Nov 7-10: A Week in the Life of an Exchange Student

Today is blog catch-up day. The last couple of weeks have been slightly hectic, so there was very little blogging done (as you’ve probably noticed J).  So, to sum up (and to keep track for myself), here’s an overview of what a busy week is like for me in Graz.

Monday: I had to present literature sources for a musicology paper on Tuesday. So I found a nice place to work and stayed there ALL DAY. I also met with my friend K from Japan. We were preparing for a presentation on “Vienna’s Lost Daughters.” I went to orchestra that evening, and we read through Fauré’s Pavane. So SO gorgeous! I’ve fallen in love with it.

Main building, Karl-Franzens Universität

Tuesday: Brought in my musicology sources. Apparently, brain research for musicians and non-musicians wasn’t exactly the right angle, so I was back to square one. Rather frustrating, since I had a presentation in 2 weeks where I had to present my thesis and supporting evidence. (I’m very happy to say that this is no longer the case. My presentation is now in December. J)

On campus.

Wednesday: “Vienna’s Lost Daughters” presentation! It went very well, I think. Afterwards, our professor gave us more of the history of World War II and the general sentiments among Austrians at the time. It was a very interesting class. Afterwards, I took out my camera and got some pictures around campus of the leaves falling. Such a beautiful, sunny day!

Leaves falling.

Size comparison.

Thursday: I FIGURED OUT THE PHOTOCOPIER.

In many of the university libraries, you can’t take journals and articles home. So you take them out for 2 hours and photocopy the relevant pages. A little difficult if your article is about 40 pages long… I finally got the right hours of the musicology library and headed over to the copier. Ah, right. All the instructions are in German. Hmm, if I press this option that says “Minim-”, do you think it will shrink the 2-page spread to an A4 sheet?

30 minutes later, I walked out of the building with a neat, stapled 20-page article, and a rather foolishly wide grin. I love German cognates. :-D

A study corner on campus (new building).

Friday: ARTICLES!!! (And some painting. But mainly homework.) Then we headed over to E & P’s for a very marvelous celebration…St. Martin’s Day! (Coming soon to a blog near you. ;-)