Written by Edward Bouldin, Master’s of Accountancy, ’19
On a typical day, I travel from Wiesbaden to arrive at the Ostrich-Winkle but on this particular day I stayed with some friends in Frankfurt. The train from Frankfurt to Ostrich-Winkle takes some 45 minutes to arrive. Surprisingly tons of people actually travel by train from the Frankfurt “Hauptbahnhoff” towards Ostrich-Winkle everyday. Frankfurt is a busy city not unlike DC.
I arrived about an hour early to the European Business School and walked around it. It’s not a big campus at all. In total, it may be a bit bigger than Funger and Duques Halls put together. However, it is very historic. Class started this week everyday at 0900. Breakfast was not provided so I walked a short distance from the campus and picked me up a cappuccino and croissant before we started class. There is a very small coffee machine that dispenses coffee for a 25-cent Euro piece but I just couldn’t figure it out!
As I walked around the University for the first 30 minutes before class I peaked in just about every room. Old chandeliers and cabinets adorned the sides and rear of each class. It looked like New York Library meets West Minister Abbey. Adjacent to our classroom I found a grand piano so I began to play a little bit of John Legend. Within 30 seconds the smooth melody of “We’re Just Ordinary People” filled the old halls of the school. It was only me there at the time. A tree fell in the woods and nobody heard it. Once that was out of my system I continued my observation outside.
The school has a large courtyard where students can gather and hang out during breaks in the class. There are a few tables there for people to sit and eat as well as lunch is offered at a very small fee. The food was generally pretty good. I think I might have paid five euro or so for everything, including a Euro Snicker bar. I say Euro because it’s just not as sweet as I remember from back home.
About 30 minutes elapses and the class begins. Dr. Niels Deschow is now about to stand in from of us for almost eight hours teaching us about Auditing and its future. He talks in front of us until he is almost out of breath. The general rule in the states is for every hour or hour and a half you teach comes a ten-minute break. Not here. It was a little something I had to get used to. Good thing I had the cappuccino from earlier! Homework for the week consists of four separate articles on the future of Auditing practices and two case studies. I look forward to what the next few weeks bring.
