A Bench with a View

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Welcome to another whimsical, wonderful weekly Wednesday whirlwind ritual of rambling.

Speaking of whirlwinds, I understand that Gustav did not have the impact that was expected, and that is good news. Meanwhile, the political whirlwind roars on and provides delightful entertainment for the rest of the world…

So what’s new with Jessi this week… frankly, not a whole lot. As I have told many of you, I’m finding myself doing a lot of sitting around as there is not really much for me TO do. Grace is so young, and mom is very possessive still (understandably so), leaving me to sit idly by and watch as she tries everything to comfort her when she gets to screaming, despite any offers to help. I can’t complain too much because in all reality, I’m getting paid to do nothing at all. However, I don’t think that I’m saying anything shocking if I tell you that I do not do well with idleness and have a need to be doing something productive - being a part of some bigger whole, if you will.

As a result, I spent this past weekend feeling irritable and frustrated; while I’m not particularly homesick, I do miss the activity and busyness that I had before - forgetting entirely, of course, anything that I absolutely despised about it while I was in the midst of it. Through this fog, I started listlessly perusing the job postings in fields like residence life and admissions at various schools across the US, if for nothing else than just to see what was out there. I stumbled across quite a few open positions (some of which are at Northeastern - I’m sorry to hear that there’s an admissions counselor AND director of the VC positions open over there!! And as far as ResLife, I can personally attest to the fact that Keyne’s job never ends when it comes to hiring RDs and ADRLs, so I wasn’t surprised at that one at all), some interested me more than others. But regardless, this naturally sent me into a surge of nostalgia and questioning my presence in Austria at all. Why am I here? What purpose am I serving over here? Why did I come here at all? All the best questions to make a person feel REALLY good about herself.

In the depths of this, I decided to go for a walk. This opened my eyes to a lot of things (for one, that the benches around here are almost all strategically placed to have spectacular views… but some of them face trash cans… why is this?). THIS, Jessi, is why you are in Austria. No, not for the trashcan viewing benches… But, it’s time, I decided, to take advantage of the nothingness. While in the middle of all of my questioning, I started asking myself what it is, exactly, that I’m looking for. As some of you have borne full witness to, every time I change jobs, change locations, change… haircuts… - whatever - I tend to robustly proclaim that I am going back to whatever I was doing before. I’m going back to Colorado. I’m going back to the US. I’m going back to Admissions. I’m going back to Rubenstein. Most of the time, I do not actually make said return. Regardless, I have a horrible “Grass is Greener” complex that is starting to wear me out, and I’ve decided it’s time to start sorting through this thing. Anyway, so I ended up joking with myself saying that I ought to go climb some distant mountain and ponder my existence… that’s about when I realized that I was, in fact, standing on something of a mountain, very much alone and looking out over this incredible view of Baden and beyond. Suddenly, I shone some light on my own presence in Austria. Maybe, just maybe - now bear with me, this is deep - maybe I came to Austria, not to help Grace, not to work… but to finally start to get myself figured out. Maybe asking all of the tough questions is what I’m supposed to be doing here.

A couple of you have told me to get a hobby or something… so, maybe that’s my hobby. Maybe I’ll become some Euro-Zen master of the Austrian wilderness and all of you can make pilgrimages to visit me. Hmm?

Anyway, where does that leave me? In all honesty, I’m still just telling myself to stick it out until December when I currently have a one-way ticket to Denver. I will start to re-evaluate my place and position on all of this come November 4 when 1) Karin goes back to work and 2) a new president is elected heehee. I think that late October will be a good time to restart the job hunt, perhaps more actively, begin looking at housing costs, and start looking for a replacement Au Pair. In the meantime, I can start thinking about where I would go if I did return to the States; also going back to school and, when that happens, what I want to study, all of that good stuff. Frankly, even the Austrian government thinks that Au Pair-ing should only be a 6 month commitment. But, who knows? By the end of November, I may be so attached to this place that I never leave. Let’s not close doors, people.

On a lighter note, this is an exciting time for Austria: Traubensaft und Sturm time! This is the first harvest of the grapes, which results mostly in grape juice (traubensaft), not wine. Sturm, literally meaning storm, is a very cloudy, very sweet juice that, if fermented, would eventually BECOME wine. But, people (and dogs!!) like to drink it as is, too. Daisy (the lesser, humbler bearer of this name of greatness) and I tried a few grapes straight off the vine the other day and let me tell you… do not do this thing. There are people in this world that know what they are doing and when to pull the grapes off the vine… I learned later that these small, green grapes that we had are eventually supposed to become large, purple grapes. I guess that would explain the remarkably sour, bitter taste. I should have taken the hint when even D-Dog spit them out… she is something of a vacuum cleaner and will eat anything - except, apparently, nasty not-ripe grapes. But, Sturm time means lots of traditional-ness, especially in a vineyard area like Baden. So, the last couple of days, many people could be seen walking around wearing traditional garments (oh yes, you better believe it: lederhosen! And the dresses called dirndls - not a typo) and attending traditional concerts on the streets.

Otherwise, I leave Friday afternoon for Innsbruck and am all ready to go for that! I’m pretty excited about the break from the routine. I think that this trip may be really good for me. Certainly, Innsbruck is comparable to Baden in many ways… but I’ll be in travel-mode and be out doing things, staying in a hostel with other young people and all of that. I will, of course, take pictures and get them posted on here when I return.

All right, that’s about it for this week! So, I hope that this finds everyone well - I, as always, I look forward to hearing from everybody soon!

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Comments

[Klaus Moll]

Your Travel Blog
This morning I went up the Hill in front of my appartment in Baden and found a sign in front of me which said Gustav Perger Weg. When looking into the internet for Gustav Perger, I found your blog. So, could you tell me something about this man and what brought you to Baden. With my best regards Klaus Moll