Pictures, Finally!

Some pictures from the last few weeks.

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Ok, that's all I can do for now, because the website stopped working properly, bummer!

Polite Interest

From the start of the program, all of the professors, student assistants, and our now "retired" (some are saying "fired") director kept insisting upon the friendliness of the Austrians--a trait they are all very proud of considering the sheer volume of tourists that come in and out of the tiny country every year. Even after only a few weeks here, it's easy to tell what everyone is talking about. Despite my poorly pronounced German phrases and my inability to understand anyone who speaks quickly--which is everyone--shopkeepers, Taxi drivers and the like are all very patient with me. Even though pretty much everyone speaks English, they will say things in German a little slower when they see that I am attempting their language. Many of them will even help me, repeating the word a few times again with the correct pronunciation as I struggle to follow their slick tongue/throat movements. Obviously with only 2 weeks of this language, most waitresses and Tabak store owners will eventually revert to telling me what I need to know in English, causing us to typically chuckle at each other, glad that there is at least some way we can communicate. What I think is funny that literally the only people I've encountered here  that are rude here are the Italian waitresses--two at an Italian cafe, and one at a pizzeria. I was impressed with my ability to tell they were not Austrian by their accent when speaking German! I think I'm even be able to tell the difference between German German (ha) and Austrian German accents. This shall be tested next week...

But aside from their patience, there is one very "unfriendly" habit, at least by American standards, and it's really quite unnerving once you notice it: No one smiles! Walking down the street in Denver or Walla Walla, making accidental eye-contact with anyone, I typically smile at them, as is the norm, and they smile back. Or if I walk into a store or restaurant at home, an employee will smile at you as they say greet you, but here, smiling just doesn't happen. Everyone greets you when you walk into a store or cafe or something, but there is no smile on their face. And if a stranger smiles at you on the street, returning the gesture has very different connotations than just "hello". Let's just say that on my third day riding on public transportation, this "no smiling" rule slipped my mind and an awkward man of about 45 tried to strike up a conversation with me, thinking that maybe he had a chance...Luckily, he quickly realized that an overweight, middle-aged man is really not my type. 

So while I am having trouble adjusting my tendency to smile at strangers, I am picking up on another Austrian habit. One of the program assistants coined the term "polite interest" for all of staring that people around here do. Quite literally, people will just stare at you, and even when you look back at them, they will not look away! It's the weirdest sensation to look at someone who is staring at you and not have them avert their eyes. The other day, I sat down on the train on my way to class and a woman in a chair facing me literally stared at me for the entire 15 minute ride down Waringerstrasse. It caught me by surprise at first, but I followed the advice of our quirky, ex-fashion-model program assistant, "Just stare back at them! They only want to see what you are about." So I did. She was probably about 60-years-old, wearing an elaborate fur coat (definitely real), with nails coated in sparkly, hot pink polish, and rhinestone encrusted reading glasses hanging around her neck, and though I could not figure her out, I really enjoyed staring at her. Since then, I've really been able to take my love of people watching to the next level because I no longer feel the need to be discrete. For example, if we catch the 8:30am train at Nussdorfstrasse, there trendy woman in spike-heel black boots who gets on in order to take her adorable children to day-care. The little buy always wears an orange hat with ear flaps and the little girl has a huge pink puffy coat that she wears and a sock monkey that looks like it's been everywhere--there was one morning when they got on and off again because she forgot it. My favorite so far has been the older women because I am really trying to figure them out--a great majority of them have bright streaks of color in their hair, like blue, or  purple, or red, and some have their entire head dyed--one woman reminding me Ronald McDonald, complete with giant yellow coat.

Sometimes, it's like having a staring contest with strangers. This morning, as the train sat at the Schottentor station, waiting for a light to change, I was looking out the window and saw that a boy, probably my age was staring at me. As it is with a staring contest, I stared right back, seeing who would lose by looking away first. And of course, being an amateur at this contest, I lost. 

The Day the Sun Came Out

To the day, I've been in Vienna for two weeks, and yesterday (Saturday, or Samstag, if you wish) was the first day I could go out not needing a hat, or gloves, or winter coat. It was sunny and 47 degrees, perfect. But of course, the nicest day in weeks, and it is the day of the Open House at all of the state museums...meaning that you could pretty much go to any museum you wanted for free. Being inside museums all day didn't particularly appeal to me and my roommate Lauren (and she's even an Art History major!) so we decided to take a walking tour that we read about in one of our many travel books.

We started at Stadtpark (City Park), which is only about 3 blocks east of the IES center.We took the U-Bahn there, got off by crossing a bridge over the Danube Canal and entered at the south end of the park. On one side, the park is bordered by the canal and the other by the busy Ringstrasse. Wondering around the many winding paths, we ran across statues of famous composers that lived in Vienna--my favorite was the Strauss statue, covered in a layer of gold and playing his violin. There is also a big pond in the middle, with lots of ducks and little kids with the grandparents, throwing stale bread into the water. People were everywhere--every bench in the sun (and there were a lot) was full of people. Everyone seems to just be trying to thaw out, much like were my intentions. 

We left the park, and headed to the other side of the canal to see one of the Hundertwasser houses--a "green" architect who despised straight lines and level sidewalks. This is an apartment here in Vienna, where there is the rule that you can paint whatever you would like outside your window, as long as it is within arms reach.

We also went into a museum designed by him and full of his art. Pretty unique, to say the least. As the sun sank lower in the sky, the buildings blocked what little light was left, so Lauren and I walked a little faster. We wandered through an outdoor market (that was unfortunately closing up shop for the day), saw the Bulgarian embassy which looked completed deserted, and ran into numerous churches, one with a lime-green tiled roof, which looked extremely out of place. 

But I think one of the most interesting things we ran into were some remnants of WWII. We turned the corner, into this park with tons of kids playing soccer all around this enormous cement building. My first thought was that it was from the war, and after looking it up in our tour book, we learned that this building (as will as 5 others spread throughout the city) was an aerial defense tower that back during the war, would have missiles and guns on the top to shoot down any planes that came in to destroy the city.. There are 5m thick cement walls, each with there own water supply and power systems, capable of housing 50,000 troops overall. It was very eerie to sit there, and think about what it must have been like in the '30's and '40's, with your city being run by the Nazi's. I learned last week that the Jewish population still hasn't made any sort of comeback in the city...

We ended our three hour walk by sitting in one of Vienna's many cafes, drinking coffee and having a light dinner. The two of us met up with our other roommates and made our way to the art history museum where we spent a few hours looking at just a fraction of the hundreds of paintings in this particular museum. A bit like the park earlier in the day, there were people everywhere, every exhibit being full. I had been this same museum last week and made a return visit to the ancient Egyptian exhibit where I was basically drooling over all the jewelry. I picked out several rings that I wouldn't mind wearing :) We ran into some more friends, and then we all made our way back into the 9th district and hit up a small restaurant down the street from our apartment for some late night pizza and wine. A good day, to say the least!

Die Oper!

I decided during my last entry that trying to catch you all up on what's been happening the last week (now the last week and a half) is a very difficult task, so I suppose at this point I will just have to pick and choose what I actually decide to write about. I guess that is what happens when I decide to go have adventures in a foreign city. Everything is so unknown it all just seems worth talking about!

So I'm going to start with today and work my way backwards...It's 4 o'clock in the afternoon and I've spent the majority of my day inside split between German class, studying for a test tomorrow and reading Obama's inauguration speech. Unfortunately, I did not get to listen to all of the speech, and this I blame on German television. Originally, my roommates and I planned to go out to a party with a bunch of other students in our program, but by the time we started to get our act together, they were getting ready to swear in Joe Biden, so we stayed behind. But as soon as the speeches started, the annoying announcer started to translate every word in some high, obnixious voice. We frantically were changing channels, trying to find CNN or BBC or any other channel that wasn't dubbing over the speakers. But channel surfing found us at least ten channels showing the inauguration, 7 of those were in german, one french, one spanish, and another in some crazy langauge we could not identify. The next resort was live internet streaming, but apparently there was a record number of people (some 7 million) trying get a live video stream from several different sites, so that did not work either. Finally, about halfway through Obama's speech, I got CNN radio to work. So with the sound on a 3 minute delay, we watched the muted television and huddled around my computer whose speakers are no where near powerful enough to fill a room. After it was over, we popped the champagne, wished our new president good luck, and headed to a pub down the street for a late dinner. President Obama made it very clear that we have a long road ahead of us and that it will be difficult, there is no doubting that, but I'm encouraged by his words and his dedication to our country--There's a huge amount of enthusism here in Vienna for Obama. His face is everywhere--there's T-shirts and stickers stuck on lampposts, his face is on the cover of every newspaper and magazine. A cab driver even said to me as I climbed in the back seat, after realizing I was American (it's really not hard to tell) ''Congratulations on Obama!''. Another man on the train on Monday launched into a 10 minute conversation with me about the state of American politics and his excitment for Obama. It's reminded me just how powerful America really is, and as the President said in his speech on Tuesday, we can't use that power to do whatever we please, our actions effect the entire world. I think that is an important realization to have--

But anyways, Vienna! Last night, I attended my first opera. We saw Manon, which is French, and it was wonderful. First off, it only cost 4 Euro, which is roughly $5. We were in the standing room area which meant that we had to arrive at the Staatsoper (the opera house) 3 hours before the performance, and wait in a series of lines. The first was in the side of the building, throurgh winding metal bars full of people sitting on their folding chairs or on the railings, reading their books and doing crosswords. Once the ticket box opened, you bought your tickets then rushed through several hallways, trying not to let people pass you (so as to get the best spot!). Finally, the various marble hallways spit you out into the main entrance area which is GORGEOUS! Everything is marble and gold with statues and carvings and paintings and chandeliers everywhere...really impressive. We then had to walk up several small flights of stairs, making more turns, making officially confussed about my location in the building. But at every turn, there was an usher pointing you in the proper direction (this reminded me a bit of the guards in Lenin's tomb in the Red Square, but less creepy). The last usher's job was to put you in line, and because I couldn't understand his German combined with this crazy hand gestures, he took me by the shoulders and steered me to my proper place in yet another line. Then he kind of laughed at me, which was understandable, because it was quite funny. There was another IES student in line ahead of me, a full year, who said that this was his 26th Opera since September...which I just couldn't even begin to imagine. There are A LOT of music majors in my program, so they all are very in to this sort of thing. An hour before the performance starts, they let the standing room ticket holders race to mark their ''seats'' with a scarf, so that's what we did. Despite not really knowing what we were doing, we got front row, meaning that we were about 15 rows from the stage, in the center of the theater, with a perfect view of both the stage and the orchestra. You can see (hopefully) in this picture where we were--you can see the red railings of the standing area down at the bottom of the picture.

After marking our places, we went to grab some dinner. Once we returned to our spots and the lights dimmed, the conductor walked out to applause and raised his hands to begin the show. Once the music started, I was in awe. It just sounded so clear and perfect, and there aren't even any speakers. I guess I didn't even think about it before I got there, but I had no idea the sound would carry so incredibly in an Opera house...but it makes sense that it does, obviously! There was also translators at every seat, so I could understand the story line. Basically, Manon is banished by her family to a convent because she is too ''excitable'' and has too big of dreams. On her way there, she meets a man, they fall in love in about 30 seconds, and then run away to Paris. But of course, her new freedom get's to her head and she leaves him and goes with other men only to later realize her mistakes and beg forgiveness, and of course he takes her back. And I won't ruin the end, but we'll just say, that someone always has to die. I was only slightly disappointed that the cliche ''it's not over until the fat lady sings'' did not pan out, because there was no fat lady. But no matter! I enjoyed it, though my feet were undoubtly tired after 3 hours of standing. But I will return! And in two weeks, there is a ballet, which I cannot wait for.

This will be all for now, I have to go to a meeting! There is a possibility (if Whitman gives me credit) that I will be doing a teaching intership. This will involve me going to a grade school once or twice a week, teaching tiny Austrian child how to speak English. I am excited! Fingers crossed for the go ahead from the Whitman registrar...

Ciao! (it's Italian, but everyone uses it here)

The First Week

Servus! 

Here is my attempt to keep you all at least a little bit updated. We shall see if I make a habit out of it, which I would very much like to do. So hold on tight, because here will be some accounts of the adventures I've vowed to have--

Stepping off the plane on January 8th, I was in quite the daze. I'd left Denver at 11:30 am on the 7th, and three planes later, arrived in the Vienna airport at 11 am on the 8th. Having had four hours of awful turbulence over the Atlantic and vowing to myself to never fly again (while at the same time, knowing that would never happen), I had not slept more then an hour since I left Colorado. Feeling some combination of exhaustion, nervousness, and excitement, I made my way to the airport bus stop, sans any sort of customs. How can I arrive in a new country with no sort of passport check? For a while I thought I was going to be chased down by a mob of officers and dragged off to some sort of terrifying holding cell and be detained until further notice. But of course, to my relief, I found the bus bound for the Westbanhof (West Train Station) with no problems whatsoever. I was the dropped off at the top of a flight of stairs at the train station only to be met by a group of students saying "IES?" To which I replied "How could you tell?" Laughs were exchanged...Americans kind of stick out like a sore thumb, especially when wearing our backpacking packs and rolling our giant duffel bags. They lead me to the meeting point, making me feel ten times better than I had. For at least a month and a half leading up to my departure, I quite literally was having nightmares of arriving here, unable to find anyone who spoke English, and getting horribly lost while toting around all my luggage. This arrival was surprisingly easy. 

After all the students (some 100 of us), we loaded into three different buses and were off to Deutschlandsberg--emphasis on the "lands"--for our three-day orientation, most of which were spent in a jet-lagged fog that is still leaving its mark on my sleeping patterns. We sat through many meetings and Austrian trivia games, Waltzing lessons and "authentic" Austrian dinners. I sort of felt like I was at freshman orientation again, where everyone talks to everyone else, having the same conversation somewhere in the neighborhood of a million times. On the Friday that we were there, we had an optional afternoon activity of cross-country skiing up the mountains...those mountains being the ALPS. There was really no way I could pass that up, no matter how tired I was. It being my first time cross-country skiing (to much surprise of others, "But you're from Colorado!"), it was quite entertaining. Me and another girl crashed into each other on the very first hill leaving me wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into. But I got the hang of it, and had a great time. It was absolutely beautiful! The trees were all covered in snow as we trekked along the side of a mountain. The valley below us was filled with mist as the treeless peaks of farther off mountains stuck up into the sunny skies. How nice it feels to get outside after being cramped up in airplanes and stuffy meeting rooms! The next day we choose roommates and apartments (a relatively stressful experience) and finished off the beer supply at the hostel we stayed in. Sunday at noon, we all piled back into the buses, Vienna-bound!

We got to the train station where we'd locked up our bags when we first arrived, unloaded, swarmed the ATM's (hardly anyone takes credit card here), then flocked to the line of taxi's out front. MADNESS! A hundred-some people all needing cabs with each person having 2-3 pieces of luggage, you can imagine the chaos. The drivers apparently aren't to anxious to take people of this kind, so they always went straight for the Austrians carrying nothing but a little dog. After literally standing in the street in FRONT of a cab, me and one of my roommates got a ride. We tell him the address and off he goes. When he stops the car, he tosses our luggage to the curb as we hand over money. We don't know which building it is, so in German, my roommate Tori asks which is the right one. He makes a waving hand gesture towards a hotel and mumbles something is gets back in the cab and speeds off. We stand there with confused looks on our faces, because we know that we don't live in a hotel. After standing there for a moment, we decide to ask the manager at the hotel desk. She promptly points in a direction and tells us it is a 5-minute walk. Simple really except for the mass amount of luggage we are carrying. Walking a block and a half in the direction the woman told us, we realize the numbers are going the wrong direction, as are we. Turning around, we make our way towards our new home. Not quite the nightmare I had had, but dangerously close. I actually found it quite funny at the time--made me glad I'd decided to pack light!

So a week later, I am learning the ins and outs of public transportation and cheap "Wurstel" stands to get lunch. We take the 37 or 38 to Schottentor, the station right near the Vienna University, then hop on the 1 or D line (NOT THE 2, as I've figured out the hard way), passing by nearly every single one of Vienna's famous buildings, we get off at the Staatsoper--home of 2 euro tickets to world-class opera! Then we walk down a very busy pedestrian street, take a right at the McDonalds and arrive at the Palais Corbelli--home of IES! I've got two more weeks of intensive German classes (which has been intense, to say the least) then I'm off to Germany for a 10-day tour with the program. Berlin, here I come!

I've obviously got way more to say, but it looks like this is long enough as it is...more to follow!

Auf Wiedersehen!