End of the First Week in Wien

It is my first Freitag in Wien!!  After our test, I went to a really decent wine tavern that was established in the 17th century (Haydn went there, of course!) with my German class (the wine was free because IES paid for it, I believe).  I had a glass of Weisswein and now I am back at the institute typing on a German keyboard.  I keep messing up because the y and z switch places on these keyboards.  Too bad I can't figure out how to type ß!  Oh, oh I found it!  Weißwein.  There!  The test was, okay I know this is really lame, but, it was stressful.  I got placed in Intermediate II German.  This is a bit advanced for me and, like what normally happens in my life, I again find myself behind.  Why am I always behind?  My hypothesis is that I am just a special individual who cannot stick to one thing for more than about two years.  This means I am always picking up new things to learn.  This is why I am almost always the least experienced in whatever my current occupation happen to be.  Like music.  I had no intention of being a music major at the time I entered college.  Somehow I enrolled in the first-year theory class and just went with it.  I only started what is now my instrument, the bassoon, three semesters before I entered college.  People ask me why I switched to the bassoon.  Well, currently my standard answer is that my high school symphonic band lacked bassoonists and they offered to pay for my bassoon lessons until I graduated from high school.  Flute lessons were even expensive for me, so I went with it.  I could have said that I loved the bassoon and just think it's such a cool instrument and was more than happy to pick it up, but honestly, I had very very little knowledge of the bassoon before I committed to it.  Anyway, I am just trying to show why I am always falling behind in most of my endeavors – I stop and pick up new things, like I stopped French and picked up German, stopped flute and picked up bassoon, see?  I wouldn't say that I gave up, though.  No, absolutely not.  I am prepared to continue with French as soon as I find a chance.

Deutschlandsberg, Steiermark.  This is where we had our four-day orientation.

Hike to the Castle Museum in Deutschlandsberg

View from the Castle

But I see now that I was really going to talk about my experience in Wien so far, not about my frustrations, as I go on and on about falling behind.  Here, I can make a (good?) transition: speaking of bassoon, I auditioned for Music Workshop on Wednesday.  I have to say, I had honestly been worried about this required audition for more than a month.  It totally dampened my spirits over winter break.  I was always looking forward to Vienna, and then remembered that there is an audition.  I was worried that I wouldn't be admitted, of course.  But my other concern was that we had to play in front of all the music program students!  I really believed that after the audition I will have no friends.  NO FRIENDS!  I always feel this way.  This is why I almost never perform for a large audience (the more people heard me, the fewer potential friendships, see?).  But after the audition, people still talk to me, and even tell me I did well (and of course I messed up here and there).  It's unbelievable!  Now I feel like a whole person – I feel like I can play what I can, be who I am, and still have friends.  I never felt this way at Puget Sound.  Ooops, now when I post this on the Puget Sound Adventures Abroad journal I will have to eliminate this part.  But really, at Puget Sound, I probably never get a chance to perform.  I did play at a noon recital, and so forth, but that was all for very small audiences.  This audition, even though it is still supposed to be pretty casual and is designed to help us hear each other and start learning to work with each other, is perhaps my largest "performance" yet.  So at Puget Sound, I always feel like I am hiding something.  I want to learn to take off that mask here.

I am trying to make myself do a lot of things here in Vienna.  I want to be less constrained in front of people.  I want to be able to feel more relaxed when meeting new people and changing my environment.  My biggest challenge is the people.  On the other hand, I am fairly comfortable taking random adventures on my own, I am capable of reading maps, using various kinds of public transportation, and enjoying stumbling into unexpected things.  I might say I have done plenty of that.  But I do not know how to be with people.  This means I sometimes toss myself in uncomfortable situations.  This is what I think: whatever I am afraid of, be it meeting new people or what, I just need to toss myself into some heated oil like deep frying a piece of eggplant – or Schnitzel, since I am in Wien, but I pick eggplant because I am not fond of meat – and after a while I will come out form the pan and rid of that fear.  Here am I still sizzling in the saucepan.  Luckily, I have some very fun roommates who are not quiet at all.  I am gonna learn something from them.

This first week of intensive German was, intense.  Lots and lots of vocab to memorize.  I want to know them, but I can also feel my brain shrinking.  Next week we have tests almost everyday, oral test/presentation, essay, articles, und... was noch?  I could have switched down a level, I suppose.  It might seem very lame to be studying and worrying about school work.  But think about it.  My goal, one of my main goals, is to become better in German.  Obviously I have to put some time and effort into it and this is my perfect chance to refine my language skills.  I think it should be worthwhile.  Although I am scared of next week.  I could go see three operas next week (Stehplätze are cheap but we will have to go early and stand through the wait and the whole opera) with my roommates, ("where else can you go see three operas a week like this?"), on the other hand though, I am content to just live the Vienna life, like a regular resident of the city.  I like walking down random alleys, going grocery shopping, sitting in parks, browsing in a bookstore, riding the bus and trains with other regular Viennese people, and  maybe go see one opera next week.  And of course, the intensive German things are going to keep me busy.  This is actually this first time I have some downtime to reflect and write.

A study room at the little IES Center

Kusthistorisches Museum.  I went on a tour there with an art history prof.  It was absolutely glorious.  Will visit again.  Hopefully I can get a free museum pass since I am taking Austrian Art and Architecture.  I think it is otherwise pretty expensive to get in.

Me sitting in the Stadtpark studying my verbs.  Oh, there's Johann Strauss.

It snowed today.  I don' know if it will snow more.  I haven't seen Vienna in snow yet.

Where I will be living and other details

I got my housing assignment one or two weeks ago.  I was honestly surprised by how excited it made me.  Of course an Austrian address means almost nothing to me, but having an apartment makes everything seem so real.  Until a few weeks ago, I could still foresee a dozen different changes that can stand in the way of my study abroad plan – I even really seriously considered changing my major completely (I mean, as opposed to, say, changing it from music business to music).  But today, I dropped all my home university courses for the spring semester, which means I better be going!

Okay, back to the housing announcement.  I don't know a whole lot about the neighborhood really.  I will be living in an apartment with three other IES students.  I Google-mapped it, so I know it is in Landstraße, the third district of Vienna.  I just know that is where the famous expressionist landmark Hundertwasserhaus is located.

This is what my travel itinerary and upcoming semester looks like:
11 January  Depart from Missoula at 7 am, layover at Seattle/Tacoma, then fly to Chicago O'Hare, and arrive in London at around 7 am on 12 January.  Then I will meet up with my uncle and his family for a little bit, and leave London the next morning (13 January).

13 January  Arrival
17 Jan – 4 Feb  German intensive program
5 – 13 February  Post intensive break
19 – 25 March  Midterms
16 – 25 April  Easter Break
13 – 20 May  Final Exams

Currently I am working on putting together some internship applications.  I want to apply for an intern position in Taipei too, so I have to write my résumé and an autobiography (I know, it sounds rather odd to me too, but it's typical in Taiwan for employers to ask for autobiographies – and head-shot photos – from job applicants, and I am trying to keep an open mind).  I have the least idea in the world on how to write these things, in Chinese!  Now, I can converse in Mandarin easily, probably even better than in English, but I can write and speak formally better in English.  I also got all my job search trainings/workshops in the States starting from high school, but I have never seen an autobiography sample until I Googled it just now.  I want to be a world traveler and a "global resident", so I have to be able to apply for jobs in different countries without a problem.  I have also had a little lesson on how to write a German résumé.  It is not all just about knowing the language.  I find a whole lot of cultural values embodied in a sample/ideal autobiography.  I found a piece of advice on the internet that says "強調優點但不炫耀" ("emphasize your merit but don't show off") – this is such a dangerous piece of advice!  It hardly tells you what to do.  I wonder about the boundary between modesty and arrogance in different cultures... the boundary can shift a lot from an American society to a Chinese one and I sort of learned it the hard way.

As I am filling out internship applications, I started thinking about getting an art minor instead of graduating early again.  But we'll see if it's worth it.

I am crossing off my to-do list and I scrambled and made up a summer plan, or a list of options.  Seeing people who I haven't seen in a long time and being asked "where are you going to be this summer?" suddenly make me feel the need to come up with a plan, at least a very very rough one.  So here is my list of options:

1) Be a bum (my top choice, needless to say)
2) Summer research, if I can get a grant
3) Make improving my German or French as an excuse and linger in Europe, if I have the budget
4) Library, archival, curatorial, or conservation internship, or something of that sort
5) Summer job, probably in Tacoma
6) Summer class if I can afford it

The problem is, even though I say they are my options, they really are not.  It all depends on whether I have the money, whether I land a job or an internship, and such and such.

Preparing for Vienna

This is my very first time blogging.  I will be spending the next five months or so in Vienna for study abroad, so I thought it would be a good idea to document this experience through a blog.

I am very excited and nervous at the same time.  It is my first time in Europe so I hardly know what to expect.  What I know is that I am eager for a change.  In the last five semesters at University of Puget Sound, I have changed my direction many times, and I feel I have made many mistakes, including decisions on my major field of study.  I found myself losing my appetite for learning and for many other things I used to be interested in.  I hope to maybe regain my old interests or discover new ones in a complete strange city.  I hope to get better at German and learn about Austrian and Central European culture, art, architecture, literature, and much much more.  On the other hand, I do not want to have any expectations – I want to free myself from all of that and just be able to go out and appreciate whatever I run into.  I want to travel around and get lost.

Clark Fork River in Missoula, Montana

Meanwhile, I am staying at my sister's in Missoula, Montana for the holidays.  This means I have lots of time on my hands and almost complete control over how I spend it.  Winter in Missoula is very cold, almost colder than I remembered.  I like to monitor the whether, and I almost have to.  I mean, I find it occupying my thoughts because I am constantly cold and because it determines whether I want to, or am able to, go out or not.  As of right now, it is 10º F outside.  Let's see... it is 29º in Tacoma, 21º in Vienna, 57º in Taipei, 36º in Copenhagen, and 41º in London at the moment (I look at the temperature in Copenhagen for no significant reason; it's fun.  And London... well, I will spend one day there before I get to Vienna, so I guess that is a sufficient reason).  I amuse myself thinking that by having lived in Missoula, I can never be scared of the cold almost anywhere else I go.  Oh, and I shouldn't fret about the heat either, as it gets pretty hot in Taipei in the summer.  My point is, if there is one, that is, this is a cold, gray, quiet, and lonesome time before the big adventure, and I am patiently waiting for my departure...

I made some cookies for Christmas: Rosenmunnar, Scandinavian almond bar, and honey lace crisps.  Honestly, I simply decide what to make based on two things: the name and the appearance.