For all you doubters out there (Genessa), I actually have had to do schoolwork this semester. It hasn’t just been a big vacation. And to prove it, let me just tell you what I have to finish up in the next week and a half. For my German language course I have to write a 350 word essay (natürlich auf Deutsch) comparing Christmas traditions in the U.S. and Austria. To boil it down, the rituals here could scar one for life (case in point) while in America it’s more about peaceful manger scenes and reindeer with glowing red noses. The final in this class is on the subjunctive, which I’m a definite fan of because it’s all about the umlaut. If I had enough money, I would build a library like the one in Beauty and the Beast=Wenn ich genug Geld hätte, würde ich eine Bibliothek wie in Beauty and the Beast bauen.

I just finished up a paper on Franz Joseph for History of the Habsburg Empire, which was either supposed to be 3-5, 5-6, or 6-10 pages long. Guideline is a foreign word to Austrian professors. We’ll see how the final goes... Another interesting final should be the one for Music Survey. On the same day I need to hand in a 4-5 page paper examining whether Schoenberg followed in Beethoven’s footsteps or not. The professor said we wouldn’t need to do any outside research. Right. I also need to squeeze in two concerts before the final and review them.

Returning to the German side of things, for my Österreich in Text und Film class I have to write 1000-1200 words about Brief einer Unbekannten, finish reading Die größere Hoffnung/present on it in class, and take the oral final. For Österreichische Kulturgeschichte in addition to the final I need to write a 4-5 page paper exploring the district I live in, which was known as Im Saugraben an der Wien auf der Gstätten (“In the sow pit on the Wien on the meadow”) in the seventeenth century.

So much to do, so little time. Well, I should probably start getting ready for German. Oh wait, today’s a national holiday, and classes are cancelled.