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Published: October 16th 2008
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Austrian Efficiency
As I've said, Austrians are the most efficient people ever, and thus, they're inefficient. These are only SOME of the cards I always have on me, and I'm waiting on some more to come in the mail... Today I had a lot to accomplish. I woke up early to get underway, and headed up to school to the International Office. Of course, my two advisors were both not there today, so that crossed about half the things I had to do off the list. Still feeling a bit like crap, though, I headed over to the housing office, and signed papers so that I can move to a new place on December 1st . Oh well. It's not the place with my friends...yet! I talked to that company, though, and they told me that there's no problem, so I'm just waiting to hear back from UVM about staying here a year, and then things look good. So, for now, it appears like you'll be getting updates from the Eastern Kingdom until June.
After having a wonderful lunch of a peanut butter & jelly sandwich, I headed out again to go the English bookstore here in Graz. They proclaim that they have thousands of books, "written in English language!" Apparently you didn't need to be qualified to make the sign, or have to understand articles in English. C'mon, people, THE is THE most common word in THE English language....THE. Anyways, I was there to try to look for a book that could help me teach English. Since I'm going to hopefully be tutoring soon, I should probably know what I'm talking about. Libor also told me last night that apparently he has to take a test in English in order to graduate from college, regardless of how much you've studied. Well, since he took 2 years of English in middle school and remembers just about nothing, that's going to be quite the challenge. I told him I'd gladly help, and then realized I have no idea how to explain English. Great job, American school system, way to teach us our own language's grammar, etc. I hung out in the bookstore for a while and read various things about different aspects of English grammar, and then headed up to school. I had about 45 minutes before my one class of the day began, so I sat down and pulled out a notebook and began to write my own textbook. It's actually a bit of a challenge, but it's cool to take a step back from English and have to analyze it just like any other language that I've studied. The hardest part was definitely having to spell out the numbers, 'cause really, when do we ever write forty-one? So far, I've got a good chunk of things to teach him, which should be fun once we start, 'cause it'll definitely be hard trying to explain the reason it is the way it is, having never learnt WHY it's that way.
Anyways, after getting stared at like a freak by some of the kids in my Italian class, it was time for class to start. Nanny told us about a new professor straight off the boat from Italy who'd just gotten here, and that she was there to help us if we needed help understanding the readings, since yes, they're in Italian from the SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Show of hands, how many people here have trouble reading Shakespearean English? Alright, now switch the language to Italian and kick it back almost 600 years. Exactly.
Class was good, though, we talked about one of Dante's Canti, then about a parody of it, and finally about Sassetti, who was the first person to make a Sanskrit-Italian grammar. We were supposed to analyze a letter by Sassetti, and so Nanny asked us what we got out of reading it, and since nobody volunteered, I decided to. I made a comment about how it was a typical Italian document of the time period, as there were many comments against the Arabs and the Moors, refering to them as dogs and beasts. Paolo would've been proud. Nanny smiled and said, "I was looking for more along the lines of if you had trouble understand the old Italian, but hey, that works, too..." Sweet. Messed up big time. Proved myself a dork. Great.
After that, I hit up one of my Spars and had a nice little chat with one of my Spar-ladies, and then came back here and made a pizza. Been working on my English textbook for a bit and just relaxing, since I'm still not at full health. One of the American girls here I'm friends with is actually leaving on Saturday, so there's a little going away gettogether for her tonight, so I might go to that but I'm not sure. I don't quite understand why she's leaving, but she hasn't heard anything from her home university, even though she's emailed and called them about transferring credits and whatnot. Seems to be a common theme, since all the American universities have left their American students high and dry. Anyways, she decided it's best to leave for the semester and not bother taking her classes here, which I don't quite understand, 'cause hey, if she's going to be a semester behind, why not at least live in an awesome place for the semester? Granted, she goes to the same school as my roommate in Arkansas, so...
Oh, also, got a nice surprise today. Dad's football got here! Apparently it was supposed to be delivered yesterday, but my wonderful flatmates did not give me the slip, and I didn't find it until today, so I went and picked it up. I told some of my Europeans and they're really excited to see it, since none of them have ever played football before or seen a "real American football" in their lives.
That's about it, though. Libor and I are trying to get everybody to go to Klagenfurt for a day this weekend, and I'm trying to figure out having my friend Meg from Paris come and visit and the logistics and whatnot, but otherwise, nothing too exciting. I start one of my classes in German tomorrow, History of the Latin Alphabet, which should be really interesting, and then I have another class with Nanny.
Talk to you all later!
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Mom
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Personally.....I think you two are made for each other! Almost like you have the same mentality! LOL!!!!!!