Kiran Hiremath (India - Applied Mathematics) commenced his summer break in Athens the day Greece played against Portugal in the Euro 2004 final. `Watching the match on the giant screen was electrifying, sporting T-shirts with Greek flags made the locals treat us like their best friends!' he says. His train journey the next day from Athens to Pirgos was unique - the driver gave vent to a supreme state of joy by honking every couple of minutes. Hiremath recalls a Greek cartoon showing God asking Greeks through the clouds, `Now, do you believe in miracles?'
T. Hoang (Vietnam - Electrical Engineering) traveled to Norway where his girlfriend studies at Oslo University. `My girlfriend began her studies there three months ago. This summer was my first visit; we plan to meet each other every two months.' Hoang visited tourist spots like The King House (The Royal Palace), Botanical Gardens, Old Aker Church, Stave Church at the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History and Akershus Fortress (built in around 1300 to protect Oslo from naval attacks). `We also had long conversations with the locals to get to know more about Norwegian culture. My girlfriend and I took plenty of walks on the beach and along some streets which were abuzz with various activities. It was a great trip in helping us to unwind and catch up.'
Away from football mania and yearnings of the heart, Matthijs Draijer (Netherlands) answered a calling of a different kind in the Czech Republic. He undertook voluntary work at the monastery of Porta Coeli which is one of the oldest abbeys of the cisterciënzerorde order of nuns. After WWII, Communist authorities took control of the monastery and neglected the maintenance of the walls and roof. After 1990, the sisters got the monastery back which was by then quite dilapidated. `The average age of the sisters is sixty-five and they needed all the help they could get in fixing the monastery,' Draijer says. He worked in a team of 17 international volunteers doing a variety building activities like breaking down old floors, laying bricks, constructing and dismantling scaffolds, and dredging a small channel trough the monastery.
Master's student Börje Fjällström (Sweden - European Studies) did not have a very exciting summer because he had to attend lectures in Münster, Germany until the very end of July (courses are taught in tandem by the UT and the Institute for Political Science, Münster) . Thereafter he went home to family and friends and `to write two essays,' he adds. `The only exciting thing, which took place in the very beginning of the summer, towards the end of May, was when I went to Romania for a week long seminar with Romanian students to discuss the recent EU enlargement. Romania was very interesting, and I liked the country and the people very much. Since that trip, I believe that it is important for people from prosperous European countries to visit a country like Romania. It offers different perspectives on life and we can begin to appreciate what we have.'
On that noble thought, here's hoping that the summer did indeed rejuvenate all of us to look forward to our forthcoming academic commitments with renewed enthusiasm.
