Red

I'm afraid I'm becoming addicted to coffee - no doubt a result of M's visit, during which we went to have one every day. After taking her to the taxi at eight in the morning, I made something I don't think I've ever done before: I got myself a latte and sat down to drink it while reading the newspaper. The next day, another ground-breaking first: I used our cafeteria's coffee vending machine. Only with 50 cents in my wallet, I went up to it, chose the cheapest drink and put my money in. I got a cup of warm milk. It was slightly disgusting but I sat outside to drink it anyway.

New drinking habits aside, there's nothing really revolutionary going on. M and I made a lot of long walks together, and on one of them we went to a small manor house outside town to listen to the Styrian Youth Choir give a recital including works by Debussy, Whitacre and Rautavaara. Now I'm really curious to see what I think about Finnish choirs and their conductors when I go back. You might not believe it but I actually felt something close to tear-wrenching feeling-at-home when the choir burst into Carinthian folk song arrangements like Wås kümmern mi die Sternlan and Håldje-du-i (a yodel). I love Austria! (This is not sarcasm)

I've been playing around with Google Earth and I learned how to draw and save paths into the satellite images. So, I went through my train trip log for the last seven months and sketched the routes I have travelled by rail during my stay here - check it out, I think it looks nice! I can't wait to add some more and watch the web of lines expand. No train trips in sight yet, though - I was considering going to Leipzig next weekend to support CM Swing at the a cappella contest there, but the trip lasts over 11 hours and costs more than a cheap flight from Helsinki to Berlin, so that plan was short-lived.

Okay so you might be one of those who just felt sorry for me because I don't have anything better to do with my free time - but the truth is, I have hardly had any free time these last days. That's fine with me, though. Petra and I were just discussing people's attitudes to Erasmus students here - it's way too often that professors and students see an exchange student and think "great, so this person has come here to party all year long and not study any further than taking a few lectures, into which he/she'll come completely wasted". I'll never forget those exchange students from Ireland at a hostel in Zagreb: "Oh, Erasmus too, eh? Well, you know what we mean when we say ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION! (annoying wink)".

Okay, so it's true that a lot of the exchange students here get no further than getting to know the shops, bars and nightclubs, and maybe one or two locals - an exotic event in itself ("It's always nice to go to have lunch at the mensa because you get to meet people who are from here" - no comment). But it's not fair for the ones who have really come here to study.

Sorry if this entry was boring. I'm having writer's block. Also, I'm afraid the entries are becoming increasingly self-centred- I used the word "I" thirty-one times today. You can count them if you like.