As the weeks pass seemingly quicker by, I become more aware that I
will leave Austria soon. These final days are an emotional up-and-down
and full of busyness between finishing up final projects here and
working on arrangements back home for next school year.
My
experience with strange food and overly friendly Austrians actually
repeated itself in the evening when I found myself on the way over to
Bible study after tutoring and running in the afternoon. I stopped to
grab a quick snack and some clementines to contribute to Bible study
snacks. In typical Austrian fashion, only a couple stores remained open
at around 7 pm in the evening. I managed to snag a couple things from a
fruit shop before getting back onto the Schnellbahn (fast
train). Part of my snack was a small, hard sweet roll with a filling of
poppy seeds. Poppy seeds are very popular with Austria and are often
mixed with sugar to create a paste that fills the inside of many
pastries. Until now, I had not tasted any poppy seed filled pastries,
but I realized that I prefer not eat them. The poppy seed filling
tasted extremely potent and overwhelming, making it hard to finish the
small, dense pastry.
The Austrian I met on the way home from Bible study certainly did not feign an attitude of politeness, but rather started talking to me quite animatedly on the Schnellbahn. Some children were playing a funny game in seats near us and I laughed a little, smiling at the older man across from me. He then proceeded to launch into a conversation with me about sports, telling me that he was the only man in his yoga class. He told me a couple very silly jokes and didn't fail to include the details of his consulting business in our conversation either. At the end he gave me his number before I stepped off the train. I looked back a little to make sure he wasn't following me - so odd to be told jokes on a train by a 60-something Austrian man!
30 April
27 April
I
feel so free without my internship commitment on Monday mornings! I
appreciated having the extra time to catch up on a few bits of school
which I could not manage to finish over the weekend. The rest of the day
ended up being quite busy with classes and then a play in the evening
for my Viennese Theater class. Today we had our last teaching
internship class with Heidi and she raised all of our emotions a little
bit with her sentimentalism about everything we experienced in Austria
so far. Our teaching internships have truly been a unique opportunity,
as we received the chance to go straight into Austrian schools and help
out with classes. We will always treasure this time abroad in our
hearts and need to figure out ways to stay connected with it, since it
has forever changed us. In the evening I attended a performance of Die Schutzbefohlenen,
a play by Nobel prize winning Austrian author, Elfrida Jelinek. The
plot of the play focuses on refugees in Austria, a topic which has been
near and dear to my heart in Austria due to the many refugee and
immigrant students in the classes at my internship. Very powerful to
see real life portrayed on the stage. However, I noticed that all the
actors portraying the refugees came from Austria - interesting twist
that people from the refugees' native countries were not included.
Honestly, I find this quite offensive on the part of the Burgtheater.
28 April
Different feelings tugged at my heart as I began to approach the end of classes and assignments due at the semester's end. On the one hand, I wanted to savor the end of my learning experiences, but I also wanted to simply finish them so I could remain free to spend time with people during my last days in Austria. I spent time in my regular Tuesday classes and we talked about Die Schutzbefohlenen in my
Viennese Theater class. I appreciated Dr. Haika's reflections on the play, which helped me understand the symbolism of the costumes and the set of the play. The actors wore these masks made of plastic bags at the beginning and end of the play, which he pointed out as representing the water-logged faces of people who have drowned. The refugees in the play had survived, but their voices represented the many refugees who succumbed to the sea on their flight. This symbol will resonate with me for a long time to come.
In the evening I headed home to finish working on my Seminararbeit (semester paper), which was due for Cultural History of Austria the next day. We only needed to write 4 pages, but I ended up writing 5 pages due to my inability to write concisely (as you, my most faithful readers, have come to learn from this blog!). I reviewed and edited everything in the evening, so that I could turn it in to Frau Schachermeier in the morning.
29 April
I woke up at an unearthly hour to go to Gebetsfrühstück (prayer breakfast) for ÖSM, which happened to be at the same place as a different time and I found it super easy to find! I appreciate these times in prayer with the students, as we focus on God in the morning and lift many in Austria up to Him in prayer. I still find praying in German very challenging, since the language is often different than everyday speech. But every time to practice helps!
At 9:00 am, we met at IES for a tour called "Hitler in Vienna" for my last Cultural History of Austria class. A friend of Frau Schachermeier's took us on a nearly 2.5 hour tour of Vienna, showing us several important spots which played an influential role in Hitler's life. She gave us so many details about his life, including many stories which I had never heard before. For instance, we stopped by the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera), where Hitler always went to the performances of Wagner's operas. Later we dropped in at Die Akademie der bildenden Kunst (Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna), where Hitler was rejected and thus failed to fulfill his dream to become an artist. I found it quite eerie to stand outside the apartment building where Hitler once lived, especially since it actually looked quite similar in the 1930s, according to our tour guide. He often would go down the street to pick up food from a soup kitchen, because he was so poor. I find it unbelievable that he arose from his homeless state to his horrific political reign in Germany. It saddens me that much of the Aryan views upon which he acted during his reign actually arose during his time here in Vienna, because of the anti-Semitic cultural and philosophical influences of the time.
After the end of the tour, I dropped by a sausage shop on the way home to pick up salami for lunch sandwiches and had a rather strange encounter with a Viennese man, along with realizing my disgust for certain types of sausages. The man in the store asked me a question and we started talking about the store, which he apparently regularly visits for his salami. He recommended the house salami to me, which ended up being quite good as I discovered later. He simply would not stop talking to me about different types of food and recipes, which I found quite odd coming from an Austrian, since Austrians normally avoid excessive small talk with strangers. As I looked around the store, I noticed the many different types of unappealing meat available, such as Presswurst and Leberkäse. Presswurst is a sausage which contains large chunks of well, uh, I´m not really sure what. Leberkäse is this loaf of processed meat, often filled with melting cheese (Käseleberkäse) or little chunks of vegetables (Pikantwurst). I used to think I loved sausage, but this level of processing, smooshing, and unknown meat bits simply proves too much for me. Here are pictures for your reference:
Different feelings tugged at my heart as I began to approach the end of classes and assignments due at the semester's end. On the one hand, I wanted to savor the end of my learning experiences, but I also wanted to simply finish them so I could remain free to spend time with people during my last days in Austria. I spent time in my regular Tuesday classes and we talked about Die Schutzbefohlenen in my
Viennese Theater class. I appreciated Dr. Haika's reflections on the play, which helped me understand the symbolism of the costumes and the set of the play. The actors wore these masks made of plastic bags at the beginning and end of the play, which he pointed out as representing the water-logged faces of people who have drowned. The refugees in the play had survived, but their voices represented the many refugees who succumbed to the sea on their flight. This symbol will resonate with me for a long time to come.
In the evening I headed home to finish working on my Seminararbeit (semester paper), which was due for Cultural History of Austria the next day. We only needed to write 4 pages, but I ended up writing 5 pages due to my inability to write concisely (as you, my most faithful readers, have come to learn from this blog!). I reviewed and edited everything in the evening, so that I could turn it in to Frau Schachermeier in the morning.
29 April
I woke up at an unearthly hour to go to Gebetsfrühstück (prayer breakfast) for ÖSM, which happened to be at the same place as a different time and I found it super easy to find! I appreciate these times in prayer with the students, as we focus on God in the morning and lift many in Austria up to Him in prayer. I still find praying in German very challenging, since the language is often different than everyday speech. But every time to practice helps!
At 9:00 am, we met at IES for a tour called "Hitler in Vienna" for my last Cultural History of Austria class. A friend of Frau Schachermeier's took us on a nearly 2.5 hour tour of Vienna, showing us several important spots which played an influential role in Hitler's life. She gave us so many details about his life, including many stories which I had never heard before. For instance, we stopped by the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera), where Hitler always went to the performances of Wagner's operas. Later we dropped in at Die Akademie der bildenden Kunst (Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna), where Hitler was rejected and thus failed to fulfill his dream to become an artist. I found it quite eerie to stand outside the apartment building where Hitler once lived, especially since it actually looked quite similar in the 1930s, according to our tour guide. He often would go down the street to pick up food from a soup kitchen, because he was so poor. I find it unbelievable that he arose from his homeless state to his horrific political reign in Germany. It saddens me that much of the Aryan views upon which he acted during his reign actually arose during his time here in Vienna, because of the anti-Semitic cultural and philosophical influences of the time.
After the end of the tour, I dropped by a sausage shop on the way home to pick up salami for lunch sandwiches and had a rather strange encounter with a Viennese man, along with realizing my disgust for certain types of sausages. The man in the store asked me a question and we started talking about the store, which he apparently regularly visits for his salami. He recommended the house salami to me, which ended up being quite good as I discovered later. He simply would not stop talking to me about different types of food and recipes, which I found quite odd coming from an Austrian, since Austrians normally avoid excessive small talk with strangers. As I looked around the store, I noticed the many different types of unappealing meat available, such as Presswurst and Leberkäse. Presswurst is a sausage which contains large chunks of well, uh, I´m not really sure what. Leberkäse is this loaf of processed meat, often filled with melting cheese (Käseleberkäse) or little chunks of vegetables (Pikantwurst). I used to think I loved sausage, but this level of processing, smooshing, and unknown meat bits simply proves too much for me. Here are pictures for your reference:
 |
| Käseleberkäse |
 | |
| Presswurst |
I enjoyed my time
in Bible study, especially as we talked about communication styles. I
found it hilarious as an American to hear all these Austrian girls talk
about how ridiculously indirectly Austrians prefer to communicate! I
also learned a fun new idiom: durch die Blumen zu reden
(literally: to talk through the flowers). That's basically used to
express a feigned attitude of politeness in your speech, when you
actually mean something completely different.
The Austrian I met on the way home from Bible study certainly did not feign an attitude of politeness, but rather started talking to me quite animatedly on the Schnellbahn. Some children were playing a funny game in seats near us and I laughed a little, smiling at the older man across from me. He then proceeded to launch into a conversation with me about sports, telling me that he was the only man in his yoga class. He told me a couple very silly jokes and didn't fail to include the details of his consulting business in our conversation either. At the end he gave me his number before I stepped off the train. I looked back a little to make sure he wasn't following me - so odd to be told jokes on a train by a 60-something Austrian man!
30 April
Thursday passed by rather quickly, as I continued to chip away at upcoming papers and school assignments. Our Viennese Theater class put together an end of semester play based on lines taken from a play by Thomas Bernhard. We avidly practiced this in class today, making sure all necessary lines were properly translated into Wienerisch (Viennese dialect). Needless to say, Dr. Haika, the native Viennese, has done all the "translating" for us! I continued to work on school in the afternoon and then went to our final performance of the semester for Viennese Theater. This time we saw Sommernachtstraum (Midsummer Night's Dream) in the Volkstheater (People's Theater). I absolutely fell in love with the stage set of this play. I can hardly even describe the intricacies of the red and gold stage. My favorite part was probably these little stage boxes on either side of the stage which the actors used as part of the set. The second story stage boxes contained musicians for the play, while the actors actually entered and exited sometimes from the alcoves directly beneath. Besides the super fascinating play set, I found myself getting incredibly stressed during the play due to my worries about work and living arrangements for next school year. I eagerly went home after the play and sent in my application for a position within IUSA, in the hopes of securing a directorship for next year.
1 May
Today was May Day in Vienna and is actually celebrated as a holiday, so that students and employees can rest from school and work. Several students from ÖSM had planned a bike tour to a nearby park surrounding an old summer home of the Hapsburg family, called Schloss Laxenburg. I borrowed a bike from a girl at church and headed down to the end of the U6 metro line to meet everyone else for our bike trip. The weather decided to stay beautiful all day, which meant we could ride our bikes under the glorious Austrian sun through the sprawling golden fields. Werner led us on our way through the countryside and out into the quaint little town of Laxenburg. I enjoyed my conversation with the other students in the group and one new person, an Iranian studying at a university in Vienna. Once we arrived at the park, we locked up our bikes and wandered around to a car show with old Mercedes parked right inside the gates. We enjoyed seeing all the beautiful old cars and one girl, Ellie, wanted to honk the horn very badly of the beautiful red and white Mercedes in the picture below! The forest paths and gardens created a fairytale atmosphere and we stopped by a beautiful pond surrounding a castle to picnic. I loved sitting there in the sunshine eating our food and talking for hours. The best part was sitting there and feeling like I could understand almost everything happening in the conversation, from jokes to descriptions of the St. Stephen's bell tower in World War II! Our way home from the park took far longer than we expected and my legs felt a little jelly-ish by the time I returned my bike to Priska and made it back to my apartment. I did a couple things around the apartment and then headed to bed early, completely bushed by my beautiful day in the Austrian countryside!
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| Biking to Laxenburg |
 |
| Beautiful old Mercedes |
 |
| Magical Schloss Franzensburg in the park |
2-3 May
On Saturday I needed to begin typing up my big reflection paper for my teaching internship. I had committed to write the paper in German, in order to challenge myself. I had written a couple pages and made my outline the weekend before, but needed to complete the majority of the grunt work this weekend. So I hacked away at the entire project on Saturday, completing several pages in the morning. In the afternoon I took a several hour break to run and buy groceries, then continued writing in the evening. I woke up early on Sunday to complete my writing goal then I unfortunately could not finish on Saturday night. I found church incredibly moving as we witnessed the baptism and testimonies of several people who professed their faith in Christ. I always find it so encouraging to see the work of God in other peoples' lives and in the growth of the church. God has recently been pressing into my heart my need for Him and my need to focus on my relationship with Him centrally, rather than merely thinking about He can facilitate my dreams and desires for my life. Before all those things, I dwell on the fact that He is my Savior, the God who died for my sins. The service drove that deep into my heart once again.
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