Central College Abroad

This past weekend was the opening of Oktoberfest. I know you all wanted to be there, but I actually was there. Let me tell you, that it was something I have thought a lot about, but never thought it would be like it was.

Common misconception: Oktoberfest is one huge drunken party with only beer tents
Actuality: Oktoberfest has a lot of beer tents, but it’s also a huge fair with plenty of German fair food and rides. There are so many rides everywhere, including roller-coasters, Ferris wheels, and other awesome non-American rides

This was a huge Ferris wheel at the back corner of the part

It was honestly a blast.  There were people dancing on the tables, singing all the time, and just a merry environment all around.  Of course, there were a lot of police around, but not as many as one in America would expect.  That was the weird part for me, the whole ‘not seeing a million cops’ part.

Outside of Oktoberfest, I finally arrived in Vienna!    It is so exciting here.  We are currently living in temporary housing because our dorms won’t be open until October, but that’s ok with me.

We use the public transit for everything here.  I have to take the subway and street cars and buses around everywhere because the city is so big, and I get so tired from walking all the time.  The public transportation system is top notch though.  I honestly have no trouble using it most of the time.  The only thing that is difficult is trying to figure out the night lines.  I know they are easy once you get to know them, but for right now, I’m not familiar with them, so it’s a little challenging.

Classes start this Thursday, and I’m stoked.  Plus, where I’m taking some of my classes is with the second oldest university in Europe.  The main college building is like a museum.  It is beautiful.  I have only been in there once, but it made me so happy to walk through the halls and think about just studying in such a beautiful place.

The whole city life thing hasn’t hit me yet.  I’ve always wanted to live in a city and never have, so this is a new experience.  My permanent dorm I will be moving to is right in the city next to a huge flea market and a food market.  We’ve already visited it once, and it was quite spectacular.

So far, I’m having a great experience!  And now is time for my lesson of the blog:  When talking with someone you don’t know, use the formal ‘you’ (Sie) always.  It’s much better to refer to someone formally than informally, because that shows your respect.

Erik
donnere1@central.edu <== Feel free to email me!

Ich heisse Erik

Hallo! I’m Erik.  I’m currently studying abroad with the Central College Abroad Vienna Program.  Right now, I’m in the process of a two month intensive language study in Germany, which is a lot of fun.  More on that later.

So, study abroad… Why am I studying abroad with Central’s program?  Well, for starters, its a nationally ranked program, but what sold it to me the most was the recommendations I received from friends or acquaintances that had been on the program before.  I never really heard a bad thing about it, it sounded fun, and it’s always been something I wanted to do.  And so now, I’m here…

One thing I’ve noticed throughout the whole ordeal is that Central really tries their hardest to make their Study Abroad programs a unique and fun learning experience for everyone.  They have hired coordinators for all the different travel sites that help you with everything you need, and they help a lot with all sorts of things, like travel and academics and such.  I know the Vienna directors are very helpful with our academic advising and give us advice on all sorts of travel.

Koelner Dom

Enough of the boring stuff… more with my adventures!  So far, I’ve done a lot of traveling in Germany. I flew in on August 1st/2nd,and I’ve already been to Berlin, Köln (Cologne), Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Rothenburg, and München (Munich).  For only being here a little over a month, that’s a whole lot.  I’ve taken tons of photos (which will be put up over the course of my blogging) and had plenty of fun!

Schwaebisch Hall

Right now, I’m at the Goethe Institut, which is in the small town of Schwäbisch Hall.  It’s a decent size town, and at first glance, it looks like the size of Pella, but it’s actually much bigger.  The town is nestled right in-between two mountains.  It’s beautiful here!

I have meet a lot of people here too, but most of them are from other foreign countries, since the Goethe Institut is an international German language school.  I have friends from Venezuela, Italy, Spain, Greece, and Great Brittan, to name a few.  I’ve learned a lot about many different cultures, and the teachers here incorporate intercultural learning in the lessons.  For example, every week, we make a presentation based on the unit we are learning about and how it is different or the same in our home nation.

The Deutsche Bahn

So, I want to end my blogs with something helpful I have or am learning while over here.  The first lesson is: The Germans are always pünktlich (punctual).  Even if the culture seems more relaxed and laid back, they are always on time.  This especially goes for the trains.  Trains are hardly ever late, and when they are, it’s only a few minutes, and they easily make that up by not stopping as long at stops.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at donnere1@central.edu.  I am good with email, and I will most defiantly email back (and probably publish it in the blog).  I didn’t know what to expect when coming abroad, but by reading the blogs and asking a lot of questions, I felt more prepared for what to expect.

Alright, tune in next week for my adventure to… I don’t know where yet.  Dresden maybe?  Who knows!

*PS, clicking on the pictures makes them bigger!

I have been extremely busy the past 2 weeks with traveling. I have been away from Vienna more than I have been here in the past 2 weeks. I traveled to 3 different countries for: work, school, and fun.

So finally I should share some of my experiences with the world? Starting on May 13th I traveled first to Prague, Czech Republic. Here I attended an international dialogue conference that brought in many individuals and representatives of organizations, like the one I work for, to discuss the future in respect to the most important things facing the world today. We signed in and put our luggage away and my boss and I proceeded to go for a foot tour of the biggest city sites. We were fairly close to the castle and church on the hill over looking the river that goes through town, so we went there first. I was informed that Prague had changed a lot throughout the past 20 years. The town was very pretty. It had this picture perfect view with the river, castle, and church all in a single view, something that Vienna lacks in a way. We crossed the Charles Bridge and began to see the reason why the city has become so much cleaner….tourism!!! This part of the city was packed on a Wednesday! Of course we had to stop by a restaurant to try the local cuisine and found out that it tasted very good, but one would not be able to eat it every day otherwise might gain some pounds. I had a dessert with cream cheese on it!

That night was the opening ceremony for the conference and it commenced in the church of an abbey. Here there were many words spoken, but only in Russian and Czech so I just sat and took in the moment. Finally there was a folk band that came to play and it was nice to hear some music from years ago from this area and around Eastern Europe.

The next morning there were keynote speakers to deliver the opening remarks about hopes for the conference and possibilities of ways to strengthen the future for all. I was to attend the session afterwards on youth and their roll in the future. I took a bus with other attendees to the Economic School where the four of us that needed English had a personal translator. It was weird to be in this situation. Even in Germany if I do not understand something it can usually be explained in English. It really humbled me to know that English is not spoken everywhere and also made me feel happy to know that languages that do not have such a large number of native speakers, such as Czech, are still being spoken instead of English. The preservation of culture is very important to me as a student abroad and language goes right along with that idea. The session ended and we went back to the hotel and to put our documents away and then took a bus to the river where all the conference members boarded for a dinner aboard. It was a very good dinner and the scene outside the windows and especially while on the top deck of the boat were amazing, breathtaking, and anything else that can be imagined along those lines. This was the picture I would want to share with everyone that has not been to Prague; I just hope one turned out.

That night, when I returned, I remembered that I HAD to wish someone a happy birthday, being in an even more foreign country than Austria or Germany, no laptop to be found, I turned to my cell phone and dialed away….only to get a voicemail, but I think it was well worth the call.
Friday came too soon and I found myself boarding a plane only to go back for a short night’s sleep and on to the next country in the morning! As I arrived back to my dorm I almost immediately was invited to watch Indiana Jones, in German of course, so I  ended up falling asleep on the couches for the majority of it. I packed up and caught up on emails and fell asleep with thoughts of yet another country to visit.

I arose too early for my liking and made it to the bus for Hungary. We were presented with muffins nicely prepared by chef Courtney for our group and a water bottle from the bus company. Most people tried to go back to sleep on the way there. As it seems any more, time goes way too fast and it took almost no time to arrive at our destination: Budapest.

We found our hostel and the guys got the Blues Brothers room, very cool — a whole loft with three beds above the three beds on the ground. I of course had to try the Mackers cheeseburgers from Hungary and found out that they cost less than one dollar each. The Hungarian Forint has been devalued a lot and is roughly a couple hundred Forints per dollar. So I exchanged a twenty Euro bill for a grand total of nearly 6000 Forints! We took a very hot, but very interesting three-hour tour around the towns of Buda and Pest. The same river that goes through Vienna, the Danube, goes through Budapest, but once again the sites around the river give the city a bit more charm than Vienna’s riverside. This consisted of a hilly Buda side with a castle and church and a Russian monument and the other flat side, Pest, with the gorgeous, expensive Town Hall. Afterward, we met up with one of my colleague’s friends who was studying in Budapest at this same time. We walked around in the wooded hill and eventually found the chapel that was built inside the hill. Dinnertime came too quickly. It was already getting dark and when we found the restaurant it would only be a longer wait for the food to come. The food was all pretty good, cheap, and filling, but one thing after another made the experience a bit frustrating. We finally left after about three or four hours of sitting, personally full as I could be. That night some of us stayed up late and talked for a while, reminded me of sleepovers that I had in middle school, very cool.

On Sunday a group of us headed up the river to pay a visit to the island in the middle of the Danube. It was not only long but also wide. There were many parks and monuments. There was even a zoo where we saw the craziest looking chickens with white afros. The day was hot to say the least. I think merely three hours in to our day my neck was sun burnt and it only got worse. We crossed over to the Buda side and had lunch at a pancake/crepe restaurant. They were cheap and many varieties to choose from, tasty too. Some of us split up and I went on the subway that is still much as it was when it was first installed years and years ago during Soviet times, to the city park. Here we found an outside museum of castles of old Hungarian times and also the most famous spa in Hungary. There was also a carnival and a zoo. However,  the zoo — the second in Europe (second to Vienna) and the amusement park cost money to enter, unlike Vienna’s. Time was running out and we were hungry (in Hungary) again and our tour guide friend showed us this very good burrito place where we munched away.  One of the girls with us ran in to a friend from college that was totally unexpected. We took in the sites as we walked back to the hostel and then headed out to the bus station.

The next week went quickly because we only had three days.  I left for Germany on Thursday afternoon and met up with my friends in Schwäbisch Hall that evening. I ate a döner kebab from a favorite spot and caught up with my boys. Next day went to get some pizza and then back the Goethe Sport that afternoon. It has been way too long since I have done anything this active, but some even said I was doing better than before, must be the warm weather. After exhausting myself from soccer and basketball, we headed back to the dorms, ate another pizza and got ready for the night. We had a foosball tournament at the Goethe Pub and some dancing ensued also. We stayed up late and enjoyed the times with each other. Three months does not sound like a long time, but it seemed like years had passed!

Went to the big outdoor pool on Saturday. Caught some rays and some waves at the pool. I was beginning to understand what I was missing out on having studied there in the winter. The rest of the day was filled with lying around and visiting the outdoor restaurant at night. We then watched part of a movie before half of us fell asleep. It is good that we did go to bed relatively early though; we needed the rest for the big day in the morning.
I had mentioned that I wanted to go for a walk or bike ride through the countryside. So we made it happen. Four of us guys went for a twenty-kilometer bike ride through the area surrounding Schwäbisch Hall and along the Köcher River. It was definitely amazing. There were softly rolling hills green with grass and houses  spotted along they way. We stopped to watch two local soccer teams battle away in the nearby town. Then we headed back, but on the way we made sure to take a dip in the freezing cold river.

Once back I hobbled back to the dorms so sore from the past couple days of high activity, but very happy about it. We got ready for the evening and I mixed some tunes on my friends DJ program. I became some what of a music, well specifically dance music, connoisseur while living in Schwäbisch Hall and it came right back to me when I returned. We made our way to munch on some schnitzel and then for Italian ice, which I had not had since I had been in Italy nearly four years ago! I even got the new special flavor, Red Bull! That night I hung out with the boys again and felt so at home and so comfortable, we had spent a lot of time together not only these past couple days but months before and it was all coming to my realization how much I will miss not only those friends specifically, but Europe once it is time to go back home!

Roughly one month left and my time is nearly booked with one thing or another. Until next time, who knows what I will have to talk about then.

Praha By Night

Hero's Square Budapest

The Danube from a different "state" of view

Taking it all in

Some of the Boys Playing a Little Foosball

Vienna

The week of studying for a test and preparing my presentations was ahead.  The book I was reading to share with the class on Tuesday went very quickly for me and was very funny and interesting.  I even got it done a day early.  I also finished my grammar presentation for Wednesday a day early too.  It helped that I did not have class on Monday, so I worked on homework all day.  The days came and went.  Homework was finished, tests were taken, and the new music class began.

I was enrolled in the 2-day music class to learn about the first and second Vienna Music Schools.  The more well known school, consisting of some of the gravestones that I had seen last week, was covered on Saturday because the class would be going to see a concert this coming Wednesday.  The 2nd school consisted of Arnold Schönberg and two of his pupils.  They created music in the early 1900’s and needless-to-say was a bit different than most music I have listened to because Schönberg used, I believe, all 12 notes before he repeated any, thus creating a sound at times of disarray but very artistic.  After class, some of the other guys from class came over to my dorm and we made dinner.  I invited some other Central students to hang out and mingle with the Austrians.  It made for a good time, speaking both German and English and everyone meeting new people.

After class on Saturday we took the bus back towards my dorm but had to get off earlier than usual.  I had thought at first that maybe they were changing the route of the bus permanently, but it was merely a street  protest taking up the entire busy shopping street, Mariahilferstrasse.  Throughout my time in Vienna I have seen many organizations and groups protesting certain things all while the authorities stand by in case something were to go wrong.  I think that this happens a lot in Europe.  Considering I do not live in a big city in the US, maybe it happens there too.  However, it is very interesting to see so many young people standing up and speaking out for what they believe in and for what they want changed.  We walked across the street and found the 2nd leg of the bus that would take me home.  That night I walked around with a couple of the people from Central and through the city center in hopes of finding live music since this weekend marked the beginning of a week long festival in Vienna.  We failed in finding something.  We then realized it made sense, considering it was nearly midnight,   We went to an Indian Café and talked amongst ourselves for a couple of hours and then head home because we were all tired.

We have a test on Tuesday for my literature class, so our class organized a study session.  The session was to take place at the top of a hill just outside of Vienna that was covered with forests and had an awesome view of the city.  Unfortunately, we did not do much studying because we were too amazed with the scenery around us and it was only half an hour from the big city!  We eventually came back after getting a bit of studying done and then parted ways after stopping at McDonalds for some food.  I have been obsessed with cheeseburgers for the past couple of weeks.  There is no rhyme or reason to it because  I never eat under the golden archesat home; maybe it is some sort of “missing home” syndrome.  This week is going to be filled with much traveling from Wednesday through the whole weekend.  I will definitely have many stories to tell once I arrive back home!

Last week I pretty much got back into the studying mood because I had to read an extra book for class that I had to give a presentation on for Tuesday…I had to start studying for my first test…and I also had to interview at least 3 people for my presentation about soccer in Austria for my grammar class. I fit all of that in while talking a lot to my friends back home since they are winding down the days until summer. While they are rubbing it in my face that they are done with their junior year, I just sit back and know that I am going to be having much more fun learning with 2 months left. Plus I will be back faster than I can believe.

This week was a short one because Friday was May Day/Worker’s Day in Austria. This consisted of many concerts, parades, and lots of things around town happening…Oh, wait what is it all for? The social democrats put on most of it because, well, it’s sort of a holiday that has survived from Communist ideal times, and it’s a lot like Labor Day in the US. It also made for good fun. One of the Americans had been looking for some live rock music since he arrived here, and we found a stage where they were having the battle of the bands in Vienna! It was pretty cool, and once we got tired of rock, we could move over to the country stage or find the performing acts stage in the area.

This night I met with my language buddy. We went to a Mexican restaurant in the Prater and then to the lively part of town near Schweden Platz to meet some of her friends and listen to some music. Speaking of Schweden, well Sweden in English, I booked tickets to go to Stockholm this week! Another weekend filled up with travels! It is so much more appealing to travel when the weather is nice. I guess I will save that for another post for when I actually get back from the trip.

On to day 2 of the long weekend. I walked around town with a couple of the other study abroad students and just talked about random things on our minds before we made up what we were going to do for the day. I ended up taking a train to the Zentralfriedhof on the outer most part of Vienna, which is where one of Europe’s largest cemeteries lies. It is so large that there are 3 or more trolley stops for it. We saw grave stones for Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and Strauss, just to name a few famous musicians. It is a multi-religious cemetery that dates back to the mid 1800’s. It was free to get in and was well worth the time we spent there. There is even a church in the middle that is about the same size as some of the large churches in downtown Vienna.

That night I got persuaded in to going to the Austria Casino. Austria is well known for its Casino workings and actually export games and advice or something along those lines. So we had to have sport coats on just to get in, I had never been to one before and well never thought of going to one this nice either. We spent a couple hours there and mostly watched in awe of some of the amounts of money being played.

I organized a trip to Klosterneuburg, a city just outside of Vienna, for the next day. When I woke, up I found out how many would be coming and we all met at a Ubahn stop to take the bus to the city. It was such a nice day that we decided to walk around the city and take in some rays. At 3 pm we took a tour of the “Wine Way”, that showed us how this monastery had and still does produce wine. The monastery is the largest wine producer in all of Austria. Once back in Vienna, we all went our separate ways, and I went back and hit the books.

Sunset at the Danube Island

Fairy Tale Looking Church

View of the Klosterneuburg from the town

View from the Melk Abbey with the brosef in the picture

The Danube from Millenium City

A view of the Alpsee opposite Hohenschwangau

Neuschwanstein

From a balcony in Neuschwanstein

Salzburg from the Hohensalzburg Fortress

The long train ride to Innsbruck was filled with many hours of sleeping and joke making as my family was together in a small space for long time, great fun to say the least. We were constantly looking out the windows for castles and the next largest mountain. I never realized how long of a country Austria was until then. We eventually arrived and walked to our hotel, found the Easter market and had a bite to eat. Innsbruck is a very nice, big town. It is very big snow sports city as it has held the winter Olympics twice and the receptionist at our hotel laughed when we said that we were not going to ski.

We first hit up “crazy Ludwig’s” castle as my dad called it, but we were later told that he was merely crazy. The only plausible way to get there was by car so we rented one and got an upgrade the a Mercedes E Class, nice enough to say the least, Unfortunately my father was the one who got to drive it. After sleeping  half the way there we spotted a castle that we said could not be Neuschwanstein, but were proved wrong in a couple minutes. What a beautiful place to construct a castle. Hohenschwangau, Ludwig’s fathers castle in the area, mountain backdrop, a big lake, a waterfall, basically an epic view in any direction one looked. We toured both the castles and walked to them both. After a long day of walking and waiting we headed back to our hub, Innsbruck, with some groceries and a beautiful dusk.

At one of my classes in Germany we had talked about the Bodensee, I believe it may be called Lake Constance in English. Germany, Austria, and Switzerland make up the banks of the lake and make for a very Germanic location and scenic at that.

We took a boat ride from the Austrian city of Bregenz out into the Bodensee and then a cable car to the top of the nearby mountain where we could see the land of all three countries. We ate at a restaurant on the mountain. As we sat we could see an incline of snow-covered ground where kids were sledding down on their bottoms, but I looked around and everyone including me was wearing t-shirts or light clothes….Oh I forgot that it was nearly 70 the whole time we were on our trip, even hundreds of feet in the air where the snow had not all melted yet, simply amazing.

Again I was reunited with a city from my past, Salzburg.  I was a bit more acquainted with this city than Vienna because I had spent a whole week there as apposed to Vienna only one day. I recognized the train station, but could not orient myself whatsoever. Even when we left I was still in disbelief, I swear the city had been moved around since I had been there last, including Hohensalzburg Fortress. I had never been to this castle before so we decided to go up to it. We spent all day there and got great views of the city and history of Salzburg throughout the years. We ended up walking down the main street in Salzburg, my first pedestrian only shopping street I can recall in my travels. The night was approaching and anything else we would want to do was either too far away or else would be closing soon, so we made it to the train station with plenty of time. Once back in Innsbruck my brother and I wanted to spend our last night out and about. It was Easter Eve? If that is a real word, but I say that in that way because amidst our journey through the city we found a church with many people going in with lit candles and singing. This reminded me much of Christmas Eve. We walked around, my brother ate a whole pizza, walked through a park, and talked a bit with the locals that were still awake.

I could not believe that this trip was really coming to an end. Sunday we checked out and went to the train station to load up on food and drink for the long ride back to Vienna, on Easter Sunday! It was nice, we had a cabin to ourselves. Not many people were traveling at that time. Once in Vienna, we all went to the airport and my parents checked in to their hotel for the night. We found an Irish pub in the airport and then gave my parents all my winter clothes to take home. While we were saying our goodbyes it was very hard to believe that it had already been a week and half since they got here! Time does fly these days.

My brother stayed the whole rest of the “work week”, except our week consisted of sleeping in and staying up late. We did make it to a couple museums and new places in the city however. We paid a visited to Dr. Freud at his museum, saw the sights to behold at the Kunsthalle Wien, walked the Donauinsel, and got lost a couple of times and relied on my brothers GPS too much, instead of talking I should have been thinking about how to get to our destination. It is all in good fun and we got to see more of the city that way. On Saturday, my brother and I met up with Dom at the flea market. Here my brother found too many things to buy and take back with him. He told me that he wants to come back with an empty suitcase and to fill up with things from the market. Every time I go I try and find American coins because I have started to collect them when I find them in change at home and here it is a bit more difficult when the currency is in Euros, but I have been successful in finding coins at the flea market.

I dropped my brother off at the bus stop at 1:30; he was en route to Bratislava to catch his flight back to Brussels. The moment the bus left, reality set in and I knew that it was back to classes very soon. I decided to let my mind wander and just do what I felt like doing. I was one stop away from the Gasometer. There are 4 old gas towers that were converted in to a shopping mall, concert venue, and casino that I had never been to before so I checked it out. It was very interested and not very crowded. It gave me time to reflect on my time abroad and drink a liter of delicious blood red orange juice. I am still catching up with emails and reading for classes. Alles Gute.

The past week flew by.  I had final classes and days at my internship before my 2 week Easter Break started.  My parents came a couple days earlier and then we picked my brother up from the airport on Saturday.  We are heading to Innsbruck in a couple hours and from there to who knows where in the area around southern Germany, western Austria, all of Lichtenstein, and eastern Switzerland.  We went to a couple of the museums in the museum-filled city that I live and then a tour to the Melk Abbey.  We also did a tour of the Vienna Woods surrounding Vienna.  We took a boat on the largest subterranean lake.  I will post pictures next blog.  I guess I forgot what it is like to be an actual tourist in a city instead of being a temporary regular in Vienna. Until next time, and with a collage of pictures that should be amazing, so the readers of this blog can hopefully experience the sites I have seen!

This week started off with my theatre class. We discussed the play we read, “Lieblingsmenschen”.  It was pretty interesting because the characters were all college students and so we could relate to the story in some instances. I could not wait until Wednesday because then we would go to see the play. The sun was shining after class and I had nothing else to do for the day. So I asked one of my colleagues, Dom, if he would want to go do something with me. He agreed to go to Ikea with me. It was across the Danube River. We ended up spending around 2 hours in Ikea. It was weird for me because the only Ikea’s I have been to have been in the US and I had been with family when I went to them. So it felt as if I was going back to Chicago or Atlanta for a couple hours. Besides this nostalgic feeling, I found a lot of items that I needed for my room. Possibly the best thing about the whole trip was the end of it. We found the cafeteria right before we left. Both of us had not eaten much, so we loaded up on fifty-cent hot dogs and free refill soft drinks!!! For us this was a huge deal because the whole “free refill” thing is basically an American phenomenon and the hot dogs were cheap. Dom took me to this big grocery store in the city that I was totally in love with since it had the all too hard to find Dr. Pepper and other “exotic” grocery items…well ones that I have not seen since stepping in to any regular store in the US.

Tuesday came and went. I worked in the morning and had my two classes in the afternoon/evening. Once I got home I got everything in order for my friend to arrive the next day. I woke up Wednesday and headed to the airport. I waited around for what seemed like forever, but when you see all the people around you finding their loved ones or business clients one gets a little antsy. Finally I spotted my friend Cecil. This is the first person I have seen since I left home that I have known, almost three months! Seemed just like yesterday that we had talked about him possibly coming to visit. I made it back to class and afterwards we went around town a bit. That night was also the night of the play, so my friend came along with. The play went really well. It was in a small theater that enabled closer viewing of the actors and also a discussion to follow with the characters. It was really fun.

My most busy day came and Cecil accompanied me to watch the movie “Sicko” for class to learn about the differences between health care in the US and around the world. We would eventually be able to compare the US and Austria more specifically. We grabbed a kebab to eat for lunch and I headed to work. I gave CJ my Wien Notebook and told him what he should see and unleashed him on the city to hopefully not get lost. At 1:20 we met up again and he seemed to be pretty happy, did not get too lost and got to see a lot of cool things. I proposed going to Café Central to grab a coffee and take in the Coffee House culture of Vienna. We sat down and enjoyed a Maria Theresia coffee. This was the first time I had been to the café also so it was very cool for both of us. After class, a lot of the Central group went to this restaurant called Shooters; we had been there before for spare ribs and what were we doing there now? We got exactly what we wanted; spare ribs, a nice atmosphere, and dirty fingers.

After work on Friday we went back to the Chinese restaurant for their buffet. Instead of sitting down and possibly sleeping as I had done the week before from too much too eat we went exploring. We first went to the Belvedere. We just walked around this big house/art gallery? The gardens and the landscape were very pretty. I told Cecil that this place was not very big…so I took him the Schönbrunn Palace, the second largest in Europe! This was very cool for me because five years ago I had been at the same place and had been so amazed then. I think that the palace is like fine wine, the older it gets the better it is. As for me specifically, I have only seen the gardens without foliage, so once it becomes warmer out, I will be even more in love with this special place. We bought some food for dinner that we would cook when we got back. As the night progressed we were invited to hang out with some of the other students in the dorm. We went downstairs and then eventually after much dance music was played decided we should go to a club instead of creating “Disko Salzburg” in place of “Haus Salzburg”. Needless to say we never got in to the club because it was packed already. So we had a fun time trying to get back home.

Saturday was the last whole day with my friend in Vienna. We spent it well. We first went to big flea and produce market and by the way it was a beautiful day, around 65 degrees and the sun was shining! Cecil wanted to try everything there was including many different fruits, vegetable, meats, and 150 Euro caviar. Needless to say we did not purchase this. We went to the Prater and looked at all the rides and games that one day we will have to play or ride. We went to the actual park and walked through it. There were so many people out and exercising, made me want to kick around a football or grab some tennis shoes and go for a run. The Danube River was the next stop on my list. We walked up the banks of the river for a couple kilometers passing by bars and dance clubs and going through parks with happy families taking advantage of the beautiful day and grilling out on the peaceful banks of the river with the big city sounds that had disappeared.

Cecil and I went to the Millennium Center. Here there was a mall and a number of restaurants, arcade, and a huge movie theater. The sun went down and it began to get chilly. Once back at the dorm I got a hold of Timmy — he and Emily had found a Viennese restaurant that sounded good. I think my friend should have some legitimate cuisine from Vienna before he left so we went and had a great time at this small restaurant with great food and a great atmosphere. The rest of the night Cecil and I talked about anything and everything. We still could not believe that he was already leaving. He got his bags all packed up and so in the morning all we had to do was basically leave. This is my last week before we start our two-week Easter Break.  After this week it mark the half way point of my time here, and it will also be my parents’ visit, and my brothers visit !!! It seems like there is always some thing to look forward to here and the time just flies by.

burgtheater and the winter ice rink

From the Danube Island

Parliament

My week did not officially start until Tuesday this week because instead of having theater class on Monday, we were going to meet on Saturday at the Theater Museum for a lighting exhibit for more hands on learning! Today I tried to clean up my room, well there is not much in it, but what I had I tried to put in order. I think it is much easier living without so much extra “stuff”, then when one buys something new it is like Christmas every time and there is plenty of room to put it. For example, today I went shopping for new dress shirts for my internship. I ended up deciding on a shirt for only 15 Euro. The clothes fit much better over here also. They are form fitting and do not appear as if one is swimming in their clothes as some of the men’s clothing in the US can appear to look like.

For my literature class we had to read the book, Immensee by Theodore Storm. The novella was only about 35 pages long and in a small book format, but it used a lot of old German words and was sometimes confusing. I read through the whole book and talked with some of my classmates to gather as much information about it as possible. I read a little bit at a time throughout the week when I have time and then when I am taking the train or bus to class or my internship I think back on what I read and try to reiterate that part of the story. With only 8 pages left in my book, and class beginning this evening, I made my way to a new class at the university, North American history from the 18^th Century. It seems like I would know a lot of this information already, but the interesting thing was that this was a Ringvorlesung, a lecture series. So every week there as a new professor from somewhere in the German speaking realm – for example this week’s professor was from Harvard University and lectured on the idea of transnational history. This was interesting because it not only applied to North America, but every history in the world. The majority of the research was being done in the US. The idea was that history was to be transformed and taught as not merely a national history, but seeing as there must be interactions amongst states and peoples for a national history to exist there needs to be more explanations from outside the national history to possibly explain phenomenon happening in the nation. It was a very interesting and obvious idea that should have been how history was studied since forever. I guess I will have to incorporate this way into my own studies and hopefully, it will help me to develop a more well-rounded idea of not only the specific history I am studying, but also world history.

Literature class went well this night. We went over the book and its details. Turns out that I did get the basic grasp of it, but just need to maybe read over it two times to understand it totally. Afterwards we watched the movie that had been made from the text.

I had my internship the next three days and researched a lot of different papers the organization has written and lectures given that were published online. I am continuing to read texts produced by the organization and familiarize myself with the long-standing organization that I only recently have been introduced to. I have become accustomed to dressing up for work, so naturally I go to my classes and lectures the rest of the day dressed up. I think that it is really neat to be blending in with so many people in this big city that wear suits and ties everyday. I am still just a student, but am trying on the professional world.

Thursday’s Austrian class met at the parliament to check out the exhibit of the past 90 years from 1918-2008. It was interesting to see how Austria has changed after World War I from being a large kingdom to becoming a small nation…in so little time. There was information on many aspects of life in these times-from politics to education. The exhibit hall was also very nice, it was of course in the parliament that had big pillars and sculptures. After class Timmy, Emily and I went to the Asian restuarant by our dorm that we had seen so often. The lunch buffet is only 5,80 and we had been talking about going for so long and what a better time to go then right when it opens. So Timmy, Emily, and I started in on our all you can eat buffet and it was pretty good. There was even duck on the buffet! We all got pretty full and afterwards after I did some research on my computer, fell asleep from being so full.

That night we three had dinner together in the kitchen and talked with some of the other people living in our dorm, and they invited us to go to a birthday party the next night. So Friday came and we made our journey to the party (which some of the Austrians had trouble directing us to). In the end we found it and stayed a while talking to all of our fellow Haus Salzburg friends. I had my theater class in the morning so did not want to stay too long, but turns out I could not go. I kept talking to more and more people in German and realizing that this would probably help me a lot just to be speaking as much as possible. Some of us finally headed home, but made a pit stop at a Burger King for more energy to walk back.

Saturday morning came too quickly, but I was up and ready to go and the first one at the museum. Turns out only three of the five or six classmates showed up. But they did miss out it was a fun time. We got a tour of the museum and saw from the beginning of the lighting age of the theater to the newest technological advancements of today. There were even a couple of stages where we got to be a part of the action! After the tour was over it was lunchtime there was an Australian restaurant nearby that we went to. I ended up choosing the kangaroo burger, yes, with real kangaroo meat! It was pretty good maybe a bit pricey, but I had never known they even served kangaroo as food, so now I have tried it. The rest of the day I traveled some on the subways and saw some more of the city. Then at night thought about places I wanted to go for Easter break and dreamed of all the possibilities I could do while I am in Europe!