The majority of my weekend on the Slovenian coat was spent walking from town to town along the busy shoreline. I planned to attend the evening screening, but could not find where to buy tickets. 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. Our German Intensive class has split up into their various faculties, it is a shame not seeing everyone every day. 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. 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.
