Night Train to Münster

Hello friends,

Yesterday (Thursday the 25th of September) I concluded a month of intensive German studies in Salzburg. The classes, which ran from 9 in the morning to 2:30 in the afternoon, crammed a semester-long Goethe Institute German course into less than one month. I passed the course fairly well with an A-, and if I do well in the next German course I will receive the C1 level of competence in German. Thus, I will be able to enroll in UIBK (University of Innsbruck) classes proper, and participate in the full European University experience.

On that same Thursday I left the Heffterhof Hotel in Salzburg and moved to my quarters in the Rössl Studentenwohnheim in Innsbruck, Austria. The dorm is located five minutes’ walk away from the Innsbruck Aldstadt. The rooms are fully furnished, but they don’t support some of the more American amenities such as cable television or ethernet ports. The dorm is currently being upgraded to full wireless capabilities, and these should be online (no pun intended) by October 1. Each floor of Rössl contains around 27 two-person rooms; I live on the fifth floor. Each floor also contains a communal kitchen and dining area, both quite modern with four electric stovetops, two ovens, and four freezer-refrigerator units. As UIBK does not have dining halls in the American sense, I expect to be spending a lot of time in my floor’s kitchen. Fortunately there is a Spar (a cheap grocery store) next door to Rössl.

My schedule is actually quite slow this semester. I will be taking my next level of Geman (Deutsch als Fremdsprache III), as well as my college seminar (“The Age of Reason” about the Enlightenment), a political science course on the history of the EU, and an art history course on European painting. While the courseload is light, UIBK does have a no-skip policy for all of its classes. However, I do expect to have a lot of free time this semester.

Classes will proceed without a break from October 6 until Thanksgiving, which gives me a four-day break (Thursday + Friday + weekend). Then it’s non-stop again until December 17, when classes recess once more for Christmas, resuming on the 1st of January. Fall term officially ends on January 31st.

Now, though, I have my fall break, which lasts from today (Friday the 26th) until October 5. I’m going to spend the first four days in Germany, first in Münster with Dad, and then in Nuremberg for a day. I’m returning late on the night of the 29th to Innsbruck. Afterwards I’m not yet sure how I’ll spend my time. I’ve got a half-idea to go to Vienna for a day as my first visit hardly covered the city (see previous blog posts).

Right now I’m on a train bound for Salzburg, where I’ll change trains for a non-stop overnight train to Düsseldorf, there to meet Dad. I don’t know whether or not I’ll have internet in Münster, although I assume so. If that is the case I’ll put this post up then; if not, then whenever the wireless in Rössl starts functioning.

And so, in the words of Garrison Keillor: “Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.”

-JA