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Tag: FOFAC

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By Ty Malcolm

Vienna University of Economics and Business

After a month straight of traveling and making friends, it is finally time to slow down a bit and go to class.

My courses

  • International Financial Management (valuation, portfolios, trading)
  • International Energy Strategies (investment projects, M&A for energy companies)
  • Corporate Finance (canceling this one, it overlaps too much with the first two!)
  • Multinational Corporations and Political Markets (lobbying, taxes, regulations)
  • Market and Business Evaluations for Siemens Austria (market research, consulting)
  • CEE Growth in Context (central European economic conditions)
  • German Business Communication (exactly what you think it is)

...continue reading "Wait, I have classes?"

Published on

By Ty Malcolm

Today (Sunday, 2. October) is my last day before the semester starts! Since my mid-August arrival in Vienna, I've had a month and a half to figure out how I like spending my free time in the city. Here are some of my favorites:

Cafés and Coffeehouses

Vienna is famous for its traditions with coffee, since the 17th century trading and fighting with the Ottoman Empire. The people of Vienna have always viewed these coffeehouses as their extended living rooms, which give them a place to meet friends or read the newspaper. Throughout history, they have also doubled as black markets and art studios. For the price of a cup of coffee (probably €5 or so) you can sit and relax for as long as you want. No one will rush you or wonder why you are there so long. The waiters are some of the best in the city, and always seem to know when to be available and when to make themselves scarce. It's the perfect place to meet friends, grab breakfast, or get some work done. (We are still students, after all.) The Kaffeehaus closest to my apartment is Café Westend, which is over 100 years old!

Cafe Westend

...continue reading "Free Time in Vienna"

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By Ty Malcolm

In my last blog post, I gave some good options for cheap food in Vienna. But as you might expect from a onetime imperial capital, experiencing Vienna in all its glory has always required a lot of Thaler (1800's), Schillings (1900's), and in 2016, Euros. 

One easy possibility for a cheap excursion from Vienna is the Slovakian capital of Bratislava.

Bratislava Panorama

Also located along the Danube River, Bratislava is the largest city in Slovakia. It has around 450,000 inhabitants, and although it is only 60 miles away it has a much more eastern European feel compared to Vienna.

...continue reading "How-To: 24 Hours in Slovakia"

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By Ty Malcolm

In a country where drink refills cost money and you don't have a meal plan, sometimes it seems daunting, trying to budget for food. If you aren't cooking for yourself, here's where to eat in Vienna when you're on a budget! For reference: for every €10 you throw in 2016, you are paying between $11 and $12.

 

Wiener Deewan restaurant

DER WIENER DEEWAN

This has to be #1 on the cheap eats list, because it's free. Well... almost. You pay whatever you want! At this Pakistani buffet restaurant in the 9th district, only drinks have a set price. The food consists of several chicken, beef, and vegetarian options to put on rice or bread. You can go back for as many plates as you want! Since I usually order a drink besides water, I hand over a €10 bill and just say "Danke" (German for "thanks," but Austrian code for "I don't need any change back"). But in theory, you could drink water and eat the buffet and pay €2 or €3. But the food is so good, and the staff is so friendly, you won't want to short-change anyone! Great area downstairs if you have a large group. ...continue reading "Top 5 Cheap Eats in Vienna"

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By Ty Malcolm

landscape panorama

Tell your classmates you're studying in Austria, and you might get a joke about kangaroos. Mention Vienna, and you might spark a conversation about the canals of Venice. Eventually I just got used to these misunderstandings and had some answers ready. What was a little more difficult to explain was my destination for my week-long hiking trip in the Austrian Alps - the Montafon Valley, a mountainous region in the westernmost federal state (Bundesland) of Vorarlberg.

...continue reading "Break From the City: A Week in the Montafon Valley"

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By hwscott

Salt FlatsWell, I've spent the last week backpacking around the south of the country of Bolivia. I went to Tarija, the wine growing region, billed as the highest vineyards in the world; to Sucre, the official capital of the country, called the "white city" for the beautiful all white colonial architecture; Potosi, the highest city in the world that essentially funded the Spanish empire with its silver mines that are still functioning today; and to the Salar de Uyuni, the beautiful world famous salt flats of Bolivia. Interestingly, I  basically hit all the spots that my SIT program goes to on off years - the program switches off between two different focuses every semester. The focus for my semester was the conflicts around the TIPNIS indigenous reserve and the road the central government wants to build through it, as well as the Movimento Sem Terra in Brazil. In the off years, the students in the program study the movements around the mines, as well as go to Argentina, passing through the salt flat on their way.  As I was talking to my host dad, Alberto, after I got back, he remarked that I have seen and learned about more regions in Bolivia than most Bolivians. In all, I have been to 6 out of 9 departments (sort of like states) in the country. ...continue reading "Hey, now I’m a tourist!: Reverse Culture Shock Without Leaving the Country"

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By oncptime

I just got off the plane in Newark, NJ a few hours ago. The moment my flight touched the tarmac, everything about my life in the US came rushing back to me in a single instant. My phone began to vibrate madly in my pocket a good five minutes before the light telling us it was ok to turn our connective tech “bing-bong-ed” on with a pleasant chime. E-mails. Texts. Tweets and Facebook messages streamed into my hand and I was struck with the gravity of the situation: I was home.

Beelining for the terminal, I unhinged my metaphorical jaw, let my eyes roll back into my head and began to devour digital information much in the same way great whites seem to inhale schools of terrified fish. Of all the things I’d come to miss in Italy, my constant connectivity was perhaps the most important. More than my life revolving around tech, my hopes and dreams lived within the cloud. I wanted (want) to write about tech journalism more than anything else in the world. I’d scoured the net for internship opportunities at tech blogs but most of the work in D.C. was politically oriented. C’est la vie. ...continue reading "It’s (Not) Over"

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By hfirlein

My semester in Cape Town has been truly transformative. I will take so many lessons from it, about myself, my goals, and the world around me. My time volunteering with the people of South Africa has shown me that poverty is one of, if not the most, important issue facing South Africa in particular and the Global South in general. Impoverished environments breed a lack of education, unemployment, and ill health. These, in turn, perpetuate poverty, and the cycle continues. It’s a big problem, one that no one person can tackle, and as I spent time volunteering in Cape Town, it was all too clear to me that the influence of one person is fairly small, and that even though one person can make a difference, it is often not as big an impact as that person would like. At times this realization was disheartening; I felt that because my contributions were small, they somehow weren’t all that worthwhile. But as I reflect on my time in Cape Town, I realize that the small contributions I made mattered to the people we helped; the men, women and children we provided with a meal, a listening ear, and a smile. These offerings are indeed small, but they are nothing to be scoffed at. The smallest acts of kindness are still kind, and they can provide hope to those who need it most. They can also profoundly change the actor. Showing compassion and finding the value in volunteer work, no matter how seemingly insignificant, can influence the way one views oneself and the world. ...continue reading "Reflections on Cape Town"

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By littlemisadventures

Along with most of AUC’s students, I’m in the midst of finals. I’ve been holed up in my room studying, occasionally emerging so my friends and I can quiz each other on material. When we need a break from verb charts and Pharaonic timelines, we play with the kittens that live in our dorm. I’m sad to leave, but I will be back next semester. Mostly, I’m going to miss all the people that I’ve become close to. But lots of my friends are staying the year, too. ...continue reading "Ma’Salama, Misr!"

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So, this is it: my last post for this blog. I think in my first entry after arriving in Prague, I said something to the effect of me not even being able to put into words how I felt about the kinds of experiences I had had just in that first week. I think now I can say with confidence that that's true of the entire semester, really. The places I've been, things I've done, and people I've met have all had such a profound effect on me that I can't even begin to describe it. So I'm not going to try to! ...continue reading "The End"

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