“Wien ist anders.”

I am so lucky that I can look out my classroom window and see the Staatsoper right across the street!

This day's first class was mostly an orientation, both of the city and of ourselves. One of the fellows who works at the building - the Institute of Austro-American Studies - told us that just as New York is "the Big Apple" and Chicago is "the Windy City," Vienna ist anders: is different. This was used by him to explain why there is no U5 U-bahn line, despite there being five lines including a U6!

Lunch was spent in a restaurant a short walk away with many members of the program and Prof. Stuart included. It was nice to have her guidance and translation abilities for this first outing. I had my first Austrian meal - bratwurst, with sauerkraut and potatoes! The potatoes actually took me a bit of time to recognize as such, I haven’t seen them cooked this way in the states before.

The afternoon saw me taking my first ride on the streetcar, or S-bahn (I think). It was the 49 line, and it snaked past where our apartments were over to the western end of Vienna. I don’t know if I’ll be riding in it much often, considering how hot and humid it was inside! Maybe if the weather is cooler, I’ll consider it.

I did end up seeing something that caught my attention while riding the streetcar. It was a certain billboard. There are a lot of billboards and advertisements here in Vienna (and some of them would make a lot of Americans cry out about public indecency!) but this one seemed to have a political message. I can only say that from looking at the three initials in the corner: FPÖ – the far-right Austrian political party, and more or less the heir to the positions that the Nazis played. I was a little disconcerted by this blatant self-promotion of the far-right party, especially since I have not (yet) seen any posters from the two main parties, which are both far more moderate. I will have to see if I can figure out what the message means in German, though I cannot quite remember what it said anyways.

There is one more thing worth mentioning today, and that is that Austrian grocery stores 1) require you to pay a €1 deposit to use a shopping cart, and you can’t use one if you don’t have that exact coin, and 2) charge you for all the plastic bags you use! Hence, it’s much more economical to stuff all your food into your own bags, though I will be sure to bring more than my own backpack next time. I suppose the reason why they do this is to encourage less consumption of plastic. I like that idea, and I’m all for such environmental policies, but I still don’t understand the shopping carts.


The German word of the day is "verdienen," meaning "to earn."