In-person study. A guide

Column: The Semester Contribution

What nobody thought possible any longer has finally happened: WueStudy has received an update! Oh yes, and the in-person semester has started again. The following guide is a little handbook for all students who turned up to their first in-person lecture in their pyjamas and wondered where on the seat the button is to mute the lecturer up front.
1. Taking the bus
Probably nobody looked forward to the in-person semester less than Würzburg bus drivers. They must have felt like lonely asphalt cowboys:girls, the way they were able to cruise relaxedly through the city with an empty line 10 for the first time since the university was founded, without student small talk in their ear (see point 2) But those days are now definitively over.
And for us students it also means that we have to say goodbye to comfortable privileges again. Dear Corona first-year students, it must be emphasised emphatically: a free seat on the bus to Hubland is not a self-evident fact to be accepted with a shrug, but a precious commodity that deserves more appreciation again! The old hands among us students will remember: back in the day, an empty university bus was like winning the lottery, which you celebrated best by sitting in the back row so you could get a better view of late students completely out of breath running after the bus when it pulled away.
The journey itself, in pandemic-free times, resembles a daily group-cuddle ritual in which one – squeezed between lever arch files and reusable coffee cups – is forced to listen to the conversation of two special education first-year students who are apparently getting a bit nervous about the heavy traffic at the Mainfranken Theatre ("Shit, Franzi, the lecture's about to start – do you think you can quickly email the prof to say we're going to be five minutes late?"). 
Most students try to escape such auditory laxatives by putting on headphones and turning up a loud episode of "Gemischtes Hack". But unfortunately this tactic doesn't always work. Because disproportionately often, during a bus ride, the next problem area of university in-person everyday life occurs:
2. Small talk 
Small talks are the business administration students among conversations: at first glance they are very boring and if you then take the time to examine them more closely… they are too. On the bus or on campus, even with headphones on your ears, it can occasionally happen that you unexpectedly bump into a fellow student whom you don't know well enough to have a longer conversation with, but also know too well to simply dismiss with a brief nod. A brief, unwilling eye contact is enough and both unfortunate parties know that they have fallen into the small talk trap. The conversation that follows usually goes something like this:
-Hey!
-Hello.
-So, heading to uni too?
-Yup.
Awkward silence.
-It's mega annoying that the lecturer always only uploads her slides after the lecture, right?
-Yeah totally.
-And then there's barely anything on them, how are you supposed to learn for the exam?
-Hmm, no idea.
Awkward silence.
-Have you started studying yet?
-Nope.
-Ok phew, yeah me neither, but I'm really worried I'm starting too late.
Awkward silence.
-When is the exam again anyway?
-In four months.
Such a situation is usually uncomfortable for everyone involved. To avoid it in a composed manner, the following tips can be helpful: when you stroll through the university buildings, keep looking as stressed as possible at your phone to signal to a potential small talk lurker before the conversation even begins that you're in a real hurry. At the same time, you can already check the canteen menu – a classic win-win situation! Moreover, come up with a few phrases that you can use anywhere in a conversation without actually having to listen. Examples of these can be: "Yeah well", "You know how it is…" or also "You're not involved in that…". Try these phrases out for yourself at your next boring conversation – it actually always works!
3. Lectures and seminars
First and foremost, you need to make sure you're in the right building. It's best to orient yourself by the typical characteristics of students in your subject.
If you're studying law and the clothes of everyone present in the lecture hall are estimated to be worth less than a hundred thousand euros, you're in the wrong lecture hall! If you're studying sociology and fewer than half of your fellow students have a bamboo reusable cup on the table – get out of there! 
Furthermore: teacher training students without a lever arch file tucked under their arm are rarer than gendering Nazis (#"Foreigners* out!") and social work female students who wear a nose ring and think of themselves as not being typical social work students are only lying to themselves. 
Important: in seminars it is usually unfortunately not possible to give the presentation behind the board – not even with the justification that you've always been able to turn the camera off during presentations. However, if you still get sweaty palms at the words "breakout session", you can breathe a sigh of relief: lecturers are usually just happy if they get a room for their events at all. a [38] Now nothing should really stand in the way of a successful start to the in-person semester. So get out of your pyjamas and into the bus – as long as WueStudy works, nothing can really go wrong!
Now nothing should stand in the way of a successful start to the in-person semester. So get out of your pyjamas and onto the bus – as long as WueStudy works, nothing can really go wrong!

Yannik Ambrusits