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Published: February 2nd 2009
Erasmus Farewell Party
January 22, 2009, in an Alpine city...we chose to wear our bathing suits and flipflops to the Erasmusverabschiedungparty [yes, that is one word in German]. Needless to say, we got stared at as we walked there by the Austrians on the street.Servus,
It’s a snowy Groundhog Day’s morning, so I figured I should let you all know that happyhaps here, and also say Happy Birthday to Rachel. Since we last spoke, it has been an absolutely crazy few weeks here in Österreich. The semester officially ended on Friday, the 30th, and with that came weeks of exams and minimal sleep and everyone freaking out . One night right in the heart of exams, ESN decided to throw a going away party at one of the clubs here in Graz, with the theme of Karneval . Since it would probably be the last time we got to see a lot of people, of course we all decided to go, and well, you could say Libor and I arrived in style. That night was a lot of fun, and then it was back to the reality of studying and failing exams.
This past Friday, the 30th, I had my two hardest exams: L’Italia dell’Umanesimo and
Top 7!
My apartment at the party! Olga [fairy], Thomas [who knows], Borja [Braveheart], me, Libor. Einführung in die Kultur und Geschichte des Alten Ägypten . I wasn’t too concerned about my exam about Egypt, but I was sufficiently freaking out about my Humanism exam. It wasn’t the information that was the problem, I’ve had that drilled into me for years now , but rather that we’d conducted the entire class in Italian, had all our readings in Italian, all our notes in Italian…but had to do the exam in German. The day before I spoke with some Austrian girls who’re also in the class, and they were freaking out. One of them had opted even not to take the exam this time , because she felt it’d be too difficult to do it in German. I just laughed and said, “Ok, if you guys are having problems with it in German, imagine it for me!” They all got a kick out of that, but concurred that it was absolutely insane that we had to write the exam in German. I also spoke with a girl who’s in the class who
For the Ball
This is the only picture available online so far. Olga had to approve all of our clothes before we could go, and then she wanted a picture. I believe is from Slovenia but is just a full time student here , and she actually went and talked to our professor and asked if just I could write it in Italian, without telling me. Needless to say, when she emailed me with the good news, I was shocked .
Anyways, Friday morning arrived and I was up at the crack of dawn and at school by 9. I was taking the Italian one early since I had my Egypt exam later in the day. My professor had forgotten this, but then when she showed up 15 minutes late it was no problem. She then looked at me and asked me, “So, what would you like to do your exam on?” “Excuse me?” “Pick your topic. Society? War? Art? Architecture?” Having learnt a painful amount about art and architecture in Italy in the 15th Century, I politely said, “I think art and architecture would be interesting…” “Great! What would you like to do it on? Masaccio’s ‘Trinity?’ The Brancacci Chapel? Brunelleschi?” Finding architecture the most interesting and having learnt so much about Brunelleschi, I decided that that would be an outstanding choice. She then told me that I could write the exam in Italian if I liked, but ironically told me that with the sentence starting in Italian, ending in German, and then added, “Is that ok?” in English. Con-fus-ing.
Anyways, that exam was fine, I had to do 19 short essays in italiano about Brunelleschi in the idea of the modern city in the 1400s, and hopefully I did well. After that, I ran to the other side of campus to arrive in time for my second exam. My professor for my class on Egypt had asked me a million times if I was comfortable writing the exam in German, and I assured here that I was fairly certain I had to, or else I wouldn’t get the credit in the US. To ease her worry, I asked if I could just bring my dictionary with me, and she was very happy to know that I would be on my own and not confused by anything. Of course, when I walked into the class on Friday, I saw two GIANT books sitting on the table . I looked, and of course, what did they say? Deutsch-Englisch Englisch-Deutsch. Super. She was VERY excited to hand me these dictionaries and tell me not to have any worries about the exam. It was a very nice gesture, just pretty funny to see how concerned she was. She passed out the exams, explained the directions , and then stopped everyone before they could start and said, “Herr Greene, geht es dir?” Mr. Greene, is that alright? She asked if we needed to step into the other room and discuss anything that I didn’t understand, etc. etc. I flashed her my pearly whites and assured here, “Nein, danke, alles in Ordnung.” No, thank you, everything’s fine.” Needless to say, I didn’t write as much as the Austrians, half due to the fact that I couldn’t remember all of the information, but the other half being that I had decided that it’d be better for me to write a little bit, but with good German, rather than a lot with poor German. I think my professor also understood that I wasn’t necessarily there for the course information , but rather just to have a class in German. After I finished that exam, and assured my professor yet again that it went well enough for me and hopefully my responses would be adequate for her, I headed out to begin the sprint back to my apartment.
In Europe, everyone has two personal celebrations per year, their birthday and their name-day. In some countries, the name-day is oftentimes considered more important than the birthday, as it ties you directly to whichever saint you’re named after. I have already called dibs that since Matěj ‘s day is February 24th, we shall be celebrating Matthew Day. Friday the 30th was Martyna’s day, and so a group of us met on the Murinsel for a glass of wine and to celebrate Martyna’s name. Odd? Perhaps. But hey, it was a reason to kick back and relax as we were just about all finished with exams. After that, Libor and I did some errands around town, and then headed back to our place to get ready for the evening.
Friday evening was der Ball der Technik, the Technic Ball, hosted by Graz’s Technicsche Universität, ie, where Libor goes to school. Everyone in Graz was invited, and so on Friday evening, we all donned our best ties and jackets and headed to the Grazer Congress for our evening out. It was: me, Libor, Martyna Thomas, Nico, Claire, and Anouck. The seven of us headed there where we met a bunch of other kids, too many to name, and hung out for the night. The evening began by going up to the balcony level, where we overlooked the grand ballroom of the Congress. It was pretty much like everything you can imagine a ballroom to look like . There were giant glass chandeliers and everything made from polished wood. We were on a small balcony level which opened with the dance floor underneath. On one end of the dance floor was the orchestra, and promptly at 9pm, they started to play. Out marched a group of probably 15 couples, the men in tuxes, the ladies in white dresses. They were all students of the TU, and they opened the ball with the dance of the Polonaise, which is tradition in Central Europe . For instance, Libor and Martyna both had to learn how to do it before they could graduate from their respective high schools in the Czech Republic and Poland, as there is always a ball to celebrate the end of high school and they needed to dance it to begin the ball. Thus, this group danced for us , and then the president of the TU welcomed us all to the ball. Of course, the first words out of his mouth, in a heavy Austrian accent were, “Yes, ve caan!” After saying a few things about Obama, which I thought was a little odd, he finally thanked us all for coming, and the ball commenced. We headed downstairs to explore the Congress, and I got my first taste at the waltz, when Martyna tried to teach me a little bit. Unfortunately, there were so many people that you really had no room to go anywhere, and whenever you moved you collided with someone else. Even when you were standing on the side, you were mostly getting pummeled by all the people swirling by you. We decided to continue our exploration, and headed to some of the other rooms. There were a number of rooms in the Congress open, each with a different type of music playing, so you really could pick whichever type you wanted. It was disgustingly hot, though, and so we pretty much always kept moving.
At midnight, there was to be a special surprise, so at about 11:30 we headed back up to the balconies to get seats this time . At midnight on the dot, all the lights went out, and a performance by a Graz dance group called Tanz Off! began. They did about a half-hour long performance with various dances representing the different fields of study at the TU, and Libor was quite happy when they started the dance for the Civil Engineering Institute . After that, we headed back down to the first floor, as at 1 o’clock there would be another special performance, but this time involving us. We took to the floor and began to learn a group dance, and failed miserably. It was fun, though, and we tried our hardest but there were so many people and the woman teaching was going so fast that we really had no idea what was going on. We then decided to go and grab something to eat, as we were all starving, so we went to Hauptplatz to one of the food stands and each got a hamburger, which was disgusting to say the least, but hey, food is food. Some headed back to the Congress, some headed home. I chose to go home after such a long and tiring day.
Since then, it’s just been pretty low-key, hanging out, enjoying vacation . I’ve been working diligently on my seminar paper that I have to hand in in mid-March, but I want to get it done now so I can enjoy February. I’m also supposed to have an oral exam today, but still have yet to hear from my professor as to if I have it or not so I really have no idea. Oh well!
Also, there are some seriously awesome plans in the making for my February adventures, but we haven’t finalized anything yet. Once we do, I will let you know, but get ready, because it’s going to be awesome
Tschüss!
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kristy
non-member comment
sounds like fun - wish i could see the pics!! glad your exams are over, supergenious!!