Grüs Gott!
Let’s Continue where I left off last week.

Spar my love!

The next day (26th of Jan) was all orientation. The students were split into groups and given the Map Project. The goal of the project was to find all the locations given on two maps, one of the neighborhood and one of the 9th District. My group completed the first map of the neighborhood in a few hours. We found various stores and other buildings of importance. One of the main store we had to locate is Spar. Spar is a grocery store. When I think of a grocery store, I think of a Giant or a Safeway. A big warehouse like building with many aisles and different kinds of food. Spar was not that. Spar was about 1/20 of the size of your traditional American supermarket. It had everything you needed in a smaller space, milk, bread, eggs (which don’t have to be refrigerated in Europe). Best of all, it’s a 3 minute walk from Das Mill. Instead of my family’s Costco haul where we would get 7-10 days of food in one trip, my grocery runs to Spar are much smaller. I only get 10-20 Euros of food and I go every 1-3 days.

WE FOUND JFK (Kinda)

This isn’t a big story but I thought it was interesting. During our transportation orientation, our group was walking past a random building. Suddenly, my friend Diane says, Wait! Is that JFK?!?! I looked at the wall next to me and there was a plaque dedicated to the former president John F. Kennedy. Note: This was in the middle of Vienna on a random building.

Mass (Now in German)

Austria is a traditionally catholic nation. So for our first Sunday Church, the group went to Augustinerkirche for Mass (this is the Church where the Hapsburgs were married, and apparently some of the rulers’ hearts and bodies are in the crypt beneath.) This was my first catholic mass ever, and boy it was an experience. For the entire service, only Latin, German, and a little bit of Greek was spoken. Even with the language barrier, the whole mass was beautiful and deeply spiritual. It goes to show how the Catholics are very meaningful when it comes to liturgical tradition.

Don’t Forget to push the button…

Pro tip: Push the button on the doors of public transportation vehicles before exiting.

So you know that one scene in the first Harry Potter movie where Dudley was trapped behind the Glass? That was me.
After Mass, my map project group was working on finishing the 9th District map. Everything was going great! We had gotten on a tram and rode a few stops. At our stop, the doors opened like normal. Three of the group members stepped out of the tram, then the doors closed. The three members who escaped turned around and saw me and the other member hands on the glass of the sliding doors. I tried pushing the door button, but the doors didn’t open. Five Seconds later, the tram starts moving, on its way towards the next stop. Luckily, the next stop was the end of the line. We stayed on the tram as it looped around and went back towards the stop we were suppose to get off.
Moral of the Story: Pushing the button gives you more time to exit the U-bahn or tram.

That’s all for this week!
Stay Coolish
Hank Waterston