An American Werewolf in Austria

As our stay winds down, I find myself becoming sluggish and achy (perhaps I'm getting sick, or maybe I'm just completely exhausted from our jam-packed month!) Despite this, I was determined to visit Stift Klosterneuburg one last time. August 28th was the memorial of Saint Augustine, the patron saint of the Augustinians, and thus Klosterneuburg was having a celebration. There was a morning mass with musical accompaniment, and a few of us made the journey back to enjoy the ceremonies. 28.8.2019. I admit, I have never strived to sit through a Catholic mass before. But as mentioned, Klosterneuberg had captured my heart, and I was willing to sit it out in order to visit the monastery one last time. Father Ambros was kind enough to treat us to coffee before the mass began. He's always such delightful (and very amusing) company! A view from the pews Since the mass was entirely in German, and I know approximately 6 words in German, one would expect a boring few hour...

Please excuse the odd placement of this entry at the end of the diary - as the original experienced some technical difficulties, I have reformatted it to make it more readable. Day 11. A quiet Sunday allowed for a journey to the Judenplatz and the Vienna Jewish Museum. The silence of the Ringstrasse on Sundays is refreshing - the crowds of tourists gone from the streets, stores closed. How quiet Vienna can be on a Sunday - silent streets and cloudy skies. I wandered north of the area, hopping a few trains and exploring, before getting off near the Judenplatz. Still acclimating to the city, I got turned around a few times, but managed to find my way to the monument that stands in the square. The Judenplatz Holocaust Memorial is an interesting commemorative piece. Designed by Rachel Whiteread, the stone structure was purposefully erected as a piece that is out of place with the rest of the baroque art and architecture of the surrounding area - a cold, unwelcome slab ...

If you're here, it means we're back. By the final days of the trip, I mentioned that exhaustion and a looming illness had set in and I lost quite a bit of steam - final plans, unfortunately gone to the wayside. I'd intended to visit the Prater amusement park once more, and perhaps the Sigmund Freud museum, but both these things became distant goals as I sat in bed sick during one of the brutal 90 degree days. Sipping water and imitation gatorade was imperative before getting ready for our goodbye dinner. Yet, I feel no regret for lost time, as I had come to feel at home in my dorm room. The heavy double windows which I left open for most of the humid summer allowed for a slight breeze to waft through the apartment, sounds of the street heard below. The chatter of students in other apartments, dogs barking and children laughing, the streetcar ding-ding-dinging down an adjacent street. The sounds of a city, alive and vibrant, where Viennese natives were beginning to retur...

On August 12th, our class visited the small town of Eisenstadt . Once a vibrant hub of Jewish culture and community, the catastrophic events of World War II decimated the Jewish population. Today, few Jews remain in the area. Despite this, Eisenstadt is now home to the Osterreichisches Judisches Museum (The Jewish Museum of Austria.) In the area of town where the Jewish section of town once stood, a rich historical legacy is present. Around the corner from the Museum, the Older Jewish cemetery resides. Containing 1085 graves of historical and genealogical significance, the oldest of which dates back to 1679. However, these remarkable gravestones have begun to wear from time, becoming more and more difficult to decipher over the years. Enter Johannes Reiss, the devoted director of the museum, who had a plan to rescue and archive the information that the cemetery held. Using a remarkable mesh of QR-code technology and groundbreaking innovation, he embarked on a project that would all...

My UN badge! I wish I could have kept it. Our last official tour, which took place at the UN! Unfortunately, many of us were exhausted after the Mauthausen excursion. I was very tired, but excited to see the IAEA operations and hopefully ask some meaningful questions. Nuclear energy is a complex topic, and I personally have never landed on a definitive position as to whether I totally support it or not. On the pro side, it’s clean energy that can supply millions with power for a relatively reasonable cost. However, since Fukushima, the idea of nuclear power has fallen out of favor. PG&E has recently closed and decommissioned Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant here in California, due to the fact that wind and solar power offers an energy alternative that doesn’t have such potential dire circumstances and is overall cheaper to run. While I support any initiative to supply cleaner and cheaper power to Californians, it doesn’t answer the question of what we do with residual nuclear w...

“The museum culture of the camp sites has been formed by the vagaries and neuroses of our unsorted, collective memory. It is based on a profound superstition, that is, on the belief that the ghosts can be met and kept in their place, where the living ceased to breathe.” Ruth Kluger, “Still Alive." No pictures are needed for this entry, as pictures are meant for pleasant memories, ones that you wish to recall decades down the line. It's not that I don't want to recall Mauthausen concentration camp - in fact, quite the opposite. I want to sear its image into my brain. I want to remember the sun beating down on my face on the pathway to the enclosure, the stench of sweat that still permeated the wood in the barracks, the stones on the ground beneath my feet. Approaching the camp I noted the remarkable similarities to the Vacaville Prison - the surrounding hills, the town at its base, the road that travels to and from the main gate. The only way in or out. The houses on ...