Meeting Machiavelli

First - very sad news about my camera. After 4 very loyal years of service, my camera has passed. The camera repair company said the main board is dead, and needs to be replaced, which would cost more than buying a new-used one. So, it was with a heavy heart that I had to pull the plug. I bought a new-used 40D on Amazon.at (with only 4500 shots) and am now waiting on it. Funeral services will be pending for my former camera upon my return to the states. The best part too - my back up camera broke yesterday too! YAY! I have pissed off the camera gods.

Also - the delay in updating is due to an unexpected study of the Austrian Health Care system.

Anyway - I decided I needed to get away this weekend. When looking at my schedule, there are only a few weekends in which we really get a chance to escape and see things. So, I ended up at the train station, still uncertain where I wanted to go. The next thing I knew, I had a ticket to Florence, Italy! Birthplace of the Renaissance!

Worth springing for the bed!

I took an overnight train to Venice, then a high-speed train to Florence, and arrived around noon the next day. I went ahead and just booked with the local Hosteling International affiliate, since I only paid for 30 minutes at the internet cafe, and didn't have time to read up on other Hostel options, and HI has always been reliable in the past.

I really had mixed feelings on the place. On one hand it was quite possibly the most beautiful hostel I have ever seen in my life. It is a converted 15th century vineyard, and it is also a camp ground. It was gorgeous! On the other hand it was a bit away from the city center. Overall, it was worth the price I paid. I do recommend it, though probably more so if you have a few days in Florence.

Florence was absolutely beautiful! A smaller city than I expected, but not a small town in any sense of the word. It was so easy to just wander up and down the streets, and just admire. Brunelleschi's cathedral dome peeks out from the most random places. I really thought it would *dominate* the landscape, instead it just fits right in, and it's quite the sight when you turn a corner and see the big red roof again.

I came close to calling the program director to tell her I was dropping out and moving to Florence. The city was overwhelming with art and music. Plus, just the knowledge that the Renaissance began in these very streets, was exciting for me. I am somewhat of a fan of the Medici family history (by the way there is a really good documentary about this family available streaming on Netflix!) so it was really great to see the products of their patrons.

I went to Florence with no guidebook, or any idea what I wanted to do (other than *be* in Florence) so it was fun to fall into things. I walked down this corridor, and there were statues of famous Florentines, Cosimo Pater Patriae de'Medici, Lorenzo, il Magnifico, de'Medici, Donatello, Galileo Galilei, Amerigo Vespuci, it was really cool (and almost like a live pop-quiz! How much could I remember??) and then, I saw it, I came, face-to-face, with  the author of, quite possibly, my favorite work in the field of Political Science, and probably the most controversial

And I fan-girled! Called my best friend, who is about the only person on the planet who would understand my geek-out moment. He promptly informed me that I should buy a copy of Il Principe and take a photo with me holding it next to him.

Done! It's great to have geeky friends!

The first gelato I ever had was in Portugal, but the best gelato I ever had was in Florence. It was heavenly. The first one I had was a fruit flavor, and it was made with fresh fruit, and was - simply an experience.

I ate pizza, for pretty much every meal except breakfast, and had some of the most amazing wine.

Talking with a woman in a shop she was telling me that I should go to Pisa, since it is not far at all.

So my timeline was this:
Friday night - leave Vienna
Saturday 8am - arrive Venice
Saturday 12pm - arrive Florence
Sunday 9am - leave Florence
Sunday 10am - arrive Pisa
Sunday 1pm - leave Pisa
Sunday 2pm - arrive Florence
Sunday 7pm - leave Florence
Sunday 9pm - arrive Venice
Sunday 10pm** - leave Venice
Monday 8am - arrive Vienna

**yea, except the train was delayed by an hour!

The only thing I really wanted to see in Pisa was the tower (duh), but I think I could have wasted a whole day in that town just exploring. I am not certain I could have done much more than a day (again, no guidebook with me to tell me what I missed!). But, since there was still so much in Florence I wanted to see, I only spent a few hours seeing the tower and wandering the city before heading back. I chose not to go inside, the wait was about 2-3 hours, and it really did look like it would fall over, which made me uneasy.

The Duomo had been closed on Saturday, so I went to see it Sunday. The line was so long, but moved very efficiently. It was incredible to see. The dome really is a masterpiece, an ingenious feat of engineering.

Overall, Florence was amazing, and I really want to go back and spend some real time there. I met a number of people that went to Florence to study, and ended up staying. It truly is an inspiring city!

You can see all of my Florence and Pisa pictures HERE and HERE

Upon getting back to Vienna, I was in a lot of pain and not certain why. I had a test on Tuesday that I was trying to study for, but it hurt to sit, to stand, walk, even lie down. I emailed my professor explaining that I was going to sit through the test and leave early and I asked the Student Services coordinator to make an appointment for me on Wednesday morning. Tuesday afternoon, I couldn't bear the pain anymore. I called my professor crying asking if I could please have a make-up exam.

The doctor ended up being right next door. This is where I got a new appreciation for the language barrier. The receptionist did not speak a word of English, I am in a lot of pain, and trying to explain it to her using gestures and pointing, because I do not speak a word of German (okay, that's not entirely true, I can now count to 10, tell you my name, where I am from, and that I do no speak German!). The Student Services coordinator translated via phone for me. I don't entirely know what she told her, but I ended up getting put to the front of the line.

The doctor spoke English. She took one look at what was causing me pain and said "You need to go to the hospital for surgery". I got handed a sheet of paper to give to the hospital and bus directions and sent on my way. All I know is, whatever is causing me pain, needs to be removed. I do not know what kind of surgery this is going to be, and frankly, I am none too excited about the idea of someone taking a knife to me at all.

The Globals coordinator met me at the hospital to translate, which I was so grateful for. While I waited for her, I was trying to be as brave as possible. I was in pain, I was sitting in a hospital after being told I needed surgery, and there were signs everywhere I couldn't read, people were speaking to each other very rapidly in a language I couldn't understand, to top it off, I didn't even know the 'process'. Who was I supposed to give this paper to? What building/floor/wing was I supposed to be in?

The place someone had told me to go was fairly empty and no one in the waiting room spoke English. So I just sat in a corner and waited...


...and waited...

....waited some more. I saw no one in a "hospital uniform". Finally, someone came in and rang a bell (which I had no idea about) and a nurse came out. Okay, so, I figured out how to get the nurse! I handed a nurse the paper, and she started asking me questions. Finally, I figured out that she needed my passport (luckily I had it!), then she wandered away with it and I didn't see her again for another 10 minutes or so.


I had always thought about the people who move to the United States, if they get hurt or sick, and have to seek medical care, I always wondered how scary it might be to not be able to explain, or understand, what is happening to you, to be trying to understand something that is hard enough to understand in your native language (I don't speak doctor), and then have this huge language barrier. Now that I have personally experienced it, I am quite surprised that I didn't break down (first and foremost because I am the world's biggest baby when I am hurt or sick). I don't think I ever felt more like 'an outsider' than I did in the hospital waiting room.


The Globals coordinator arrived around the time that the nurse called me back. The two of them spoke German back and forth and next thing I knew I was on the table and the doctor was explaining the procedure.

The doctor was wonderful, he explained everything very clearly to me, told me what he was going to do, when he was going to do it. The nurses were very kind too, rubbed my shoulders when I was crying or screaming.

All in all, local anesthetics, and some pain pills, two doctors offices, and 3 1/2 hours after walking into the first doctor's office I was back in my apartment. It was the most efficient process I've ever experienced with any sort of medical system.

I have been having to go back to the hospital daily to have my bandages changed. After today's visit they had the bill for me. 335euros! 335! Incredible! My daily visits for bandages were 6 euros each! I had anesthetics, which in the US alone would have been a couple hundred dollars, doctors consultations, and 'surgery' and it was only 335euros! Which my health insurance that Webster provides us will reimburse me.

My daily hospital visits too are incredible. I get in at 8am, the first visit I was back home at 10 (stopped at grocery store), the next one only took 40 minutes. I go to the doctors office in the US and don't get in and out that fast.

I don't know how someone is ever going to argue that the US has the best system for Health Care to me ever again. Not after what I experienced here.

Anyway, I am feeling much better now. I am going to take a trip to Prague, Czech Republic this weekend. It is our last weekend that we have a chance to get away before midterms, papers, and finals. Then it will be off to the next destination!

And some IR Humor for the day

Something to lighten the mood - I am a big fan of the fyeaMAJOR tumblrs. Of course, mostly I am a fan of IR Major Thucydides and Political Science Panda but you can find your own major too I am sure. 

Tag line for IR Major Thucydides is WIN: To maintain the balance of power with all of the other majors, we had to make a meme too.

Vienna, Week One

So, I am going to try to make Sunday my updating days (that will last until what do you think - midterm?) but it will be my valiant effort!

I already talked about my journey from post-Spain, until I arrived in Vienna, which was exciting, to say the least! If you go to the MAPS section of my blog, there are now two maps of my journey. The first was a projection, which has been posted here for sometime now. The second is updated, real information, from graduation day (May 12, 2012) until my arrival in Vienna last Saturday.

But here it is:



My original projection, for the entire year was 46,619.6 kilometers to travel. This new map, for three months of travelling, I have already covered 42007.9 kilometers! That's a lot of planet covered and still a lot to go!

Anyway, we arrived in Vienna Saturday night. A group of us had booked together, we all met the driver at the airport and he drove us to the apartments we would be calling home for the next 8 weeks. I am living in Vienna's 10th district, Favoriten (we later were told that we are in the 'ghetto' though it is the absolute nicest ghetto I've ever seen!). The apartments are very, very spacious, big for even American standards - something I had not expected at all. After a month in Spain I was growing used to the tight quarters that are common in Europe.

Living room of my apartment

My roommate missed orientation, but she arrived early Sunday morning and we got to know each other, then I took her to meet the rest of the cohorts. We had all been getting to know each other a lot since Wednesday and all seem to have clicked very quickly. Everyone was curious about the missing girl from our cohort so they were all excited to meet her.

On Sundays everything is closed, but we took some time to take a walk around the neighborhood and see what we could find. There is a bar across the street from us Mabel's No90. So far, that has quickly become our hangout spot.

Di (my roommate), Rach, and Sam at Mabel's

Monday morning, first thing, we all went to the grocery store. We arrived Saturday after the store was closed, and it wasn't open on Sunday, so we were all ready to ditch the bar food and get some food in our (very small) fridges. Then we all locked ourselves in our rooms and studied for class that was to begin the following day. 100 pages of International Law on the computer screen (we had yet to receive our textbooks) was most definitely the highlight of our entire journey!

Tuesday, the Globals coordinator, Guergana "G" picked us up to walk us to campus. We are quite a distance from campus, about an hour (but we are only about 30 minutes from the city center).

We had orientation just for the Globals about an hour before the orientation for all the graduate students. Between the two orientations we went to the bookstore to pick up our books. The program fee covers our books, but they had run out of some of our books, so as of now, I am still short 1 book, some girls are short 2. It was nice to get a chance to mingle with some of the other graduate students. Webster University really is a global university. As we went around the room, people were introducing themselves from Russia, Ukraine, Egypt, Turkey, etc. One really good-looking guy stood up and said he was from Serbia. Of COURSE he was! Seriously - what is in the water there!?

Our first class was International Law (Tuesdays 6-10pm). Our instructor is Polish and works for the United Nations so she spends half her time in New York City and half her time in Vienna (teaching in both cities). She works in Human Rights issues and is very interesting, she is also very detail orientated and likes examples, as she was constantly asking us for examples of NGOs, IOs, treaties, customary laws, etc. So, I imagine the tests are going to be very specific. The class is structure pretty basic: two quizzes, one final exam, one final paper, and a presentation. Because the classes are all only 8 weeks long, we had to pretty much decide on our presentation topic (which would also be our final paper topic). I am going to be writing on Women's Right to Health laws (mostly on reproductive health). We shall see how that goes!

Wednesday was our International Relations Theory class, same time (6-10). The instructor is Italian and is Director of Research, Austrian Institute for European and Security Policy. I made the mistake of wearing my Spanish football jersey. In my defense I have no loyalties to any European football teams, I happened to be in Spain for the Eurocup, which is why I had it. The rest of class he kept calling me "Spain" though (since he doesn't have names yet). He told me he may not let it affect my grade. (My undergraduate professor told me a few days later that one of the other professors is teaching Politics of Soccer and I got a small taste of his lesson plan!). Same basic structure. Midterm, final, final paper. We also will have group work each week. Midterm is on a Sunday and the last class will be on a Saturday, so we can have our final on Wednesday! Ohy!

On the way home from class! Becky, Amber, and Sam

Speaking of my midterm being on a Sunday (the 23rd) - that is the last day of Photokina, I have my Professional Seminar classes on Fridays, so that pretty much killed my hope of going to Photokina.

And speaking of cameras, before class Wednesday morning, I made my way to the camera store to see if they could do something about my camera. The guy who was helping me went through all the troubleshooting things for me: checked battery on his charger (50% full), checked his battery in my camera, tested the internal battery (I had already gotten a new one to try to see if that was the fix), cleaned battery contacts. Nothing brought my camera to life. So, he packed it up and sent it off to the repair center, and I bit back tears.

The hospital for my baby at the moment

Thursday we took a bus tour of the city. After the hour or so tour, Kurt and I went back to the Hofburg Palace, I wanted to see the gardens where the Mozart memorial is and he wanted to go to the arms and armor exhibit. He knows a lot about ancient weaponry so it was really informative for me!

Karlskirche

Hofburg Palace

Pretty certain this gun would knock me on my butt!

Mozart Memorial before my battery died

Kurt told me about a show he had gotten tickets for. Mozart and Strauss, in a smaller venue, and the performers would be dressed in period costumes. I bought tickets for the show for that evening and we headed back to the apartments (well meandered - went the long way). Sam decided she wanted to go to the show as well, so she reserved tickets and the three of us went out that evening.

There was also a ballet dancer and opera singer!

I figure, I am in Vienna, I am going to take in as much classical music as I can afford! The show was really entertaining, I liked the size of the venue and the performers were all very good. The pianist rocked Turkischer Marsch (Click here if you are unfamiliar) which is one of my favorite pieces. The venue had very good natural acoustics. It is an old house, at one time Mozart performed there with his sister! 

After the show we walked up to Stephansplatz to see Saint Stephan's Cathedral at night, the meandered around the city, getting up to the river and back down toward Stephansplatz, just talking and enjoying the weather. We had our "Oh my goodness, we are in Vienna!" moment then. It was so beautiful, the weather was perfect, not too hot, not too cold, and the city was lit up, there were lots of other people out walking around, and it's an easy city to navigate. 

I think I am in love! I can see why this city inspired so many great artists and musicians! 

Saturday morning, Di, Rach, Amber, and I went to Naschmarkt, which is a large, open-air market in the city center. We didn't walk the entire thing and it was raining the entire time, but it was a lot of fun to see all the different stalls with fresh foods. Before heading back we all stopped at the cheese store and got some amazing cheeses! 

Di and Amber buying some stuffed olives. 

The really awesome cheese guy! :-D

I spent the rest of the day studying and managed to get the two chapters for International Law read, which only left two articles to read. So, I went out with all the girls. There was supposedly a "Welcome Webster" party at one of the local clubs (Aphrodisiac). We all dressed up and went out, the cover was 12ϵ and it was pretty lame. and way overpriced (10.50 for a gin&tonic - no.) But we made the best of it. We were the only ones dancing for quite sometime. It got a bit better by the end of the evening, but by then we were all pretty much done.

And today, I have done nothing productive. I got my two articles read, cleaned a bit, but for the most part, have had a nice lazy day. We just had a wine and cheese get together for a few hours to relax (since unlike me, most people have been studying all day!) and hang out.

It is really hard for me to believe I have only been in Vienna for a week, and with Webster for 11 days! We have all been going so hard and fast the whole time that I feel like it's already been forever, I am losing track of time.

But so far this is working out brilliantly, my cohorts are amazing - everyone has such interesting, different backgrounds with such fun stories, and varying personalities. So far we all get a long really well, hopefully that lasts for quite sometime since this is going to be one crazy, long year!

Me and my Roomie at a Cafe!