Internship St. Pölten, Wim Gaethofs

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2009-08-27T09:34:00.001-07:00

So the internship has come to an end. And so has my life as a student..
The job hunting begins!

This will be my final post for this blog.

I will never forget the 3 months I spend In Austria and will probably go back for a visit in a couple of years.

If you have any questions about what I have written on this blog, please feel free to contact me.

Auf Wiederhoren,
Wim

ESN Weekend Purbach

2009-06-08T10:55:00.000-07:00

Last weekend the ESN organised an amazing weekend to Purbach!
We left friday morning and had to take 4 diffrent trains to get there.
Once we arrived and got our rooms, me, stass lydia, marketta went to the Parndorf shopping center. It has 150 shops and they all are really expensive shops like Burberry, Escada....

Great to see but to expensive for students like us :p

Then we went back to the hostel and met with the other students from Vienna and Graz.
It really was an international weekend! There even was another student from Belgium, Bruges.
Later that day we went for a winetasting experience at a local wineceller. There we also got some great food to eat with the wine.

That evening there was a European dinner, everybody just brought something from their country and this way we had one big table full of food for everyone to taste.
After dinner, party time!

Next day we went on a boat tripon the neusiedlersee. On the boat we had a BBQ and a little party.

Later this evening there was a bad taste party.
The next day we organized a football tournament. My team finished second place after a really close final.

All in all, it was a great weekend! Some pictures can be found on this page.

RoadTrip Salzburg

2009-05-27T09:19:00.001-07:00

Last week there was a public holiday on Thursday. This was the ideal opportunity to make a road trip to Salzburg. We were with a group of 10 people so rented a house. It was a really nice one, in the morning you could have breakfast outside with a great view of the mountains.
So the first day we left St. Polten at 8 in the morning. We first went to see the center of Salzburg. I is a great city, especially because of the impressive mountains surrounding the city. We went to see the castle and had a little picnic. After we went to see a nearby waterfall. It was nice to see but it started to rain at the end. We then left to go to the house.
The next day we went to some Ice Caves. They were really great to see but were very expensive! 30€!!!.
In the evening we were all very exhausted. We made some pasta and went to bed.
The third and last day for me and Pablo, we went to see the biggest waterfall of Europe. Really impressive. In the evening me and Pablo left Back to St. Pölten to work on our Thesis..

We decided to go to Prague

2009-05-27T09:01:00.000-07:00

In my last post I mentioned that we were going to Insbruck. Well because of the bad weather here in Austria, we decided to go to Prague Instead.
First we took the train to Vienna, and there we got on our train to Prague. I think it was a total of 5 hours more or less. Once arrived, my first impression of Prague was that there are a lot of homeless people!
We took a taxi to our hotel and unpacked everything. We chose for a hotel located 15 minutes from the center because it’s a lot less expensive. You can take the tram everywhere so this is the best way to go. The people from the hotel will help you with this, they are really nice.
The first day we met with some friends that were also visiting Prague. We all went sightseeing in the town center. There are a lot of beautiful buildings to see there. We visited a local restaurant where I had Goulash. It’s a local dish so I had to try it and I liked it. (although my mother makes a better one :p )
The second day we visited the Prague castle, to get there we bought a ticket to visit the gardens around the castle. Because the castle is located on top of a hill, the gardens are really special. For all the things we have visited I would like to refer you to the pictures. (We took up to 2000 pictures in 4 days!) At the end of the day we said goodbye to our friends.
On day 3 we went to the shopping center, the girls were hoping to find some cheap clothes but were disappointed :p Only the food and drinks in Prague are really cheap! After, we went to see more of Prague’s treasures. On day 4 we left for St. Pölten. Susi almost got run over by a car, her and Bea got a fine at the metro, we almost got run over by a bus and in St. Pölten Pablo’s bag broke. But in the end we survived the trip to Prague.

Another update!

2009-04-27T08:49:00.000-07:00

Well I've been very busy these last weeks!
Let’s see if I remember everything :p

So a few weeks ago we organized a BBQ @ the lake. The weather was great,
the food was amazing (Stass's Russian chicken :p)

Some pictures can be found over here.

After this me and stass went for a night out. First stop, Stass's flat where we had some Russian Vodka. Next we went to a bar called UnderGround where we met with some people. One of them knew the international student from last year Steven Bielen.
Pictures of this night are yet to be discovered :p

The next Friday we went to Party @ Vienna! There were some Spanish visitors joining us =). First we all had some Pizza here in St. Pölten and then we took the train to Vienna. There we went to the Cactus bar, found in the vibrant Bermuda triangle. Great atmosphere!
After this we went to Gnadenlos. It was also great, the party is in the basement :D
After this, we went to a salsa bar called Monolos. I've been there once before the first time I was in Vienna. But the difference between 20:00 and 03:00 is amazing.
After this, one more top! Floridita . Another Salsa bar, but here a lot of experienced salsa dancers enjoying themselves.
After this, the train back home, it was starting to get light.

Some pictures here.

This weekend we also went to visit Vienna, first we went to see Schloss Schönbrunn.
It is one of the most important cultural monuments in Austria and since the 1960s has also been one of the major tourist attractions in Vienna. I found it really amazing, especially the enormous garden!
Now we all were hungry so we headed toward a restaurant called Centimeter. Here you can get worth for your money :) You can order a meter of sausage, a meter of beer, and so on.
I am proud to say that I was the only one of our group to finish my plate!

After this, we headed toward the center where there was a special event where you could taste all kind of specialties of Lower Austria.
On the way over there we saw a lot of beautiful buildings. Please look at the pictures for an overview.
Next stop was Café Central, this I think is the most famous café of Austria. And I can see why. Once you enter, you are stunned by the combination of the beautiful surroundings and the piano playing in the center.
We all had a coffee and a piece of cake. They have many different kinds.

After this some more sightseeing, I'm referring for the pictures for the locations.
Another great day in Austria!

So last Friday we decided to go to Vienna again. This time, the German students joined us. We didn't make it as late/crazy as last time because next morning we had a trip planned to Linz. Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria. It was also selected to be the Culture Capital of 2009.

Pictures can be found over here.

This Thursday me and the Spanish students leave for Innsbruck so probably till next week!

PICTURES

2009-04-09T15:29:00.000-07:00

You can now see some pictures @ my photobucket album!

Trip to Bratislava and Vienna

2009-04-05T04:56:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I was invited by Beatrizz and Susana, two girls from Spain, to go on a trip to Bratislava in Slovakia.
We left St. Pölten by train at 09:30 and after a few stops/trains we arrived at Bratislava.

I had no idea what to expect from Bratislava. When we got there I was really supprised by it't beauty.

First we visited the Bratislava Castle. The massive rectangular building with four corner towers stands on a quite isolated rocky hill of the Little Carpathians directly above the Danube river in the middle of Bratislava.

Next stop, St. Martin's Cathedral.

The Grassalkovich Palace, The Primate's Palace, and a lot more...

Then we visited a local pub, had a beer, and moved on again.

Later that day we visited a typical Slovakian restaurant, to be honest,
the first decent meal I had in days :D

And we stopped at a terrace to have a drink, I had a bloody mary. First time I had one of those and the last time too :D

Then we decided to make a stop in Vienna on our way back to St. Pölten.
This city is even more stunning! We didn't have the time to see everything but I'm going back, that's for sure!

People playing violin on the streets, guitar, mozart playing at the St. Stephen's Cathedral and much more.

Pictures @ photobucket

First Day @ University

2009-03-31T08:12:00.000-07:00

On monday I had my first day at the University of St. Pölten.
First I had to meet the international students person, Daniela Lohner.
She has helped me a lot during the preperation of my internship and allso when I arrived. That's why I gave here and her collegues a box of belgian chocolates.
On Tuesday I stopped by and the box was empty so they must have liked it very much :p

So after this, Daniela was supposed to introduce me to Bernhard Fischer, this is the person that will work with me on my project and will tell me what to do.
But unfortunalely he forgot about our meeting. So I went back home for the day.

Later that evening Johannes and Vero invited some friends over,
Chi (Christian), David and Sabrina. It was a fun evening ^^

Fotos will come when possible :p

First excursion

2009-03-31T08:11:00.000-07:00

On sunday I visited Stift Göttweig, it is a castle located at Krems. It was a leally beautifull Gothic Casle.
There was allso a museum that we visited, there were al lot of old paintings, guns, furniture,...
Because of the really bad weather I wasn't able to enjoy the surroundings, thats why I moved on to the center of Krems. Here I visited the Weinstadt museum. It's located at one of the most beautifull and interesting historical buildings at Krems. The Dominican monastery.

Here you can relive more than 30.000 years of cultural history of the wine city on the Danube. (Danube is a region of Lower Astria located near the Donau)
There is a wide spectrum of art treasures. They range from a statue over 32.000 years old (Austrias oldest) to selection of Romanesque and Gothic sculptures and the Kremser Schmidt's paintings.

Pictures @ Photobucket

First Day

2009-03-28T16:38:00.000-07:00

So I left Belgium at about 7 in the morning. Way to early :p
Had a bathroom brake every 2-3 hours.
It was a long drive.. I arrived at St. Pölten around 18:30.

I have two flat mates, Christian and Veronika. They are really nice people and have
helped me alot :)

The first evening we had some Belgian beer called Duvel.

Vero drank one and Christian and me had 2. Still a lot of training to do!

On monday I should have a internet connection in my room, I´ll write down more details then because this qwertz keyboard is making me crazy :D

Leaving Belgium

2009-03-26T13:33:00.000-07:00

So tomorrow morning I'll be leaving. Today was really hectic :p
I still had to take care of some things before I leave..
And while I was packing my stuff, I noticed that my pet Iguanas
had laid 8 eggs! Great timing :D

Here is a picture so you have an idea what kind of pet it is :p

I hope I didn't forget to pack anything important and that the trip
will go well.

Found a room!

2009-01-21T06:24:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!

I have finally got a place to stay :D
Campus Domus has contacted me today to inform me about it.

I would like to thank the International Office at the Fachhochschule St. Pölten for all their help.

Here a re some pictures:

Internship @ St-Pölten - Planning

2009-01-07T13:31:00.000-08:00

Hello,
my name is Wim Gaethofs and I'm currently planning my intership abroad.
I'll be doing my intership in Austria. To be more precise, St. Pölten.

In this blog I will try to keep you up-to-date about all the things concerning my intership.

It is now January and I still do not have a place to stay. This isn't because I didn't look for anything yet, but because it is very hard to find a place to stay for only 3 months. Most of the people I have contacted so far gave me the advice to call back at the end of February. So I will do just that..

I have decided to go by car. That way I will have more freedom to take some road trips.

You will be hearing from me again as soon as I find that place to stay ;)