Posts from the ‘Useful’ Category

May 19

IT GETS BETTER – PAPAGENO WILL TELL YOU

“Stop! …Be Smart! You only live once!” – Mozart, The Magic Flute.

In September 2010, a teenage boy who was bullied at school for being homosexual took his own life. Amidst inconceivably cruel messages of continued bullying and belated outreaches of sorrow and understanding, a stranger wrote on his memorable page, “I wish I would have known you so I could have told you: It gets better, RIP.” Struck by the obvious desperation of this young man, US advice columnist, podcaster and gay rights activist, Dan Savage, started the It Gets Better Project with his partner, Terry Miller, to bring messages of encouragement directly to the youth at risk through internet videos of those who have gone through similar situations while growing up but persevered.

Yesterday evening, the US embassy, It Gets Better Austria (Es wird Besser, Österreich) along with the Vienna Anti-discrimination for Same Sex and Transgender People held a panel discussion at the Vienna Amerikahaus entitled, “Building Bridges to Make it Better.” Dan and Terry sat on the panel and shared their own experiences working as activists to help young people at risk.

Dr. Thomas Niederkrotenthaler, of the University of Vienna Medical School, and an expert on suicide, talked extensively about the challenges of the media in dealing with these heartbreaking incidents. Contrary to reports about other diseases such as heart disease, sensational reporting on teen suicides can actually cause an increase in suicides and suicidality. Professionals have dubbed this phenomena the Werther Effect, after the lovelorn protagonist in Goethe’s 1774 novel, “The Sorrows of Young Werther.”

Werther loves Lotte but she is committed to Albert. Unable to bear the pain of such all-consuming passion unrealized, the young man commits suicide. The book is believed to have caused young men throughout Europe to not only emulate Werther in they way they dressed but also his desperate end. The book is believed to have triggered a chain of the first recorded “copycat” suicides.

To combat this negative trend, the author Christoph Nicolai published a satiric version of the novel, in which Albert gets wind of the young man’s intentions and fills Werther’s pistol with chicken blood. The hero’s suicide attempt fails and he ends up getting over Lotte and living a happy and productive life. Goethe, was not amused, but for literary reasons, not social. Due to the seemingly contagious effect of suicides, medical professionals work together with press organizations to draft media recommendations on best practice standards for suicide reporting. Studies suggest that there is a right way to approach the subject to achieve the “Papageno Effect.”

In Mozart’s opera, “The Magic Flute”, the bird catcher, Papageno, in utter despair from losing his love, Papagena, decides to hang himself. He chooses his tree and bids the deceitful world farewell. But then he sings, “If anyone wants to love or pity me before I hang myself, just call out to me, yes or no.” Silence. Nevertheless, he looks and waits, and then decides to count to three, just in case. One. Looks around. Two. Looks around. Three. Looks around. Then so be it. And at that moment, three youths rush onto stage calling, “Stop, Papageno. Be smart! You only live once …” But he argues and they tell him to ring his bell. Lo and Behold, his lady appears and happiness ensues. In other words, sometimes it just takes an interruption to the darkness – a sign of hope — encouraging words that things will get better. And eventually, they do.

Terry Miller and Dan Savage of It Gets Better

Terry Miller and Dan Savage in Vienna, Austria, May 2015 talking about their initiative, “It Gets Better”

Dan and Terry’s heart-felt talk was incredibly sincere. Terry talked about his return to his old high school – a place he associated with painful memories of bullying and torment. But his school had evolved and during the return visit, he received a public apology from the director for how he had been treated so many years before.

Nothing can undo the pain and scars that bullying can inflict on a young person, but it’s good to know that there’s hope. And people who’ve also ventured through the dark tunnel to discover that there is light on the opposite side. Too many young people in this world are denied the unconditional love they deserve and it’s good to know there’s a place they can go to get the encouragement to Stop! and Be smart! Because it gets better.

The It Gets Better Project website has more than 50,000 user-created videos which have been viewed more than 50 millions times. Check it out. It’s a great initiative.

Austrian newspaper, der Standard, article entitled, “Journalisten können helfen, Suizide zu verhindern,” Oliver, Mark, 19 December 2011, about how journalist can help prevent suicide.

Links to the Austrian initiatives:
Es wird Besser, Österreich

Wiener Antidiskriminierungsstelle für gleichgeschlechtliche und transgender Lebensweisen (WASt)

Apr 25

INTERNATIONS CONNECTS EXPATS AND VIENNA MUSES TOP EXPAT BLOG

Who’s Conchita Wurst? What’s a Radler? Where do I buy baking soda? When do the subways stop running? Why is the restaurant personnel totally ignoring us and those rude Austrians hurrying past us and grabbing that table?

If you’re a newly arrived expat, after your first couple weeks in Vienna, once you’ve successfully managed to score your Meldezettel, and become a card carrying member of Billa and remembered to stash a few spare plastic bags into your backpack as you dash out of the building at 16:45 Saturday afternoon in a mad race to hit the grocery store before it closes till Monday morning, when the initial shock waves begin to wane, that’s about the time when you’ll start feeling the need to call a friend. Only, you don’t have any friends because you are living in a foreign country. Because with all the bags unpacked and all the forms filled out, the everydayisms and real challenges start. And that’s when you realize that Walmart isn’t in every corner of the universe and no one’s stopping to offer help just because you look a little lost. And not only do you look lost, you feel it too. Really lost.

And that’s when the questions start coming at you faster and more determined than the Oma ramming her cart to be the first in line at the newly opened Hofer register.

Who’s that bearded woman in a long dress and stilettos? (Conchita Wurst) Why does the beer the locals are drinking look different than mine? (they’re probably drinking Radler – 50 % beer and 50% Austrian soft drink called Almdudler mix that is a popular summer drink). Where’s the Arm & Hammer in this town?(You can get baking soda and other non-Austrian grocery products at the Prosi Supermarket, U6 Burggasse) How am I getting home tonight? (Vienna’s subways run all night long on the weekends and till midnight weekdays – assuming you can manage to make it to the subway) Why is the restaurant staff ignoring us? (unless you are in a fancier restaurant or typical tourist area, you’re usually expected to sit yourself in a restaurant and won’t get the bill slapped down on the table (that would be rude) unless you ask for it. If you’re still getting ignored, you might have to take it personally).

But what if you are in Bahrain? Or Singapore? Mexico City? Or Shanghai? KC couldn’t help you there. But other expats living there can. And how do you find them? Internations.

They just contacted me and featured my blog this past week. No. No money was exchanged. Alas, a blog is a labor of love. But hey! If you’re an expat, looking for info, you might want to check them out. The Internations site was started by three Germans who were former expats themselves and now connects over 1 million people in 390 cities and 190 countries around the world. So whether you want to know where to find the best Mandarin tutor or Mandarin duck, there is bound to be some expat on the Internations China site that has the answer for you. And since they also organize local events, you might even make some new friends and get to stop hanging out with the ducks.

Check it out, or just have a look at what I had to say about my experience as an expat in Vienna. You know you’ve been dying to read about my first apartment in Vienna!

Internations Website

Mar 9

10 Things I Get Now – Austria’s Hidden Gems

When the realization is deep, your whole being is dancing. – Zen saying

1) Sundays, Holidays, midnight – forget the beer, milk or bread run, everything’s closed. So sleep in, everything’s closed!: When you first move here, you open your college-sized fridge Sunday morning to find nothing but a tube of mustard and an expired container of yoghurt, and naïvely believe you’ll start the day shopping. You make your way to Billa to find it closed, and then to Spar – closed, until the reality of life in Austria slowly begins to dawn on you – nothing here is open 24 hours a day / 7 days a week. 7/11? Nope. Not here. In fact, grocery stores usually close by 8 pm Mo – Fr, by 6 pm on Saturday and don’t bother opening at all on Sundays (and you were indignant about the blankets covering the alcohol section in Lowe’s grocery store in NC on Sundays till noon hampering your barbecue drink run). At first you’re annoyed, and then, when you find yourself urgently needing that Dirndl for the Almdudlerball but with no time between work and “Gassi gehen” with Rambo-the-Dachsund to buy one, you feel the ever increasing pang of homesickness and longing for a Super Target. But after a good deal of time (yes, it takes time), you will start to appreciate this anti-shopper mentality. You wake up on Sundays bombarded with no suggestions to go shopping — because you can’t – everything is closed. And this leaves you with 24 glorious hours for a leisurely breakfast – or hey! why don’t you sleep in a little longer and just do brunch – and then what? A stroll to see the roses in Volksgarten, an afternoon at the Albertina, a bike ride along the Danube, an outing to the Wachau, a trip to see Iqhwa at Schönbrunn Zoo or simply “Faulenzen.” If you get really desperate, you can engage in the favorite Viennese Sunday contact sport of “Elbow-Shopping-at-Billa-at-Pratersten or Sparring-Shoppers-at-Spar-at-Wien-Mitte” but I’d let this crutch go and count your blessings that no one expects you to shop on a Sunday.

Bratlfettenbrot

2) Bratlfettenbrot: Remember deep fryers and Crisco shortening? Kind of like that. Dark bread slathered with a spread made from the pan grease and topped with a couple raw onion rings, crushed black pepper and paprika. If you prefer the crunchy bits of grease in it, there’s always – Grammelschmalzbrot. It took me many years, a New Year’s eve in an Alpine hut with a group of friends and apricot schnapps, to fully appreciate the appeal of Bratlfettenbrot. In the right setting, with the right people and accompanying drinks, it truly is good (unless your arteries tend to clog).

3) grocery carts with coins: maybe it’s because I can never seem to find the 50 cent, 1 € or 2 € coins but for a long time, chained together grocery carts that can only be released with a coin seemed like the Austrian reminder that I, as an expat, arriving at the store with no grocery cart coin in hand, didn’t have my Billa shopper act together. But carts always abound and are neatly put away, and awaiting even the latest last minute expats rushing through the doors Saturday night at 5:50 pm.

4) buy your grocery bags: Reminder number two of poor grocery store planning skills occurs frequently at the check-out line with the realization that one has brought no backpack, linen bags, wicker shopping basket, or shopping trolley. But find comfort in the fact that by bringing along your linen bag, you are being environmentally friendly and saving yourself the 10 cents per bag you’ll be charged otherwise.

5) pay WC: see grocery cart problem above. But here you have the issue at rest stops along the Autobahn and it’s not like you’re given a lot of alternatives. Over time, however, I’ve come to appreciate the cleanliness 50 cents per person can promote in public restrooms. A bit of a hassle for a lot of clean.

6) main meal at lunch: in the good old days, Austrian shops, banks, post offices, all closed for two hours around noon and if you needed to quickly send off a letter during your lunch break, you were out of luck because Frau Postbeamterin was at home having herself some Knödel and Kraut with the family. Though those days have long passed, you will find that high noon on the weekends is many Austrians favored time for the day’s main meal. Dinner will often consist of some bread and cold cuts, soup or salad. Though I initially missed my evening tacos, I’ve come to appreciate a place where I can go for a stroll along the Donaukanal or a run in Prater, hours after my mid-day lasagna and get a good sleep without worries of heart burn, indigestion, or an amply-sized gut.

7) having to ask for the bill: when you first come to Austria, and your German is iffy at best, it’s understandable that you want to avoid all situations where you are forced to use any. In an attempt to go native in China, I once ventured into a local restaurant and after memorizing the word for tea, proudly ordered a tea. Instead of just bringing any tea, the waitress insisted over and over again, to little ignorant not-understanding me that I choose which tea I’d prefer (know the expression: not for all the tea in China – later I discovered page one of the menu was dedicated to teas). The waitress walked away in frustration and I fled to find a Pizza Hut. If you choose to flee an Austrian restaurant when the waiter fails to bring your bill, I guarantee you, your bill will arrive promptly. (But I am by no means endorsing this method). But you should know, that Austrian, particularly Viennese waiters, are experts at giving you time to sit, relax, eat, drink a coffee, enjoy a schnapps, chat a bit, and not have to be bothered with the bill until you’re good and ready for it. After living here awhile, you’ll be shocked by the passive-aggressive speediness of bills slapped down on your table in US restaurants before you’ve even had the chance to shuffle the first spoonful of peach cobbler into your mouth.

8) removing shoes: you always remove your shoes when entering an Austrian home and even if the host insists you don’t have to (etiquette almost requires this but it is not meant seriously), you should remove them anyway. As someone who always seems to have a hole in her socks, this was always a bit embarrassing. I’ve learned to wear good socks or none at all and I appreciate not having shoes tracking dirt through my place when I have guests.

9) dogs in Vienna: it seems like every second Viennese owns a Scruffy and they go everywhere – restaurants, subways, they even have their own parks here. I just didn’t get it. Particularly in the days that required every person living in Vienna to do the infamous “Vienna shuffle” to avoid taking home a Scruffy souvenir on the bottom of your shoe before the very successful clean-up-after-your-dog campaigns. But since the “Nimm ein Sackerl für mein Gackerl” campaign that included hundreds of city dog-poo sheriffs controlling the dog owner’s clean up obedience and the 36 € fine for first time offenders if they “overlooked” it, dogs seem to be tidy co-inhabitants of this metropolis. And apparently 70% of the Viennese agree with me about the campaign’s phenomenal success and 47,200 Gackerl Sackerl in Vienna’s public trash cans every single day is nothing to turn your nose up at. And if you want to make friends and influence people in Vienna, get a dog. I’ve seen Omas chatting up bicycle gang members while Oma’s Daisy sniffs out Bicycle Gang Member’s Rambo.

Gotta love soccer

10) Soccer: I’m originally a Pittsburgh girl so sports consisted of baseball, football, hockey and hunting. Soccer? Pleease. Get a real sport. But I’m a convert. I love the game. And I explained why a while ago on my post about the World Cup. What’s not to like about 22 fit guys flexing their tone bodies in an attempt to get a ball into a net? Not to mention the fun of watching a roomful (or barful) of grown men waving their beer glasses and griping at a TV screen about all the off-sides the idiot ref missed.

Interesting Links:
The Gackerl Sackerl App to help you find a free bag for your dog’s – well – you know: https://www.data.gv.at/anwendungen/gackerl-sackerl/

This guy ended up paying a whopping 470 € fine for not having a Sackerl for his Kessja (the criminal offender is pictured in the article with her owner). http://www.heute.at/news/oesterreich/wien/art23652,1016678

Article about the success of the Gackerl Sackerl campaign – warning: if you’re sensitive about images, you may not want to click on the link: http://www.krone.at/Tierecke/Wiener_Gackerl-Sackerl-Kampagne_ist_ein_Erfolg-Laut_Umfrage-Story-390372

Article about the Vienna “Waste Watchers”, fines and law: http://www.wien-konkret.at/leute/haustiere-tierschutz/hundekot-in-wien-hundstruemmerl/

Feb 17

Who’s on First, What comes Second, Vienna Building Codes, a Tower and Creative Genius

(HOW TO BE HIGHER THAN THE LEGAL LIMIT – for a limited time only)

Not macht erfinderisch. – Austrian adage (literally: Necessity renders innovation)

In Vienna, Abbot and Costello wouldn’t have been talking baseball (see video below) in their classic “Who’s on First?” skit, they would have been discussing floors.

“Who’s on first? What comes second? And where I am?”

No, the Viennese aren’t trying to have a little fun by putting one over on their foreign guests. (Though it is amusing the first time you witness an ignorant out-of-towner boldly, athletically, opting to take the stairs only to realize four floors up that the third floor is actually maybe the fourth, fifth or even the sixth).

Yes, the Viennese were being creative with their numbers long before it became fashionable on a worldwide scale to do so.

Rathaus at Sunset – view from Skyliner

When the Vienna Building Ordinance stipulates (as it has for centuries) that no resident buildings within the so-called “Gürtel” (districts 1 -9) be taller than 5 floors – no problem. Start your building with a ground floor (Erdgeschoss). Maybe add a Mezzazin, Hochparterre or Belle-Etage and go from there to the first floor. What? A Mezzazin is supposed to be a half-floor, you say? No worries. No one’s checking. As long as the top floor is the 5^th, all is good in the Empire. In the Republic. In the inner districts. For goodness sake, even the Vienna City Hall has a Mezzazin.

View of Burgtheater and St. Stephans from Vienna Skyliner Tower

Despite Viennese finesse for creative solutions, the city has indeed managed to keep the building heights within the inner districts low and thus maintain a beautiful old town skyline for centuries. Now that’s good city planning.

And precisely the reason why you have to get yourself down to the Rathaus before March 8^th. Because right now you can ascend the “City Skyliner Gondel” — a temporary tower –erected beside the Vienna City Hall (Rathaus) in honor of the Ringstrasse’s 150th anniversary and the 20^th Anniversary of the Vienna Ice Dream (Eistraum) Skating Rink at the City Hall. Yes, the UFO-looking contraption has caused a fuss among some fun-spoiling Viennese sour grapes steadfast in their century-old ordinances (I would expect nothing less) but they’ve had their turn. Now it’s yours to enjoy a good view of this beautiful city. Go now while the winter sun is shining and don’t miss the limited opportunity (until March 8^th!) to pay your 7 € (kids pay 4 €) and boogie on up the 81 meter high tower (you’ll be up 60 m high) that will offer you a slowly turning, 360 degree panorama view of Vienna. Buy a drink at the stand while waiting in line and take it up with you. No problem. The queue moves quickly (60 people per trip fit in) and the trip up lasts 7 minutes (one minute up, 5 minutes turning, one minute down). All seats are good because the tower turns and everyone ends up standing up anyway. Give a shout out to the little Rathaus man on top of the Rathaus. Maybe he’ll wave back. (In which case, don’t opt for the alcoholic beverage next time you go up).

How to get there: Subway U2 to Rathaus or to Schottentor and walk over or take trams 1, D or 71.

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Abbot & Costello: Who’s On First:

Wirtschaftsblatt: http://wirtschaftsblatt.at/home/nachrichten/oesterreich/wien/4641944/81-Meter-hoher-Turm-auf-dem-Rathausplatz-in-Wien

Der Standard: http://derstandard.at/2000010596318/Wiener-Eistraum-eroeffnet-und-mit-ihm-ein-81-Meter-Turm

Website of Fiction Author K.C. Blau

Posts from the ‘Useful’ Category

IT GETS BETTER – PAPAGENO WILL TELL YOU

INTERNATIONS CONNECTS EXPATS AND VIENNA MUSES TOP EXPAT BLOG

10 Things I Get Now – Austria’s Hidden Gems

Who’s on First, What comes Second, Vienna Building Codes, a Tower and Creative Genius

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