Classes

So today was the second day of class, and I've already come to the decision that it is going to be a looong month of work. The classes themselves are pretty enjoyable (assuming I get enough sleep the night before). My German class includes me and another student from our group, 2 students from U of Washington, a Polish student, several Chinese/Taiwanese students, a student from Serbia, and someone from Mexico, making 13 in total. Our teacher takes enthusiasm for teaching to an entirely new level, as it seems that she is always laughing about something. I think that's good though, since I would otherwise find it difficult to make it through 3 hours of German. She certainly gives a lot of homework though. Yesterday we had 5 reasonable exercises to do, but today we have to write a letter (to a prompt) and do 3 pages of work.

In "Arts in Vienna: 1900," we've had 2 lectures going briefly over the political history of Vienna, especially between about 1500 and 1918. I had never really understood the political climate of this region, but it's really quite interesting! It seems that in the years leading up to WWI, all the nationalities in the Austro-Hungarian Empire seemed to love 60-year emperor Franz Josef, but rather dispise everything else. Hitler - who hated Vienna (or was bitter about not being accepted to art school) - loved Vienna as the capital of an empire, but hated the fact that Franz Josef and the empire were so multiethnic. In fact, he apparently tried to make WWII Berlin somewhat of a replica of Vienna, but even admitted that he would never be able to match what Vienna had. Confused yet? I don't blame you. Anyway, this class should live up to its expectations! Tomorrow's lecture: Architecture and the Ringstrasse.

Tonight, if the weather clears up (and I get enough work done), I plan to go to the Schonbrunn Palace, the summer residence of Emperor Franz Josef, for a classical music concert. I'll report back on that next time I post.

PS Eurocup2008 fever is in the air! They shut down a portion of the Ringstrasse yesterday for the fan zone and construction crews are working feverishly to build stages, press boxes, jumbotrons..the whole bit! Did I mention one of the fan zones is on the President's lawn??