Christmas Markets in Vienna

*Nick in Vienna

As I mentioned in the last post we have done a ton of things in the past couple weeks. We going to try to catch up a bit and write about various highlights. We're heading to Budapest with my parents in a couple days, so hopefully we'll catch up before then. This post is mainly pictures, but I wanted to post them while people were still in the Christmas spirit.



I wrote about this awhile ago, but there are tons of Christmas markets in Vienna. Seriously, is there is a bit of open space then there is a Christmas market. They all have wonderful hot wine and other adult drinks, sausages, chocolates, cakes, and numerous stands with ornaments, crafts, toys, books, scarves, etc. Here is a picture of Jane and myself with my brother and mom at one enjoying our drinks.

The biggest market is in front of the Rathaus, which is city hall. Here is a picture of the building all lit up. They turn the building into a gigantic advent calendar and show a new painting leading up to Christmas every day. We were there on the 23rd, which is why you can still see the 24 in this picture my brother took.






On Christmas Eve we went to one at the Schoenbrunn Palace near me. This was the summer palace of the Habsburgs and is crazy big. Here is a wide shot and one of a stand where my Dad got a huge donut-like thing.

where we've been - part 2

*Nick in Vienna

Well, it has been quite awhile since we've posted anything. Hopefully you all have gotten by. We had another huge grant application due on Dec. 15th that took up pretty much all our time. And now my family is visiting us in Vienna so we've turned into tourists the past week and haven't had much time. We're going to do some more specific posts on highlights, but I thought I would just mention a few of the things we've been up to the past few weeks.

I went to Paris on the 9th. During the days we worked like crazy on the grant application, but most of the nights we were able to have fun. We went to a couple Paris Christmas market, went to one opera and one ballet, and explored new parts of the city we had never seen. On the 14th my brother arrived from the states for a visit to Paris before we all went to Vienna. We had to send him out a bit on his own, but he had a great time touring around Paris. We finished our grants on the 15th (with over 15 minutes to spare!) and spent a couple days in Paris with my brother. We went to an amazing display of Monet (more on that in a later post), had a four-hour dinner with one of Jane's friends, and went to the art studio/cafe that Jane had been to for Thanksgiving.

On the 18th we flew to Vienna. The trip to the airport was not smooth. It had snowed during most of the day and it was wreaking havoc on travel, or at least that is how it seemed. We went to the metro about 2 1/2 hours before the flight, but the trains were so crowded that it took 4 trains to get us all to the north train station - the first one we couldn't fit, then Jane got on the next train, then me, then Ben. It was a crazy mass of pushing people (who mostly all stayed very calm) and being virtually unable to move. We finally made it to the train station where we took a train to the airport. We actually got our tickets very quickly and made it to the gate with about 30 minutes to spare, but the flight was delayed. After waiting a couple hours in the terminal they got us in the plane where we then waited another two hours before taking off. We landed in Vienna around 3 in the morning - about 4 hours later than we were supposed to. None of the transportation was running yet, and there were no taxis, so we had to wait until about 5 for a train into Vienna. When we got to my parents hotel at about 6 they were very relieved (they didn't know what was going on and why we were 6 hours late because we had no way to contact them).

For the past couple days we have seen some of Vienna and took a lovely day trip to a monastery town called Melk (more on that in a different post). We also went to the ballet. Unfortunately, it has been so cold (around 5 farenheit) that we have barely been able to be outside, which is a shame because Vienna is beautiful at Christmas. It is supposed to warm up in a couple days. Today my parents and brother took a day trip to Salzburg, but Jane and I stayed here to recover and save some money.

We'll post more soon now that we are starting to recover.

Viennese Christmas Lights

*Nick in Vienna

Last night I did standing room at the opera for Ariadne auf Naxos. During the break between getting my ticket and tying a scarf to mark my spot I took a little walk and took some pictures. I hope you enjoy.

A French Thanksgiving

*Jane in Paris*

On Thursday the French Fulbright Alumni group put together a Thanksgiving dinner for any alumni, students, exchange teachers, distinguished chairs, and UNESCO Fulbright interns that wanted to come (I've learned that "Fulbright" actually encompasses a wide variety of exchanges). At my families' houses Thanksgiving is always a rather relaxed affair, but it would figure that the French would have to take our casual American holiday and make it a spectacular gastronomic affair.

The dinner was held in a restaurant at Les Frigos, a 6-story meat cellar turned artist work space. The structure is a plain white factory-looking building built during one of the World Wars to house the tons and tons of cows that had been slaughtered as the Germans advanced. The picture to the right shows the menacing pipes that pervade the building. In the 60s, I think, the French government decided to give the building to artists, who quickly began to decorate the building inside and out.



Not only was the meal in an incredible place, but the mostly French contributers to the meal made sure to add a sophisticated, gourmet twist to their dishes. The turkey was cooked like a steak, and it was served covered with a sauce. The mashed potatoes were sweet potatoes with just the right spices. Of course there was lots of wine and Perrier to drink. The tables were adorned with festive, fall centerpieces.

I was oddly the only Fulbrighter of my kind (U.S. Student is my title), and one of just a handful of Americans at all. This disappointed me because I haven't seen the other American students since late October, but it also gave me an opportunity to practice my French, because the crowd was mostly French alumnae of the program who had once been on a Fulbright to the U.S. I talked with a couple passionate about music and art in general for an hour, and they eventually gave me their contact information and suggested that we visit the various composers' museums in the Paris area in the Spring, once the leaves come out on the trees. I had read before coming here that the French like to engage in lively conversation, and that interruptions are actually encouraged because this shows enthusiasm. I was very proud of myself for being able to do this, and therefore take part in the discussion in an appropriate way.

One other great part of the night was that one of the alumni there was a sculpter that had a studio at Les Frigos. In groups of 20 at a time he gave us a tour of his studio, where several of his original pieces were on display.

At first they seemed bizarre, but the artist explained that he was interested in geology and archeology, and that he focused on the layers of the Earth's surface, because we humans are intimately connected to it. The sculptures in the pictures are made of pieces of iron that are either oxidized or burned to create color, and the artist welds small pieces of something, I think more metal, carefully on the surface to create the appearance of soil. A single tree typically adorns it. I loved the sculpture in the picture on the left because it's all gray.

What a unique experience! But still, it felt strange to not be in the U.S. during Thanksgiving. Besides family, the thing I missed the most was all of the football.

Weekend in Vienna

*Nick in Vienna

This past weekend Jane came to visit me in Vienna. We decided that we were going to relax the whole weekend, meaning no research or writing, because of the grant applications we recently turned in. We probably have not had a weekend without research since last spring when we went on a climbing trip, so it was very nice to relax for a couple days.

On Friday we went to a modern art museum in Klosterneuberg, which is a small suburb about 20 minutes north of Vienna. There is a bus that leaves from downtown Vienna every couple hours that goes to the museum and is free if you buy a ticket for the museum. When we arrived we found out the museum was free that Friday (not sure why), so the bus ride and museum entrance was free, which was pretty great. The museum was quite nice and typical of a modern art museum. Lot's of really cool stuff and lots of stuff that is like, huh, well, that sucks. They were doing a special exhibit on Daniel Richter, a German artist, with some of his stuff as recent as a few months ago. There was also a sound installation that was terrible. It was some guy with a laptop making lots of weird sounds and messing with them electronically. It bugged us quite a bit because it was so loud it could be heard throughout the museum, plus it wasn't anything people haven't been doing for years. Why is it that when some people buy a mac they all of a sudden think they are artists?


On Saturday we did a bit of shopping in downtown Vienna - well, we mostly did looking, though I did buy one thing. The sun goes down here at about 4 and there are some amazing Christmas lights up all around downtown. It is really something to see and next time I'm down there I'll bring a camera. We then went back to my place to make something like a Thanksgiving dinner. We won't be together on Thursday (though we should each be with new friends) so we wanted to make something, which can be difficult in a foreign kitchen. We made mashed potatoes (with no masher) and Jane made egg noodles cooked in chicken broth that have been made in her family for who knows how long and have become a staple of our Thanksgivings. They were very good, but there was no rolling pin and we couldn't find one in the store so we bought a hard salami and she used that in its package. Not sure if she is the first person to use salami instead of a rolling pin, but really it seemed to work quite well. We also substituted cherries for cranberries and minute steaks for turkey because I have a tiny oven and we didn't really see any turkeys anyway.



On Sunday we went to the opera. This time we did standing room for Richard Wagner's Die Walkure. It's the one with the famous "Ride of the Valkyries" that is in Apocalypse Now. We got there 3 hours early to get in line and the opera itself is around 5 hours. So yeah, we were pretty tired afterwords. I kind of considered it earning a music badge because you can't claim to be a musicologist unless you are willing to stand through a Wagner opera. Actually, we were by far in the minority age wise. Most people were probably at least 50, with quite a few that seemed to be closer to 70. They have probably been doing standing room tickets their whole life. I wonder if there heels hurt as much as mine did? Jane got bumped out of a spot by an old woman pretending to be confused. We had heard about crafty old women at the opera always getting there way, but it is different to experience it. She also got in trouble jogging through the halls to catch up (things move very fast after tickets are bought as people jostle for standing places) The performance itself was incredible, and came out to way less than a euro and hour.

Today we went climbing and then Jane had to go back to Paris. I'll be going to Paris in about 3 weeks and then my family is coming here for Christmas. We've got more grants due in a few weeks, so it is back to work for us.

Paris Spectacles

*Jane in Paris*

Last Friday I went to my first opera in Paris. The state opera here actually has two houses, one that looks really ritzy and is in an affluent part of the city (Palais Garnier), and one built in 1989 in a lower middle class area with a modern design (Opera Bastille). The opera hall itself was designed to have no obstructed seats (Garnier does because of all the decorative architecture) and to evenly disperse the sound so that there are no dead spots. Some people roll their eyes at the idea that the French government did this, but I actually think it's a pretty brilliant idea. While opera started out as a genre for the incredibly privileged few, there's no reason why it can't be both a high art activity and an art "for the people" today. The Bastille site offers free concerts once a week, and standing room tickets to all of the operas and ballets shown there. Furthermore, the Palais Garnier tends to show the more classic operas.

Unlike the vast majority of opera goers, I like to see modern operas - the more recently it was written the better! So it was fitting that the first opera I saw was at the Bastille, the newer, modern opera house, and that it was Salome by Richard Strauss, which was composed in 1905. Most people reading the blog don't know this opera - it's really wonderful. The music is beautiful. It sounds like Wagner, but its better and gets to the point much quicker. The entire opera is in fact only one act. The singers did an excellent job - in particular the soprano who sang Salome. The libretto is based on Oscar Wilde's telling of the Biblical tale of the death of John the Baptist. Since Salome dances for Herod in the story to bring about John's beheading, the singer in Strauss's opera has a big dance scene. It was amazing. You know that an opera is good when what the composer has done makes you really think about the words, and as I was listening to the opera I was struck by the beauty of Wilde's libretto. It's actually pretty profound from a spiritual point of view.

I bought a standing room ticket, which required getting in line several hours before the performance like in Vienna. But there were several procedural differences: each person can buy two tickets and not just one, when you first arrive a worker hands you a number with your place in line on it, and the tickets are dispensed by machines and not a box office. Oddly, there are still workers that operate the machines for you - this is perhaps so that no one can buy more than one ticket.

Just as the line was moving, finally allowed to proceed to the machines, I heard someone shout my name. I turned around and there was an Ohio State student I had I taught last year, a violinist. This caused me to lose my place in line, but luckily I had my number 10, so I just went through the line showing it to everyone, who seemed to take it very seriously - "oh, you're 10, please..." This student, Leah, just happened to be in Paris this weekend and also just happened to have bought a ticket for Salome. What she was doing there 90 minutes early I don't know. She hung around with me and the people I had come with before the show, and then I invited her to dinner on Saturday. Ryan Stewart, who some of you know, was also in Paris on Saturday, so I ate dinner with him, one of his work colleagues, and my student Leah. It was pretty random - but I feel like a lot of things that have happened to me in Paris feel like that. I can't explain why; perhaps its just such a bustling city and it draws such a diversity of people that magical things are bound to happen.

On Sunday evening I went to another, very different performance. I met a Scottish jazz guitarist here in Paris last month, Tam de Villiers, and he played a show in the jazz district of Paris with his quartet. The name of the club is Le baiser sale, quite a racy label fitting for jazz music.



The quartet's music was very complicated, and I had to listen very closely or I really had no idea what they were doing. I went to the show with my German friend Andreas, who Nick and I met on the train when I moved to Paris, and his friend Carouli. Andreas is a drummer, so we had to sit right next to the drums. Luckily, though, this was jazz drumming, so there wasn't a lot of banging. All of the players were amazing, but the drummer caught my attention the most because of his proximity. He hardly ever played a groove, but was instead constantly improvising. For one piece he played the snare drum with his fingertips, and in one hand he held an egg shaker that would rattle whenever he hit the drum, and then he also had a stick made of a bunch of little sticks tied together. The drummer, whose name I eventually learned is Karl, is from Manitoba. Like many of the North Americans I meet here, he married a French person.

So this was a busy weekend for me! I'm visiting Nick next weekend, and we're going to try to put away the books while I'm there, so for the next few days I'll be hard at work at the Bibliotheque Nationale.

Viennese Christmas Markets

*Nick in Vienna


It turns out that Vienna is lousy with Christmas markets. I've seen tons of adds for various markets already and have gotten some stuff in the mail. There is a huge one outside the Schonbrun Palace that we're going to check out when my family visits and another huge one downtown that I'm sure we will visit as well. These markets are unlike any I've been to in the states (not that I've been to many) in the sense that besides crafts, ornaments, and a billion santas, they also sell all kinds of food and alcohol. This means my Mom is going to have a wonderful time when she visits, and if the rest of us aren't loving it we can have a great time with cheap beer, wine, and whatever that fruity alcoholic drink is with actual fruit in it - it is really good and I've never seen it stateside, but I can't remember the name.

The picture above I took today at a little market pretty close to my house. There was also a one-man band there who was very good. He was playing "I Heard it through the Grapevine," and right after this picture played a really good harmonica solo (I compensated him well for the picture, don't worry). Probably because Vienna is such a musical city the level of the street performers here is really high. When Jane was here a couple weeks ago we heard this grizzled old guy singing the blues and playing guitar. It was so good. I commented to Jane that this guy could open for Wilco right now and hipsters all across america would eat him up. If I was a talent agent I would start rounding up all the hairy old Austrian blues playing men and form an incredible band. I bet I could get them on Austin City Limits in no time.

Where we've been

*Nick in Vienna

As all you loyal readers have noticed things have been a bit quiet here on 9 months of solitude. My Dad even emailed me and asked if we're already bored living in Europe. Alas, we are not bored but have been completely absorbed is grant applications for our dissertation. "But I thought you already had grants for your dissertation?" you might ask. Well, even though, yes, we have fellowships for this year we have to start thinking about next year. It seems that the main trick to make it in academia is to know how to properly beg for money on a years basis, at least until we get tenure. So, we just applied for money from the American Council of Learned Societies to fund us from next summer 2010 to summer 2011. In another month we have an application due for the American Musicological Society, and then we're pretty much done until April and just have to wait for the money to roll in. Oh, this year we are directly competing against each other which is kind of exciting. Last year we applied for different grants because of where we have to do our research, so this is the first time we are competing. We are actually rooting for each other because at least one of us needs to get a grant so we can eat food next year, and also our dream of teaching at the same school hinges on us being a dream team.

*Jane in Vienna*

I have been in Vienna visiting Nick since the 22nd, and we've done a lot of fun things. Last Monday was the Nationalfesttag in Austria, the National Day, which celebrates the departure of the last occupying soldiers after WWII, in 1955. All of the stores are closed that day and no one works, so we did something a little special and visited the Donauinsel.


There is a long, skinny island that runs down the Danube for several miles in Vienna, and it is a great place for bikers, walkers, rollerbladers, and roaming pups. We mainly went for the last reason. Mason had a great time, and even the U-bahn ride to and from the island didn't bother him that much. We were impressed with how blue the water was, which unfortunately doesn't come across in the pictures.

On Tuesday night we went to our first opera at the Wiener Staatsoper (Vienna State Opera House). We wanted to get standing room tickets, which cost between 3 and 5 euros, and allow the ticketholder a spot behind a velvet-covered bar. These are located on the first floor under the balcony, on both sides of the balcony, and then somewhere on the gallery. We had a decision to make, because there are pros and cons for each area. We decided on the balcony, because that would guarantee that I would be able to see, and it was rumored that the acoustics were better up there. The process for getting these tickets is rather strange: 1) up until 2 hours before the show you wait in the first line 2) at about 2 hours before a new part of the line is opened up, closer to the box office, so the line scoots up 3) at 1:15 the box office opens and you buy your ticket very quickly, and immediately run to the line that starts for the area you have chosen to sit in 4) then at 1:00 our balcony line was moved up closer to the balcony entrance 5) finally at 45 min. before the opera starts you are allowed to go to your area, where you jostle others for the best spots and then claim them by tying a scarf to the railing. Then you are free to go. The rules are very strict and everyone follows them exactly - no one would dare disrespect someone else's scarf or take too long buying the tickets.

The opera we chose was Lady MacBeth of the Mtensk District, by Shostakovich. This is actually a very historic opera, because it was so scandalous that it provoked Stalin to clamp down publicly on composers, and Shostakovich in particular, in 1936. Shostakovich wrote in his memoires that for several nights after the article criticizing the opera in Pravda was printed, he slept in the hallway of his apartment building, so that when the KGB came to arrest him his family wouldn't witness it. Nick and I are both fond of the music for the opera. The sets were rather simple, but there was an interesting use of light and shadow, and the thoughtful color scheme for everything was white, black, and gray. All of the singers were excellent, especially the lead soprano. And it's really not difficult to stand for several hours if you have something to lean on.



The opera house looks incredible. We only took one picture of it ourselves, but you can view more pictures here (need latest flash installed, look for "360° Panoramatour"). During WWII it was severely damaged by Allied planes, because it was thought that the Nazis were hiding something in the building. After the war this was one of the buildings that underwent renovation as soon as possible, and it was actually re-opened in 1955. The extremely ornate surfaces of the old opera house were retained, and its sumptuous appearance gives an indication of the importance opera holds in Austrian culture, and also of how closely this art form has been allied with past and present Austrian governments.

My favorite part of any musical performance, as long as I enjoyed it, is the end when the audience finally expresses itself and applauds. For me this is the chance to give the performers some sense of how much you appreciate that they have dedicated their lives to giving others the experience of art. In the U.S. the applause period can be very heartfelt, but the right kinds of people have to be there, and enough of them, so that the applause will keep going for sometime. Even though many people at the Shostakovich opera didn't know this work well, the applause still lasted for at least five minutes at the end. I have to say that there were several Americans, who all seemed to be "studying abroad" (partying) in Europe, who also bought standing room tickets, and they all left either well before the opera was over, or in the middle of the applause. I think this shows the contrasting view that Austrians and Americans have of art. The Austrians still understand art as a lofty thing, whereas for so many Americans art has become just another commodity, to be consumed quickly and cheaply. The students probably felt that since they had paid for their tickets they were entitled to treat the performance however they liked. This is a perspective that is perfectly fair in terms of money, but really guys, you just got to see an entire opera by an amazing composer, at one of the most beautiful opera houses in the world, for 3 euros! Isn't something more than an exchange of goods and payment taking place? Let's take the chance at a performance to celebrate art itself and all of the humble people who bring it to us!

Tales of a weekend past

*Nick in Vienna*


Jane is in Vienna, visiting from Paris for two weeks because of the all saints day holiday. On Friday we went to the main entrance of the National Library to get her a library card so she could look at some pieces in the Music Reading Room. We arrived at the entrance to discover a vast array of tanks, army medical trucks, cannons, and other sorts of deadly equipment. It was not a hostile takeover, but rather part of what we believe was called sicherheitfest, or "safety festival." It was really quite striking to see all these war machines with the backdrop of a huge baroque palace. It has often been our experience to happen upon very odd parades, festivals, and the like in Europe. Maybe it's because we are walking around so much more (we have seen some odd parades in Columbus as well, such as one about "Racist Joe," a rapper who was certainly not racist), but it is probably more that Europe just has more of these things. Enjoy some pictures of us standing on tanks!



On Saturday evening we joined some new friends from the english church for dinner and drinks. First we went to an awesome Pakistani restaurant near Vienna University. The food was buffet style and the price was whatever you felt like paying (except for drinks). Seriously, you give them money for the drinks and then add on whatever you think is fair for the food you ate. The crazy thing is the food was very good. It seemed like a real hippy hangout and there were lots of stickers about protests in the bathroom.

We left there to go to a wine bar in the center of the city. On the way we talked to a student from the University who had actually just been to a protest. I don't know much about it, but basically they are protesting to be able to go to college for free for as long as they like. I'm pretty sure they can do that now, but the administration is trying to limit free college to four years. I'm not sure what I think about this particular protest, but it is getting a lot of attention here. We then found the wine bar and had a lovely time enjoying surprisingly cheap wine.

Finally, today Jane and I went to a huge climbing party at our bouldering gym. It was sponsored by La Sportiva, which is a company that makes climbing shoes. It was a really cool event with a bouldering contest, free food and shirts, free entrance, and trial shoes. We stayed there for about three hours climbing, talking to people, getting shirts, watching people who are better at climbing than I could ever hope to be, and generally wearing ourselves out climbing. We didn't stay for it, but later in the evening we could have gone to a "climax party," to wrap up the evening. It is often amusing to see how people use English phrases for things that are supposed to be cool. A shoe store near us has a "best seller" section, which actually appears to be shoes that are on clearance instead of shoes that sell the most. The website Jane uses to login for her bank says that their service is "so music," which we think means that it is great, but who knows.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

*Jane, Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, 7:15am*

One thing it seems the French are not so good at is airport security. From what I could tell, the fault is mainly on the passengers, who don’t seem to understand what they need to put into the bins, which articles of clothing need to be removed, etc. This is despite all of the signs and a worker who wanders through the crowd and periodically repeats the directions on the signs. And of course we've been doing things like removing our shoes at airport security in the West for around 10 years now... But several people in front of me hadn’t taken off their shoes. The man who was directing us through the metal detector had to tell them sometimes more than once, and then they would slowly unlace their shoes and throw them on to the conveyor belt. Then the man would command them to place their shoes in a bin, and I think some of these people even argued about that. The worker seemed frustrated, but luckily I arrived at the airport with enough time that the situation seemed humorous.

This is my first time flying out of Terminal 3, and it seems newer, simpler, and smaller than at least Terminal 2. I believe there are actually only 10 gates, so once the security check is finally accomplished, walking to the assigned gate is very quick.

In light of this, I would recommend leaving plenty of time when flying out of CGD, because I went through security early in the morning, and still it took over 30 minutes to get through. And right after I got in line, the line quickly got much longer.

I’m flying on Air Berlin today, one of those cheap, no frills airlines. So far it’s been very good. There was essentially no line at the check-in desk, and the check-in process went smoothly. (I watched a BBC documentary recently on Ryan Air, one of the pioneering cheapy airlines, and it sounds so horrible and difficult that I was worried Air Berlin might treat their customers similarly.) I’ll report back later about how the flight went for anyone who might find this useful.

Getting to Vienna by plane from Paris takes 5 steps. The first is to ride the métro to the nearest RER train stop. The métro operates just within Paris, while the RER takes you into the suburbs. Then one rides the RER to the terminal 1/3 stop, or the terminal 2 stop. The airport in Vienna is also in the suburbs, so once one lands, it is necessary to take either the Post Bus or the airport train into the city, and then finally one gets on the underground (in my case at the West Train Station) and takes that home. Oh, and actually in my case there will probably be a 6th step: riding a bus from the U-Bahn stop to Nick’s apartment.

I’ll be at Nick’s for two weeks. We both have a grant application due in 3 weeks, so I’ll have plenty to do even though I will be away from my archives. We’re competing against each other for this one!

A day in the life

*Nick in Vienna*

Inspired by Jane's post, I thought I write a bit about my life as a researcher in Vienna, for those of you that are curious. I guess I'll follow suit and mainly just talk about what I did today, as most days are pretty much the same.


In the morning I headed to the Austrian National Library, and more specifically the music collection (musiksammlung). The bulk of the National Library, like many state building in Vienna, is in an old palace, in this case the Hofburg. It is a sprawling complex, and daunting to a new researcher. Because it is in a palace, and because it is Vienna, there are tourists everywhere. The powers that be obviously feel that the researchers know their way around, so all the signs and maps are geared for the tourists. It took me a very long time in a freezing rain to figure out where I was supposed to go on my first visit last week, during which time I passed multiple tour groups. I did eventually find where to get a library card, and thankfully the music room is a couple blocks away in a much less impressive building, and therefore far away from the tourists. The picture above of the main library is from the net - I didn't take it (picture a lot of rain and snow to envision my experience).

Today I spent a few hours transcribing a manuscript from, I think, 1595. I found out that I can't actually take pictures at this library for now, so I'll post a picture of a manuscript I took in DC at the Library of congress if you are curious about the notation. Basically, I just sit there and write down everything on the paper, transcribing it into modern notation. Most of the pieces I'm looking at have never been published, and likely never looked at for around 380 years. I'm hoping to include many of them in my dissertation.


I then headed to the University library to look at a recently published collection of poetry from my time period. The University has over 70,000 students, making even Ohio State seem small. It is, of course, mostly in old palaces. I was at that library for a couple hours reading poetry, where I found a very nice poem written in 1602 about one of my main composers, Philippe de Monte. I also found out he tried to help get an alchemist accused of murder out of jail. Yeah, that is pretty freaking big for my dissertation.

Afterwords I headed home on the U-bahn and took Mason to the Hundzone (dog park). This is a daily occurrence, and one of the best parts is that I often get to talk to people in German for a long time. People at the dog park are very friendly and will talk to me nice and slow, with lots of repetition. In general people are very friendly in Vienna, it just seems like dog people are the nicest of the bunch.

Finally, home for white sausage and potatoes, a bit of german tv (today was malcolm in the middle dubbed), some work and talking to Jane. Tomorrow will be more of the same, except for a trip to the climbing gym added in instead of the University library.

Just An Average Day in Paris

*Jane in Paris*

I'm sorry, everyone that I haven't posted in awhile. Last Wednesday my life kicked into gear here in Paris because my Fulbright orientation started then. Let me say a little bit about that first. The Franco-American Fulbright Commission has an office in the 16th district of Paris (=really nice), near the Trocadero metro and the Eiffel Tower. It's fun to go there, because the atmosphere is so different from that of Republique. The orientation was Wed-Fri, and although there were many boring moments that usually consisted of some speech being made or some information being given that satisfied the whole "diplomat" aspect of the grant, it was mostly very enjoyable. The other Fulbrighters were all very nice, and it turns out the majority of them live in my district (the 11th), but none live as close to Republique as I do. Most of the students are humanities people, but there are a few scientists as well. Half are just out of undergrad, and half are doctoral candidates like me. I've already seen several of them again since the orientation, so I anticipate getting to know some of them quite well. It was strange to be in these orientation sessions with all of these brilliant people - I have to admit I was trying to be a little more precise with what I said that I usually am. These moments made me feel very privileged.

On Friday Nick left for Vienna, and my friend Betsy Jobes dropped in for a brief visit. Most of you don't know Betsy, but she is the oldest friend I have that I still keep in touch with - we met in the 8th grade. We did a lot of shopping (not a lot of buying), walking around fun parts of the city, and eating at nice restaurants. Every time I see Betsy she also catches me up on the latest news out of St. Joseph, because she still has family there, whereas I don't. Oh, high school, you were strange...

I decided that on Monday my life in Paris would really start, that is, I would start my research. Nine months seems like a lot of time, but the thing about archival research is that there will always be something else out there on your topic.

What I'd like to do for the rest of this post is to recount the past two days of my life, to give my readers a sense of what a normal day is like for me here.

Tuesday
8:30-10:30 am Attend a seminar on dramaturgy in opera at the Sorbonne lead by Mme. Raphaelle Legrand, who is my gracious contact at the university. I could understand her very well! My French ears seem to have turned on Friday morning, when I went on a multiple-hour tour of the Bibiliotheque Nationale Mitterand site, all in French. After the seminar I arrange a later meeting with Mme. Legrand
10:30 am Ride back to the Pl. de la Republique to buy some items at the pharmacy. This takes awhile because I am looking for the cheap stuff, but it takes me awhile to figure out that in a Parisian pharmacy, there is no cheap stuff.
11:30-1:00 Lunch time - Coke Lite, Camembert cheese, salami, baguette that is beginning to go stale, an apple, some chocolate.
1:30-3:45 Visit stores that sell musical scores in what seems to be the/a music shop district of Paris. I pass, with wide eyes, entire shops devoted to string basses. I buy a copy of Pelleas et Melisande by Debussy - for me this is a real milestone because I love this opera, and it is incredibly important in my research. I also buy a book of piano music because I can't help myself.
4:15-5:45 Doctor's appointment back in the 11th district. I have to get all of my prescriptions written by a doctor licensed in France. Despite my love of French, I choose an English-speaking doctor who is from Sweden or Denmark. Lately I have noticed how confused I become when I set out to do something unfamiliar and someone misdirects me. Case in point: I locate a placard with the doctor office's info on it, and am in the middle of typing in the door code when someone tells me "the door is already open." So now I am only focused on the doors that are already open. But this building is rather odd, because it is a standard apartment/office building with a business school wrapped around it. I can only get to the business school through these open doors, but no one has any idea where the doctor's office is. I call the doctor twice, and finally realize that the door is made out of glass, disguised as a window, and is indeed not "already open." I finally make it up to the office, 25 min. late, but the doctor lets me in anyway
-interlude on French health care-
Basic health care here is a lot simpler. In this case, the doctor does everything in his office except making appointments. I sit down across from him at a desk and he types my information into his computer. No forms to fill out in the waiting room! If he needed to examine me, that is in a different part of the same room. When the visit is finished, I pay him and he has a little cash box at his desk - 30 Euros, and this is the full price with no insurance coverage.
I walk back to the metro, but the business students have taken up the entire sidewalk and they're all smoking and not moving out of the way. But at least I found the doctor's office.
Then I eat dinner - couscous with mushrooms, carrot, and sausage, milk, some cheese.
7:00-10:00 I take the metro to the far South Side of Paris, just past the peripherique (highway that encircles Paris). I am looking for a climbing/workout gym called Antrebloc. Inside I pay the fee for a one-time entry, change into my shoes in the locker room, and then I find myself in the midst of about 100 other climbers, who are all awesome. I do what I can, and things improve when I realize that there is free chalk. I'm not sure if I want to join this place: pluses are the free chalk, the flexible hours, the flexible membership options, the fact that there is bouldering and top rope climbing; cons are that the holds are very dirty which makes it hard to hold on to them, and the immense crowd of people. Because it's been awhile since I have done any climbing, the skin on my hands starts to really burn, and I leave. At the metro station on the way back a man asks me for my impressions on a magazine cover he is working on.

Wednesday
I get up later, at 10:00, because yesterday really wore me out. In the morning I go the the grocery store, Shopi, where I can buy any food and drink I need, including wine. Then I go to an internet cafe where I print out a document that I have to present at the Bibliotheque Nationale (BN)
1:30-5:00 I leave for the BN Richelieu site, where the music department is located. I take the metro to Bourse, where there are a lot of very old buildings. I find the library and apply for my researcher's card, which is surprisingly easy. I get it right away. The thing about the French, I find, is that if you follow their directions exactly, and then go one step further, the actual completion of the process is a breeze. It's all about collecting the required documents. Before I know it I am at the music department, in another building nearby, but I am completely unprepared for research. I thought the most I would be able to accomplish today would be applying for the card. But of course I have to go in. I spend awhile ogling the card catalogue, and then I ask to see my first source, a pamphlet on the greatness of French music by a lesser-known composer named Jean Hure. I request the item, return to my assigned desk, and then it is brought to my shortly. I have been waiting for two years to read this thing, and on the one hand seeing it materialize before me after such anticipation is wonderful, but on the other, the actual process of reading the document, turning its pages, taking notes, is a mundane researcher's task. I then spend awhile playing through the piano music that I bought yesterday in one of the piano studios.
5:00 I leave, return to Republique, and spend awhile in the store Camaieux, which kind of reminds me of the Gap, except that the clothes are a combination of trendy and cheap, as opposed to just cheap (sorry Gap, we've been on the outs for years).
7:00 Return to my apartment, where I do things like eat dinner, take a shower, talk to Nick on Skype, watch Project Runway.

So now you know what it's like to be me in Paris. For your pleasure, I submit the following photographs:

The newest and main BN site - it consists of a vast wooden deck, with parts of the site underground surrounding a forestish garden, with 14 story buildings above ground at the corners. These views are from one of the towers.

The Site Mitterand follows- much older and less awesome, but it contains many awesome musical documents

Then here is me in front of the Paris Opera, Garnier site, taken during my day with Betsy.

Lastly, here is a huge demonstration that took place at Republique on Saturday. A sensible place for a protest, because the statue after which the area is named is literally supposed to represent the French Republic. About 20,000 demonstrators marching peacefully in resistance to unfair restrictions placed against French people of non European decent. Demonstrations are so common in France, that I thought the demonstrators must get bored, but these protesters were pretty enthusiastic (in a peaceful way). Really cool thing to see.

Traveling with a dog through Europe

*Nick in Vienna*

As you all know, Mason is lucky enough to be joining Jane and I during our time in Europe. I thought it might be interesting and helpful to anyone considering traveling with their pet to Europe to write just a bit about our experiences. Plus, I’ve been on this train from Paris to Vienna for 12 hours and I’ve still got a few to go, so this will be something to occupy a few minutes. Also, Mason is currently asleep on my leg, causing me to reflect.

Thus far the most complicated part about bringing Mason took place back in the States. We had to get a vet certificate to fly with him (well, we had to get it twice since the robbery delayed our trip three week). The certificate has to be from within ten days of the flight, or at least that is what United Airlines requires. Also, we had to get a certificate from the state that proves he is what he claim he is. This was a bit confusing for us, as the paperwork we saw said a form from an “official vet,” and we thought we could just use our vet. That is not the case. I think each county only has one office that can give this form – I think we got it in Reynoldsberg. For some reason they needed the date Mason was microchipped, which we didn’t have because Franklin County Animal Shelter chipped him before he had even met Mason. This took most of a very stressful day to take care of.

The flight itself wasn’t too bad. We set it up so that we had a six hour lay over in DC, during which time we picked up Mason and found a little grassy area with trees where we could run around. The cops came and asked us what we were doing, but when we said we were just waiting for a flight that said that was fine. Mason had been sleeping in his plane crate for a month before the flight and that seemed to help. He really didn’t like it in Columbus, but he seems to have bonded with it and now naps in there pretty often. He also seemed okay after the long flight. We found him right away in oversize baggage.

Traveling around Europe has actually been very easy with Mason. In Vienna he can ride on the buses, trams, and metros with a child’s ticket if he has a muzzle. We’ve actually only done this once, to the train station, and I will do it again tonight when I arrive, but it meant we didn’t have to get a taxi, which was great.

As far as the long-ride trains, it has overall been very smooth. Most people smile at Mason (except for one lady who was afraid of him), and some pet him and say cutesy things I can’t understand. Actually, in many ways it has made train travel better because no one ever wants to sit next to us. On the train today from Paris to Zurich the conductor even came up to me and told me to go to a different car that had more room. It was a great little cab with just a couple people and I ended up talking for three hours with two very nice guys who spoke English very well – one from Switzerland and one from India. During my current ride, from Zurich to Vienna, Mason has been curled up in the chair next to me the whole time, and everyone just moves on when looking for a seat. Obviously, if the train was full I would put him on the ground, but it’s a fairly empty train and Mason napping on me is better than a stranger.

So, if you are considering traveling with your pet in Europe, I would encourage you to do so if you can afford it. I will be honest and say that it is expensive (there is a fee to get him to Europe and then each train ride is 50% of a human ticket), but since we are here for a long time it has been worth it. Plus, he is a part of our family, so how could we leave him behind?

Nuit Blanche

*Nick in Paris*

On Saturday night into Sunday morning Jane and I experienced Paris's Nuit Blanche (White Night), during which most of the museums and churches were open all night, all with modern art exhibits scattered throughout. It was really an amazing experience. There were hundreds of thousands of people strolling through the churches, crowding the streets, and staying up until dawn. (we didn't quite make it that late)

We started the night by meeting a friend, Andreas, we met on the train to Paris in front of a 16th century church, St. Eustache. Andreas is from Munich and is spending six months in Paris studying logic and computer science. He lived for a year in Pittsburgh and is English is excellent. The exhibit in this church (which we don't have a picture of) was a huge projected video of an airport terminal's international arrivals gate, run super slow. I think it was supposed to depict that we will all die and perhaps we will all arrive a little dazed and confused at an airport. Andreas thought perhaps the artist was trying to say that death will in fact be rather boring and mundane. I didn't think much of the exhibit, but it did have music playing by Tomas Luis de Victoria, who is one of my favorite 16th-century composers.

After leaving St. Eustache we walked over to Notre Dame (the outside of which is shown above). Notre Dame is probably one of the 5 most important buildings in the history of music, if not the most important. This is where polyphony began 1,000 years ago, which spurred on many other advancements in music. Polyphony is more than one voices performing separate lines at the same time, as opposed to performing the same part, or having one dominant melody with accompaniment. Think Bach, or maybe the end of "God only Knows" by the Beach Boys. Anyway, I was really quite excited to see the church and I was not disappointed. After waiting through an extremely frustrating line - meaning that in the end we found out that people had just been going in front of the line the whole time...something which greatly upset our American sensibilities - we made it in and saw an incredible exhibit. In many of the side chapels there were glowing, neon stalagmites. They made beautiful reflects off the already beautiful walls and paintings. These pictures don't quite do it justice.

After Notre Dame we mostly just walked around and enjoyed well-after-midnight Paris. It was really quite remarkable. Jane and I were both really glad that the churches take part in this event. There was all sorts of information about the churches, and at St. Eustache I'm pretty sure I shook hands with a priest that was greeting everyone at the door. Really, if you ever have a chance to be in Paris in early October, you really need to do it, and you really need to experience Nuit Blanche.

American in Paris (had to do it)

*Jane in Paris*

When we arrived at my apartment, finally, on Thursday afternoon I was not very happy. It was so much smaller than the apartment in Vienna and seemed to lack completely a sense of beauty. I felt that there was nothing I could point to and say, "oh, but this is very nice." I also thought there would be a couch, and I'm really a couch and not a chair person. When I realized that I must have been mixed up because I had looked at so many other places my mood did not improve. Oh, and a strong smell also floated out from the bathroom.


But then slowly things started to get better, as the little things that I hadn't noticed upon my first glance made their appearance: there was enough room for all of our clothes, the TV worked, the water tasted alright, the kitchen seemed to have everything I needed, Harry Potter and the Prisoner from Azkaban was on the bookshelf. The view is also quite nice.
So many things have been stuffed into the room, although they have been artfully arranged so that it doesn't feel cramped, that it took us the rest of the day to find most of them. There are just a lot of nice little things that the landlord had left behind for me.

As the pictures make clear, the apartment really is in a part of Paris that feels like "the city." The two large windows face the Boulevard Voltaire, and perhaps it was under his influence that someone had written "No gods nor masters" beside my door! The street below is surprisingly loud, especially at night. Some sort of force compels large bands of drunk young people to take their time as they walk by the window. Where do they all come from? Luckily Nick and I are equipped with sleep masks and a pink noise track on the mp3 player that does an excellent job of covering up the singing, yelling, and sounds of traffic.

I have met several people at the Fulbright Commission already, because I had to take a form into the office. When I told the director, M. Roujou de Boubee, where I lived he immediately responded that the area around the Place de la Republique was "very lively." It certainly is buzzing with activity every night until at least 1 am, except on Sundays. Mason hates the liveliness of the area, and when it is crowded on the sidewalks he would rather just stay home. He is going to go back to Vienna, which compared to Paris seems luxuriously relaxed and green.

Now a little bit about Parisians. Some of you know that I had been quite anxious to come here, given my lack of experience speaking French with French people and some bad experiences that I had here in 2003. I am happy to report that every Parisian I have communicated with has been exceedingly nice - happy to repeat a sentence to me 4 times, to write out words, to wait patiently while I figure out how to respond. I do not get the sense that Parisians are in a hurry, even though they live in an environment that to me feels very similar to bustling New York.

In my research, I have come across stereotypes about the French. One is that they, along with their Latin kin in Italy, are hot-blooded and that their emotions rise quickly. Indeed, I have witnessed 2 heated arguments since arriving on Thursday. The funniest one occurred on Saturday night in the middle of a crowded crosswalk, which I think Nick will talk more about.

So the short story is, things are going very well here and my spirits are much better than I thought they would be. The is certainly an exciting place to live, and the Parisians are a real pleasure to be around.

Royal with Cheese

*Nick in Paris*

Jane and I are sitting at a McDonald's in Paris because they have free wifi and French keyboards at the internet cafe are terribly confusing. The 'A' and the 'Q' are flipped, for example. So, we are feeding the beast and feeding ourselves McFlurrys as I write this.

The trip to Paris was, as could be expected, much more stressful that we thought it would be. The first part was actually quite nice. We got on a night train from Vienna at 10:40 with Mason. For the first hour we actually had a car to ourselves which was great. After that a lady got on who was very afraid of Mason so he had to wear his muzzle for five hours which made him quite upset. The main problem was that we arrived at Stuttgart 40 minutes late, so we missed our connection to Paris. Seriously, how does a train arrive that late? Did the driver make a wrong turn?

In Stuttgart we found out that all the trains for the day to Paris were booked solid and had no room. Luckily, someone told us we could talk to the conductors of the trains and maybe someone would find room for us. Jane worked some magic and after a couple hours we did in fact make it on a train. Jane had a seat and I stood by the bathroom with Mason - which was not very fun, but at least we were on a train. After a couple hours some people got off so I was able to sit next to Jane with Mason for the last few hours and finally sleep a little bit.

Oh well, we finally made it and only one suitcase broke along the way (sorry Jesse...).

I thought it might be fun to keep a running tally of various things along the way, so here goes:

Intercity train rides:
Jane - 2
Nick - 2
Mason - 2

Missed connections - 1

Suitcases broken - 2
Suitcases fixed - 1 (sorry again Jesse, I'll see what I can do - it was the big green duffel. One of the wheels ripped through a good chunk of plastic and now won't move).

Escalator's ridden by Mason - 1, which will be the last...he did not do well.

In other news, things have gotten much better now that we are mostly settled in Paris. Jane's apartment is in a very fun area and we saw the Eiffel Tower today (new to me). We'll write more about that later, but this McDonald's is about to close.

Heading to Paris

*Nick in Vienna*

As the post Jane wrote says, we are taking a night train to Paris in a couple hours. This is Mason's first train ride. He did well on the plane, but this will be a very different trip. We are pretty sure he will just sit right with us: under our feet, or between us if their is room. I think we are supposed to keep him leashed and muzzled the whole time, but we'll probably sneak the muzzle off of him after awhile. We haven't let him sleep all day and he is getting pretty grumpy. Hopefully he will just pass out on the train and we won't have to worry about him too much. His crate is staying here in Vienna because it is too big to take with us.

I'm a bit sad to leave Vienna as I'm starting to feel comfortable here and starting to understand the language better. Cable has actually been a big help in this. There are tons of shows that I watched in America that are dubbed here - King of Queens, all three Law and Orders, Monk, The Simpsons, and quite a few movies (already watched a Star Wars movie, Gangs of New York, and Gladiator in German). Still, it will be nice to visit Paris, where I have never been before. On our honeymoon we never went West of Germany, so it will be neat to see France.

I am trying to not be too stressed out, despite all the things Jane mentioned. My visa has turned out to be much harder to get than I thought it would be, but hopefully it will be okay in a couple weeks with the help of my parents and the Newbys. At some point I need to actually work on my dissertation. I have grant applications due in a little over a month and I really thought I would have more (read something) done by now. Oh well - I should be able to work in Paris while Jane is off with her fancy Fulbright friends. I'll probably stay in Paris a little over a week before coming back to Vienna to dive into the archives.

We'll post pictures of Paris soon!

The Journey Continues

*Jane in Vienna*

We are leaving tonight at 10:40 on a night train to Paris. We'll get there in the mid-morning, and then I will attempt to set up as many things as possible before I am too exhausted. The first thing I need is my bank account, because then I will receive my first Fulbright payment :)

Some of you know that this summer has been rough for us. It seemed that as we prepared for our year in Europe everything went wrong. We've had to say, "It could have been worse," or "It all worked out in the end," about a lot of things, which implies that our accomplishments floated on the surface of deep frustration.

How simple could it be to send a set of keys from Paris to Vienna? Well for us, horribly complicated. My landlord's wife sent my keys by Chronopost next day service Thursday night, and I waited for them all weekend and then finally yesterday wrote an openly unhappy email to my landlord. Of course - the keys had been in Vienna since Friday morning. This was just a little bit of good news, because the company shipping the keys in France does not exist in Austria, so I still had no idea where they were in the city. This morning I woke up at 7 am and spent 2.5 hours calling to France, then calling to Austria, and eventually I learned the name of the company that I really needed to talk to all along: TNT shipping. From there it was easy - a pickup was arranged this afternoon. But from yesterday evening I was consumed with trying to solve this problem. Thankfully Nick woke up and helped me when I started crying desperately because I couldn't figure out how to dial a French number from our Austrian phone.

So once again, things "worked out in the end." I wanted to leave Vienna today, and the keys came just in time. The story of the summer! Some of you know that the many obstacles of this summer have caused me to question how active God is in the world. The question is: does the fact that things just seem to come through for us mean that God steps in at the last possible moment to save us, and that this is evidence of his glory and goodness? Or is this evidence that after waiting patiently for all forces in the universe to work things out, a problem was cleared due to our impatient diligence? Was it solely up to us all along? I realize that not everyone reading these posts is interested in spirituality, but if you are, I would love to hear your thoughts.

Anyway, I am looking forward to getting to Paris so that the last large chunk of unknown will come into the light and we can someday start researching (I read the introduction of a book a few days ago...) It does, however, disappoint me to be leaving Austria after I have started to feel so comfortable speaking German. It's as though all of the words I have been looking up and all of the concentration I have been putting forth is now wasted because I have to start again with French.

Bon voyage Jane and Nick!

Klettern macht Spass (Climbing is Fun!)

*Jane in Vienna*

This afternoon we went to a bouldering gym just a few blocks from the Viennese opera house. If you want to imagine our journey, we live just east of the Schönbrunn castle, in the west part of the city. A street encircles the center of Vienna, aptly named the Ringstrasse, and the opera sits on the Opernring, which takes up from 6 to 7 o’clock on the Ringstrasse.

As you can see from the pictures we have posted, this place is wunderbar! You enter an inconspicuous large door, cross a small inner courtyard, and then suddenly you are in a gym that consists of three floors and several rooms with climbing holds plastered all over the walls and ceilings. We thought this might be boring, because we are used to climbing several feet in the air attached to a rope at Ohio State’s rec center, but there were so many different holds and surfaces that this was hardly the case. At first I was scared to climb up to the ceiling, because once I got there I had to fall several feet to the mats below, but after awhile even this became enjoyable. Nick and I truly felt like we were at a playground for grownups – we were playing and it was perfectly acceptable behavior. I sensed that the other climbers curiosity about two Americans messing around in their gym. Did we get lost while touring the opera? Unfortunately we could only enter one time without paying a lot of money to join this climbing society. We have to do this if we ever want to go again.

We only bouldered for an hour, because we quickly grew tired from hoisting our bodies underneath the many overhung surfaces (surfaces that lean out past vertical). At the end I finally started to feel comfortable with the rather different moves that bouldering requires versus toprope climbing, but my arms were conversely too tired for me to take much advantage.

One of the strange things about visiting another country is that you are confronted with a new world of sports. Of course here soccer is popular, but all kinds of car racing are just as popular, and so is the curious sport of handball. Climbing is quite popular in Austria, perhaps because of the Alps. Not only have most people in the U.S. never gone climbing in their lives while it is common in Austria, but the Austrians take a very different approach. In the US, at least according to my experience, the reason to go climbing for most who do it is to have fun in a general kind of way. At this gym in Austria the intention was more to learn how to use the body with maximum efficiency, and many of the adults we encountered climbed silently, seriously, and alone. While we were at the climbing gym we were displaced from one of the rooms by a large group of children who were taking some sort of climbing class. This kind of activity is so foreign to American children. Just how different could a child turn out depending on what kind of sport he/she engages during the formative years? Perhaps diplomats should devote some study to the subject.

My front door in Vienna

Not much to say, I just think it is a cool front door.