Vienna Waits for You

On March 1, I began the second part of my study abroad program in Vienna, Austria. I’ll be living and studying in Vienna until the end of June. As an introduction to my time here, I figured I should give a bit of an overview of my typical daily life and coursework.

In terms of my living situation, I’m living at a Jugendwohnheim (youth residence) in the 20^th district of Vienna. The 20^th district is a pretty diverse part of town with a large number of recent immigrants. It’s pretty close to the city center (only a 20 minute subway ride to class) and is very close to the Danube canal (many, many photos of the canal to come-one of my favorite things to do in Vienna is to walk or rollerblade along the canal). Around 250 young people between the ages of 15 and 30 live in my youth residence. Some are studying, some are working, and a sizable percentage of the people come from other countries so it seems to be a nice mix of people. It’s been a bit hard to meet people, but I’m sure that will get better with time. Here are some photos of my room:

Most bars and restaurants in Berlin (and some in Vienna as well) have lots of free advertising postcards. Instant wall decorations!

In terms of classes, two of my courses are offered just for our program. One of the courses, Theater Alive, is taught by Gisela, a German professor from Macalester who is also spending the semester in Vienna. For the course, we read the texts of plays, attend one or two performances a week, and then discuss and write reactions to the performances. So far, I’ve mostly enjoyed all of the performances we’ve seen. Some highlights of the first month include die Dreigroschenoper (Three Penny Opera) by Bertolt Brecht, which was my first time seeing the show, and die Froschfotzenlederfabrik (general translation: pleather factory), a modern piece written last year that was about a dysfunctional family in former East Germany. It was a great production with lots of audience interaction and use of media. Honestly, any time the table of people I’m sitting with is given cake, a glass of champagne, a pair of underwear, several anti-Nazi fliers, and Is sprinkled with confetti during a theatre performance, it’s been a good time. 

Our other program course is entitled Multicultural Austria and is basically an Austrian history course with a focus on art and cultural history. It’s taught by Toni, a lovely Austrian historian. We meet once a week for lecture and another time during the week for a tour. Usually, we either walk through the city learning about the buildings and places around us or visit a museum (I’ll write more about our specific museum visits and tours later).  So far, I’ve really enjoyed the course and it’s been great to learn more about Austrian history, as it was discussed fairly infrequently in my European history courses in high school.

These courses are housed at the Austro-American Institute, an organization that both houses exchange programs of U.S. universities and offers English classes to people living in Vienna. Here's the building:

The rest of my courses are at the University of Vienna, where I’m basically direct enrolling in courses. At this point, I’m taking three courses, but will only receive credit for two back at Macalester. Two of the courses are in German and are history courses. One is a women’s history course and the other is an Egyptian history course. They are both really interesting, but I’ve found it challenging to listen, read the power point, understand everything, and take notes in German. Also, taking large lecture courses with more than 50 people is definitely a new experience, especially after studying at Mac where almost all of the classes have less than 25 people.  My last course is a seminar course with only 30 people in English looking at the politics of the European Union from a comparative perspective. The readings are interesting, especially the pieces comparing the EU to the United States, and I’m enjoying the course for the most part. All of these courses take place at the University’s main building. Here are some photos: 

I’m also taking a folk dance course through the University’s sports course program that meets one evening a week. I never really realized until the first class how much I associated folk dance with my childhood and my parents. Even though I didn’t know all the dances, didn’t know all the music and didn’t know any of the people, folk dancing felt like being at home. So in some ways, this course is a taste of home in Austria, and is definitely a highlight of my week.