IBS Vienna 2003
Between 22nd and 27th of September 2003 we organized an International BEST Symposium, our first BEST course. In total we hosted 25 students, five of them were facilitators from the Educational Committee, two worked as co-organizers and the rest were participants. Even though it was a lot of work, we had some of the BEST days in our lives and found many new friends.
The International BEST Symposium, in contrast to learning events, gives engineering students the opportunity to discuss issues of their academic environment with teachers and each other. The Educational Committee, a special group inside the international BEST organization, is facilitating these discussions and summarizes the result for later use in conferences hosted by the European Union. Our event had the use of new learning techniques as a topic and contributed to the ETNET21 thematic network.
Even before the arrival day on Monday, some of participants joined Zoltan in a hiking tour to Rax. They looked very tired when they returned. On Monday we spent the whole day saying hello to more and more of our guest. The ones, who came in the morning, did manage a little sight-seeing in Vienna. Of course Monday night we had the welcome party with a few games to help people get to know each other a little better.
Tuesday morning started with the official opening, and then the topic was introduced to the participants. In the afternoon we had the city-rally as a funny way of seeing Vienna and learning a bit about its architecture and its history. In the evening we went out to a Heurigen in Nussdorf to experience a bit of special Viennese culture and food. It was great! After eating all this good food, we went home with the tramway singing loud.
On Wednesday the discussions started and they lasted the whole day, only with a break to eat lunch at the student canteen and of course the always important tea and coffee breaks. In the evening we did the pub-crawling - one more opportunity to get to know Vienna by night. We started together at Kaktus, and then we toured the pubs of first district in small groups. During the whole evening the groups got points for kissing each other and Viennese people, doing crazy photos with the horse statues and of course drinking. Around midnight we met again at Heldenplatz where Marius had prepared a special contest (running slalom after drinking a shot of Stroh 60). After that we went to Centimeter where we regained energy with some food and beer. Then came one more pub near Altes AKH, and when I wanted to go home to Albert-Schweitzer-Haus with some of the participants, we got totally lost and suddenly found ourselves on Schwedenplatz.
Thursday started like Wednesday with discussions but in the evening was the International Evening with a lot of interesting food and drinks from different countries.
The last day we organized two engineering competitions. The first of which was perhaps the most difficult you can imagine: How to get up in the morning and get showered and dressed before lectures, and we did in real time. The other one was a team design competition to build a flying structure. Friday afternoon we visited the technical museum in Vienna and of course Schloss Schönbrunn. The farewell party in the evening was very sad because it was time to say goodbye to a lot of new friends.
text by Katrine Eriksen, photos by Alexander Rind and Gilles Foucault
