Friday, October 21, 2016

Day 35: "Can we hear you speak German?" "But this is an English class..."

Hi readers! I'm making sure to post on Friday today, but it's a short one because this week was definitely where the signs of me settling in are starting to show. I'm getting into my routine, balancing my teaching, exercising, napping, uni-going, researching, and socializing with my fellow Fulbrighters and teaching assistants, so I'm becoming acclimated, and things are less exciting and strange and more comfortable. 

On Saturday I went to photography show at a venue near my flat called Westlicht. The exhibition on display consisted of a selection of award-winning works of photojournalism from around the world, including the astounding image by Sergey Ponomarev of Russia which depicts a group of refugees on a raft coming to the Greek isle of Lesbos. I'm pretty sure this photo won the Pulitzer Prize in 2016, and it's easy to see why. The work has been compared to Thédore Géricault's Raft of the Medusa before, and the resemblance is striking, so I'm including a side-by-side comparison in this post:
(http://www.worldpressphoto.org/collection/photo/2016/general-news/sergey-ponomarev)

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Raft_of_the_Medusa)

I'm not the biggest expert on photojournalism (or even any kind of expert in the remotest sense), though I've written about it before on my main site. I've also written on sports photography (wow, throwback to my first-ever review in March 2010 for I On the Arts... it's so short! I guess my verbose nature really hadn't started to crop up in my blog posts back then...), but there's something really different in the experiences of looking at environmental photojournalism, like the work J. Henry Fair does, where the disasters he documents are abstracted as as to be almost unrecognizable, versus Ponomarev's haunting photograph of the refugees, where the emphasis is inescapably on the human element. Yet the art historian in me wants to formalize that image in order to make the Géricault comparison, perhaps because it's such an affecting image that I almost don't want to get too close to it emotionally. It's almost like the tendency to do this kind of formal analysis functions as a shield and allows me to keep some sort of distance. I'm not sure, but for now, that answer is satisfying logically even if it means that I need to maybe reconsider how emotionally invested I get in the visual...

On a less-fun note, I was visiting the nearby public library for the second time when I came across a really nasty anti-Semitic flyer tucked into a library poster. I almost didn't want to touch it, but I felt like I had to at least alert the library staff, so I took some photos of the flyer and then brought it to the front desk. Honestly, I was surprised that it took me this long to find anti-Semitic sentiment expressed in this way in Vienna: there's been plenty of anti-fascist graffiti, Communist graffiti, and, unfortunately, Islamophobic graffiti, but this was the first anti-Semitic display I'd run into. It didn't really upset me that much as a result; the swastika graffiti at Swarthmore last month was--and is--much more horrifying to me. Swarthmore still kind of a home to me, since I lived there for four years, and the Vienna public library has much more foot traffic than Swarthmore's, so it's unlikely that I know the individual(s) who left the flyer in the Vienna library, while I shudder to think that I might well know the individual(s) who graffitied the swastika at Swarthmore. 
...yeah.

Earlier this week, I had deer shoulder stew at a great restaurant called Wratschko Gastwirtschaft 
(pronounced Vrat-ch-ko gahst-veertz-shahft) in the 7th district. The menu also included lamb liver, venison, meatballs... so plenty of options for a carnivore like me! A bunch of Fulbrighters and teaching assistants met at the restaurant, which was cozy and informal in a pub-ish way and then went for dessert at a really fancy cafe called Cafe Landtmann, where I ate an amazing slice of Nusstorte (nuhss-tor-tuh), or cake with walnuts and walnut cream. Not only was the interior decoration fancy, but if you sit down to order food, there actually aren't prices on the desserts--that's how you know it's fancy because "if you have to ask, you can't afford it"! I think that's the saying.
Have an artsy shot of this delicious cake that was an exorbitant six Euro...
I think I need to make one weird face per blog post at the bare minimum, so here y'all go.

Anyway, that's the report for this week. Next week I'm speaking with the curators of the Romane Thana exhibition at the Wien Museum, which ran before I got here but which promises to be useful in my project research. I also hope to go to the MAK (Museum of Applied Arts) on Wednesday when admission is free, because the only thing better than seeing cool art is seeing cool art for FREE!

Random thoughts of the week:
  • Voting overseas is a logistical nightmare even if you do all the proper paperwork before you leave. But as a Californian, I needed to at least get my votes in on the statewide ballot initiatives, including ones to outlaw the death penalty and legalize recreational marijuana for adults over 21, even if my vote in the Presidential election doesn't really matter.
  • An apparently fun activity for my students at the Graphische is to ask me to speak German so they can judge my pronunciation and lack of an accent--and not just simple German phrases I learned in school, but idiomatic Viennese/Austrian phrases that I don't even understand... as long as the kids and teacher like me, I guess?
  • I've now developed the habit of referring to the US as "the States" when I'm talking about it, even when I'm talking to my American flatmates. I'm already so European!--But it'll be hard to break when I get home...
  • Unrelated to anything Fulbright or Vienna, but Lady Gaga's Joanne came out this morning and I'm really enjoying it, at least much more than I enjoyed Artpop or The Fame. Standouts include "A-YO," which is just a fun beat, "Angel Down," which reminds me of a Bruce Springsteen song, and "Just Another Day," which is Lady Gaga basically doing Billy Joel, all jangly piano and thoughtful lyrics about love. 
(As always, if you want to express your love for me with material goods, my Amazon wishlist is here, my main site is here, and if you want to see many, many photographs of me and of Vienna, my Instagram is here.)

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Day 29: Kicking it into gear

Hi all! This post is a little late--last night I was able to relax a bit and spend some time with my fellow Fulbrighters over an evening/night of coffee/tea/desserts, so I'm just now writing this post on Saturday. Since I'm waking up pretty early for my teaching assistant hours most mornings (before the sun, before seven am... it's like being in high school all over again!), I'm finding myself taking more naps and sleeping more on weekends, so after this post I'm going to make myself leave the apartment and go to the gym. 
Me and a Fulbright friend at the evening gathering! The hat is neither hers nor mine, but looked much better on her than it did on me. I think my head is too big...

As far as exciting news this week goes, not much to report on the teaching or studying side. My classes at the Graphische are still in the stage of me introducing myself to the various students, but I did get to meet with some of the kids in groups and discuss the first chapter of Brave New World with them, which they are reading in English (abridged slightly for length and overall clarity). Since I read Brave New World for the first time in ninth grade (shout-out to Rob Latimer's World History Honors Class) and really enjoyed it, I was able to discuss the chapter with the students and try to get them excited about reading the rest of the book, since the first chapter is admittedly kind of boring and full of scientific jargon about how humans are "decanted" in the Society of Brave New World. But it was a bit challenging to put the arguments of Brave New World into perspective, because none of my students knew about 1984, which is my usual point of comparison for dystopian Western worlds, so I had to improvise and have the kids compare the concerns Aldous Huxley might have been addressing in 1932 with Brave New World with Suzanne Collins' themes in The Hunger Games, which almost all of them had read and/or seen: "Why do people write dystopian fiction? Why have people been writing dystopian fiction for a pretty long time? And what do The Hunger Games and Brave New World have in common even though their respective dystopias are so different?" That kind of thing. I hope my enthusiasm for Brave New World came through, and maybe I'll get to meet with them later this year after they've met Bernard and Mustapha and John and all those great characters...
Spotted in Vienna: a sausage cart to promote the Austrian release of Sausage Party, which I did not have any interest in seeing and still don't. I just thought it was funny how literally they are promoting this movie about talking food. Also the German tagline for the movie is "Es geht um die Wurst," which is a German idiomatic expression meaning "it's now or never," which I think I actually learned in one of my intro German classes at Swarthmore.

My class at the University of Vienna this week focused on depictions of the criminal in British popular media (since our guest lecturer was from the University of Belfast) and mainly addressed how male versus female criminals are portrayed with regards to violent crime, and how programs like Crimewatch manage to titillate, fear, and soothe viewers by re-creating real crimes and then showing how they get solved. What I found kind of missing in the discussion was maybe an America-centric theme: namely, we didn't really talk about the racial divide in how criminality is portrayed in the media even when you take the gender divide into account. In the United States there's absolutely a gap between people of color accused of crimes versus white people accused of crimes and how they are talked about in the media, but maybe it's less of an issue in the UK? I'm not entirely sure that is a satisfying answer.
It's not easy taking a selfie on a bridge...

On the more exciting side, I finally began my research project in earnest: yesterday I visited the home and studio of Eduard Freudmann, an artist of Jewish descent who makes works in a variety of media about anti-Semitism and anti-Romaism in a post-Shoah context. It was a really great conversation: we talked for over ninety minutes and it was very informative, and promises to be extremely fruitful with regards to being able to meet more artists Freudmann has worked with who pertain to my project. He also gave me a free copy of a two-sided poster he made for his work 1st general assembly of the committee for the commemoration of the word that designates the genocide of Roma and Sinti. We also talked a bit about our experiences with anti-Semitism in American versus European contexts, which have some similarities but are also pretty different, owing to Austria's history with the Holocaust. Of course now I have over ninety minutes of audio to transcribe, but it was a pretty great meeting nonetheless.
One side of the poster... but how can I hang a two-sided poster on my wall? I might have to rig it from the ceiling...
(http://www.eduardfreudmann.com/?btx_portfolio=1st-general-assembly-committee)

Random musings/other events of the week:
  • I found the perfect dress for the TU Ball, which the Fulbrighters all apparently go to in January. I'm not posting a photo of it now because spoilers!! But it made me feel like Cinderella at the ball and it's very shiny and blue and again, perfect.
  • Students at the Graphische have way more leeway than even the most hippie schools I've seen in LA. They can swear in class with no repercussions, they get smoke breaks, they are allowed to draw on the walls, and some of them just show up late. They all seemed to balk when I described the idea of detention in American schools, as well as the idea that swearing can get you sent to the principal's office. I didn't even try to get into the disciplinary measures favored by many charter schools... just a very different kind of learning environment overall, and the Graphische kids are treated like adults.
  • I have to get re-used to layering up to leave the house and then de-layering as soon as I've walked anywhere because you tend to heat up if you're walking quickly... it seemed less of an issue at Swarthmore, but it's definitely not an issue in LA...
(As always, if you want to express your love for me with material goods (or digital books, as the case may be), my Amazon wishlist is here, and if you want to see many, many photographs of me and of Vienna, my Instagram is here.)

Friday, October 7, 2016

Day 21: Time to stand on the desks and recite poetry

Hi all! This past week has been really incredibly jam-packed with lots of activities and information, and it seems like that this life of hustle and bustle will be the new normal, so I think I'll probably be only to update this blog once per week at the most. Of course, each blog post will have plenty of commentary, random information about my life in Vienna, and photos, just like I've been doing in my earlier posts, but it's looking like Fridays will be good days in general to update everyone on my copious adventures across the Atlantic. 
Getting ready for that freeze-frame jump...

On Saturday a bunch of Fulbrighters, British Council TAs and USTAs went on a wine hike through beautiful hills and vineyards just above the city of Vienna, so the view was fantastic. There were little stands placed every so often along the path where you could buy different kinds of wine or "Sturm" (shturm), which is a beverage made from partially-fermented grapes that is apparently really popular in Vienna. I'm not much of a wine drinker, but I partook of a glass of a sweet-ish white wine (whether it was a Riesling or Chardonnay or Pinot Grigio or some other kind of white wine is beyond me--it was "winey" and "grapey", though, so there's my sommelier skill coming back!) and spent the afternoon mostly walking uphill and enjoying great conversation with some of my fellow Fulbrighters and TAs. This experience was just another in a growing list of things about Vienna that are so picturesque and charming that they don't seem real--I feel like I'm going to find a Disney logo sticking out somewhere and find out it's all a perfectly-calibrated theme park, because the architecture, the views, the eclectic little coffee shops, even the old-timey font on some of the street signs--it's kind of overwhelming at times, but in a good way.
There were still lots of grapes on the vines, but I decided against eating them since I think it would technically have been stealing.

The hills are alive... with the sound of me breathing heavily as I walk uphill for what seems like hours, trying to remember that climbing Masada was worse.

I had planned on going home after the wine hike, but since it was the "Lange Nacht der Museen" (lang-uh nakht der moo-seyen), I decided to meet up with another Fulbright friend and go to the Kunsthistoriches Museum later that night. The Lange Nacht der Museen is a special event in Vienna where many of the city's numerous museums are open until 1am, so it was a fun way to experience a little Vienna nightlife, but also remain pretty firmly in my comfort zone. The Kunsthistoriches Museum is where you'll find the Old Master works--Raphael, Rembrandt, and even Vermeer are all represented in the amazing collection. For the longest time, I thought I would specialize in the Italian Renaissance as an art historian, so I was able to give my friend what I hope was an informative tour through the early and high Renaissance, along with Mannerism and the Baroque for good measure.

I wish I'd brought my real camera because the museum's interior architecture and decoration is ostentatious in the best possible way, and this photo doesn't really capture it well.

This past work week was where my duties in Vienna really became real for the first time--namely, I began my work as an English teaching assistant at the Graphische, which is a vocational arts school located pretty near to where I live in Vienna. I'm going to be rotating as an assistant for thirteen hours per week, teaching five different levels of English proficiency about various elements of American culture and politics. This week, though, was the introductory week, so I delivered the same basic spiel to a bunch of different classes--I talked briefly about myself, had everyone write their name down on a piece of paper on their desks, and then had them ask me questions about the United States, California, Los Angeles, or about me specifically. What I thought was pretty funny is that every class but one asked me if I'd seen any celebrities growing up in Los Angeles, so I was able to talk about a few of my random sightings, much to my students' delight. I was also asked quite a few times about the upcoming Presidential election, obesity and fast food, whether American high schools are like the movies, and was able to learn a lot about what Austrians, in turn, think about Americans and to what extent their preconceived notions are accurate. I also liked my students' reactions when I told them about how most Americans associate Austria with The Sound of Music, which, of course, none of them had actually seen--when I told them how The Sound of Music, which involves a family escaping the Nazis, is played on TV during Christmas on repeat back in the States, their reactions were hilarious. The kids themselves are really smart and good-natured, and dress way cooler than I ever did in high school--a bunch of them had dyed hair, piercings, tattoos, so basically every art student cliché brought to life.
Pictured: not me, inspiring students. (RIP Robin Williams.)

On Thursday evening I had my first University of Vienna class--an English-language lecture about "Outlaws, Rebels, and Misfits" in popular culture, media, history, and society. The first lecture was pretty interesting--a lot of time was spent talking about Western (specifically American) conceptions of outlaws, so when I raised my hand and asked/answered questions, I'm pretty sure the other students were looking at me funny because I very clearly sound American, not Austrian (or English or Scottish). I'm super excited for the next class meeting--the professor seems very interested in making sure our subject matter is intersectional in terms of race, class, gender, sexuality--we won't only be covering the classic cowboy image and Robin Hood, but also figures like Toussaint L'Ouverture (who led the Haiti Revolution against the French), Calamity Jane, and pirates as both anti-colonial heroes and threats to order and safety, depending on the political scenario at the time. We will also be reading Fight Club, so I have an excuse to do that as well as watch the film, which is supposed to be a classic, even if I don't look forward to watching a lot of violent fight sequences.

Next week promises to be just as busy as the last--and I'll actually be starting my meetings with artists for my research project! So my next post will talk a little about that experience.

Random observations of the week:
  • If you tell your high school students your favorite Viennese food is the "Käsekrainer," which I mentioned in an earlier post, they will laugh at you. I figure it's probably the equivalent of a tourist visiting New York City and saying their favorite food is a hot dog from a street cart, but still. WHY DO WE NOT HAVE CHEESE INSIDE SAUSAGES IN THE USA??
  • People from Austria will just jump over to Hungary for their dental work, because that's apparently something Hungary excels at. I can't imagine leaving Los Angeles county to go to the dentist, let alone another state or country.
  • Once October hit, it got colder and grayer and rainier like clock work. My pathetic Los Angeles umbrella lasted for about a minute before it shriveled up and died, so I had to run to a grocery store to buy another one.
  • Same-sex couples on crossing lights!!!!!!!!!! 'Nuff said.
Love is love is love. They also have lesbian and heterosexual couples on the crossing lights, as well as humans and their bikes.

(As always, if you want to express your love for me with material goods, my Amazon wishlist is here, and if you want to see many, many photographs of me and of Vienna, my Instagram is here.)