Beginnings

I know I said I'd never have a blog, but I failed to take into account one very crucial aspect of my personality: I am way too much of a bumbling American to not share my ridiculousness with my friends. Put another way, this blog will be my investment into the Great Karma Piggy Bank, providing you all with daily feelings of schadenfreude (hah, and I say I don't speak German! thanks Avenue Q).

So, let's start at the beginning. I arrived on Thursday, having slept very little despite having one of the most comfortable cross-the-pond flights imaginable (I love half-empty flights). I experienced my 3 hour Heathrow layover in a daze, made worse by the very questionable fashion choices of my fellow passengers in Terminal 3. White high top sneakers with zipper embellishments? Really? Anyway, my taxi was waiting for me at Vienna's airport, and I made it to my apartment with no problems.

My building is a little on the old side, so I was at first concerned I was entering an abandoned warehouse. After making it to what I assumed was my apartment, I realized Sarah (previous occupant, friend extraordinaire) was not there. I actually started calling out her name, and my voice echoed loudly throughout the 4 flights of stairs. I'm sure my neighbors already love their new crazy and loud American neighbor. I'm just doing my part in keeping those traveling American stereotypes alive!

Sarah arrived just 5 minutes after I started balefully bleeting her name, and after she and David helped me carry my embarrassingly heavy bags up the 4 flights of stairs, they took me on a lovely walk through the center of the city to a cafe. I also met the family that owns these apartments, and they're wonderful. By the time 8pm (Vienna time) rolled around, I'd been awake approximately 36 hours and was pretty much a complete mess. Sleep that night was awesome.

The next day, I discovered that I have no idea what approximately 30% of the items in the grocery store across the street are, and that I had no idea how to get grocery bags. So that's how I ended up carrying 5 bags of heavy groceries in vegetable bags, while local Viennese gave me puzzled looks. That evening was the IAEA Ball, which was just as enchanting as I'd thought it'd be (pictures are on facebook). It was held at Hofburg Palace, and it was pretty amazing to realize the very glamorous 1000-odd people in attendance were all nonproliferation nerds. I loved it and hope I can go again some day.

My internship started on Monday, and I'm very excited about the work I'll be doing and my research project. The VIC is very official looking, but I must say that I find the triangle-shaped buildings completely bewildering. For example, I know one pathway to the bathroom. Logically, there should be at least two, but I find the turns all so confusing that I am afraid to try getting back to my office via alternate routes. All of my coworkers are lovely, and I'm loving all of the varied accents that surround me. My Texan accent pales and seems hillbilly in comparison, and I've found myself tempering it in favor of an Eastern American/neutral/maybe-it'll-verge-on-old-school-hollywood? accent.

And so, that brings us to this evening, in which I told Val I had figured out how to get to a rock gym. After studying google maps intensely for 25 minutes (I'm not kidding), I'd found our route. Being the bumbling American I am, when it came time to change from the U-bahn to the tram, we just rushed out the first exit that looked plausible and boarded the tram that pulled up as we left the station. I don't know how people know what stop they're at on these trams, but for the life of me, I couldn't figure it out. Not a street sign was in sight, no announcements were given, nada. I got the sneaking suspicion we were going the wrong way, so we got off the tram a few minutes later. It turns out we were right, and we fortunately got on the right tram going in the opposite direction. We got off at the appropriate stop…and had no idea how to find the gym. After flailing around for a bit, Val was inspired by some signage that, upon closer examination, had the gym's logo!

End result is that after taking an hour to get to a location that was only 20 minutes, tops, away, we arrived at the gym. It's huge! Routes of varying lengths, some extremely long. And TONS of lead climbing. I'd say there was an equal amount of lead climbing, top roping, and bouldering going on. But also, GASP, all of the routes were in European. I have no idea how to convert the American ratings system to the European one, so I just eyed the routes and guessed which ones Val and I would enjoy. We ended up finding a chart as we were leaving with the conversions…but they seem off to me, and I swear that their own ratings weren't internally consistent. I'm still confused.

We finished off the evening with a doner and a schnitzelsommer, sold to us by a man who knew very little English and therefore kind of talked to us like we were five year olds. Like a privileged American brat, I've been starting every conversation with "Do you speak English?", and I've been rewarded with great patience and lots of help. Vienna is such a lovely city!