I caught a cold, I suspect, a few days ago when I arrived but I somehow managed to ignore it until it gets bad enough that I just have to take a rest for this weekend. Yesterday I went sight seeing with a colleague from BOKU and since she's a very knowleagable Viennese I really enjoyed her as my tour guide. Yes, the best or quickest way to get to know a place is by going around with a local (or locals). Then you should go again to see these places on your own and see if you could find new things (meaning/ interpretation/experiences) on your own.
But I digress (just blame the flu virus in my body). Actually I'd like to use this space right now to tell you that I'm in Austria as an Erasmus Mundus scholar (within the framework of Eurasia 2 program). This is a 'cool' (not cold) program that allows Asian scholars (students and faculty) to travel to European universities to study. In my case I'm based at the University of Natural Resources and Life Science (BOKU), specifically at the Institute of Landscape Planning (ILAP). At ILAP, I am sharing knowledge and learning from my Austrian supervisor and colleagues about landscape ecology/planning and gender mainstreaming. It's been really exciting because I'm doing something different from what I was doing before - but not altogether different because landscape planning is very closely related to ecology; and gender issues have always attracted my interest for as long as I can remember. In fact I took a course called Women's studies at Indiana University when I did my English program (JPA-ATU-IU circa '93) and already learned a lot about gender issues back then. I remembered being the only Malaysian in a class of perhaps 20 American university students, and I was just graduating from highschool.
Again I digress. My mobility program (that's what they call the Erasmus program) involves field trips, discussions, presentation/ formal conversation, writing papers, attending workshop and conference. The field trips really are great - I simply call them sight seeing and I tell you, Vienna was made for sight seeing.
This whole thing would not have been possible without the help of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM)/Erasmus Mundus Eurasia 2 program. I'm thankful to so many people (the people at the International Office UPM; the international Office at BOKU; and the Institute of Landscape Planning BOKU) who've worked hard to ensure that people like myself have the opportunity to explore a different experience. My colleagues at ILAP really take good care of myself - the lunches are great so don't stop cooking! *I deliberately don't mention names but you know who you are*
