Before I came, I hadn't realized that AIS offers degrees. Students can take courses during the Someraj Universitataj Studsessioj (or SUS, which is what I'm at right now) and there is also a BUS later in the fall that will have classes. Students have to also take a series of exams, develop a thesis, and defend their thesis. Today I served on 6 thesis komisionoj, that conducted the defense for students completing master's degrees in turismiko or tourism studies. It was a fascinating experience.
My komisiono met in a small classroom with a table for the student, two tables behind which sat the komisiono, and seating behind for the public. The komisiono consisted of 6 faculty: some from within the discipline and others outside (like me). Each student had a beautifully printed and bound hard-copy of their thesis, generally written in both Polish and Esperanto. (These students were all young women who came from a particular school in Poland that teaches in Esperanto, but I also met male students and students from other countries, including Albania and Rumania). The students would stand while they were introduced and then could either stand or sit while they offered their presentation (in Esperanto). Most of the presentations had been written out in advance and the students read them aloud, but it was clear that they had practiced them very carefully and did not need to refer to their copy of the speech very often. In each case that I saw, the study dealt with a particular region of Poland and described the resources available for tourism and the particular features that represented strengths or weaknesses of the tourism industry. Each thesis included an element that represented original research, generally a survey. But it was clear that each project had entailed a significant amount of time: it was substantially more and better quality work than I would require from an undergraduate for three hours of independent study. The students were terrified by having to present. The presentations were generally pretty good, but afterwards, when they had to respond the questions, they found it really tough to understand what was being asked of them. One poor girl was like a deer in the headlights and couldn't say a word for a couple of minutes. They all held themselves together and managed to get through the presentation and discussion. Afterwards, the students and the public were excused while the komisiono met privately to discuss the evaluation of the student. Students were rated on a scale of 1-10 (10 being good) on the content of the presentation, the language of the presentation, the understanding demonstrated during the discussion, and then an overall grade for the student that took into account their previous grades in courses and fakekzamenoj. The grades for the presentation were averages, but for the final grade the median was taken, to make it hard for a small number of individuals to torpedo a student. Once the grades were decided, the student was invited in and, while the komisiono stood, the student was informed whether they had graduated and or received honors. They would then wipe away tears and come to shake hands with each member of the komisiono.
There was a three hour break at lunch time, so I went to the Banderium restaurant with a Swede and a Hungarian who has lived for a long time in Munich. We ate a leisurely lunch -- I had steak "Budapest style". After lunch, I walked a bit and chatted with a couple of different folks and returned to finish my service on the komisiono for the day -- I will have two more tomorrow. I had planned to go home afterwards, but a sign was posted that there would be traditional Hungarian folk music and dancing at 8pm, so then I was faced with finding something to do for 2 hours. I met up with two women, one from France and one from Russia, who were planning to attend an evening mass at the local Catholic church, so I tagged along with them.
The last time I attended mass was probably when I was in Spain and went with my roommate who was Catholic. The experience was fairly similar. I couldn't understand a word of what was being said, but the rituals were familiar. The church had beautiful altars and stained glass windows. One of the women with me pointed out that one of the stained glass windows showed Christ with his feet next to one another nailed separately, which she believed was an Orthodox tradition -- the Roman Catholics show the feet on top of one another with one nail through both. There was one particularly incongruous element in the church -- on the right hand side near the front was a numeric display formed of many small LED elements, like you see on a scoreboard, which showed a three digit number. One of the women realized that it was the number of the page in the choir book. Catholic services involve standing, sitting and kneeling -- we didn't kneel, though we did stand when everyone else did. There was also a moment when the fellow in front of us turned around and shook our hands. There was an organ that played which had some giant engine that drove the pipes -- when the engine would start up, it sounded rather like a jet taking off. At the end, after communion, while the organ played the pastor and the altar boys carried away the various elements used during the service, the lights around the altar were extinguished one by one. People began to filter out and, as they left their pew, each person would turn toward the altar and drop to one knee for a moment. It was a very interesting experience and I was glad to have tagged along.
We still had a while before the folk music and initially planned to go look at a Polish church in another part of town, but when we arrived at Klapka, we met up with an Italian and ended up sitting and chatting with him for an hour. We talked primarily about Catholicism and religion. I described Unitarianism for them. They had all heard of Unitarianism before, but didn't really know what it was. I had not-too-long ago read a book that described the origins and fundamental beliefs of Unitarianism, so I could give them a thumbnail overview. They indicated they thought it sounded interesting, although their expressions made me think they actually thought it sounded utterly heretical.
The Hungarian folk music and dancing were lively and energetic. I was lazy and didn't go out to dance. But I listened to the music, watched the dancing, and had interesting conservations with some of the young women from Poland, a professor from Spain, the fellow from Italy, and a computer programmer from Germany. Eventually four of us walked back through the night-time streets of Komarno. What an incredible day.