So, I've been offline for quite a while and I'm very sorry for that.
Because I cannot really keep up with all the things we do here in Europe I have decided to update this blog in a non chronological order. So, today is April 30th, the last day of April, and we've been in Vienna for a total of three days now!
Yes, so Vienna! Our main purpose for coming to Vienna was to attend an international landscape architecture conference at the university of . . . I forgot. . . hahaha. But it is a small university in the some what suburbs of Vienna.
Anyway, so two of my classmates and I were supposed to go to a special workshop with Mark Trieb, a world renowned and respected landscape theorist. But, by the time we got into Vienna, and figured out our hostel situation, it was pretty much already 2 o'clock, and the work shop started at 2 o'clock. Go figure. So we hop on the metro system and head over to the university. We get to the university alright. It took us about 20 min. But when we got there we had no idea where to go. There were no signs, not indicators of which building to to go to or where on the campus the landscape architecture dept. was. So we wandered and asked people for help.
People at the university, actually the majority of the people in Vienna, speak English, but they just couldn't help us find the work shop. So we eventually gave up and got some drinks at the outdoor cafe across the street. We weren't really hurt because we didn't really feel like paying the 40 euros it was going to cost us to go to the workshop.
Ok tangent time. So, this conference was supposed to be covered with our student fees. Remember what I told you about our student fees? Golden Lane ring a bell? Anyway so our proff. told us the day before that we would have to drop the 40 euro, no bueno. I wasn't really feeling paying the extra 40.
Anyway so the next day we get to the conference for registration, and they inform us that we need to pay 80 euro. . . what? weren't we supposed to have this already pre paid? I guess not. It turns out that we have to pay the 80 euro because our dept. back at poly wasn't going to pay for the whole thing. So, we pay the 80. Whatever, it's not that much for what we're getting. But then TODAY! The director of the conference told our proff. that the money from our dept. never came through and that we'd have to pay another 80 euro. WHAT? HOLD UP! another 80 euro. That brings the total t 160 eruo! outrageous! that's about... 210 dollars! =0
But our prof didn't say anything and swiped her card paying about 1600 dollars for the rest of the fee. Now, rumor has it that she knew that the money wasn't going to come through from our dept. but she didn't want to say anything because if she did, a lot of us wouldn't have wanted to go to the conference. wow... talk about weird...
so, we don't know if we should pay her or not. there are a lot of mixed feelings amongst the group.
So, money issues aside, the conference has been very interesting.
We've spent 12 hours a day in lectures listening to drs, intelectuals, theorists, and professionals talk about landscape architecture in a wide range of aspects from theory to actual implementation. It's been a good experience being exposed and learning a lot more about landscape architecture. It has really made me re-evaluate my position as a landscape architect and I believe I have become more aware of the contemporary issues involving our profession. It has also made me re-think grad school as an option somewhere down the road.
Anyway. More drama. So we're pretty much the only undergrad students at the conference. I mean not many students are going to pay 160 euro to go to a conference. So already the big wigs think we're bratty, which to some extent, the have a reason to. So, the first morning, Mark Trieb, the Berkeley theorist, rags on us for missing out on his workshop saying, if he could find the room than a bunch of Cal Poly students could too. Bad way to start off the morning.
And then our prof gets into a conversation with another professional and literally tells him that she thought his project was out of line and had no reason being built in it's current context. =0 so he walked away from her and we had already made many enemies by 8:30 am.
hahaha
So, the rest of the day was alright, listening to lecture after lecture of a lot of things I didn't fully understand. And there were arguments and debates and people measuring each other up to see who's theoretical **** was bigger than the others. Quite an interesting show. But you know what. When ever we had a coffee break, it seemed that the put it all aside and would talk to each other once again. Meh, I don't get it.
But the really fun part about last night was that we got to go to a cocktail party at the Vienna City Hall! AMAZING! It was fantastic! The hors d'oeuvers looked amazing (I didn't eat any) and the wine and beer tasted great. Yes the wine and beer. . .
So, There is all this smoozing going on so we students agree that we should get into the mix and I talked to two professors who presented some controversial work about their speech that day. That night was fun. Never had I ever thought I would be in the Vienna City Hall talking to such educated people about landscape architecture. It was fun.
And so today was much of the same stuff. And it's been so exhausting. I'm glad I'm able to actually find time to get online once again and update this blog!
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