Final exams done!

Our final exams are done! Last week we had a very busy week with two of our three final exams. We've had different assessments for various classes but there are three final exams for the Special Course: an essay (which we handed up at the start of May), a music and dance performance created in a small group called Mini Study and a practice teaching exam where we each teach a 30 minute lesson to the group. 

Last Wednesday we had our Mini Study performances, with all the music and dance created by the groups who performed them. We worked in small groups of 4-5 people to create our studies and then combined with another group so we had access to 8 people who could perform in each performance. It was a challenging and rewarding experience to create in a small group. There were four groups in total and all the performances were unique. 

Our Mini Studies performance poster

My Mini Studies group: Virginia, me, Ece & Tanya

Our performance group of 8 people

The other Mini Study I performed in as an extra

Mini Study group: Sonia, Rebecca, Martina & Michele

Mini Study group: Senem, Nadya, JB, 
Qingwei & Cristina

Mini Study group: Krito, Kalli, Luciana & Ilkay

Australians in the Mini Studies: Virginia, Michele & me

Celebrating after our Mini Study performances!

Then on Saturday and Sunday we had our practice teaching exams, which was an intense and inspiring time to see lessons taught by all my fellow students. Our subject of pedagogy for practice teaching was taught by Andrea Sangiorgio who was also our examiner along with Shirley Salmon. We are very lucky to have such a knowledgable teacher for this subject, who always has time to talk to us, even on really long teaching days from 9am-6pm. We celebrated on Sunday evening with dinner at a local restaurant! 

Dinner after our teaching exams

In May I was fortunate to have some more relatives visit from England, Nick and Sue came for five days and even though I had uni classes it was fun to spend time with them exploring Salzburg. Sue and I went up the Untersberg mountain in the cable car, the top was covered with mist and there was a lot of snow! Unfortunately it was rainy all week but they still had a good time.

More Lovell relatives in Salzburg! Nick, Sue, me & Neal

Cable car leaving the ground to go up Untersberg mountain

View of Salzburg in the distance

Arriving at the top of the mountain in the fog

Snow at the top of the mountain, we couldn't walk around much as we didn't have the right shoes!

At the end of May I managed to fulfil one of my goals for spending a year living in Europe, to travel to Wuppertal in Germany and see the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bauch perform in their home venue the Wuppertal Opera House. I first saw then perform at the 2016 Adelaide Festival of Arts, thanks to a recommendation from my dad who had seen them perform at the same festival in the 1980's. Neal and I spent a day on the train to get to Wuppertal, where we met my sister Rosanna who came from Berlin. I really enjoyed our weekend in Wuppertal, it's a small town and easy to walk around with lots of trees and gardens. Unfortunately the 'upside down' train (actually called the Schwebebahn - a suspension railway) which is built over the river was closed for maintenance. 

Wuppertal views from our accomodation

Green city

Lovely climbing roses

Well tended ivy

The 'upside down' railway that was closed

The performance we saw was called He takes her by the hand and leads her into the castle, the others follow and is a version of Macbeth that Pina Bauch created in 1978. It was amazing! It's hard to describe a Pina Bauch piece, but it is always engaging and fascinating and gives you a lot to think about.  Here is a good review of the show, if you are interested:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/19/arts/dance/pina-bausch-tanztheater-wuppertal-review.html?fbclid=IwAR1Dc8wuk3IobS1Wc1n-JumPgj9v1-UHj0X0FxTMBY7HEAUtTYcntpVuc5Y

The Wuppertal Opera House

Colourful stairs inside

Program

Rosie & Kirra, pre show drinks outside in the sun!

Neal & Kirra 

It was a hot day on Tuesday this week and we had the day off uni so along with some other students we rode to a river where the water was icy cold and fast flowing, but you could go in for a swim. It was nice to have a day off relaxing with friends after many weeks of intense study. 

Icy cold river, I did go in!

Amazing views

Turns out you don't need an esky when the water is really cold

It is a bit of a strange feeling at the moment, coming towards the end of the Special Course with only two weeks to go. It's been a such a fabulous experience it's a bit hard to contemplate moving on. Fortunately I have a European summer holiday before returning to work in Australia in October.