Zusammenfassung meiner wahnsinnigen Woche

A summary of the craziness of the past week (for those interested)...

Thursday night I headed with a large group of friends to the Schönbrunn Concert, a free, open-air classical music concert in performed by the Vienna Philharmonic. We didn't want to stand in the crowd in front of the stage, so we went up on the hill behind the stage and sat down on blankets, broke out our food supply, and started munching. We heard clapping when the concert began. Then nothing. There must have been over a thousand people camped out on the hill, all in the belief that they would be able to hear everything from there, and they were all wrong! Absudity! Blödsinn! After the first ten minutes about half of those people moved down to be closer to the stage. The ones that weren't there so much for the music, like me, Daniel, and a couple other guys he invited, stayed there. It turned out that the speakers just weren't working right and half the people below couldn't even hear. But toward the end, we were able to make out the melody of a Tchaikowsky piece from Swan Lake and we had a good view of the fireworks.

Friday morning Grandma arrived in Vienna. I was at the airport waiting for her and I expected her to be very tired but it turned out that she drank two cups of coffee at breakfast on the plane and felt not only not tired, but energetic! In her usual manner, she spoke a mixture of German and English and was absolutely thrilled to be in Vienna again. The taxi that Michaelinde ordered was waiting for her. I rode with her to Schönbrunner Hotel, a gorgeous four-start hotel in the thirteenth district, and then had to leave soon after to go grocery shopping for a BBQ/picnic Rick and I were holding the next day. I left Grandma to rest up.

Friday evening I watched Swan Lake from the standing area in the Opera House for the second time. Although Daniel and I invited tons of people to come with us, they all either couldn't make it or showed up wearing shorts and got kicked out, much to our annoyance. After waiting in line for the tickets with ridiculously loud music from an upcoming opera blaired over the intercome, we had to fight for our spots in sixth row of the standing area when a very rude couple took them while we were out, despite seeing that they were reserved with my scarf (which is how you are supposed to reserve them by the way) and then flat out refused to give them back. The attendent overseeing the standing area ended up escorting them out after seeing from their tickets that they were around 150 in line while we were 49 and 50. As they were leaving, the lady agrily said, "I want to speak with your manager!!" At least that gave us a good laugh.

Saturday morning I went with Grandma to see the Lipizzan horses at the Spanish Riding School. These horses are born completely black and eventually turn completely white. They are trained at this school to do what amounts to horse ballet. They can stand on two legs, trot gracefully, walk diagonally, and walk in synchronized or mirror patterns with each other. It is really amazing to see. I enjoyed the performance, despite having been up until 4 am...

Saturday afternoon Rick and I held a "Kentucky BBQ" for about twenty students from our school to give them a little taste of home. Because I was at the Opera the evening before, we didn't start cooking until midnight that night and were therefore up until 4 making the potato salad, brocoli salad, deviled eggs, and barbeque sauce. If I had known it would be that much work and stress, I wouldn't have agreed to do it. But in the end basically everthing turned out well. We somehow transported all the supplies on the bus to Kahlenberg (a hill to the north of Vienna, near where I live) and found a spot to grill. Our friends liked the food. We had a water fight. (Well, I watched and occasionally got squirted). We ate a lot. Then I went home to sleep.

...And that's when the refridgerator drama began. I won't go into detail, but I spend half of the night/morning defrosting the fridge and then cleaning up the aftermath. So I didn't catch up on my sleep that night.

Sunday I went with Grandma to a mass at the Augustinerkirche, a large church that always has beautiful music. We were totally impressed with the music, though I found the mass in other ways showy. Afterward we went to eat and just spent the rest of the day taking it easy.

Monday we went on the boat ride on the Danube to Melk Abbey. The weather was nearly perfect until we got back to Vienna. Melk Abbey was amazing (see pictures in Vienna Photo album #2) with its beautiful baroque architecture. Our tour guide for the whole trip explained everything to our group in German, Spanish, and French, so if I didn't catch what she said the first time in German, I did the second time around in Spanish and then also caught afew words here and there in French. She obviously had native fluency in German and Spanish, spoke French very well, and was also at least proficient in English. I'm beginning to think that I don't stand a chance as an interpreter... Three languages just doesn't cut it, at least not in Europe.

By the time I got back to Vienna after that tour, I was wiped out. I rested Tuesday (we also had that day off for Pentecost) and was busy with classes from Wednesday to Friday while Grandma has been spending time with her sister.

wondering about the road ahead

I found out a week ago, finally, roughly 8 months after applying, that I did not receive the Fulbright to teach English for a year in Chile. Any post-graduation plans that I did have or was trying to make are now shattered with this outcome. But I am not distraught. I was not counting on being selected, especially after hearing that more people applied for Fulbrights this year than ever before. Nevertheless, I am disappointed. When I think back on how much stress that application brought and how much time I spent trying to perfect my essays and chasing down the professors who wrote my recommendation letter, and everything else involved, it almost makes me sick. But I am positive that God has something wonderful in store for me. I hope that He will soon open a door for me. For now, I have no clue what I will do in the next couple of years. Here are some ideas other people have:

Mexican friends: move to Mexico. period.
Julian: move to Brazil! or Barcelona!!... or just get a job in Vienna, maybe in the travel industry...?
Sybille: be Franz's (her husband's) teaching assistant in his English classes next year in Salzburg.

I somehow doubt that any of those ideas will become reality, except maybe the Mexico one :-P

And now for some of my own ideas: work at home for a while interpreting for the Cabinet of Health and Family Services for which I am already certified and/or work for an organization for helping immigrants in Kentucky; teach English somewhere in Latin America (maybe after doing the first idea for awhile); work with a Christian missionary organization in Latin America with Audrey :-) ; get an internship somewhere (really vague, I know); study in grad school (what I would study I don't know...)... and that's about all the ideas I have.

Any suggestions?

Lots going on these days and lots of scattered thoughts bumping around in my head

Last week was so chaotic. I was always on the go doing everything social that I could fit in. As a result, I did not get an adequate amount of sleep and my eating habits were about as irregular as they could get. Because these past two weeks were the second teaching practice module and Rick and I didn't have to go in to our school very much, we had lots of free time. Here are some things I did:

(1) I went to an event commemorating 15 years of the Erasmus Program (the European foreign exchange program) in Vienna. There were lots of speeches which dragged on and on and were exceedingly boring, but I can at least say that I saw the President of Austria, Heinz Fischer, and I got to go on a tour of the Hofburg quarters where the President works.
(2) On Friday I went on a mini field trip to Mödling, a small village/suburb to the south of Vienna boarding the Viennese Forest (Wiener Wald). We took a little hike and walked around the city. I got some poppy seed icecream, my new favorite flavor. Yummy! (By the way, icecream here is amazing. I eat it all the time, probably a bit more than I should.)
(3) That night Florian called to see if I wanted to go with him, Michi, and Luz to the Rathausfest (an annual party held at City Hall) because they had extra tickets since Julian was in Paris and Andrea and Klaus were in Upper Austria. I came along despite the rain and my tiredness. It turned out to be fun. There was unlimited wine, Ottakringer beer, and a huge buffet. The Chancelor of Austria (Gusi!!) was there and some famous people being followed around by cameras the whole time. Too bad I didn't know any of them. We ended staying until 3 am or so.
(4) The next day I was at the WG all day long. Florian and I cooked up a delicious fajita meal for all of us which involved more work than we bargained for. When 4 different supermarkets to track down the ingrediants we needed and then cooked for two hours. Ridiculous. At least the meal turned out very good and was almost as spicy as we hoped for. I was amazed at their ignorance about how to eat fajitas, now a standard dish in the American diet. They had to watch me to figure out how to assemble the fajita. Michi expressed doubts about putting room-temperature tomatoes and salsa in the hot fajita and then he proceeded to eat it with a fork and knife!
(5) I played pool twice over the weekend: once with Flo and another time after the above-described fajita meal episode with Michi and Luks.
(6) Monday was so warm, almost like summer. I was only at the school for about an hour and was tempted to go back home and sleep, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to enjoy some sunshine. Daniel and I hung out on the Donauinsel for a couple hours and played guitar. That reminded me of playing with Brittany and Amy so often in the summertime in Kentucky. I'm afraid my guitar skills have gone way downhill.
(7) I went to a German rock concert with Flo Sunday night and some of his co-workers. The main band was Britta, an older female band from Berlin. But I didn't really get to see much of their performance because by the time they started I had to head to the subway to catch one of the last trains home. But a couple of the younger bands that opened were pretty good: "Luchs" from Berlin and "Ja, Panik" from Vienna.

The past few days have been more low-key. I've sleeping more, and cooking nutritious and delicious meals. It's a good thing because lately I have been constantly hungry!! I munch on any food laying around in my room.

But although I have been more focused on eating and sleeping, two essentials, yesterday Rick and I watched a modern performance of a Midsummer Night's Dream in German at Burgtheater. We could see everything from the standing area which costed just 1.50 € but we understood only about 40% of what they said. I don't know why, but the sexual overtones and partial nudity caught me off guard. I should have seen that coming. Nudity and sexuality are found all over billboards and newspapers and magazines in Austria, and probably most of Western Europe.


My stay in Austria is approaching its end, which is making me think about a lot of different things. I do still have a month and a half to go, maybe a little less now, but I know that the time will hurry by just as the past two months have. My time orientation has been off lately. In fact, I hardly ever know what day of the month it is, and when I occasionally think about it (and have to look it up on the calender) I am usually surprised because I did not expect it to be so late. Where has the time gone? How will I say goodbye?

What will I do when I get back to the states, Bachelor of Arts in hand? What is the next step? I want to do something meaningful with my life. Traveling for traveling's sake is about to come to an end, at least for a time. Money and time is running out. And I want to move from trying to fill my own yearning to see new places and learn other languages to doing what God has planned for me and seeking to follow in Jesus' footsteps.

... Yes, there are many things to ponder, but it is getting late and I'm traveling to Salzburg tomorrow to stay with Sybille and Franz for two nights, so I need to get some rest. Ciao!

Snapshots

The last few weeks of April were so warm, I spent many hours in parks. This is Heldenplatz, the park in front of the Hofburg, the former residence of the Hapsburg monarchs and now the residence of the Chancellor.






We had a family gathering a few weeks ago at my great aunt Gerlinda's house. In the picture she is on the left with her daughter Gudrun and grandchildren Tess and Oscar, my second cousins, I guess you could say...
















Last weekend I took a trip to Graz, Styria with exchange students from my school. One of the first things I did when we got there was buy some snacks at the grocery and head to Stadtpark with Daniel (from Germany), Anna, Agatha, and Faustina (from Poland), and Olga and Raimonda (from Lithuania). The weather was really warm while we were there.


















This is a picture of Giedre (from Lithuania), Aurelia (from Belgium), and Anna-Maria (from Finnland) in downtown Graz as we waited around for our tour of the city to begin.


















Daniel and I hiked up the Schloßberg, a hill overlooking Graz, while our friends who were in the park went to satisfy their craving for Cordon Bleu. We wanted to wait to eat a larger meal at dinner since we had just snacked. Anyway, on the way back in to the city we discovered an icecream salon that had some of the best icecream we have ever eaten. Later, I had some amazing cabbage salad and goulash with bread dumpling. Julian was right when he told me that Graz had some of the best food.


















The day after I came back from Graz, I headed by train the Wachau to meet up with Sybille and her family and Claudia. I took this picture while hiking on a hill that overlooks Rohrendorf, the village where we stayed.


















Franz, Sybille, Lorenz, Phillip, and a friend of the family enjoying some food in the Wachau


















I enjoyed a performance of Wagner's opera The Flying Dutchman in the State Opera House with Irene and Angelica (relatives of my grandmother). They first took me out for tea and Sachertorte (a famous viennese chocolate cake) at Sacher Hotel. Then we watched the opera from incredible seats which I'm sure costed an outrageous amount of money! I normally buy tickets for the standing area, so this was a real treat.