The following entries record my experiences through a month-long program in Vienna through UC Davis Study Abroad. The course focused on Although the following entries are part of a class assignment worth a sizable portion of our grade, I am going to try to have a lot of fun with it along the way. Although I took many notes on ideas for entries throughout the trip, the majority of the entries have been composed after the program concluded so I could better reflect and organize my thoughts while being able to more fully enjoy my time in Vienna. The posts are not in chronological order. Instead, I want to focus on the abstract. I will often write about my personal experience, but only so far as is needed to explain why I think and feel the way I do. Some of the following entries will discuss important historical figures such as Dr. Karl Lueger, some will approach cultural institutions such as the Viennese coffee house, while some will examine artistic, social, or political movements such as Jugendstil or the Protestant Reformation. Others, will approach lighter, less academic topics such as traditional Viennese pastries or public transportation. This, however, like most anything in life, is subject to change as I write.
If this trip has taught me anything, it is that that more you know about yourself, and the world around you, the less you understand. To paraphrase Jack Kerouac, I have nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion.
Sunday, September 14, 2014
Extra Credit
Over the course of the program, we were offered extra credit opportunities for going outside of our comfort zone. Some of these were food related, while others were related to certain pieces of art and other things.
Blood pudding!
I didn't get a picture of myself eating it, but we had it twice as a group, and I definitely have witnesses. I personally wasnt a fan. the texture was just.... bleh. It was definitely hearty though, and I imagine it was a great use of blood back in the day, when iron wasn't as present in other parts of the diet as it is today.
Glasses!
I... uhh... acquired a number of souvenir glasses from the various bars, beisln, and heurigen I visited during the trip. I picked up so many glasses that I couldn't even fit all of them into my bag home. I ultimately got four home:
Selfies!
I took a selfie with the famous painting of Napoleon in the Upper Belvedere, against the museum's rules.
German Course!
Before leaving for Vienna, I stepped my game up from just signing up for an online course: I took GER 1 in Spring quarter before leaving for the program. It was a wonderful experience and convinced me to look further into the feasibility of declaring a mnor in German.
Blood pudding!
I didn't get a picture of myself eating it, but we had it twice as a group, and I definitely have witnesses. I personally wasnt a fan. the texture was just.... bleh. It was definitely hearty though, and I imagine it was a great use of blood back in the day, when iron wasn't as present in other parts of the diet as it is today.
Glasses!
I... uhh... acquired a number of souvenir glasses from the various bars, beisln, and heurigen I visited during the trip. I picked up so many glasses that I couldn't even fit all of them into my bag home. I ultimately got four home:
 |
| One of my victims |
- a Puntigamer glass from our lodge in the Rax
- an Edelweiss glass from a restaurant across the street from the Zentralfriedhof
- a Murauer glass from a small restaurant in Melk with a beautiful view of Stiftmelk
- a Reininghaus glass from the restaurant we stopped at in Waidhofen an der Ybbs.
Selfies!
I took a selfie with the famous painting of Napoleon in the Upper Belvedere, against the museum's rules.
.JPG) |
| I wasn't feeling ballsy enough to try taking a better one. Partial credit? |
German Course!
Before leaving for Vienna, I stepped my game up from just signing up for an online course: I took GER 1 in Spring quarter before leaving for the program. It was a wonderful experience and convinced me to look further into the feasibility of declaring a mnor in German.
Remembering Dr. Karl Lueger
Distinguished for marked improvements to Vienna's municipal infrastructure, molding Vienna in the shape of Modernity, thrice elected mayor Dr. Karl Lueger is viewed with ambivalence in Austrian history. As a member of the Christian Social Party (a precursor to the Austrian People's Party) Lueger ascended to political eminence through a behind the opportunistic shroud of antisemitism, at this time virulent amongst Vienna's middle class. As leader of the Vereinigte Christen Lueger rallied votes from both the left and right wings until the Christian Social Party assumed majority control of Vienna's city council. He was elected to be mayor five times in his political career, but Franz Josef, seeing Lueger's politics as a threat to the city's welfare, refused to sanction the election three times. In 1897, upon endorsement by Pope Leo XIII, Karl Lueger finally assumed the position of mayor. In his reign he
Should the Viennese celebrate Lueger for ushering in the “modern” Vienna or condemn this him for the propagation of antisemitic rhetoric which Adolf Hitler himself used as a model? The political archetype of the double-edged sword is ubiquitous in history, and although there is no definitive answer to that question, the 2012 renaming of Dr.-Karl-Lueger-Ring on the Ringstraße to Universitätsring is perhaps a telling indication of today's sentiment.
Should the Viennese celebrate Lueger for ushering in the “modern” Vienna or condemn this him for the propagation of antisemitic rhetoric which Adolf Hitler himself used as a model? The political archetype of the double-edged sword is ubiquitous in history, and although there is no definitive answer to that question, the 2012 renaming of Dr.-Karl-Lueger-Ring on the Ringstraße to Universitätsring is perhaps a telling indication of today's sentiment.
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| Dr. Karl Lueger in 1897 |
Punschknopfen
After class one day, I took the tram back toward Kandlgasse and wandered into the Tullnerfelder Bäckerei, an unimposing building with a small fabric awning decorated in vertical pink and white stripes, vaguely evoking the innocent joy of a child walking into a billowing circus tent. Inside, a smiling elderly woman greets me with the regional “Grüß Gott” and a “bitte” as she patiently waits for me to order (this patience seemingly a rarity in the Viennese service industry). For a moment I stare through glass display at the array of beautiful pastries. A pink cube caught my eye. Gesturing towards the mysterious confection, I asked what it was. When she replied with "Punschknopfen," I pulled out a piece of paper and asked her, in German, to spell it for me, so I could go back to the dorm and look it up. The term translates to "punch button" in English, due to its shape and liberal use of rum. I decided to Google the word and found out that the more common name is Punschkrapferl, but I like Punschknopfen more. According to the Wikipedia page, the origin is unknown and like many other Viennese foodstuffs are steeped in myths, being either attributed to Ottoman armies during the Second Turkish Siege or to a confectioner at the imperial court. An article on Wien International's website suggests that Punschknopfen were created as a way of dealing with leftover or stale cakes, by soaking them in rum and covering icing to return the cake's lost vitality. According to an article on Deutsche Welle's website, the humble Punschknopfen is also purportedly a term for a politician with a socialist (pink) facade but supposedly Nazi (brown) machinations, an issue in Austrian politics in the postwar period.
When I took home that strange and unassuming pastry, I certainly wasn't expecting it to carry such cultural significance. I guess that's just one of the exciting things about immersing yourself in a new culture.
When I took home that strange and unassuming pastry, I certainly wasn't expecting it to carry such cultural significance. I guess that's just one of the exciting things about immersing yourself in a new culture.
Wiener Wasser
Throughout areas of heavy pedestrian -- especially tourist -- traffic, one can find aluminum cylinders about three feet in diameter with the Viennese state seal and the words "Wiener Wasser" printed on the sides. These are public drinking fountains, which otherwise appear to be very uncommon in Austria. My professor tells me that these were recently installed because tourists were fainting in the street from heat exhaustion a little too regularly. The Viennese summer heat is generally considered to be quite oppressive, particularly when coupled with the region's high humidity, so I consider myself lucky that I was able to experience what my Viennese penpal called a summer of "most peculiar weather."
Something apart from the mildly humorous company name "Wiener Wasser" stands out about the water here: it is of outstanding quality. There was even a sign above the sink at a hotel I stayed at that read -- and I'm paraphrasing here -- "This water is from the mountains; it beats the tap water you're used to by a mile. If you drink the water, you might not want to ever leave Vienna because of how badass our water is." As it would turn out, Vienna has a long-standing history of high-quality spring water going all the way back to the city's Roman precursor, Vindobona. Around 1553, the city's first documented pipeline was constructed. This pipeline originally served the imperial palace, but eventually also served a communal well in Margaretenplatz. Today Vienna's water supply is based from two main source lines which can be read about here.
The people of Davis, although blessed with a wonderful public transportation system, are cursed with terrible tap water by state standards. The exception to this is if you live on the UC Davis campus, which draws it's water from a deeper aquifer than the city does. Drinking Vienna's water reminded me of Tap'dNY a bottled water company that got it's start by bottling water straight from the tap from the founder's New York City Apartment. I could certainly imagine something similar happening in Vienna.
The picture below is of the water fountain at Heldenplatz, directly in front of the Hofburg. The lighting in my original picture wasn't that great, so I decided to take a picture from the internet.
Something apart from the mildly humorous company name "Wiener Wasser" stands out about the water here: it is of outstanding quality. There was even a sign above the sink at a hotel I stayed at that read -- and I'm paraphrasing here -- "This water is from the mountains; it beats the tap water you're used to by a mile. If you drink the water, you might not want to ever leave Vienna because of how badass our water is." As it would turn out, Vienna has a long-standing history of high-quality spring water going all the way back to the city's Roman precursor, Vindobona. Around 1553, the city's first documented pipeline was constructed. This pipeline originally served the imperial palace, but eventually also served a communal well in Margaretenplatz. Today Vienna's water supply is based from two main source lines which can be read about here.
The people of Davis, although blessed with a wonderful public transportation system, are cursed with terrible tap water by state standards. The exception to this is if you live on the UC Davis campus, which draws it's water from a deeper aquifer than the city does. Drinking Vienna's water reminded me of Tap'dNY a bottled water company that got it's start by bottling water straight from the tap from the founder's New York City Apartment. I could certainly imagine something similar happening in Vienna.
The picture below is of the water fountain at Heldenplatz, directly in front of the Hofburg. The lighting in my original picture wasn't that great, so I decided to take a picture from the internet.
Edelwiess and the Rax
The Edelweiss, Latin name Leontopodium alpinum, is a rare alpine flower that has become a symbol of Apline life and a point of pride for the Austrian people. It almost exclusively grows at altitudes above 1800 meters and was once sought after as an ingredient for folk remedies.
Today (and since 1886), due to extant fears of overharvesting, the Edelweiss is a protected species in Austria, and many other countries.
Edelweiss, which translates to English as "noble white" is used as a symbol in literature and art, as well as national symbol in Austria, particular in the Tyrolian regions. In Roger and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music for example, "Edelwiess" is the title of Austrian patriotism, opposing the imminent Anschluss by Hitler's Third Reich.
The Edelweiss is a common symbol used by many groups for many purposes including on some Nazi SS officer uniforms. A list of some of these uses can be found on Wikipedia.
When hiking in the Rax, I kept a sharp eye out for the noble flower, which is today a rare sight. I was not as lucky as some members of our group (I'm looking at you Kathy, Alex, and Hans-Joerg), but I was still able to go home with some memories I will never forget!
Speaking of the Rax, that experience -- just three days and two nights -- opened my eyes to a small variety of cultural differences between Austrians and Americans.
One in particular that stuck out to me was that the Austrians seem to take a much less structured approach to their wilderness. Even on hiking paths, much of the time there seems to be almost no effort to "tame" the wilderness. In place of the conventional trails you often see in the US, most of the time in the Rax I felt like my group was just following painted rocks that were each about 40 yards for one another. The fog was thick enough at a few points, that we just had to guess the proper direction because we couldn't see the next trail marker -- a fun game to play in the cold, pouring rain, no doubt!
Today (and since 1886), due to extant fears of overharvesting, the Edelweiss is a protected species in Austria, and many other countries.
Edelweiss, which translates to English as "noble white" is used as a symbol in literature and art, as well as national symbol in Austria, particular in the Tyrolian regions. In Roger and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music for example, "Edelwiess" is the title of Austrian patriotism, opposing the imminent Anschluss by Hitler's Third Reich.
The Edelweiss is a common symbol used by many groups for many purposes including on some Nazi SS officer uniforms. A list of some of these uses can be found on Wikipedia.
When hiking in the Rax, I kept a sharp eye out for the noble flower, which is today a rare sight. I was not as lucky as some members of our group (I'm looking at you Kathy, Alex, and Hans-Joerg), but I was still able to go home with some memories I will never forget!
Speaking of the Rax, that experience -- just three days and two nights -- opened my eyes to a small variety of cultural differences between Austrians and Americans.
One in particular that stuck out to me was that the Austrians seem to take a much less structured approach to their wilderness. Even on hiking paths, much of the time there seems to be almost no effort to "tame" the wilderness. In place of the conventional trails you often see in the US, most of the time in the Rax I felt like my group was just following painted rocks that were each about 40 yards for one another. The fog was thick enough at a few points, that we just had to guess the proper direction because we couldn't see the next trail marker -- a fun game to play in the cold, pouring rain, no doubt!
Visit to the United Nations Headquarters.
In preparation for our visit to the United Nations Headquarters, we were asked to formulate a number of questions to ask our lecturer for the IAEA. The questions are as follows:
- What is the IAEA's view on nuclear disarmament? Does the IAEA view all nations in the same in this regard, or are, for example, non-combative/neutral nations under less scrutiny?
- How does the IAEA attempt to control and regulate nuclear materials and waste?
- To what extent, if at all, does the IAEA subsidize nation's for investments in safe nuclear power?
- How else does IAEA incentivize the transition to nuclear power?
- Does the IAEA play an active role in recovy for nations and regions dealing with fallout from incidents such as Fukushima?
- How does the IAEA enforce anything, if it does at all? What powers do they really have?
- What nations have been historically least cooperative in the IAEA's efforts? What about more recently?
- What sort of educational background is most desired by this branch of the United Nations? What roles, if any, could a chemical engineer fill here?
We were also given a short lecture by two representatives from the UNODC, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. They talked to us about the world report on human trafficking and human smuggling.
- How is data collected for reports such as these? How do you approach a country with a terrible track record for trafficking, and say "hey, I want to tell the world how bad you are." That must be GREAT for tourism.
- What are the reasons for nation that did not submit data for the report?
- Are there any alarming trends emerging from the data? Anything hopeful? Anything that's just interesting?
- What people(s) are most susceptible to being victims of human trafficking?
- What role does the UNODC play in preventing human trafficking? What powers does the UNODC have in this regard?
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