August 30, 2014 - Salzburg, Austria

Today we went and visited the place where they filmed Sound of Music!  Last night I was busy jumping in the creek across the street from the Kartause so I missed watching the movie - so I didn't recognize a lot of the places that we visited that were related to the movie, considering I haven't seen it in a while.  Still, it was really gorgeous!

It actually happened to be raining ridiculously by the time we got off the buses in Austria, and I discovered a fatal but telling flaw in my rainjacket - it repels some of the rain, but then some of it soaks through and ends up getting me completely wet on the inside.  So, I might be spending some time and money hunting for a new raincoat that looks nice but also keeps me dry.  Which might be important, considering the amount of times it has suddenly gone from somewhat cloudy and grey to just dumping buckets everywhere.  When my debit card comes back then I will probably invest.

The start of the day: I ran to the Mensa for a quick breakfast and then promptly fell asleep on the two and a half hour bus ride.  Upon arriving we went to the Franziskanerkirche (Franciscan Church), which is one of the oldest churches in Salzburg.  I thought it was very pretty and more minimalistic - more in a Romanesque/Baroque style.  Still, it was rather dark and I thought because of that it appeared a little grim.  It suited my mood, being soaking wet as I was.

After mass we were led on a walking tour by Mrs Wolter, the wife of one of the professors here.  Apparently she has lived here in Austria for quite some time and she speaks multiple languages, which is really impressive.  Her son was there; I asked him what his name was and he told me, but I didn't understand him and I didn't find out until she called him (it's Elijah).  He's maybe four or five, is absolutely adorable, and is already on his way to being scarily impressive and bilingual. 

We saw quite a few sights - including some of the towering buildings of Salzburg, the palace up on the hill, a cemetery, and several churches.  Mrs. Wolter explained the animosity of Europeans towards Catholics, and told us that we're part of the remedy and we're doing our job to making them feel more kindly towards us.  I guess they saw a lot of dirty stuff going on inside the Church at the time and little of the good. 

One of the weirdest things that I found was that the Austrians are very fond of reminding you that you're going to die.  In the cemeteries, if you don't pay rent to have your body remain in a grave, they'll dig you up and take your bones and place them in an ossuary, which is basically a construction made of your bones.  It's done artfully, but it's also on display and meant to remind us of our mortality and that we aren't meant for this earth.  In one of the sites, there are skulls lined up with miters on them, which are meant specifically to remind Bishops that they, too, are mortal, and their earthly power isn't heavenly power.  American culture is so focused on living longer that I found it to be really interesting but kind of morbid at the same time.  

Following the walking tour - I'm not really fond of tours; they move too fast and I miss half the explanation because I'm trying to take pictures before we have to race off to the next spot - we went to lunch at the Stiegskeller, I think, which was some weird kind of noodle soup, dumpling material without anything inside it and a meat with an orange sauce, and chocolate cake.  I feel kind of bad for the harried waitresses and waiters who have to handle two hundred-odd Americans parading into their establishment, but then I remember the amount of money they're getting paid and I don't feel so bad.  

I felt kind of bad at lunch - I offended some girl that I'd run into at the Airport because when I saw her at the airport she hadn't been dressed up and had her hair down, and I hadn't talked to her since the beginning.  I asked her what her name was, and she just kind of refused to talk to me for the rest of the meal. 

I ended up talking to Asaph a little at first about the huge amounts of classical immersion he was exposed to in high school. As well as learning Latin, he was involved in learning about the art, history, and culture of the Roman empire and those particular times, so far as to go to national competitions and conventions where he would have prepared by memorizing laws, constitutions, history, and also participated in the art making part of it.  It was really impressive but sounded really intimidating.

Then I talked with Clare and Maria, an exchange student from Slovakia.  She speaks both Slovakian and German, and is very extroverted, fun, and self-assured.  She loves to share about languages and cultures and talk about how we Americans rush everywhere and have funny words.  We had a really fun time discussing things with her, and when she started teaching me German, David was listening in and then they both got really excited and told me I sounded more German than Maria did, and I ought to really try to learn the language because I would sound like a native.  I guess all those voice training lessons with Elaine Scherperel-Burgess five years ago paid off!  I don't think I've received a higher compliment.

So far I've learned a bunch of odd phrases in Croatian, Russian, Slovakian, and German, and I'm fairly sure none of them will ever stick, but it's so fun repeating their words and having them laugh with me.  It's really cool to cross the cultural barrier.  

More fun yet is teaching them better English - most of them are extremely good at English and it's impressive, but every once in a while they'll say something really off and I can't help but smile.  They'll either pronounce something really strange, or use a word very out of context.  For instance, "towel" versus "tower", "empiring" versus "ruling", or struggling over them trying to ask what a travel agency is in English when I can't read the sign in German to figure out what they're talking about. 

Oh, I slipped - I ended up talking about after the walking tour.  Well, following the walking tour we got my dream come true - we got to go out on our own and do whatever we wanted.  By some miracle I ended up in a group with Clare, the LCI students (that would be the exchange students), and two of Clare's friends that I used to have in Honors, Christine Canavan and Jessica Schuster.  I didn't talk very much with Jessica or Christine - they are like two peas in a pod, they don't really talk much and they just cling together.  I didn't mind having them there at all though.

I did get to talk a little with Veronika - she hasn't said much to me, she seems very quiet, but she's another from Belarus, and then I talked more with Monika about her father's involvement in the Serbian-Croatian War.  I thought it was really cool to get to talk to her about her life considering that, well, I'm living with her, and I really want to get to know her better.  She's another one of the quiet ones.

Iryna is more outgoing and very interested in learning English, but also seems a little more distant at the same time that she's friendlier.  I'm not sure if it's a cultural thing. 

Clare and I took some pretty awesome "selfies" - Maria is horrified at the prospect of Americans taking pictures of themselves, and she also isn't a fan of pictures in general.  However, she did stand still for the pictures we asked her to take with us.  

Left to right: 

Christine, Jessica, Maria, Veronika, David, Iryna, me, Monika

I got to talk to David and Maria about their languages and cultures, and David spent lots of time telling me about the education system in Hungary and quite a bit about his life over there and the places he's visited and the places he wants to go.  Apparently he wants to become a geologist because if you are a geologist in Hungary then you have an opportunity to travel and also make a decent salary to support that.  He was telling me he hasn't ever been to America but he really wants to go all over the world... but if he had to settle down in one place forever, it would be Switzerland. 

Maria has been to the States for a couple of months - she I think has the best English out of all of the LCI students.  She's also very confident and it was handy to have her around.  David has been to Salzburg before and he has an excellent sense of direction (not sure how he does it), so he took us up and around the back of Salzburg and to a viewpoint where we looked out across the city, and trekking back and forth over the bridges that span the river that separates the city in two.  We ended up getting separated from him and Veronika and Iryna on accident, and Monika was able to ask a policeman for directions.

We visited several churches on our trip, including a Rococo style church that was honestly kind of creepy.  There are grilles in the sides of the walls as you enter and if you look in there are very grey weird looking statues of Jesus in his Passion, but the statues don't look quite...human.  It was dark and there was too much decoration and mixing of the colors grey and gold for my taste, but it was still amazing and a testament to art.

We also visited the Mirabell Gardens, which was part of where the Sound of Music was filmed - the part especially where they go skipping down an archway of ivy, which I did get pictures of (no, I didn't go skipping). 

From what I can tell, a lot of what I've been experiencing isn't so much memorizing each place I go and the history behind it, but rather taking in the beauty of it with my eyes and feeling the newness of the culture sort of absorbing into me.  Just the immersion is a fantastic experience.  And I've been able to also make deeper friendships with people on a small basis, which is what I've been more focused on rather than turning myself into a tour guide.  

Which I realize may not be the point of going to Europe in itself, especially because I have the opportunity to visit all these places, but I am taking pictures and I have a lot of good memories, so for now I think I'm having the experience I want to have.

Also, friends - check out Clare's blog!  She updates it regularly so you might get a more historical perspective of things than I offer - she takes the time to research the sites she visits. 

Clare and I have made a pact to take these selfies with statues whenever we find particularly good ones.