I don‘t know if you have already found out yet, but our university provides us a lot of very interesting events that we can visit, most of them are free of charge. There‘s a weekly newsletter that informs us about them, as well as the mailing list from the ITAT. Last Thursday, for example, there was a guest lecture on the ITAT at 5 pm, which was held by an interpreter. It was about The Court of Justice of the European Union. I was curious about it and called two girls from my Turkish course which were just as spontaneous as I was and so we went there. She gave us some insight of how this institution works and what her work day looks like. Although, it was more for graduating students - I think we were the only first semesters - it was quite interesting for us too.
The same day I found out, once again (I read it in the newsletter the other week), that there was this conference about the EU enlargement in the Western Balkans which I was curious to hear, since I‘m very interested in the Balkans. But you had to sign up for that a week ago, so I immediately sent a mail to them if it was still possible that I could visit it and they answered that they would be glad if I‘d come.
Here are some facts about it:
The main topic was „Leaving Europe‘s Waiting Room. Overcoming the Crisis of EU Enlargement in the Western Balkans“ and it was a three day-long conference starting on November 9. It was organized by the Centre for Southeast European Studies, University of Graz. The goal was to reflect about the EU enlargement, particularly in the Balkans, and to give some (young) researchers the chance to present there work on that topic.
I arrived there at 2 o‘clock to register and I had to give them an identity card in order to get some headphones for the interpretation. The whole conference was held in English, but the President of the Republic of Macedonia, Gjerge Ivanov held the keynote speech in Macedonian and so it was interpreted into English. The rector of our university, Christa Neuper, held a speech too. Along with the director of CSEES, Florian Bieber and the dean of the law faculty, Joseph Marko. Then there were presentations and discussions moderated by Adelheid Wölfl, who writes all the news about the Balkans in Der Standard. At 16.30 I had to leave, because my German course started at 5 pm.
The next day I went there too and again there were some very interesting presentations, but at that point I have to say one thing: Although, most of the presenters hold a PhD or at least a M.A. they did not all speak English very well. In fact, it was quite hard to understand some of them. There was a Spanish lady from a Spanish university and you could actually here where she was coming from. Then there was a Greek man who held a remarkable presentation (with some nice pictures that made it a bit funny too) about Bosnia and Kosovo, but unfortunately it was hard to follow him because of his Greek accent - and actually I think he used some Greek words sometimes, because I really couldn‘t understand all he said.
Well, in the coffee break I felt a bit lost as a first semester student in that round of high-ranking people. Lucky me, I met a very nice girl, Katarina, who is from Slovenia. She was standing there alone just like me and I thought she was a student too. In fact she just finished university and is now working for a non-profit organization in Bosnia and Hercegovina (Think tank Populari - populari.org). We had a nice conversation and she gave me her business card and said, if I ever was in Sarajevo I should give here a call.
It's been a pleasure meeting her and it would be a pleasure for me to meet her again, since Sarajevo is one of those cities, that is still on my list of places, I would love to go to!
Nevertheless, it was quite an interesting experience for me - especially on Friday when the President of Macedonia was speaking, because I, as a language learner, had the chance to actually hear a speech that is simultaneously interpreted!
At some topics it was a bit hard for me to follow, but when participants asked questions it was easier to understand the connections. I liked the speech of Ms. Ristic and Pëllumb Kallaba, because those were some thought-provoking speeches! (Those two were actually the ones who spoke the best English) The reactions of the Kosovar men were a bit expected by me, but also interesting. I only stayed until 1 pm on Saturday, because it was just too much information then, so I went out to eat a pizza and then I met with Diana to study for English. I didn‘t go to the Sunday program, because I already took benefit from the information I heard and I still had to study for English.
