Orientation

TGIF... and also, thank goodness I'm finally settled in my new apartment in Vienna! It was not a particularly easy train/subway journey from Salzburg but it did go exactly as planned. It was also the second time this week that I had gone back and forth on that same train. On Monday I took my Redlands students on an excursion to Zentralfriedhof and the Haus der Musik in Vienna to talk about music, memorials, and museums and how they all help to (re)construct identities (particularly national identity) after conflicts. As fun as that was to share with them, however, the excursion was dual purpose--I also needed to attend orientation for the Fulbright grantees at the Austrian American Educational Commission. The experience was informative and I enjoyed meeting my cohort. Also, the location--in the Museumsquartier--was incredible and I can see myself spending a lot of time bouncing between the hip restaurants and stores and the two modern art museums there. On the flip side, I have a feeling that I will be known as the Typhoid Mary of the Austrian Fulbright program since I brought a full blown Schnupfen with me. Cultural experience #1 of the week: learning the words for decongestant, expectorate, cold, and tissue. They are all handily onomotopaeic.

Now I'm back to stay for the Sommersemester at the Universität Wien and the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst (what used to simply be the “Hochschule”). And I'm still orientating. Cultural experience #2 was unfortunately a trip to the urgent care clinic for what has become an ear infection. Guess what? There is no such thing in Austria. Sehr awkward. Our program director suggested, in regard to the Fulbright experience, that "if it doesn't hurt at some point you're not doing it right." I don't think this is what he had in mind. Luckily, things are looking up--some quality time with a couple of other Fulbright women stationed here on Sunday and Mahler on Monday! Hmmm... Mahler Montag. That could work.

As a farewell to Salzburg, have some pictures of my "office" in Salzburg and some of the rest of the city I was just starting to call home...

 My time at the Salzburg Festspiele archives was ideal from a research standpoint and fantastic in terms of acquiring some more German (the archivist was patient with me even though she could have switched to English more often than she did... I'm grateful she didn't). It also came with some pretty sweet views...

Lots of natural light makes spending hours pouring over really boring letters much easier to deal with.

I could also see the backside of.... 

...this fountain. The Pferdschwemme... as in they used to actually water horses there, hence the rococo equine "pin ups."

The walk home wasn't bad either. About 10 minutes, past the Great Festspielhaus,  Peterskirche, and the Dom.

The Kapitelplazt (with the Jedermann statue, after Hugo von Hoffmannstahl's play) was how I knew I was close to home.

Plus, I could always shortcut through the graveyard at St. Peter's...

...which is beautiful even in the snow.

And for now I'll leave you with a picture of me having dessert. Can you guess where I went for Valentine's Day? (Answer in the next post...)

Ciao!