Friday, July 29, 2005 10:38 am [GMT+1]  <|>
<226> Foreign Land: I got here to Austria last Friday. It was quite an... adventure in terms of travel. I took a plane out of Northern New Jersey to London's Heathrow Airport for about 7 hours, then a plane from there to Vienna for another 2 and a half. The flights themselves weren't too bad. I didn't think I'd mind flying and I was right. But trains are another matter. Taking the special line of the Vienna subway from their airport to their city center station wasn't too hard once I figured out where to grab the train from, and once I figured out which direction to go from the city center spot, I made it to a further out spot like I was supposed to without too much trouble. But that is really when the real trouble began... I was far enough out that NO ONE spoke English. We had been told to just "take a train that goes to Campus Krems" - where my school and place we are staying is located with a special stop right at it. Well, not only were there no signs of this stop, but I only found one reference to Krems at all on a very complicated map of the train and other regional lines that was hanging in the station. Of course this too was in German, like everything else, so it didn't help me too much. Long story short(ened)... I found another woman wearing an information vest who spoke just a little English and she helped by showing me how to punch my tickets and told me to go down the elevator to the right and take the next train that came through. That is what I did and when the man came around to take the tickets I asked about Krems to reassure myself and sure enough when I said "I'm going to Krems" he said something to the effect of not on this train I wasn't... he told me I'd have to wait on the train until it reached it's last stop (about 30 minutes) then to get off and take a train that came 5 minutes later on another track and that would take me to Krems. Sure enough it did though I still haven't quite figured out just how out of my way it went. That ride was about 45 minutes, so I can only assume it wasn't too bad since the whole ride was originally supposed to take an hour or so. Regardless, I got into the stop and it was also the end of the line... in Krems but no mention of "Campus Krems" anywhere. I debated what to do and finally decided to look for a cab (called only taxis here and in very short need/supply apparently) Lucky for me though there was a taxi stand just outside of the station, but of course the driver knew no English. At first I thought maybe he didn't want to get involved with me, but then I just took out the print out I had from the Kolpinghaus (the place where I and most of my fellow teachers and students are staying here) and he said "Oh, Campus!" and took me there. I got in about 20 minutes before the kids running the front desk were going to leave... I say kids because they were definitely younger than me and definitely weren't all that happy when I showed up being that they had to actually do a little work (as in give me a form and give me a key). I had a little trouble past that getting setup in the room because they provided no instructions (which I later found out comparing to others they were indeed supposed to provide me with) but all in all I eventually got setup and connected.

To jump ahead, and retell just a little more. I explored Krems (the town that I'm in and the place of my school) over the weekend. Found the useful things - grocery stores, ice cream shops, etc... Then workshops and things started on Monday. It's been a VERY full week. Our day starts around 8:30 or 9am and continues until 8 or 9pm at night, followed by dinner which every night has lasted well past 10pm. It's rather exhausted but we sort of knew what we were getting ourselves into. Everyone here that I've met is great though. It's already been a great networking and learning experience. I'm really looking forward to learning even more about the students here and hopefully keeping in touch with most of them over the course of the year. This program that we are in is BRAND new... so there are LOTS of details that aren't quite worked out - a lot of confusion, some errors, some mistakes... but it's all part of a working process to develop something and I somehow enjoy being a part of it (for the most part!).

I'm still having a few issues. They can't quite seem to get my loan approved... though they thought everything was worked out on the school's end and the loan people say they are waiting for the school's response. I think I might have made some process with that this morning but I'm not sure yet. It's making me just a little uneasy. I'm sure it'll get approved for the school payment for this year, but I also need the rest to come back to me to pay for the travel and board to get here. It's not like I have a few thousand dollars laying around. If I had had more time I would have tried to go about a loan in a slightly different way - with a company I already knew more about... but it turned out most loan places wouldn't accept the school (Danube University) here and the TransArt program to be on their list because it was so new and so small. That's been making things a lot more complecated. I'll figure it out all somehow though I guess... I just hope it's soon - maybe before I have to pay the bill for the place I'm staying at!!!

We are just on a short break right now, I'm about to head upstairs to another student's room to work on the rest of a collaboration project we are creating for our workshop for this week. It's called Dis.location and all about taking an idea/concept and breaking it down to it's simpliest form, understanding it's opposites and challenges and then remixing it with other student's similar ideas to create something new. It's pretty interesting and a concept I already like to play around with for my own work. I've been thinking of so many ideas over the course of this week. Next week will be a different workshop and another set of inspirations I'm sure. We also have a lecture just about every night from a visiting artist (most of which are also our profs for the workshops). Overall it's been going well in terms of the program, though it's weird to think it's a third over... or has two thirds left... depending on how you look at it.

That being said... I miss Philly, Dan, & Concetta a lot. I talk to Dan, Concetta, and my mom everyday, but it just feels weird. It's the longest I've gone in literally years without seeing Dan or Concetta... I don't really like this part that is needed, this seperation from everything I know. The setting here is beautiful, the program inspiring, the people great... but it comes back to there is no place like home. I also dread returning to the nine to five. It seems like a lot of people here run their own companies or are teachers... both making it much easier to take time away. Oh, I should also mention I'm the second youngest here. A few students are in their 20s, but most are in the 30s or early 40s range... then some older than that too. It's a good mix when that happens, but I guess I did expect a slightly younger crowd overall. A lot of people here are married and some have kids (some even have them with them). I'm the only one at the engagement stage though, haha.

Anyway, like I said overall things are good aside from missing the people at home. I'll try to write more often on here, as I suppose it's kind of important to document all this while I'm actually doing it. Until then, auf wiedersehen!!