This mysterious land offers up a number of curiosities, not the least of which is the influence of Western civilization.
The Tunisians watch our movies (American movies, that is…), listen to our songs, and digest our pop culture. In fact, most middle school or high school Tunisian students are obsessed with Michael Jackson, his music, the movie “This is It,” a phenomenon which I believe was brought about by his death this past summer.
This dollop of Americana is only the icing on the cake which is Western influence. This cake, of course, is French culture. The majority of Tunisians can hold a simple conversations in French (though this becomes less likely the futher away from Tunis you go), and many are completely fluent. Most signs are written both in French and in Arabic. As the former colonizing power, France has signed a number of agreements with Tunisia which makes it easy for workers to move between the two countries. When you listen to Tunisians speaking in Arabic, they throw in French words in every other sentence. Tunisians can choose to do their shopping at local markets or at French-owned supermarkets.
Even the cities have a Western influence. The majority of cities in the Maghreb (which comprises Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco) have two parts: a medina and a ville nouvelle. The medina is the Islamic part of the city. It’s usually encompassed by a huge circular wall, with many many tiny streets, medersas (Q’uranic schools), and mosques inside. It’s an impossible maze, but at the same time there’s little chance of getting lost, because you end up going in circles. This is completely different from the ville nouvelle. The villes nouvelles were built outside the medina by the French during their colonization of the Maghreb. There are grands boulevards, streets in a grid pattern, order, administrative buildings, praticality.
In this vein, I celebrated Halloween by going to a fabulous cabaret with 3 French people and 3 Tunisians. This cabaret could have been anywhere in the world, judging by the fashionable clothes, the high prices, the inordinant consumption of alcohol, women dancing in very small skirts…the only thing that marred this globalization fantasy was the musicians playing along to a woman singing Arabic songs. I had never encountered this Tunisia before, where the jet-set came to frolick and pretend for one night that they were rich and beautiful anywhere else in the planet. I just hadn’t expected to find a Tunisia that was so, well, Western.
Overall, I think this anecdote says it best. One of my seventh grade students asked me recently, “What does ‘Oh my effing god mean’?” Um…fortunately, another student jumped into my stunned silence. “It just means, ‘Oh my god!’” Yes, let’s go with that explanation.
Tunisians take Western culture as something that is cool and novel. However, ultimately to understand it, they have to remove what they don’t understand, or what might be offensive.
26 September 2009
Is censorship merely an inevitable part of living in the Middle East? Certainly, I would love to believe that Islam can be present without censorship. However, Islamic countries do have a strong tendency to be more conservative than Christian countries. To what extent this conservativism is linked to a lower standard of development, of course, remains to be seen. I would not find it out of place to discover that less developed Christian countries (such as those in Central and South America, for example) are just as conservative as some of the more liberal Islamic countries (such as Morocco, Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt, Indonesia, etc). Nevertheless, life in Tunisia requires a certain amount of censorship, which is part of a larger inclination to promote or enforce a certain kind of morality. More specifically, this morality is a Muslim morality (which I find only natural, seeing as 98% of the population is Muslim).
Agreed, living in the US also imposes a certain kind of morality. Laws prohibit us from harming others, or from forcing our views onto other people. This in and of itself is a kind of –morality—we believe that it is immoral to hurt others. That seems fairly standard.
Naturally, the government and the culture of Tunisia impose a different kind of morality than that found in the US. For example, there is a large French-chain supermarket about 10 minutes away from my apartment. As I mentioned earlier, you could not buy alcohol in this supermarket during Ramadan since Ramadan is a holy Islamic month and observant Muslims are not supposed to drink alcohol (interestingly enough, pork is also forbidden to observant Muslims, yet pork was still available for purchase during Ramadan). Now that Ramadan is over, the alcohol cellar is open again. Some other teachers went to this wine cellar yesterday to buy some wine (another teacher was having a house warming and French people simply cannot show up without wine of some sort). As yesterday was Friday (the Muslim holy day), there were guards standing outside the wine cellar checking IDs. Presumably, if you are Tunisian (and thus, likely Muslim), you are not allowed to buy wine on Fridays (though this is permitted every other day of the week). Interestingly enough, wine is made in Tunisia, but hard liquor is not. Thusly, wine is reasonably priced, while a liter of Absolut vodka goes for as much as 140 TD (approximately $108 USD). I sincerely doubt that it is that expensive to import vodka, and so must conclude that this is another attempt to enforce Muslim morality.
Another example of this: you cannot access YouTube via the internet in Tunisia. That’s right, YouTube is banned (as are a number of different websites). Of course, this has not prevented the Tunisian youth from figuring out a way around this, but for the less technically savvy, YouTube is inaccessible.
Similarly, I have heard that Tunisian movie theaters only show movies from the Arab world (however, having not been to a Tunisian movie theater myself, I cannot confirm this). I do know for a fact, however, that Hollywood movies are shown on television on Arabic channels. The movies are all dubbed into Arabic. It is perfectly alright to show people getting shot or violence or uncensored cursing (presumably because no Arabic people understand English curse words), but all kisses are completely cut from the movie. That’s right, you cannot see people kiss (even nice, sweet kisses) but you can see people die or hear the word f***. It makes the movie slightly more difficult to understand when it skips portions entirely.
Lastly, as I mentioned in my previous post, the school has changed the photocopying policy for all of the teachers so that the Assistant Headmaster now sees all of our documents before we pass them out in class. The reason given for this is that the school hopes to improve organization and efficiency. Nevertheless, it would be fairly convenient to deny photocopies for a document which the Assistant Headmaster found offensive or inappropriate. Agreed, there are certain things which I do not think a teacher should bring up in a middle school or high school setting. But isn’t that my decision as a teacher?
Censorship, of course, is simply a part of Tunisian life which cannot be avoided, and I myself am never harmed by the lack of certain things. I can certainly live without YouTube and other websites, kisses in films, and alcohol during Ramadan—it may be irritating or inconvenient, but I’m pretty sure I’ll live. More serious is the potential censorship of the documents which I think are necessary to learning.
My question is, at what point should I stop seeing the censorship as another facet of the culture or as something merely inconvenient, and start seeing it as morally wrong?
24 September 2009
When I had to get my French visa, and then my Austrian visa, I thought that I had encountered the epitome of bureaucracy. Alas, it was not so. The wonders of European bureaucracy are unmatched by the tangled web which is Arabic management. For example, I, as a teacher, am not allowed to make my own photocopies for class. If I would like to print out a test for class, I have to email the test as an attachment to the man in charge of photocopies, with information about what class it’s for, and when you need it by. Of course, you are supposed to do this 24 hours in advance. Yet, even when you give more than 24 hours to complete the photocopies, the only way you can be sure that the copies are done is if you go see the photocopier and watch him make the copies. You are required to sign a record of each photocopy made for you, and keep a copy of everything you hand out in class. To add icing to the cake, this system has suddenly become more complicated. Where once we only had to send emails to the photocopier, now anything that we want to copy must be submitted to the Assistant Headmaster at least 48 hours in advance. After she signs off on it, then we have to resubmit the document to the photocopier. Ostensibly, this new system is supposed to lighten the workload for the man in charge of photocopies (while simultaneously creating more work for the Assistant Headmaster…not exactly efficient). Yet, nevertheless, the word “censorship” is being whispered in hushed tones at the teacher’s residence (a subject which I will delve into in a later post).
This is a great example of how things are prioritized in Arabic countries—relationally. Personal relationships are extremely important, and so if you want to get something done, you have to be nice and make friends with the person first. Personal relationships make the world go round; not the Protestant work ethic, not capitalism, and not the search for pleasure, but relationships.
Here’s another good example. To find out how things happen at school, I hear about it through rumor, through other people. The only centralized system of information distribution is a cork board in the teachers’ room. All official notices are posted here, often with only 24 hours notice, and some of them are posted with the assumption that everyone knows what they concern. I have become especially adept at saying the French phrases “Qu’est-ce que ça veut dire?” (What does this mean?) and “Donc, je fais quoi exactement?” (So, I’m doing what now?). Information is passed along by word of mouth, so if you want to be in the loop, you have to make an effort to make friends with people in the know. For someone used to the impersonal yet efficient organization of the Occidental world, this can be infuriatingly frustrating and opaque. Of course, the Tunisian teachers and administrators see nothing out of the ordinary, and there’s nothing to be done but to calm down and realize: c’est comme ça (that’s the way it is).
13 September 2009
Recently, a great many things have occurred which I found curious or strange, as I know, dear reader, you will find them as well. For your amusement and cultural enlightenment, I have compiled a short list of interesting tidbits of the past week.
Lobster Escape
I went to a very chic, nice Italian restaurant specializing in seafood. When my friend and I were browsing through the menu, the waiter brought us a platter of fish. The idea behind this gesture was that we could select exactly which fish caught our fancy, and then have it prepared straight away. In the center of this scaly feast was a whole lobster. Just how fresh this lobster was exactly was proven while the waiter was taking our orders. Hearing that he was not to be our entrée, the lobster decided to make a run for safety, and proceeded to climb off of the platter. The waiter was not fazed a bit, and held the lobster in place with one hand while taking our orders down with the other. I, however, was slightly unnerved to discover that the lobster was still completely viable and attempting to run away.
Somewhere between apple juice and apple sauce
In the heat of the midday, I stopped in a café. Something cool and refreshing was in order, and apple juice seemed to fit the bill. I’m not certain, however, that what I was brought could be properly called “apple juice,” so much as “a whole apple which was liquefied in a blender.” I was actually unable to finish the apple juice because at the bottom were chunks of apple too big to fit into my straw, and I had no spoon.
Sorry, wrong number. But, would you like to get dinner?
Last week my Tunisian cell phone dialed incorrectly (or I did, perhaps), and I reached a person other than the one I was trying to contact. I said sorry, and hung up (standard wrong number operating procedure in the US). However, the man called me back and asked (in French), “Are you French?” “No,” I said, “Um…goodbye.” Approximately 5 days later, the same man called me back and said, “Oh, you called me a few days ago, and I was thinking, would you like to go out and get a tea together?” “Actually, no,” I said, “goodbye.” Such is the draw of the Occidental woman.
4 September 2009
Ramadan kareem! I’ve been in Tunisia for about a week and a half, and all I know is a Tunisia during Ramadan. Ramadan in Tunisia is really fascinating and wonderful. This is the month during which Allah revealed the Qu’ran to the Prophet Mohammed (a fact which I learned from watching a popular Tunisian TV show with my Tunisian neighbors). To honor this month, Muslims do not consume anything by mouth during daylight hours—so no food, drinks, or cigarettes from sun-up to sun-down. Normally Ramadan takes place later in the autumn, but since the Islamic calendar does not always correspond with the Gregorian calendar, this year it started on 21 August. As you might imagine, it’s HOT in Tunisia this time of the year. Very hot. This makes it even more difficult to go through the entire day without even having water. The Tunisian schools don’t even start classes this year until after Ramadan is over (19 September). Some of my Tunisian neighbors (they’re teenagers, mind you) deal with this by sleeping basically from sun-up to 6 pm, and then eating dinner at 7 pm when the sun goes down.
Due to Ramadan, all store hours change (with the exception of the big French supermarket). Stores don’t open until 9 or 10, and then they close between 2 and 4. Alcohol is normally available here in Tunisia for all of the tourists and French ex-patriots, but during Ramadan many stores discontinue selling it (since alcohol is forbidden to observant Muslims). In fact, some people can be very strict about this. One of my colleagues, a teacher from France, just couldn’t go any longer without a bottle of wine. She had to search high and low before she found a store that was still selling it. The store owner wrapped the wine bottle in paper and then she put it in her big purse so no one could see it. However, in the cab on the way back to her apartment, the driver heard the glass bottle clicking. He asked what it was, and she lied and said it was olive oil, but I guess he knew better and he made her get out of the cab and find another taxi. Of course, this is an extreme case, and the majority of Tunisians understand that non-Muslims will be eating and drinking during the day. For the most part, restaurants and cafes close during the day, except for some in touristy areas.
This is just during the day, however. After sunset, every night is like a party. Here, the sun sets around 7 pm, and people commence eating immediately. Good luck finding a taxi between 7 and 8, because everyone is home eating. Ramadan dinner always starts with a soup, chorba, which can take many variations depending on where it’s made. Here in Tunisia, it’s a chicken broth based soup with risotto and chicken. There’s also usually a roasted salad, made from roasted peppers, tomatoes, garlic, and olive oil—very spicy. There are also briks, which are pastries stuffed with egg, tuna, onions, and parsley (mmm…). There’s also Tunisian tajine, which is sort of like a casserole and an omlette, with eggs, cheese, a meat, and veggies. There is also usually pasta, or chicken made with lemon juice and olives. Of course couscous is also very popular. There are always desserts, such as baklava, cakes with dates, and hazelnut pudding.
After filling themselves to the brim, the Tunisians will start to trickle out of their homes around 9. They go to cafes and smoke hookah, or drink Turkish coffee (highly sweetened coffee with very fine coffee grounds) and mint tea, which is usually served with pine nuts. All in all, Ramadan is a month constantly between two poles—fasting and feasting, malaise and conviviality.
31 August 2009
Common misconceptions
The past six days have been a stretch. Of course, it’s always true that when studying abroad your mind is forced into pretzel contortions that it is unused to. There are many common misconceptions (and true prejudices), as I see them, about Tunisia.
1) Since it’s a Muslim country, everyone is really conservative.
Yes and no. Yes, 98% of the population is Muslim, but you can see women wearing anything from hijab (a headscarf) and a chador (like a loose, floor length, long sleeved dress), to hijab and conservative Western wear, to regular Western wear like anyone in America would wear. Habib Bourguiba, the first president of an independent Tunisia after French colonization, actually banned the wearing of hijab in school a good 40 years before France controversially enacted the same law. At the same time, I have seen women swimming in the ocean in full hijab and chador. It takes all kinds, of course, but on the whole Tunisia is much less conservative than we might think from America, and the people are very tolerant of me wearing what I want.
2) Tunisia is an African country.
Geographically, yes, this is true. However, in terms of its culture, political stability, economy, development, and even climate, it much more resembles the Middle East (which is also true of the other countries of North Africa: Morocco, Libya, Algeria, and Egypt). So, when someone says North Africa, it’s not actually like sub-Saharan Africa.
3) Tunisian men harass Western women.
This one is not quite a misconception. True, they have absolutely no problem staring at you openly as you walk past. This, in turn, means that eye contact is a sign of interest. Accordingly, I have developed the new skill of walking around, with my head up (mostly just so I don’t run into anything) but without actually making eye contact with anyone. You have to learn to make your eyes focus on the spaces between people, which is difficult to do initially. In addition to staring a lot, they will always sometimes say “Bonjour” or “Hello” as you walk past them. At last, they may just walk up to you and strike up a conversation, all simply because you look like you don’t belong. However, I’m fairly sure this can’t be classified as harassment. Tunisia is a very safe country (in part because there are police literally everywhere), and these men, if you insist, will leave you alone without hard feelings. Nevertheless, it is very disconcerting initially, and I think we Western women blow it out of proportion in our minds.
That should suffice for now. Au revoir!
I’ve been home for three days now and it’s been…interesting.
I hate that I have to drive everywhere, and I am now keenly aware of wasted energy. I feel like I live in the middle of nowhere. The grocery store is enormous and overwhelming. Coins are suddenly useless. I’m not allowed to drink anymore. I can eavesdrop on the people around me again. I’m expected to say hello to random strangers that I pass. I’ve gotten to have a fruit smoothie, granola, and I’m looking forward to pancakes. Fruit keeps for more than two days. I don’t have to struggle to communicate what I want anymore. I miss gemuetlichkeit (savoring life, sitting outside drinking wine, discussing philosophy in a Kaffeehaus–in German one word can mean all of that). I miss Vienna. I’m glad to be home.
Football madness arrived in Vienna on 7 June. I missed the opening ceremonies being in Slovenia, but I was quickly thrown into it as soon as I got back. For those who are unfamiliar with the European Football Championships, here’s some background:
The Euro Cup is held every 4 years, alternating with the World Cup, which is also every 4 years. It’s kind of like the Winter and Summer Olympics. The last World Cup was in Germany in 2006, and the next one is in South Africa in 2010. I’m not entirely sure on the details of qualifying, but depending on how well they do, 16 countries make it into the Euro. This year Austria and Switzerland are co-hosting the championships, so those two teams automatically make it into the tournament (even though Austria would not have qualified otherwise). The 16 teams are divided up into groups of 4, and each team in a group plays every other team. The top two teams from each group move onto the quarter-finals. The teams play one game, and then 4 teams move onto the semi-finals. Right now, Russia, Germany, Turkey, and Spain are in the semi-finals. Austria and Switzerland were predictably knocked out after the group stage.
In any case, those are the technical aspects of the championships. The reality of living in a city hosting the Euro Cup is a completely different matter. In the center of the city, you can find drunk fans as early as 11 am. Even someone who could less about sports, such as myself, becomes sucked into it. You start to absorb the stats and the knowledge of who’s playing who on what nights, and how many points each team has, etc. Seeing people walking around the city wearing flags and singing loudly is now a normal occurence. Groups of people supporting the same team exchange knowing nods when they pass on the street. Almost every single bar or restaurant in the city shows the game. I’ve even seen dogs with the Austrian flag painting on their snouts. There is just no way to describe how intensely people feel about these games.
On the weekend 14-16 June, two German friends of mine came to visit me and enjoy the Euro atmosphere. We watched every match being played that weekend, and I learned the basics to being a football fan.
Step one: Identify the two teams. Pick a side (preferably the one the people around you are supporting). Now figure out which goal they are going for.
Step two: Learn the 5 essential noises. 1) When someone on your team falls down, make a noise of indignation. 2) If someone on your team is given a free kick or a penalty kick, wiggle your fingers at the TV screen and make “good vibes” sounds while he’s preparing for the kick. As the kick soars towards the goal, make an climatic and anticipatory sound. 3) When someone on your team shoots the ball at the goal and misses, make a sound of disappointment. 4) When someone on your team scores, yell excitedly, and hug the people around–but just the people you know already. 5) When the other team scores, you must be silent. If it was a really fantastic goal, you may clap begrudingly.
Once you have mastered these 5 noises, you can add football chants and the like. I learned a number of chants while my German friends were visiting, and so discovered that football chants are often silly and make no sense. For example, one chant goes: “Ole, ole, ole ole ole, super Deutschland, super Deutschland, super Deutschland le-o-le.” Not very creative. The Austrian chants don’t make much sense translated either. They roughly approximate to “Always again, always again, always again Austria” or “We’re singing red, we’re singing white, we’re singing red white Austria” (the Austrian flag is red and white, and in German “white” and “Austria” rhyme). When the French watch football, they will often yell “Allez!” (Go!), so to make fun of them the Germans will sing “Alley–a street with lots of trees, yeah that’s an alley.” My favorite chant was one where they sang “The Austrians walk like this, the Austrians walk like this” (while walking bent over and defeated) and then “The Germans walk like this, the Germans walk like this!” (while jumping up and down).
The game between Germany and Austria was huge, even though it was still in the group stages. Thousands of Germans took the train to Vienna, and Austrians from all over the country came to watch the game. The vast majority of people do not have tickets, so they watch the game in the FanZone. The FanZone is a huge public viewing area, with at least 10 giant screens throughout it. To even get into the FanZone, you have to be patted down, and all of your bags and pockets are searched. No food or drink is allowed in, nor anything that might possibly function as a weapon. The FanZone in Vienna take about 15 minutes to walk from end to end, and probably covers 7 or 8 city blocks. It’s pretty enormous.
For the Austria-Germany game, my friends assured me that the FanZone would be overwhelmed with people, and so we arrived 3 hours before the game started. Even then, we got stuck in a crowd that had its own mind, and basically moved you without your consent, because everyone has to get patted down and searched. Once inside, we were still very far away from the screen, even being that early, and it was tight standing room only. The three hours passed pretty quickly because the fans kept chanting and it was a great place to people watch. We were right on the edge of a German and an Austrian area, and the two groups of fans were quite friendly–no animosity, just good-natured ribbing.
I didn’t really seen any hooligan-type activity until after the game. Germany won (the last time Austria won against Germany was in 1978) and after the game huge crowds of people went to the heart of the city at Stephansdom. There was a crowd of Austrians and a crowd of Germans, basically facing off and taunting each other. The situation would have been fine but about a hundred riot police arrived on the scene and formed a physcial barrier between the two groups of fans. The groups weren’t even that big, maybe 50 people, because everyone else just stayed out of it and watched. The groups threw a couple of cans and bottles at each other, and someone set off a firework, but nothing actually happened and I don’t think it would have even without the riot police. I guess the other night after Turkey won against Croatia there were Turkish fans out wearing ski masks–I suppose so that the police wouldn’t be able to identify them. That’s a little over the top. The worst hooligans are supposedly from England, but England didn’t qualify for the Euro Cup so the next best thing is the Polish, apparently. They were eliminated during the group stage, though, and now the most raucous fans are probably the Turkish. The fans are extreme, but not hooligans like we think of them in the US.
Anyway, being in Vienna when the Euro Cup is going on is really a priceless experience. It makes me feel like I’m really part of European culture. We get a break until the 25th, when the semi-finals are, and then the final is on the 29th. Hopefully Germany will go all the way!!!!
Okay, so I haven’t really written anything this entire month. I’m a little bit behind. The past three weeks have been full of homework and the 2008 European Football Championships.
The first weekend of June I decided to treat myself to a weekend alone in Bled, Slovenia (partly because it’s nice to get away by yourself for a while, and partly because no one could go with me). Bled is a beautiful resort-type town in Slovenia, about six hours away by train from Vienna. I had a lot of homework to bring with me, so the long train ride was perfect for me. I arrived there Friday evening, and spent some time walking around the lake that Bled borders. I have never seen such beautiful clear water in my life–you could see literally hundreds of fish, and more ducks than I’ve ever encountered in my life.
On Saturday I saw the only two sites in Bled–a church on the island in Lake Bled, and Bled Castle. To get to the island you have to take a gondola out, and then you can explore the little island and the church. If you ring the church’s bell your wishes will come true, so naturally I did that.
On the gondola ride I was fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of American small talk. There were about 6 Americans, 4 Italians, 2 Germans, and me on the gondola, and from the minute the Americans stepped on they just started talking and talking, wanting to know something about everyone. I guess I’ve been in Europe for too long because it rubbed me the wrong way, so the German couple and I made a concerted effort to ignore the Americans and their efforts at friendliness. You just don’t see Austrian or French people talking to strangers on the U-Bahn, in restaurants, on airplanes, etc. The only time a stranger has tried to strike up a conversation with me it usually ends with him asking for my phone number.
After that I wandered over to the castle and spent some time poking around it. What surprised me most was the band of teenagers in Renaissance fair style garb (with tunics and hose and swords, etc) hanging around. I guess I thought that the Renaissance fair was more of an American thing, but apparently everyone likes dressing up and playing with sharp objects.
It kept raining on and off the weekend I was there, which was good for my purposes because I just retreated to my room and read or worked on my homework. When I was outside I spent an awful lot of time just sitting on the docks and watching the fish or the ducks.
On Sunday I decided in lieu of going on a hike through the Julian Alps, I would relax some more. There are mineral springs in Bled which get pumped into the swimming pools of the hotels. I went and swam in one of the mineral springs swimming pools, and it was freezing. Quiet chilly. Fortunately, they also had saunas there, so I spent a good chunk of the day alternating between Finnish sauna, Turkish sauna, infrared sauna, and the mineral water pool. They also had a cold flush there, which was like a shower, except you pulled on this cord and a huge bucket of cold water dumped all over you. That was sort of fun.
All in all, I got a lot of relaxing, reading, and writing done while I was down there, so I think it was worth it going down by myself. The Slovenian people were all friendly, and everyone seemed to be extra nice to me seeing that I was alone. Traveling alone is such an incredible experience, partly because you avoid all of the friction of deciding what to do and see, but also because you have to be completely independent in a new environment. I like the feeling that I get when I am able to take care of myself. The time to think and read is also very useful–it helps me get my thoughts in order.
All in all, Bled was a beautiful town, perfect for relaxing, and even the rain couldn’t dampen my mood.
So today’s the last day of May. I can’t believe that I’ve been here that long! I also can’t believe that it’s almost June and I still have 3 more weeks of school, and one week to finish up all of my work. May has been a pretty hectic month, with lots of travelling because there have been lots of four-day weekends due to a number of holidays. First there was Labor Day, then Pentecost, and then Corpus Christi (last Thursday).
As last Thursday was Corpus Christi (a Catholic celebration of the rite of Communion), me and some other friends went up the Danube to visit Durnstein. Durnstein is the castle where King Richard the Lion-hearted was imprisoned on his way back from the Crusades. The castle was mostly destroyed by the Swedish near the end of the Thirty Years War, so we just hiked up the castle and wandered around the ruins. We also got to wander around the quaint little town. There were branches lining the main pedestrian street, and fresh hay on the ground. I assume that was because of Corpus Christi, and that they had had some kind of procession there in the morning. In the early evening we went to a Heuriger (a new wine restaurant), where we had white wine grown in Durnstein and then slices of meat and cheese to go with it. The more traditional Heurigers usually only serve appetizer-type things, and this was one of those.
A new U-bahn line has opened up only a couple of blocks away from my dorm, so now I can get to school in 20 minutes instead of 45. I love it so much. Otherwise, things are fairly uninteresting here. I have 4 more weeks in Vienna, and I hope that I won’t be so overwhelmed with work that I will be too preoccupied to enjoy my remaining time here and the Euro Cup (which starts in a week from today!).
