*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!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
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!
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!
Sunday, September 27, 2009
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.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
The Journey Thus Far
*Nick in Vienna*
So it turns out I can’t sleep on planes…it also turns out I am more affected by jet lag than I formerly thought. We landed in Vienna on Tuesday morning and I had not slept at all on the flight. It took me until yesterday to start feeling any kind of normal. It’s a six hour time difference here from Ohio, and thus far it has not agreed with me. The main problem though, is that my fantasy baseball team is in the finals right now and I can’t be up to watch it (since most games happen between 3 and 6 am here). I do fully intend to be up for the playoffs though when the Cardinals are playing…well, maybe not the NLDS.
We spent most of Thursday and Friday trying to figure out my visa, which mean that I was just crazy stressed out. We went to multiple offices, traveled across vast areas of Vienna, and didn’t really get anywhere – well I did figure out what I need, it is just all in America, but it will be taken care of eventually. It was a very weird way to see the city again. Most of it was new to us, and it really is an amazingly beautiful city, but I was so stressed that all the magnificent churches and decorated houses just looked mean. Also, some of the stuff we had already seen on our honeymoon when we were here for a couple days. I felt like, “oh look, it’s the freaking kunsthistorisches museum…” (the museum is actually very amazing)
Oh well, I will soon calm down and be able to enjoy the city much more. We’ll post pictures of our neighborhood soon, which is quite lovely, by the way.
We went to mass tonight at a cute little Catholic church about 4 blocks from here. The service was mostly attended by people 40-50 years older than me, although there were a handful of younger people. For some reason I have always kind of liked that situation. I feel very special- like the older people value and appreciate me for being there. It is like the warm feeling one gets when pleasing one’s grandparents. Since my grandparents have passed I rarely get that feeling. The service itself was quite nice. It is good practice for my German since I know the mass pretty well. Since I couldn’t understand all of the homily, when I was confused I could just pretend the Priest was saying what I would want him to say. For a quasi-heretic like me it worked very well. I plan on going to mass often.
It turns out watching TV on the internet it not as easy as we thought it would be. I write this only as a word of warning. Many sites, such as Hulu or NBC.com (we are big Office fans), won’t allow viewers with IP addresses outside of the US. We found this program that masks IP addresses and kind of works, but it is not perfect and doesn’t work for all sites. This is probably for the better – I could easily waste too much time – but it is kind of a downer.
A final word on my apartment for those of you that are curious – it is way nicer than I thought it would be. Big living room with a nice TV and huge desk, nice big bed and big wardrobes, great views out the front, dishwasher and washing machine, and on a nice quiet street. I thought people might want to read that (Mom), and also there is a couch if anyone wants to come visit Vienna. The shower on the other hand…well it is weird…that is all I will say for now. I’ll post a couple pictures of the apartment.
Wien ist anders! (that is written on like everything here – it means, “Vienna is different”).
So it turns out I can’t sleep on planes…it also turns out I am more affected by jet lag than I formerly thought. We landed in Vienna on Tuesday morning and I had not slept at all on the flight. It took me until yesterday to start feeling any kind of normal. It’s a six hour time difference here from Ohio, and thus far it has not agreed with me. The main problem though, is that my fantasy baseball team is in the finals right now and I can’t be up to watch it (since most games happen between 3 and 6 am here). I do fully intend to be up for the playoffs though when the Cardinals are playing…well, maybe not the NLDS.
We spent most of Thursday and Friday trying to figure out my visa, which mean that I was just crazy stressed out. We went to multiple offices, traveled across vast areas of Vienna, and didn’t really get anywhere – well I did figure out what I need, it is just all in America, but it will be taken care of eventually. It was a very weird way to see the city again. Most of it was new to us, and it really is an amazingly beautiful city, but I was so stressed that all the magnificent churches and decorated houses just looked mean. Also, some of the stuff we had already seen on our honeymoon when we were here for a couple days. I felt like, “oh look, it’s the freaking kunsthistorisches museum…” (the museum is actually very amazing)
Oh well, I will soon calm down and be able to enjoy the city much more. We’ll post pictures of our neighborhood soon, which is quite lovely, by the way.
We went to mass tonight at a cute little Catholic church about 4 blocks from here. The service was mostly attended by people 40-50 years older than me, although there were a handful of younger people. For some reason I have always kind of liked that situation. I feel very special- like the older people value and appreciate me for being there. It is like the warm feeling one gets when pleasing one’s grandparents. Since my grandparents have passed I rarely get that feeling. The service itself was quite nice. It is good practice for my German since I know the mass pretty well. Since I couldn’t understand all of the homily, when I was confused I could just pretend the Priest was saying what I would want him to say. For a quasi-heretic like me it worked very well. I plan on going to mass often.
It turns out watching TV on the internet it not as easy as we thought it would be. I write this only as a word of warning. Many sites, such as Hulu or NBC.com (we are big Office fans), won’t allow viewers with IP addresses outside of the US. We found this program that masks IP addresses and kind of works, but it is not perfect and doesn’t work for all sites. This is probably for the better – I could easily waste too much time – but it is kind of a downer.
A final word on my apartment for those of you that are curious – it is way nicer than I thought it would be. Big living room with a nice TV and huge desk, nice big bed and big wardrobes, great views out the front, dishwasher and washing machine, and on a nice quiet street. I thought people might want to read that (Mom), and also there is a couch if anyone wants to come visit Vienna. The shower on the other hand…well it is weird…that is all I will say for now. I’ll post a couple pictures of the apartment.
Wien ist anders! (that is written on like everything here – it means, “Vienna is different”).
Settling In
*Jane in Vienna*
Right now we are watching the Ohio State – Illinois game on justintv.com. It’s 10 pm here and we’re drinking Radlers, beer mixed with lemon lime soda. We’ve noticed that it’s very quiet here once the sun goes down, which is rather early, because Vienna is at the end of its time zone. It seems that the Viennese, at least those of the 12th district, stay inside after sunset. But during the day the main pedestrian area near our apartment, Meidlingerhauptstrasse, is filled with people.
We’ve been speaking a lot of German here, because it seems that many older Viennese do not remember the English they learned as students. As a result, Nick’s German is improving noticeably every few days and he’s showing the good sign of forgetting parts of English. This means that his brain is grudgingly making room. I’ve noticed that already I am picking up the Viennese accent, not something I wanted to do, because it is seen by other Germans as a hick accent. For some reason I pick up other people’s manners of speaking incredibly quickly, sometimes even after just speaking to someone for a few hours.
Now let’s check in with Mason…he’s asleep in his crate. In Columbus he never went in there unless we made him, but after spending so many anxious hours in the crate during our flight over here, he seems to have bonded with it in a special way. The big news from him is that his owners have found a Hundzone not too far from their apartment, and they’ve been taking him there every afternoon. Yesterday he played for several minutes with a miniature doberman, and her owner was nice enough to talk with his owners, kindly speaking slowly and allowing time for definitions of new words to be given.
Cultural differences so far: strangers do not greet each other on the street in any way; in many places there aren’t lines – people just assume that if you don’t butt in front of them, you must not want to do whatever it is that the line is for; the shower is very weird (not a cultural difference, but Nick really wanted to say this and will devote an entire post to it later); cars stop for pedestrians here! and pedestrians don’t j-walk, even if the street is completely clear (this is meant to oppose the street culture of Columbus).
Item of greatest worry: the keys for my apartment in Paris were supposed to arrive here today, and they didn’t. I am worried that somehow I don’t understand how to receive packages here, and I have made a horrible mistake.
Dying to know if the keys will ever arrive? Check for updates later.
Right now we are watching the Ohio State – Illinois game on justintv.com. It’s 10 pm here and we’re drinking Radlers, beer mixed with lemon lime soda. We’ve noticed that it’s very quiet here once the sun goes down, which is rather early, because Vienna is at the end of its time zone. It seems that the Viennese, at least those of the 12th district, stay inside after sunset. But during the day the main pedestrian area near our apartment, Meidlingerhauptstrasse, is filled with people.
We’ve been speaking a lot of German here, because it seems that many older Viennese do not remember the English they learned as students. As a result, Nick’s German is improving noticeably every few days and he’s showing the good sign of forgetting parts of English. This means that his brain is grudgingly making room. I’ve noticed that already I am picking up the Viennese accent, not something I wanted to do, because it is seen by other Germans as a hick accent. For some reason I pick up other people’s manners of speaking incredibly quickly, sometimes even after just speaking to someone for a few hours.
Now let’s check in with Mason…he’s asleep in his crate. In Columbus he never went in there unless we made him, but after spending so many anxious hours in the crate during our flight over here, he seems to have bonded with it in a special way. The big news from him is that his owners have found a Hundzone not too far from their apartment, and they’ve been taking him there every afternoon. Yesterday he played for several minutes with a miniature doberman, and her owner was nice enough to talk with his owners, kindly speaking slowly and allowing time for definitions of new words to be given.
Cultural differences so far: strangers do not greet each other on the street in any way; in many places there aren’t lines – people just assume that if you don’t butt in front of them, you must not want to do whatever it is that the line is for; the shower is very weird (not a cultural difference, but Nick really wanted to say this and will devote an entire post to it later); cars stop for pedestrians here! and pedestrians don’t j-walk, even if the street is completely clear (this is meant to oppose the street culture of Columbus).
Item of greatest worry: the keys for my apartment in Paris were supposed to arrive here today, and they didn’t. I am worried that somehow I don’t understand how to receive packages here, and I have made a horrible mistake.
Dying to know if the keys will ever arrive? Check for updates later.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
