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My First Few Weeks in Salzburg
My initial thoughts on this new city and welcome to the CDE program.
Packing up and moving to a country you have never been to with a language you are not proficient in can be very daunting. That worry left my body the second I stepped off the plane in Salzburg. It didn’t take me long to realise that I was in one of the most beautiful cities I have ever had the privilege of being in. Surrounded by mountains, cobbled streets in the old town and a beautiful river running straight through. It’s easy to think you have stepped back in time in Salzburg, a perfect mix of classic style with modern amenities.
I felt a lot of excitement and anticipation for this program. I love meeting new people but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about meeting my coursemates. As more of us began to arrive, I quickly realised our group was going to become very close friends. I have cherished this friendship and support while adjusting to a new environment and am confident that this will only continue to grow over the course of the program.
Orientation week brought a level of anticipation and excitement for the year ahead. I was overwhelmed by the kindness and helpfulness of the faculty, understanding that they are here to help us push ourselves and make the most of this program. I feel very lucky to be surrounded by knowledgeable people who I intend to learn a lot from. I am ready for this next chapter and look forward to seeing what this experience brings me.
The First Semester
New subjects, online classes, and lockdown
One of the things I was most excited about when joining this program was the crossover into a more geospatial focussed discipline. Wildlife conservation and geospatial research are heavily interlinked. nevertheless, I believe that geospatial research techniques and technologies are not being used to their full potential in conservation, which is why I decided to apply to this masters program.
The first semester offered a wide range of classes, giving me the chance to catch up and get more familiar with the various theoretical and practical components in this field. Methods in spatial analysis taught me more about the scope of tools and methods available to obtain spatial information, in which I was able to practice and develop my skills through practical assignments. In software development, I got my first taste of coding in java. Admittedly, I am not quite the expert yet but I have enjoyed learning this highly useful skill. I was also able to improve my background knowledge of the geospatial discipline through classes such as design of geospatial models and open gis. Advanced remote sensing quickly piqued my interest. We learned everything from how images are obtained to how to extract useful information from them. I particularly enjoyed learning about different classification techniques through object-based image analysis (OBIA), which led me to take OBIA as an extra elective.
Unfortunately due to covid, the majority of the first semester was in an online format. although this could sometimes be frustrating with technological issues or practical classes, everyone made the best of a bad situation. Having good coursemates to lean on and work with, as well as professors who always made themselves available for help made it all very manageable.
Saying goodbye to Salzburg
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