(Catch-up mode: So, since I have been falling drastically short of my goal of posting at least once a week while in Europe, the next few posts may tend to be more informative than reflective, though hopefully interesting, as I attempt to fill you in on my life in Wien. Then, maybe in a week or so, I can move on to deeper reflections. I'm not making any promises, though ;-)So here are brief descriptions of some of the characters I run with in Vienna:
-Rick (21) is the other American student from WKU studying with me in Vienna. We have all the same classes together and did teaching practice for the past two weeks at the Austrian equivalent of a middle school (although it is really quite different). I honestly didn't know him very well before I came here, but since we spend so much time together, we have become much better acqainted. We already have many inside jokes about experiences we've had and people we know, especially our friend Aurelie...
-Aurelie (21) is the only student from Belgium. She comes from the Dutch-speaking area, but her parents are French. All of her body language and the way she pronounces words are so French in the stereotypical way. I can't help laughing any time I'm around her. Without meaning to be, she is absolutely hysterical. And very predictable. She's a big worry wort, always trying to makes sure she knows when classes and excursions begin, how she's going to get home at night, and what she will cook for dinner. She's also casual smoker who is in denial about her addiction and claims to be always trying to quit.
-Daniel (26) is from Osnabrück, Germany (semi-close to Hamburg in northern Germany). I have been getting to know him much better in the last couple weeks. He has studied for over one year in Australia, so his english is very good, but we always speak German, which is good practice for me. We share the same sense of humor and have already found plenty of things to laugh about at our school (having to do with the general disorganization... so uncharacteristic of Germany), the laid-back atmosphere, and the simplistic content of some of the lectures we have attended. He has his own car since he drove down from Germany but he rides his bike everywhere in Vienna. (Surprisingly, it takes about as long to ride a bike somewhere in Vienna as it does taking the U-Bahn.) And he craves icecream all the time, no matter what the weather is like.
-Tuuli, Heta, Ulrika, Annika, and Anna-Maria are the Finnish girls that live near me. They are all very sweet, but lately, ever since they started getting sick one by one (the Finnish plague!!), I haven't seen much of them. The first four have also kind of formed their own clique and don't invite the rest of us when they go out, though I don't think they mean to be exclusive.
-Michi, Sabastian, and Charlotte (14). Michi is own of my mom's first cousins. She works in the film industry in Vienna, marketing films and renting out theaters for film premieres. Since I've been in Vienna, she and her husband Sabastian (from Germany) have gone out of their way to get to know me and make me feel at home here. They frequently invite me over for dinner, and they let me housesit in their apartment in the 7th district and watch their cat while they vacationed in Venice. I still haven't gotten to know Charlotte very well, but the times that I have chatted with her, she was friendly.
-Julian (26) is a second cousin (his grandfather and my grandfather were brothers and Michi is his aunt) who is from Oberösterreich but now lives in Vienna and works and studies at the Technical University. He has spent time in a number of different countries. He speaks english very well, spanish pretty well, and can understand Dutch. He has dredlocks, rolls his own cigarrettes (tobacco, not weed FYI), and is a frequent Schwarzfahrer (someone who rides public transit without a ticket; literally black rider) who has never had to pay the 60 € fine. But when the weather is decent, he bikes where he needs to go, so no sweat. He enjoys tinkering with computers, going to concerts, drinking beer, playing some ultimate, and just chilling with friends. In general, I would describe him as easy-going, well-mannered, and a good listener.
-Andrea, Michi Moser, Klaus, and Florian are Julian's roommates I know the best (actually, I think the only other one is Lukas, whom I have rarely spoken with). Andrea is very pretty and always quite fashionable though not in a snobby way. She works as an assistant to Michi my and Julian's aunt. Michi and Klaus are a goofy pair. I worked with them the other day on a project for Andrea and I could not stop laughing the whole time we worked. All we were doing was sticking stickers onto flyers to correct a wrong date for a film premiere. Klaus was especially funny because he worked about four times as slow as Michi and I and complained the whole time and cracked jokes about the difficulty of the work. Florian is from Germany, and not from Oberösterreich like the others. He talks incessantly about anything that you get him started talking about. I was at first taken aback bye his gregariousness, but the better I have gotten to know him, the better I like him. He's a genuinely friendly guy.
-Derek is a graduate of WKU who is on a Fulbright scholarship in Austria, working as a teaching assistant in Pressbaum (30 minutes outside of Vienna). He lives in the 15th district in Vienna. I know him from Westminster Bible Church in Bowling Green and because he was friends with Elizabeth. We have a hung out some in Vienna and gone to church together a few times.
What I have been doing here (really!):
Each day is different and yet kind of the same. The same in the sense that every day I spend a good deal of time on the U-Bahn. I go grocery shopping about every other day, because I tend to go right before the store closes and because one can only carry so many items in one's arms home. I have classes Tuesday through Friday, but different ones each day (subjects ranging from German grammar and literature to art history to textiles), and rarely ever homework (a definite plus). However, the past two weeks were set aside for "teaching practice", so the normal classes did not meet. But besides these basic semi-constants, each day is different.
For instance, this past Friday Daniel and Julian came with me to a rock concert that Derek was playing in (filling in as the bass guitarist). The bar/cafe in which the concert took place was well... let's just say a bit left wing in the european meaning of the word "left"... as in, red was the predominant color in the bar's interior... Anyway, it was an interesting experience. The concert was fun (and it didn't really have anything to do with the bar's political flavor. I ended up staying there until 1 am just chatting with Daniel and Julian and having a couple g'Spritzer (pronounced Shprit-za) which is a drink with wine and sparkling water.
This weekend I went to an opera performance in the famous Staatsoper for
the first time. I saw Beethovan's Fidelio with Rick and Dr. McGee (a professor from WKU who came to visit this weekend) and her friend from Germany. And although the plot was difficult to follow, the music was beautiful. It was a neat experience overall and very affordable... a ticket for the Stehplatz ("standing area" would be the rough translation in english) costed only 2 €!!As I expected would happen before coming to Vienna, the international students at the Pädak tend to stick with one another, party frequently, speak lots of German, and interact seldom with Austrians. I have kind of broken away from the group, though I still hang out with them occasion, especially the ones that live near me (who I have described above). I take a every opportunity to spend time with relatives and Julian and his friends. At Julian's place there is always something going on. They often sit around in the living room and watch music videos on tv and chill. They also have foosball, and although I stink really bad at it, I like to play.
Yeah, so that's a little sampling of my life in Vienna. I'm getting very tired of this post, so I'll say "adieu" for now.
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