On Thursday, March 17, 2022, over 100 exchange students from MCI
and their buddies met at the Bierstindl in Innsbruck to toast the new semester
and get a little closer to Austrian culture.

Around 6.15 pm, the first internationals arrived at the Bierstindl, where they were warmly welcomed by
their buddies. At the entrance, the registration was checked,
and then each participant received a voucher worth €10, which was kindly provided to
by the ÖH MCI. Afterwards, the
students were escorted into the hall, where everyone was seated at a table
.

For dinner, either roast pork with dumplings and sauerkraut
or Kasspatzl’n was served, accompanied by a cold beer or two. After
the meal, the participants had a lively chat, buddies got to know some of their
“protégés”, nations from all over the world met and there was a lot of laughter at
.
At around 10 pm, the last participants left the Bierstindl for
city center, where the evening continued in a relaxed atmosphere. There was very positive feedback from the
exchange students and they were already asking
if and when the next event would be organized.

At the beginning of our graduation party, we met at 16:00 in the 6020 Gastgarten,
the drinks vouchers were handed over to me as the representative of the year. The weather
held out all afternoon and evening, which we were very grateful for, as it was very
pleasant to spend time together outside, we had a good time together
and the opportunity to meet people we hadn’t seen for over a year due to the semester abroad and all the
online events.

The graduation party started at 19:30. First of all, the students spent time in the outdoor area of the bar. On arrival, each student had to go to the year representative Melanie Walder-Moosmann to receive a drinks voucher after signing the attendance list. Each student received a drinks voucher for beer, wine or a non-alcoholic drink. The vouchers were handed out until 21:00. The remaining vouchers from the people who did not show up were then distributed to those present. This meant that everyone received 2-3 drinks. Around 22:30, the event moved to the reserved indoor area. There, the karaoke system was switched on and people sang along loudly.

The low number of participants can be explained as follows. On Thursday, 12.05.22 there were no lectures or only online lectures and on Friday, 13.05.22 only one guest lecture was planned. For this reason, many students were no longer in Innsbruck.

The celebration definitely contributed to the social aspect. The participants grew closer together and were able to exchange ideas outside of the university.

On Sunday, 24.04.2022 our project with the title Kastenlauf took place. Unfortunately, some participants had to cancel spontaneously, but the planned event was still able to take place with a total of 10 participants. At the beginning, the groups were quickly formed and team names were assigned. Therry’s drinkers and Zipferslieblinge were chosen and got ready at the starting line.

The start was in mixed weather conditions, at the Inn near the market hall, from where the competitors had to sprint up to the Judenbühl playground. A few spectators also came to cheer on the teams. The aim of the game was to arrive there with the whole crate drunk. It turned out that Zipferslieblinge won the race, but all participants were winners of the team spirit. Afterwards the whole thing was celebrated with honor –

Everyone was rewarded with pizza and cool drinks. Other fellow students also gathered to celebrate the success together. In conclusion, it was a great success and the group dynamic was enhanced.

Due to the lockdown last November, the buddy project between the current 2nd and 4th semesters of the Management & Law degree program was postponed and finally made up for on Monday, March 21.

Right after the last lecture in the afternoon, we met on the SOWI meadow and started the evening with a beer together, then at 6 pm we went to Sixty Twenty.

The purpose of this buddy project was to promote the exchange between the semesters, to make contacts, to talk about exams and, last but not least, it was a welcome distraction from the daily lecture routine.

To make use of our semester break, 19 of the students from our cohort decided to spend time together on a sledding event. Around 4pm on Friday 18.02.2022 we gathered at the Innsbruck main station to take the bus of line 590b – Neustift i. St. Gletscher and get to Schönberg i. St. Gemeindeamt. We covered the costs of bus tickets for 7 students. The rest of participants already had tickets allowing them to use the bus.

We reached our destination and began walking up the route to get to the hut at the top. The ascent to the “Gleinserhof” took us around 1.5 hours. Since there was a restaurant, we decided to sit down together, catch up and have some drinks and food. The hut offered free sledges, so around 8pm we started sledding down to get back to the bus.

After dropping the sledges at the designated place at the bottom of the route, we got to the bus stop. We caught the last bus to Innsbruck. On the ride back we covered 6 bus tickets as one person was coming back with a friend.

The team building event took place under the code name “Rodelgaudi” on 03.02.2022. After completing the last exam for the semester the day before, everyone was highly motivated. Consent was obtained from the 14 participants from the degree program to be shown in group photos, except for three who wanted to remain anonymous? All participants were also vaccinated and tested.

First of all, the latest toboggans were purchased from the sports rental shop in the Axamer Lizum around midday. The bus took us to the start of the toboggan run. From there it was about 1.5 hours uphill towards the mountain inn. It was an athletic hike uphill through the forest with a beautiful view of the Nordkette. Once we arrived at the mountain hut, we regained our energy with cheese dumplings, schnitzel and other Tyrolean delicacies. The toboggan was guided down at top speed, whereby the friendships that had been built up had to give way to ambition. The project went down really well with everyone, was a lot of fun and strengthened friendships through great shared experiences! We would like to thank the ÖH for their support of our project and are already looking forward to possible future projects!

On December 21, 2021, the full-time industrial engineering and management students from the class of 2020 spent an afternoon tobogganing together. In compliance with the current rules, we met up to toboggan together at the Mutterer Bergbahnen. After two hours of pure tobogganing fun on the Mutterer sports toboggan run, with lots of laughter and tight turns, we ended the day in a cozy atmosphere at the Mutterer Alm.

“It’s very Christmassy…”

On December 22, 2021, the students of the “Popper-Weber” year of the “International Business & Law” degree program held an evening together. In compliance with the applicable rules for gastronomy, this dinner could take place in a cozy atmosphere in the Stiftskeller in Innsbruck. Even though many students were no longer present in Innsbruck due to the switch to an online setting, it was still a tranquil and pleasant celebration. A repeat will certainly be necessary at the next opportunity.

Egon Simon Veit, BA