Visiting the Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial

I actually made a video about my experience finding it; it means that much to me I suppose. Plus it was kind of fun to vlog; so please watch and enjoy. xD I'm not a great cameraman or anything though.

The memorial was erected in 2000 as a gesture of rememberance for the 65,000+ Austrian Jews who were killed in the Holocaust. The design is very geometric and modernistic; a very good reflection of the sculptural style of the artist, Rachel Whiteread. The "library shelves" are designed to resemble a bunker for obvious reasons. Anyways, I won't write too much about this since the video speaks for itself (literally, I'm talking lol). This post and video are dedicated to all of the victims and survivor victims of the Holocaust, their families, friends and descendants, respectively.

I plan to go to the Jewish Museum sometime in the next week or so!

Week 1 Part 2 - Stephansdom and MozartHaus

Hey all. Sorry if it seems like I'm not making updates all that frequently. I'm not really a routine-oriented kind of person, if you get what I mean. These posts will probably be updated sporadically about 1-2 times a week.

Anyways after the first week of classes and what really feels like my first real week in Vienna I've found myself feeling a lot more grounded; more comfortable in my own skin again, if you will. The language barrier is still difficult and awkward at times, but we're working on it (meanwhile the phrases "Ich spreche kein Deutsch" and "Sprechen sie Englisch?" have become somewhat of a couple of mantras for me, lol). Luckily it really is true that there are more people here in Vienna who speak more English than I do German, so it works out somehow. And just last weekend my knowledge of Japanese was actually relevant, something I never would have expected here! It was fun speaking to someone in a language other than English especially since I'm surrounded by lots of bi- and trilingual students; I covet being fluent in more than one language.

The end of week one saw the successful registration of myself and several of my international student comrades at the Austrian Magistrate; we literally had to go and submit forms with our passports in order to be permitted to temporarily reside here. Thanks to Kristi for taking us to the Magistrate and translating the forms xD

On Saturday 1/14 I got out to see the sights a bit. Webster sponsored a bus tour of parts of the inner city districts, including the Museum Quarter, Hapsburg Palaces, BeethovenHaus, the main MozartHaus, Stephansdom and so on. We didn't actually stop and look around at any of those locations, unfortunately, but I went back to a couple of them later. Specifically, Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral) and MozartHaus (formerly FigaroHaus).

St. Stephen's Cathedral, or rather as I am beginning to refer to it, Stephansdom, was one of those locations at the top of my list of places in Vienna to visit and subsequently ogle at for hours. As an art major I've studied general architectural styles and progressions throughout the course of Western history; Stephansdom is a beautiful mix of Gothic and Romanesque styles, having been blended throughout years of restorative work and expansion. It is the cathedral in which Mozart married his wife Constanze (aka "Stanzi") and where they went to regular mass while in Vienna (it's literally right around the corner from one of the apartments in which he and his family lived; the most famous one that is now known as MozartHaus).

Upon entering the Cathedral I was immediately lost to it's incredible splendor; I'm sure my jaw dropped from my skull and shattered upon the floor in utter amazement. It's so much grander in life than in any photograph; despite the massive amount of tourists that are constantly present in the public areas the hall manages to maintain an ethereal kind of serenity...I'm already planning on making weekly trips there like every Saturday just to sit in and meditate. I returned yesterday for a brief time without even really planning it. I had just happened to be in Stephansplatz so I was, of course, drawn back inside.

I lit a candle for myself, my friends and my family. Even though I'm not Catholic, I like to do this when I have the opportunity. Especially in such a wonderful place as this. 


Click "read more" below for more pictures (with a breathtaking element that may take you by surprise) and my experience in the North Tower, plus MozartHaus! 

Week 1 Part 1

So much has happened and changed in the past week that I feel like perhaps I should have made a post every day to account for it all. Nevertheless I suppose it is as they say, "better late than never".

I arrived safely and without much complication - less, even, than I had initially expected (at least in Vienna). I cleared Madrid's passport and security checkpoints without having to wait, which was a miracle due to the fact that upon landing I had less than 45 minutes to make my next flight. CRAZY! I thank my rudimentary knowledge of Spanish for helping me navigate terminals. Also that random helpful stranger who helped me figure out where to go to get to my departing terminal. Gracias, Señor! In the rush, however, I did accidentally leave behind my pretty SIGG water bottle. :( Of all the things to have lost, however, I am grateful it wasn't something I won't miss or need more drastically.

^^ I couldn't believe that out of all of those flights mine was the intercontinental one :O

To my surprise upon arriving in Vienna my bags came fairly quickly and I did not have to go through airport customs in order to leave the terminal. Confused but okay with this, I found my prepaid taxi driver and we headed off to my new home: Ojab-Haus Donaufeld. Or so I thought. To my dismay, and even more so the driver's, we arrived not at Donaufeld but the other student housing facility (which is much more expensive), Schutaustrasse. While it is a lovely place, I was and still am not registered to live there; it seemed that my poor driver had been given the wrong address. To make matters even more difficult, the driver spoke little English and I even less German (we're hoping to fix that latter problem XD). The driver quickly became agitated as he had a tight schedule to keep; I deduced that because Schutaustrasse is miraculously very close to Webster: Vienna (literally right around the corner) we could simply head over there, find the student affairs coordinator and rectify the situation. Thankfully we were able to do just that, with many apologies from them and the promise of extra compensation for the driver's extended troubles. Armed with the correct address, we then headed for Donaufeld.

^^Literally one of the very first things I saw in the airport after arriving in Austria :DDD

At Donaufeld I met my new RA, Kristi, who is a kind person and helpful in her own right; she helped us fill out and submit our residence permit forms to the Magistrate on Friday. I was moved to a different room than the one that was initially reserved for me as my would-be roommate had already requested a switch. My new roommate, Amira, arrived later that day with her mother; they are from Egypt! Her mother is very open and warm as well as helpful as she is fairly familiar with Vienna already. Amira is very nice and easy to live with (as am I, I hope XD). She was in Cairo last year with her family during the revolutionary movements and said that while no one in her family was injured or hurt because of it, it made Cairo, etc a very unsafe place.

It's definitely been a lot harder settling in than I originally anticipated. Mostly emotionally. Before I left I was struck by how relatively nonchalant I was feeling about the entire trip, even while I was making preparations to go....it never really hit me just how extraordinary this trip was going to be or how much the adjustment process would affect me. It's rather hard to explain but after I first arrived, exhausted both physically and mentally, it suddenly hit me VERY HARD that, OMG, 1) I'm not in the States anymore 2) I'm not even in North America anymore and 3) I won't be able to see my friends or family for months. Not very happy thoughts, but given my relative physiological state of being at the time I suppose I was more prone to feeling depressed in general. Needless to say the perfect antidote to such a melancholy state of being was going out with my new friend Emily, who is also from Webster St. Louis and exploring parts of the city. We didn't get to the 1st district but we figured out the Wiener Linien (public transport system) in regards to getting to Webster and back, so that was useful. Plus we got Emily her Austrian phone that she uses during her stay here and wound up getting dinner at a "hot dog stand". I say "hot dog stand" but really it's got more than just that; Viennese schnitzel, sausages, pizza, etc. I got a wrap of some sort with chicken in it; it had a specific name in German that I can't remember LOL. All I know that to my hungry self (that for the past 30+ hours had been living off airline food) it was complete heaven. I felt lots better after that outing and after managing, finally, to get ahold of Mom and let her know I was there safely. My supposed global iPhone service had been decidedly UN-global until Mom and I were able to contact Verizon and get it fixed. Thank goodness for that.

So after a rather rough first day, mostly due to complications and exhaustion, I went to bed that night (after literally falling asleep standing up) looking forward to orientation the next day, the main details you'll hear about in my next post. I'm headed to bed before classes start tomorrow. Gute nacht! 

Here we go!!!

After sorting through heaps of clothes, toiletries and other miscellaneous items, I have successfully packed and departed for Vienna!!! I feel like the whole getting packed bit was quite the achievement for me; I had a very hard time sorting through and picking out specific items. I'm sure I'm a hoarder; anyone who's lived with me knows all too well just how much stuff I have. LOL *pats self on back* space bags are miracle items XD

I said goodbye to my friends over break and my family over this weekend and the morning; we went out to dinner both Saturday and Sunday night. It was hard saying bye to all of them, especially my family and closest friends. I'm so grateful to everyone for all of their tremendous support. My mom saw me off at the airport this morning and we were waving and calling goodbyes to each other as I made my way through security. It was a pretty tremendous moment.

What was cool was when I got to my gate I decided to make use of my limited time left with the luxurious data service on my iPhone (I'm deactivating it in EU because it's ridiculously expensive) and check my email. I subscribe to Daily Om's horoscope updates and I happened to find a new one waiting for me in my inbox today. Here is an excerpt:

"January 9, 2012
Sudden Adventure
Scorpio Daily Horoscope
A desire to be spontaneous could compel you to seek out new adventures. You may jump at the opportunity to travel or learn a new skill. You may find yourself confronted with a chance to adopt a sudden change in lifestyle today. Consider taking advantage of such possibilities, even if you are unsure of how they will turn out. Decisions made without premeditation often lead to unforgettable experiences of a lifetime. The impulses that come to us all of a sudden have somehow managed to override our minds and come straight through our hearts."

Isn't that just awesome? I knew for sure when I read it that I am definitely embarking on the adventure of a lifetime here. Today is THE DAY!

Currently I'm sitting in the Chicago O Hare airport waiting for my connecting flight to Madrid, Spain, from which I'll be connecting to Vienna. I just hope the hour's layover I have in Madrid is enough time to get me processed through immigration, etc in time to catch my next flight. It'll be interesting.....

Well I think that's about it for now!!! I'm currently writing this from my iPhone so if you're reading this on the web I'm sorry for any odd formatting. Another thing is that I realized I spelled "danke schön" wrong in my little "about me" section; I'll get on fixing that ASAP. Until then, see you next time!!

Check out "packing progress" pics below LOL