Play Date

During our time here we have taken a correspondance class through West Point that involves writing an essay a week, usually in German, on prompts that change from week-to-week. Some examples of the prompts are: What did you do this week? Go to an art museum and, in 500 words, describe your favorite painting there. What are some challenges you have faced during your time in Austria? Write a 15-page paper, in English, on how geography has affected contemporary Austrian society, etc.... --Side Note: The prompts are not just one sentence and are usually more specific, but I won't bore you.-- This week our prompt was to go to an opera, play, or classical concert and write about what we did or did not like about it. A significant amount of complaining and griping insued after reading this prompt earlier in the week, mostly because we had procrastinated and put off going to see the play and were finding it inconvient for our schedule. This prompt, however, has turned out to be my favorite thus far.

Yesterday we attended the play in Vienna. We were going to attend the Volksoper or Stattsoper (the giant and famous opera houses in Vienna), but they didn't work out, so we went to the Volkstheater instead. It worked out great and we got cheap tickets and great seats because we are students. The theater was amazingly beautiful, the walls were covered in ornate and detailed paintings and moldings. It truly felt like one of those fancy old time play houses. --Side Note: There is a good chance it was one of those fancy old time play houses.--

The play, "Herr Puntila und Sein Knecht Matti" was well done. The stage was sloped downward, and a large part of it was a circle that was able to rotate. It was a very unique set, because the only prop they used, besides bottles of alcohol, were red chairs of various sizes. The actors were all very talented and they all wore clownisch make-up (think the Joker) which gave the play a strange and somewhat dark feeling. If you are interested in the play you can go to this site to see more... http://www.volkstheater.at/home/spielplan/784/Herr+Puntila+und+sein+Knecht+Matti
--Side Note: The site is in German.--

The star of the show, Herr Puntila

It was a really nice night out, and I think another part that made it enjoyable was dressing up for it. I brought over too many clothes, especially too many dress clothes, so I jump at any chance to wear a tie or a sports coat. Anyways, I think what I learned from this prompt and experience is that I should have gone to more plays while I was here.

Chris and I all dressed up

Time is ticking away...

As I write this I have less than 9 days until I get on the plane to return to my Rockbound Highland Home. It is truly amazing how fast the time has gone, and yet it feels like I have been here forever. It is an odd sensation. Anyways, the thought of leaving Austria and returning home is bittersweet. On one hand, I love a lot of things about Austria: the food, the people, being in Europe, the Christmas markets... And on the other hand, there is a lot of things I am looking forward to and love about America: the food, the people, being in America, Christmas with friends and family. This may sound extremely brutal, but I'm also looking forward to my job next semester. I'm going to be the company XO for the Firehouse and the CO is one of my best friends in the world, Jeff Jang. I think this will be the perfect job for me, as XO is still a legitimate job (not just a position where you do nothing), but is flexible enough to keep up with what will be an extremely busy last semester at West Point. Also I get to live with a fellow Feral Cat and great friend, Dan Hewins, right across the hall from Jeff and another great friend, Kevin Dolan. I'm also really looking forward to simply be back in the Firehouse, while I am glad to have had this experience, I missed the brotherhood and I missed keeping it hot. I am truly jazzed for next semester.

Thanksgiving = Awesome

When I was selected for the Semester Abroad Program, one of the first thoughts I had was, “I bet Thanksgiving will be weird.” It was, but in a good way. It ended up being one of the best Thanksgivings ever. Thanksgiving started with a final in our Rhetoric class, or it was, at least, supposed to. At formation we found out that our final had been switched out with an airplane tour of Austria. As you can imagine, we were all greatly pleased by this.

The tour was amazing. We took off from the small military airport in Wiener Neustadt (when I say small, I mean the runway was grass) and flew all the way to Tirol in the west of Austria. The plane was relatively small, seating two pilots and six passengers, which was nice because we were able to fly slowly and get close to the mountains. Austria is absolutely beautiful from the sky and we saw several castles and even more castle ruins. The Alps were gorgeous and we saw several monumental ski resorts, which made me wish that I could fly. After three and a half hours in the sky, we landed once more in Wiener Neustadt and were promptly returned to the MilAk so we could get ready for dinner at the Ambassador’s house in Vienna.

Me just before take off.

One of the many amazing mountain views.

We arrived in Vienna about an hour before the invitation said to arrived, so we wasted some time looking for flowers for the Ambassador’s wife, Donna, and we got some coffee. At this point we all realized that we were extremely hungry, mostly because we hadn’t eaten that day, having missed lunch while in the air. Upon arriving to the Ambassador’s house, we realized that it was not a house at all, but a palace. We went through security and our names were checked off the guest list. When we were ten yards or so from the palace itself, the door was opened and a servant took our coats. --Side Note: I say servant because I think that is the best way to describe it, her title was probably “Palace Assistant” or something like that.-- We then entered the living room (or at least one of the several living rooms) and met the Ambassador again and he introduced us to his family. As soon as we finished shaking hands, another “Palace Assistant” greeted us with a tray of cocktails, wines, and beers. Settling down with a Gin & Tonic, we talked with the Ambassador’s sons, one of which is a sophomore at Duke, and their friends. It was a very nice and relaxed setting.

The Ambassador, William Eacho.

Drinks, anyone?

A few minutes later, the marines who serve as Embassy guards showed up and after a minute or so, we introduced ourselves. I’m not going to lie, it was extremely awkward. There is usually a little tension between army soldiers and marines, but in this case the bigger tension was caused by them being enlisted and us being officers (or at least officer candidates). I should also add that this tension was not at all our fault. We did not once talk about going to West Point or even college in general, we were actually very interested to hear what they had to say, but once they knew that we were West Pointers, it was like they had something to prove. Comments like, “Oh yeah, I haven’t had time for college since I’ve been deployed twice, but you wouldn’t know about that…” or “I’m sure life is real good at West Point, huh…” were common. For the first 30 minutes, it seemed like they wanted to fight us or something. I decided to try and get a tour of the house, after they asked us if we had brought a change of clothes with us and if we thought we could beat them at football. --Side Note: We had not brought a change of clothes with us. After all, this was a fancy dinner at the Ambassador’s house, not a barnyard feast. Also, I do think that we could have beaten them at football, especially because the son who goes to Duke and his friend both play Rugby.--

Eventually, we sat down for dinner. I was sitting down next to a guy wearing light jeans and a polar fleece jacket (which I thought was a little weird because even though it was a casual event, everybody was pretty dressed up (I was wearing a sports coat)). Next to him was Donna and across from her was the Ambassador. After the start of the meal, the guy in jeans starting talking to me and I found at that he was the CIA Chief of Station for Vienna. He talked with me about what my plans for the future was and rattled off his extensive resume, which included speaking fluent German and Arabic, being the former Chief of Station for Iraq in 2003, and a long career in the Special Activities Division. --Side Note: The Special Activities Division is one of the most secretive parts of the CIA and is made up of a relatively small number of paramilitary officers, basically Jason Bournes. -- We talked during the entire dinner and he gave me his card and his email and told me that if I was ever interested in joining the Special Activities Division, I should give him a call. I didn’t really know what to say to that, so I just nodded and said “Sure.” The meal itself was fantastic. It was cooked by the Ambassador’s chefs and had everything that a Thanksgiving dinner should.

Turkey? Yes.

After dinner, people started to leave. At 8 o’clock, we decided that we should leave, although we really didn’t want to. It was a truly great experience and a great Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I thought that I would wish all of my readers a quick Happy Thanksgiving. I am thankful for this opportunity and for a wonderful fiancee, friends, and family back home. I'll see you all very soon. I had a great Thanksgiving, which I will talk about in a post tomorrow. Until then!

Goodnight!

It's 12:15 am and I'm heading to bed, but before I drift off into unconsciousness, I thought I drop off a quick update.
This weekend was fairly uneventful. I did, however, get to meet Christian’s family, who came all the way from Lancaster, PA to see him (and have vacation). It was nice to meet people who know Christian really well and here some good stories. We met up in Stephansplatz and headed to the 19th District for some true Austrian grub. One of Christian’s close friends and a stand out guy, Dan Pucher, helped us find the restaurant, which was named “Zum Renner”. --Side Note: There is about a 12% chance that “Zum Renner” is the correct name.-- Regardless, I ordered the goose and it was absolutely amazing. After enjoying some goose, I headed back to work on a 15-page paper that’s due this Friday. By the end of the weekend, I had around 5 and a half pages finished.
On Monday we had our German class with Frau Graf, which was fun as always. Additionally, we were visited by Doctor Vazulik, who is running our correspondence class back at West Point. While I had never before had a class with Dr. V, I had several interviews with him and his visit reminded me how intelligent and nice he is. It was a very nice visit. I also had dance class and to my surprise, I think I'm getting better.
Today was… long. I had Tactics class from 8 am to 8 pm, with only about 2 hours of breaks. Most of it was spent outside in various Austrian fields and it was pretty interesting, however, it was also terrifically windy and cold outside. --Side Note: This wind was not messing around; it seemed to cut straight to the marrow as soon as it hit you.-- Upon returning to my room, I chatted with Michelle and a buddy from back home, Seth, and worked on my paper. Page Count: almost 8.
Goodnight!

Old Corps

For the past 3 and half years, I've mostly sported a buzz cut. Upon arriving in Austria, I found that my hairclippers are either broken, or that the voltage in Europe is off, which is causing them to malfunction. That being said, my hair has gotten a little long. Not too long ago, one of my Ritter von Lehmann buddies, Christian Stadler, found some clippers for me to borrow, but I decided to turn him down and grow the hair out. When my fiancee was here, I found a comb in her hotel room. Let's just say, I've gone Old Corps. For the past week or so I've been combing my hair to the side, it started as a joke, but I can't stop. We'll see if I keep it up when I get to the states...

The Rest of the Days of the Week

Tuesday Bluesday
On Tuesday I woke up with a bit of a cold, which has done its best to linger (but is on it's way out). We expected to have class in the morning and in the afternoon. Due to a seemingly lucky stroke we had most of the morning off. Then in the afternoon we arrived to class just before 1, only to learn that we would be sitting in class until 6. This instantly bummed me out, because the thought of sitting in a 5 hour class was not a happy one. But I also thought, "Well at least I'll get some work done." --Side Note: During these German classes we really try to pay attention, but after 30 minutes (sometimes less, rarely more) your brain just sort of shuts off, due to fatigue from constant translating. When this point hits, we normally pull out some sort of work to discretely do, usually essays, because it looks like we are just taking notes.-- It turns out my thought was completely wrong, when the teacher came in, he made us spread out (we Americans normally cluster together) and I was forced to move from the 5th row to the 1st row, directly in front of the teacher. Needless to say, this completely hindered any ability to get work done. So instead, I sat there and listened to the finer points of military supply and the proper use of anti-armor lessons.-- Side Note: Twenty minutes into class, we found out the reason for us having to spread out. A photographer came into class and began snapping photos. Ironically, being near the teacher didn't at all hinder him from getting work done. At one point I was taking notes and when I had finished I looked up, only to see the photographer tell me to take more notes because it would be a good photo. Upon finishing, my "notes taking" My Austrian buddy, Angus, an Austrian Special Forces (Jagdkommando) B.A., and I looked at each other and just shook our heads.-- By the time class was over, it had been dark for two hours and my brain was exhausted. I finished the night just sitting at my computer.



Wednesday Pretendsday
Wednesday was considerably better than Tuesday. For starters, class was only two hours long, not five. Additionally, I was able to get a considerable amount of work done.-- Side Note: The reason for "pretendsday" is because we were pretending to listen and take notes in class, while we were really listening, but doing homework instead of taking notes.-- I got a couple pages done on a 15-page essay that's due on the 26th (the day after Thanksgiving). I also finished another short essay and finished a PowerPoint with Christian later in the evening. It was a very productive day.

Thursday Blursday

Thursday was a blur for two reasons, horse-back riding and go-kart driving. As we are starting to reach the end of our sojourn (exactly 3 weeks remaining) we are also beginning to have finals our culminating events in our classes. On Thursday we had our culminating event for riding (although I think we will still have more lessons). We saddled up our horses with stirrups, which we had never used before, and rode out into the woods. It was awesome. It turns out, stirrups make riding WAY easier and I was able to use them to prevent the crushing of things that I treasure while the horse was trotting. Three of the Austrians cadets in our Jahrgang rode with us, along with the instructor, Major Pulsinger, and two cadets from the military high school. We rode in formation and a couple other cadets filmed us for a video they are going to send back to West Point. The only downside was that we had to wear Dress Gray instead of ACUs. --Side Note: If you have ever worn Dress Gray, or even seen anybody in Dress Gray, then you understand that it is an extremely uncomfortable uniform. My DG is especially uncomfortable, as both the pants and the jacket were fitted for a Dan that was 25 pounds lighter.-- The Ritter von Lehmann Jahrgang likes to have fun, this is common knowledge. Usually on Thursdays the Jahrgang, or at least a large group of them, goes out and does something fun, normally bowling. This week, 40 of us headed out to the go-kart track. Upon arriving we waited for the other group to finish and then got geared up for two hours of driving. The group paid 980 Euros for 2 hours with 10 karts so we were split up into teams of 4. We Americans were grouped together and we gave ourselves the name Prestige Worldwide. --Side Note: This clever nod to the critically acclaimed film, Step Brothers, starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, would be lost on the Austrians. Most of them had not seen Step Brothers and the ones that had did not pick up the reference.-- We began with a qualifying round that would determine the starting positions. It was 40 minutes long, so each driver got 10 minutes to see if they could get the fastest lap and earn the top starting position. I believe that Prestige Worldwide started in second to last place. After the qualifying round, the real race began. It lasted 80 minutes, so each driver got two-10 minute rounds to try and earn their team the Gold medal. Unfortunately, Matt did not understand when the race umpire said that you couldn’t pass on the first lap, and we were forced to make a driver change almost instantly, putting us a solid lap behind at the very start of the race. Luckily for Matt, it didn’t matter whatsoever, as we finished 7 laps behind first place. As Christian astutely recognized, the Austrians were great go-kart drivers, because they drive their cars in almost the same manner that they do go-karts, fast. I do think we Americans were at a disadvantage, mostly because I estimate the number of times I drove a car in the past year to be somewhere around 20. Perhaps I am just trying to make myself feel better for getting last place.

Friday Oldguyday
Friday was a day filled with class. We had gym class and history of the Austrian army in the morning and our four hour German class in the afternoon. After the German class, we headed into town to get some grub. We eventually settled on this little café/restaurant named Café Smankerl. Upon entering, I asserted that this was basically the Cheers of Wiener Neustadt, a place where everybody knows your name. After ordering and talking for a while, the waitress/barmaid asked us where we were from and we told her. When she heard America, she mentioned how a guy in the corner, Paul, was English, and he came over and we started chatting. At first, his Cockney accent was difficult to understand but soon Paul introduced us to a golf-pro from Liverpool named Simon. After Simon told us a couple racy jokes, he introduced us to Walter. Walter is without a doubt, the most interesting person I have met during my time here in Austria. Now around 90, Walter fought for the Austrians in WWII and was captured by the British in North Africa. He spent his time as a POW in Egypt, where his commanding officer, who was an English professor at Cambridge (or some prominent) English University, taught him English. Walter, in turn, became his professor’s butler. He lived in England for some time, and while serving as a butler he studied all sorts of things, including Austrian history. His English was far more proper than any of us native speakers and he was noticeably clever. The bar completely revolved around this man, everyone wanted to hear what he had to say. It is likely that we will return to Café Smankerl, just to talk to him again.

Monday Funday

A relaxing snack while writing an essay.

Okay, so today wasn't really all that fun, but it definitely wasn't bad. Right after formation this morning, Major Lampersberger told us that that we were to meet him at 9:40 for a special meeting. When we met up with him he said that we needed better weather for what we were going to do (it is super overcast and foggy out), and that we were going on standby. A couple of hours later he told us we were going to take a helicopter tour, but that the weather was to poor. Bummer. Luckily, he told us that we would go on another day. Hooray!

Due the meeting and the subsequent standby-status, my morning plans were almost completely erased. I began to work on a short essay, but eventually just wasted the entire morning playing a Super Nintendo emulator that I got from Seth. When the afternoon promised more of the same, I decided to do something that I had promised myself before coming to Austria that I would do all the time: I went to a coffee shop and did homework. I know, I know. It sounds boring, but it was really enjoyable. I sat there for about an hour and just snacked on a Vanille-Erdbeere Schnitte and Riesen-Melange and wrote an essay on whether or not women should be in the Austria army. I'm not sure whether I'm actually allowed to leave the academy and go to a coffee shop during the middle of the day, but I went anyways. I find with things like that, I just kind of do what I want and nobody really questions me because I'm American. When I was coming back into the Academy I saw our Jahrgangskommandant (basically our TAC Officer). He looked at me and I imagine a conversation like this was going on in his head, "What is that cadet doing in civilian clothes at 3:30 in the afternoon? Something is definitely wrong here. Oh wait, is that one of the Americans? I'm sure he knows what he's doing." That is definitely something I like about this place, people just assume that you know what you're doing.

Tonight I have dance class in Vienna. So far we have learned most of the Waltz, the Cha-Cha, the Foxtrot, and probably a ton of others. It's usually pretty fun, because I am terrible and usually my partner is, too. When choosing partners a lot of the guys, Kopfy, for example, try to find the most attractive girl and dance with her. While looks are nice, I try to find girls who will be fun to dance with (AKA girls that talk). My first dance partner didn't say a word the entire time and needless to say it was about as awkward as someone farting during a fancy dinner. Having a partner who is a poor dancer has pros and cons. A positive aspect is that it makes you feel good to know that you are a better dancer than at least one person in the world. The biggest negative aspect is that they usually make you look even worse than you actually are. Regardless of the other positive aspects, having fun instead of feeling awkward makes it worthwhile.

Tomorrow I have riding early in the morning, from 6:00 to 7:15. We have been free-riding lately and it appears that we are permanently off the launch (the rope that makes you just go around in circles). When we first started free-riding it was pretty difficult and we’ve had to learn pretty fast. Our instructor informed us last time that most people spend 6 months on the launch before free-riding (in comparison to us, who spent 1 month on the launch). That makes me feel better.

Oh also, I want to congratulate Army football on going to their first bowl in 14 years. This is the year!

Alright, I’m off to dancing. Bis später!

Update

My fiancee, Michelle, and I at a vineyard in the Steiermark

Michelle, Seth, Matt, and I in Hungary

The Austrian Sports Badge (also called the ÖSTA)

Bowling with Ritter von Lehmann

Brigadier General Rapp, the other cadets, and I after sharing lunch together

Once again I must apologize for my extended blogging break, it has been a little busy of late. Over the past two weeks a lot has happened, here is a condensed list:

-Excursion to the Steiermark (also known as Styria)

-Weekend trip to Budapest (pronounced Boodapesht)

-More and more free-riding in Horse Riding Class

-Earned (but have yet to receive) the Austrian Sports Badge (similar to the German Proficiency Badge)

-Attended class

-Played poker twice

-Excursion to Graz (the capital of the Steiermark)

-Turned 21

-Enjoyed unseasonably warm weather (70 degrees Fahrenheit)

-Got a haircut

-Attended Mass (which is not normal, as I am Non-Denominational Protestant)

-Went Bowling

-Showed the USMA Commandant around the military academy

While I did more than this (breathed, slept, ate, etc.) I thought I would try and keep it to things that are interesting or important. Additionally, if you are curious about any of these things, you are welcome to contact me or just google them.

Also, my fiancee was here for almost two weeks and it was absolutely wonderful. It was great to see and spend time with her, and was a welcomed break from a little homesickness. I think it was also really enjoyable for her to get to see Europe (and me) and we definitely enjoyed ourselves. I am very much looking forward to seeing her in a little under five weeks.

This is Sparta... oops, I mean Athens

At the bottom of the Acropolis

Getting down on some Greek grub

Piraues - the Port in Athens

The Parthenon

My neato chess set

After a two hour flight on Aegean airlines Michelle and I landed in Athens, Greece. It was about 11:30 at night and we were exhausted since we had spent the entire day on an excursion to the Burg Kreuzenstein and Stift Klosterneuburg. Upon arriving we realized the Greek writing was impossible for us to read and after a while we found a help desk who told us how to get to our hotel. It turned out to be a good thing that we asked her, because we caught one of the last trains from the airport, and it would have been probably over 100 Euros for a taxi ride. We got to the hotel and found out that the reservation I thought I had made had not gone through. Luckily, they had rooms and crashed almost immediately after stepping in the room.

The next day we headed out to see the Acropolis and adventure. It was absolutely amazing. We went into the museum and hat a great time just seeing the art and the history. Michelle had taken an art history class on Greece and is a Ceramics major, so she was very knowledgeable on the subject of Greek art. After the museum we got some coffee and then lunch. We decided to see the Acropolis the next day because it was cloudy and a little bit chilly. On our way back, we stopped in a tourist shop and the guy charmed us into spending some money. One of the things we purchased was a really cool chess set with Spartans as pawns and Zeus and Hera as the king and queen. We decided to test it out and found a coffee shop near our hotel to play at.
Later that night we saw the Plaka, which is a giant shopping area. It was packed with both people and shops and it was a lot of fun looking through the shop windows at shoes and clothes that we were not even close being able to afford.

The next day we headed out to the Acropolis at about 8 in the morning. On our way we passed a basketball court where we saw about 20 homeless people sleeping on cardboard. It did not look like a slumber party that I wanted to attend. This kind of leads me into the negative aspects of the Athens trip. I think that the sea is beautiful, the food was delicious, and the Acropolis is seriously one of the coolest things I have ever seen, but on the whole I did not like Athens very much. It was filthy, with dirt and trash absolutely covering the roads and sidewalks, often producing an… off-putting smell. Additionally, there were homeless people and stray dogs everywhere. Even at the Parthenon there were stray dogs walking around, begging the tourists for food. The worst part was that I never really felt safe while walking any roads not around a giant tourist attraction. Perhaps this was caused by the fact that I was travelling with only one other person, which was a girl, or by the fact that several people warned me that Athens was dangerous, but it was probably because the city was super crowded and it was such a poor city. The people seemed very nice for the most part, but there were still times while walking that I thought to myself “I wish I had a knife.” At one point we met a redheaded American girl who was studying in Athens. She said that she really liked it there, but she also said that she gets grabbed on the streets by men often. At hearing this, Michelle and I both gave each other a look of concern and the girl followed up that statement by saying “Yeah, the worst is when it’s the cops, because you can’t threaten to call the police on them. You just have to play along and try and get away.” Later Michelle and I talked to each other about how utterly unpleasant that sounded, but I digress…

We arrived at the Acropolis and it was very sunny out. We paid 12 Euros a piece and walked to the top. Along the way we passed two amphitheaters and a bunch of ruins. Eventually we made it to the top and saw the Parthenon. I think that the Parthenon was absolutely remarkable. I will certainly never forget the view; you can see the Aegean Sea and all of Athens from the Acropolis. After taking numerous pictures we headed to the port to see the Aegean Sea and relax before heading back to the Airport.

I think advice I would give to travelers looking to go to Athens, is take either a cruise there, or a guided trip. We really enjoyed all of the touristy things, and the people taking guided tours looked like they were having a wonderful time. Perhaps that way you can avoid the not so great things in Athens and focus on the amazing things.

Birds, Castles, and Wine - Oh my!

Burg Kreuzenstein

Checking out the birds

A Bald Eagle descending on its prey

Inside the castle

Stift Klosterneuburg

To all my readers, I am once again sorry for the long break in between posts. Two weeks ago, we went on an excursion to the Burg Kreuzentstein and Stift Klosterneuburg. These are both just outside Vienna, in Niederösterreich. When we arrived at the Burg Kreuzentstein the first thing we saw was a bird show. We were able to walk around and see the birds beforehand, from owls to ravens to bald eagles to condors, it was very cool. Then the show began, they had trained the birds to fly back and forth between the handlers and they flew so close that you could reach out and touch them. Sometimes the birds flew over your head and were so close that you could feel the rush of the wind from their wings. It lasted about 30 minutes and they showed all of the different birds. One of the coolest parts was when they had the eagle dive towards a pool of water and snatch food out.
After the bird show, we headed into the Burg Kreuzenstein. A “Burg” is a castle that is used for living, but can easily be defended. Kreuzenstein was built in the 19th century as a show castle. No one has ever actually lived there, but it is now a museum where visitors can see what it was like to live in a castle. It was huge. We entered through the big stereotypical castle doors over a small moat bridge. Inside we saw a large courtyard with a well and a beautiful clock tower. Unfortunately, this was the last place we were able to take pictures. Once inside the castle we traveled to the kitchen and saw the giant rotisseries and cooking utensils that they used to use. The tour guide said that in castles, the kitchens were always worked by men because the work was so difficult and heavy. We then saw the chapel (every castle must have a chapel) and the living quarters. It was a little chilly out and I realized that life inside a castle must be very cold during the winter. The beds were also interesting, because they were very short. The guide said it wasn’t because the people were smaller, instead it was because they slept sitting up, which caused a lot of heart problems in the long run. Overall, the castle was extremely cool.
We then traveled to Stift Klosterneuburg (I believe I explained what a Stift was in an earlier post). Stift Klosterneuburg was not quite as gaudy as Stift Melk, but it was still interesting. Major Lampersberger decided we should go on the wine tour (they have several different types of tours). Unfortunately, the wine tour was a little boring, especially because the tour was more about the commercial process of making wine, instead of being about the wine itself. After the tour, we were able to sample some of the wines, which was nice.
I think the nicest part of the excursion was that my fiancée was able to come. After a 44-hour trip from Fairbanks, Alaska to the other side of the world, she was tired when the excursion was done, but she still enjoyed it. On the way back to Wiener Neustadt, Michelle (my fiancée) and I were dropped off at the airport so that we could catch a flight to Athens.

The Wachau

Matt and I on the Danube

My dream library (it sort of brings back memories of the board game Clue)

The front of the church (yeah that's gold)

Me at the Aggstein Ruins

A real life wine cellar!

So this should of been posted like a week ago, but instead I let the suspense build up. On Friday (not last Friday, the one before) we traveled to the Wachau, which is the most beautiful section of the Danube River (die Donau auf Deutsch). The Wachau is about an hour away from Wiener Neustadt and lies between the towns of Melk and Krems.
We first drove to Melk to see the base there and learn about the Pionier Bataillon 3 (we call them Engineers in our army). We got a tour of the base, which was quite small, but included a memorial built for the Concentration Camp there. We also got a presentation on the battalion and drank some coffee. The battalion’s main job is helping in catastrophes, so the location is prime since the Danube floods frequently and usually floods really bad every ten years or so.
From the base we drove to the Danube and got on some engineer boats. Some of the soldiers were practicing driving boats, so they let us hop on and gave us a quick tour of the Wachau. It was a little chilly and very foggy, but it was great. We saw a pretty large castle compound and a monastery during the tour. On the way back, they let me drive the boat. While I didn’t crash or flip the boat or anything, I did realize that I am an army guy and not a navy guy.
After the boat tour we headed to Stift Melk. A giant, part-monastery, part-school building that was extremely cool. Built in the baroque style in the 1500’s (I think) the Stift is now basically a museum. We received a tour and I spent the majority of the time mouthing “wow!” or just nodding my head in interest. The coolest part for me was in between the huge library, filled with books from the 15th and 16th century as well as modern books, and the giant church. It was basically the library of my dreams and the Catholic Church was just ridiculously ornate, with gold everywhere and detailed paintings on every wall.
From the Stift we headed to Burgruine Aggstein, the ruins of a castle originally built in the 12th century. The castle was incredible; it sat on the top of a small mountain overlooking the Danube. Castle history says that in the 1400’s a robber baron named Jörg Scheck. He used a giant chain stretched across the river to stop all boats going upriver and taking a toll (and a lot more). He built a castle balcony on a cliff that he used as a dungeon, prisoners couldn’t get back inside, so they could either starve to death or jump to their death. He called it his “Rosengärtlein” because for some reason, it reminded him of a rose garden.
After Aggstein, we headed to a little restaurant to have dinner. The Wachau is well known for its wine and we saw vineyards everywhere. The restaurant is run by a vineyard and a small farm. They only serve their own produce, so they are basically open until they run out of supplies and then they close until next year. We tried a couple types of wine their and also drank Sturm, which is extremely sweet wine that still has live yeast in it. We call it “gefährlich”, which means “dangerous”, because it is sweet like juice, but alcoholic like wine. Since there is still live yeast in it, it sort of swims around in your stomach. It has a very small shelf life, and can only be found for about two months of the year. We also got a tour of the vineyard and saw how the wine was made. It was a very enjoyable day.

More Riding, More Schooling, and More Running

Doing balance training on Rigoletto

Walking Rigoletto into the Reithalle

Welcome!

Today was the last day of my second week of school. I rode three out of four days, and my legs (and other parts) are pretty sore. The first two times I rode a white steed named Rigoletto and today I rode a dark brown horse named Belinda. Rigoletto was definitely more enjoyable to ride, mostly because the last thing Belinda wanted was for me and Christian to ride her. When Belinda was galloping, the last thing I wanted to do was let go of the saddle and do balance exercises. Regardless, we are improving. I’m already noticing improved posture and am having an easier time balancing on the horse. We are also getting quicker and quicker at cleaning and saddling the horses.
School was… school. I can hardly understand my Austrian History teacher, and while I can understand my other teachers pretty well, it is hard to keep from drifting off to daydream land. I think the most interesting part of this school week was seeing the senior class haze the freshman class. It was pretty much like Reorgy Week at West Point, except that it was fun for the freshmen and replace push-ups with drinking. The reason behind the “haze-fest” was the seniors had to show the freshmen how they are supposed to act in the MAK Casino (the bar downstairs). It was a fun time filled with Austrian soldier song after Austrian soldier song.
Something strange has happened to me since I have been here: I’ve actually enjoyed running. Normally I run about once every week at West Point, but here I run much more frequently. In the past two weeks I have run 8 times, 4 in the last 4 days alone. I don’t know what it is, but I think it has been the great weather. It is warm here, and not hot or humid. Additionally, there are really great running trails and it is extremely flat. Everybody runs here, when out on the trail you might see a 14 year-old boy or a 65 year-old woman. I’m very happy to be finally enjoying running, because I need to get better at it, especially with Ranger School looming ahead.

Bratislava (don't worry there was no actually lava)

Me helping this guy creep on some unsuspecting chump.

Who knew the Red Army had a choir?

Seth "accidentally" walking into my picture of some cool building.

An old statue in the middle of a park.

An Irish kebab stand.

This past weekend, Seth, Matt, and I traveled across the border into Slovakia. After a short train ride (about an hour and a half from Wiener Neustadt) we arrived in Bratislava (formerly Pressberg). Once we arrived, we set out looking for the #93 bus. There were several bus stops in the vicinity of the train station, but it appeared that the #93 bus was only a myth. Thus, we did what any lost person would do, we pointed in the direction that looked to be the most populated and started walking. Thirty or forty minutes later, we returned to the train station and found a bus map. It turned out that the bus we were looking for leaves from the backside of the train station, not the front (or the populated area).
We took the bus five stops to the inner city and promptly realized that I had missed a portion of the directions when I took a picture of them with my iPhone. We had a street name, but no number. I did remember for sure that it was a pink building. After a while we found the street and eventually we found the hostel, which was not at all pink. Upon entering the hostel, we were immediately told that they were full and given directions to another hostel. We arrived at the other hostel a few minutes later, and while it was a little pricey (about 20 Euros a person); it was really nice and had a much better location than the original hostel. After getting settled, we headed out to get some grub. We wanted to try Slovakian foods, so we went into a shady looking pub/restaurant, finding out after we were inside that it was a KGB restaurant. Since our waitress spoke no German and only caveman-English, we ordered awkwardly through a system of pointing gestures, grunts, and questioning looks. Whatever we did, we did right, because the food was absolutely delicious. Additionally, it was really cheap, about 6 Euros for a great portion of food and a beer.
After eating, we walked around the city a bit and sight-saw. Bratislava is a really cool town. While the streets aren't as clean as they are in Vienna, there are many parks and the people seemed nice.
We looked around for a cool place to have a beer and happened upon a bar simply called "Slovak Pub". It was interesting because we were expecting to hear a bunch of people speaking Slovakian and were preparing our cavemen gestures when we noticed that everyone was speaking English... very loudly. After ordering a virtually undrinkable beer (seriously, it tasted like it had been brewed with a bunch of pennies in the barrel) and a glass of wine, we bounced. We walked around a bit more a came upon a cocktail bar called "Drink". They had fantastic cocktails, cheap and delicious. We got a couple of drinks and a round of cool-looking B52's made with Absinth, which is green. We then found a McDonald's, which is kind of classier restaurant there and you don't feel guilty or ashamed when eating there. We destroyed a couple burgers and some fries and then were heading back to drink when we met a couple locals. They took us to a disco, but it was probably the worst club I have ever been to. There were approximately 8 people there and my ears are still ringing. We looked for another place, but found out that everywhere in Bratislava is closed by 1 am on a Saturday night.
We left the next morning and learned a valuable lesson on the way back: just because a train says it's going somewhere (for example, "Wiener Neustadt Hauptbahnhof") it may not be going there directly. We noticed this an hour into what is normally a 30 minute trip from Vienna to Wiener Neustadt. We arrived another hour or so later. On the bright side, we did get to see the Burgenland! -Note- Those aware of Austrian geography may realize here that Wiener Neustadt is in Niederösttereich and is southwest of Vienna, the Burgenland is east/southeast of Vienna.
All in all, it was a great time and was really interesting to see such a stark difference in culture such a small distance away.

Riding, Bowling, and a little bit of Schooling

As I write this, I am at the end of my first week of actual school. Scholastically, I had my 4-hour German class twice, once on Monday and once on Wednesday. This class is really great, our teacher gives us a pretty even mix of grammar, reading, speaking, and listening. One part of this class that has really helped my comprehension to improve is reading Austrian newspaper articles and then writing short summaries about them in German. I also had History of the Austrian Army, regular Austrian History, a 3.5 hour class on manners and social situations, a tour of the Military Academy, and Riding Class. For the most part in these classes, I tried to keep up for as long as I could before zoning out. History of the Austrian Army was really interesting because the teacher, a colonel, had many visual aids that helped me to understand. The other classes were a little tougher, I may have started drawing a little bit in the regular history class and the class on manners was torture due to not sleeping much the night before.
The Austrians also have Körperausbildung (PT, or KA in Austria) twice a week. KA was really great because we usually warm up by playing basketball, soccer, or doing a short body weight workout, and then we generally run a 5K or so. The running trails are quite nice around the MilAk and I ran 3 or 4 times last week, which is not normal for me.
My favorite class this week was riding. We started out by brushing and saddling the horse, basically just getting used to being around a giant animal. After familiarizing ourselves with the riding equipment we brought the horses into the giant riding hall. Chris and I rode a horse named Diana, and Seth and Matt rode a horse named Tenderness. Before riding, we warmed the horses up by holding on to a rope that was connected to the bridle and having them run around us. I volunteered to ride first, while Christian held the rope. We are learning Classical Riding, so we did not use stirrups or hold on to reins, we just were working on balance. Once on the horse, we performed several different exercises, such as moving our arms in a circle, rolling our ankles, or twisting our body. These exercises all focused on improving balance. After a while, Chris and I switched and he got a chance to ride. Both of us have pretty long legs, which made a couple of the exercises a little difficult. Overall, I think we did very well for our first time. After riding, we took the horses back, took of their saddles, brushed them, and stabled them. It is now a day later and I'm still a little sore from the saddle, I think I understand where the term "tenderloins" comes from.
Last night we went bowling with about twenty Austrians from our Jahrgang. It was a blast. We split up into four teams and then the teams played each other. I bowled probably the best game of my life, before the last game the lowest amount of pins I had knocked down in a frame was 8, with mostly spares and strikes. Towards the end, my accuracy was thrown off a little by the Oktoberfest-sized beers. It was a special night at the bowling alley, and interspersed with the normal pins were orange and yellow pins. If an orange or yellow pin was the front-most pin and you got a strike, you received either a free drink or a free game; if you failed to get the strike you still received a lollipop. The best I did with a yellow in the front was a spare, but Matt got a strike with one. After a while, the bowling alley decided that our outstanding group of guys needed sombreros, which they passed out to us.
The sombreros helped us to look classy when we headed to Rox, a rock n’ roll bar. It was pretty empty, but I enjoy talking with the Austrians and in a relaxed setting such as Rox, I don’t worry too much about making mistakes. I find that in these settings my conversational German skills increase dramatically. It was a really fun (and long) night. Tomorrow we are heading to Bratislava (formerly Preßburg) right across the border in Slovakia, which promises to be a great adventure.

Busy as a bee

The past couple days have sure been hectic. This was the graduation week for the fourth Jahrgang (or senior class) and Friday and Saturday were the big culminating events. On Friday we woke up and went to morning formation, then met up with Major Lampersberger to see the diploma ceremony at a theatre in Wiener Neustadt. After the diploma ceremony, we hustled back to watch the ring ceremony. Their ring ceremony is quite different from ours. First of all, they all get the same ring, a silver signet ring with the TherMilAk crest as the signet. The top man in the class, however, gets a gold ring. The rings are passed out in a small ballroom by the Landverteitigungs and Sport Minister (basically their Secretary of Defense, except that he is also the Secretary of Sports). Then we had some time off during the day before we went to a classical concert given by the Military Band and grabbing some dinner. After dinner we went to the balcony of the Academz and watched one of the two Ausmussterungs (graduation at the MilAk) parades. It was two hours long, which is extremely long for a military parade with people standing at the position of attention or parade rest (which for them is basically still attention). The senior class performed a joke, somewhat similar to the 100th night show, except that it was not funny at all. All of the guys in my Jahrgang said it was the worst that they had seen. After the joke, there was a great fireworks show. It was great for me because I was just chilling out on a balcony, but I'm sure it wasn't as fun for the people standing in formation. After the parade, the other cadets and I met up with the Defense Attache in Austria, Colonel Soto. We talked for a few minutes and then left to go out with the Austrians, which was great. They took us way down in the basement, which was more of a bunker than a basement, to a room that they had turned into a bar. They said that they had already been caught down there and that they were very much not allowed to be there, which we saw later when a couple of high ranking NCO's came and sternly kicked the 25 of us out.

The majority of yesterday for me was spent in Full Dress, which is not a comfortable uniform. We woke up and had a long drilling practice for the second parade, then we scarfed down some lunch. After lunch, we had the actual parade. It was cool because I got to participate in their graduation ceremony, but it was probably one of the most miserable experiences of my life. I stood basically at the position of attention for two hours while listening to two Austrian generals, the Landsverteitigungs and Sport Minister, and the President of Austria give speeches that were too long. After that we got to march down the main street in Wiener Neustadt, which was fairly awkward since the four of us stood out like a sore thumb in our Full Dress and parading hat. Once we were back from the parade, we had to clean our room really fast so that others could move in and we could move to another room further down the hallway. It's a day after moving in and so far zero of my three roommates have checked in. Another interesting thing about my room is that one of my roommates is a civilian, not really a normal thing for a military academy.

I guess I'll see how the room situation transpires, but tomorrow should be interesting since it will be my first day of school. Hmm, starting school in October... I could get used to that.

Sportfest

On Wednesday the other cadets and I competed in Sportfest. We ran the Schwedenstaffel, which is a relay where the first man runs 400 meters, the next 300 meters, then 200 meters, and then I ran the final leg, which was 100 meters. We did not win. In fact, we got last place in our heat (although I think we beat another team in the first heat). As it turns out, even though many of these Austrians smoke, all of them run... a lot... and fast. I felt bad for losing so badly, but none of the Austrians in our Jahrgang (class) cared, they all told us we did great and that it was at least funny for them to watch. Luckily, even though we lost our race, enough of our teams won that we were able to get second place. After the medals ceremony, the party really started and we filled the 2nd place trophy up and everybody took a drink. Somehow over the course of the night I ended up holding on to the trophy for around 45 minutes. People kept shouting "Lehmann!" (the name of our Jahrgang) and adding more to the trophy. Some of the Austrians are fallschimmspringer jäger (Airborne infantry), and since I am branching infantry and am Airborne qualified we began pumping our fists, high-fiving, and shouting "Airborne Infantry!" at the top of our lungs. All in all, it was a great night.

Gotta love the semester abroad...

Life is good. Yesterday I received my schedule for the current semester (I still haven't techincally started classes). I found out that I have between 1 and 3 academic classes a week. Even though this does not include my once a week Horse Riding class, my mandatory workouts twice a week, or my dance class once every other week in Vienna, it is quite a difference compared to my regular 20 class hours or so a week back at West Point. Let's just say that I am more than a little bit excited. I am excited about not having a curfew while here, especially because I've heard (and seen) that these Austrians like to go out during the week.
Tomorrow I am running the 100 meter dash in Sportfest, a fun yearly competition between the incoming freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and the seniors who are graduating on Friday. While I haven't run the 100 meter since high school, I've been told that it doesn't matter. The Austrians say the competition is really second place to the huge kegger that takes place immediately following it. Having helped to set up the party, I can personally say that it is going to be out of control. I think I counted 25 kegs and 50 cases of bottled beer (for approximately 360 cadets). Tomorrow should be interesting.

Oktoberfest 2010!

We arrived in Munich on Saturday after a five hour train ride from Wiener Neustadt. The Hauptbahnhof in Munich was outrageously busy. I don’t know why but I didn’t expect it to be as busy as it was, there were people everywhere. We met three other cadets in the train station, two of them, Mary and Zach, were visiting from the University and Hamburg and the other one, Steve, was studying in Munich. They were all ready for Oktoberfest, completely decked out in Lederhosen and traditional wear. We were very lucky that we could stay with Steve because all of the hostels were full and even if they had openings, they were about 100 Euros a night per person.
After meeting up with the other three, we searched for a locker to throw our stuff into so we could head right to Oktoberfest. Since the station was so busy, we had no chance of finding one so we went on a 45 minute trip back to Steve’s room on the far outskirts of Munich. Once we got there, we set our stuff down and headed off. About an hour later we got to the Oktoberfest grounds. My first impression was that it was the largest carnival or fair that I had ever seen. The busy Hauptbahnhof paled in comparison to Oktoberfest. There were carnival rides and food stands everywhere. The beer “tents” were not tents at all; they were giant buildings with extremely long lines of thirsty people waiting outside for others to leave and make space for them.
We walked around looking for the beer tent with the shortest line and after about an hour or so we decided on Augustiner Brau and finagled a seat. It was really interesting as we were walking around because almost everywhere you looked you could see sick-faced people who had clearly had too much. A few medics would walk by every five or ten minutes, blowing whistles and pushing a covered cart with a comatose drinker inside. I thought this was interesting because I found it actually kind of difficult to drink because it was so busy. It was also interesting to hear English more often than German while in Germany, due to the incredible amount of tourists.
After we eventually found our table a waitress came by, carrying about 10 liters of beer. We each got a liter, than another, and then most of another. It is truly amazing how quickly 3 liters of beer sneaks up on you. I distinctly remember walking at the New Cadet pace of 120 steps per minute to the nearest bathroom and anxiously waiting in line. I’m sure my face said exactly what everyone else’s face said, “This line needs to hurry up. NOW!”
After drinking for a while, Steve and Zach left to find a friend and the remaining four of us searched for a hookah bar. We eventually found one, smoked a mint hookah, and relaxed. We were shocked after smoking for a bit to realize that it was only 8:30 at night. At about 10 we headed back to Steve’s room and were dead asleep by 10:30.
While Oktoberfest was not life changing, it was certainly cool and a very enjoyable time. As I check “Go to Oktoberfest” off my bucket-list, I think that it was well worth the 160 Euro price of the train ticket.