Last Week - Fulbright Orientation
The week before last we had our orientation from the Fulbright program. There are 10 Fulbright research grantees in this region (this is what I am), 10 Fulbright TAs (they are also funded partially by the work they do teaching English here to high school students), and 4 professors who are here teaching at the university. We met for the first time on Wednesday, Sept. 21 and we had sessions until Friday. Saturday we went on a trip to the Melk Monastary about an hour and 15 minutes west of Vienna and we got a tour of the museum there. Then we went on a boat on the Danube and went up to Duernstein for another tour of the castle there. It was really lovely - here are some pictures of the Fulbright folks on the boat. On the right is a picture of us all at Melk. Then below that is a picture of Kelly and Kim on the boat. Below that is a picture of a lovely house that looks like it has grown out of the side of a mountain (as seen from the boat). Below that is Carly Kim and Kelly being silly (you guessed it...on the boat). Below that is a picture of Kelly, Danny and me. Below that is a picture from the Melk Monastary - I think that was the moscelized remains of one of the monks. Below that is a picture of the cieling in the cathedral at Melk - it is hand painted and very Baroque.

Fulbright Sessions
The sessions they planned for us were quite remarkable. Dr. Anneliese Rohrer, former Chief Foreign Affairs Editor of the Austrian newspaper, Die Presse, spoke to us about the Austrian condition. Her English was amazing, elegant and articulate, and her point of view was candid and informative.

Politics Breakout
The political system is at the same time similar to ours in some ways, for example, the people do vote to elect leaders and representatives, but differs especially in the fact that there are so many various parties. What they end up doing is forming multi-party coalitions in parliament in order to decide who controls the head of state. At the moment, the Federal President is Heinz Fischer and the chancellor is Wolfgang Schuessel.

Jőrg Haider
If you read the world politics, you may have seen that there was a man named Jőrg Haider who gained power as the leader of the Freedom Party in 1999, when his party won an unprecidented 27% of the votes in the election. He has been a very contravertial figure in politics since his parents were early joiners of the Nazi party, he inherited land whose former owner was an Italian Jew forced to sell during the Nazi's rise to power, and since he has a history of being fiercely anti EU (European Union). Take a look at some of the quotes listed on this website - very interesting to read what he has to say about Nazis.

Fulbright Sessions: University System
Dr. Josef Leidenfrost, who works in the office of the Austrian Federal Minister of Education, spoke to us about the education system in Austria. Going to university is different here. For one thing, as long as you get the "matura," which means passing the exams you take after high school, you may go to university. You don't apply the way you do in America. Also, most people go to the public university. Private universities are not as common, and are not given any special priority in people's esteem. Also, until recently it was free to attend university! Now it is about 280 Euros per year, which compared to tuition even at the most modest of state schools in the US, pales in comparison. What has happened is that some people will sign up for university even if they do not want to go so they can get discounts and special treatment as a student. Then they don't go to classes, or don't write the exam (which is what gets you the credit) and it's really the state that's out the funds. Additionally, as my roommate explains it, since the university is really not making money, they don't feel the need to "serve their client." For example, technology and the university is not as sophisticated as in the US - registration for classes is difficult, with much competition for a few coveted seats for exams/classes and requires going around to each individual department the first day of class in order to stand in line to try to sign up for most of the classes. I understand that it is similar throughout Europe.

There is only the "Uni Wien" in Vienna - I mean to say that when someone says they are going to university in Vienna, that's where they're going. There are different sections that may be on their own for certain purposes, but I think this differs from the US. If you said you were going to university in Dallas, there would be 10 different places you could be talking about.

About University of Vienna
"The University of Vienna was founded by Duke Rudolf IV in 1365, being modelled after the universities of Bologna and Paris. The University of Vienna is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and one of the largest universities of Central Europe."

It's really an amazing place with a long history - the only place in the US that is somewhat comparable in my mind is somewhere like Harvard, but even so, it is nowhere near as old as this university. This was one of the first universities ever! It is spread out all over the city, so you really have to pay attention to where something is taking place.