Decademia

Hello, hello, hello. Hope everyone is fine and dandy. I'm having a day of studying (a first for me since arriving here) and I have reached the point where I need a break. George Dubya is still making his UN World Summit speech in the background (have to research summit for a 2-day long block seminar on the UN next week). Needless to say, he's being as insightful as ever. But enough about politics...

I have been in Fulda for 4 whole weeks now and it has gone so so fast. Since leaving York everything has fallen almost perfectly into place. The trip over with Paul went without a hitch (apart from one minor driving error where we almost drove the wrong way down the dual carriageway. Was quickly rectified by a handily placed sliproad that actually took us to the road we were looking for in the first place...) Our trips to Bonn and Bamberg were spot-on (was lovely being back in Bammers, visiting all the key places - Zum Weidenhof, Spezi Brewery and Biergarten, Eiscafe, COE, irish pub, steak restaurant, mmm, steak...) and Paul even got to visit Fulda's Turkish bar for some belly dancing fun with an American Professor before he left :-)

Then it was the orientation week - 7 days of sorting out the admin stuff, getting to know international students (wie heißt du? woher kommst du? was studierst du? wo wohnst du? etc. etc. etc.). It also included an overnight stay in the Rhön - a national park near Fulda. We stayed in a YH on the top of the highest mountain in Hessen (the Wasserkuppe) and had a night of silly games, alcohol and a torchlit walk in horizontal rain. All good fun.

As soon as the orientation week ended, classes began. My course is a 2 year masters in Intercultural Communication and European Studies (ICEUS). Our class has about 25 people in it and it is a pretty impressive mix of nationalities, ranging from China and Taiwan to Uzbekistan, to Indonesia, to Australia, to Spain, to Bosnia, to Slovakia and the Czech Republic, to Belarus, to Turkey, to the USA, oh and to Germany and GB. We have all our classes together (that's 24hrs a week) and so we are getting to know each other pretty well through our studies and then the social events help too. The course is a mix of politics, law, communication and cultural studies. It's pretty interesting having such a diverse group of people studying together - we are learning so much just from hanging out together.

Apart from the studies all is good. Despite Fulda being a small small town (60 000 peeps) there seems to be a lot going on. There's always a party to go to and over the past week or so I've found someone who finds it almost as hard as me to say no to a party! Yep, Bec is pretty crazy, I guess it's probs those Aussie genes. Anyway, am making the most of the start of the term and small quantities of work. This Thursday was a student party at the uni. Played drinking games and drank amaretto and apple juice at Bec's place with a group of international students then we headed to the party and met lots of ICEUS people there. Danced the night away, right to the last song, which, bizarrely was Robbie Williams' Road to Mandalay. Yep, the pictures on the right are from the party (Bec&Alberto, Seda,Ragil&Chia-Lin and Me,Bec&Ragil). The next night was Anne's 21st (Bec's french flatmate). Flat party with lots of people, lots of cool music, lots of alcohol, some more crazy dancing and an estimated time of arrival in bed of 6am. Yesterday I slept, today I am studying (kinda) and tomorrow lectures start again... No rest for the wicked!

Love to all xx