ERASMUS week

monday:

the new semester began. I had my first lecture, Theorie und Praxis der Dialektologie, and the room was full. I was trying to spot people who might be erasmus students - in vain. afterwards I went to the mariahilferstrasse to buy a new folder for the new semester. I almost got the autumn feeling - one of the best feelings there are.

tuesday:

again one new lecture. this time it was Bildung & Anthropologie - Deutungsmuster Jugend und Kultur, my first lecture at NIG. I can't say it was something special - it wasn't. in the evening I took part to the ESN city tour. the esn section organizes city tours for the new incoming erasmus students and so I pretended to be one. it was more interesting than I thought it would be. I mean, the places I knew, but not stories not. at some point it got too cold for us (the temperatures dropped from 15-18 to 5-7 degrees in a night) and so we headed for the stammtisch.

wednesday:

my only proseminar this semester is Einführung in die Phraseologie der österreichischen Alltagssprache, which I hope to be helpful next year in vaasa. I wasn't the only exchange students who thought it sounded interesting, there were at least six of us. the polish ones were very active all the time and I started to wonder if that's how everyone is in poland or if only the active ones get to do erasmus. later I had my first lesson of catalan.

my new friends invited me to the erasmus karaoke night and so I invited one of the exchange students from the proseminar, lucia. it was a nice evening and a cheap one, too. I had two drinks, the first one was 0,50€ and the second one 1,90€.

thursday:

my almost erasmus-free day. I had again only one lecture, this time about sexuality: Sexualität im 20. Jahrhundert: Globale Perspektiven und internationale Entwicklung. it's again a course without a book (just like jugend & kultur on tuesday) and without any reader. that means I must find someone who's ready to send his notes to me as I can't count on mine.

in the afternoon I went with harald to have the "first ice cream of the year". it was too cold to eat it outside, so it was only the first ice cream of the year eaten in a gelateria. I wasn't very pleased with my taste mix. I'm out of practise. we also went to the cinema to see sweeney todd in original. half of the audience were finnish exchange students and I swear I didn't know they were coming.

friday:

this semester I have a 3-day weekend. I suppose I should have done something useful with my free friday, but the most of it I spent reading the new nick hornby novel, slam. it's a great book, which was no surprise to me, but kept me busy for the day. in the evening I had my dancing lesson. maria had noticed that there were two people dancing almost only with each other and indeed it was so. now I have something extra to do during the lessons: other people's lives are so interesting... anyway, we repeated what we had learned so far (smooth waltz, viennese waltz, rumba, paso doble) and started with slowfox. after the lesson I went directly to the erasmus welcome party. it was ok, a lot like in the autumn. still lucia, daniel (from germany) and me went to the karaoke bar next door for the rest of the time before taking the nightbus home. or at least that's what I did.

saturday:

I met the others at two and we went to see the national library. I've been there once before, during my language course in 2003, and I could still remember the book shelves that seemed to continue to the skys and the ladders. it all reminded me of one of my favourite films, beauty and the beast, where belle slides with the ladders along the shelves in the bookshop or where the beast shows belle his library.
the others: paulina (chile), steffi (germany), clemens (holland), rianne (holland) and rebecca (germany).