I guess the parentheses in the title is an afterthought that should have been my first thought. Vienna is just one huge city full of blessings! I feel like it is Europe's best kept secret. Not many appreciate Vienna the same way they know to appreciate Paris, London and Rome. Most of the tourists here are German-speaking. This is not a bad thing for me! It means I get to feel more a part of the culture here when everyone around me is speaking German, whether they are from Wien or not. I'm just starting to hear dialects in peoples' German. You must have quite an ear for the Austrian German to understand when someone is speaking a dialect, and part of this comes from getting to listen to my Oma and Opa speak true Austrian German to one another every once in a while! I am so excited to come back to the states and feel more confident in speaking German to my family.
Vienna is a blessing. As soon as I walk outside every day, I feel something come over me that just makes me happier than ever. When I sit outside, and take in the fresh air, I know that this city, reaching way back into history, has truly been blessed with something unique and special. Maybe I can't put my finger on exactly what it is? You would have to come and see for yourself. (Which I encourage you to do, if you are reading this!)
In the mood for some mood-brighteners? I have a few for you.
We will begin on Monday night. When I arrived back at my apartment from my Monday classes, my roommate Claire was in the mood to do something and go somewhere, and she suggested that we go to a jazz club--the building there has been dated back to about year 980! We opened the somewhat shady looking door, and it was like opening up a door in Hogwarts castle! It was love at first sight. Old bricks and a dome shaped ceiling of bricks made up a one room cellar kind of jazz club. We went down the stairs, paid our 18 Euros to see the American swing band, the Hayes Kavanagh All-Star band, and we made our way to the only table available for the 5 of us who trekked out on a Monday night! Time here seems to have stood still. It felt as if we had travelled back in time to an old jazz swing band performance at a bar. We were the youngest there, by far, so much that people were kind of staring at us. We sat there for 3 and a half hours of great jazz music and I was absolutely thrilled with the talent and pure enjoyment we just experienced. I could go into more detail, but let's just say we were about 3 feet away from the trombone player who was glad to speak English to us throughout the performance, and the piano player was from New York and did his undergrad with Renee Fleming, and served often as her accompanist! Hmm, small world!!
Well that was just the background story--here is the mood brightener: After the show was over, the band members left, except for the old guy who played the bass and introduced all the songs in German. He came up to our table and pulled up a chair from the stage. He sat down and told us all about how he is so happy to have fun with a band of all musicians, himself being the only one who has a day job apart from playing bass. He was an attorney at law and had clients in Europe for whom they were scheduled to play private parties. He organized the whole 10 day tour for the group, and the group is named after him. He asked us what brought us out to the club that day. After we told him, he said in his gentle yet half-mumbled voice, "Well, I want to reimburse you for paying that 18 euros at the door. I know what it was like to be a student. I was there once." At that, and ignoring our shouts of surprise and refusal, he laid two 50 Euro bills on the table and asked non-chalantly for a ten back. 18x5=90 Euros. That was quick math for an elderly man with a few beers in him! We refused for a bit and simply stared at the money on the table, but then I thought this: 'I know how it feels to do something nice for some strangers. He is an attorney. He has money. We should let him do this, and thank him.' And so I gave him a ten, shook his hand a few times, and thanked God for the great thoughtful man with musical talent, who we will probably never see again.
Yesterday, my mood brightener was a simple pleasure: an old black and white movie filmed in the 1940's and shown weekly at this adorable theater on the Ring by the Opera. The movie was called "The Third Man" and was filmed completely in Vienna. It was fun to identify some of the places in the movie where we have walked over and over again! Yet another Tuesday night indulgence with Emily Janser is completed. We treated ourselves to Gelato, specifically Rocher Ferraro gelato--another gift from God! Thank you for ice cream!
Today, my day was made by a child. In my mind, the best blessings of life can be found in children. I love watching children interact and being with children. Vienna is a good place to do this, considering the numerous school groups who walk around the city together with clipboards--I think they have to go on some kind of scavenger hunt, I don't know! I like watching them and listening to the way they talk. But today, I was nowhere near a group of school children. I got up early and before class, I sat in the freshly mown grass in Stadtpark, near the famous statue of Strauss. The section of green grass was completely empty, except for a few sitting in the shade around the perimeter. Unexpectedly, this beautiful little blonde girl, about 3 years old, does the little waddle-run towards me, and when I expect her to stop a distance away, she keeps coming, and sits on her knees literally inches from me. I take out my headphones and look at her cute smile and blue eyes and I try to speak German to her, but all she had to offer was her beautiful smile. I looked around and her father came over and said in German, "look, she made a friend" and he had to call her name a few times before she got up carelessly and skipped away! It was short-lived, but it totally made my day. I knew before that kids like me, but I've never been approached so innocently and lovingly by a child who didn't know me! I loved it.
Every day in Vienna is a blessing, and has its blessings. Did I mention I was lucky?
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