36yearsago.com

Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing & friends.

Day 8 — German language class starts
10-August-1971 (Tue.)

TRANSCRIPT

Classes started. I have a teacher named Herr Albert S. I am in a level II course and I believe I am doing considerably well. The professor is very good and humorous. My conversations also seem to be getting better.

Marionhilferstrasse—very long street good for shopping and students.


REFLECTIONS

Summer German class. Yay, school has started. Classes were at the University of Vienna, just off the “Ring” [Ringstrasse], I believe (can’t remember, exactly). I believe that we could walk through the center of the Ring or around it, to get to the University, or take a streetcar. I don’t think it was a long walk. If I remember correctly, the Ring was a series of avenues, somewhat oval-shaped, that circled the inner city of Vienna. Many Viennese palaces, Opera, theatre, and museums are situated in and around this central location; a must-see if you visit Vienna. I wonder if I could partner with Rick Steves and PBS to do a deal.

Ringstrasse: My only picture of the Ringstrasse is of this gentleman who is cleaning the streetcar lane with a "thatched" broom. You can see the train tracks of the streetcar.

[Perhaps, I’ll try Google Earth, or Google Maps. But I don’t have the exact addresses. Oh well. Technology can’t solve everything.]

Regardless, I’m obviously enjoying the German class and the professor.

International friendship. I don’t know if I will say this later, but I will say it now. After my return to the U.S., I promised myself that I would return “every year” to take a one-month long language course in every city and country in Europe. I really loved this whole concept of learning languages while seeing a city up close with new international friends. [Stay tuned for the exciting announcement of whether I achieved the goal of studying a new foreign language in all of the major cities of Europe at the end of this journal (perhaps, in August of 1972). Did John return to study the many languages and explore the cities of Europe? (music fade) Err, watch out when you start referring to yourself in the third person.]

It would be a shame if that international spirit of friendship were lost in today’s strife-filled world. When you watch the news, it seems like it is lost. However, there are many good things happening everywhere that we don’t see. So, we’ll hope that the “spirit of friendship” is still with us. The young people of the world are always the best messengers of this change. Let’s get out of the way. [This will not be a political blog, just a thought.]

Back to normal life. I went shopping.

Dorn & Kindersley travel guides. I will look at my DK Eyewitness Travel Guides published by Dorling Kindersley for Vienna and Austria as the journal moves on. As I said, I will be posting in haste and then will edit a bit over the next few days as I read them online. Hopefully, I’ll catch the misspellings of any street names or sites.

That’s it for today.


John

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Tags: languages, save the world