International week!!

Week fourteen: 27/05/2013 - 2/06/2013
Cultural Development:

The events of the past week really are difficult to summarise in the word space provided. This has perhaps been one of the most memorable weeks I have had here to date. Each year at the Padagogische Hochschule the International department (spearheaded by our tutors Christian Kogler and Niels de Jong) host an 'International Week'. This involves many lecturers and educators from many different European Countries and the USA congregating at our university to discuss important and current areas within education such as Early Childhood Education, Multilingualism, Inclusion and School management.

Warren and I performing...

'Beeeeeeep' went my alarm clock. It was 6:30am on Tuesday morning, but this would be no ordinary Tuesday morning. At approximately 9am Warren and I would be performing two songs to a room filled with over one hundred and fifty people, to say I was nervous would be a grief understatement! So, how did this all come about? Basically, some weeks ago the tutors heard that I like to sing. This may be true but my previous performances have only ever been to either my mother or my dog! However, it was a great honour to be asked and I was very fortunate in the fact that Warren is an excellent guitar player and thankfully had managed to borrow a very expensive guitar and agreed to accompany me! We decided to focus on two Irish songs, songs that would allow us to share some of our culture with the audience. Firstly we performed 'There were Roses' a song made popular by Cara Dillion some years ago. This emotional song talks of the friendship shared between a protestant and catholic boy during 'The Troubles' in Northern Ireland. Our second number was a lot less depressing! We opted for the iconic 'Galway Girl' written by Steve Earle in 2000. This song went down well and really seemed to get the crowd going. Despite the nerves, forgotten words and flat notes I think we managed to pull it off! After all, when will I get the chance to sing to two-hundred people again?

Singing 'The Galway Girl"

Doctor Georg Gombos delivering his presentation...

An extremely enjoyable and beneficial element of the International Week was getting the opportunity to spend time with and hear the presentations of many influential educationalists. These people are all extremely high-up within their own fields and are held in high regard within the world of education. One man that made a real impression on me was Georg Gombos who was representing the University of Klagenfurt. Doctor Gombos centered his keynote around the topic of multilingualism and how as future educators we must incourage this and promote this within schools. A speaker of a staggering seven languages himself, Doctor Gombos really got me thinking about this and a coffee with him at the interval gave me a chance to further discuss this and get my own viewpoints across.

Some interested members of the audience...

A fantastic way to conclude the week was a BBQ held in the university on Wednesday evening. There was a great turnout with delicious food and a very generous amount of alcohol provided. It was a lovely experience to sit and have a beer or a glass of wine with Christian, Niels, Catherine and Roswitha (our tutors) and believe me, the Austrian people know how to enjoy themselves!

The Stewart sisters and I embracing the rain...

On Thursday I was delighted to welcome Warren's two sisters Heather and Scelina who had made the journey from Ireland and London respectively. Despite the hideous amounts of rain we had a great few days packed full of sight-seeing, culture and some great local cusine. Oh, and I made sure I told them some tales of their little brother and his antics!! It was a pleasure to meet the Stewart sisters and a mid-summer barbeque on their family farm has been organised for our return home!

Viel Glück!

James