mmm... lecker (delicious)!

Five minutes ago, I really didn't feel like blogging so I decided to go to the chocolate shop next door... After biting into some cherry-brandy-cream-and-marzipan-filled organic, fair trade dark chocolate, I now feel entirely inspired to write about my experience with food in Wien.


But before I go on, yesterday I was at the train station buying a ticket from here to Bari (where I will take a train to the small village of Gravina in Puglia, the home base for my archeology course) and just because it worked out nicely, I decided to include a stopover in Venedig.
Venedig? For any non-German speakers or trivia addicts, that's the German name for Venice, or Venezia as they call it there. Now maybe you could have guessed that, but would you guess that Cologne is actually Köln (with the "ö" pronounced like the "oe" in Schoenberg or the "eu" in adieu) or that Florence is actually Firenze? And there are so many more examples! Therefore, for anyone who would one day like to visit one (or more) of the places I'm writing about and not come off as a completely ignorant North American tourist - and because I feel like I'm in Wien, Österreich, not Vienna, Austria -, from now on, when a foreign name comes up, I will only give the anglicised version the first time, and stick to the original thereafter.


Food is not only one of the more noticeable differences between cultures, but it also one of the most enjoyable aspects to experience and to talk (or blog) about. Having lived one year in Mount Allison's "Sustainable Residence" I'm going to have to take it right from the start.

In the beginning...
Although, I haven't visited any farms around here, it's easy to see that there's a real affinity for organics. Every couple of days, Biggi's aunt receives a basket of various organic vegetables through some type of co-op. One can also get fruit and add restrictions to the distance your produce comes from: within Wien, Österreich, all of Europe, etc. There's also a wide selection of local and organic foods in the grocery stores with a special label (like those we use for items on sale in Canada) for items from withing the country. Moreover, there are many small shops that only sell local produce. Of course, there are also bakeries all over, and gourmet ice cream and sweet shops scattered across the city...

"We owe much to the fruitful meditation of our sages, but a sane view of life is, after all, elaborated mainly in the kitchen." Joseph Conrad
Although the following description may not be typical of a larger household, I do get the impression that it is normal for one of less than 4 people.
In the kitchen here, everything is so compact; not a square inch of space is left unused. In the first picture, you see the distance between the sink on the right and the counter on the left is equal to my waist plus one fist - obviously not build for North Americans. The washing machine (not dishwasher, because there is none), is found under the counter, in the corner, and is connected directly to the sink. The curtain on the right hand side of the first photo is the same curtain as the one on the left of the second picture: the shower curtain. Luckily, only 2 hot meals have been prepared in the house over the last 10 days, so if someone is in the kitchen when you want to shower, the can usually migrate to another room. In the 3rd photo, you see that on the wall opposite the window (in the first picture) there is a bench against the wall (that also serves as a storage chest) and a table, the dinner table, that pulls out of the counter. You can also see a cutting board that also pulls out of the counter for a little extra space, when it's needed. Finally, there's the little fridge under the counter (beside the stove) - no freezer or microwave.


You do WHAT at COSTCO?!?!
With such limited space, especially refrigerated space, bulk shopping just couldn't work here. To supplement the vegetables that get delivered, every couple of days we pick up some milk, juice, bread, and any other little things that may be needed from a grocery store or a little shop (e.g. a bakery for the bread). No freezer obviously means no frozen foods, and in this household, meat is somewhat of a rarity that we might have once a week.

Among students, maybe adults too, picking up a sandwich or stopping at a Lokal for lunch seems more popular that packing one or going home to eat. And with some many great places to eat, why not! Some of the more interesting places where I've stopped for lunch include a Georgian restaurant (the initial interest came from the shameful fact that I had never heard of Georgia, the country, but with the arrival of our food, the interest was more than sustained) and a seafood restaurant where I had something like bruchetta with caviar.

The Italian restaurant we went to was also notable, not particularly for its scrumptious food, but because I could actually understand most of the menu (which was in Italian with German translations)! Names of foods here seems to be quite dialectic so even with Biggi along (who has been here since October and has eaten out more than a couple of times), it's often quite difficult to decipher the menus and I usually end up ordering an item based on a pretty limited understanding (e.g. "some kind of bread with tomato, something, some kind of sheep cheese, something, and some kind of sauce")

Guten Appetit!
As I mentioned, we don't have too many hot meals at home: breakfast usually consists of cereal with fresh fruit and the rest of the day is mostly snacking on different types of bread, crackers, rice cakes, etc. with spreads, cheese, and/or vegetables, and occasionally a salad. One morning, when I offered to make dinner, I gained a little insight into the reasons behind this different way of eating. I was told that it was a bad day to make something first because it was too hot to have a big meal, and second because there was already food that should be eaten before it went bad (i.e. lettuce, tomatoes, bread). Another factor I imagine comes into play is energy conservation: naturally, heating food (in the absence of a microwave) requires a lot of energy, so if one can avoid it, all the better!

And this concludes my attempt to describe something that is really not meant to be described in words. Time for another trip to the chocolate shop!

Nature

So I say to myself, Nico, you really should do this blog thing; not only can people find out what you're up to, but you also get a personal record of your trip. It was a hard decision - take a few hours out of each each week to blog, or... go have fun in Vienna and tell people about it when you see them - but you know, I thought this would be the right thing to do. And what do you think I get in return? An inbox full of messages asking for photos! Come on folks, I'm doin' my darndest here! But, as any 5-year-old will tell you: nag and you shall have. So once my battery is done recharging, I'll figure out some fancy way (i.e. suitable for non-Facebookers - in case they sill exist) to let you see my photos.

Now, back to business. In response to your lovely (non-photo-related) request for my reaction to nature here, Marina, I have found you an aerial photo and a link to some video footage of Vienna.

The photo (compliments of airshoots.com) is only of the city; if I'm not mistaken, beyond the bottom and left edges, there are some beautiful field- and forest-covered mountains (47% of Austria is covered in forests - the famous "Vienna Woods"), and beyond the top and right edges, there are some plains covered in by farmers fields, scattered with small Dörfer (villages) and windmills. The river seen is the picture is the "schönen blauen Donau" (beautiful, blue Danube).

Now really, need I say anything more? Vienna is a wonderfully green city and although much of the greenery is urban or preserved/restored imperial grounds (with exquisite flower beds, mazes, and Ann of Green Gables-style tunnels made of massive trees which lead to little statues, fountains, clearings, and gardens), the foot of the mountains (with some pretty fine hiking, apparently) is just a couple of minutes away on the subway. So even in comparison to rural Sackville, I find Wien has a lot of natural beauty to offer, and it is so beautifully complimented by the city's architecture. To give you an example, the picture to the left is... the city's garbage incinerator! Beautiful! And so much potential for Sudbury...

As for the weather, it's been between 25C and 35C the whole week with only a little rain. I could complain about the heat, but really, it would just be to complain. From a geographic perspective (this sentence is dedicated to Dr. Fox), I find Wien does a good job of measuring up to Canada's natural beauty. Oh, and how could I forget: I haven't got one mosquito or blackfly bite here!

Wieners and Frankfurters

A small digression from my regular chronicles:
Much has been said about wieners and frankfurters, and I feel that it my duty to take a moment to ensure all members of my captive audience understand the true meaning of the two words.
Not unlike some Canadian instances, in German, "-er" is added to place names to designate the people who live there, e.g. Maritimer, Islander, Caper (can you guess where I've been studying?), Deutscher, Kanadier, Wiener, Frankfurter. For city names, this same form is used as an adjective, e.g. Wiener Lieder (Viennese songs).

As any omnivorous person will tell you, all sausages are not equal. In this corner of Europe, people were so aware of this and sausages were so important that different types were attributed to different regions and the adjective for that place could be used alone with the "Wurst" (sausage) understood. Thus the Wiener (Viennese sausage) and Frankfurter (Frankfurter sausage) - and these designations were not used lightly; many a feud began over a Frankfurter claiming to sell Wiener Wurst or vice versa.

But the story does not end there: every good European thing must be bastardised by North American culture. Now although there is some regional variation in the usage of these two words across Europe (and several additional words are used to describe the plethora of sausages that exist) , they are not used perversely or interchangeably, simply to designate "a" sausage; the whole point of the adjectival city names was to distinguish between types of sausages! Never could one simply order "a" sausage here! You need to specify what kind of sausage. Oh but in gourmet North America culture, a sausage is a weenie is a hot dog is a frank... Why?! Why! For the love of God won't somebody please tell me why!

Wien! (Vienna in German)

In Vienna, I really hit the ground running. Since Biggi (the friend with whom I am staying here) had classes when I arrived into Vienna, he sent his friend Andrés to come and meet me and take me into town on the train. Andrés, like Biggi, is and international student studying and the university here. He's from Colombia, so we started of speaking English and Spanish, but then moved on to German. When we got to the park near the university, where Biggi was to meet us, we bought a couple of beers and drank them there. It felt so weird to be drinking in a public park!

When Biggi arrived, no time was wasted; we took the public transit (subways, buses, and street cars) to his aunt's apartment (where he's been living since October), dropped off my things, and headed out to a "Lokal" (which my German-English dictionary tells me is a: bar, restaurant, pub, inn, meeting place) for a birthday party. It was a great setting to find out that I had enough German to attempt to express myself here except, again, for the smoking. You really can't appreciate anti-smoking laws until you've experience living without them!

The next morning, not too long after we got to bed, I had a meeting with a refugee-serving organisation in Vienna to learn a little about the situation here and the work they're doing. It was so wonderful to hear how differently things are done here. For example, this organisation provided housing for some 150 clients for the duration of their application for asylum (usually a few years) and had every kind of service (from language training to daycare service to counseling) all in that same building.

Naturally, refugee issues isn't the only way in which things are different here. Environmentally, of course, they are sooooo far ahead here. Some of the more interesting ways I found were:
- the "City Bike" system, whereby one can go to any main intersection, swipe one's credit card in a machine to unlock a bike, ride it to another station and drop it off. After less than an hour, it's free; 2 hours, 1 Euro; etc. If you don't return the bike, 600 Euros.
*1 Euro is about $1.50
- one can buy all of one's electricity from a private, green energy company!

Aside from the environment, I've also noticed a lot more trust here:
- instead of those boxes we have in Canada that one puts money into to open and get a newspaper, they simply leave them in bags with a money box above them
- throughout the whole public transit system, one can get on and off without anywhere without having to buy a ticket. Perhaps once a month, one might come across someone checking to see who has tickets and fining those who don't, but if you're a foreigner, for example, it's pretty easy to have the fine reduced to a couple of Euros since it only says in German that you need a ticket and because people often have passes, it looks like one can simply ride for free.
- in taxis, one can sit in front, beside the driver, and there aren't any "if you see this light flashing, call the police" type of security measures.

Also, how could I leave out the lengthy discussions I've had with Biggi over free (or nearly free) university in Europe? It was neat to first have discussed the pros and cons in a theoretical way and then, after attending a lecture, to discuss the actual differences between here and Canada. I definitely found that people were a lot more blasé about things here. The lecture, as usual, started 10 minutes late and people wandered in (not particularly discretely) for a half hour after that. There were no front row keeners and everyone looked pretty uninterested: a bit of chatting, laughing, crackling of candy wrappers, and people walking out throughout the lecture.

Truly, things here are simply different, not better or worse. But is it ever engaging to try to come to some conclusion about the best way to do things!

Up, Up, and Away!

Due to some exceptional planning on my part, I had a few errands to do in Toronto the day of my departure: pick up my passport, fax a copy home, get some shoes, pick up some medication, get some toothpaste, etc. Somehow, everything got done and I had enough time to go back to my Aunt Joy's house, where I was staying with my grandparents, to have a nap, to iron my white linen shirt, and to pick up a couple of roti on the way to the airport.

The 7-hour flight to London, Gatwick wasn't too bad; I managed to sleep a little, do some reading, and enjoy a complimentary hot vegetarian dinner around 1 am. I am so glad my connecting flight to Vienna was from Heathrow (about 1 hour away from Gatwick) since the shuttle service between the airports allowed me to catch a quick glimpse of the countryside and to meet a funny British bus driver. A few things I noticed during the ride that gave me my first burst of "we're not in Kansas anymore" type of excitement:
- the "truckers" we passed weren't at all like stereotypical Canadian ones: there were a lot of well-to-do looking young guys, one middle-aged man had his dashboard covered with teddy bears, one had dream-catchers dangling all over...
- during the entire drive, beautiful sheep-covered hills and old stone bridges lined the highway.

In Heathrow, I was disappointed to find that people could smoke in the restaurants, but the cheap internet service made up for it. There, I also confirmed my suspicion that well-pressed khakis and a linen dress shirt would be an asset to smooth travels. When I went to get my boarding pass to Vienna, I was told I couldn't have a one way ticket unless I could prove I had the financial ability to return home (even though I had a return ticked from Dusseldorf to Toronto booked). I gave the attendant that look that says: "Are you for real? Do you actually doubt this classy fellow doesn't have a mere $1000 in his bank account?" and everything was OK. In line, being surrounded by people speaking in so many languages with so many accents gave my excitement level another little boost.

A couple more hours of flying, and I was descending into Vienna. The view was magnificent: fields all over, sprinkled with windmills and lovely little villages here and there; winding rivers; some mountains, absolutely covered with dense forest; and the old, urban-sprawl-free city of Vienna. Before even arriving in the city, I realised I had grossly underestimated how different the perspectives here would be from North American ones.

Europe: How It All Happened

Before I begin to tell you of my adventures in Europe, there's a bit of background information I think you should know. It all begins at the end of 2003, while I was still a teenager in high school. I was finishing up my first semester of grade 11 and getting ready to spend the second one in Costa Rica on an exchange. Fed up with Canadian, North American culture, I saw the trip as an opportunity to scout things out before making a final decision to settle there (and perhaps open a restaurant on the beach, with a grand piano and only a few tables so that I could go out and play when I wasn't too busy cooking)...

Well, it was a wonderful trip, and I'm still quite attached to Latin American culture, however, after that, I was convinced I couldn't settle anywhere outside Canada. Because of the way that trip seemed to lead me straight back home - and also because of some of my experiences - I had got my fill of seeing the world and wasn't very interested in travelling again anytime in the near future; I was happy simply to focus on enjoying Canada and discover and build new communities there.

The next community I got to know was in the small town of Sackville, New Brunswick at it's university: Mount Allison. At the time, I may have been sure of wanting to live in Canada, but I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to study. Shortly before arriving, I figured out ecclectic mix of course for my first term, but I still had one spot to fill. Being somewhat of a linguaphile and knowing I would inevitably end up in Europe one day, I thought German would be a nice choice (the professor's amazing reputation probably didn't hurt either). To make it worthwhile, I thought I should at least do a minor in it.

Next in this chain of events, was my application for the Killam Fellowship, a scholarship that allows Canadian students to study in the US and vice versa. Not knowing the level of the German that I could be faced with in the US and unsatisfied with my abilities, I jumped at the opportunity to take and archaeology field course in Italy for the whole month of July. The connection, you ask? Well, if was going to be in Italy anyway, it would be easy to take a little time to visit some friends in Ausria and Germany and practice my German.

And that's it. I got into the archaeology course and made plans to visit my Icelandic friend, Biggi, (whom I met in Costa Rica but is now studying German in Vienna) during the last to weeks of June; Petra, an au pair I had when I was 3, and her family (who are now great friends of my family) during the first week of August; and my German friend, Marina, (who was on an exchange at Mount Allison last year and helped me with my German) during the second week of August.

Actually, I take it back; that's not quite the end. I forgot to say that I also did get a Killam Fellowship. Now you're probably thinking: "Gosh, Nico wasn't doing to bad for a first blog entry. Why did he have to go along and spoil it with this shameless boasting." But just hold your horses one minute and let me explain.

Seeing as I had 2 weeks in planned for the end of August and I was also off to Washington, DC on the 16th, that left me with a mere 2 days at home between the two trips. In case anyone out there wasn't aware, it sure isn't easy to cross the Canada-US boarder these days, so not only did I need to pack, get health insurance, do paperwork, etc. for both trips before I left for Europe, but I also had to get immunisation records, "prove" I could financially support myself in the US... and prepare for the dreaded interview for my American visa (which, my host university, "American University", kindly reminded me the visa officer could deny me without giving me a reason).

All that to say, my pre-departure stress level was pretty high and my excitement level was verging on nill.
But that only made my post-arrival state of amazement that much more unexpected and complete...

The Connection

Another new insight I had into the project this year, was the closeness that I felt between us, the actors, and students in our audiences. Much more than last year, I was very aware of this unusually strong connection during our shows. This is likely in part because of the more familiar themes and characters of this year's production, and also in part because I was more attune to this engagement. During our post-show discussion, many of the questions focused on acting: How does one balance academics and acting? How did you get involved? Is there an audition process? What is your previous acting experience? What would you recommend to someone in my position thinking about acting? At first, I found the prevalence of these questions somewhat disappointing since I had hoped for more discussions about the themes; however, with time I realised that these questions were in fact a great sign of our success in achieving one of our objectives, and the best segue into accomplishing the second. If students were asking this type of questions, surely we managed to connect with them on a level intimate enough for them to see themselves in our place: we were showing them that they could be involved in this type of project, and, with certain cast members as evidence, I daresay inspiring them to do so. What could be a better way to promote theatre in education? Then, since every actor had a slightly different answer to their questions, we were subtly, but effectively, promoting the acceptance of diversity. Man we're good!