Part Two of the Vienneasy-peasy ABC, featuring more anecdotes, bloopers and well, a cemetery.
Obergeschoss - First floor, or second floor – and that’s the problem! I have always struggled with navigating large buildings, and this is certainly not made any easier by how various cultures count floors differently, or simply skip out the fourth floor because it’s an unlucky number, as is the case in The Philippines. Here at the Universität Wien the problem seems to be compounded by the Tiefparterre, which is the ‘basement’ but at street-level, the Hochparterre, which you reach by going up the main entrance stairs and sounds more National Trust than University building, and the Obergeschoss, which is the first floor, but equally could be the third.
Pünktlichkeit - Punctuality – The other day I had a quick turn-around between lectures, and after rushing up an awful lot of steps, arrived at the lecture theatre at 4.40pm, thankful I had made it with five minutes to spare. There weren’t however any other students lingering around outside, so I stuck my head round the door and saw the benches filled up, and students sitting quietly with notebooks out. All the evidence thus seemed to suggest that I had arrived first, and the previous lecture was just finishing up. At 4.44pm, with still no other students arriving and no students leaving the room either, I sheepishly stuck my head round the door again and looked at the PowerPoint slide, which indeed had the title of the lecture I was expecting. Cursing the German-speaking world’s fixation on not running a millisecond behind time and my half-Filipino tendency to take timings only as an approximate guide, I quickly took my seat at the front as the lecturer began to speak at exactly 4.45pm.
Pünktlichkeit doesn't really lend itself too well to photos, so here's a snap from my peaceful walk along the banks of the Donau yesterday morning.
Querflöte – Flute – This entry is courtesy of the lovely girl I sat next to in my first seminar on Literary Theory, who also studies Music alongside German Literature and very conveniently for the purposes of this blog post, plays the flute. We were asked to talk to the people next to us and then introduce them to the rest of the class, which initially seemed quite childish, but actually was rather helpful and I think my Sitznachbarin (seat neighbour, f.) did a much better job of introducing me than I could have done myself.
Sturm – S is a super contested spot, with many schmackhaft specialities making the shortlist; Schnitzel, Spätzle, Schinkenfleckerl, Strudel and of course the classic Sachertorte all came to mind! Continuing my foray into Austrian beverages, I thought I’d take this chance to tell you about Sturm instead. Sturm is only available from the end of September until mid-October (Sturmzeit!), is a firm favourite of my housemates who always seem to have a bottle in the fridge, and has a rather sweet taste to it (so much so that I didn’t even realise it was alcohol at first…). It is essentially fermented freshly pressed grape juice, which is on its way to becoming wine, and you can find it in both red and white. It’s Federweißer in German, if that’s any help.
Tagebuch, or rather Sitzplatz-Tagebuch – seat-plan-diary - The slightly unusual assortment of classes I’ve chosen this year (Dutch Language II, Austria’s Political System and the EU, Literary Theory) means that so far all of my classes are taking place in person at the University, apart from one hour online on a Friday. Wearing a mask and keeping a distance is obligatory in lecture theatres, as is diligently keeping your Sitzplatz-Tagebuch up to date. There’s a column for noting down exactly between what times you were in a certain room, which seat number you were, and even one for “noteworthy observations” which feels ever so slightly like one awful game of Cluedo, scribbling down “boy, front left corner, coughing intermittently – Covid?!”
U6 – Thought I’d indulge my (train-loving) brother with a mention of my go-to U-Bahn line, the U6, which actually has more overground stretches than underground ones. The central section around my area runs on the tracks of the Wiener Stadtbahn system, which ran from 1898 to 1989. The elevated stations along the Gürtel are all listed and preserved, and along with the old entrance at Karlsplatz, are wonderful examples of Art Nouveau architecture. But that’s quite enough on trains.
Section of the U6 line outside my room - you can also see the rather dystopian tower of the Spittelau City Incinerator, designed by Hundertwasser!
Vatermord, Isabel Bernardi – Patricide – Fear not, Vatermord is the title of the book I’m currently reading, which proudly labels itself as “Vienna University’s first Crime Novel”. I can’t say that starting to read it just as I started classes was my smartest idea – as I was leaving in the dark the other day I caught myself tentatively looking round the corner – but it certainly provides an insight into the (somewhat stifling) Viennese world of academia and brings the corridors around me to life. It amusingly also describes the main road (which runs outside my window) as an Autolawine – literally an avalanche of cars – which is perhaps the most eloquent description of the relentless racket yet.
Willhaben – Willhaben is the Austrian equivalent of eBay – an online marketplace where you can buy and sell just about everything – or so I thought. I came across an advert for a lacrosse stick for €20 and hopefully messaged the seller, only to find that it had already been taken (or never existed…) and she was just trying to find someone to buy another stick she had for €150+ instead. I kept on rejecting her rather insistent offers, which only became more awkward when I turned up to training and upon sharing my struggle, found out everyone knew exactly who she was because she also used to play for the team. If you hadn't already guessed, not many people play lacrosse in Austria.
Xylofoon – Xylophone – The inspiration from this entry comes from my Dutch class, where we had to introduce ourselves by making sentences beginning with each letter of our name. Admittedly it wasn’t the most insightful introduction, but at least I now know that Max is milieuvriendilijk (eco-friendly), likes to eat aardbeien (strawberries), and enjoyed playing the xylofoon as a toddler. If you're wondering, I was encouraged to learn Dutch by my friend from Amsterdam, am Nieuw (new) in Vienna, started learning Nederland (Dutch) last year, and as the only Cambridge student here, am completely Alleen (alone) when it comes to working out where on earth all my classes are taking place.
Year Abroad – An absolute cop-out for this penultimate entry but it will have to do due to the pressing lack of yak, yam, yacht or yoghurt related activities in the past week. There’s an awful lot I could say about living abroad, and especially in 2020, but I think I’ll save that for another time, and just move on to...
Zentralfriedhof – Austria’s largest cemetery unfortunately makes for a rather morbid final entry, but definitely deserves a mention as I ended up spending my last afternoon of ‘holiday’ there before University started, wandering around with a couple of housemates. I’ve just read online that there are more interments than there are current citizens of Vienna, and I’m still not really sure how I feel about people using the cemetery as a recreational park or tourists coming to photograph the graves of great (de)composing musicians (Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert). All in all it served as a rather unsettling reminder of the temporary and transient nature of life, but at least it was a good opportunity to get to know my housemates on the way there and back, and a chance to make that shocking pun, for which I do apologise.
Strauss' grave at the Zentralfriedhof, with the dome of the St Charles Borromeo Church.
Hope you enjoyed this Zweiter Teil of the Vienneasy-peasy ABC, and although there evidently won’t be a Dritter Teil, I will endeavour to keep you updated on my academic, just-beginning (?) and culinary journey here in Austria. Bis bald!