The University of St. Gallen

So Thursday and Friday afternoon of this week, we had our big orientation [but, Amelia, you may say, you had orientation last week....yeah. I know. Blargh!!]. Those of us who did the German language course were required to sit through two nearly identical orientations...woo.

Orientation is still just as boring studying abroad in Switzerland as it was as a Freshman at UF and a 1L at UT. But, at the end I got this [after paying another 96F for it!!]:

Please don’t look to closely at the picture; it was taken at a Walgreens in Key West when I was supposed to be on vacation.

So in honor of all this [and classes starting on Monday] I decided to tell you more about the University of St. Gallen.

This year they have about 6,700 students, with 300 students here as a part of the Exchange program. It was originally called the Hochschule St. Gallen [an older word for University] and was abbreviated HSG. Under this name it became one of the best business/finance schools in the world, so when they changed to Universität they kept the HSG because its such a “powerful brand.” It is also one of the oldest schools of its kind [dedicated strictly to business and economics], having started in the 1890s. Today, they are still very focused and only work in the areas of: management, economics, law, law and economics, and international affairs. 

Now to campus:

 This is a map of the HSG campus. Its so little and cute!! The square buildings in the middle that have the grass roofs are the main part of campus. But yep, this is the whole thing. It was only built for 3,500 students. Which can make things interesting.

The main buildings were designed in the “Brutalism” style of architecture (my first link in a post!!). What this means is they are all poured concrete. That’s it. Very modern. And the school is known for its collection of Swiss modern art so this works.

While this may not have been the most interesting or entertaining post, I hope it will give you an idea of where I am when I talk about school. So I end with a campus photo dump:

 

Sculpture/Fountain thingy

Wizards Chess in the Courtyard!!!!

 

A view of the actual Courtyard. Its down a level from the entrance to most of buildings [being on the side of a mountain all the ground levels are different actually]. I'm not sure how this is going to work when there is lots of snow and ice everywhere, but I guess they planned for that originally [or at least I hope] on the left by the little, far off tree is the student bar, "the Ad Hoc." This is a very European thing, we also had one at my college in Cambridge. and between the bigger tree in the middle and the stairs on the right is the entrance to the University Cafeteria, "the Mensa." Its expensive, like all things here, but convenient. 

Brutalist Architecture, Modern Art. Neither are my taste, but whatever.

 

Another view from the stairs. Not too shabby!!

 

I'm not real excited about the grey buildings, grey skies, and dirty snow that will come this winter. Seems a pop of color would have been nice! But, surprisingly, no one asked me...

 

The last few pictures are of the main classroom buildings that all surround the courtyard at the of the aforementioned stairs. This is the view from that courtyard.

 

St. Gallen as seen from the University of St. Gallen

 

More modern art.

 

And again...this one kind of reminds me of the French Fries at UF

These next few pictures are of my view of St. Gallen on the walk down to my apartment. Just for fun.

 

The church on the left with the single spire and the crazy roof is the Reformist church. On the right with two spires is the Catholic church. Its an interesting story for a history buff, so I will be telling it soon!