The Haps, what they are.

The second semester is upon me! No more travelling to foreign lands for at least two weeks... Had two exams in the first week and a bit, left over from last term. They were a lot less silly seeming than some previous exams, I enjoyed them in the way one enjoys exams that provide you with a challenge that you know you can overcome, instead of in the way where you silently wonder if the whole thing is a trick. Also, the new lecture regime (see below) is definitely causing my academic German to improve, hurrah! This is great even if it is pretty much useless when all science ever is conducted in english. Seriously, learning science in another language is probably one of the most pointless uses of one's language skills, even if it may be fun because I get to feel clever for doing it (this is definitely the case).

I have new lectures now, a vast array relative to last semester as I need to be taking twice as many credits at Vienna this time. This means I actually have a sensible working week with at least 3 hours of lectures every day except fridays (our department does not believe in friday lectures and WHO AM I TO ARGUE?) Only one 9am lecture, all the other days begin at 11am which is fast becoming my all time favourite lecture start time. You can actually get enough sleep, still get up at a non brekneck speed BUT you have to leave the house before you can start hating yourself for having watched 4 episodes of the Big Bang Theory instead of being constructive.

Obviously everyone is dying to know what I am studying and how the lectures are.
So:

Petrogenesis: It's a masters Petrology course. We study how to find out where rocks came from using their chemistry and lots of thermodynamics/ diagrams/ reaction kinetics/ equations. It is awesome. I love learning things that need understanding, rather than just memorising. This course is hard, but the lecturer is good and so it's all gravy (super cool colloquialism or what?).

Isotope geology: Masters version of the course I did last term, as such seems to be recpping a lot I learnt for that at present. However, it will be good to actually KNOW this stuff by repetition. Also when we get past the basics I have high expectations as all the lecturers involved are darn good at their research and their examples are always fascinating. I am happy to be benifiting from the different research direction of Wien vs UCL.

Applied/ Envionmental Geology: All about engineering geology and taking natural resources, so the economic bits and lists of production amounts are boooring as heck. That said the theory of why the things are why they are is a lot more interesting. Minus points for the engineering geology lecturer who has the strongest austrian accent yet and speaks 5-10 times faster than any lecturer I have hitherto experienced, and is commonly unintelligible to me despite his obvious huge enthusiasm...

Quaternary Geology: That's the last 2.6 million years to most of you. This is a great lecture because it concerns geomorphology (landscape), and one of the first things I loved about geology was really partly geomorpholgy, that old 'standing on a hill and knowing why it is there'. Theother part is about climate and the recent climate changes (my recent, of course). It is exciting and humbling to follow the history of the ridiculous numbers of ice ages that have happened in recent times, and the impressive marks thay have left. More than ever I am really getting that feeling of just how much stuff goes on on the planet even in time periods we often blithely include in the +/- error on a date. Also thinking about the impact of ice on all those proto humans, wondering whether/ to what extent (as I do not have a masters in human evolution unlike some friends of mine) we are really a product of all these slightly unusual (over geologic time) ice age shenanegins. Final plus point is the fact that it is concentrating on Austria, so I get a new geological perspective not really available in the UK, we know sod all about the Alps for obvious reasons.

Regional Geology is cool because I get a summer field trip through the alps! Hurrah! Also because I am again getting a new geology perspective, literally all geology I learned before now was grounded in UK examples, it is great to start to get a more Europe wide view. Plus, there is a big emphasis on the alps and how they came to be, so I'm learning some mountain chain evolution geology in heaps more detail than we ever would at UCL

Finally I signed up for a module that is entirely field trips. Provided I can figure out how to actually go on these, the reason why this is brilliant should be obvious to all!

I am also starting to go climbing again and attempting to make some more friends who will disappear shortly (at least I can leave them behind too this time!). While doing this I spent a large proportion of my time hanging out with and insulting the accent and culture of the one and only William Naylor, quantum physicist teleport engineer extraordinaire.

All in all, going well so far. Though there is the foreboding shadow of my to do list looming ever larger in the background. I shall fight it the only way I know how, by watching and rewatching more episodes of The Big Bang Theory.

Goodnight!