A Matter of Course

Soo.... I have mentioned it briefly at the end of a previous post and promised to tell you more depending on how the thing works out. Weeell, it did. So here I am telling you more. (Also it kind of explains the not-so-occasional blog silence.)

I enrolled into a course to learn how to be (and eventually qualify as) a tourist guide. I'm not quite sure what I think about it yet... Only that I'm proud of sorting out all the paper work. It was nasty, lengthy, I even used the phone a couple of times (woah what is happening?!).

Family and friends are getting a bit over excited by my attempt to get my life together and step out of the viciously unemployed circle. I try to maintain a resaonable level of excitement and lust for knowledge, and to stay positive, but not too much. In case it doesn't end well...

It's not like one day, I woke up and suddenly I realized what my life calling is: "I want to be a tourist guide!" she whispered, staring optimisticly into the rising sun. That is not what happened.

Being a tourist guide is something that I've been on and off contemplating for years. "Why did it take you so long to do something about it?" I hear you ask. Well, because traditionally, I do not think of myself as a typical "people person". And showing groups of curious tourists around a city is pretty much the definition of a people job. Also, I do have days when walking into a crowded space (i.g. Charles Bridge on a sunny day) makes me all anxious and almost sick with nerves and I just have to get out of there as soon as I can. (No idea what kind of anxiety/phobia that is. I'm glad that it's getting better. It's days now. Instead of weeks or months.) What if one of those days hits me when I'm working? You can't very well call in sick because you're not feeling right, can you. And I'd be dragging my own crowd of people around me everywhere... ... Not great.

But then there are the times when a friend of a friend of a friend visits Prague and I end up going for a walk with a couple of people from the other side of the world, showing them places, trying to answer their history questions as best as I can... And I have a great time :) It's fun and I am all proud of my beutiful home town.

So why not give it a go? In all honesty, I've been jobless for far too long and I am no closer to knowing what I actually want to do. For now, I cannot think of anything better, so I am going to try this. Tourist guide. I am in no way sure that it is the right thing for me. But it could be. We'll see what happens.

The encouraging factors are that I actually like history and geography, am very intersted in all things cultural and I speak some good english, if I may say so myself. If you put it like that, being a tourist guide sounds like a perfect match :) 

I've been taking the classes for a couple of weeks now and so far the results seem to be quite contradictory to the objective. I feel like I want to be a professional tourist so I could travel to all the places that we learn about. And I want to have that really cool person looking after me, who would tell me everything, take me places and generally be all kinds of helpful. I am yet to reach the mindset of one who is the helping person with buckets of factual knowledge and a calm and polite manner that can solve every problem in the universe.

For now my goal is to finish the course and pass the exam. That includes improving my public speaking in Czech. Why on earth we cannot do the practical bit of the exam in the language that we plan to work in is beyond me. It would be so much easier for me to speak in english. I am a weirdo, I know. Anyway, pass that exam and I get a fancy badge that says I am qualified to guide people around Prague.

I'm not planning anything beyond that point. We'll see what state I'm in when I get there. Taking it one step at a time. No need to freak out about everything at once, is there?

There you are. Wish me luck, if you want to. This could be THE thing in my life. or not. I don't know.... :D

How's your autumn going? Any new beginnings? :)

P.S.: On a long shot, any tourist guides reading this? If you have any advice for a newbie, please leave a comment. I'd be veeery grateful :)

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