Business in the Biergarten

The program I am here with is called the International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience, or IAESTE for short. It is (as the name would imply) and international association with member clubs (called Local Committees or LCs) at universities all over the world. Some 80-plus countries have participated in the intern exchange program over its 60 year history. The job of the local committees is basically to raise interest in IAESTE among employers and donors in the university and nearby commercial community, and if possible to secure a job offer for an intern from abroad so as to trade this offer and, in turn, be able to send an intern abroad that summer. Our program back home is pretty modest, with maybe about ten active members in the group, and as next year’s President I’m hoping to push us to a higher level of activity and commitment to the group and to achieve some more aggressive goals set in job- and fundraising. I’ve found a great model for doing just that over here in Vienna.

European clubs in general seem to be a lot better put-together than the American clubs I met at the National Conference in Baltimore this year, but this is especially the case in Vienna. Both the University of Vienna and a different university (called Bodenkultur, Boku for short, which focuses on agriculture/natural resource sciences, and which is actually the LC I was traded with) have LCs here, and they collaborate on a number of things, from putting up interns to holding a Summer Reception event in Vienna. There will be over 150 people coming in for the first weekend in July for some activities and parties that will be part of the Vienna weekend, and I’m really looking forward to it. That Friday is the Fourth, and as (I’m pretty sure) the only intern from America, I’ll be touting my American pride. (You know that shirt I have, the one with the kittens and the American flag?)

Boku held a meeting on Wednesday to talk over some of the financial details of planning the weekend with a representative from Vienna, and the three Boku interns already here were invited along. One, whose name is something like Ilena, is from Croatia, has been here a while already, and works on the same floor as I do at my internship, though she works in Chemistry while I work in Chromatography. She had made other plans and was unable to come Wednesday night. The other, Gülin, just arrived on Monday and was at the get-together.

Public transportation in Vienna is extraordinarily manageable; I don’t know if I’ve ever been in another city with a better infrastructure. The subway (U-Bahn) extends pretty far, the setup of lines is very easy to navigate, and the stations are very clearly marked to get you where you need to go. The streetcars and busses are also tied into this system, which you can access for a pretty cheap monthly pass, and there are also two or three train stations that run out to the countryside and to the airport.

However, as with any resource, the utility of this transit net depends largely upon the user’s ability. While it’s a very simple matter for me to get to work (take a subway line to the second stop from the end, jump on the streetcar from there for two more stops, and walk down the street), the trains can only be so helpful if I don’t know exactly where I’m going.

Such was the case Wednesday night. I received an e-mail earlier in the week (my phone situation is still unsettled, and grieves me to no end) giving me vague directions to a Biergarten where the meeting would be held, but the key was for me to meet one of the member at the station at about a quarter to seven, and he would take me and whomever else showed up back with him. However, I underestimated how long the trek would take and showed up fifteen minutes which, despite having RSVPed, was apparently sufficient time to warrant my guide’s supposition that I had decided not to come. I wandered around the station for a little bit trying to find him (this was a larger station with some stores and food stands) before realizing it was in vain. Fuming, at him, at myself, at the situation in general, I wandered vaguely out into the neighborhood, asking a few people if there was a Biergarten in the area, trying myself to remember the name that had been in the e-mail. I came up with “Schönbrunner Biergarten,” but given that the area I was in was Schonbrunn, it didn’t seem to be too immediately helpful.

At any rate, Schonbrunn is a very pleasant part of town, home to a large royal palace and a slough of antiquated architectural styles bedecking its houses and shopfronts, with the quickly-running Wienfluß (Vienna River) running through it some three stories below street level. It also holds a considerable amount of foliage in comparison to the part of town where I live, though in its defense, I am not too far away from the inner ring, which includes a good number of trees and parks and a lot more open green space than one would find in any other modern city. I was able to find a couple of parks in my short jaunt, but it seemed like most of the greenery was stuffed somewhat unceremoniously into the nooks and crannies of the urban setting. It reminded me of my week-long stay in Hanover; I remember the impression that the small New England town’s relation to the wilderness left on me. It was quite reminiscent of Brainerd in a few ways, but in others it had a distinctly New England feel – I felt like I was in some sort of movie – in how bushes and shrubs seemed to be so forcefully integrated into the “downtown” strip of town. After giving it a little thought, I decided that it may just be the fact that the comparable plants back home seem so docile and domesticated that these miniature jungles of unruly branches and dark leaves strike me as overdriven attempts at disguising the harsh artificiality of a nature conquered and subjugated.

After considerable wandering and duress, I decided to head back to the station. It was on the way, then, that I managed to stumble upon a “Schönbrunner Biergarten,” along with a very welcoming hanging sign:

Franziskaner is a wheat beer (a Hefeweizen, more specifically) that is popular in Bavaria and especially in Munich, where it is brewed. I’ll never forget coming out of the Munich Cathedral (where Cardinal Ratzinger served as bishop for five years in the late ‘70s) into a little square and seeing a life-sized wooden statue of the pleasant monk pictured above, inviting me to a beer.

Basically, the beer was an additional mark of comfort and familiarity in the growing dusk, and I was relieved to find my party around back on the Veranda. Stephan had met Gülin and they said they had waited fifteen minutes before finally leaving, which I figured was fair enough. There were probably twenty people there to discuss the Vienna Weekend, all of them from Boku except one, who was representing Vienna. The atmosphere was pretty relaxed, with small conversations going on all over the place while the official business was being done. Stephan, who is (or at least is supposed to be) the secretary was sitting down at the far end of the table from the business, chatting with us in English, with his neighbors in German, occasionally shouting something down the table, picking food off a few plates around him, and occasionally scribbling something utterly illegible in the margins of his notebook. The first round of drinks was on the club (I graciously accepted a half liter of Franziskaner) but since I hadn’t had dinner yet, I also ordered a dish of chicken and potatoes (which were called “Erdäpfeln” or “earth-apples” on the menu, which I was able to figure out but double-checked with one of the Boku guys all the same) (I didn’t want my chicken to have some sort of grubby dirt-applesauce on it, you know?) which turned out to be filling enough but rather bland and forgettable for something declared a house specialty.

The party went on rather quietly into the night, and Gülin and I started nodding off. After the meeting officially ended (it went on for quite some time, but the issues at hand were resolved) some of the guys stuck around for another round, but, though they offered to buy me in on it, I was about to fall asleep in my seat, so I left with Gülin to be able to get a good night’s sleep for work the next morning.

Since schools in America generally get out earlier than those everywhere else do (the semester is still in session here, and in most German states at least the high school runs long into July), most interns are yet to be coming. Luckily, however, IAESTE Austria established a contact list for all those that will be in the area, and I have already gotten ahold of a good number of people interested in traveling. My first trip will be a jaunt back to my old stomping grounds in Ludwigsburg to visit my exchange family and hopefully some friends and former teachers, of whom some were responsible for the striking the spark that ignited my passion for chemistry and put me back where I am today. I am also looking at trips later in the summer to Budapest, Bratislava, somewhere in northern Germany, Vienna and Trieste, and hopefully a longer weekend in Rome with Assisi and Siena tossed in. Please leave your comments about these plans, since they’re still pretty indefinite and I will take all the advice I can get!

I’ve been very busy lately, but I will keep up with this blog and also with all the individual correspondences you all send pretty regularly. At the moment, I’ve got to go off to a party to watch Austria’s first game (against Croatia; they’re doomed) in the European Soccer Championships, which just started with opening ceremonies yesterday – but that’s a post for another time.

Tschüß!