I am sitting here in a cozy, smoke-filled café in Vienna, finishing off my first Easter without family, much less any familiar face. Nonetheless, my first hours here have been fantastic. I went to Mass at Stephensdom, the obligatory beautiful, towering Gothic cathedral here in Vienna. After what was probably the most heavily-incensed mass of my life, I emerged with a bit of a cough (which has yet to dissipate), but also a newfound respect for the global nature of Mass. This is the 5th language that I've heard it in, and every time, I am able to follow just fine and feel comfortably at home, though admittedly the homily becomes an exercise in maintaining consciousness when you can't understand a word being said other than "Gott." Anyhow, after Mass, I went for a stroll around the city center and came upon a gorgeous neo-Classical building (later discovered it to be one of the two main Habsburg palaces) where an amazing cellist had decided to give a free concert. He was not your normal street musician. He was clearly a professional, and I couldn't help but stay and listen for a good half hour. Now, a döner kebab and a beer later, here I am.
First, I apologize deeply for my failure to keep this blog up to date. It's remarkably hard work, and when life gets busy, blogging drops to last place on the priority list. Since my last post, I have:
1. Gone to Bern, the capital of Switzerland
2. Eaten dinner with a famous Polish tennis star (unbeknownst to me. My Polish friend later informed me)
3. Gone to Luxembourg, for 1 day too many
4. Gone to Brussels and eaten delicious waffles, washing them down with fantastic beer
5. Fallen in love with Paris again.
6. Gone to Zurich and Basel (bratwurst lunch for the win)
7. Been chosen as a finalist for the Truman Scholarship and flown back to the States to interview (In the end, didn't get it. Mais c'est la vie, ne c'est pas?)
8. Received an all expenses paid scholarship to spend the summer in the Middle East, improving my Arabic
9. Broken my thumb skiing in the Alps
10. Gone to Prague
If you'd like any more info about #'s 1-9, let me know.
For now, I'll just talk about Prague. I absolutely loved the city. It's certainly different from most of what I know (e.g. the Metro still has a remarkable Soviet feel to it). Even though I don't really know any German, I feel like I can understand so much more in Austria. In the Czech Republic, I was for the first time surrounded by a language that didn't have any semblance of English cognates. Bizarre. While there, I met up with one of my friends from last summer's internship in DC. While it started out with just the two of us, we made hostel friends, and by the end we were out at a 80's and 90's music video dance club with a bunch of Londoners... Things happened quickly. All in all, it was a wonderful time. As always, my updated pictures are all on Picasa, accessible from the link to the right.
*Now a quick update. I'm finally back in Switzerland, back to the daily grind. But I didn't get to mention that I also was able to take a quick day trip to Bratislava, Slovakia. It was absolutely beautiful in spite of a constant cold rain that turned my cough from Mass the previous day into a full blown cold. I happened upon a free choral concert in an old Jesuit church. I also stopped in for Mass later in the same church to escape the rain, thus adding Slovak to the list of languages I've heard it in. Interesting. Vienna ended spectacularly, as I visited more palaces and stopped in the Sacher hotel for the original Sacher torte. Delicious.
I continue to love Switzerland, though I leave to Croatia in just a week and a half, and I love and miss you all.
A plus tard!
(Check out my pictures!)
Finally, yet another reason not to watch FoxNews
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-april-8-2010/the-big-bang-treaty
