So what am I taking?
GERMAN
All of us in the program are required to take a German class (well, if you're fluent I think you can test out of taking the language course, but then would have to take another class of your choosing in German). Seeing as before coming here the only German I knew was what I had learned from The Sound of Music and various German songs from voice lessons and choirs, I obviously tested out of having to take any German class. Wait a second. No, my bad. That's wrong. I'm in Elementary German I. Same thing, right? It's only slightly difficult seeing as I naturally think first in English, then in French, then grasp at straws to try to produce a German equivalent. Luckily, a lot of German words sound like their English counterparts plus a little bit of a different accent. Seriously - I've convinced someone I was speaking German by just speaking English with a German accent. That being said, I wouldn't have been making any sense had I in fact been speaking German. Whoops! I think probably the most difficult part of the language might be the grammar...because it makes NO SENSE. Not if you think of it in English terms...or in those associated with French. Ah well. It works. I do now know more German than Spanish, so that's exciting. I've also had to use it on a daily basis (you know - like asking men to dance at balls...more on that at another time)!
FIN DE SIÈCLE: VIENNA 1865-1914
Ta da! Guess who's taking a history class? Yep! I don't even know the last time I took one...probably junior year of high school. Crazy, eh? Not JUST history though - as we're currently living in the city that we're studying, we can actually see a lot of the things that we would just be talking about in class. What does that mean? We have normal lectures on Monday and then take walking tours and such on Wednesdays. So far, we've gone to see the Imperial jewels, the only standing synagogue in Vienna from before WWII, the Imperial Library, etc. It's been wonderful - minus the FREEZING day that my teacher decided was a good time for a walking tour. We were standing outside the Stephansdom studying the symbolism while the icy wind whipped at our faces, forcing us to try to stuff our necks and any showing skin underneath scarves, as we slushed through the snow to our next destination. Those of us who remembered hats were much warmer, although they (as I was obviously not one of those people...I think one of my hats was at that time on a snowman on our terrace) completely missed out on an important part of our winter study abroad experience. Right? Let me just tell you a bit about this teacher: he's a fairly young researcher. "Yes" to whatever image that just conjured for you - he's very skinny, wears circular glasses, and is one of those teachers who I think feels like he needs to wear a suit in order to not appear as one of the students. Or maybe he just likes wearing suits. You decide.
ART ANALYSIS 2
Not that I took Art Analysis 1 or anything. Ah well. It involves a museum pass, looking at lots of artwork, and discussing all of that in classes. Works for me. The teacher is a short ball-of-fire, no-nonsense, 50-60-something woman. She is entertaining to say the least. Especially the shock that crosses her face when people ask questions about our topic of lecture for the previous 2 weeks. Hahahaha. Seriously. That happened. I think she almost had a heart attack in the Kunsthistoriches.
THE FEMALE AS WRITER AND PERSPECTIVE IN AUSTRIAN LITERATURE
Interestingly enough, my teacher is a man. With a small ponytail...and balding on top. And glasses. Hahahaha. I love him. Seriously though. He's awesome. He's actually really cool. Not all of our texts are available in English, so he translates some of them for us. He's also currently translating an English text into German for a German publishing company. I wasn't kidding - he's cool. Let me know if you need more evidence of this. I also like the stories we've been reading for this class. It may be the first English/Lit class I've actually read all of the material for...since like 6th grade. 2 weeks in and I'm still going strong. We'll see how long this goes on! :D
COEXISTENCE AND CONFLICT: THE HISTORY OF EASTERN EUROPEAN JEWS
My teacher from this is one of the two teachers who commute from Budapest. Crazy, eh? Yep. How to describe his physical appearance? Well, let me just tell you that this morning he was wearing a khaki corduroy jacket, a plaid button-up shirt, with a polka dot tie. Obviously he also wears glasses and has old-man perfectly combed hair. :D I have that class late Tuesdays and early Wednesdays. It's a little rough Tuesday nights because it's always right when I want to be eating and after spending an entire day at the IES center in classes. It's a bit sporadic. But, it's still fairly interesting, especially since we're getting it from the viewpoint of an Eastern European Jew, so even if we hear about things that we already new, it's still new. The main problem is that he says "um" at the same pitch that he speaks, which makes it a bit difficult to distinguish his words from his "um's"...which takes me an extra second or two to realize as I sit there trying to figure out what in the world that word was...before realizing that there was an "um" in the mix that completely threw me off. Whoops. Keeps me on my toes.
I do not associate my classes with descriptions of the teachers. Wait. Maybe I do.
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