Auf Wiederschauen, Wien

I'm leaving Wien in a few hours. Right now, I'm sitting in my hostmom's kitchen. She's still in the Krankenhaus, recuperating from surgery, so my roommate and I are the only people here.
I booked a taxi to get here at 4am, which is in 1 and 1/2 hours. I'm not sleeping tonight, obviously, and I'm debating whether I should go outside and walk around.
I almost can't believe the time has come to leave this place. I can definitely see myself living here. I love Viennese culture so much.
A few things that stand out to me:
1) The Viennese are so polite. When you walk into a shop, you instantly greet and are greeted by the proprietor. When someone steps on you in the bus, they instantly say "Entshuldigung." Of course, not everyone is polite, but that's to be expected.
2) Public trans. Everyone and their grandma and their dog rides the public trans. I love it. It's not uncommon to have to duck around dogs and strollers to find a place on the metro, busses, or streetcars.
3) Like I've mentioned many times before, there's so much to do here! I hope I won't be bored too much in Indianapolis
There are more... but now it's impressions time.
...people riding the U-Bahn, clutching a can of their favorite beer in their hand...
... the man last night, who dropped part of his chocolate bunny on the bus floor, then proceeded to pick it up and eat it. I was riding the bus with Georg, an Austrian guy, and I asked him if there was a 5-second rule in Austria. He said Austrians have a 30-second rule...
... the dog pee on the sidewalks everywhere!...
... the old people wearing traditional Austrian alpine hats, men and women alike...
... speaking of old people, the older women here have very distinctive views on artificial hair color. Tonight I saw a lady with light blue streaks in her white hair...
I'm sure there are more, but I'm so scatter-brained from packing and lack of sleep that I'm not sure what I'm writing anymore. Must... not... fall... asleep...
Taxi will be here soon, and I have some dishes to wash and odds and ends to pick up.
America... here I come, Vienna... I love you so much! I'll come back again if it's at all possible!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm not officially celebrating Thanksgiving, and I had a full day of classes today, but I can still have a thankful attitude, nonetheless.
I had two presentations to give today. I only got to give 25% of that today, which means the rest is postponed til next week, and I'm bummed. I wish I could get them over with.
I have a short paper and something else due tonight, then another small paper due Sunday night, and then my large Vienna 1900 paper due Monday night.
However, Meg's coming tomorrow, so I'm not going to worry too much about them.

Also, I'm going to see Swan Lake on Monday! I'm very excited about that. It's in the Staatsoper, which is also near my house.

I'm going to take Meg to some of my favorite art museums, if she's up to it. We'll also go to the Christmas Markets.

Viennese people definitely know how to decorate their city for Christmas. Most of the major streets have large light fixtures strung across them. Near Stefansplatz, there are gigantic chandeliers and red ball lights hanging. A lot of other places have different kinds of christmas lights everywhere. Now that Thanksgiving is over, I feel that it can officially feel like Christmastime, although the Viennese have been getting into the Christmas spirit for several weeks now.

Happy Thanksgiving, a.k.a. Oppression of Native Peoples' Day!

Deutsch Final

For our Deutsch final, we have to give a 10-minute oral presentation about ourselves. You know, the basics. We can take notes up with us, but we can't have it all written out. I'm going to practice here.
Grüss Gott! Mein Name ist Elisabeth Enas. Ich kommt aus den USA, aus Indianapolis. Ich studiere in Wien. Ich wohne in Wien für drei Monate.
Ich habe neun Geschwister: drei Brüder und sechs Schwestern. Ich habe ein Vater und eine Mutter. Sie wohnen in Indianapolis.

(I'll add more to this, but I'm starving, so I'm going to make myself some dinner!)

Winding Down, Wrapping Up

This semester is finally drawing to a close. Actually, I don't know why I said finally, because it's all gone by in a flash. I feel like I just got here and now I have to leave this lovely city.
Vienna is amazing. I've met quite a few Viennese young people who are completely unimpressed by their home city or a few who are trying to leave as soon as possible. They don't know what they've got, really. Compared to a Midwest city like Indianapolis, Vienna is a veritable wonderland of culture. There are some many museums and other things to see, everywhere!

A few things left that I want to do before I leave:

Spanish Riding School (maybe, and only because Mom wants me to...)
Christmas Markets
ride the Prater (maybe)
Albertina Museum
go to the Oper
Kunsthistoriches and the Leopold Museums (again)
drink some Punsch and/or Glühwein
check out the stores in Neubaugasse, since it is my neighborhood...
go to the first disabled persons facility in Europe (I forget what it's called)

A few traditions to wrap up:
last meal at Suma's
last meal at DeeWan's
last cup of heisse schokolade
last bus ride on 48A to Volkstheater/Thaliastrasse
last walks on Neustiftgasse, Burgasse, Favoritenstrasse, Taborstrasse, Galilegasse
last trip to Arsenal
last dance party at Mellba's
and more, of course.

Buda + Pest = Sehr Gut!

Last weekend, I went to Budapest. This was the one city outside of Wien that I especially wanted to visit.
Budapest is quite a convoluted city. There's a palpable mix of old Hungary as well as new multi-cultural metropolitanism.

Among the sights I saw:
Franz Lizst Museum - small museum dedicated to none other than the pianist and composer Lizst. It was in the same rooms that he stayed in when he lived in Budapest for 6 years near the end of his life. It had a collection of keyboards, most made especially for him. I touched the keys on one of them, even though you weren't supposed to. I couldn't resist.
The House of Terror - A new museum (2002) dedicated to the victims of the Nationalist Socialist party in Budapest during WWII (Arrowcross) and the Communist party after the war. (http://www.terrorhaza.hu/en/index_2.html)
Memento Park - A park just outside the city walls which houses Soviet statues collected from around Hungary.
The Castle Labyrinth - Series of tunnels underground in the Castle Hill which formed naturally and then were expanded and used, among other purposes, to shelter people during the war. We went in the evening, when they turn out the lights and give everyone kerosene lanterns to navigate the tunnels. Damp and creepy, but I liked the fountain of red wine as well as the various statues and old paintings on the wall.
Mátyás Church and the Fisherman's Bastion - famous church which was badly damaged during WWII. It was reconstructed, and the current building was finished (I think) in the 1970's. Designed in a picturesque neo-Gothic style and has a colorful tiled roof. (A church in Zagreb had one as well. I've decided that I like these a lot) The Fisherman's Bastion is situated on the cliff behind the church. It faces the Danube and gives a good view of the city and surrounding area. It's also across from the huge Parliament Building, which has over 600 rooms. Near the beginning of the 20th century, the Parliament Building used more electricity than the rest of the city.
Marzipan Museum - In the back of Buda Hilton, next to Mattias' Church. It's a small museum. If one is in Budapest and a great fan of marzipan and all that can be created out of said substance, I would recommend it. It's delightfully kitschy.
Marxim - A great pizza place with Communist decor and amazing pizza. I had the Pizza a la Anastasia, which came with Bolognese meat sauce, mushrooms and cheese. It went perfectly with the Dreher Bak I was drinking.

I went with Ann Rider, my Holocaust Lit. professor, as well as her friend and former student, Melanie. Also with us was Matt, my friend from Marian who's also studying in Wien.
We had a great time and had some delicious food. Our favorite restaurant was just a block away from our hotel. It was called Kampa and was in a cellar. They served delicious typical Hungarian cuisine (think goulash, as well as and stuffed paprika with tomato sauce). Their food was filling and quite cheap. We almost felt bad paying as little as we did. One of my meals was only about 5 euros and I had a drink, some coffee and a full entree. But I'm not complaining :) We also went to a restaurant that specialized in crepes. They had sweet crepes, savory crepes, and other things like stuffed baked potatoes. I had a crepe with mushrooms and ham for lunch and then a chocolate-stuffed crepe for dessert and I was full for a long time afterwards.

Hungary's currency is the forint. The exchange rate is about 230 forints to the euro. Therefore, it is common to receive a restaurant bill for thousands of forints. It always threw us off a little til we remembered to convert it in our heads to euros.

I would write more about Budapest, and I probably will later, but right now I have a paper to finish for Ann's class and I can only write so much in one night.

Bis bald!

Tomorrow...

... Ann, Matt, one of Ann's former students (Melanie), and I leave for Budapest.

(!!!)

Budapest is where I've wanted to go from the beginning of this trip. I would have been sad if I hadn't been able to make it.
It's about a 3-hour train ride, which is nothing compared to Venezia or Zagreb. I'm looking forward to it. Also, I think we are renting an apartment or something like that for the weekend, so we'll be able to cook in the kitchen.
I'm not sure where all I want to go, but the Buda Castle Labyrinth and the Dreher Brewery and Beer Museum are at the top of the list. I've never been to a brewery or a real-live labyrinth before, but they both sound fun.

Other than that, there are a couple museums I wouldn't mind checking out, but I'm pretty flexible.

In Austrian news: the city is currently being overrun by a bunch of Wien Uni students who have been protesting for two weeks, but tonight is the night of their big demonstration. As I live in the student district, the students are mostly marching around me. However, my street has been pretty quiet, it's mostly the major streets a few blocks down that have seen the most protesters.
The platform of the protesters is pretty interesting. If I had been less tired (and not having to wake up at 5am to catch a train), I would have gone to join the marchers.
However, it is very late and I do have to get up early.
So, I'll update more later.
Tchuss!

Frauke Says...

... that we should write down the little impressions that we have of places we experience so as not to lose them. I forgot that I used to do this when I traveled. I don't know how I forgot this. 'Tis important.

On Cemetery Island in Venice, we walked through a section of graves that were stacked on top of each other. I'm not sure what they're called, but there are some in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indpls. I always thought they were for cremated remains, but no one has been able to verify whether it's cremation or regular burial. Anyway, there was a little old lady decorating one. She was standing on a ladder, wearing a lot of purple. If I remember correctly, she had a purple hat, as well as a jacket and skirt in a similar shade. She had decorated much of her relative's placard with a predominately blue mosaic. Seriously, there were blue and gold tiles all over the placard. There were so many that they were encroaching on other dead people's placards. I liked it a lot.

Also, today we went to Frauke's apt for dinner. It was amazing. Any good feelings I had about Frauke were simply deepened and verified tonight. She made us amazing pizza, played her harp and sang for us, made Turkish coffee for Matt and I, brought out hats to wear, told my fortune from the grounds of coffee left in my cup (apparently I'm going to climb a mountain with a smiling girl with long blond hair sometime in the not so distant future), and she talked with me about predestination and listened to my newly discovered knowledge about bedbug mating rituals. Oh, she also played Amy Winehouse and danced and sang along.
It was all in all an excellent time. I stayed later than most everyone, because it was so nice there.
I also decided that I want to start having dinners (preferably weekly) for people at Ruthy and my house. We'll make food and eat it and maybe have deep discussions or share music or something of this nature.

Together with our excursion to the Central Cemetery earlier this morning and our afternoon excursion to the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance (DÖW), both of which were very interesting, I feel that this day was a success.

I also realized that I feel at home in Wien. I didn't think it would happen, and certainly not this quickly, but I would love to live here. If I could move the people I love the most here, then I would be happy. Wien is an amazing city and it makes me sad that I only have a little more than a month here. Although I do miss people back home. A lot.

These are some mostly undirected reflections. It's almost 1:30am but I'm not particularly sleepy. I guess I'll work on homework and see if that puts me to sleep. :)

Venice~Venezia~Venedig...

I won't lie, Venice is not my favorite city or even on the top 10. However, I'm glad to have been and the 3 days we had there provided ample time to see all that we wanted to see.
Of course, we went to Piazza San Marco and the Ponte Rialto. We also went to the Cemetery Island, which doesn't get as many tourists (probably because photography is not allowed), and Murano, island of the Venetian glass-blowing workshops, which caters exclusively to tourists.

Venice is pretty, but disintegrating and deteriorating. The city was almost palpably crumbling before my eyes (The bricks of one building actually did start falling into chips when I touched them).
Little kiosks selling the same glass objects, masquerade masks, and Italia t-shirts are everywhere. All the stores sell the same things. Gondoliers stood by the bridges, smoking and calling out "Gondola" whenever a group of tourists would walk by. Whenever I sat down at a restaurant, I heard at least 4 different languages being spoken. A can of soda that I could buy at the grocery near our hotel for 50 centimes was 4 or 5 euros at the restaurants.

I don't really know what I was expecting from Venice. Magic, maybe. Or an old-Europe atmosphere.

Some parts of Venezia were enjoyable. My favorite parts were usually when I separated from our group of 6 and walked alone down dark, narrow passages. These places were ignored by tourists. There were no over-priced shops here or expensive restaurants selling pizza, pasta, and salad. Only the occasional Venetian signora, hanging her laundry on the line. Or a pile of trash, abandoned by all except the seagulls, pigeons and sparrows fighting over any remnants of food they could find. Here I could stop and admire the green water of the canals, and the sunlight which somehow found its way into these alleys.

My other favorite part of Venice was seeing the old Jewish Ghetto. We've learned a something of European ghettos in our Holocaust Lit. course, and I looked for Jewish images and designated areas in Zagreb and now Venice.

The Jewish Ghetto was a little hard to find. I found a placard with Hebrew and followed the arrow. It led me to a passageway and eventually through some more narrow streets, to the actual ghetto. It's mostly gone, by now, of course. All that's left is the old synagogue, as well as a wall with the barbed wire left intact. There were a few placards with images of the ghetto and Jews in WWII. There was also part of a poem, if I remember correctly (I took pictures, but on my friend's camera, since it takes much better pictures). The Ghetto was a quiet memorial, not many tourists were there, and the people there were mostly observant Jews (as evident by the yarmulkes).

After the ghetto, we walked by a guildhall with a Lithuanian exhibit and decided to go inside because it was free to enter. A large section of the guildhall (which was a brick cathedral-like room with large columns) had been covered with sheets of metal. Even the walls and columns were covered. When we walked in, the room was quiet, except for a guide giving a tour (in German) to a group of elderly people. However, in English signs on the ground it said: Touch Me, Hear Me, and (some other sensory phrase that I can't remember). So, we did. At first, it was tentative, one at a time. Soon, the room became noisy with our metallic stomping. We walked (played might be a better word, it felt childish and amazing) all around in the room full of aluminum sheets. The docents came to watch us, and smiled because I think we were interacting the way the artist(s) had envisioned. The elderly people saw how much fun we were having and started to step onto the metal as well. I'm glad we stopped there.

Overall, I was glad to see Venice, especially if it one day decides to slip back into the Adriatic Sea. [Re: Mom: According to Wikipedia, the city started sinking due to artesian wells, but since these were outlawed in the 1960s, studies have shown that Venice might not be sinking any more. It was still mostly un-submerged as of last weekend :)] I can check it off my list of famous European cities. It was beautiful, and the weather was gorgeous. It was a nice break from Vienna, but I'm glad to be back in Austria, hearing the now-familiar German all around me, instead of Italian.

Speaking of Italian, I was happily surprised to hear that often parodied or exaggerated Italian cadence. I thought maybe it wasn't accurate, or had been exaggerated out of recognition. But no, some Italians really do speak like that. It's just something that caught my attention.

However, I still much prefer (Austrian) German: Tchuss!

Canals and Piazza San Marco

Tomorrow, or in roughly 6 hours, I leave for Venice.
Everyone is asking me what I'm going to do there, and I honestly don't have a clue. Venice is one of those places that I've read about and thought about, but never dreamed of going to.
The only things I know about Venice are that it's sinking and only a huge engineering feet will keep it from returning to the sea. Also, there are these small sea-worthy vessels called gondolas, and maybe I should ride in one. The last thing is the famous Piazza San Marco, which I hear is filled with pigeons and tourists.
The trip will be interesting. I'm not looking forward to the train ride, but it's not much longer than the one to Zagreb, so I think I can handle it.
If anyone has suggestions of what to do in Venice, please let me know. I think I'll be able to check up on this at our hostel.
Ciao!

Zagreb Recap

The trip to Zagreb was exciting. I've never traveled that far by train (about 12 hours roundtrip), but it was fun to travel with friends.
We stayed in a hostel that was pretty central, so we were close to most things in the city. Zagreb is not as large as I thought it would be, but I loved it.
We got there on Thursday and left Sunday afternoon. Our guide was not able to make it at all, so Frauke and Ann had to improvise and come up with a schedule.
We went to a restaurant the first evening and had traditional Croatian cuisine. If you've never looked at a map of Croatia, please do. (Here, I'll make it easy: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/europe/croatia/)
The country shape is somewhat unusual. Croatia is not only close to the rest of Eastern Europe, it's also close to Italy. Therefore, much of the Croatian culture has Eastern European and Italian influences. The food we ate was good. I had veal (would not have been my first choice, but they had a set menu) and mashed potatoes, with chocolate and cherry crepes for dessert.
The Croatians use kuna as their currency, with 5 kuna approximating 1 USD.
The next day, we had a guided tour of the upper city, ending with the traditional cannon being fired at exactly 12 noon.
That night, we explored some of Zagreb's nightlife, including a trip to the Tolkien pub (filled with memorabilia from the movies and other Tolkienish objects) as well as another place, where we heard a not-so-great cover band alternating between pop songs from Croatia as well as the States. It was fun to sing along, even though I was only pretending to know the Croatian words.
The next day, Saturday, we went to a large cemetery. That was probably my favorite part of the trip. I like cemeteries, normally, but this one was huge and very nice.
There were people everywhere, cleaning the elaborate tombstones of their dearly departed. It's pretty traditional for Europeans, or so I was told. I liked it. I could have stayed all day and walked around. I'll have to get my friend to post the pictures that I took on her camera of all the cool tombstones, because they were pretty special.
I also got a chance to go to the city market, and certain people can be expecting a present from Croatia when I get back... :)
Other than that, the train ride home was extremely long and boring and I was driven almost crazy by the other people on our trip. Not that it was their problem, I just needed some alone time, and there was none to be had. We were in compartments, and the train was pretty filthy, and I couldn't fall asleep.
Also, I have an equally long train ride to look forward to next weekend, when I go to Venice!
I'm very excited about Venice, but it's going to be a lot more expensive than we estimated at first, so that's not so exciting.
However, Venice is the setting of one of my favorite young adult books, The Thief Lord, so I can't help but be excited that I'm going there.

Tchüss!! *kiss on both cheeks* (typical Austrian farewell)

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This weekend we are going to Zagreb. I am excited for this trip. It should be fun and I've wanted to go to further east ever since I got here. A lot of the people in our group travel to Italy and France and other places like that, but I just want to go to Eastern Europe. If it were easier, I'd go to Russia in a flash.

On another subject, I'm finding it difficult to focus on my school or get into a good studying routine. I've talked to some of the other kids and they said they feel the same way. I hope I get better at this, because I really do want to do well, I just can't seem to find the time or energy.

Tonight I made dinner at my friend Mellissa's. It was only pasta, but it tasted delicious. I also found some Milka cookies which were wheat and chocolate. They were grainy and delectable. I might become addicted... I've not eaten Milka since I've been here. Milka's slogan includes a purple cow, and I was told that some Austrians think that cows are purple, because they've never seen a real cow.

Today was the first day that it's been really cold here. I'm a little sad, but it will be nice not to ride on the smelly U-Bahns, like when it's warm. Apparently it might snow on Thursday or Friday, but maybe we'll be fine in Zagreb weatherwise.

Also, I'm going to Venice next weekend! I can't believe it and I felt a little rushed into it, but I guess I should take this opportunity.

A Post-Script

I forgot to mention that on my way to a friend's house, an old man stopped me and said, "Excuse me, miss, I need directions" (He was british) "I'm looking for a Kentucky Fried Chicken or a MacDonald's" Me: "Um, well, I don't really know. But there's a Burger King a little ways from here"
I told him how to get there, but I wasn't really sure because I'd only seen it in the distance. He asked me if I was a tourist like him, but I told him that I was a student.
As I walked in the direction he had come from, I saw a sign clearly saying "McDonald's in 400 meters."
So sad. Not only could he not see the obvious sign, he was looking for a fast food restaurant in Vienna. In fact, if he went the way I told him to go, he passed 6 different Indian restaurants, even more Asian restaurants, and several typical Austrian cafes. Oh well. His loss.

Not-so-castley-castles, long nights at museums and "achtundvierzig"

I haven't done too much exciting since my last post. This week of classes was a little taxing. I had presentations on the current economical and political climate of Slovenia and Belgium, a paper due tomorrow for my Holocaust/Literature class, and several excursions. One is tomorrow and a small group of us are going to a local youth center to meet with young Austrians. It will be very interesting, especially since none of us going have any real German language experience. However, the kids here learn some English, so hopefully none of us will be too shy about trying out the others' language.
We went on an excursion last Friday to the Gozzoburg in Kremz. "Burg" means castle in German, so I was expecting a castle. However, the Gozzoburg is a medieval palace of sorts. It's more like a manor, actually. It was a little disappointing, but I like old buildings of all sorts. Also, this building was divided into apartments as recently as 30 years ago, so the renovation is still coming along.

The "Lange Nacht Der Museen" was fun. For the price of one entrance ticket, you could keep the stub and get into any of Vienna's other participating museums (There were about 90 or 100). I went to the Kunsthistoriches Musuem, which is a huge Art History museum. There were plenty of famous painters represented, and I only walked through a few of the galleries. There was Botticelli, Brueghel, and Durer, to name a few. I forget the other ones. Anyway, afterwards, I went to the Leopold Museum and saw the Egon Schiele exhibit. I've come to really like Schiele. His work is disturbing at times, but always very potent and emotional. He acts as an excellent foil to Gustav Klimt, who is dominating our class art discussion right now. The last museum I went to was the Haus der Muzik, which is a music museum. It has interactive exhibits about Austrian composers, such as Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Strauss. There are also exhibits about how we hear sounds, how music is created, etc. I'd like to go back, when it's not so crowded.

This weekend, my roommate and some others are going to Budapest, but I'm going to stay here and explore some more. I'm super excited because Meg, my friend who's in GB right now, might come visit in November.

Also, next weekend is our 4-day long trip to Zagreb, Croatia. I'm really looking forward to it! I've wanted to explore Eastern Europe for a while now.

I'm still hoping to make it to some other parts of the continent, like Budapest or maybe Venice (some people are planning a trip there).

Other than that, I'm just focusing on school and learning German. I can count and I do it all the time. German's a really fun language to count in. Eins zwei drei vier funf sechs sieben acht neun zehn. The larger numbers are even more fun. For instance, every day, I take the 48A bus to school. In Deutsch, that's "Achtundvierzig A." 565 would be "funfhundertfunfundsechzig." 777 is "siebenhundertsiebeundsiebzig."
To a thousand is about as high as I can count in German, but I think that'll suffice for now. :)

Mohn Eiscreme

Yesterday, Sally, Rachel, Melanie and I had dinner together and stopped by an ice cream place on the way back. After looking at the flavors, I decided not to get the blueberry kind or the mystery flavor that the ice cream seller couldn't describe. I decided to stick to chocolatey ones. I got Milch Schokolade (self-explanatory), Stracciatella (Chocolate-chip), and "Mohn", which looked like oreo or cookies and cream.
The other girls got Mohn, too. When we tasted it, we realized that it was poppyseed. We'd never even imagined poppyseed to be an ice cream flavor, let alone such a ridiculously good one. I've never seen it in the States, but they should jump all over it. It's tasty!
We walked around in the Stadtpark and took pictures with statues and all. Oh, we also saw several rats. They would streak across the park walkways into the bushes.
I was not amused. But the other girls found my discomfort entertaining.

Indisches Restaurant

In addition to the amazing Museumsquartier down the street from my flat, across the street is an Indian restaurant. Melanie and I didn't feel like making dinner and it was already past 8pm, so we decided to try it out tonight. I got some lamb and naan and mango lassi. M got what she thought was chicken but it turned out to be a huge dish of fish in a delicious, tomato-based sauce. She also thought she was getting mango lassi, but the waitress brought out a mango-wine g'spritzer.
We sat outside, and admired the lights strung out across the street that say the street name (However, I'm not sure why, because there's also street signs on the buildings). People were walking up and down the street (with their ever-present dogs) and I felt very urban during dinner.
Afterwards, the waitress brought out the check and some little glasses with a mango liquid in them. We hadn't ordered anything else, but we figured it was just a complementary after-dinner refreshment. We gulped the liquid, only to discover to our surprise and slight perturbation, that it was mostly vodka, with perhaps a couple drops of mango juice. It was pretty funny, because we almost spit it on the waitress while she was getting the check back.
The restaurant wasn't exactly what we were expecting, but the food tasted good (even if it wasn't what we were expecting) and they have soup for 2 euros, which doesn't seem like a bad price. We'll probably go there if we don't feel like making dinner.
We walked down the next street that runs parallel to ours, and discovered many more ethnic restaurants, including another Indian one, and multiple asian places.

I think we are situated pretty nicely in the city. Apparently, our district is where the trendy people tend to live, as well as the most popular place for university student housing. We're close to a lot of places, and the center is about a half-hour's walk away.

So, if I ever moved to Vienna, I would probably live in this, the 7th Bezirk (district): Neubau.

Ice Cream and Conversation

Yesterday night, Melissa called me to see if we were doing anything. I called Matt and we met at Stephansplatz, to look for something to do. We took the U-Bahn to Ann's house (Our Holocaust/Lit. professor) and invited her along.
We started walking down her street, looking for ice cream. We walked for about 10 or 15 minutes and then, seeing no ice cream, decided to turn around. What we didn't realize was that there's an ice cream place 1 block down, in the opposite way we were walking. However, we finally stumbled upon it and ordered some delicious ice cream sundaes.
Afterwards, we searched for Sturm, but were unsuccessful, so we decided to have a glass of wine at a place near Ann's.
We talked for a while about Austria's very generous maternity leave (up to 2 years, and job guarantee when you return), as well as our course subject and must-see sites in Austria.
After that, we went back to Ann's apartment, where we ate delicious food and talked until late. But not too late, because I didn't want to miss our train home.
When Melanie and I were walking home, we ran into groups of young partyers, some of which were blocking the sidewalk on a busy street, so I had to push through them and step over broken bottles and who-knows-what-else on the ground.
All in all, it was a fun night, even though I didn't get much homework done.

Hikes and Markets

Yesterday, 6 of us went on a hike with Frauke. We rode the bus to the edge of town and walked up a large hill so we could see Vienna laid out below us.
Frauke got lunch for us at a nice restaurant (dating from 1785) and we ate outside in a small art garden in the lawn.
We had a traditional Viennese lunch of cheese, ham, greens, vegetables and bread. To drink, we mixed wine and soda water from pitchers to make g'spritzer, a chilled, refreshing lunch beverage.
Afterwards, we split up. Melanie, Melissa and I left in search of ice cream. The ice cream shops close every year at the end of this month, so we have to get the good ice cream while we can. We ended up at a small shop near our apartment, called MioMio. I had a cone with chocolate and another mystery flavor. It was delicious.
When Melanie and I got home, we saw that our host mom put little dishes of Mozart-kugels (balls of chocolate with Mozart's picture on them) on our pillows. It was sweet, but we'd had enough sugar already.
I was going to go out with some other people that night, but I decided to stay in and go to sleep early.
This morning, we went to the Naschmarkt, which is the most famous Viennese open-air flea and food market in a town square nearby. There were so many things to look at! However, you're supposed to bargain with the vendors, so I'll have to wait to buy things till my German improves.
Most of the things being sold were really old instruments and shoes and pictures and books. I could have spent all day looking at the things, but it was very crowded and I don't like crowds too much.
Afterwards, we left to go home, eat lunch, and catch up on homework.

Last Night...

I went to see Fiddler On the Roof. On the way home, we passed a small, typically Austrian tavern advertising Sturm, the fresh wine from the countryside. I told everyone I wanted to go try it, so we went inside. The Sturm was delicious (tastes like fizzy grape juice), the bartender was very friendly and spoke English, and we joined the rest of the patrons in watching the futball match on the TV.
Everyone in Vienna seemed to be wearing green and white for the match (with a few brave opposing fans in purple).
When we left the tavern, I had to connect to a different U-Bahn line than everyone else, so we split up. I transferred at a stop that I had never been to before. The signs were confusing, because of construction on the station. I followed them, looking for stairs, and ended up outside. I looked to my left and a homeless man was urinating right next to the door, so I turned to go back inside and a huge rat ran in front of me. I freaked out and ran inside. I eventually got to Westbahnhof, to transfer again, only to find that the train going in my direction had ceased to run for the night. The sign was flashing something in German, so I asked the older lady next to me what it said. She spoke a little English, and I a very little German, so we eventually figured out where I needed to go.
That was the first time I haven't felt very safe in Vienna. On my ten-minute walk from my U-Bahn stop to my apartment, I put my keys between my fingers, just on case. However, it was only midnight, so there were still enough people out.
I'm not going to be staying out past midnight I think, because then the confusing night buses start and the U-Bahn stops running some of its trains.

However, today I'm going to the library with Frauke, and then on a hike, and then maybe to a free concert tonight.

We didn't make it to the Kunsthistorisches yesterday, on our excursion, but Svetlana promised that we would make it one of these days. Instead, we had a great tour of the Burgtheater. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgtheater) I found some pictures of it at the bottom of this page: http://www.andreas-praefcke.de/carthalia/austria/a_wien_burgtheater.htm
The staircase entrances are amazingly ornate. During Franz Josef's reign, neither were open to the public. One was for Franz Josef, and the other for his family and Archdukes and the like. Some of the paintings on the ceiling are early works by Gustav Klimt, and the theater was burned during WWII. However, because some people put sandbags to block the two side entrance staircases, the priceless paintings on the ceilings were not too damaged by smoke.

We also had coffee at Cafe Central, the most famous coffeehouse in Vienna. Freud and other notables used to hang out there. It was nice, but expensive. I got a cappuccino and it was over US$5. I guess you have to pay for the atmosphere too.

Afterwards, I went back to school and had German and Holocaust Lit. classes.

Bibi...

... is my host mom. Right now, it's 11 pm and she's playing a loud video game in her room, which is next door to our room. She plays this game all the time! I wonder about her sometimes.
Tomorrow is the great Ringstrase excursion and I get to take a new route, using buses and streetcars, to get there. The afore-mentioned public transit vehicles are much more daunting to navigate than the U-Bahn, because of the pre-automated-vehicle construction of the Viennese streets. Nevertheless, one day I will find be able to find the reason in their madness. (I can't remember quite how the expression goes)

Tomorrow night I am also going to watch Fiddler On The Roof with the other members of the Holocaust Lit. course. Our prof, Ann, set up bimonthly movie times for our class, so that should be fun.

German is growing on me. I used to think it an ugly language, and last on my list of languages to learn. It's not that bad, actually. It's just precise and guttural and doesn't flow quite as nicely as French. However, hearing German all around me, with many different speakers, I can appreciate the language much more.
Also, I've discovered that I love hearing English spoken with a true German accent.

Frauke had a few of us over for tea. She mentioned that her apartment was one of the only ones in the building that has running water. It's strange for me to think that one could live in the heart of Vienna and yet have to go out to a fountain for water everyday.

Indian Summer in Wien

Frauke announced that today's forecast is 22 degrees Celsius. She sounded excited and said it will be like summer again. I think that means 70's Fahrenheit, but I can never remember that equation.
Maybe after classes we can visit a vineyard, since some people in our group are adamant to do so.
I started my Vienna 1900 class yesterday and I have a feeling it will be my favorite class for several reasons: 1, our professor is Ukrainian and named Svetlana (I love the name); 2, she loves American students because she says we're more open-minded than our European peers; 3, she brought in 99% cacao chocolate for us to try during a break in class; 3, one of our text books is dedicated solely to Klimt, one of my favorite artists of all time; 4, tomorrow we're taking an excursion to the Ringstraße and the Kunsthistoriches Museum, one of the greatest art museums in the world, and I found out that it's only a few blocks from my apartment.

Other than that, EU Politics and Economics class will no doubt be instructional, but the economic portions might be a little dry for my taste.
German is fun, because Frauke is teaching it, and she's an amazing woman.
I start my Holocaust Lit. class today, so I've yet to see what that will be like.

Yesterday night, I rode the U-Bahn with a few friends to the river and walked across the very long bridge. It looks shady on the other side, but we walked along the pathway, in between the beachfront bars. The bartenders kept calling to us in German, "Servus! Bitte!" and some other things I didn't catch, but we just said "Nein, danke" and ignored them.

Whenever groups of us go out, we meet in Stephansplatz and I think we should pick a new meeting point, because Stephansplatz is very touristy and crowded. (I just looked at the last few sentences and realized that I sound snobby.)

Some girls are going to the Slovak Republic this weekend, but I'm definitely staying in Vienna to explore some more.

P.S. I am probably driving everyone crazy because I love saying the name of my street: Neustifgasse. It's so fun to say.

Thaliastrasse

Today I rode the U-Bahn by myself for the first time to school. I have a pretty easy commute, with only one transfer, so it's not too bad. My neighborhood's stop is Thaliastrasse on the U-6 and my school's stop is called Volksoper, because there's an opera house next to the stop.

During my German class, we walked around the neighborhood a bit, to see what's around the school.
And I discovered...
They have ALDI in Wien!!! It's called Hofer, but the sign was the same. I am so excited. Tomorrow I'm going to get groceries there.

Today, on my walk home from school, I realized that we live in a "poorer" side of town. There are plenty of Eastern European immigrants around us and, from the comments of my host mom, there seems to be a good amount of prejudice surrounding them. My Viennese host mom even got special locks installed after the borders were opened, to protect against the rising theft rates. The prejudice might be partially justified, but it reminds me of some people's attitudes towards Hispanic immigrants in Indianapolis.

I had my first real class and I was thrilled. I got a book and assignments and everything. I had forgotten how much I love academics (at least in the first few weeks after break).

This class is the EU Politics and Economics class. I have three presentation assignments and a book discussion assignment already. I chose Slovenia and Belgium to research and I'm also researching Immigration in the EU and other Internal Security issues.

Next month we'll be traveling to Zagreb, Croatia. I'm excited for that, too. I also have to fit a trip to Budapest in, but I already have some people who say they'll go with me.

Some people are going to Oktoberfest, but I think I'd only go if I lived near Munich. As it is, I'd much rather stay here than hang out with a bunch of "Bierleichens".

I have yet to try some Sturm, which is the fresh wine from the surrounding countryside. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow...

Day 3

It's hard to believe I've been here for only 2 full days. I've seen so much already.
Today we rode the streetcar to the first district (The City) with Frauke, our site director.
We saw the Hofburg Palace, the church were the Vienna Boys Choir sings, and the equestrian statue of Josef II, among other things.
We had a brief overview tour, but I want to go back sometime soon and see St. Michael's church, were the buried remains of previous rulers lie. These remains are apparently well preserved, so you can even see the clothes they were buried in. Also, across the square is another church, were the hearts of some rulers are kept. They give tours after mass on Sunday.

Some people are going out tonight, but I think I'll stay home and get settled. I'd rather not wear myself out too soon.

I knew that European women tend to die their hair bright maroon and blueish colors when it turns white, but I didn't realize they'd be everywhere! It makes me smile.

Monday, we start classes and we are encouraged to sit in on all the classes, to see if we'd like to change our schedules. I think I'll stick to my current listing, which is: German (Beginning), Crosscultural Communication, Austrian Voices: The Nazi-Holocaust in Literature and Culture, The Political Economy of European Integration, and Vienna 1900.
I'm looking forward to beginning school, and I have a nice commute to the building. It's only about 20 minutes by bus and U-Bahn train.

Auf Wiedersehen!

I'm Here!

After more than 48 hours, I've arrived at my host mother's apartment in district 8 of Wien.
I love how close everything is in cities like this. The bakery and grocery store are right down the street and we have a diner, a chicken place and another restaurant next to us.
The transit system is confusing, because of the chaotic layout of Wien's streets. My roommate and I will travel on the U-Bahn to school tomorrow.
Today we walked around and saw the Universität Wien. The school is gorgeous (and serves good, cheap food for students). I had tilapia, soup and cucumber salad for less than 5€.
All the food here is served in huge portions, and the Viennese around seem to be able to eat all the food on their plates. Maybe I'm just still recovering from the trip over.

Last night, I walked around with a couple people and we wandered into a circus. We didn't see anywhere to buy tickets, but as soon as we walked in, a man started running after us, asking for our tickets. It caused a little scene and he made us leave. That was fun. Then we walked to a Government building and took pictures with a huge statue of Pallas Athene. We rode a streetcar for a little while. Then, we finished the night off with a visit to a pub by our hostel.

The people here are friendly enough, but, like in most big cities, not too warm. Our host mom, professors and site director are great, though.

Tomorrow I will be going to more orientation and then have a free day on Sunday. I can't wait to explore the city more!

I'm starting this a few days before I leave...

... and I'm very excited, but also a little nervous about the trip to Vienna. It's my first international flight, and I'm not sure what to expect.
I still haven't received my host family information, so I don't know anything about them.
But, --- I do have my ticket, my suitcases, my passport, and all that important jazz. So, I'm almost good to go.

I'm taking surprise attack pictures of my family members on my phone so that I'll have pictures of them to carry around with me. However, I don't anticipate getting homesick. We'll see how that goes.