Innsbruck, Austria- August 3, 2004
I should let everyone know exactly what I'm doing here in Innsbruck, Austria in case they don't know already. I'm in a graduate program for what is called a MASTER OF ARTS IN PEACE, DEVELOPMENT, SECURITY, AND INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION. I took one semester in Castellon Spain, and now I'm taking the second semester here in Innsbruck, Austria. Its a 3 semester program, and all of my coursework will be finished by the end of the year. Then its just the thesis paper I will have to finish to get the degree.
I arrived in Innsbruck yesterday evening and today was the introduction day to the course studies here as well as the town itself. The one thing I have to say is this town is beautiful with the mountain scenery! Its also very clean and has just about everything a person would want. Perfect size town. I am on the western side of Austria way up in the mountains bordering with Switzerland just to the west. If I were to go directly north, I would be in Munich, Germany. Directly south is Verona, Italy and further down all the way to Rome. Its a beautiful part of the world. I will be living here for the next 8 weeks in a very intensive course studies.
I just moved into a place called the Grillhof where we will be having a portion of our classes. Its just a couple kilometers by bus outside of the city and up into the mountains. Many tourists seem to be on this bus and just about everywhere else in the city. Our accomodations have amenities such as hiking trails, a swimming pool, a ping-pong table and a few other things. At this particular moment, I am living single in a single room, but within a day or two I will be doubling up with one of the other people within the program.
As far as students go, they come from all over the world. There are Austrians, Colombians, Americans, Indians (from India), Pakistan, Palestine, Turkey, Denmark, Italy, Philippines, Krygistan, Ghana, Ethiopia, and a number of other places. Too many to think about and get straight at this particular time on the first day. We are sitting in a lecture room. During this first part of the program, weeks 1 and 2, we will have two guest speakers visiting everyday speaking about the subject of that day. The idea is they will be professionals in the field of the topic with different viewpoints on the same subject. Classtime is approximately 6 hours a day. 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon. It should be very challenging. Later we have several excursions including a mountain and trekking, firefighting, and SOS Kinderdorf community (all of which I will discuss as they are happening). So thats basically what I am doing! Read on to read more about it!
Next Journal Entry in Austria:
August 6, 2004
You can email me at:
Wintermoon2@yahoo.com