This week was crazy! You know, I've been here all summer and I got used to the fact that the campus was pretty much deserted. But this week the term started, and suddenly it was just crazy. People everywhere! (Which makes it much more difficult to cycle on campus.)

Looking around was a little bit depressing - I've just finished my studies and am already 10 years older then those kids who're just starting now. Kids. Gosh, they look sooo young, well they are, and I felt really, really old.

It was a bit like this already the week before, when Transition Week, the welcome programme for the international students took place. Most of them are undergraduate exchange students on their big adventure, like I was four years ago - (is it already such a long ago???) - which may not a big difference in age but still, I felt very different. The most telling situation occurred when we (Kinga, Premek and I) took part in a downtown walking tour: I started chatting with a Chinese guy, asked him what he is doing (starting undergraduate degree in engineering) and he asked me what I was doing. "I've just finished my master in history and am working here as a research fellow." He: "I see. Yes, I've already noticed that nearly our whole group is adults." I laughed and asked him whether he doesn't consider himself an adult, but of course I knew perfectly what he wanted to express. The same feeling I experienced the other way round..

Yet, I plan to keep myself informed about the International Centre's activities because I think it's a good way for seeing more of Edmonton and Alberta as well as for reasons of socialising. (Also, I suppose that in these circles it would be easier to obey Grossis command that my wife to be has to accompany me to Austria, or at least to Europe. :-)

Aditionally I intend to attend the Faculty Club regularly, which is a bar on Campus where professors and PhD students meet on Friday afternoon, have some drinks, and socialise from joking and chatting to serious discussions. The first time I went there (about two weeks after my arrival) I felt quite inhibited, a young and unknowing boy among all those old, intellectual men and women. I still listen more than I talk, which I think is a probably the best thing to do anyway, because these people know so much and it's interesting just to listen. The last two times I had a really good time and although I saw those people three times at most, there are some whose company I quite enjoy.

So I guess my life here will be continuing between the two worlds. One day I'm having drinks with Eric and his friends, students, and another day I'm having drinks with their professors. Which sometimes can create quite funny situations. On the occasion of our farewell drinks with Lucka I had invited Eric and Mariko as well, and at first it was just the two of them and David and me. Then Darek, Luckas boyfriend was approaching and as David and I were waving at him Eric asked in a mixture of surprise and panic: "You know HIM!?! He is one of my teachers.." (And it was very obvious that he didn't feel well about that.)