Insight #53 A Sense of Belonging

So I’ve come to realize something.

As a student from out of town (Lower Austria, to be exact) I had gotten used to the thought that I was just a temporary resident here in Salzburg, a long-term tourist with a permanent address. I had adjusted to the fact that there were “circles” in this town that I would never belong to. I didn’t really want to belong to them, to be honest, and I still don’t.

Maybe I was just paranoid, but I felt that there were certain circles of old families, mostly people born and raised here, who secretly ruled the city and made sure it remained an expensive little place where out-of-towners, especially students, were outwardly welcome, but inwardly looked down upon. I’m sure some of you know what I’m trying to put into words. I felt that there were certain people with a sense of entitlement in this town who were able to park their Porsches in front of their house all day and night for free in spitting distance of a parking meter – yet I repeatedly found rude notes on my ancient Mazda which I had parked in a perfectly legal spot (I checked and double-checked), telling me to park that thing elsewhere, this is not a permanent parking spot. And I am one-hundred percent sure that there would have been no rude notes on a nicer car without the “foreign” license plate.

Back then I probably was exaggerating anyway, but now I no longer feel this irrational contempt towards the “inner-Salzburg circle”, a term I used as a collective for all the people in Salzburg who had ever been rude to me or had a problem with me. Or with Mitzi, my Mazda.

What changed? I still have no connection to the inner circle, of course. But I started working in a public place. A very public place, Mozartplatz, with a straight view of Mozart’s brazen butt (literally).
It happened on my first early shift. One by one the little horse-drawn carriages passed by my booth on their way to Residenzplatz where they park and wait for milkable tourists. Suddenly, one of the owners tipped his little traditional hat with a friendly “Morning, Segway girl, beautiful day!” as his horses went clip-clopping past. Then another one came by and waved. And another one. Even that bitchy-looking lady with the long blonde French braid, whose face slightly resembles that of the two Haflinger horses drawing her carriage, raised her decorative whip in greeting. I peeped out from amidst my nerd-mobiles, smiling tentatively, amazed.

And all of a sudden it felt like I belonged. At first I didn’t know what to do with this newfound sense of, well, feeling like a local. It was like there was this big inside joke and … I was on the inside!

In any case, working out there on the tourist front makes me appreciate the beauty of the town of endless Schnürlregen more and more every day, the superficial beauty, the one that tourists see. (Superficial in an entirely positive sense.) Tourists admire the tall baroque churches, the old winding alleyways, the dirndls, the guild signs swaying in the wind. I used to see and admire those things, too, when I first came to Salzburg and I’m learning to do so again through the eyes of awe-struck Americans on Segways, through the gestures of lost Italians who ask for a map in a wild, unintelligible dialect, through the camera lenses of swarms of happy Japanese, laden with bags from the Manner shop.

And when the big bells of the Dom threaten to deafen me and my superstar of a booth neighbor Herr Karli at noon, I get goosebumps and feel slightly stupid, but I’m still glad I chose Salzburg over Vienna for college three years ago.

Just add a double flavor shot of motivation

People never learn anything by being told, they have to find out for themselves. (Paulo Coelho)

It regularly seems to be the case that especially during free periods of study, for example during the two week Easter Break, a student’s will to start working on various projects for university decreases steadily. So if your coffee breaks seem to last longer than your actual number of working hours you might want to consider an extensive search for motivation. Let’s face it, the ten points on your to-do list which you created with a slight sense of foreboding will probably have a 90% chance of survival. If they make it through Holy Week usually nothing gets in their way later on.

It was the second week of my Easter Break, 9:38 am on April 7th, a not too cloudy Wednesday morning (which was odd because we had snowfall the day before). I was at my third cup of coffee, which in my opinion made it easier to face the most important points on my to-do list, already thoroughly circled with a vibrant yellow highlighter. I was at my desk and everything was ready to start working on a text by Werner Sombart (I was wondering what he had to say about the interrelation of economy and fashion and how that would influence my life). But why not check my Facebook account first? This usually doesn’t take long and it was still early in the morning anyway. In doing so I stumbled over a video someone posted and I couldn’t resist watching it. Soon I ended up on YouTube – it’s always fun to browse through this site when you are procrastinating work. One of my favorite videos reminded me of a good friend in Munich who I haven’t talked to in months. It wouldn’t take long to write her an email. By the time I had sent off the e-mail it was already 10:15 am and Mr. Sombart was still waiting for me. Too bad he doesn’t have a Facebook account. (Well, I have never checked that anyway.)

Back from my virtual walkabouts I was facing the admittedly horrific long list in front of me. Thank God, I could at least tick off two points on the list. Two out of ten wasn’t too bad when compared with the list I had this Christmas Break.

By the way, did you know that two out of ten Americans are wrestling fans? I didn’t - but what a nice comparison. Wrestlers are only pretending to hit each other as I pretended to be absorbed in my work. Anyway, it was 10:25 am and the only thing I knew so far was that the great Werner Sombart not only has his very own Facebook account but also 152 followers. Which brought me to the conclusion that he has more friends than my humble self. Still, I couldn’t get myself to read Sombart’s opinion on conspicuous consumption Maybe it was just not the right time for a sociological text so early in the morning. So I checked to see what else was on my list. Sombart had to wait – he’d understand, I left him a note on his site.

11:04 am, approximately 39 minutes later: I couldn’t resist my mom’s offer of another cup of coffee. I saw this as an attempt to awaken new spirits within myself. A chance to begin anew. As I read earlier on the Self Improvement Mentor website, physical movement affects the mental state. Therefore, a walk to the kitchen and back to my room was the ideal way of motivating myself. Further, the so called mentor suggested the effective use of rewards, which again brought me back to my liquid love (h/t rockelfe). By then, I had recognized that this morning was just not the right morning to work off my to-do list and as I still had to prepare the tutoring lessons for three of my students, I concluded that I might as well start with that.

To be honest, I’ve never seen the purpose of creating a to-do list anyway – as for me pressure is the most reliable motivator.

Pitter Patter vs. Splatter Splatter

So I blogged about horror books last time and shared my thoughts on that matter. Some people have commented and come up with interesting questions and points of view so I thought I might or rather should talk about horror movies this time, with special regards to Carrie, Hostel and the Saw saga.

The thing is that I generally don’t like going to the cinema; so when I watch movies, they are ones I’ve bought on DVD. This goes for every genre, really but I mostly watch action movies or comedies (no so-called ‘rom-coms’ please). However, I never buy horror movies because there is not always someone around to watch these kinds of movies with me and in all honesty, I am just too much of a chicken to ‘indulge’ in them on my own. On that note, I (very briefly) considered re-watching Carrie after having blogged about it but the trailer on YouTube was enough to make me reconsider. Viewer discretion advised! That’s the main reason why I steer clear of them.

Another reason why would be the progress which was made in the development of special effect in the last decades. Several years back, you could tell that people weren’t beheaded but nowadays with CGI there are literally no bounds for making things look as real as possible. You might praise the attention to detail if you will but there is such a thing as ‘too much’ when it comes to mutilating bodies. In my humble opinion less is more.

In this context there are also other movies on which I want to elaborate. Thinking about films like Hostel (the first or second, take your pick) just makes me want to run and hide because I find nothing compelling about being faced with liters of blood and brutality beyond my imagination every 5 minutes. The same goes for the Saw saga. I still can’t believe that this movie even made it to a sequel, let alone to number VII, which is supposed to be in US movie theatres in July. This movie belongs to a subgenre of horror called “splatter”. The mutilation of the human body and the visualization thereof are very clearly in the foreground and no matter what critics will say on this matter, in my opinion there is nothing artistic or artful about finding as many ways as possible to rip apart the human body.

I am sure opinions on these movies are wide and varied and some of my friends even think gore is funny. Needless to say, I don’t really agree. When you have to pluck out your own eye-ball in a limited amount of time because a key is hidden behind it that un-cuffs you from a seat where you will be beheaded, I don’t quite see the fun in that. It makes me wonder to which uncanny places the people’s minds travel who work behind such movies. It must be one hell of a sick and scary place, no offence. To me, it just seems pointless because the idea that people go to great lengths when their lives are in danger gets real old real quick. It’s ‘kill or be killed’, ‘sink or swim’, whichever way you want to put it, but there are more tasteful ways of portraying this particular theme. Touching the Void for example is a great movie in this aspect and neither deteriorates into the splatter genre nor does it become a horror movie, far from it.

Still, before I digress, I also want to talk about scary TV shows. I am an avid fan of Supernatural, and while it does incorporate horror elements, these are just a small part of the whole story line. The protagonists are Sam and Dean Winchester, two brothers road tripping through the States hunting down evil spirits, vampires and all kinds of other things that go bump in the night. Their dysfunctional relationship is also a major theme throughout the seasons and while you get a generous dose of fright every episode, it’s also about two brothers seeking to avenge their mother’s death. Of course there are several twists and turns woven into the story arch every season, but I can only recommend watching it. Also, the two brothers are seriously hot. Just sayin’!

Another TV show I regularly watch is Doctor Who. It’s a British series (Supernatural is an American production) and the premise is compelling: every week we are told another story about a time-travelling alien (who looks quite human though) and his adventures. Plus, he is fascinated by planet Earth and therefore often stops by and saves the planet on a regular basis. On top of that, it’s considered to be a kids’ show. However when I saw the first episode I quite literally did a double take because I was scared out of my mind. I didn’t watch the 1st season in order and in hindsight, the first episodes of the season were less scary, though frightening enough if you consider that children from 9-15 are the target audience.

This actually leads me to the question of whether we find books or TV series/movies scarier. In my opinion movies and shows are scarier because I find it very hard to forget gruesome sights. When I read a book, my imagination of course runs rampant, but in a way I suppose we unconsciously censor ourselves. When you watch Saw, however, (just to take a splatter movie as an illustrating example) I believe that many people are confronted with ideas and plots they find very hard to digest. At least in my case. I would choose books over movies any day, really.

Getting To Know Salzburg (Part Two)

And now on to other points of interest . . . or just other points . . .

The Getreidegasse:

The Getreidegasse—it’s the equivalent of Michigan Ave. of Chicago or the Champs-Élysées of Paris, albeit not in its size. Here one might do a bit of shopping in stores ranging from the likes of H&M and Zara to traditional Austrian shops to high-end fashion suppliers from the likes of Gucci and Chanel. The Getreidegasse also offers some fine dining restaurants like Blaue Gans, part of the arthotel, or the Restaurant part of the 4 ½ star hotel: Der Goldener Hirsch. And then, there is McDonalds. No comment. In any case, all the above are only a few examples of what the Getreidegasse has to offer. [Fun fact: The translation of the street name is “Corn Alley”, even though the street never had anything to do with corn. I say it’s interesting nonetheless].

Mozart’s Birth House:

Mozart’s birth house can be found in the Getreidegasse. Here one can make a lovely tour of Mozart’s home at the time of his birth. Some consider the tour to be too pricy at 7 euros for an adult ticket. Some don’t bother to visit the home per se but do decide to take a lot of pictures in front of it— which is understandable for touristy purposes of course, but is considered a nuisance and a disturbance by a lot of the people living in Salzburg, myself included. [However, I do dare say that when given the opportunity to do the same as those annoying people clicking away on their cameras, I would totally do it!]

The Sound of Music Tour:

Yes. There is a Sound of Music Tour in Salzburg. And yes, it does have to do with the 1965 5-time Academy Award winning motion picture directed by Robert Wise. Like many people from Austria, not only Salzburg, I have not been on the tour! To be fair, not many Austrians have even seen the movie and do not have an imaginary love affair with Julie Andrews and/or Christopher Plummer. I’m not saying that I wouldn’t go on the ~ 4-hour tour, because honestly, I would go. Personally, I just haven’t gotten around to it. I could go on it any day really if I set aside the time for it, which a tourist on the other hand could not say.] In all seriousness, I have been told that the tour is a lot of fun.

The Festung:

The Festung—that’s the big fortress overlooking the city of Salzburg. Archbishop Eberhard built the fortress in 1077. It was never successfully captured by any enemies. I think it is very pretty. If you are currently in Salzburg, and it is anywhere between 9:30am-5:00pm finish reading this post and then get over there! Go! Go! Go! Unless of course, you’re afraid of heights, and don’t have 10.50 euros on you for an adult ticket.

The University of Salzburg:

Is cool . . .

[Note: I don’t want to risk saying anything else considering: my professors, family members, and fellow classmates might be reading this. Maybe I’ll be a little more daring in the future.]

Rudolfskai:

The Rudolfskai is a street along the main strip of the river where a big part of the nightlife in Salzburg takes place. Favorites vary depending on who one might ask, but for someone born in America like myself, I would say the top two are definitely O’Malley’s and Shamrock (2 of the 4 Irish pubs that can be found in Salzburg. The other 2 Irish pubs in Salzburg are The Dubliner and Murphy’s Law, which I will mention at a later point in time).

Residenzplatz:

Is where one will find the fountain, I’m sorry, I meant, “THE FOUNTAIN” as in, the fountain in which Julie Andrews sticks her hand in the movie, ‘The Sound of Music”. On a more historical note, the Residenzplatz is considered by many as the very heart of the old town on the left bank of the Salzach River.

Franziskaner Kirche:

It is a lovely church not far away from the Dom Cathedral. Interesting history revolves around this beautiful church as well. I would definitely recommend to go and see it before St. Peter’s, but that is because I am biased for a reason I shall not divulge. Plus, in my opinion it doesn’t get nearly as much publicity as St. Peter’s does. Good enough reason? Ok, moving on! As far as I know, people frequent the church mass regularly. I happen to know a few of them, but have never gone myself. I have heard that the church provides a lovely service. [As a random side note: If I ever get married there are only two places in this world I would consider. One would be the Franziskaner Kirche and the other, well, that one is top secret.]

The Domplatz and The Dom:

The Domplatz is the “Cathedral Square” of the main cathedral in Salzburg: The Dom. [Note: Dom is pronounced like "dome".] There is a lot of interesting history surrounding the two- click here to find out more.

Sometimes it takes a change of scenery to have a change of heart

Life is pretty unpredictable. I mean, you never know what to expect. We all have our dreams, plans, goals, but life ultimately decides what happens next.

I couldn't say I had planned my semester abroad. To the contrary, my life in Moscow was running as smoothly as never before: university, job, friends, everything.
At the university, we had a pretty full schedule. We had to attend 3-4 classes daily (sometimes even on Saturdays!) and do loads of homework. The subjects were quite enjoyable, though, so – thank God! – my courses never felt like hell.

Thankfully, I had a part-time job to support my studies. I was lucky enough to work as a secretary of a general practitioner in the emergency department of a medical centre. My main duties were talking to the patients and their relatives, making calls to insurance companies, arranging meetings with other doctors when necessary. Working shifts were tough: from 9 a.m. till 9p.m. By the end of the day I was usually tired to death, but I could hardly find words to describe the happiness I felt when seeing a smile on the face of a patient and hearing "thank you so much for your help, you saved me, literally". Certainly, the words were directed at the doctor for the most part, but a bit of gratitude was for me. That was enough to make me happy. As for the money, I didn’t have enough time to spend it till my trip to Salzburg, so it came in handy when I got the news about my semester abroad.

It happened in October, as I recall.
I was walking by an announcement board at the university, or, to put it more precisely, running by. I was late for the class, but I turned my head slightly to the left, and I could make out only one 8-letter-word typed in bold capital letters. It was enough to make my heart flip.
SALZBURG.
It cast a spell on me.

The next day the application-test took place. The tasks were quite challenging, and left me with no illusions. The best thing I could do was to forget about it and concentrate on my work. That was exactly what I did. Imagine my surprise when a week later they called me and asked matter-of-factly: «So, miss M., will you make your papers ready to be submitted to the University of Salzburg?». I was so excited the word "yes" barely left my lips.

Gosh, I was already overwhelmed with my studies, and work, and this news meant a lot of extra effort and expence: preparing papers, translating documents, applying for a visa, looking for a flat, leaving my job, parting with my friends.

But at the moment I received the call nothing really mattered. Nothing except for Salzburg.
I went to the window and pulled it open. The view from the 17th floor, all that crazy traffic on the streets, the city that never sleeps, the lonely stars shining coldly, a light touch of night air...it made me euphoric. I jumped, cheered, even danced a cha-cha-cha in an unearthly state of bliss. If anyone could have seen me, they would have thought I had gone insane. Luckily enough, there was no one with me.

Why was I so happy? I already spent some time in Cambridge and Bournemouth in England, which was definitely no less exciting. Also, I lived in Moscow on my own for 4 years which was no less emotionally challenging. Perhaps, a reason for my happiness was my need for a change of scene, because I was getting bored with my surroundings and tired of the constant hecticness; Another reason I was so happy was because of my destination - a fine European city with a great culture, so people say. The length of my stay was also a reason for my happiness – four months is a time long enough to become an insider, not just a tourist.

But the truth is much simpler than that: I just fell in love with Salzburg.

A Guide to University Life: Step 1: All Beginnings are Difficult

Imagine! I have been a student for more than three years now. Studying is my main ‘job’ and thus very important to me. Starting out at university introduced a new chapter in my life. It was a completely new experience compared to school and therefore caused some difficulties. I can remember exactly my first impressions of university. At first, I felt kind of lost and then confused. So many things were different from school. The building, for example, was much more impressive than a school building (maybe because the campus is so old that it seems like an ancient ruin). Since I had never been on campus before, the building was completely unfamiliar to me. I did not know which direction to go.

In the beginning you have no clue how anything at university works, not even the architecture. You feel lost, and not just because the building is so large, but because university is a completely new experience after your school years. So don’t let yourself get worked up in case you’ll soon be encountering the same set of difficulties. It’s something that everybody who attends university goes through. My impression is that in school your life is much more organized for you than at university. School subjects are rather personal as you know the teachers and your classmates very well. University lectures seem largely more impersonal: partly because many courses have more students in them than at school; partly because your success is an issue that concerns only you. I know, in school it is your duty to learn on your own as well, but at university you are fully responsible for every aspect of your studies.

This responsibility can be seen in university procedures like course registration. Back then there was no online registration and everyone had to fill out special forms. On these forms you had to tick the courses you wanted to do and then hand it in to the secretary’s office. And at university you have to plan your class schedules totally on your own. You have to do much more organizational work on your own compared to school. In school you have a fixed timetable designed by the administration. You don’t have to register for courses let alone for exams. There is no need to single out courses to take because you don’t have a choice. At university you can design your individual class schedule according to your needs and interests. You can choose between courses with differing topics. Let’s take for example an English literary course. Two different lessons may be offered – one dealing with poetry, another one with drama. And you can decide upon one of them. You are spoilt for choices. On the one hand it allows you much more freedom. On the other hand selecting the appropriate courses can be confusing. You need to ensure that lessons don’t overlap or that they fit your plan of study. The problem is that procedures like course registration are very important at university. If you are too late, most courses will be full and you won’t be admitted. So remember to be on time! Otherwise you won’t be able to take the courses you wish to do.

This is the impression I got when starting out at university. The differences to school – namely the full responsibility and the individual planning of my studies – were a totally new experience. Luckily, I met a lot of nice people who were facing the same uncertainties and confusions. Remember this: it is much easier to get used to university life with friends.

The hard (and the sometimes even fun) part begins

Sometimes it’s hard not to be frustrated when you work really hard for something and life still makes you constantly jump through hoops. So, as a friend recently advised, it is important to “keep the main things the main things”. In the course of an application process (or so many other countless things in life) that means not forgetting about your goal. From my own experience (applying for a study abroad program, which is still not over yet – yay!), I know how hard it is. Think back to when it all began and how excited you were.

I still remember how it was. My university’s information meeting about studying abroad stoked my wanderlust. This was one and a half years ago, and I thought I had plenty of time. However, I could hardly wait to leave Austria for my chosen university and I started to daydream. Checking out university websites numerous times, using a picture of one of those universities as my desktop background, checking out the dorms and courses and imagining myself wandering around the university campus were all part of my daydreaming.

Fast-forward to one year later: fall of 2009. I finally started applying – actively. I managed to gather quite a bit of information about the different programs that there are: ISEP, the “normal” exchange student program, Erasmus (not really an option for me), and the Fulbright Program (ditto). After considering all my options and with the help of pro and con lists, I decided to apply for a “normal” exchange program for studies overseas. Okay, so I knew what I wanted to do and where I wanted to do it. But what was the next step?

The information meeting I mentioned before and the University of Salzburg website helped me locate the coordinators for the two universities I was most interested in. And of course I arranged a meeting as soon as possible. With my first choice, let’s call it “The-one-that-shall-remain-nameless”, it was not a big problem. Soon I was sitting face to face with the coordinator and this person (to stay gender neutral) answered all my questions and gave me some advice about how to proceed. My second choice, let’s call it “The-one-that-will-hopefully-work-out”, would already make me jump through a hoop. The problem was that the coordinator for this university retired at the end of last year, i.e. 2009, but apparently had already retired from checking and answering e-mails a while before that. In the end, according to my mantra that I mentioned in my first post, things worked out and I met with the future coordinator who I kind of already knew.

The next step for me was to put together all the necessary application documents.

Sorry guys, time is up for today.  

Yours truly,

Lemon

PS: Don’t you all just love cliffhangers?