The Little Fascinations Part 1

 

Today marks a full week here in Vienna, which might have encompassed in a no particular order a trip to Schönbrunn Palace, the most beautiful lake trip, my birthday, an outdoor concert of Falco, tram tour of the city, a few nights in the beautiful town of Mariazell, experiencing an organist play in tribute to Leonard Bernstein during a mass and more. However exciting this sounds, sometimes these types of things do not completely fascinate me.

I am living in a new country and attempting with every fiber of my body to assimilate and learn a new language. This of course brings all sorts of struggle just saying the most basic things such as “can you take a picture of us”, “can I borrow this chair” or “do I pay now or pay later”. On top of this and what is not taught in German classes is the Austrian dialect that includes slightly different phrases or different words like Tomato is “Paradeiser” instead of “Tomato”. This is intellectually exciting but again does not completely fascinate me.

What fascinates me the most are the little things noticed through observation and experience. Demeanors and manners are different than back home; I noticed that we (Americans in general) are much louder than Austrians, Austrians are pushy in lines so we must push our way through lines, and we must avoid smiling as much as “normal” to avoid mixed messages. There are also small things that are different and fascinating such as doors not lining up with their door frame when closed, windows looking and functioning almost identically in shape throughout Europe, screens not existing, as well as the practical flashing green before a light turns green. Even today walking in the park, the grass areas were filled to brim with families, couples and friends playing and enjoying the day without any rush, just living the Viennese way. These are the type of things, however small, that I find most fascinating. Although the pictures cannot capture these things, these words will have to suffice.

Schönbrunn Palace Yard
Tram Tour Stop
Falco Concert at the Rathausplatz
Another Schönbrunn Picture

Crunch Time

Beads of sweat dripping down my cheek, I worked endlessly towards packing, throwing clothes from the closet to the bed, bed to suitcase, jamming papers into folders, filling all possible 23 kg (because I must switch conversion systems), all while dehydration sets in. This is all just a day before I set off for the big adventure. Why delay and pack just a day before with all dat sweat?

I’m spontaneous and crazy like most college students…okay that was my first reaction as well. The real answer comes from a bit of wisdom (spell-checking this word as I type) called the Parkinson’s law, introduced to me by podcaster and Angel investor Tim Ferriss in his book Four-Hour Work Week. To summarize the law, it states that activities and will take up the amount of time you give them. For example, if you give yourself an hour to eat dinner, you will finish in an hour; however, if you give yourself twenty minutes to eat the same amount of food, then you will eat it in twenty minutes. Sounds simple, but is it really this easy? Of course, this is all just a theory and is not practical for everything. Finishing a delicious and filling meal in twenty minutes would leave much to be desired. However, for certain things this might be advantageous, whether it be folding clothes, trying to finish emails or that simple college paper. Even if the initial goal of finishing all your emails in fifteen minutes instead of thirty minutes is not reached by going five minutes over, finishing the emails in twenty minutes is still better than thirty minutes. Sounds simple BUT give it a try.

In terms of packing for the adventure, the time I allowed to pack the bags was full of hectic packing, clothes flying all over. The trade-off of course is the stress involved and the chance of missing something. As I sit here in the airport before my flight, I realized that I did forget my neck pillow which will of course make a twelve-hour flight from Los Angeles to the destination a bit uncomfortable. I do know it’s my fault for speeding through the packing to save a few hours or a day, but in my mind  this was worth more than a neck pillow and slightly less uncomfortable flight. Update: Nothing else is missing so far, but we will see what else might be missing when winter comes…

Oh, and that big adventure and arrival point I’ve blatantly ignored so far? Well that is a semester studying abroad in the magical city of Vienna, Austria. Specifically, I’ll be studying piano performance through the IES study abroad program partnered with my home university-Indiana University. Follow me the next four months as I go on this adventure and share random or somewhat well more structured thoughts and experiences-Bis Bald!