Tuesday, February 24, 2009

I finally got my student sticker!

I've been waiting for this sticker for almost a week now and am soooo incredibly happy I finally got it. I registered for 4 classes and I still need 14 more ECTS (7 Purdue credits worth of courses). I don't know what else to take, I've already signed up for 3 economic courses and I'm still debating on a business course. I'm also looking for a wine course, which would be pretty neat since I'm in Austria. For those of you who don't know, Austria is well known for their dry white wines. Vienna in particular produces Riesling, Chardonnay, and Pinot Blanc. yummy.

Oh speaking of classes, I went to my first one. It's called Global Networking, which is a seminar course focusing on global sustainablity. The lecture was pretty intense. The topic today was techniques for modifying plants like inserting the desired gene into plant. I kinda glazed over the last 20 min of class when they started talking about RNA loops and plant defense mechanisms.

The cool part of the course is we have lectures then have tele-conferences with various schools in Europe and the U.S.
Next week, my group gets to do a tele-conference with Georgia, Florida, and a university in Italy? Our discussion topic is on Golden Rice, which is a rice that has been modified so it is vitamin A rich. It's targeted market is India, where people do not receive sufficient amounts of nutrients. Pretty neat stuff.


Sunday, February 22, 2009

Recap of my first week

It's officially a week since I arrived in Vienna and I guess some updates are in order. Plus, if I don't write all of this stuff down, I'm going to forget. So far things have been a bit rough especially the first few days. The worst by far was my flight from Frankfort to Vienna last Saturday. I had to pass through security before going to my gate. I arrived right before they closed it and the woman at gate wouldn't let me on. She told me I had to take the next flight and closed the gate. I had to wait for 3 hours for the next flight. Later, I learned that my original flight got delayed, so I could have made it. I was so pissed off that I was about to punch someone (the woman to be more specific). But on the plus side, I have an amazing my exchange buddy, Doris, who waited for me at the airport. Without her I would still be wandering around Vienna.

Ok, recap of my first week.

Sunday: Doris took me out and showed me the downtown area (I'll post pics later). We saw the Hofburg, which is the winter imperial palace. We met up with her friend, Denise? and had coffee/tea. Later, they showed more of the downtown area and they took me to an area they called the Bermuda Triangle. It's a bar district that's really confusing and maze like, you supposedly can never find your way out of it like the real Bermuda Triangle.

Monday: moved into my dorm and unpacked my stuff. For those of you who I have not bitched to, a week before arriving I found out that I could not get my room keys till Monday because their offices are not opened on the weekends. I stayed in a hostel the first 2 days, which really wasn't all that bad. Then I went to the university to go get registered and got a mini tour of the campus. I also found out that orientation isn't till the 26th and 27th AND school does not start till March. yeah, I was not a happy camper.

Tuesday: I got registered as a resident of Vienna. The rest of the day was spent trying to get internet to work. I didn't know this, but the internet cables are different. I couldn't use the one I brought with me from home.

Wednesday: met up with Jessica, fellow Purdue exchangee. We went to the international office to check in with Max, the coordinator.

Thursday/Friday: lost in downtown Vienna with Jessica. Though Friday, was probably the best day by far. We went to the Sisi Museum (part of the Hofburg) to see the imperial apartments and their silver collection. Then later that night, Jessica's friends took us out to a club called Ride? It was pretty fun and the club played a lot older music. Oh the best part was when the Soulja Boy song came on, no one knew the dance to it!

Saturday: dinner with Jessica. We had the closest thing to American pizza as possible. I was so happy she found that pizza.

THE END