I went back to church at Rotenmühlgasse this week and felt more comfortable, since this was the 4th time I attended at the same place. Each week progressively becomes more comfortable, as I grow in my understanding of the congregation and the best ways to relate to them. I was excited to meet an English international student, Katie, who visited the church due to a connection with an English woman who goes there. We hit it off well and I introduced her to a leader of ÖSM, Johannes, who also attends our church. We went out for a lunch at a Bosnian restaurant nearby with the English women whom Katie knows, Rachel. Although we all speak English as our native language, we ended up speaking German together at lunch. Rachel has lived in Austria for several years, so I imagine she is almost more comfortable in German than English. Katie and I now often talk in German to practice with each other! I really love finding other Anglophones comfortable enough to carry conversations in a foreign language, even though we have the same native language!
23 February
On Monday, I went to school early in the morning for my teaching internship. In the first period, I helped my older students with a small craft they needed to complete. They created cut out paper figures with images of people from different nations and then pasted them onto popsicle sticks. The students then practiced several English phrases by describing their different characters. With the younger students, I shared a presentation with basic facts about myself to help them become more familiar with the daily life of a person in America. They then copied down several phrases from the presentation as practice.
For this presentation, students from two different classrooms combined to listen to me speak. Eva Maria pointed out the difference between her teaching style and the other teacher´s style. The students they both work with become rowdy quickly, meaning she constantly needs to keep in mind the big picture of the routine and student behavior in the classroom. The other teacher often gets caught up with small problems or individual conversations, thus more easily losing control of his group of students. Eva Maria also pointed out that I am hyper-aware of my surroundings and will pick up slack where other people are not working. She explained that I need to learn from the other teacher´s behavior and my own, in order to avoid burnout in future professional situations. Keeping the big picture in mind and delegating tasks to others will prove vital in the future to manage people well, so the group remains calm and becomes more independent by completing tasks on their own. I appreciated her advice and stowed it away for future application.
I endured another murderous Managing Behavior in Organizations lecture in the afternoon and headed to a museum in the evening, called Haus der Musik. One of the student services staff took students on a tour there earlier in the semester, although I unfortunately missed the tour with her. The museum showed a variety of things related to music, particularly the history of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. The orchestra is extremely selective, pulling musicians who have already played at the Royal Viennese Theater (Burgtheater). Other exhibits included displays on the life of famous Austrian musicians including Mozart, Beethoven, and members of the Strauss family. A particular fascinating exhibit includes an explanation of the hearing process in the human body. Going to museums like these helps stretch my German understanding and absorb new words, especially more scientific words like the parts of the ear (all of which I remember perfectly, of course...not).
24 February
We had an exam today regarding separable and inseparable verbs today in German. Basically, some verbs exist in German which have a prefix. Sometimes the prefix is placed at the end of the sentence. Such verbs bear a completely different meaning. The only difference is whether the first or second syllable is stressed. Fun, right? Only way to survive this concept is to memorize a list of verbs. Fortunately, the test turned out well!
In the evening, I attended a play at the Burgtheater for my Viennese theater class. The play was called "The Evil Spirit, Lumpazivagabundus" and the plot focused on three young tradesman controlled by the evil spirit. The drama was set in the context of two warring fairies, who made a bet about the result of the tradesmans' lives and whether or not they would make wrong choices. We had prime seats in the theater, right in the center on the first balcony. Our teacher said they were among the best he ever managed to buy for his class! During the pause, our teacher showed us the lobby of the theater and explained the artwork and paintings in it. I appreciated his explanations of famous actors depicted in the paintings and the philosophical meanings of different scenes. So often old European buildings contain gorgeous artwork, but I cannot appreciate it as well without an explanation of the symbolism. Our teacher, Günter Haika, is pretty awesome...I mean, he plays in a rock band, no big deal.
25 February
Today marked my third meeting with the young boy whom I tutor in English, Laurenz. He is the nephew of my landlady, Amina. I have not tutored someone this closely before, so I am learning alongside Laurenz, albeit on the educator rather than student side. Each week I learn more about his personality and new strategies to help him with his reading comprehension, like asking Who/What/Where/Why/How questions. Last week he wanted to complete English homework with me, which his mom encouraged. This week he asked for help on that again and I realized afterwards that we should focus on reading first in the coming weeks. Doing the homework takes time away from practicing reading comprehension, since he will soon took an entrance test for an American international school. After tutoring Laurenz, I finally had the chance to meet Yasmin, his mom. We talked over things together and I appreciated getting to meet another member of Amina's family. It's so cool to be a part of an international network of people who know one another!
In the evening, I went to a play called "The Boxer" in Theater in der Josefstadt. I had met a friend of Lisa's during my first week here and we talked about going to the theater together before. We finally found time to go together to this play in one of the most beautiful theaters in Vienna! The play's plot focused on the family of a gypsy boxer during World War II. Similar to Jews, Gypsies were persecuted during the war based on their race. The play shows a researcher conducting a massive project to track the Gypsies in Europe. Despite his race, the boxer ends up winning several competitions, particularly against one well-known German boxer. The rest of the play recounts the tragedy of their fate within the war, in which they all pass away in concentration camps. The Boxer survives nearly until the end of the war in a concentration camp, where he reunites with his brother and faces his old German boxing competitor. I enjoyed watching the play with Franziska (not my language buddy, Fransizka). She studies German at the University of Vienna and loves going to the theater. She showed us lots of details about the theater and introduced me to other friends of hers who came along! A wonderful night...thankful for Austrians who take the time to hang out even though I am only here for a few months!
26 February
In Viennese Theater, ever awesome Günter reviewed with us the play we went to see on Tuesday. We talked about the importance of different costumes and stage sets for this production of the play, along with the meaning of different points within the plot. He also introduced to us the next production we would see, entitled Am Ziel by Thomas Bernhard, a critical Austrian playwright and author. I began to look forward to learning more about Thomas Bernhard, since Dr. Chaouli back at IU had mentioned his unique writing style to me.
After classes, our small group had Bible study again due to vacation coming to a close. This Bible study occurred about a month after the original one which I attended. I enjoyed noting the difference in my ability to understand between my first small group meeting and this one. Although our leader speaks quietly, I could understand him much better now and more fully express myself in response on theological concepts.
27 February - 2 March
I planned this weekend to visit an old family friend and her husband, who live close to Cologne. I booked a flight to Düsseldorf, which is quite close to Cologne and planned to take a train down into the city. Unfortunately, the weekend ended up being a nightmarish travel experience. My problems started on the way to the airport, when I realized I had forgotten my passport. As I planned to board the train to the airport, I realized that my passport was not in my purse, thus preventing me from getting to my flight on time. Booking a flight a different weekend would cost a significant amount of money, so I decided to take a super cheap overnight bus to Cologne. 13 hours later I arrived in Cologne, tired and hungry, but still ready to see the city with Heather.
My visit to Cologne turned out very nicely, allowing me to see several beautiful sights inside the city. In the morning, Heather and I walked around the old town area of Cologne, where she showed me Alter Markt and the Kölner Dom. The Rhine cuts through the center of Cologne, dividing the old town and the more industrial side of the city. The overall atmosphere of the city feels more industrial and modern than other European cities. However, the soaring Kölner Dom, one of the oldest and largest cathedrals in Europe, defies all efforts to modernize the Cologne skyline. The inside of the cathedral is lit by sunlight streaming in through the original stained glass windows, which depict a plethora of scenes from the Bible and saints' lives. A shrine in the center of the church supposedly holds the bones of the three wisemen, whose history I read about in its connection with the church. I left the cathedral profoundly touched by its beauty and the way it has pointed to God for many long centuries.
26 February
In Viennese Theater, ever awesome Günter reviewed with us the play we went to see on Tuesday. We talked about the importance of different costumes and stage sets for this production of the play, along with the meaning of different points within the plot. He also introduced to us the next production we would see, entitled Am Ziel by Thomas Bernhard, a critical Austrian playwright and author. I began to look forward to learning more about Thomas Bernhard, since Dr. Chaouli back at IU had mentioned his unique writing style to me.
After classes, our small group had Bible study again due to vacation coming to a close. This Bible study occurred about a month after the original one which I attended. I enjoyed noting the difference in my ability to understand between my first small group meeting and this one. Although our leader speaks quietly, I could understand him much better now and more fully express myself in response on theological concepts.
27 February - 2 March
I planned this weekend to visit an old family friend and her husband, who live close to Cologne. I booked a flight to Düsseldorf, which is quite close to Cologne and planned to take a train down into the city. Unfortunately, the weekend ended up being a nightmarish travel experience. My problems started on the way to the airport, when I realized I had forgotten my passport. As I planned to board the train to the airport, I realized that my passport was not in my purse, thus preventing me from getting to my flight on time. Booking a flight a different weekend would cost a significant amount of money, so I decided to take a super cheap overnight bus to Cologne. 13 hours later I arrived in Cologne, tired and hungry, but still ready to see the city with Heather.
My visit to Cologne turned out very nicely, allowing me to see several beautiful sights inside the city. In the morning, Heather and I walked around the old town area of Cologne, where she showed me Alter Markt and the Kölner Dom. The Rhine cuts through the center of Cologne, dividing the old town and the more industrial side of the city. The overall atmosphere of the city feels more industrial and modern than other European cities. However, the soaring Kölner Dom, one of the oldest and largest cathedrals in Europe, defies all efforts to modernize the Cologne skyline. The inside of the cathedral is lit by sunlight streaming in through the original stained glass windows, which depict a plethora of scenes from the Bible and saints' lives. A shrine in the center of the church supposedly holds the bones of the three wisemen, whose history I read about in its connection with the church. I left the cathedral profoundly touched by its beauty and the way it has pointed to God for many long centuries.
Heather and I headed to a pizza and pasta restaurant for lunch, where I enjoyed a yummy pasta with mushrooms and tomatoes. We headed off to explore a couple museums in the afternoon after lunch, particularly the Romanish-Germanisches Museum, which contains a huge amount of Roman ruins. One of the highlights of the museum are the original tile floors from old Roman houses which exist within the museum. The floors contains millions of tiny tiles which form designs of Roman philosophers, gods, and mythological figures. Amazing that the floors still exist after all these centuries!
We finished up our afternoon at the Schokoladenmuseum, which shows the entire process of how chocolate is made. It depicts the process from start to finish, from growing cacao beans to processing and making them into chocolate. The museum even contains a mini chocolate factory inside! One of the neat temporary exhibits was a model of the Three Wisemen's Shrine, completely made out of chocolate! I also enjoyed reading about the history of chocolate in Europe, which described how it originally come to the continent and became a widespread good.
After returning to Heather and her husband's house, we had a snack of bread, cheese, and yogurt and then headed over to the church to hang out with the youth and Heather's husband, Mike, the youth pastor. I noticed right away that the German of people in this area is clear, but very fast! I found it easier to catch on to them than Austrians, but it took a little while since I am accustomed to the Austrian lilt and accent. I also broke another barrier in German today, because I was able to play Taboo in German. I guessed several words and described several properly to help my team! Definitely not as well as in English, but I still contributed! :-)
On Sunday morning, I went to church with the Lepperts and heard Mike preach. I appreciated his sermon on grace and living out of God's strength, rather than our own. It's such a joy to worship in another language and understand the majority of what is happening! I found that joy a little hard to maintain later in the day, though, as I headed home. Upon arriving at the airport, I realized my booking agency had cancelled the second leg of my flight. This meant a 2nd 13-hour bus ride back to Vienna...during which I accidentally lost my wallet. I fortunately remembered the exact place I left it and asked the bus driver the time of the town and gas station where I left it. This meant another 2.5 round trip bus ride and a short taxi ride to pick up my wallet. I endured a 2nd half of my Managing Behaviour in Organizations lecture in the afternoon and finally got home by about 7 pm in one piece, only missing every ounce of energy in my body!
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