Coming Full Circle

The sunset tonight in London. I took this at the top of St. Paul's Cathedral.

Well, tonight is my last night in Europe studying abroad.  I have had the time of my life, and I only wish that everyone could have the experience of living in a foreign country once in their lives, even though it can sometimes be challenging.  The rewards definitely outweigh any struggles I had to overcome.
Since I've been somewhat bad about writing the last few weeks, here is a quick wrap-up of my last few weeks in Vienna and visiting Krakow, and then the last few days (which, frankly, have been a whirlwind) in Frankfurt, Poitiers, Paris, and London.

I went to Krakow, Poland with some of the best people that I met studying abroad.  If you had asked me in August if I thought I would get to Poland in my time abroad, I would have said, "That would be cool I guess, but I seriously doubt it."  Sort of like how if you had asked me in August if I would get to Slovenia, I would have said, "Where?"  Sure enough, a week before our Dead Week before finals, we were on a train to Krakow.  That first day we went to Auschwitz concentration camp.  I agree with the people from IES who went there on the planned trip in September while I was in Slovenia and Italy with my group--it is something everyone should do in their lifetime if they can.  I was most strongly affected by the room devoted to the history and effects of the war on Poland and by the rooms with hallways lined with photograph/mugshots of the victims, but everyone in my group was impacted by something different.  It was important to me to learn how intensely Poland was devastated by World War Two. Poland was at war at every imaginable level--psychological, political, religious, economical, philosophical--everything was impacted. We visited on a cold, bitter December afternoon, and I could only try to imagine what it must have been like, even being so close to the history. 

The gate to Auschwitz with a rose someone placed through the wires.  The inscription above the gate reads, "Freedom through Work." Photo credit Yi Gong.

After returning to Krakow, we experienced culture shock because we happened upon the first mall we had been to since being home.  Especially going from Auschwitz (for crying out loud!), to "Blizzard Blitz Sales! All Gift Wrap 50% off!" it was a strange contrast.  Life goes on though and is going on. We learn from the past and we try to make something of it for the future.  I gained a better understanding of Poland's national story, which I will carry with me forever now.

Julian, Sophia, Yi, Peter and me on a butterfly bridge in Krakow

Jewish cemetery and world-famous pilgrimage point to see 16th century rabbi and writer Moses Isserles.  Photo credit Yi Gong.

Teapots at the Krakow Christmas market.  Photo credit Yi Gong.

The next day we went into the city of Krakow, which was a lot of fun.  We had this bread thing that was SO GOOD. Like pizza and bruschetta, but huge and amazingly tasty.  Nom.  We went on a tour that emphasized some Jewish history in Krakow and saw the old Jewish Quarter as well as the Jewish cemetery and Schindler's factory (the story that inspired the movie, Schindler's List). We then had a nice dinner near the downtown and explored the Christmas market!  And, as I had hoped, I got to hear the trumpet player who's fanfare cuts out in the middle.  The reason for this is that the trumpet player who sounded the warning of invading Turks in the Tower was shot through the throat with an arrow in the middle of it, therefore the city of Krakow pays tribute to this incident every hour.

When we got back that week, we had our last concert of the year.  I played some Strauss, Bach, Martin, Humperdink (for the Hansel and Gretel orchestral excerpt) and Shostakovitch.  Afterwards there were trombone players doing spontaneous Christmas carols and then a group singing carols and just sitting around and having a nice time.  Then we had a goodbye party at a bar and they showed a video that a couple of the students put together with pictures from the semester.  Then it was pretty much finals week and just wrapping up things I still needed to do and see in Vienna.  Sophia coordinated a meeting with a music conservatory student in Vienna, so I tagged along and got to hear what it is like to study music in Vienna in grad school.  I also went to the Natural History Museum with Peter and learned a lot about dinos and how ecosystems work.  My favorite part of the exhibit though was that there was a series of fossils in a glass case in sequence, like a shell-type fossil, a centipede-type fossile, etc. etc...and then there was a chunky black, early 90s complete-with-antenna Nokia Cell phone mounted next to the fossils!!!  I lol'd.

Sophia and Julian also had their joint piano recital on Monday, so I got to hear them play (it was great!) and then we went out to dinner at an Heuriger because it was ALSO Yi's 21st birthday.  It was SUCH a cool place--you walk down two flights of woods and then stone, cobbly stairs to what was a cellar as early as 1100.  I got schnitzel and beer because I knew it was probably going to be one of my last traditional Austrian meals.  At least until I make it for the fam at home, but it won't be as good until I become a Schnitzel Pro.

The last night that almost all of us were in Vienna together, we went out to dinner on Kartnerstrasse at the restaurant where Annarita and I befriended the waiter Berat aka Barry.  We then hopped over to Westbahnhof and checked out this cool pub.  Then I stayed up all night packing.  Then I said good bye to my roommates.  When Annarita left, and it was just me in the apartment, I got for the second time in my life that eerie feeling I got when I left my family at the airport in San Francisco--that strange realization that you are completely alone for the first time. I offset this feeling though temporarily because I had already made plans to get coffee with Yi and Peter since they hadn't left yet.  We went to Demal, the fancy tea house in Vienna.  Then we drank Red Bulls (they are an Austrian product, btw) while walking down Kartnerstrasse like a bunch of riffraff teenagers breaking the open can rule (which, btw, is NOT Austrian and does not exist in Austria). I then spent the next 24 hours cleaning the apartment and packing.

I arrived in Frankfurt Sunday night, then left early Monday morning to arrive in Poitiers, France Monday afternoon.  I met Scotty and he showed me around Poitiers.  It was so cool to see the Wild Bemis in his natural habitat, speaking a tongue he seems to know by both instinct and adaptation.  We were also invited to dinner by two of his friends.  Their mom prepared chili that rivalled my family's chili, and usually I love my family's chili more than anything else.  We then watched Beauty and the Beast II (it's a Christmas one).

Poitiers, France

The next morning I was up at 6 and I left Poitiers at 7, getting me to Paris by 8:30.  What a joy it was to have the whole day in Paris!  I walked around the Latin Quarter, imagining studying at the Sorbonne, walking through the medieval gardens of the Cluny Museum, peeking into the Bibliotheque Genevieve and a smaller cathedral that a Parisian recommended I visit, and walking through the Louvre courtyards--it was a complete pleasure that day, and I met a lot of nice Parisians and French, randomly enough!  I ended my time in Paris by meeting up with the Ellefsens again at a cafe!  I am so glad I got to meet them during my brief stay with Scotty!

Dangit. My converter isn't working and my computer is about to die. Nooooo!  I'll have to end this early and send this off to the Internet.  However, I think maybe a picture will say it all.  This is me today, on the top of St. Paul Cathedral's dome, ending where I began in London.  This has been the trip of a lifetime, and I hope I'm all the better from it.

Music at Augustinerkirche

The Austrian flag on the boat taking me to Hallstatt.

 
Right now, I'm eating some pasta, drinking some tea, and thinking about this morning.  I went to the Augustinerkirche in first district Vienna to hear my friend Bert sing in the choir for the Hummel Mass in Eb major as well as some Mendelssohn and Haydn during the offertory.  First of all, a little information on the Augustinerkirche.  It is quite well-known for putting on a full orchestral mass every Sunday.  That's right--orchestra, chorus, vocal soloists--every Sunday.  Since I'm working on both Hummel's and Haydn's trumpet concertos, as well as doing research on Haydn and enlightened absolutism as part of my travel grant here, I knew this was a must-see.  I enjoyed hearing the mass in the context of an actual mass.  It gave it a whole different feeling from hearing a mass in concert.  When I first came to Vienna, I came with some reserves toward the late eighteenth century classical music because it can sometimes sound too stuffy, too nice, too neat and organized.  I came here thinking I preferred the thick brooding chords of Bach and the drama of Handel.  Since being here though, I also have come to love equally the light runs and surprise crescendos of the eighteenth century classical style. The classical style has it's own drama, although it is sometimes not easily recognized under the comedic scenarios of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro or the musical jokes in Haydn's Surprise Symphony.  Despite its initial intent for appealing to a broad audience as light entertainment music, the classical style that developed is powerful and serious enough for liturgical music.  We hear it in Mozart's Requiem, and I also heard it in the Hummel mass today.  It was thrilling to listen to but also went deeper in a way that I used to think only baroque liturgical music could.

Walking back afterwards, I noticed a giant red bow being positioned on one of the builidings across from the opera house.  It is the size of a minivan!  It has been fun to watch Vienna transform into the holiday season.  Lights are being hung across Kartnerstrasse, small Christmas trees now line the Sacher Hotel, wooden stalls are popping up here and there selling warm chestnuts (maroni) and punsch (warm wine with fruit floating in it).  My friend Scotty visited last weekend from France, and we hit up the Christmas market in front of the Rathaus. There were lots of stalls selling toys, candy, candles, and warm hats.  We both stayed at one stall that had those metal puzzles where you try to separate the pieces from each other for a good fifteen minutes.  After that, we went and heard our favorite vocal group perform, The Real Group.  They blew our minds, simply put.

We also got to meet them afterwards!!!  Only 5 people are in the group but they sound like 15 when they sing because they are so tight and you hear the overtones and everything grooves like clockwork. Soooo good!

Normal picture...

We also went to a ball last weekend and saw some waltzing...and a bunch of random Austrians we didn't know!!

...Aannd our awkward picture!!!

It was nice to catch up with Scotty and talk about a cappella music since we both sang together last year.  Yeah, I missed that Geezer.

My friend Lindsey and her three friends (also from SCU) also visited a few weekends ago, but from London!  I had a great time showing them around Vienna!  I'm glad that I got to meet a few more girls from SCU and that we were able to see museums and eat Sachertorte together before they had to fly back.

Back in Vienna with Lindsey, Adrianne and Vyvynce! Michelle was taking the picture in this one but she was definitely there too!  I'll try to find a picture with all of us in it here...

Here we all are! This is at Cafe Central before they returned to London.  I made sure they had some Mozart coffee before they left.

What else is new?  Since I last wrote...oh! I turned 21 here in Vienna and went out to dinner at a gasthaus near St. Stephens.  My first legal drink was some house bier.  I was thinking I probably should have paid attention to what it was so I could tell people what my first drink was, but I guess I'll never know. Bier, that's it. I also had Halloween here and was Justin Bieber...this was a few days before the whole scandal about that woman claiming Justin Bieber was the father of her child...kind of crazy stuff.

"Oh my God it's Justin Bieber!"--"Oh my God it's an Austrian farmer!"

Speaking of crazy stuff, I watched the video about UC Davis and was completely appalled at the UC Davis administration and the police for turning peaceful protest into violence.  I cannot believe how the police acted--forcing some students to open their mouths and spraying pepper spray down their throats! Oh my God.  Watching that video made me realize how intense the situation is getting in the US.  I don't want to romanticize the protesting by any means because I realize that the UC system is bankrupt and is struggling with the pressure, but the top 400 wealthiest Americans could pay off ALL student loans (see the video at http://forgivestudentloandebt.com/content/400-richest-americans-can-pay-all-student-loans-and-still-remain-billionaires), and I think that it is great that students and professors are also taking a stand on this disproportion of wealth and opportunity in the US.  I mean, if you are a college student, you are already in the 10% of privileged people lucky enough to receive higher education, but the economic crisis is hitting education hard, and particularly the institutions like the UCs that are more economically feasible.

The movement has begun to take hold here in Europe, but not in Vienna as far as I've seen.  In comparison, a higher education (undergrad, grad and doctorate) is free here.  There are higher taxes and it is competitive naturally because of this, but if a student is qualified, money won't be what prevents them from an education.

I've gone off track a little bit from what I was initially going to say, which is that I have some pictures from Salzburg and Hallstatt, so I'll put them up here and now.

 A poor and unfortunate-looking adopted von Trapp child listening to the musical lessons of Maria in Salzburg

Salzach River, which runs past the Altstadt of Salzburg

On the boat to Hallstatt with the Austrian flag blowing in the wind

The view across the lake from Hallstatt

One poet wrote that he couldn't think of a more dangerous city than Hallstatt to be drunk because the ground turns into roofs, and roofs into ground.  It is true that some of the buildings are built practically into the mountainside.

View towards the town of Hallstatt.  The city itself is the oldest known area in Europe, with findings dating back to the Neolithic Stone Age, 12,000 BC.

This was our view from where we got lunch.  We think that the building across the way was a summer home of the Habsburgs Franz Joseph and Sissi.

Ninja cat at our restaurant!

Swans were imported to Hallstatt Lake because the Habsburg Princess Sissi was apparently very fond of them.  Swans are there to this day.

The buildings in Hallstatt look overgrown, almost like they could blend into the beautiful landscape.

Kelli, me, Peter and Bert at Hallstatt, playing freeze with the cars...it was quite fun actually

Kelli, Peter and me on our hike up to the waterfall.

Karlskirche.  Yi and I went up into the dome because they are doing construction and have an elevator to it right now.  I didn't like the height, but it was cool to see the paintings up close.  Just makes you baffled at how they built and painted something like that so long ago.

Yi took this picture of me in front of the Karlskirche

Christmas market at the Rathaus

 As I did with my first blog entry, I'll depart with another picture of the Rathaus, but this time with Christmas lights.  Hard to believe that it is already that time of year again, and that it was still summer the last time I took a good look at this building.  I've been abroad for over 100 days now and will be returning home for Christmas in about a month now.  I have to decide about an internship opportunity here in Vienna in the spring really soon, but in the meantime I'm treating every day like I only have a month left here.  Until next time, thanks for reading!

A Week of Mozart and Beethoven

Prague Castle at night

 Today sort of marks the half-way point in my semester abroad, and it has gotten me to thinking about my time here so far.  I had a philosophy teacher who told us that it is good to always be looking not only at what you're did and what you are going to do, but what you are doing right now.  Today, I had a leisurely morning, made breakfast and had tea with my roommate Annarita, and now I am looking out my window at a clear, blue sky.  It is a crisp fall day, which I really love.  After this, I'll do some homework, go and practice, have a trumpet lesson, then go back and finish homework and groceries.  I know it sounds boring, but it balances out the other times that I've had, like two weekends ago when I went to Prague for the weekend.  Yi-Yi and I hopped around Prague and saw a trumpet and organ concert at the baroque church at the foot of Charles Bridge our first night, then spent the day Saturday touring the area around Prague Castle, including this wonderful museum of the Lebkowitz family's collection.  The museum gave me such a comprehensive look at the history of Bohemian kings and the rich history of the Czech Republic.  I personally couldn't imagine being related to the prince that gave Beethoven his monthly wages, or one of the military leaders of the Thirty Years War, but it reminded me that these people actually existed and can be traced through history.  It is a romantic story too--the family lost their treasures twice--once when escaping from the Nazis, and then again in 1948 when the Czech Republic became communist and their property was claimed by the government. It wasn't until 1989 when people were climbing into West Germany (interestingly enough, they were crudely climbing over one of the Lebkowitz's former properties). There was a part of the audio tour where they played an excerpt from Dvořák's Czech Suite, and you could look out the window and see all of Prague below you, and I was struck by what a romantic city it is.  The rooftops and domed churches below make it look like Florence.  I later learned in my Habsburg class that the capital of the Holy Roman Empire was in Prague until Henry II moved it to Vienna.  On our last day, Yi-Yi and I touched the statues on Charles Bridge that you touch for good luck and a safe return to Prague one day.

Yi-Yi and me!

Yi-Yi in front of where the awesomely brutal yet hilarious Third Defenestration of Prague (1618) occurred!!!

St. Vitus Cathedral, constructed by *consulting Habsburg class notes* Charles IV of Luxembourg, King of Bohemia (1316-1378).  He also built Charles Bridge and made Prague the center of the Holy Roman Empire.

Not Charles Bridge, but another bridge to the left of Charles Bridge

On our way to the castle...funnily enough we found this place as a picture in our guidebook, and then found it again once we were actually there in front of it...felt like deja vu...

The city view of Prague from the castle

The next week I played catch-up on work, but I still got to go out on Friday to Heiligenstadt with one of my friends here.  We took the U-4 all the way to the end of the line, and we sort of just started wandering aimlessly, hoping to find one of the houses Beethoven lived in.  Yes, 19th district is Beethoven Country--Beethoven would come out here to get away from the city center.  He is known to have lived in at least 60 different places around Vienna. Speculations suggest this is because he didn't have to pay rent as long as he didn't stay too long.  This is where the Heiligenstadt Testament was written:  The Heiligenstadt Testament

Walking around the 19th district is one of the most enjoyable things I've done here so far.  It was almost deserted and felt much further away from the center of Vienna than 7 minutes on the U-Bahn.  Anyone going to Vienna who wants to "walk in Beethoven's footsteps" would enjoy just walking around the area of Heiligenstadt and stumbling upon Beethoven's houses.  We went to a Heurigen afterwards and enjoyed what is probably the last of the vineyard's wine for this season.

When you have no idea where you're going, always go towards the pretty, white church...it will put you exactly where you're supposed to be, funnily enough

A bear for Mom :)

One of Beethoven's former houses is to the left of this wall, an old church is to the right.

Looking out at the street from Beethoven's former house and the church...could that be the church that he talks about in the Heiligenstadt Testament?

Bert and Beethoven

After writing the Heiligenstadt Testament, Beethoven began work on the 3rd Symphony, "Eroica."  We're going to be studying that symphony in my class next week.

Bert and I ate some wine grapes down this path that were given to us by a worker.  He just handed them to us from his truck, saying he had 800 more tons of them.

Christian cemetery in 19th district...we were looking for one of Bert's ancestors but had a beautiful view along the way.

Saturday I went on a field trip to Klosterneuberg for my Habsburgs class, a monastery during the 11th-12th century built by the Babenburgs as well as a residency for the Habsburgs later.  Bert and I joked about "Babenburgers" for the rest of the day after we learned that Leopold III was cooked up after he died.  I really like my classes here because we go on field trips a lot.  For Classical Symphony class last Thursday we walked to the house where Mozart wrote "Marriage of Figaro" and then that same day I walked to class at the Imperial Treasury for Habsburgs.

Baroque church at Klosterneuberg

Verdun alter

Medival garden, with a pumpkin :)

DUMBLEDORE!!!!!

Last but not least, yesterday I went to the opera to see Mozart's Magic Flute.  I didn't like it as much as I liked Don Giovanni just because the story is a bit too weird for me, but the singing was wonderful, especially Pamina. Plus, I like that it has the Masonic rituals and beliefs that truth and knowledge bring divinity, although watching the rituals of holding up the triangles got old really fast.  Mozart was a Free Mason and it is interesting that he shared the era and beliefs of our founding fathers, who were also Free Masons (this I actually only mostly know from the movie National Treasure, so I'll get off my high horse now).  The music is great, and the production seemed like a bizarre, abstractly staged and colorful marionette show, which I think was their goal because I think the Magic Flute story was first a marionette show...

Looking back on these last few weeks, I guess the theme has really been Mozart and Beethoven.  Last weekend I was in Prague, where Mozart's Marriage of Figaro was an instant success--so much so that he came to Prague to conduct it himself and was of celebrity status there. Don Giovanni was also premiered there I think. In class we studied Mozart's Symphony No. 40 last week and this week we are studying Beethoven Symphony No. 5, which I cannot wait for.  I went to Mozart's house and walked around the area that Beethoven lived, then yesterday I saw a Mozart opera.  I feel very lucky to be able to do all these things and it makes me love the music even more that they created.

Thanks for reading!
Jenny