Vienna Journal

Wed 3/19 11:11

This morning I woke up late, and rushed to the Vienna Seminar, only to find that the Central College Office was locked. That can only mean that we were supposed to meet somewhere else, and as hard as I try to remember, I have no idea where!

I should have written it down, but how can I remember to write down everything when there is so much? In Theater class we are supposed to meet early next time, at a place I don't know how to get to... for Aesthetics I need to get a book that the bookstore doesn't seem to have... next week my Fin-de-Siecle class meets three quarters of an hour later in a building I don't know the location of, and we are supposed to have read 26 pages of a book that I can't focus on for a paragraph ... for Romantic Lit we had to read Der Blonde Eckbert for the last class, but I completely forgot, and we are supposed to meet earlier than usual next time, but I don't know how much earlier, and we are supposed to read another story but I don't know what or when...

I think this is all part of my acclimation to this new place and way of living. Early in my semester in Mexico, I also had a few weeks of not being able to concentrate on any of the lectures or readings, and being completely swamped by the quantity of things to do, and unable to keep track of them all. It got better after a while, but I can't remember just how long it took, and the timing will probably be different here. But geez, if this is how culture shock affects me, I don't think I want a career involving a lot of traveling!

Fri 3/21 16:53

I have been to my Aesthetics class for the second time, and it was better. I understood a lot, and even made an intelligent comment. I still cannot find the book in the bookstore, though.

I have still been to Fin-de-siecle only once. The professor was sick the second week. I will have to go and find the building where we are meeting the next time. It's called HS 33 Hauptgebaeude.

I have figured some things out with Mom and Dad. They are meeting me in Giessen on April 13th.

They have bought velomobiles in Germany (enclosed tricycles, like little cars that you drive by pedaling) but they are not Go-Ones, like what Mom and I looked at when we first came. They are Cab-Bikes. The Go-One is much cooler looking than the Cab-Bike, but it doesn't have enough storage space for their needs. Anyway, we will ride these vehicles through the tulip fields in Holland, and that is how I will spend my spring break.

Austrian traffic lights drive me crazy! When I cross at the crosswalk, especally on wide streets like the ones in the Floridsdorf area, the light is green for a very, very short time-- long enough to reach the other side if you're in top physical shape and you run. A little old lady with a cane would take about three cycles to get across. At my best speed, I can get ALMOST there before the green light starts flashing. Oh, and then, once it turns red, BOTH lights stay red for WAY too long... longer, I would swear, than either of them stays green.

Add this kind of thing to the price of gasoline and parking in Austria, and you can see why they've gone to the trouble of setting up such a good public transportation system. I love the subways and streetcars here. But I'd never choose this as a place to drive a car, or do a lot of walking.

Sun 3/23 17:09

Yesterday on the radio I heard the announcements about Iraq being bombed. Today I was in the subway station, finding my way to the Volkstheater where the theater class is meeting tomorrow, and there was some more stuff about it on the screen that you can watch while waiting for the subway.

Why does this have to happen? It is all so stupid. I don't want to think about it. I know that a truly responsible citizen would consider everything thoroughly, develop a detailed opinion, and then stand up in every possible way for that opinion. I admire people who are doing that, but when I try to think about it, my mind veers away to things like my plans for next weekend. I never seem to let myself think long enough to start feeling. My mind is trying to protect me from pain, but I am not sure I want to be protected.

It is interesting to see that in Austria, as well as in the US, there is plenty of opposition to the war. While communicating with my family at home about their participation in protests, I have seen peace flags and "Stop the War!" signs in this very area. The whole world is interested, I think, because there is a distinct feeling that whatever happens, the whole world will be involved.

Mon 3/24 8:22

Austria seems more environmentally conscious than the USA. Not only are there sorted recycling containers everywhere, but they can handle a lot more stuff than the ones where I come from. At home, you can't recycle yogurt containers or plastic bags, for example. Here you can. (Although, in Studentenzentrum Donaufeld, nobody puts stuff in the right places because the kitchen recycling bins are under the counter in a position where you can't see their labels, so a lot of people assume they don't have labels and just put their trash in them randomly.)

The extra concern for the environment even extends to city birds. In Minnesota, only a few thoughtful people put silhouettes of hawks on their windows, to scare little birds away so they won't hit their heads on the glass. Here, I see those a lot more often.

10:44

I went to the wrong place! I had remembered that the place my theater class was meeting today was a stop on one of the subway routes and that its name sounded a little like "Volksoper," so I had assumed it was Volkstheater, but it was Stadtoper! I spent the whole time waiting at the wrong place and missed our meeting completely. Aargh!

14:00

Something annoying just happened. It wasn't a catastrophe, but it bothered me anyway, and maybe writing will make me feel better.

I did some exploring to find out where I will have to go for class tonight. I found my way to the Hauptgebaeude, and sat down at a table to eat some crackers and cheese, and a woman came up to me and asked for money. I assumed she would be an ordinary, not-too-intrusive beggar, or a student who had forgotten the money to buy a train ticket, or something, so I gave her some.

I made some mistakes, though. I gave her a little too much-- enough that she knew I had plenty of money on me. And she immediately asked me to go outside with her and talk-- she said she needed badly to talk about something.

That was when the whole situation started feeling uncomfortable to me, and I said that I had to leave, and ran. But she followed me. It is not easy for me to ignore a person who is walking behind me begging me to stop. I finally sat down. Then she told me this long sad story about how and why and how badly she needed money. I didn't believe it all-- her speech sounded too perfect and her words sounded too well-rehearsed. But I gave her some more money hoping it would make her go away.

Then she said she would pay me back, and she said we would go around the corner to talk about where she would meet me to pay me back, but when we got there she just asked me for more money instead. I turned and walked away, but she kept following me, telling me how cruel I was being, and how badly in need she was, and how much God would love me if I gave her the rest of my money, and that she would go away if I gave her twenty more euros, and finally I did, and ran the rest of the way back to the Central College office without looking back. I don't want to talk about how much money it was in all.

I shouldn't be so upset about it. I still have plenty of money left, and even if her whole story wasn't true, her life is probably still a lot worse than mine, if she's driven to do crazy things like that. This is the kind of thing I have to get used to, if I'm going to spend another 3 months here.

19:31

I am back from my second class period of Fin-de-Siecle. I'm troubled. The focus of the class seems to be on anti-semitism at the turn of the century, and the professor gives me a strong impression that he himself is anti-semitic.

He spent the whole hour explaining to us what the influential anti-semites of the time thought, and he never said outright that he agreed with these opinions, but he never said anything implying that he disagreed with them, either. And he seemed to try (failing pitifully) to make the opinions seem more reasonable. He made a point of explaining that the Christlichsoziale Partei fought not against Jews in themselves but against a Jewish "takeover" of the German people... that Schoenerer disapproved of Jews not because of their religion but because they were "greedy, hard-hearted and sadistic"... that there were anti-semitic thinkers who maintained that Jews did have all these unpleasant traits, but they did not have to be killed, they could "overcome their nature" and become decent people...

I thought that maybe he was trying to quote the opinions objectively, refraining from expressing his own opinion because the teacher's opinion should not be part of the course... but the more I listened, the more it really did seem that he was trying to use the quotes to make anti-semitic thoughts seem nicer. And I noticed that many times, when he said something that struck me that way, some people got up and left the room.

I don't know how I feel. It makes me uncomfortable, but not enough to leave the class, considering how much trouble it would be to get a different class approved for my major so late. I guess this is going to be another learning experience.

Thu 3/27 17:15

This morning I went to visit Onkel Karl and Tante Hansi. They gave me a lot to eat. We found enough things to talk about, pretty much, although I sometimes felt the conversation was lagging. I wish I could sustain conversations better in German. Maybe I am just in a phase where my brain is kind of fuzzy most of the time. It feels that way.

On Sunday I am meeting them and Uli and Lotte at their house and we will go out someplace. Tonight I am probably meeting some friends in the dorm building to cook Mexican food. I hope I have some room in my stomach by then.

Sun 3/30 11:45

I'm disappointed. Thursday evening I went to meet the group that was making dinner together, and they weren't there, and I haven't yet found out what was wrong. Then today there was a misunderstanding, I thought Karl and Hansi would call me at 11:30 telling me when to meet, but it turned out I was supposed to meet them at 11:30. For a while I thought it was too late & I wouldn't be able to go, but then they called back and said they would pick me up. So that's okay, at least. But it sucks to have caused them inconvenience.

Mon 3/31 16:46

Spent yesterday with Karl & Hansi, Uli & Farzan, Lotte & Wolfgang, Christl & Josef. I ate a lot, again. Conversation went ok at first but got slow as I got tired. Today I reserved my train place for going to Frankfurt, and bought a cellphone (finally). How did it ever occur to German speakers to call a cellphone a "Handy"-- an English word that has never been used that way in English? Language is so delightfully weird.

Now I'm waiting for class to start. At the University of Vienna, students smoke in the hallways all the time. I don't know if it's actually allowed or just a commonly broken rule. Either way, I don't like it.

Wed 4/2 14/27

Again I woke up late, this morning, and rushed to the Central College office, and found it locked. This time, having a cell phone, I called another student in the group, who was able to inform me that there was no Vienna Seminar today. I had expected there to be, because it's supposed to be every other week, and we didn't have it last week. I guess the times are really unpredictable. And since I missed the last time, I didn't get to hear when it would meet next.

I have nothing else today until literature class at 17:00. But before that, I want to go to the bookstore in the NIG building and pick up the book they have gotten for me, and order a few others, and pick up some of those little yellow Reclam books for Romantic Lit and 20th Century Lit. And I want to check my email and ask Mom how long our trip during Spring break is going to be. But I can't go anywhere until my laundry is done.

Thu 1/3 11:12

I love the European fascination with Handys. (See, I've even begun calling them Handys myself!) I love how easy it is to get and use one here. I just walked into the store and asked for the least expensive one, and the lady got it out and activated it for me, and I paid, and that was it.

And even being the least expensive one, it has games and internet access and hundreds of other features, more than I could ever use, and I don't even have to sign up for an account or anything. I have a certain number of hours that come with the phone, and when they run out, I buy a card for a certain number of hours more, and when that runs out I buy another card, and so on. It's great!

I also love the Vienna subway system. It's so easy to understand. Wherever I am, if I can find a subway station, I can find my way back to my dorm. I feel so empowered, being able to travel around the city. At home I've never been able to do that so easily because the bus system is so complicated.

I am going to the NIG today to copy some pages out of books in the philosophy library. I have found that the books for my philosophy courses are very expensive, and I am not going to buy all of them.

19:03

I wish I could somehow revive a bit of whatever made my social life so great last semester! I am so lonely! I tag along with the others, but I can hardly ever get into the conversation.I can't think of anything to say. In Mexico, everyone thought everything I said was brilliant, but here, I can't manage to look like anything but a real loser trying hopelessly to be clever. How can there be so much difference? Is it the climate?

I don't even really fit in with the people in my dorm building. But at least I found out about the dinner misunderstanding the other night. They were meeting in another section of the Studentenzentrum. I had dinner with them a few nights later, and it went ok. But I am still very lonely.

Fri 4/4 20:48

My cell phone time ran out today, and I went to the Trafik and asked for a card. The guy didn't ask me what kind of card I needed, he just took out a B-Free card and handed it to me, so I assumed that was the right kind, and bought it for 20 euros.

I didn't know that there are different kinds of cards for different phones, and that for my T-mobile phone there is a T-mobile card, which is the only one that will work for me. I found this out at the Handy Shop after I tried the B-Free card and it didn't work, and I couldn't return it because I had rubbed off the rub-off stuff over the number, so I had to spend another whole 20 euros on a T-mobile card.

It took me a while to get that to work, too, but finally it did, and I am satisfied for now. I wonder, though, why the guy at the Trafik assumed I wanted a B-Free card. Isn't that the kind that only Austrians can use? How could he think I was an Austrian? Maybe my German is better than I thought.

I have gotten some small bags for bringing stuff on the velomobile ride with Mom & Dad. I also noticed that all my pants were jeans, so I went and bought some cheap sweatpants that I hope will be more comfortable for riding. I still have stuff to ask Mom about, like where in Giessen we are meeting, but that can wait until the next chance I get to use the net.

I am meeting Uli at Hutteldorf tomorrow, and spending the day with her and Karl & Hansi, and sleeping at their house, and going back to my dorm sometime on Sunday. That'll give me a chance to ask Uli questions about cell phones, and questions Mom wants me to ask, like whether she and Dad should come visit at Easter or after Easter. So at least this time I'll have something to talk about.

Sun 4/6 18:04

As planned, I met Uli at Hutteldorf around 12:30. I had no trouble finding the place. She had Farzan and Karl and Hansi with her, and we went to Josef and Christl's house, where we met Josef and Christl, and Lotte and Wolfgang's kids, Bernhardt and Gregor, and some friends.

They fed us cheese spaetzle and potato salad and broccoli and ice cream with berries and hot chocolate and an "Osterlamm," a sort of cake in the shape of a lamb, frosted with white chocolate, with a cherry for an eye. Christl cut it up in slices, starting at its bottom, and when she asked who wanted the lamb's bottom, everyone was quiet for a while, and then Bernhardt's girlfriend said she'd take it. When I got my slice, I realized Bernhardt's girlfriend was clever, because the lamb's bottom had more white chocolate on it than the slice I got. Luckily I got to eat most of the lamb's head later on, so I got more than my share of white chocolate in the long run.

We talked about various things, and this time the conversation stayed pretty lively the whole time. Josef and Christl's kids, Clemens and Elmar, came later, although Elmar spent most of the time pruning the trees outside, and Clemens only showed up near the end. I gather they are both pretty busy people.

Hansi turned out to have a B-Free cellphone, so she gave me 20 euros for my B-Free card.

In the evening Hansi and I went to a concert, in what Hansi said was the most famous

concert hall in the world. It was certainly beautiful. There was gold everywhere, and statues and paintings and chandeliers, and a huge organ, although it didn't play that night. The concert was mostly violin music, and it was great.

I spent the night at Karl and Hansi's house, and most of today we just talked and read books. It was a real April day outside. For five minutes it would be sunny and clear, then suddenly there would be snow and gales of wind, and five minutes later it would be sunny again. This went on all day, back and forth.

I couldn't go home right away because Hansi said there was some sort of marathon and the streetcar wasn't running on Donaufelderstrasse. I went home around five pm. Hansi gave me a bag of food to take with me.

So I am finally back, and I have enough food for a week, but I feel as if I won't be hungry again for about that long.

Thu 4/10 17:54

Waiting at Stadtpark. Concert is tonight. Bunch of other students from group are going. Too early to go into the concert hall but too late to go anyplace else. At least for me. If I went anywhere else, I would be haunted the whole time by a desperate fear that I might not get back in time. Even though I have until 19:30. I am never comfortable if I can't be everyplace an hour early. Even though I hate waiting. I am a mass of contradictions.

Yesterday morning we went to the Jewish Museum, and went around that area of the city to look at a number of things related to Jewish history. Some were extremely interesting, like the underground remains of an old synagogue, and a Holocaust

memorial built to look as if it were made out of hundreds of books. I realized I don't really know very much about Jewish history. It's so much more than just the Holocaust, but that's what always comes to mind first, somehow.

There are a lot of things I hadn't known about Austria in general, even though I have been here so many times. For instance, I didn't know that there is so much Catholicism here. I had known that my father is Catholic, and that his mother was Catholic, but she was Irish, and I never thought much about the religion of my father's father, who was Austrian. But I guess he probably was Catholic too, because it would have been unusual for my father to be raised in his mother's tradition if his parents had different religions, and if something unusual happened in my family history, I usually hear about it.

Fri 4/11 17:50

I wasn't sure when registration for the summer and fall terms at my college was going to start this year, but I was sure it couldn't have already started because nobody had sent me the PIN that I needed to register online. But I had the feeling that it would probably be soon, so the other day I wrote an email to the registrar at my college.

Today they sent a one-line reply: "Registration started on Monday." No advice, no mention of why I didn't get a PIN, no thoughts on whether I could still register somehow.

I don't know what to do. Each class gets a week to register, and seniors are first, so unless there is some special alternative I don't know about, I guess I am out of time. Does that mean I will have to spend a whole year doing nothing before I can take the four more classes I need to graduate?

And why haven't I gotten the PIN? When I was in Mexico, they sent me plenty of registration information for spring term, which of course was useless to me, because I was going to spend spring term here. Why did they ignore me this semester, when I actually needed the stuff? Studying abroad is really frustrating sometimes!

Sat 4/12 11:27

And now yet another problem has arisen. There was a misunderstanding about meeting my parents for Spring break. Mom had sent me a train schedule, for an overnight train leaving Vienna this evening and getting to Frankfurt tomorrow morning, and I reserved a place on that train. But it turns out it must have been the wrong schedule or something-- she meant for me to leave last night and arrive this morning.

Luckily she managed to call me, and it will work out. I will take the train I reserved, and they will be there to meet me. But this is enough stress for all of us for now... I think I will wait a while to mention the registration problem.

Sun 4/13 9:24

Have met Mom & Dad in Giessen. Things going pretty well now.

Cab-bikes are really cool! They are streamlined and comfortable to ride-- you practically lie down in them. To get in, you

lift the roof . There is plenty of room

inside for luggage, and you're fully protected from the weather. I can really see using one of these as a way to get around!

We are taking a train to Krefeld and we will ride them from there. It's amazing that 3 Cab-Bikes fit in a

train car , even one meant for bikes.

18:13

First day of biking done. We rode from Krefeld to Kempen, and managed to find a hotel.

There were both pleasant & unpleasant events along the way. We had no experience with Cab-Bikes and we learned a lot of things the hard way. At one point the front of my vehicle hit the back of Mom's and made a dent, and we were all very sad about that.

Our bodies weren't used to the vehicles either. Mom got leg cramps, and I got shoulder aches from the handlebar position and pinched nerves in my feet from pedaling.

But lots of people admired the velomobiles, and we had some fun conversations. I hope things will get more fun as time goes on.

Mon 4/14 20:04

Last night we wandered around Kempen and found a pizza restaurant. After the meal they brought us apple tea as a surprise. We were certainly surprised, not just because of the unexpected gift, but because the

tea was a shocking shade of GREEN. It tasted great, though!

We rode 50 kilometers today, although about half of it was in the wrong direction, or various wrong directions, as we tried to find our way.

The metric system is great. Talking about my accomplishments in miles isn't very impressive, but it sounds like so much more, to someone who's used to miles, if I say that I rode 50 kilometers or that I can ride faster than 30 kph. And my weight sounds like less when I say it in kilograms!

I found out today that a "Pfund," the German cognate of "pound," is not the same as a pound in the regular avurdupois system. It's half a kilo.

And the way German manufacturers talk about calories is different, in the nutrition information on foods. They say "kilocalories" where Americans would say "calories." A calorie is one thing when you're talking about food and something else when you're talking in a scientific way about energy in general. The former is equal to a thousand of the latter, and so a nutritional calorie can be called a kilocalorie to clarify that calories of the other kind are not being talked about.

Of course, a few crazy people will still be puzzled, thinking that "kilocalorie" refers to a thousand nutritional calories, and wondering how there could be a candy bar with 365 kcal that could keep you on a 1000-calorie diet for a year. And by crazy people, of course, I mean me. The kcal listing confused me greatly until Dad explained it.

Anyway, we are now in a German town whose name I don't remember, but it's even closer to Holland than Kempen is. It has a yearly Asparagus Festival, and we are staying in a hotel called the Asparagus House.

We will probably get into Holland tomorrow. Our ultimate goal is Rotterdam, but we don't know how much riding we can do in the days we have.

Tue 4/15 21:02

We arrived in Holland around noon, despite being delayed by a big construction project on a lonely road through the woods. Once over the border, we managed quite a lot of distance in relatively little time-- Holland has good bike paths. We're optimistic about being able to get to our planned destination in the planned amount of time.

Life continues to give language lessons. I have learned the distinction between two important words in English and German-- if you can call them English and German when one of them comes from Yiddish and the other comes from the language spoken by a lovely European bird.

Kibbitz: to observe an activity that is none of your business and give the participants lots of advice on how they should do it. The classic example is the game of solitaire. It is well known that if you are traveling in the wilderness, you should always bring a deck of cards, so that if you get lost, you can sit down and start playing solitaire, and no matter how far from civilization you are, someone will show up and tell you that the red eight could go on the black nine.

Kiebitz: a relative of the killdeer, found in the fields of northern Europe. Unlike most field-dwelling birds, the "kiebitz" has feathers in dramatic solid blocks of color, and a sharp crest on its head. There is an English name for this beautiful creature, but I don't know it. "Kiebitz" is its German name, a rough transliteration of the noise the bird makes.

We don't have any solitaire cards with us, but we find that the velomobiles are just as helpful. When we get lost, we never have to chase anyone down to ask for directions-- they come swarming to us to talk about our Cab-Bikes, and we can usually work our requests for help into those conversations. It is an interesting fact, discovered by my parents a few years ago when they rode through Europe on a recumbent tandem, and further corroborated by this trip, that people are frequently delighted to help someone who has a weird bike.

As for the kiebitz, Mom and Dad and I saw quite a few on the way. It's amazing how close you can get to birds when riding a velomobile. They are scared of people and cars, but a velomobile has no associations in their minds. It makes no loud noise, and it is perhaps not immediately noticeable that it contains a person. One kiebitz was about a meter from us when it finally screamed "Kiebitz!" and flew away.

We are now in the town of Venray, Holland, and have eaten a big Chinese meal and are resting in our hotel. We tried to find an internet cafe, but no luck. Maybe in the next town.

Wed 4/16 20:15

Today was a bit stressful, but I am feeling better now. We have gotten to Hertogenbosch, Holland. Actually, I shouldn't be saying Holland. I think we are still in the part of the Netherlands that is not really Holland, although most people think of Holland and the Netherlands as the same thing. I remember someone explaining that to me and Mom when we first got to Europe in January. Apparently only two provinces of the Netherlands are considered Holland by the people who live there.

There is an amazing cathedral in this town. Most of it is in an elaborate Gothic style, with flying buttresses and gargoyles and rose windows, but the main tower is completely different: red brick, and a very Protestant design. We think the Dutch Reform people must have taken over the town at some point, but when they tried to reform the church, they couldn't afford to tear down all the old parts. Dad tried getting a picture, but it would probably have taken a panorama camera to capture both sections very well.

Thu 4/17 15:12

We rode to the town of Gouda today-- that's where Gouda cheese comes from. We will go somewhat farther today and then leave the bikes locked up somewhere and take a train to Vienna for a week or so. Then we will come back & ride some more.

We had all sorts of interesting experiences while riding. We got lost a few times and stopped a few times in wide open spaces to enjoy the quiet.

Mom rode in front of me most of the way, and Dad behind me. We stopped often to talk with people. Some told us our vehicles were fabulous, some cheered and gave thumbs-up gestures, some just laughed or made faces. One boy mistook Mom's right-turn hand signal for an invitation to a high five, and tried to slap her hand as she went by.

A number of farm animals stared at us, including cows, goats, some quite charming little

lambs , and a

mare and her twin foals -- which astounded Mom, who says twin foals are almost unheard of.

We stopped a while in a town that is called Giessen, although not pronounced the same as the Giessen in Germany. Then we went to a harbor and crossed the Maas river on a ferry, which was actually suited pretty well to having

bikes on it.

We are in a restaurant now. I ordered a sandwich with Gouda cheese, and I'm writing while waiting for it.

20:38

We put our vehicles in a

bike storage place and took trains to Amsterdam. It turned out there was no night train available at the right time, so we are taking a morning train tomorrow.

Tonight we are in a hotel again. I am waiting for dinner now, and it is taking a long time.

Sat 4/19 9:38

We spent practically all of yesterday taking the train from Amsterdam to Vienna, and then we met Lotte and Wolfgang at the station. Mom and Dad slept at their house, but I slept at my dorm because there wasn't enough room in the bedrooms for all three of us.

Today I am doing laundry. Tomorrow we will have a big meal at Lotte's and then take a train back to the Netherlands. We'll get our bikes back out of storage and ride to Rotterdam.

Sun 4/20 20:56

The meal we had today at Lotte's was just as huge as I expected. We are now in a sleeping car in a train to the Netherlands.

We will not get to Gouda with this train, but in the morning we will find some combination of trains to get us there.

Mon 4/21 6:46

We have gotten off the train in Hannover and gotten on a train to Schiphol.

11:35

We have gotten off the train in Schiphol and are on a train to Den Haag.

12:06

We have gotten off the train in Den Haag and are on a train to Gouda. We have seen some tulips, finally. And some

windmills , as usual.

18:14

Stressful afternoon. Got our bikes & rode around in Gouda, trying to find our way to a restaurant & hotel. It took a while because our path was blocked by a big bike race. But we are now in a hotel, & I have had a shower, & things are calming down.

For one more week we will ride velomobiles, this time through tulip fields a lot of the way. Then I will return to Vienna on a train by myself and get back to schoolwork, especially finding a play to see, so that I can give a report on it for theater class.

Tue 4/22 20:03

Today we rode our velomobiles to Noordwijkerhout, a little Dutch town near the North Sea. (Our speedometers, which also record distance, show that we have ridden over 300 kilometers since we started in Krefeld, Germany.)

On the way here, we saw

many ,

many

tulips . They are planted in wide stripes out in the fields, going on and on into the distance, yellow, red, white, purple, pink... Wow.

Tonight we are staying with a family that has arranged to host travelers from time to time. The people seem nice.

After we put our things away in our room, we went to an enormous garden called

Keukenhof . Not only are there fabulous flowers there, but art displays are also part of the experience. We saw a dandelion-shaped

fountain , giant metal statues of chocolate

candies , ceramic

bugs crawling through the grass, a wooden

gnome with a

mirror for a face, a wooden

guy hanging from a tree branch, a wooden

guy with a dog, a wooden

guy with a dog pooping on the floor, a

mossy bike , and a set of round

platforms in the water where people could walk from one to the other like stepping stones.

As for the flowers, some of the most interesting included the

imperial fritillaries , which look like little palm trees, or little people with spiked hair. There were also stunning

pink things growing on bushes . And there were

hydrangeas that worked like litmus paper: planted in pH neutral soil, they had white flowers, while acidic or basic soil made them grow flowers that were blue or pink.

One of the neatest things about the design of the gardens was the way grape hyacinths had been planted. They were everywhere, in long narrow beds, sometimes looking like borders on the other flowerbeds, sometimes just

flowing through them like purple rivers or seas.

And, of course, it is tulip season, and there were amazingly varied tulip breeds to see.

Some were quite tropical-looking.

Some were a beautiful shade of orange.

Some were a lovely purple, and wide open.

Some had frilly edges.

Some had pointy, flamey petals. All were fascinating!

We even saw a

white peacock -- or peahen-- we couldn't tell the sex, but it was certainly a peafowl, and certainly an albino or some other white mutation. Its tail wasn't very big, but it made as much noise as a male, yelling into the air so hard we could see its breath. (Even on a hot day, you can see a bird's breath. They're much warmer creatures than humans are.)

I'm tired now. It's been a long day.

Wed 4/23 20:36

Today we rode along the coast of the North Sea. Strangely, we were in the desert the whole time. The area closest to the sea is a seemingly endless expanse of

sand dunes , through which a pretty decent bike path runs. It's not like the other paths we've taken so far-- there are more hills. Cab-bikes don't go up hills very fast, but at least they can go up very slow without falling over.

There were places where we had to ride between poles in the road, and there were awful speed bumps that scraped the noses of our vehicles, and there were wildroosters! Apparently, wildroosters are deep areas in the road, with bars over them, somewhat like the grates that are supposed to keep cows from crossing the street. Before these things, there was a warning sign, shaped just like the ones for speed bumps or poles in the road, but what this sign said was "WILDROOSTERS." Who knows what that means literally in Dutch, or how it's actually pronounced.

We could seldom see the water from where we rode, and I never got a chance to photograph it. (There was fog over it, anyway.) But we did get a chance to see some enormous sea birds, like gulls but a lot bigger. Probably not albatrosses, but close.

Finally we got to a hotel in a nice, very old little town. There are quite picturesque old houses here, and

canals . I like it.

At the hotel, the only room available was a two-person room, but I said I would sleep on the floor, and they brought in a third mattress. It just barely fit. Mom ended up deciding to sleep on it, and I get the saggy bed.

Thu 4/24 12:59

Life gets weirder & weirder! This morning the hotel people called the local newspaper, and starting at 9:00 there were

reporters taking pictures of our Cab-Bikes. We eventually got going, but a different group of reporters stopped us for a moment on our way out of town. Enclosed pedal-powered vehicles seem not to be an everyday thing here at all!

We were going to ride a bit longer and send the velomobiles home tomorrow, but we decided to ship them today instead. We rode to a shipping company, which is located in a nice

building that has a green pond around it with lots of things growing and swimming in it. Now Mom's talking with the shipping people.

15:06

Mom & Dad have found out that the manager of the building is a relative of some people they know. They have had an interesting conversation with him. I have just been looking at water bugs in the pond and writing in my diary.

There has been some difficulty paying the shipping fee. It's over $2000. For some weird reason, the company only takes cash, and there are limits on how much we can take out of cash machines per day, and the nearby banks won't cash Mom and Dad's travelers' checks.

I managed to contribute $620 out of my travelers' checks, my cash machine account, and the money I had with me. But we still have to get to a bank that will cash Mom and Dad's travelers' checks. Luckily, someone from the shipping company is offering to drive us, and drop us off at the station afterwards.

16:36

We worked out everything ok. Now we are on a train to Amsterdam. From there, we will take another train to someplace like Frankfurt, where we will spend the night, and then I will take a train to Vienna. They will go to a bike show and then go home later.

Sat 4/26 13:08

We ended up staying in Cologne instead of Frankfurt, and saw the famous

cathedral there. Now I am back in Vienna. I am exhausted.

Mon 4/28 17:41

Things are pretty quiet again.

Classes have re-started. I saw a play called "Der Zerbrochene Krug" and prepared a presentation on it, which I will give on Wednesday next week.

I checked my email and the publisher says he is looking over my revised manuscript and will send me his suggestions within a week. (He had been swamped with other books, but now mine is first on the list.)

I told him Dad took some photos of me over break, and will send them soon, so the need for a photo to put on the book is taken care of. I hope they are the right kind of photos. At least they are high enough resolution to be enlarged to 5x7, unlike the first one I tried sending.

Wed 4/30 14:11

This morning our Vienna Seminar class went to the Army Museum and listened to a lecture on Austrian history. There were a lot of fascinating old things there, like statues and paintings of kings and princes and military leaders, and clothes they wore, and antique weapons, and even the car that Franz Ferdinand and his wife were riding in when they were shot in Sarajewo.

I have been trying to register for my fall classes at home. Timing really wasn't on my side this year. I not only failed to get my registration PIN and missed the official registration week, but a few days later I was off to Holland on a velomobile, and got to use the internet exactly once before this week. And until my mother wrote a scathing letter, all the replies the registration people sent me were ones that clearly showed they had not read my inquiries.

Then finally someone was actually helpful, and showed me where to view the course listings, and told me that I could send her my choices and she would register me... but when I looked at the listings, all the available Spanish courses were ones I'd already taken. What I needed was two Spanish electives, a sport class, and a science class, so I sent my first and second choices for the sport class and the science class, and I guess I will have to find Spanish classes at other schools. I hope that she lets me know before evening if my sport and science choices are full, because she says this is the last day she can register me without a late registration fee.

Fri 5/2 11:49

Yesterday I went out with Hansi and Karl and Uli. I met Karl and Hansi at their house. I was very late because I started about an hour later than I planned, and then got on the wrong subway. Instead of taking the U6 to Philadelphiabrucke, I got out at Langenfeldgasse and took the U4 to Hutteldorf. Even though I had "Philadelphiabrucke" written down on my palmtop, somehow I had "Hutteldorf" in my head. Just when I think I know my way around the city perfectly, something like this always has to happen, to remind me that I am not perfect.

After eating at Karl & Hansi's, we did go to Hutteldorf, and met Uli and went on a long car ride. Occasionally we got out to wander alongside the road and admire the forest, or look at an old wall built of a diverse mishmash of different stones. I kept thinking there must be lizards there somewhere, but I never saw any.

Uli was going to bring the extra medicine and Eurail pass that Mom and Dad left with her, but she forgot, so she brought them to my dorm this morning.

Today in Aesthetics class I gave my presentation. It seems to have gone okay. I was nervous about it, because these Vienna University classes are really made for people whose first language is German, and philosophy talk isn't always comprehensible in any language. I still may have to get tutoring, or find other students to talk things over with.

Mon 5/5 15:44

I'm sitting in the Fin-de-Siecle classroom wondering what to do. Class isn't until 17:00... at least that's what the syllabus says... but a bunch of people have already come in, waited a while, then said the professor must not be showing up, and left.

Maybe I missed something at the last class. Maybe the professor said that on May 5th he would either come two hours early or not come at all. He could easily have said it without my noticing or understanding. I miss so many things in these University courses. Maybe the last class was on April 28, even though the syllabus said there was no class that day, and maybe on April 7th he told everyone there would be class that day after all, but I didn't catch it. He has a foggy voice and an accent. How many important things did he say on April 28 when I thought I didn't have to come? Damn it!

I hope I get an answer to the email I wrote today. I wrote to someone at my school at home and asked if I can still contact my advisor and have him change what requirements my courses are approved for.

See, I needed two literature classes and two electives for my German major, and at my school, if you want to take a class off campus and have it fulfill a requirement for your major, you have to get your advisor's signed approval for it before you take the course.

But before I came here, I didn't know what courses would be available, I just had a list of a few courses that might be among the available ones. So I had to get my advisor to approve about sixteen of those and hope I could take some of them.

And it worked-- I was able to enroll in two Central College classes he'd approved for literature, and two University classes he'd approved as electives. But I also ended up taking a third Central College course that was approved for Literature, when I only needed two, and another Central College course that wasn't approved for anything .

In short, I have two not-really-necessary courses in which I know I am doing well, but I am not certain of passing the University courses that are approved as electives. So I was hoping, just as a precaution, to get those two unnecessary courses also approved as electives, so that I would still have completed my major this semester even if I don't pass the two University courses.

There's a strong possibility that it's officially too late to get my advisor's approval for that, and I guess it wouldn't be a disaster. I'm just being extra-cautious. If I don't pass, I can still take a couple more German classes sometime later. And I think I will probably pass... it's just one of the few times I have not been completely certain.

Oh, and there's been another development in the visa story. I got a LETTER saying that the police department hadn't gotten all the things they needed for my visa yet! After 8 tries, and finally being told that I had everything!

Luckily, Ruth was able to fax the stuff they wanted. I didn't have to go there again.

Wed 5/7 21:41

Today my theater class met at the Theatermuseum, and looked at old costumes, old puppets, old letters and papers and advertisements and tickets, old pictures of actors and sets, and so on. It might have been pleasant if the rooms had been well-ventilated, but they weren't, and they felt uncomfortably warm and low in oxygen. We did see lots of interesting things, though.

The presentation has been moved to the next time the class meets. That's the second time it's been moved. Before it was supposed to be today, it was supposed to be Monday. But I guess that's the way school works sometimes.

The publisher wrote to me... a long list of encouraging comments about my writing, but no suggestions yet. He says he'll mention those from time to time as he continues reading through my revision.

I also got a reply from the person I emailed about major requirements. She can't help me herself-- she says I would have to ask my advisor. Knowing that my advisor is less familiar with the college bureaucracy than I am, I decided just to keep looking into tutoring options and talking to other students, and hope I pass those two classes.

I am now registered in both a chemistry course and a biking course for fall semester, which will fulfill the sport and science requirements. I'm still looking for Spanish courses.

And I found out what was going on in the Fin-de-Siecle class. The people who waited and left were there for the Sprechstunde-- another part of the same course, but a part that happens an hour earlier, and in which I am not enrolled. The professor did not show up for the Sprechstunde, but he did show up for the Uebung an hour later... so it's good that I waited.

That class is going better than it was. The main focus is no longer anti-semitism, it's more philosophy now.

The other night I had my last meal with the little group of American friends in my dorm building. We ate and talked and laughed, and one of them made a video of me singing a song, and we had a wonderful time. And now they're leaving, just when I was realizing how much I like being with them. Rats. At least I gave them my email address.

Fri 5/9 10:49

Here I am, waiting for Aesthetics class to begin. Later today there is a group trip to Prague. We leave sometime between 14:00 and 15:00, and come back on Sunday. I have some clothes and stuff packed in a bag with me.

I think I'll go to the Central College office after class & see if I can find any of the other students who are going, so that I can go to the station with them. If not, I'll just go by myself... it's easy enough to ride the D there from Schottentor. But it would be nice to go with someone.

I think I am getting a bit closer to the others in our group. Last weekend I went to Baden with Fawn, Essie, Sarah and Crystal, and it was pretty fun. We swam and lay in the sun and ate ice cream. I still felt that my conversation skills weren't great, but it was better than being lonely.

23:43

We have gotten to our hotel in Prague. It used to be a prison, and some famous people were imprisoned here during politically oppressive times. Now it is an attraction for German and American visitors.

The

hallways with rooms are still deep and long and tunnel-like, but there are some colorful

murals on the walls, and the

rooms are comfortable, though simple. The bathroom is outside the bedroom, a little ways down the hall, but it's a pretty decent bathroom. I took a shower and enjoyed it.

I was feeling somewhat crazy after the long train ride. I took my evening meds a bit late and they had less effect on me than usual. But the other students were supportive and we had some good conversations despite my hyperactivity.

Sat 5/10 13:30

This morning we had a tour of the city. Just as it ended, it began to rain. I went walking with some others from the group, and they wanted to stay out a while, and I wanted to go to the hotel, and I whined and complained, so they gave me a map and I went back. Now I am sitting here being mad at myself for having been so disagreeable with them. Rain brings out the worst in me.

17:42

I got a long nap, and then went and had dinner alone at a restaurant called Konvikt (quite appropriate for someone staying in a former prison). I had apple juice and a spinach omelette with potatoes, which was unusual since I had ordered pear juice and pancakes with spinach and cheese, but it was good anyway.

There's so much interesting stuff to see in Prague! During the tour this morning we saw an elaborate

clock with little moving statues, a historic bridge where we took a

group photo , a

cathedral with a

mosaic on

one side of it, and lots of other things.

Amber jewelry and garnet jewelry is available in many stores here, and it's very beautiful, but it's expensive and I would never wear it. I love looking at jewelry, but I find that when I buy it, it just sits around unused.

Sun 5/11 10:11

We're in a train on our way to see a church made out of bones. Apparently the cemeteries and catacombs got full and they needed someplace to put them, so they built a church out of them. This was a long time ago. I don't know just when. I guess I'll find that out today.

13:01

We have finished visiting the

church and are waiting for our train. It is actually not a church made out of bones, it is just decorated lavishly with them inside. There are giant

chalices , a

chandelier , a

coat of arms , and big

piles like shrines, all built of people's bones.

We got to read a little sheet of paper about the history of the place. It was available in several different languages, including Esperanto. I don't know how well translated that version was, but the English version was full of little mistakes and little turns of phrase that no native English speaker would ever use. Sometimes they were gruesomely funny, like referring to the epidemic of "plaque" when the writer meant to say "plague." I commented that that must be why none of the skulls had teeth... but it felt wrong to laugh in a place like that.

That area was sacred to many people in medieval times, and there was great demand to be buried in the cemetery there, which was enlarged during the Plague. But later some parts of the cemetery were made into something else, and something had to be done with the huge numbers of skeletons resting in those parts. So they were used to decorate the church.

It had rained, although it wasn't raining when we were out. On the way to and from the church, I saw lots of big snails. I also saw the first lizard I've seen since coming to Europe. Unfortunately, it was dead... at least it was lying very still and one of its front legs was squashed. This has been a morbid day.

Tue 5/13 17:24

I am waiting for Romantic Literature to start. Outside, it is raining as if the sky were an ocean and the clouds were flimsy sponges trying to hold it up. Not long ago, hailstones as big as peas were shooting down like machine gun fire, and people in restaurants were fidgeting and glancing anxiously out at their cars.

My presentation in Theater yesterday was not pleasant-- speaking publicly under pressure like that makes my German come out rather brokenly-- but I'm glad to have it behind me. At least my illustrated handout was well-liked.

Something upsetting has happened. I have realized that it actually is important to get my advisor to change what requirements my courses are approved for, because I was wrong about what I needed. I checked, and I need ONE literature class and THREE electives.

I had thought I needed two of each, and that's how I ended up taking three classes he'd approved for lit, two he'd approved as electives, and one he hadn't approved. If I could only get a few of the Central College courses approved as electives, then it would all be fine! But it is so late...

But then again, maybe the registrar doesn't care which major requirements the classes are approved for. Maybe all that matters is that the classes are approved for the major. I'm hoping.

Wed 5/14 9:08

The ground in Vienna is a leafy mess today. The trees certainly suffered from the hail.

I thought Vienna Seminar was at 9, and I knew we were meeting at Prater, so I got here as fast as I could. There was no one here, so I checked, and it's actually meeting at 9:50.

In Austria I have seen many

peace flags . They are rainbow-striped, like the gay pride flag, but they say "Peace" in white letters on them. They come in several languages.

And the

Riesenrad , Prater's huge ferris wheel, has eleven of them hanging on it. I just noticed them today.

Fri 5/16 10:33

Last night the group went to an acrobatic performance of "Romeo and Juliet." Parts of it were done on the stage, and other parts were done hanging from trapezes. It was amazing!

The stage itself was ingenious, but very hard to describe. It was flat in front, but curved up in back nearly all the way to the ceiling, so that actors could enter the scene by sliding down from way up there, or from a door that would open somewhere farther down. There were several doors, but you didn't see them until they opened. There were also platforms that would slide out sometimes, so that some scenes could happen halfway up the wall.

They had been creative with the script, adding quite a bit of extra stuff. Parts were absolutely hilarious-- mostly Mercutio and Benvolio's antics-- other parts were sad, of course, and others were applause-worthy just for the acrobatic talent.

I got the feeling sometimes that the dialogue didn't flow as smoothly as I would have liked, because it would stop between lines for some gymnastic stunt. Of course, no actor can speak as fluently while doing backflips or swinging on a trapeze, and I don't suppose it could have flowed any better than it did.

One of the strangest parts was the language. Some lines were in English, a few in German, but most of it was something else. There were screens translating it to German, but at first I was confused as to what it was. Because "Romeo and Juliet" is set in Italy, I assumed it was supposed to be Italian, but it didn't really sound like Italian-- there were too many words that sounded German. For a while I thought it might be some kind of fake Italian, like the fake Swedish in that crazy movie "De Duve."

But then at intermission, Essie told me that it wasn't any kind of Italian, it was Swedish! Real Swedish, too, not fake. It's a Swedish acting company, so they did the play in their language. It certainly made for a delightful incongruity... a play written in England, set in Verona, performed in Vienna, and spoken in Swedish.

Next weekend we have another trip, this time to Wachau, I think. I'll have to go look for the information sheet in my mailbox.

Mon 5/19 17:29

I am not feeling well today. I am sleepy and my right tonsil is swollen up the size of a jelly doughnut. The philosophy professor is explaining for the third time in as many class periods that the king of France cannot be bald or fat or hairy or thin because there is no king of France. How long does he think it will take us to grasp that point? And yet, clamor the students, if no statement about a non-existent king can be either true or false, then how can it be true to say that all dragons are reptiles and every unicorn has one horn? And there he goes, trying to explain.

I have to be home by 6:30 because one of my American friends has come back to Studentenzentrum Donaufeld for a week and left his stuff in my room until he can find a place to stay, and he has to find a place to stay by tonight and he has to have his stuff out of there by tonight, and so I agreed to come back around 6:30 and get it out for him. I may have to leave early in order to get home by then. That won't be a problem, I've noticed students often leave early. Even when there is no anti-semitic-sounding lecture. I guess people aren't as strict about attendance in a class like this.

So, "all dragons are reptiles" is a tautology? Because being a reptile belongs to our definition of what a dragon is? But, Herr Professor, how many kings of France were there? Sixteen? Were they all fat? Suppose they were... then wouldn't being fat belong to our definition of a king of France? But would you still be able to say, with truth or falsity, that the king of France is fat, if France currently has no king? Huh?

Time to get out of here.

20:05

Oh, by the way... today is my namesday!

At least, I think it's St. Eric's day, and St. Eric being my name-saint, I would get a party today if I were Austrian.

In fact, I used to get parties for my namesday at home when I was a little kid, but it's been so long since we've done that, I've almost forgotten what day it is.

I remembered only this afternoon. And I might be wrong.

Wed 5/21 0:31

I am having a bit of difficulty getting to sleep tonight. Not sure why. But it's already past midnight and I'm wide awake.

Today-- or rather yesterday-- I gave a very successful presentation on painting in the Romantic era. I was worried about that one, because I took a long time to get around to preparing it, and I didn't prepare it very thoroughly... but it ended up going quite well.

Registration is still having its successes and setbacks. I will probably have to take a second extra semester, because I found out that two of the courses I took in Mexico didn't count toward the Spanish major.

On the bright side, I am feeling better about the classes I am taking now, because I am fairly sure that the registration people only care whether courses have been approved for the major, not what major requirement they are approved for. At least, I remember that when I filled out the form, all that was required was to note whether the courses counted towards a major or some other type of graduation requirement. I wrote "Major (elective)" for some and "Major (literature)" for others, according to which ones I thought would do best as the German literature classes and elective German classes required by the German major... but now I realize that I didn't have to get everything approved so specifically, I probably only had to write "Major," and that's all that matters to the registrar.

In that case, I don't have to worry that I'm taking only two classes specifically approved as major electives when I need three. I am in three courses specifically approved for literature, and I think that any of those could count as electives if I needed them to.

Thu 5/22 16:59

Today I finally got my visa! I got a letter saying I could come to the Polizeikomissariat and get it, so I did, and now I have it, stuck on a page in my passport. Warning to travelers: Start trying to get your visa during the first week of your four-month term in Vienna, and you'll get it when you're about three-quarters of the way through.

Tomorrow I have the usual schedule for Friday: aesthetics class from 11:15 to 12:45, and no other classes. But I have to remember to get to sleep early that evening and set my alarm, because we leave for Wachau on Saturday at eight or some such unearthly hour of the morning.

Sat 5/24 8:37

I actually woke up in time! We're on the train.

I hope this goes better than the Prague trip. At least, I hope it doesn't rain and I don't act like a maniac the whole time.