Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Day 74: Or, the time I starred in "The Black Cauldron"

Hi readers! Lots of photos from a fairly eventful week! Let's get started.

On Monday some friends and I got together at the Loft in the Vienna Sofitel Hotel, located in the second district right on the water. This hotel is extremely fancy, to the extent that I had to put on my "pretending to shop in Beverly Hills bored face" so I didn't stick out. The loft is on the top floor and has amazing panoramic views of the city and a very colorful ceiling. We were there to celebrate a few November birthdays and drink overpriced cocktails; needless to say, mine was small and kind of expensive and ultimately not super great, but it felt very glamorous to sit there in my old prom dress and take in that view.
It's a really great ceiling.

Tuesday and Wednesday I conducted my interviews with two more artists. On Tuesday, I met with Oz Almog in a cafe in the 16th district and we got to chatting, while on Wednesday Lilly Habelsberger welcomed me to her lovely apartment and served me tea and cookies! I spent about an hour with each artist, and the conversations were very different--Oz talked more about his own life and artistic philosophies, while Lilly showed me some of her works she had hung in her living room and also some pretty cool archival documents related to her practice and her family history as Sinti affected by the Holocaust.

Thursday I celebrated Thanksgiving by not celebrating Thanksgiving on Thursday. Instead I talked to my students about Thanksgiving traditions, with a focus on the Macy's Parade, turduckens (which fascinated and horrified them in equal measure), and Black Friday. On Friday I actually celebrated Thanksgiving proper; some USTAs and Fulbrighters got together in what I think was the rec room of a church in the 2nd district and had a massive dinner with all the classics: turkey, stuffing, gravy, etc. There were roughly 20-30 people all at a long, narrow table, and it was just nice to be able to meet up with Fulbrighters I hadn't seen in a while because we're all really busy. I decided to walk home, which took about an hour, and saw a lot of magical light displays and charming markets for Christmas. It was another one of those moments where Vienna didn't feel totally like a real place, because there's just something so picturesque about it, especially at night with all the golden lights and holiday cheer in the air. Even though I don't celebrate Christmas, it's always seemed like a Hollywood-picture-perfect type of thing, but I think that might be because there are so many movies and tv shows, etc, focusing on how Christmas is the most magical and important time of year. Like how you always tell people on Christmas you love them (even if she's married to your best friend like in Love Actually, ahem), or you "tell the truth". I've never quite understood it to that extent, but even in the US, and especially in Vienna, Christmas seems like a time of heightened emotions and sensations.
I always make this face when I take photos with food. I don't really know why. The cornbread was really good too.

Ooo shiny. I wish my proper camera worked because my iPhone doesn't do it justice.

On Saturday I watched the Gilmore Girls Netflix episodes, which I overall enjoyed a lot, more than the new Netflix Arrested Development episodes. I won't get into a lot of detail because not everyone watched 6 hours of television like me with only one break in the middle for lunch, but I'm happy with much of what they did with the characters.

On Sunday my roommates and I and another Fulbrighter friend woke up early to catch the bus to Graz, the second-largest city in Austria. It was about a 2.5 hour ride, but there was free wifi and charging stations for my phone, so it wasn't too much of an annoyance. We decided to go to Graz largely because of the Krampus (krahm-poos) parade, which is a really big deal in Graz. The parade didn't happen until the late afternoon, so we spent the middle of the day and early afternoon taking in some sights of Graz, which is pretty small and charming--it reminded me more of Zagreb than Vienna in terms of scale. Another Fulbrighter working in Graz served as our tour guide, and with her, we climbed way too many stairs to the Uhrtum (oor-tum), or the clock tower and gardens high above the city. (It's about 260 stairs, according to some cursory Googling I did just now. It felt like more.)
Jazz hands at the clock tower! Someone stop me from making these faces when I take photos; it's becoming a really weird habit.

Because I was on the trip, I managed to bully the rest of the group into shelling out 3 euro apiece to go to the Kunsthaus Graz, which is a contemporary art museum in the center of the city. The space was taken up by two large shows and was, frankly, just a cool venue in that it completely obliterated the idea of the "white cube" as the ideal gallery space. The main show was called Body Luggage: Migration of Gestures and was actually pretty inspiring in terms of the kind of work I hope to do as a curator: it was about migration and refugees and the idea of the body as an archive of memory and experience--something that remains when people are forced to flee and must make new lives for themselves in new contexts. It consisted of painting, sculpture, video, and multimedia installation, and, again, the space was just so cool.
Ooooooo....
Ahh......

Wowww.....

The Krampus parade itself was certainly a different experience for me: it was a seemingly-endless procession of people dressed as demons that looked like the Horned King from The Black Cauldron that not only leered at the crowds and asked for money, but occasionally reached and grabbed at the people watching behind the waist-length metal barriers--kids and adults alike. There was also lots of fire and smoke and people walking alongside the Krampus figures dressed like how I picture Ebony from My Immortal--that is, very Hot Topic. I think I ended up leaving to catch my bus back to Vienna before it got actually raucous, but it was something I'm glad I experienced.

Enjoy my terrible video of the proceedings.

Aww... we look so cute. At this point my feet were pretty tired.

Random thoughts/photos of the week: 
  • I can't believe I've been here for more than two months. It feels very, very unreal, because on the one hand, I feel like I've been here forever, but on the other hand, I'm sure July 1 will sneak up on me before I realize it...
  • At the University of Vienna, they had a miniature horse that made me think of the famous Lil' Sebastian from Parks and Recreation. I only wish I'd gotten a better photo of the tiny guy, but I didn't want to get all that close and risk getting my hand eaten. 
  • I see this store when I walk home from the University, and it just strikes me as funny that they use Comic Sans, the least attractive and enticing font, to advertise an X-rated video store... to be fair, I don't exactly know what a "sexy" font is, but Comic Sans ain't it.
  • Someone in one of the Austria-related Facebook groups I've joined posted this funny image, which is a map of the Vienna subway with all of the stops translated into English. 

My favorites include "Hospital-in-the-mead" and "Slaughterhouse Street," which I would be proud to have as my address.

(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.)

Monday, November 21, 2016

Day 66: The sun'll come out tomorrow... and then set at 4pm because of daylight savings time...

Hey all! Since last week's post was pretty serious, I'm gonna try and lighten things up by focusing on what I've been working on here, since I'm still as busy as ever. It's starting to get a little chilly, but definitely not that bad at all compared to Pennsylvania, and on days when it doesn't rain it's downright lovely. Luckily my mom sent me a box full of my coats and scarves so I can run around Vienna in style...
I don't remember why I was making this face. I think I was just trying to entertain myself between classes at the Graphische...

News to this Los Angeles Jew: Christmas in Vienna is a really big deal! While Beverly Hills might string up some perfunctory pretty lights around Christmas time, that's nothing compared to the ubiquitous Christmas markets popping up all over Vienna--including on the University of Vienna's campus. I've begun visiting some of them--not always specifically, but I've nosed around if I happen to walk into one. These markets consist of little hut-stalls that sell giant beautiful pastries, winter scarves and hats, candles, candy, Christmas ornaments, etc. I haven't seen any places selling giant Christmas trees, but seeing as it's not even December yet, Vienna's got a good head start on the holiday cheer thing. 
Pretty lamps... which I have no use for...
Pastries stand...
Close-up glamour shot of the pastries... which need to "get in my belly" ASAP...

On Monday night, some Fulbrighters/TAs met for drinks in the Museumsquartier, which at this time of year has a wintry beer garden type of situation set up, where you can get mulled wine, hot punch, and little snacks while you stand around and enjoy the holiday cheer. On Thursday night, I was walking to my class at the University when I was floored by what was happening on the campus--not only have they set up the little stalls for their Christmas market, but they also have rides. It's so weird to see that happening on a college quad because while Swarthmore might have indulged in a rock-climbing wall and a slip-n-slide for celebratory fun times, they definitely didn't rig up a small Ferris wheel or a spinning-teacup type of ride! (Not really a problem for me since I don't do Ferris wheels, but I'm just saying...)
Museumsquartier: Christmas stylez.
I find myself always being the selfie-taker because I'm tall and have long arms and also I'm the one to suggest it, so...
Yep. This is on the university campus. 

In terms of research/academic stuff going on, I have two interviews scheduled this week. Tomorrow, I'm meeting with Oz Almog, a Jewish artist I proposed working with in my Fulbright application, and on Wednesday after work I'm meeting with Lilly Habelsberger, a Sinti artist who participated in the Romane Thana show with Robert Gabris, with whom I previous spoke. I also started sending in graduate school applications, so at least the hard part of that is over with. Now comes the waiting... and the waiting.... and the (hopeful but scary) interviews... then more waiting. So. We'll see. 

Random quotidian stuff that happened to me this week:
  • I got my hair trimmed (finally) and only cried a little bit inside when the lady's scissors were sharp on my delicate soft neck-flesh. 
  • I saw Doctor Strange in theaters (not great, highly overrated) and Rabbit Without Ears on Netflix. The latter is a mid-2000s German romantic comedy and was pretty cute, albeit pretty silly, but it's also good for me to practice listening to more conversational German in general.
  • A few of my new reviews have gotten published! You can check out all of my published writing so far here. I've also got three to four freelances pieces that I'm hoping to get published at various stages of edit, so I'll post info about those if they end up getting accepted!
  • Tonight I'm meeting with some Fulbright and TA friends at the Sofitel bar for drinks, because a few of us have November birthdays! (Someone please tell me if "smart casual" is the same is "business casual"?)
(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.)

Monday, November 14, 2016

Day 59: Rambling through my messy thoughts.

I've been thinking for a long time about how to put my feelings about this election into words. It wouldn't be honest of me to just do another bubbly blog post about my Austrian adventures this week, as much as I wish I could. Looking back over the whole trajectory of the 2016 primary process and campaign, the 20/20 hindsight is painful and sharp and numbing. It went as badly as it could have gone, and while it was shocking in those first moments when it was clear Trump was going to win, it shouldn't have been, and ultimately it's not. It was a sad, sad dream that underestimated how angry and scared so many people in the country were and are--that they would have been satisfied with a policy wonk more inclined to making tweaks than to bringing dramatic changes, even if those changes could be catastrophic for the country and for the world. And while I can take the smallest glimmer of hope that Hillary won the popular vote, and look at those maps showing that the Millennial vote is increasingly progressive, it's not that comforting.

I felt arrogant the night of the election when some Fulbrighters and fellow TAs went to a bar in the third district to watch the returns with Democrats Abroad. It was a sense of giddiness, to be sure, but it was also arrogance, because I believed in the numbers. I believed in the polls and the "Moneyball "and the statistical. As much as it pains me to say it, Trump was right about the sentiment in this country running counter to what the polls were saying. It was the arrogance of talking to my Austrian students every day about the election, about how of course Hillary would win, because while Trump has nothing to offer, at least Hillary has some things, and that's how it was going to be. And now I have to go to my classes 13 hours a week, and explain at least 13 times a week for the next month or so about how it went so terribly wrong. It's really hard and depressing to see their fears about what this election means for them, so far away in Europe, and to see their contempt for the voters who voted Trump into office. I have to continually make sure that they understand that it wasn't a case of "poor stupid Trump voters" ruining everything--the exit polls tell a much more complex and upsetting story.

It was arrogance that let this happen. Arrogance and wishful thinking that maybe we could have a female president, to break that glass ceiling. And even though Hillary's record is anything but ideal and, in fact, has caused a lot of suffering in other nations, I really believed that she would win. That the most qualified, thoughtful, sensitive candidate would win. But as we've been reminded, America is not a meritocracy and never will be. It was wishful thinking that had me voting for Hillary, even in the primary in California, because I believed she would do a better job than Bernie in terms of being able to negotiate effectively with foreign leaders. I agreed so much more with Bernie's policies in general, but part of me was angry with the "Bernie Bros" (who are very, very real), and this sense that of course Hillary was going to have to sit by and watch as another male candidate "took" the nomination from her after all of her years of service, after all the sexism she's faced. I related more to Hillary in that way, naturally, and so my heart, brain, and gut were equally pulled towards Bernie and Hillary. But I thought Hillary would win. I was in fifth grade in 2004, and I knew nothing of Howard Dean or the primary process, and so I didn't have the precedent we all should have considered--that the centrist candidate is not what people are wanting anymore. But as I've come to realize during my Swarthmore education, it's not enough to break the glass ceiling, to have female Presidents and CEOs. A truer feminist victory would be to "raise the floor" for the least privileged of us.

So I voted for Hillary, and it didn't end up making a difference in the primary, or in the general. And when Hillary became the nominee, I was too comfortable not listening to the voices that correctly pointed out the problems with Hillary, and with Bill's record when he was in office. I had grown up thinking that Bill Clinton's presidency was great for the country, and for a lot of people it was. The narrative was that Bill Clinton left us with a surplus, and George W. Bush ruined all that. But I wasn't in a position growing up where I learned about the negative parts of Bill's record, or even learning about Hillary's decisions as Secretary of State that harmed so many people around the world, in countries I probably couldn't place on a map. I was too content to put those critical voices in the back of my mind with the "crazy" people who screamed about the Clinton Foundation and her "corruption"--Trump was, and is, still obviously more immoral and corrupt, and of course people had to see that. People would have to get past the toxic narrative the right-wing created around Hillary as soon as she became First Lady and made it clear that she wasn't going to sit around and be satisfied as a decorator and cookie-baker. It was so, so easy to say of course Hillary would be a good president for women and for people of color and other marginalized groups, because I wanted to believe that. And I believe that she would have been better than what's coming in the next four years. But like so many people, we didn't listen to the people who wanted to burn it all down instead of giving it a fresh blue coat of paint.

So what can I do? What can I do? I'm still numb, still dissociating, still reeling and blinking and knowing with increasing certainty that this is the new reality. My parents can reassure me, and I can reassure myself, and I can tell my students with a sad smile, I personally won't suffer much under a Trump presidency. I'm white, cisgender, abled, and from a family of enough means that I don't have to worry about where my next meal is coming from, or if I can afford to go to the doctor. And if I stay in California, any institutional problems created by the Trump presidency I might run into are even more minimal. I'm afraid for my friends and for my country on an institutional level, because I am so incredibly privileged, and it's not enough for me to just be relieved about myself and be able to block out the rest. On the social side, however, I'm afraid for myself too. I'm afraid that the antisemitism on the right will become active and public, and that my home on the left will be increasingly inhospitable as antisemitism grows in my community. I'm afraid of seeing swastikas on my synagogue back home. I'm afraid of being potentially attacked in the street by random Trump supporters who recognize me as Jewish. I am afraid of how Trump's election has already emboldened his supporters to attack the most vulnerable among us. And it's only been two days.

One of the more selfish worries I have upon returning to Trump's America is my own future. What kind of life can I have in the arts, in the career I want and the field where I excel? In this situation, doing what I want to do, and going to graduate school to earn that art history PhD seems frivolous and leading to nothing but dead ends. But I have to believe, for my own selfish sake, that the kind of work I want to do in graduate school and the kind of visual media I want to study and curate has even more importance in what's to come--not only in the United States, but in the world. I have to believe that I can not only have a good career but also do something valuable with this work.

I tend to get bogged down in negative spirals of thought. But I do know that having concrete goals and steps to take to achieve those goals lights a fire under my butt. And this case is no different--I'm collecting information about causes to donate to, and seriously considering becoming an ongoing donor to Planned Parenthood and maybe the ACLU. I'm thinking about how the internet can become a force to mobilize voters in 2018, to organize protests and strikes and collective action--that's something wasn't even the case ten years ago. I'm thinking about the possible necessity of a "Women on Waves" type of boat sailing around the United States, providing abortion services in the event of the end of Roe v. Wade. I'm even thinking about shelling out the time and cash for online crisis chat-style hotline training, because suicide hotlines and chat services have become severely swamped since the election. Those are all such small individual things, though, and it isn't going to stop climate change or war or economic problems. There's not enough time or money in the world to do all that needs to be done. But since Election Day, I've felt an outpouring of love and determination from the people around me--both in person and online, where nearly all of my friends and loved ones are back home and already seeing the culture shift towards hate and fear and intolerance. I have to believe that we'll take the necessary steps to help one another, because it's going to get worse before it gets better, and it's going to get harder before it gets easier.

Sunday, November 6, 2016

Day 51: And it rained all day... every day... forever... apparently...

Hi readers! Unlike last week's super-special-awesome giant post full of excitement and activity, this week was... unfortunately not very eventful. It was definitely nice to have a low-key week after all of the hustle and bustle of museums and going to and from Zagreb, but it doesn't make for a really interesting blog post.

On Tuesday I conducted another interview for my research project. This time, I spoke with Zsuzsi Flohr, a Jewish artist from Budapest currently living, working, and studying in Vienna. Her perspective and evaluations of the Jewish communities of Vienna and Budapest were particularly fascinating to me, since they are quite different in both number and nature. Hungary is right next door to Austria, yet the Holocaust doesn't seem to have affected its Jews the way it did Austria's and other European countries. Additionally, Zsuzsi's thoughts and works about the intersections of self-identifying as Jewish and accepting that identity and all that it consists of, both in terms of solidarity and exterior perceptions, is extremely important for the kind of questions I'm looking to answer. I have two more interviews scheduled this coming week--time to get some Roma perspectives for the Roma part of my investigation. Those should be some great conversations, so I'll be writing about them in next week's post.
One of Zsuzsi's projects, which you can read about here.

Wednesday was actually a pretty new experience for me: I went to the movie theater for a 6:30 am showing of Certain Women, a new film by Kelly Reichardt starring Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, and Kristen Stewart. It was the last day of the Vienna Film Festival, and it was extremely surreal being given free pastries to eat during what the theater called a "Frühstücksfilm" (froo-shtooks-film), or "breakfast film." I've reviewed the movie for a site and that should be coming out shortly, but I did really like the movie--it was very quiet and powerful and focused on women's stories, which is quite rare in Hollywood. Still, I would not recommend going to the movies at 6:30 am, because that is too early for me to wake up most mornings, let alone be dressed and presentable for the public...

Thursday was pretty low-key, with only my university course in the evening to really give me a reason to leave the house. Friday was similarly relaxed, although I did spend some time in a really cool coffee shop in Vienna's sixth district called "phil", which has quite a lot of books and records and CDs for sale. I actually brought my own book, A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, and enjoyed some tea while finishing it up. A Little Life was quite good, albeit depressing in a literary sort of way, but it's the sort of book I always want to find more of with female protagonists rather than male ones. I've heard A Little Life compared to Mary McCarthy's The Group, the latter of which was new to me, so I might try to hunt that one down. So that's two books I've read for pleasure since I got to Vienna: Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff, and A Little Life. Fates and Furies was also a good read, but the prose veered on too purely abstract and sensory for me at times when maybe a little more literal description would have sufficed. I'm currently also starting My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, because after all the hullabuloo about these books, I figured I'd at least pick up the first one. If any of you have suggestions for more books with female protagonists and female friendships that maybe aren't entirely tragic all the time, I'd love to hear them!
I'm definitely coming back here, but they really don't seem cool with people just sitting around and not buying things... I guess that's to be expected.

Although people did look at me funny for taking these photos...

Saturday was also not very eventful--until I got a last-minute free ticket to see Twelfth Night at Vienna's English Theater in the eight district. I've read the play, but had never seen it, and I wasn't going to pass up a free ticket to a Shakespeare comedy! Ultimately, the performance was good and competent, but not really creative. It was very one-note emotionally and tonally, which, in a comedy, translates to lots of outbursts, mugging for the audience, and running around chasing one another, but it was just too high-energy all the time and didn't balance that aspect with enough subtle moments. The theater is apparently putting on Rent in the spring, which seems pretty interesting, since I'm not sure if Rent is super popular in Austria--or really, outside of the United States. I'm not the biggest-ever fan of Rent, but if it gets good reviews and the tickets are inexpensive, I might decide to see it.
All the world's a stage, including this stage here.


The ceiling is quite pretty!

Since this post is so short, I'm including more random photos of funny signs and store names I've seen while in Vienna for your viewing pleasure:

But aren't lovely shoes the same as happiness? 

I just thought this slogan was funny.

This sign says: "41st Austrian Dentist Congress," which I was not invited to.

I AM THE ONE WHO KNOCKS or something. I haven't ever seen this show.
(Weiss is the German for "white")

I'm pretty sure it's TJ Maxx back home?

Bonus from the elevator to Zagreb 360... good advice, I guess?

(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.)

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Day 46: I left my [camera's functionality] in Zagreb

Hi readers! Sorry for the delay on this post--but it's a big one, I promise, since so much happened since my last update! I actually think it'll make sense to go day by day for this one, so here we go!
Sitting on a Jenny Holzer piece at the MAK. Yes, I was allowed to! And no, it was not comfortable at all since it was made of aluminum...

Monday, October 24: 

Started off with a morning of teaching at the Graphische, then conducted another interview for my research project: I talked with Dr. Werner Michael Schwarz, a curator at the Wien Museum who worked on the Romane Thana show. The interview was conducted in both German and English--us going back and forth--and it was just great to meet another person so interested in my project and receptive to working with me. We talked for about forty minutes, and he sent me some contact information for more relevant artists as well as the floor plan of what the actual show looked like when it was on display. It was pretty interesting to hear from someone with a history background about how the curators of the show balanced the sociology/political aspect of contemporary Roma life with the historical as well as the artistic in order to reach as many people as possible.

Tuesday, October 25:

More teaching throughout the day--okay, sorry, not quite that interesting yet. Later in the evening I went over to a fellow Fulbrighter's house to relax and drink tea, and also, strangely enough, watch a little Bones and Pretty Little Liars on her television, dubbed into German for my listening pleasure. It's always funny to hear media I at least know a bit about dubbed into a foreign language, because how does the local studio decide what "kind" of German/French/Spanish voice actor fits a certain character? How does that casting work? It's also weirder seeing live-action dubs as opposed to anime dubs, which I'm more used to, because the mouth movements and sounds don't look quite right in live action, whereas in anime you don't have to account so much for cheek motions and lip tension (I would think).

Wednesday, October 26:

It was a day off! Namely, it was Austria Day, when Austria celebrates its formal declaration of neutrality after the Second World War. Naturally, since I didn't have school, I decided to go to a museum. Well, actually, two museums--one in the early afternoon and one a bit later on. The first museum I went to was the MAK, or Museum für angewandte Kunst (moo-say-um fyur ahn-ge-vand-te koonst)--essentially the design, craft, and applied arts museum in the city. In word: incredible. The building is lovely and old, and admission was free on the day I went, which never hurts. Off the main atrium are installations about the following: 1800s Japanese and Chinese design, the interaction of Middle Eastern carpets and European trade, Art Nouveau chair styles, and Baroque furniture. But in the basement of the museum is the MAK Design Lab, which was really the most incredible part--a series of interconnected rooms focusing on different aspects of contemporary and modern design. One room focused on the idea of the kitchen, for example, and discussed feminism and feminist art's interaction with the kitchen as the woman's domain in the household. Some of the other rooms in the lab contained rhetorical questions as food for thought with regards to design and objects--for example, does being consumers make us happy? It was just a great showcase of how the museum is connecting past concepts of design and craft with future questions about what we will need and want as a society, and I don't think my description here does it justice, so if you're in Vienna, the MAK design lab is a must-see. There was also a really spectacular poster show, which made me wish I'd learned more about graphic design, because some of these images were really dynamic, creative, and powerful.
Three of the great posters at the MAK. Such skillful, much talented.
A question for the audience in the MAK Design Lab. I love how they were so focused on soliciting feedback all throughout the lab.

After the MAK I walked through the city to get to the 21erhaus (pronounced ein-und-zwan-zig-er haus), which is the contemporary art venue at the Belvedere Palace, which includes a fair few other museums. I went to go see a show called Both White by Anna Jermolaewa, a Russian artist who works primarily in multimedia installation. My review of that show will be published later, so I won't go into a lot of detail, but the 21erhaus is definitely somewhere to go if you like contemporary art. They also had an Ai Weiwei installation, but he's often hit-or-miss for me, so I didn't see that exhibition. The museum also has a pretty great store, but so does the MAK--none of this boring printed scarves and posters business from most major museums. The MAK had some truly eclectically cool designs of lamps, furniture, jewelry, etc., while the 21erhaus had a ton of great art books and zines. They were more like the MCA Chicago store--which is the best museum store I've ever been in, hands-down, in that they weren't merely souvenir-oriented.
No photos allowed inside, so here's a shot of the outside!

Thursday, October 27:

Thursday was, unfortunately, not quite as exciting as Wednesday. Teaching in the morning, then I hung out in the public library until it was time to head to my university course. The course was on the legend of Billy the Kid, so it was pretty cool to learn the myths behind that famous name. We ended class by watching a few clips from the many, many, many Billy the Kid movies, but as an American, I took silent objection to the visiting professor (and Austrian university students') harsh condemnation of Paul Newman, who was a national treasure and made delicious lemonade and okay-ish Oreo rip-offs.

Friday, October 28:

Fun weekend began in the afternoon--my first international travel while on this grant! Following my morning teaching, I schlepped my backpack and purse from the school to the train station and hopped onto a bus to Zagreb, Croatia, with four other lovely Fulbrighters. We'd decided to do this trip a few weeks prior because this coming week is a school vacation week, so we could spend Saturday and Sunday exploring Zagreb and then come back on Monday.
I really liked the street art I saw on the way from the bus station to where we caught our tram!

The bus ride to Zagreb from Vienna was about six hours--an hour or so slower than anticipated because of traffic. When we got to Zagreb, it was dark outside, and we carefully made our way to the tram stop to get to our hostel. Our hostel deserves its own set of photos, because it's pretty cool--it's called Hostel Mali Mrak, and is basically the most Berkeley living situation to exist outside of Berkeley, California. The people who own it are all young and very hip, and when we arrived they were cooking at the outdoor kitchen in the backyard next to the garage, which had been turned into a lounge. But the inside of the hostel was the best part, because every inch of the walls is painted in cool colors and designs, with funny posters and random photographs hung everywhere. Here are some photos I took of the hostel:
Bathroom replete with comic book pages!
Illusionistic mural in our bedroom...
I just liked the lighting in this shot.
The common room leading to where my friends and I slept--our door is cut off in this shot, all the way on the right.
The backyard--outdoor kitchen on the right, with the garage/lounge in the middle.
Mural of one of the two lovely dogs that lives at the hostel!

It was my second time ever staying in a hostel after the USTA orientation in St. Pölten, so it was cool to compare both experiences. Hostel Mali Mrak was supper hippie-ish and laid back, so it obviously differed from the Catholic hostel we stayed in for that orientation. But it was just such a cool house, and very inexpensive--I think I paid a little over 30 euro for three nights' stay. And since the euro is stronger than the Croatian currency, we were able to eat and shop very well for not that much.

Saturday, October 29:

Jam-packed with sight-seeing! Unfortunately, my excitement was dampened a little by the completely arbitrary move of my camera breaking for no good reason. Hence the title of this post. I'm not really sure what happened, but my camera is pretty old--I've been using it for almost ten years, since it was a Bat Mitzvah gift, so I figure it's had a good life. And now that I have an iPhone, I'm usually pretty good at being able to get decent photos. If worst comes to worst, I live about five minutes walk from what seems to be the "camera shopping district" of Vienna near Westlicht. So hopefully it won't be a problem.

After taking the tram to the heart of the city, we had a delicious breakfast and walked around, using Rick Steves' guidebook for tips on what not to miss. I personally had never even heard of Rick Steves before I got to Vienna, but apparently my roommates and the Fulbrighters I was traveling with really like him. I normally don't like using guidebooks for cities, but in this case he had some great suggestions, since we only had two and a half days to explore the whole of Zagreb! We first went to the oldest tie shop in the world--apparently Croatia is home of the cravat! Each scarf and tie on sale in the shop was super high-quality, and had designs on them with specific Croatian significance--for example, Dalmatian spots, since Dalmatians come from an area that is part of Croatia! I splurged a bit on a silk scarf--now I just need to get myself to more fancy places in order to justify wearing it. But I did resist wearing it out of the store, and got to watch as the shopkeepers wrapped it up in a really elaborate way.
The main square in Zagreb! I love the colors on those buildings.
The door handle to the tie shop was in the shape of a tie. Naturally I needed a photo.

We then took the Zagreb Funicular to the Upper Town, which is the older part of the city. When I saw this little steep tram, I immediately thought of Angel's Flight in downtown Los Angeles. Also I love the word Funicular, which I didn't know was a legitimate word for that trolley/tram, and have always assumed it was some kind of carnival ride. Learning new things every day! When we got to the top, the view was breathtaking and panoramic, and the path along the wall was so picturesque that I got that same feeling of artificiality--that this was, much like Vienna, some kind of Disney installation rather than real life.
Little bit of home in Zagreb!

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_Flight#/media/File:Angels_Flight.jpg)

This kind of view makes me want to sing, but then I remember I'm in public.
See? It just seemed too lovely to be real.

Once in Upper Town, we walked around a bit until we found the Museum of Broken Relationships. I'd heard of this museum before, but honestly thought it would be more kitschy than it turned out to be. Apparently there is also one in Los Angeles, and I dimly remember reading about it opening, but I hadn't visited that one. This museum has a continually rotating and traveling collection of artifacts from failed relationships, either romantic or otherwise (but mainly romantic), along with anecdotes and explanations of their particular significance from the people who donated the object--things as universal as plushies and CDs, but also really personal mementos like letters and drawings. It was quite an emotional rollercoaster, to say the least. The museum also continually solicits visitors and everyone else, really, to donate their old keepsakes with their stories, so if anyone has a gift from a partner where it didn't work out, this museum is rather a better way to dispose of it rather than burning it.
The intro text to the museum's collection.

After the Museum of Broken Relationships and a delicious lunch at a brewery, we split up--I and another Fulbrighter went to the small but entertaining Museum of Illusions (not tricks, Michael!), where we basically played with optical illusions for forty minutes. Ultimately it wasn't really worth the entry fee unless you're with small children, and in hindsight I would have rather gone to an art museum. Once done with the Museum of Illusions, we went back to the hostel for a nap, because I wouldn't be Deborah Krieger if I didn't squeeze in an afternoon nap somewhere.
I just really liked this giant painted egg. I don't know what its significance is.

We went back into the center of the city later in the evening to a really cool bar called Bacchus. It's known for its jazz music, but there weren't any musicians playing that night. The five of us enjoyed some drinks and took in the ambiance of the place, which is such a typical European "hidden treasure" that, despite being kind of underground, isn't really "hidden". As in Vienna, people were smoking quite a bit, and I actually had to go outside in the fresh air for a few minutes after a while because the smoke was getting to me, and there weren't really any windows. That capped off the night for me--it was nearly midnight when we got back to our lovely hostel.
So very classic. 

Sunday, October 30:

More sightseeing! Our first stop was to the botanical garden, where I was reminded that while you can graduate from Swarthmore, you can never leave: all of the plants were, of course, labeled for my learning pleasure. I'm not at all knowledgeable about plants, but they sure were pretty in fall, with lots of colors and suchlike.
This tree also made me miss Swarthmore. But it's not purple like the similar one at school is.
"I've never been to the footbridge with a man in my life!"

After the botanical gardens we went back to the central square and took a ride up to the Zagreb 360 observation deck. There was a slinky coffee and drinks lounge at the top, and after I had my minute-long fill of looking down at the city from way too high, I had some tea and watched the music videos on MTV playing on the large television, feeling old. The last time I had watched music videos on MTV was in 2006, when "I Love My Chick" (the clean version of the song, which I literally just looked up now) by Busta Rhymes and "Bossy" by Kelis were what was playing nonstop. The view of the city was great, but since I don't do heights, I couldn't make myself stay out on the deck for a long time, even though there were very secure-looking bars to prevent me from falling.
The view of the main town square. Yikes!

Next it was time to get a bit morbid and spooooookyyyyyy. The day before Halloween was a perfect time to visit the city's cemetery. I'm not really a cemetery person, but some of the grave decorations and headstones were architecturally intriguing, and the red leaves on the church in contrast with that bright blue sky made for great photos.
Look at that contrast. It was almost too brilliant to take in...

"I see dead people..."

We walked from the cemetery back into the heart of the city, which was a fairly good walk involving way too many stairs. Our next stop was Tolkien's House, a Lord of the Rings-themed bar, naturally. I was a little disappointed that it had no actual connection to Tolkien, because it was otherwise just a bit random to have this kind of place sitting around without, say, being a place where Tolkien lived if he ever lived in Zagreb. But the drinks were tasty!
I know almost nothing about Lord of the Rings, but the decorations were kind of cute.

Monday, October 31:

Saying goodbye to Zagreb! After having delicious Cremeschnitte (krem-shnit-tuh), a custard-y cake eaten throughout central and eastern Europe, we walked around the city one last time, checking out the stalls at the markets and picking up last-minute souvenirs. Yes, we did have cake for breakfast, because adulthood means you can do that and no one is allowed to judge you. It doesn't make up for another less-fun things about being an adult, but eating cake for breakfast is still a nice perk.
Spur-of-the-moment half-hearted Carmen Sandiego costume because I saw this hat and wanted to try it on. Except I forgot that her outfit is red...

We walked through a few more public parks (and had lunch with the slowest waiter ever) before we dragged our bags to the Zagreb bus station for our 3pm bus back to Vienna; I was back in my apartment safe and sound before 9pm.

So that was my week! Very busy and exciting, unlike last week's slower pace. Of course it can't always be like that, but I definitely want to travel more when I get the chance to--maybe go to Budapest or Prague or Berlin... it definitely made me feel confident and independent to be able to just take a bus to another country, stay in a hostel, and then go back two days later. I guess this is what people experience when they backpack through Europe, but for me, it was really different from how I'd traveled abroad before: I'd usually done hotels or house exchanges with my family, so the hostel life was a big step. But now that I know how it all works, I absolutely want to travel again--of course, I'll try to see more art museums in the next place I visit!

Stray thoughts, Zagreb Edition(tm):
  • I've noticed that no matter where I've traveled, all graffiti is basically the same font, even in different languages, including in Zagreb. I don't know why this is, but it just seemed funny, like some Graffiti Council got together and decided on a style guide?
  • Things are actually open on Sundays and after eight pm in Zagreb. Hallejulah! Vienna, take note, because 8pm is still really early to close your grocery stores!
  • Zagreb is much smaller than Vienna--it's almost quaint. But of course the contemporary art museum is way out of the way... next time, Zagreb. Next time.
  • Nearly all of the souvenir shops in Zagreb had lots of unique lacework, which is quite a big tradition in Croatia! I did not know this, but honestly, I didn't know anything about Croatia a month ago...
  • The Zagreb streetcars are so cute and blue! Much cuter than Vienna's trams, which are red, white, and gray, and less cheerful-looking.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trams_in_Zagreb#/media/File:Zagreb_Tram_Dubrava.JPG)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Tramwien_schwedenplatz.jpg)

This week is also a week off from teaching, so I'll probably visit more museums and do some more exploring in Vienna. Of course, I actually need to start making serious lesson plans for my classes, since this past month has been me introducing myself to all the students in the school. I'm planning on teaching them about accents in different regions of the United States, the film industry in Hollywood, and, of course, once the election happens there will be plenty of fodder for lessons. Until next time!

(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.)