me.