Baku?Chisinau?Vienna!

Yesterday, I was all proud cousin and godmother and attended Chiquita's graduation ceremony. With its 22,000 students, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration allegedly is Europe's largest university of economics (I learnt that from the vice-rector's speech yesterday). Looking at the décor in the function room, you definitely wouldn't know it, least of all guess you were in the capital city of a country so proud of its art and culture. As the professor who led through the ceremony so aptly remarked, the pipes lining the ceiling would make you think you were attending the AGM of some plumbers' guild rather than an academic ceremony. The potted flowers and box trees were a desperate attempt of sprucing things up a bit I guess, but in my humble opinion it didn't really help matters much.

Mind you, my own ceremony at the University of Vienna might have had a much more tasteful backdrop and been more solemn and festive, but the speeches were infinitely more boring, too.