Pics!

Stammtisch

Stammtisch = regulars' table. This can be like a happy hour gathering on a regular basis or some other get together of a group of people which occurs regularly. A week ago, Angela and I went with Elsa and Josef to a local Stammtisch. It is held once a month at a local restaurant which is out in the boonies. You wouldn't stumble across this place by accident. Josef is an accomplished musician. He plays the clarinet, Styrian harmonica (like an accordion), guitar, piano, directs the school band and sings. He knows just about every Austrian folk songs out there. This Stammtisch is a gathering of locals who want to play and sing folk songs. We arrive early and get some food to eat. The others begin to trickle in. Upon entering the restaurant, they make the rounds greeting every single person individually. This is a custom we're beginning to get used to but it still surprises us sometimes. For the next half hour we greet the 30 others who join us. We also begin to notice Josef's local celebrity status. His music has made him quite the guy in this area. Things settle down and song books are passed out. A few start playing and singing their favorite folk song to get things started. There is no leader or specific order. The musicians just get up and play as they please. We are the only ones in attendance under the age of 50 and the only ones from outside a 20 mile radius. Josef plays in a trio, he on clarinet, another on the Styrian harmonica and the third on a trombone looking instrument. For the next couple hours, we sing and socialize with the locals, soaking in the authentic experience. You wouldn't find this at your cafe down the street in Vienna.

First choir concert

Saturday I had my first choir concert here in Austria.  We performed in Klein Pöchlarn, which is right across the Danube from where we live (Gross Pöchlarn).  The day started with lunch at one of the choir members' house.  We had a huge feast of meat and potatoes capped off with plenty of desserts and some schnapps to settle the stomach.  We reheared afterwards and made the final preperations.  The concert was held in a large room with a stage in the city hall.  Over a hundred people showed up to see "the best choir in Lower Austria."  Angela came with our "Austrian parents" Elsa and Josef.  The concert was a blast!  We performed everything from Schubert to the Beatles with some Austrian folk songs mixed in.  Afterwards, we gathered and enjoyed some young Austrian wines.  Unlike France where old wines are considered the best, here enjoying the young wines is most common.  We brushed up on our local dialect for the next couple hours as we conversed with the locals and other choir members.  Next up on the schedule is our concert in Vienna city hall on the 19th.  We then start recording our new CD in January.

The Holiday Season

The Christmas season has started here in Austria.  Without Thanksgiving to celebrate, they began putting up decorations a week or so ago.  Each day, more and more Christmas markets open up around the country and soon they will all be up and running.  This is truly a great time to be here in Austria.  Every town hangs up lights over the streets and puts up at least one tree.  Just outside our apartment we've got a tree, a wreath hanging and lights over the street.  Our Christmas market hasn't started yet but a trip to the neighboring towns offers plenty of them.  Last weekend, we visited Salzburg.  It is one of the nicest cities in the country, especially during the Christmas market season.  The old city is full of big and small markets.  Night and day, the markets are bustling with not just tourists, but natives as well.  There's plenty to eat and drink as you make your way through the rows of booths.  Glühwein (mold wine) and Punsch (hot alcoholic punch) are served at nearly every stand.  No wonder everyone looked so happy!  In addition to the markets, Salzburg has an ice skating rink put up next to the cathedral.  This weekend, we will visit the Vienna Christmas markets for the first time.  The biggest one is in front of the spectacular city hall.  After New Year's, they convert this area into a massive ice skating rink, much larger than the one in Salzburg.

Obviously, Thanksgiving is not celebrated here.  The Austrians have a similar holiday but it is much smaller and not nearly as big of a deal.  Do you feel bad for us since we didn't get the Thanksgiving break.  Well, don't.  The Austrians have their fare share of holidays.  Basically, any possible Catholic holiday is celebrated.  Banks, shops and school close.  Many probably don't even know what holiday it is because they just had one two weeks earlier.  Additionally, they take a week long semester break 3 weeks after the Christmas break in order to boost the skiing economy.  The different areas of Austria have their breaks at different times to keep the crowds on the slopes from getting too large.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and we look forward to being home over Christmas.

Smoking and Bathrooms

These are the two things I hate most about Austria.  Upon entering the country, you’ll notice that not only does everyone here seem to smoke, but Austria seems to be the only western European country not to have instigated a smoking ban.  Their new law, which still doesn’t take effect for a couple years, is to have smoking and non-smoking sections.  They are years behind the USA and the rest of western Europe.  Our trip to Munich proved to be very enjoyable since they have forbidden smoking in all indoor buildings including restaurants and bars.  Here in Austria, one can smoke just about anywhere it seems.

I suppose it’s hard to pass a smoking ban when the majority of the population lights up every 5 minutes including the 16 year olds who take the train with me to school in the morning.  You can buy cigarettes in more locations than you can anything else.  Vending machines are located on every street corner in case you smoke your last one on the previous block.

The other thing which drives me nuts is the bathrooms.  Finding a public bathroom is a challenge and upon doing so, be prepared to hand over some money in order to use it.  Whether it’s a turnstile or a bowl with a scary woman watching over you, bathrooms are never free.  You just finished an expensive dinner at a restaurant and expect that as a customer the bathroom must be free.  Oh no, paying $50 for your meal certainly doesn’t entitle you to use the bathroom for free.  You think you can just walk by and not tip.  Beware, these women will force it out of you, physically or through intense fear. 

This phenomenon makes absolutely no sense to me.  In a country with socialized health care, an excellent public transportation system and many other great things, they don’t seem to understand that using the bathroom is a natural thing that people should be entitled to, at least if they are a paying customer.  It also doesn’t make any sense to me that paying a bathroom attendant minimum wage to watch over the bathroom 24/7 is more economical than simply not charging people to use the bathroom.  I can’t imagine the 10 cents tips add up enough money to pay their wage.  Then comes the other method, the turnstile.  This one shocks me just as much.   Public transportation in every city here is done on the honor system.  No turnstiles, nothing.  There are just random checks every couple months and even those have to be announced in the paper and online.  The only regular checks occur on the national trains.  For some reason though, they feel it makes sense to install turnstiles at bathrooms forcing victims to hand over 50 cents before entering.  I can’t imagine how many bathroom users are required to pay for the cost and maintenance of these turnstiles.  On top of that, a bathroom attendant is often present.

So, with that, I’m going to use the free bathroom in my smoke free apartment.  However, even our apartment absorbs some of the smoke smell from the Wettbüro below.

Joined a Choir!

This week I took a big step in integrating myself into the culture.  I found and joined a men's chorus in the neighboring town of Ybbs (pronounced: ipps).  The choir is the Männergesangversein Ybbs and is nearly 160 years old.  

I was looking around for choirs in the area and sent an email to an address I found for this choir.  It was the email of the former directer but he replied immediately and was extremely excited.  We met for coffee later that day and the following day he drove me to the rehearsal.  The rehearsals take place in a former Gasthaus.  A Gasthaus is basically somewhere between a B&B and a hotel with a restaurant.  

Immediately, it was clear that this was the right choir for me.  It's made up of 25 or so jolly Austrian men who have been signing together for many years.  They love signing and luckily for me....Americans as well.  They were so welcoming that I instantly felt like a member of the group.  The music we sing was a combination of sacred and secular music.  It was all very similar to my men's chorus experiences at St. John's.  Fun music and lots of jokes flying around all the time.  After rehearsal, we pushed the tables together and shared a beer and some food.  I was so thrilled to have found not only a musical opportunity, but a great chance to meet Austrians. 


This last weekend we had a choir retreat in preparation for our upcoming concerts and CD recording.  We rehearsed all day Saturday and Sunday which was a great opportunity for me to learn some of the music and get to know the other members better.  They have a large repertoire since most of the members have been singing with the choir for many years.  We have two concerts in December, one across the Danube from here and one in the Vienna City Hall.  


I am really excited about singing with this choir.  It will be a great experience on many levels!  More to come as our Christmas concerts approach...

  

Clouds, Rain and a day of Sun

It's been some time since my last post about Budapest.  I will attempt to do a better job about making more frequent posts.  A lot has happened since then.

Angela's parents came a visited us for a week.  They saw our daily lives here in Pöchlarn and in Wieselburg.  They enjoyed small town Austria.  Some of our adventures were met with rain which shouldn't be a surprise since it's cloudy and rainy pretty much every day right now.  The worst was when we were biking along the Danube and through the Wachau wine region.  Sun turned to clouds and rain began to fall until we were soaked and frozen with no option but to keep on pedaling.  A stop for some wine and food fueled us along to the finish.  Before heading back to the US, they were able to explore some of Salzburg and drink some beer in Munich.  It was great to have company here.  Anyone else who's thinking about visiting, stop thinking and book a flight!

After dropping Mari Jo and Mark off in Munich, Angela and I stayed for the weekend and saw the sights.  An amazing tour on Saturday,beautiful weather on Sunday and good beer each night made it a spectacular weekend.

Teaching has been an interesting experience for me.  With so many different classes, I'm just starting to see the same students for the second or third time.  I'm learning more and more each day and getting more comfortable with my classes as I get to know them better.  My lessons topics range from agriculture (since it is an agricultural school) to tourist sites in the US to just about anything I wish to teach.  The English teachers at my school are both very nice and helpful.  They've made my experience so far very enjoyable.

Last week I got a tour of the school and it was amazing to see the facilities they have.  From a slaughterhouse where they produce their own meat to gardens, fields and endless labs and machine shops, the school has just about everything.  They even have a bio fuel plant which produced renewable energy for school and neighboring households.  The students spend a large part of their time working in these areas learning practical skills for farming or other related jobs.

Fun in Budapest

Despite our train adventures, we had a great time in Budapest.  After arriving Saturday afternoon, we walked around and enjoyed the city at night.  The Buda side, lying above Pest with it's hills, looks spectacular at night.  The chain bridge connects the two sides and adds to the great atmosphere.

On Sunday, we set out to see the city and make up for lost time.  We started with a tour of the second largest synagogue in the world.  The Dohány Street Synagogue was a place of refuge for many eastern European Jews.  The Nazis used it as a horse stable and radio command post during WWII.  It suffered a lot of damage from the war and the Jewish community in Hungary was one of the most affected by the Nazis.  Men entering the synagogue, which seats around 3,000, are required to wear a Kippah regardless of weather you are Jewish or not.

We then headed off to tour the Hungarian parliament building which is the second largest in Europe and is very interesting architecturally.  Although our tours were all in English, we struggled to understand our guides.  Our fellow German and Spanish tourists seemed completely lost.  They might as well have spoken Hungarian.  Near the parliament is St. Stephen's Basilica.  The church is somewhat reminiscent of St. Paul's in London.  We hiked up to the top of the dome which provided us a spectacular view of the city.

We then headed to the Buda side to explore the Citadel and other various places up on the hill overlooking the Danube.  With the sun setting and darkness setting in, we were provide gorgeous views of the city.  A long walk back and dinner capped of the night.

Before battling the trains on Monday afternoon, we headed off to a Hungarian bath for some relaxation and a fun experience.  There were countless pools indoors and outdoors at different temperatures ranging from Lake Superior cold to as warm as a hot tub.  We tried them all out.  Some contained special natural chemicals that are said to cleanse and heal the body.  At least that's what we thought and told ourselves, but our Hungarian is less than stellar.  We ventured into the sauna but only the coolest one.  The others were made for those with lots of experience.  By noon, we were relaxed as could be and had even gotten a free snack from a self-proclaimed millionaire Hungarian businessman.  The spas are definitely a great experience that I could get used to doing...we'll have to bring them back to Minnesota.

We then headed off to the train station and the rest is history...

Budapest??

Our first adventure out of the country since arriving in Austria sure was an adventure.  So far, I've had 3 day weekends (Mondays off) which has been great for travelling.  This last weekend, we decided to venture to Budapest, Hungary.  Just 3 hours east of Vienna and 4.5 hours from our apartment in Pöchlarn, Budapest is close and easy to get to, or at least we thought so.

We went to Vienna on Friday night to catch an early morning train to Budapest on Saturday.  One problem occurred to me on Saturday morning, we had no passports with us.  Sure, Hungary is a member of the EU so it shouldn't be a problem, right?  That's what I thought originally, but thinking back to my last trip there a couple years ago made me think differently.  I distinctly remember the intimidating Hungarian police with their ushanka hats and tattoos stamping our passports and scoping us out as if we were smuggling drugs.  An employee at the train station also believed we were required to have them.

So, we decided to be safe and head back to Pöchlarn to grab our passports.  An hour and fifteen minutes each way, it's not next door to Vienna.  In making our decision we thought back to several movies we had seen recently in which travelers had been taken by police to a dark unknown locations, where they were interrogated and tortured.  We didn't want our year in Austria to end with this trip to Hungary ;).

Back in Vienna for the second time, we met an older American couple travelling to Budapest who had missed their previous train and needed to contact their hotel.  We came to the rescue providing a cell phone, country code of Hungary and some knowledge of the confusing phone numbering system in which numbers have a + or a 0 and all sorts of other things in front of them.  They thanked us by giving us an expensive bottle of champagne from their previous hotel.  We refused but they didn't want it.  Although we were running several hours late and had purchased several extra train tickets, at least we could celebrate in style if we ever made it to Budapest.

We lucked out and got to take the Railjet from Vienna to Budpest.  The Railjet is the fancy Austrian high speed train, which is like travelling in first class.  We arrived in Budapest later in the afternoon and walked to our "boutique Hostel" just a half mile from the train station.  Our reservation had us arriving at noon, but I never thought anything of it that we were a little late until we rang the bell to get in and there was no answer.  Hmmmm, we thought.  We made it but now have no place to stay.  Yooopi! (read about it on Angela's blog) came to the rescue.  We called the hostel number and help was on the way.

From then on, until we departed for Vienna, everything went smoothly and we had a great time.  I'll tell you more about that in my next blog entry though.

Checking the train times on Sunday night revealed a strike by the Hungarian railroad employees beginning at midnight.  Apparently this was not unheard of but worried us nonetheless.  I needed to make it back to teach on Tuesday.  All we could do was wait and see what happened though.

We had already purchased tickets for a Hungarian bath spa on Monday and we weren't about to skip that or worry too much about the trains while relaxing there.  Good news came later when we heard the strike had ended later Monday morning.  But, trains were running late and there seemed to be chaos.  Arriving at the station showed no signs of a train headed for Vienna.  Eventually, an Austrian train arrived and we thought all was fine.  The signs changed on the train saying it was headed back to Vienna and we got ready to board.  Employees were cleaning the cars out so we waited patiently.  Suddenly, the train departed with no one on it but the employees.  Hmmm, we thought.  I guess it's good we didn't get on that train but where is ours then.  Another train was waiting and said it was headed for Vienna so we headed towards it.  There were only 3 cars though and no engine to pull the train.  30 minutes passed, then 60 and no one had any idea when we'd leave if ever.  Finally, after 90 minutes a rickety old train engine arrived to pull the tiny train of 3 cars.  Typically, a train travelling between Budapest and Vienna would have at least 10 cars.  We were off!  Two hours later, a sudden stop and 15 more minutes of waiting revealed our train had engine had died.  Luckily, an Austrian one was nearby and came to the rescue.  It pulled us the remaining distance to Vienna.

In Vienna, we got on the next train towards our town.  Unfortunately, it was a regional train which means it stops at every station.  Never take a regional train for an extended trip!  The trip was already taking a long time when the conductor came on and announced that a strip of track was under construction.  That meant we had to stop and transfer to a bus for this stretch and then get back on another train!  This only affected the regional trains because all others can bypass these stations.  The 8 of us left on the train (all others were smarter and avoided this train) got off with the train conductor and he guided us to the bus like a teacher leading a class.  We took the bus and then another train.  You'd think at this point we'd be home, but no, we still had one more train to take and are only choice was another regional one.  Finally, at 10pm, 7 hours after our train was scheduled to leave Budapest, we arrived in Pöchlarn.  The icing on the cake occurred on our walk to our apartment when our shortcut walking path was also under construction forcing us to take a longer route.  At last we were home!

By the way...just to make matters worse, our passports were never stamped nor checked crossing into Hungary!

Teaching Begins

Last week, I began teaching at the "Höhere Bundeslehr- und Forschungsanstalt für Landwirtschaft, Landtechnik und Lebensmitteltechnologie," or in other words, I teach at an agricultural school. Students come from all over Austria and even Germany to study at this school, known as Francisco Josephinum. The students are between 14 and about 19 years old and typically spend 5 years at the school studying agriculture, food technology or agricultural engineering. The school is located in the small town of Wieselburg and is a boarding school since most students aren't from the area.

My job is to assist the six English teachers with their classes. The ask me to teach lessons on various topics ranging from agriculture in Minnesota to the US political system. I have the freedom to choose topics which interest me as well. Last week, I just introduced myself and Minnesota to the classes and this week began discussing agriculture in Minnesota. I basically get the best parts of teaching without having to grade homework and give tests. The school seems to have a great community feel and I am really looking forward to the rest of my time there.

The first weeks

The first two weeks in Austria have been packed with all sorts adventures. We obtained cell phones and internet to stay connected to the world and then headed off to the mountains where neither would work. Matthias' friends graciously invited two naive Americans along for ahike in the Alps. We gathered on Saturday to grill out and relax on Traunsee, a lake sandwhiched between picuresque mountains. Standing 3,750 ft. above us was Erlakogel, also know as "the sleeping greek." The mountain peak was our challenge for the following morning.

We awoke to the crowing rooster, strapped up our laces and marched ahead. Neither Angela nor I knew what was in store for us. In America, elevators and escalators make the art of climbing unnecessary. Here in Austria, it's inherited at birth. The Austrians passed us by as we struggled for 3 hours up the mountainside before reaching thepeak high above Traunsee. We were rewarded with a delicious lunch and a spectacular view. It took over 2 hours of knee crunching hiking to get back to Ebensee. The hike pushed us to our limits but was a fun and rewarding experience and a perfect way to begin our stay in Austria.

I spent the following week in Graz for orientation while Angela settled into the apartment in Pöchlarn. The orientation was a great opportunity to meet the other teaching assistants and learn more about teaching. We capped the week off with teaching a lesson at a local school in Graz. I felt much better heading back to Pöchlarn and getting ready for my first day of teaching.

The Transatlantic Journey

Our journey began this morning before sunrise. At 3:50am, a taxi took us to the airport. We boarded the flight to Atlanta and the excitement was becoming a reality. Making it to Atlanta was a relief with all the later flights full, but left us with 10 hours of waiting time. As we relax in the Delta Skyclub lounge, excitement and nervousness builds. Soon we will depart for Prague...

We are now safely in Vienna after making our way from Prague. Matthias picked us up at the train station and assisted with our 200lbs of luggage. We're exhausted and can't yet comprehend this new language around us. We'll awake tomorrow and begin our new adventure.

Looking Ahead

It’s about 2 ½ months before my departure to Austria and the reality is beginning to hit me. With the marathon, engagement and wedding planning, preparation for Austria has taken a back seat recently. Each day at my job seems to get longer and longer and I’m really looking forward to the new experiences that await me. I will be located in the small town of Wieselburg in Lower Austria. My school, pictured above, is called Francisco Josephinum and is a boarding school for students interested in agriculture, food technology and bio technology.