Monday, September 22, 2008

Bored in Florence

I was in there some ten days ago but I didn't feel like writing. I needed to find out what the hell I need to sign up for the Master's course. I hadn't been able to find it on the university website so I decided to go and see.

After two days of waiting in various queues, I was told by a lady in charge of the information office that all the stuff actually is on the web. Not filed like, say, Arts Faculty - Foreign students - How to sign up and what you need but on the university website, there's a place with all the forms and on one of the forms, there's a list of requirements. So, to sign up, I need my high school graduation papers, university diploma and a list of courses I followed, all translated, legalized, stamped at two ministries, verified by the embassy. To sign up for Masters, I moreover need a permit to do so, based on professors' assesment of what I studied, meaning that I need to get the syllabi of the courses, translated and poked around as abovesaid papers. The translation costs some 18 euros per page, my diploma is four pages of rants. I don't have the syllabi yet, they'll be somewhere online sometime in October.

My father says that a good boss needs to know the art of delegating. I thus double-checked what needs to be done, step by step, and passed it onto my friends since it all needs to be done in Prague and I need to be in Italy. When mother asked how is that going, I told her that I followed my father's teachings and delegated the jobs. She said we're both the same: crazy.

I however found the lodging (in Florence) in a decent neighbourhood, within a walking distance to anywhere and with a view of a railway station. I admit, I love trains.

I spent four days in Florence without visiting any fancy place, museum or monument. Two days were devoted to attempts of paperwork, two were spent idling. Yes, I'm even worse than you expected.