Day 009: Grinzing wine tasting
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day 9 — Grinzing wine tasting
11-August-1971
(Wed.)
TRANSCRIPT
Class is fairly hard. Today, I went up to the board.
The teacher dictated and I wrote. I wrote down a
bunch of separate terms, from which you can get a
meaning. The professor said, “Ist das gut” and I
replied, “für mich, das ist gut”…my first attempt at
humor. Succeeded.
Shopped for necessities.
Grinzing
Tour
From University, went to the wine house in Grinzing.
Tasted wine and food. Very enjoyable. Met a Spanish
girl–Maria. Very pleasant conversation. It seems as
though most Europeans know how to speak several
languages. Europeans also know how to have a good
time and most aren’t inhibited. Together, everyone
talks and sings.
REFLECTIONS
German
class. In German
class, I try my first attempt at humor. “Is that
good?” asked the professor in response to my paltry
try at guessing the meaning of some word I had
written on the board? Stoically, I said, “For me
(myself), that is good.” Wait a second, that’s
not funny
in
any language.
The German language courses were in the morning. The
afternoons (and sometimes early evenings) were often
reserved for group tours and activities in which all
the summer university students could participate.
Some of them were fee-based events. Sometimes you had
the afternoon off to do your own sightseeing.
Basically, you could choose to do whatever you
wanted.
I went on the university sightseeing tours because I
had no idea where to go on my own. If you ever take
one of these summer language courses, take advantage
of the tours to see the city and its environs.
Grinzing
wine district. Grinzing,
I was told, was a wine-making region just outside of
the city. I remember that it was truly enjoyable,
eating and tasting the wine, outdoors in the early
evening. Food, conversation, music, singing,
companionship. What more can you ask for? (girls)
(Well, voila!)
Trying
to pick up a Spanish girl. Met a
Spanish girl. Once again, “everyone” apparently knows
a whole “bunch” of languages. Those Europeans; what
if your countries weren’t so close together? What
then? Do people in the U.S. who live near Canada know
“Canadian?” I’ve never been to Spain. I know it’s
beautiful. (Please, let me win the Lottery so that I
can
finally go.)
Well, I can’t say much about the specifics of every
event (faulty neurons), and I don’t specifically
remember everyone I’ve only met once. The journal
says I had an enjoyable time, so I had an enjoyable
time. I remember being outside in a vineyard,
talking, and listening to everyone sing. Very nice.
Social
singing. Americans
need to learn some common songs that they can sing at
get-togethers.
(Take Me Out to the Ballgame doesn’t
count.) Many
cultures
have this
tradition of singing when they get together—eat,
drink, and sing. My wife, Olga (Ukrainian), and her
friends sing a lot, especially at holidays. Why don’t
the Americans do it? Let's try.
The
eensie, weensie, spider ran up the water spout.
Down came the ….
Is this song public domain?
John
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