Back to school, back to school...

Finally another update!
I figured I must squeeze in a blog tonight, as tomorrow morning a group of us are hopping on an 8:30 A.M. train to BUDAPEST for the weekend!

This week marked the beginning of the ‘Summer Semester’ at BOKU, and so I thought I would use this post to describe some of my courses and experiences at BOKU so far:

‘Environmental Risk Analysis & Management’ – This was my very first class on Tuesday afternoon. After Mike (an American) and I finally managed to find the seminar room, we waited at least fifteen minutes until the professor showed up. (I assumed that the professor was just “running late”, but after witnessing this in several of my classes, I was informed by an Austrian student that the class doesn’t “technically” begin until about fifteen minutes after the stated time. Interesting.) When the professor did walk in, everyone was suddenly silent as he went to the front of the classroom, pulled down the overhead screen and proceeded to boot-up his computer. Mike and I exchanged glances, surprised by the apparent hostility and formality of the situation. As it turned out, our first impression of the professor was far from the reality. Professor Nachtnebel (translation = “nightfall”) was a comedic elderly fellow who had a real passion for his research (water management), and some great stories to share. Within the first twenty minutes, we were asked to find partners and choose from a list of topics for our final written paper and presentation. Mike and I were two of the first to raise our hands, and lucked out with the topic of ‘water pollution’. We are thinking (I guess obviously) of presenting the topic from the perspective of problems within North America, since it turns out we are the only “Americans” in our class. The class was three-and-a-half hours long, far longer than the usual fifty minute classes I am used to at Guelph (but that said, the class is just once a week.) Thank-goodness for the assorted “vending machine” coffees which can be found just about anywhere on campus. (Don’t mock them til you try one. I recommend the “Schokoccino” – chocolate cappuccino. You’ll need about 5 of them to equal a coffee of standard North American size.)

‘Psychology of Landscape & Natural Resources Management’ – I was first attracted to this course not by the name and course description, but because it was being taught by an American guest lecturer from the University of Arizona. The title of the course is a bit out of the ordinary at first glance, but after a short explanation, the connections between Psychology and Natural Resource Management (or any management situation) makes perfect sense. Terry and his colleagues at U of A found that after speaking with students who had graduated from the Natural Resource Management program, the students described the hardest part of the job to be not the actual “managing of resources”, but the “management of people”. (This makes sense, after all, trees are really fairly co-operative with what we want to do, people on the other hand are not.) So far the discussion that has taken place has revolved around “how people see nature”, “why we see nature the way we do”, and “how we can attempt to modify that behaviour” ie.) how can we make people want to recycle, go green, etc.. For those of us looking to get credits from the course, Terry is willing to work with each of us individually to design a paper, research proposal, etc. that is in line with courses back home, or other interests we might have.

The only other classes I have had so far are my ‘economics’-based courses, so I won’t bore you with the details on those. I’ve definitely lucked out with my class schedule, as I’ve managed to avoid both Monday and Friday classes – the ideal situation for an exchange student looking to travel, that’s for sure! It also turns out that several of my classes won’t begin until May or June (after which they will be “intensive”, or nearly every day for a specific block of time), which is kind of a bummer since this will be the time when the weather starts to get really beautiful.

Some interesting cultural differences between Canadian and Austrian Universities are noted below:
-Austrian students pay (next-to) nothing for their University education. Apparently they tried to implement a small tuition fee (a few hundred for a semester) some time ago, but there was widespread outrage that they should be entitled to a University-level education so long as they were willing to work for it.
-The above reason might explain the limited attendance of students in lectures. After speaking to one Austrian girl, I learned that they typically attend a particular class in the first week to receive the course outline, and to find out whether attendance is mandatory and whether notes will be available online (they almost always are). In her opinion, because student’s didn’t pay hideous fees for school, they didn’t feel the same “obligation” to attend classes as American students tend to. If a student chooses to do so, they can simply register for a class and then show up only to write the final exam. (A final exam is often the only contribution to the grade in a particular course.)
-There are no rules in classrooms surrounding eating or drinking, and students wander in and out of classes as they please. (I’m pretty sure one student had a picnic packed into his book bag for our three-and-a-half hour lecture.)
-If you refer to University as “school” when in conversation with any European, they will have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. “School” is the education received at highschool level and below. We don’t go to “school”, we go to “University” ;).
-At the end of the lecture, students knock their fists on the desk to indicate a “job well done”. I find it a nice and subtle way to end the class, and show appreciation to the professor.

Next post – BUDAPEST!
Viszontlátásra!
(Apparently that’s “good-bye” in Hungarian. Doesn’t look like I’ll be picking up any of that language over the weekend!)