Making up for Lost Time/ First Impressions

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PROLOGUE

Surprise! I am not really writing this entry on Feb 7th. I bet I fooled you all. Instead it is the middle of March, and I realized how truely fast time is going and I really need a way to remember all that has happened since I have been here. This will help comfort me every time I think to myself, where has all my time and money gone? Instead of drawing a blank, I can just log on to the handy-dandy internet and all my problems will be solved! That being said, I will move on from this disclaimer and pretend that I have just arrived in Vienna, wide-eyed and bushy tailed, eager American in a brand new city for the first time.

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I am incredibly jet-lagged. Despite having a wonderful Swiss Air flight with seats next to the window for myself, endless entertainment, and all the wine and croissants that I could ever want, I got no sleep. Instead I just stared out the window in my floating tipsy state, flying towards the sunrise until we hit the other side of the Atlantic. I became somewhat revived from a hot damp towel the stewardess gave out. I cannot say enough about how nice my flight was. I felt like I was in first class- newspapers, delicious vegetarian three course meal, and very friendly service. Even the bathrooms were nice! I was also very impressed by the fact that all the attendants spoke fluent English, French and German. They would make every announcement in all three languages. I dont know I may be deprived because I am so used to Southwest flights :-)

So I got to Vienna and my program coordinator, Gerhard picked James and I up from the airport and took us to our accomidation. My first impression of Gerhard is that he will probably be one of the nicest people I have ever met, but communicating will be hard because of the language barrier. It was incredibly difficult to carry all my luggage around on the trains (especially with the broken excalators), and I had a backache for a week afterwards as a result. We got to our international student dorm from the OAD company on Molkereistrasse. The dorm is in the 2nd district of Vienna, called Leopoldau. We live across the street from the Prater amusement park and what is practically a forest preserve which the Hapsburgs used for their own private hunting grounds. The other interesting aspect about my new 'hood is that we are pretty much right in the middle of Vienna's red light district. There are about 10 sketchy-looking "bars" with neon lights and blacked out windows within a five block radius from the OAD. It is strange though because my window looks right out onto one, and I have never seen anyone enter or exit it.

The closest U-Bahn station is at Praterstern, which is a pretty big train stations with lots of aufsteigens (transfers). The U-Bahn is pretty cool. First of all, I feel like nobody ever pays for it. There are no turnstiles, and nobody checks your ticket. There are always atleast a couple bakeries and other kinds of stores that make up part of the station. I particularly enjoy the "Strock" and I have gotten very good at saying, "Ich mochte ein shokocrossant, bitte" already holding my 1,48 euro. Another aspect that I really like is the timetable on the platforms. They say how long it is until the next train and I haven't had to wait more than five minutes. The trains are very clean, modern and fast. There are a few other strange differences, such as the fact that people can bring their dogs on the trains (actually people bring their dogs, even the huge German Shepards, everywhere- restaurants, stores, etc) and that on all the escalators people stand on the right side, letting people in a hurry run up or down on the left (Bitte rechts stehen- please stand on the left). How civilized! I always get a kick out of the automated annouced voice that calls out all the aufsteigens for every stop (haltstelle). He has such a harsh Austrian accent, and it really made me notice the difference between the Hi-Deutch that I had at Trinity and Lo-Deutch that I hear everywhere here.

It is such a strange feeling to be surrounded by people talking and basically feel like you are deaf because you can't understand anything!!! Sometimes people stand talking to me and I just have to say, "Ich spreche nicht Deutsch." This is a handy phrase if the person looks crazy and is trying to sell you flowers, but not so great to find out where to go if you are lost. This has given me alot of motivation to try to learn as much German as I possibly can. I also feel inspired to take up French again because I feel like such a useless American that just relies on everyone to speak English, when most of Europe is atleast bi-lingual. I have had a few cultural misunderstandings, mostly involving where I can and cannot use my debit card. Note to anyone coming to Austria: do not pick out a whole shopping cart of food, wait in the check out isle, have everything scanned and totaled and then not have any cash. That was a big and embarrassing mistake.

This leads me to another important topic: the food. There is a grocery store called Billa, which is like the Jewel of Austria, except there aren't any other competitor chains besides a suspicious Aldi-clone called Hofer. I have to spend a long time trying to figure out what everything is- there are big differences. I pretty much subsited on pasta and bland pasta sauce for the first week, but later found English, Indian and Vegan grocery stores where I was so excited I couldn't contain my checking account to finally lay my hands on real food. Not that Billa is bad, they just really don't have a wide selection. It seems as though most Austrians really do eat sausage for every meal.

Aside from that, I have been going to alot of cafes and restaurants, and haven't had any problems finding Vegetarian dishes. There are soo many places to choose from, it was pretty overwhelming at first. However, the cafes are a Viennese institution. I LOVE THEM!!! Here at a cafe, you order something to drink and can just sit reading or people watching for as long as you want while sipping a melange (cappacino), kliener or Grosser Mokka (espresso), or all different kinds of other coffee types but those are my favorites. I used to be too scarred to drink straight espresso but no I love it and I dont think that I will ever go back to the sugary crap they have in the states. The other thing that I love about the cafes is that they are all different, some chic, artsy, communist, etc- but all wonderfully unique. It is funny to see the few Starbucks they have here- Gerhard says that it is mainly mothers with children that go there because it is the only place where you cannot smoke. That is the other thing that is hard to get used to- everyone and their momma smokes! It is especially annoying because Gerhard, Dan, Ben and James are all chain smokers and when we sit down at a cafe I feel like I can't breathe. I really think that secondhand smoke is way worse air experience than if I just smoked a cigarette with them!

So that leads me to what I have been doing: orientation. For the first few days, Gerhard has been meeting us by the University, taking us to get registered for classes, (side note, a funny story about that- Gerhard told us about how Ben Miller forgot his papers when they went to register last year, and Ben and James thought that was sooo hilarious until they did the same thing! I was the only one out of the group who had everything and got my student ID and library card that day) and generally showing us around the city. He took us to the WUK- a place in the ninth district that has art galleries and concerts, the Kunsthall Wien, where I saw an amazing Marc Chagall exhibit, The Film Museum, The Albertina Museum where I learned all about Biedermeyer design and saw a Georg Baselitz exhibit, plus a Bus tour of the Ringstrasse. More to come on the Ringstrasse- it is basically a huge boulevard that make a loop around the 1st district, which is basically the oldest and most fancy part of Vienna. Gerhard is funny because it seems as though every few hours he will say, "So we stop for coffee now." More of a demand than a question, but we are all willing to oblige as it is on the Trinity budget. I also went walking around with Dan one day starting at the Museumsquartier and seeing so many awesome huge ornate buildings that we knew had to be famous but had no idea what they were! Dan was also amazed by all the H&Ms- they are everywhere! I guess it's like Europe's version of the Gap, except way more stylish.

So yeah, that is about all I feel like writing for now. If this was first week in Vienna Olivia, I would be extremely tired and sleeping all day and up at strange hours. I didn't get back to my normal sleep schedule for a week and a half, which made me feel like I wasted alot of time. Fortunately www.alluc.org has gotten me through the long nights. I'd say it's better than going out to the bar across the street!

Ciao for now!

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Photos

My room
very Ikea-esque

Kaffeehaus fare
this is what my food looked like from one of the fancier cafes I have been to. I love the silver plates with the glass of water they serve it on!

Ringstrasse
Dont stand on the tracks, you could get run over by a Strassenbahn at any moment!