The hills are not really alive.

The title of this post refers to a conversation I had with a student today, who was describing a festival held in Austria on the 30th of April. 

Student: Yes, so there are fireworks and ships on the Donau... er, Danube, and the hills.... the hills are...
Me: Alive?

Student: (annoyed) No. They are beautiful.

Clearly my Sound of Music reference went unappreciated.

--

Not to make anyone in the Pacific Northwest jealous... but the weather here is fantastic right now. It's been hovering between 60 and 75 degrees for the last couple weeks, and every day seems warmer! I'm not the hugest fan of hot weather, but sunshine and warmth are things I depend on.

Not to sound like a real Sound of Music freak, but I'd like to list of a few of my favorite things... from Austria in the spring. I really like lists - they're organized and you can skim! So, apologies for all the blog posts that contain lists.

Window shopping, at night.

• People! J and I live near Meidlinger-hauptstrasse, a long, busy shopping street. Meidling, our district in Vienna, is mainly full of apartments. There are many people from all different cultures, meaning we have an Asian grocery store, a Turkish grocery store and our usual Austrian stores within walking distance! Anyway, as the days warm up, people are hitting the streets in droves. It's wonderful to see people of all different ages hanging out on the same street. Families playing together, kids playing with other kids...  I feel like as a teenager I would avoid anywhere that adults were, but here they all play together. It's heartwarming!
• einen Schaufensterbummel machen, or window shopping - The stores in Austria close obscenely early, around 7 PM. As the days grow longer, this means that the sun is still high in the sky when they shut, leaving everyone to find other activities to entertain themselves. The stores often set up elaborate displays (especially shoe and clothing stores) which people look at at all hours of the night. I've seen people window shopping at 1 AM - no joke. Anyway, as a former business student/human, I can't help but wonder, wouldn't it be effective to have the stores open later hours? There are customers literally standing outside the shops admiring the goods! Ah, Austria and your traditions...

We scream for ice cream (in Krems!)

• Ice cream - Have I mentioned how much I love ice cream here? The flavor options are fantastic, though I usually just choose nutella and banana. Or green apple. Or pineapple. Anyway, I literally fight the urge to stop and buy an ice cream cone daily. They're so cheap, and everyone walks around rubbing their delicious ice cream in my face (okay not really, but it does seem that way...).
• Long days - I go to bed around 930 and the sky is just losing it's finally lightness. I woke up at 4:45 this morning (standard procedure) and discovered that the sky was already blue. It's pretty nice to be able to be outside basically during all of my waking hours and discover that it's still light out and not scary.
• Schönbrunn - I know I talk about this park all the time, but it's the best. I've discovered a new hidden area only accessible by climbing through a bush, where I can read my book in peace while listening to the sounds of people walking around me. Also, a squirrel touched me of his own free will. Kind of gross, but mostly cute.

Finally, let me describe one of my favorite little moments I've had: today, while walking around 9 PM, I passed an elderly man listening to some great Austrian music from a boombox. Only in spring can one jam so publicly. 

Mai Goodness, it's May

Maibaum in stormy Moedling

Well, friends and family, it's May, also known as the last full month I have in this country. Incidentally, did you know that no other month starts on the same weekday as May? June has the same problem.


May so far has been nice. Austrians celebrate May Day too, but differently. The cities each erect their own Maibaum (may pole/may tree) in the cities. These trees are crazy tall, some are even taller than the nearby churches! I'm not sure about the selection process of these may poles... find the tallest tree in the nearby forest and cut it down? Anyway, I think many Northwesterners would freak out about the murdered tree, but I think it's quaint. The tree took about 15 minutes to put up. which I had not expected, but it meant that I got to have a good, hard look at all the people of Mödling.



Like the stereotypical maypole, ribbons are attached to the maypole and people dance around it in interesting, weaving patterns. Unfortunately, these people were not the young, single people of the town, but rather the middle-aged or older crowd who have been suckered into doing this dance every year for decades.


In other May news, my tourism school sort of tricked me into doing something interesting. A few months ago, someone asked me if I'd like to lead a workshop in their Sporttag, or sports day, and naturally, I accepted without really thinking about it (Americans often make promises they don't intend to keep, if you'll remember my previous blog post on Americans). Anyway, sports day happened to be today, and on Monday I found myself terrified at the idea of teaching some Austrian teenagers how to be cheerleaders (not that I was actually a cheerleader, but no one in Austria understands drill team). I choreographed a short routine, briefed myself on the old games we used to play on drill (ride my pony, anyone?), and got to school early to set up my classroom, discovering that the room was full of chairs and desks, which I moved and stacked in about 15 minutes... only to find out I was in the wrong room. Bad start. Anyway, the workshop went great! The kids actually remembered what I taught them, and they looked like they were having fun. I myself had a GREAT time. Teaching would be a lot easier if I could just start dancing whenever I felt awkward.

 Schönbrunn, looking lovely

Of course, May is also the month where spring is FINALLY visible! Schönbrunn is looking fantastically green this time of year. Being here, often outside and thus exposed to the elements, has confirmed my belief that I am a spring person. There's nothing like the first ice cream of spring, the first day of laying out in the sun with a book or the first springtime bike ride.


I only have about 40 days left in this country, and only 12 days left of teaching. There are a couple things I want to do before I leave Austria, but my primary goal is to finally finish my first real German novel. So far, I'm finished with 470 pages out of 605! Getting close!

Traveling Woman, pt. 2

Austria is Catholic, and as Catholics, they really believe in celebrating Easter. Luckily for me (and every other TA in this country), that means a 2 week vacation for me! I took the opportunity to get out of Austria and instead head south to the land of carbs, cheese and gelato... yes, Italy.

Guess where this is!

Venice (April 16-17) - I've been to Venice before, with the University of Portland Salzburg group back in 2008, but unfortunately for us, it was pouring rain then. This time around, Taylor, Jenni and I explored the city with about 50,000 other tourists. Really, Venice is kind of crazy... It seems to me that everyone there must either work in tourism or be a tourist themselves. By the end of our 2 days there, we were all nearly tricked into buying an unnecessary mask or glass dish of some sort... but I'm ranting. Venice truly is a city built around the canals, with police vehicles and even ambulances cruising in the water, dodging through the tourists on gondolas. 

Scott scampering on some rocks in Riomaggiore

Cinque Terre (April 17-22) - Oh goodness, there's so much to say about the Cinque Terre. As Taylor exclaimed immediately after leaving the train station at 11:30 PM, "I love it so much!". The Cinque Terre are five coastal towns (hence "Cinque Terre") connected by a train track and hike-able paths. We chose to stay in Corniglia, the middle and smallest of the five towns, with a population less than the number of stairs it takes to reach it (382 or so, which is a lot of stairs after a 4 hour hike.). Our group of ladies was joined by another TA, Scott, and we four followed Rick Steves's walking tours around all of the Cinque Terre and two bonus cities. The views from the hikes were fantastic, the towns were quaint, the tourists were at a minimum, and the gelato was abundant... basically it was five days in heaven. Also, I saw my first real fireflies (!!!) although I may have nearly killed one in my excitement. I truly hope I can return to the Cinque Terre at some other point in my life, because it seems like a place where many new things can be discovered. Thanks, Rick Steves!

A view of Manarola... the colors were fantastic!

A tourist doing the typical "holding up the tower" pose.

Pisa (April 21) - Pisa, as most people know, is home to a rather famous but useless building: the Leaning Tower of Pisa. We took a 2 hour stop in Pisa solely to see this photo-worthy tower and discovered that yes, folks, it really does lean! Construction on the building started in 1178, and they noticed quickly that it was leaning, so, to compensate, the constructors decided to build the next couple levels with one side shorter than the other. Logical, right? Anyway, other than the tower Pisa left a lot to be desired. If Pisa ever tires of its tourist, it just needs to take down the tower to become another medium-sized, somewhat boring Italian city. Problem solved!

A bookstore we found in Florence. I can only imagine
 how difficult it is to find a specific book in there!

Florence (April 21-23) - After our brief stop in Pisa, we continued on our journey to Florence, the home of lots of art and people selling fake brand-name things. We took a nice walk around the city and saw all the sights (which Jenni and I had seen before when we came with UP), but for me the best part of the stay was our hostel (Plus Florence Hostel, if you're curious)! Among other amenities, there was a pool, sauna and Turkish spa of which we certainly took advantage. Returning to the "big" (population: 367,000) city of Florence proved to be a bit overwhelming after our relaxing break in Cinque Terre. Florence is a big study abroad hot-spot, and I can see why. The city is big yet easy to navigate, and there are lots of interesting museums and churches for art history people to study. Plus, it's nice looking.

Anyway, I'm happy to be back in Austria. The strange thing about major tourist areas is that English is spoken more often than the native language, and definitely not just by native English speakers! It's strange to be able to understand everyone around you, since the majority of what people talk about is either complaining or just nonsense. It's kind of nice to be in Austria, where every conversation going on around me is a mystery that I can try to understand or not. Vacations are great because you can see so much and learn a lot about other cultures, but they have a tendency to become a major money-sucker, which frugal people like me tend to stress about.

Traveling Woman, pt. 1

I've been doing some traveling recently, which has been interesting. Traveling makes me appreciate what I've got here in Vienna while also helping me learn interesting things about other places. A few weekends ago, I took a trip with my friend Laura to Sofia, Bulgaria. I won't talk about everything, but here are some highlights (in no particular order, to keep everyone on their toes):

Rila Monastery (take a peek at the awesome frescoes!)

• Rila Monastery - On our second day in Sofia, we participated in an excursion offered from our hostel, and we took a terrifying (because of our crazy driver) two hour drive into the mountains near Sofia. We ended up at the Monastery of Saint Ivan of Rila, an impressive complex built originally in the 10th century, though most what is left was built in the 19th century. The church in the middle is beautiful, with fantastically colorful frescoes everywhere! Also, we some some monks walking around... and I like monks.

• Free walking tour - Our first day, Laura insisted that we take a free walking tour of the city, which was a great idea! We got to visit all the important places of Sofia with someone telling us interesting things about them. Sofia is on top of a natural spring (rather than a river or lake like most European cities), and we got to see some Sofians filling 5 gallon jugs with water. Also, I won a prize for answering a trivia question. 



These bracelets are tied to trees during spring

after a Bulgarian sees a stork, to bring good

luck in the following year! I have one, but I've

never seen a stork... so no good luck yet.

• Our hostel - In Sofia, we stayed in a lovely hostel called Hostel Mostel. The hostel offered a complimentary breakfast (with 2 kinds of cheese, apples, yogurt, tomatoes AND ham!) and pasta dinner, and the friendly atmosphere made everyone feel comfortable sitting around and making small talk. We met a lot of interesting people in the hostel who often joined us on our adventures, which was great. To top it off, the hostel was dirt cheap! Overall, it was a win.

• Learning about their crazy history - Sofia as a city has had a lot of leadership issues. It's history starts with the Thracians around the 4th century BC, which was followed by leadership by the Romans for a while. In the 800s, it became part of the Bulgarian Empire (yay!). An influential part of Sofia's history was when it was part of the Ottoman empire, from 1382 until 1878. The Turks turned some of the older churches into mosques and did a lot of other things that the Sofians didn't really like. Finally in 1878 Sofia was liberated by Russia. After siding with Germany in WWII, Bulgaria formed a Communist government, which was abolished in 1989. See, I told you it was crazy!!!! I can hardly fathom how they've managed to maintain their culture and sense of identity throughout this whole mess.
• Cheap food - Vienna is expensive. Sofia is cheap. I ate a lot. 

Alexander Nevski Church

• Talking to my cab driver in German - One of my favorite moments in Sofia was in the taxi ride back to the airport. While my driver was on the phone, I looked out my window and saw 1. a man reading the newspaper while driving, 2. a man rollerblading the wrong direction through traffic and 3. a man eating a sandwich and talking on the phone while driving. And people wonder while Sofia is such a nightmare, traffic-wise. Anyway, the driver and I had a great talk in German, which put me in a good mood. It's fun to speak German with people who also don't speak it perfectly, since neither of us is intimidated!  

Laura, Sloth and Guillaume enjoying baklava!

Anyway, Sofia was an interesting city, but definitely not like Vienna. It's much poorer and less stable, but the people were still very kind to a pair of non-Bulgarian-speaking American girls. At one point, we got lost while looking for a church, and asked for directions in a movie store... I ended up speaking in broken English to a women on a cell phone, because these kind Sofians were willing to do anything to help.

Appreciating and things

As June 14th comes closer, I find myself thinking more and more about what I'm going to miss about Austria when I'm back in the States. It's been a strange year, of course... sometimes exciting and wonderful, sometimes really difficult. But there are lots of little things I really dig that don't exist where I come from.

1. Relaxation - Austrians love to take it easy. My teachers are consistently 5 minutes late to class (always commenting on how I'm ready to go when the bell rings... which would still make me tardy by American standards), and they really value sitting for a mment to drink their coffee. I tend to live my life bordering on being over-stressed, so it's nice to be surrounded by people who are never going to pressure me time-wise.

2. Aufstrich - Aufstrich is a wonderful spread found in most grocery stores here. It's made up of soy beans mixed with vegetables, garlic and some spices. Personally, I like to put tomato-basil on my sandwiches and eat curry-pineapple with my plain bread. I guess it's kind of like hummus.. only less tahini, and more variety.

3. Public transportation - When I go to work, I ride the train for about 3 hours a day. I am so glad that time is not spent driving a car, but rather in the comfort of a train where I can spread out, read, eat, study or sleep! The underground in Vienna is also a great way to get around the city, since it goes basically everywhere I need to go. It even runs all night on the weekends! I hate having to pay for a monthly transportation pass, but it definitely is cheaper than driving... so that's great.

4. Ability to speak German at any time - I like speaking (correct) German, a lot. It's a fun language for me; kind of mathematical, sometimes English-like, sometimes absolutely different from everything I know. Sure, I don't speak it all the time, but it's pretty cool to be able to practice whenever I want! I've been making some serious progress with my small-talking skills, which helps me feel comfortable. Anyway, I don't get the chance to speak much German in the States.

Austria is cute!

5. Picturesque countrysides - I wish I could explain the quaintness of Austrian villages. 3 or 4 onion-shaped church towers (does anyone know what that style is really called?) surrounded by peaks of red roofs... It's adorable. Not to mention the bunnies and deer that I see daily, and the Danube! I love my train ride and the chance to see such a cute countryside.

6. Brown eggs - Eating a white hardboiled egg just isn't the same... I'm always afraid I'll eat the shell.

7. Teaching - Teaching has made me smarter and wiser about current events, history and the world in general and I really like doing it! I'll definitely miss gathering all the fun facts I have learned this year (such as: Austria gets 39% of its energy from rivers, there are 300,000 homeless people in America, and 34% of Americans are obese!).  It's fun to help my students realize new things, and really awesome to see them make progress. Don't know if I'll manage to incorporate this into my future or not... only time will tell.

So, yes. Austria is great and different.

(But I still can hardly wait for Stumptown coffee, Indian food, a dryer and the ability to sing in my car while driving where I need to go!)

My Precious

It finally happened. I have been banned from a class.

Okaay it's not really that bad - the students are particularly unenthusiastic and they're behind anyway, so I've been relocated to another classroom so I can be put to better use. As their teacher said, "You're too precious to go to waste in this class!"

Some "native speakers" hanging out in Krems

"Precious"... that word has such strange connotations to me. Firstly, it makes me think of my friends sarcastically complimenting me for being dressed like a 10 year old girl, which made me chuckle inappropriately when the teacher said this. Then, I think of some sort of rare, expensive jewel, which also seems kind of strange to me. But then I thought about it a bit. A native speaker IS a rare, expensive thing. These students have been watching American movies and TV their whole lives but very few have ever really had a chance to speak to an American, to see what kind of things we say in real life. I'm sure the teachers of these classes don't walk in saying 'What's up guuuys?" or many other things that may be considered "slang" but are just considered to be normal conversation for me. Not to be self-centered, but English is an important language in the world, particularly in business and tourism. I don't know how many times I've heard people on a train conversing in English, though it is obvious that neither is speaking their native language. English is the most commonly spoken language in the word (except Chinese?) and having a basic understanding of it helps make an international life easier.

For that reason, I'm lucky; I speak English pretty darn well, though not perfectly, let's be honest! English is an interesting language because it's constantly changing. I have a theory that slang in English progresses faster than slang in any other language because the native speakers are a. striving to differentiate themselves from other English speakers, and b. striving to differentiate themselves from people who don't speak English natively. The United States and England have only been separated for approximately 400 years, but there's still plenty of terms the Brits use that I've never heard of (hob? aubergine? bin?!).

In Krems-Stein

Anyway, I can't judge my students for not taking advantage of talking to me, because I struggle to take advantage of the 8 million Austrians surrounding me. This year has been full of a lot of self discovery, but unfortunately a large part of that discovery is that I'm antisocial and I don't like looking foolish and making language mistakes. Also, I could talk to any old Austrian just to practice German, but I don't know what to talk about! So, instead, I adventure Vienna by myself (citybike, a free bike service, is currently rocking my world), read great books and occasionally make small talk with the man who works at Spar.

In other news, my school had its Maturaball on Saturday! I took the opportunity to be the only person to speak English to my students at this event, and had a great time! It was fun to see my favorite teachers, it was fun to see my favorite students, it was fun to dance like a crazy American.

Not that I'm counting, but I counted and I've got 11 weeks left here in Austria. It's kind of refreshing to know the exact number. The time pressure encourages me to go out and go see the museums I have been meaning to see, while also making me want to end everything on a good note. It's easy to stay positive in the springtime when trees are blossoming and people are outside and bunnies are bounding across fields.

Being a Seattle Rain-Lover

I'll admit. I've been a bad blogger recently. I've been struggling with some homesickness/real sickness that has kind of made life here not something I felt like writing about. Sorry, I'll try to be better.

Today I experienced something wonderful! Something that I am used to having almost daily, something which gives life and takes away life (everything has pros and cons, folks) and mostly, gets things wet.

Yes, RAIN!

To you Northwesters, this probably sounds crazy, because it rains all the time there and what's the big deal about rain? And to you non-Northwesters, this also probably sounds crazy, because who likes rain!? Turns out, I do. it never rains here. Sure, it rained once or twice in October, but I didn't miss rain then. We also had a lot of snow, which is precipitation but of the wrong kind (it's too cold).

I opened my windows at 4PM to see the glorious sight of rain falling into the courtyard (I should mention that I've been ill and bedridden since Tuesday afternoon - standing is difficult. Also, this could have added to my delirium). I immediately donned my raincoat and headed out the door.

I had forgotten what cars and footsteps sound like in the rain, heavier and snappier. I had forgotten how rain strengthens all scents, making mud smell muddier, cigarettes smell cigarette-ier and Indian food smell Indian food-ier (who knew that was possible?!). It's the smell of waking up, of life, of spring! Feeling my cheek, rain makes me wonder if I'm crying, while also making me feel like I've just stepped out of a shower. It's confusing and wonderful and reminds me of home.

I talk about Seattle a lot in my schools, because no one's ever heard of Portland, and everyone's heard of Sleepless in Seattle or Grey's Anatomy. Both show a lot of rainy scenes of Seattle, and it's true, it does rain a lot. But it's not the rainiest city in the US, apparently, even though we like to brag that it is "the Rainy City". I guess it just rains... often. Anyway, like I said, I've been dealing with some homesickness lately. The weather has been lovely (rain, yes, but also lots of sun and warmth!) and I've done interesting things but I'm finding myself ready to return home. I guess it's that kind of lull in the year where I can see the end but it's just far enough out of reach where I can't comprehend what it's going to feel like. I'm pretty tired of struggling with Austrian-German and am looking forward to a time where I feel comfortable and not like an outsider. But I guess that's part of the big lessons of this year - learning how to keep myself happy, learning how to be okay with being a bit unhappy, and most of all learning patience. Which, unfortunately, can only be learned very slowly.