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Jason in Austria
...and now it's time for another entry. It's funny when time passes so quickly that you forget how long you've been somewhere. There is so much to do, and just when I think I'm done for a while, something else shows up. The classes are moving quickly, the excursion trips are sooner than I thought, and I don't have time to breathe. It's nice.
This journal thing is harder to keep up with than I had anticipated! I posted some of the boat excursion pictures, and the trip was a lot of fun. First we toured the Castle at Eisenstaat where Haydn used to play and compose some of his music, and then we went on a tour of his house down the street. Being a former music major I very much enjoyed looking at some of his original work, his piano, and his music rooms! Some of the pictures of this turned out a bit blurry, but others are pretty good. We were not allowed to use flash on our cameras in any of the rooms because of the original paint and artwork.
Next we went on a boat trip to the Neusielander See. The boat was an old style river boat with lots of eating tables and balconies; it even came with its very own accordion player. He was exceptional. From German songs to English songs to Anthems, he played us many great classic songs while we ate a BBQ meal right on the boat! They served steak and sausage (not either or, they gave us both), bread, and of course Sauer kraut. To drink they had all the red wine and white wine you could drink from local vineyards across the area. I wasn't much into the sauer kraut but everything else was really good.
After the boat trip we took a carriage ride through town with two horses pulling all of us! The driver was a very funny man who kept (at least I'm pretty sure) making mild sexual innuendos to the Irish girls in front. But I must say they seemed to be flirting with him enough that they were pretty much asking for it.
So that was my latest excursion news. My next one I am going on is in Pecs, Hungary. This is a 2-day trip and I am taking a short class at a Hungarian university while I am there. Later in the semester there is an excursion to Prague, which I am very much looking forward to. Hopefully I will be able to squeeze in a couple more trips before and after the scheduled school excursions. I would love to visit Italy this semester and it is very possible that I will go to Oktoberfest. I hear it is incredibly crowed in Munich the weeks of Oktoberfest, but I will see what I can do! Martin said that Paris Hilton will also be attending this year.
I finally started my classes. Since I didn't have any classes my first week I was to miss doing something school related and I was quite curious as to what the Austrian classes were going to be like. So far I really like all of my classes. They are spread out all through the semester almost in a staggered formation, but the ones I am taking right now are International Investment Strategies, Tools of Project Management, Principles of Marketing and Sales II, Corporate Finance I, German II, and I start Spanish I on the 27th! I am not sure what studying two languages at one time will be like, but I think it will work out fine. The business classes that I listed will end halfway through the semester and will be replaced by other "half semester" classes. The schedules are different here than WSU. I go to school Monday through Thursday for anywhere from 3.5 to 7 hours a day. Each class meets once a week for about 3 or 3 and a half hours a piece. So far I have 3 Austrian teachers, 1 British, and 1 Irish. The professor from England is the most clear and easy to understand for me. One of my teacher's from Austria teaches my investments class and speaks 6 different languages! I couldn't believe it. She is very strong each.
I seem to be keeping up better than I accepted to in my classes, even my German class! One thing I need to start doing is speaking more my German class though. If I do then I will be constantly corrected on my pronunciation and it will help me when I speak to someone who may not know exactly what I'm trying to say! My German professor is used to sorting through bad pronunciation and thick accents. Some of the students get angry when he corrects them. I don't understand that. I would rather know how to say it correctly. His pronunciation and projection when he speaks German is almost like a radio announcer. It is very clear and separated just enough. I just finished my intensive German class and my semester long class starts on Wednesday (tomorrow). This meets at night once a week.
I already have two groups for two different classes that I am working in now. My group for International Investment Strategies just finished our first case study on "Growth stock VS. Value stock" decisions. It was quite interesting. I am the only native-English speaker in my group, so it works well if they have questions on how to word a sentence, etc. We have to get together and do a case study each week and write a paper over it. Every group will have to do one presentation during the course over a case study as well. Ours is coming up in a few weeks.
Yesterday I re-arranged everything in my room and I feel much more at home now! It looks very good and is more stream-lined. Sometimes you just have to put a little of your own thought into things when it comes to boring dorm rooms. My bed has proven to be much more comfortable than I had thought. I seem to get a very good sleep! For anyone who has slept in a dorm bed know that they can be like nails if you get the right one.
I have decided to come home and visit on Christmas Break! This will be really good to have Christmas at home and to be able to see everyone again. It will get me ready for a hopefully eventful and busy second semester.
Oh! I also went to "World Records Day" in Vienna over the weekend (you stup..oh, wait, never mind). It was excellent! I saw the World's tallest man who stood around 7 feet 8 inches. He was from China and seemed to be pretty old. I think maybe in his 60's. They also had a guy who fit the most straws in his mouth at one time. He was hilarious. Before he tried it he did lots mouth exercises to get his mouth to open as wide as possible. I think he ended up putting in two thousand or so, but don't quote me. After seeing the record holders we went to the Shweizer Haus. This is a very famous Austrian restaurant. I had white sausage and great potato pancakes. There were lots and lots of people everywhere. Martin told me that it is usually always that busy there on the weekends.
Wow! I need to start writing more often so I don't have so much stuff to put into one journal. Abby told me I should keep a small written journal everyday (like a paragraph or so) in German along with my online journal because it would help a lot to get used to making sentences and overall practice of how the structure is implemented in speech and writing. I think it is a really good idea, but also very hard! At first it's definitely going to take a lot of work. We shall see...
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