Article from National Geographic: New Species of Dolphin Found in Australia These funny-looking, recently discovered dolphins, remind me of Jop, my adopted dolphin from Veli Losinj: Left: Jop, the deformed bottle-nose dolphin swimming with other bottle-nose dolphin near Losinj, Croatia … Continue reading
Oh the joys of living in Austria: After catching up for a drink with my Slovenian classmate, Katja, on Tuesday, I was inspired to take a trip down to the coast of the neighboring country. So Wednesday night I booked … Continue reading
When I decided to take my first visit to the local pool here in Graz, I did not expect it to generate enough interest to suffice an entire blog post. But how wrong I was and how humorously eventful it was!
I had conveniently found a large swimming center within a 5 minute walk from my flat, with multiple outdoor pools and an Olympic sized indoor pool with diving platforms of varying heights. There was a club training across seven marked lanes and an open space, 4 lanes wide with no barriers, for the general public. After my first lap I was so confused I had to ask someone catching their breath at the end of the lane “Do you swim on the right or the left?” to which he replied “Neither”. Apparently its a free for all over the entire space and you just weave around the other swimmers and hope you don’t bump into anyone.
Back in Perth, we may not have the same courteous and calm driving etiquette as the generous Austrians, but at least we have pool etiquette!! First there was the lane thing; then every time I came to the end of a lap I would have to detour two or three lanes over to get to the wall. After a lap or a set, swimmers pick a spot on the wall to catch their breath and don’t move for anyone or anything, making for very awkward tumble turns during long distance sets.
Now please allow me a moment of a vanity. I am far from my peak swimming form and would struggle to make the times and distance I did back in my club and competition days, but I felt like a swimming sensation next to the Austrians. Even amongst the public lanes back in Australia there are always more accomplished swimmers leading the lanes, but here I felt like king of the pool – or the non-club lanes at least. I was swimming laps around a group of fit muscular young men. I finally see what my coaches had tried to explain in all my years of competitive training: “technique is so much more important than strength or physique”. I had better not go too often or I won’t be able to keep my big egotistic head afloat!
Every time I get back into swimming I remember how much I enjoy it and wonder why I ever stopped, this time I had a legitimate excuse: travelling and moving to a new country. But without the consistency and commitment of being in a club I always start off strong then slowly decrease my personal training sessions until out of nowhere a couple of months have pass before I’m back in the pool again. Here in Graz, one of the other universities operate a swimming club open to all students, but it is at a pool on the other side of town and I was a bit put off when I read the prerequisite for the ‘advanced’ class was “100m breaststroke without pause”. I will have to look for a club a bit closer or a swimming partner to keep me motivated.
The semester is now in full swing and ‘real’ classes have begun. No more slow mornings strolling into class hungover and an hour or two late, or ‘tests’ where we are provided the answers the day before. Our German Intensive class has split up into their various faculties, it is a shame not seeing everyone every day.
I haven’t had the smoothest of starts to the semester, in fact the last three weeks have been more stressful than anything I have experienced at my home university. Now prepare yourself for my rant:
On the Friday before classes started I was told the units FH Joanneum (the university I am attending in Austria) had approved for me were not offered this semester. The department heads had suggested and enrolled me in these units, but not bothered to check whether they were taught during the semester I was attending, until the start of semester! It had been a long and painful 6 month process getting those units approved before I left Australia, but the most difficult part was yet to come…
It proved near impossible to find a new set of units to enroll in as most offered this semester were strictly German speaking classes – I can barely order my morning coffee in German there is no way I could complete third year university units! To make matters worse my home university declined every unit available, claiming unit after unit after unit, to be too different from the units I would otherwise be taking back home. Of course they would be different! This is a different university, with a different system, in a different country – they even speak a different language!
With reluctance from my home university to cooperate and little assistance from the FH department heads who put me in this predicament, I spent the last three weeks in a constant pool of frustrated tears. Being so far from home, trying to sort my enrollment, with little assistance, in a university in which I do not speak the language or understand the different and complicated administration system, was one of the most stressful things I have ever had to do – even more so than managing last year’s FTP Charity Ball!
Eventually after a pile of empty tissue boxes, multiple angry emails and some job-risking, toe stepping, on behalf of my home university’s Dean, I have now been enrolled in classes! In comparison, my classes have proved to be a much more positive experience.
Within the first 10 minutes of my very first class, I was struck with guilt. In Australia we complain about the international students in our classes. That they slow us down with their lack of English or that they are a waste of space, sitting quietly in the corner, presumably too embarrassed to speak their second language – a feeling I now know very well. Unfortunately, I have even seen student-erected posters around the Curtin campus, declaring the campus to be a ‘English-Speaking Only Campus’, criticising international students for speaking their own language amongst themselves during breaks – in their own free time!
But here at FH, students and teachers alike have been incredibly accommodating. In each class the unit coordinator has visited and explained to the class in German that I could not speak the language and may need assistance from my class to understand, or the tutor has done so. They have each asked the class for volunteers to team up with me throughout the semester and assist me with translation, a timely and scrupulous task for any student. But in each class it has taken only a few seconds for the majority of the room to raise their hands, almost bringing me to tears, on one of my more sensitive days. Even the tutor, in my first class, who spoke very little English, struggled in front of her brand new class to try and explain how they could accommodate me in the German speaking class. I could tell she was completely out of her comfort zone but I was so grateful for her willingness to try and include me in the class.
Despite the kindness and understanding of my classmates, I still feel awkward and completely out of place in my classes. The lectures are delivered in German, so I sit there trying to assemble any understanding from body language, voice expression of the tutor and images on the lecture slides. Or when that fails, I sit blank faced, embarrassed and feeling like I wouldn’t be smart enough for a Kindergarden class, let alone university. However most classes have been slightly altered to allow for my German incompetency. In one class, presentations were delivered in English by the other students, for my sake. Which is very humbling but at the same time makes me feel like I am a hassle, adding difficulty or creating extra work for my classmates.
Things that I didn’t give a second thought to, in classes back home, are suddenly problematic. Just sitting in class is a struggle and at times I am even too nervous to turn around and ask the person next to me to borrow a pen in case I say a wrong word and embarrass myself, stumbling through a simple everyday question. Of course my classmates all speak brilliant English, but I also feel rude initially speaking to them English, as if I just expect them to speak my language. As for contributing to class discussions in German, I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon! As I am usually a big class contributor and a bit of a nerd, this is something I think I will struggle to get used to throughout the semester. But I will have to take this exchange for what it is: a new and completely different experience of learning and living.
This morning I visited the Kaiser-Josef-Markt farmers markets to stock up my kitchen with fresh Styrian produce, of which I had heard so many good things about! Styria, the province of Austria in which Graz lies (Die Steiermark as it … Continue reading
Yesterday I participated in the 20th Annual Graz Marathon, my very first marathon. Before you get too excited, I did not do the whole 42 kilometers, as much as I wish I could say so. I shared the length in … Continue reading
All photos in this post are courtesy of my generous and talented friend, Georgy Alekseev. A group of us from the German course took a weekend trip up to Munich for the first day of Oktoberfest on the 28th of … Continue reading
I have friends now so no need to blog… will post again at the end of semester tschüss! … But in all seriousness, since starting the German Intensive Course at FH Joanneum (my university here in Graz) three weeks ago … Continue reading
Great News!! Bojan, the speared dolphin I came across during my time in Croatia, has been found with the spear no longer in his back. You can read the Adriatic Dolphin Research Project’s press release at the link below:
This post is a bit late sorry, was meant to post two weeks ago but it got lost in my writings…
8th September 2013
The highlight of my week was finding a yoga studio within walking distance of where I live! Having not been to a class since I left Australia, I was quite the eager beaver and arrived half an hour before class. But it gave me a chance to speak to Swami, the instructor and owner. He is a lovely Indian man, he has been in Austria for 7 years but we bonded over our mutual coyness of speaking German in public. He usually takes the class in German but gave me the English translation of each pose – he wouldn’t even take payment for the first class, saying it was free to try out! It was a small little studio and there were only five others in the class with me, however Swami said more people attend when the school term resumes in October. He offers different types of yoga, (a basic course, hatha/prana/chakra yoga) and classes with varying difficulty; I can’t wait to do them all!
I had the apartment to myself for most of the week. My flatmate Daniel was in Germany from Tuesday morning to Wednesday night and left again Friday morning to spend the weekend in Upper Austria with friends. Tuesday was sunny and hot so it was nice to be able to walk around the house in my bikini and tan on the balcony and on my bed, but after a couple hours I started wishing there was someone else in the house. I can’t wait until everyone else arrives so I won’t be so alone… I think I have a co-dependency issues.
Sunbaking on my bed… not quite the beach but it’ll have to do now I’m land locked
Most of the week was spent doing boring real-life stuff like registering at the council and uni (and everything in between!), setting up a bank account and grocery shopping.
It didn’t take me long to find myself a new Yelo (my favourite coffee shop back home and practically my second home). It doesn’t have the ocean views or English words on the menu board but you can see the mountains from the outside seats, with cool decor inside and best of all: free wifi!! It is opposite my uni and takes about 2 mins to walk to from my room. The Asian owners are so friendly and always happy to see me in the mornings (they must be drinking a lot of the coffee). They already know my order and we have laughed many a time over our mutual struggle with the German language – they have even taught me a phrase or two.
Buna, on the street floor of the left building. Photo taken from my university campus. Notice the green mountain towering in the background at the end of the street.
I must admit it has been a bit of a lonely week. I had the house to myself, Nadine was at a theme park in Germany with her family from Tuesday to Friday morning, when she popped in and said hi, and then left again to go to her hometown for the weekend and Sonja had a huge assignment due. Johan was busy settling in himself, although we did visit the Schloßberg together on Saturday (post to come). So I am looking forward to starting the German course next week, to learn more of the language, meet new people and to actually have something to do!
Excuse my modesty, but I am already a wiz when it comes to number double triple and even quadruple numbers (anymore and I wouldn’t have a clue) and I am getting better with each day at ordering coffee but that’s probably the extend of my German knowledge. I’m looking forward to the day i can actually hold up a conversation, but I think that may be a distant reality… but it WILL happen!
On Friday evening I met a Canadian guy in the supermarket, who turned out to be a visiting lecturer who is teaching International Law at FH Joanneum this semester. He told me that after spotting from a distance that my shopping list was written in both English and German, he thought it would be a safe bet to ask if I spoke English and if I knew the German word for ginger (ingwer). I think we were both so happy to have found another native English speaker we spoke for quite a while and exchanged numbers promising we’d catch up for a drink. Romantic, I know… pity he was middle aged and balding.
Don’t get me wrong the Austrians have excellent English skills and making conversation has been easy, it is mostly the older people who may not know English. Even those that don’t are still very hospitable (unlike some of the French I came across last year) and try to communicate through a mixture of German, English and animated hand gestures. However it was good to be able to use slang, talk with a bit of speed and not have to explain my sarcasm or jokes. I think I was a bit too happy because I found myself babbling on – even more that usual!
I am looking forward to the day I can babble on in German.
Sea to Snow 