Hey everyone! We decided to start this blog, but not until after we had already experienced lots of stuff here, so below is a sort of recap of the major events that have happened so far. After this, we’ll keep everything updated as it happens.
Our first day in Austria…
We had a nice flight here, especially since it was a direct flight and the plane was half-empty. We decided to separate, with Kristi taking an entire middle row of the cabin so she could keep the rabbits with her. This way she was able to feed them and check on them periodically without making a big scene in front of everyone. I slept maybe an hour or so, but Kristi didn’t sleep at all. This made it interesting when we finally arrived in Vienna and were, in a word, zombies.
We took a taxi (that I had reserved online beforehand) to our apartment, where we met the landlord and looked around the place. We were unbelievably sleepy, so we were only interested in blowing up the air mattress and sleeping, but we knew if we did that at noon, our sleep schedules would be messed up…possibly for weeks. We did most of the things we had planned on doing, including assembling the rabbit cage and getting them situated. Kristi had packed spare hay, litter, litter box and food for them in one of our three giant suitcases, and we brought a cage with us as one of our 4 pieces of checked baggage. I know… we’re weird rabbit people. We’ve accepted it.
We then set out to find some food, but since we weren’t familiar with the area, we basically walked around (again, like zombies) until we found ANYTHING edible. We were starving. We eventually ran into Mariahilfer Strasse, which is one of the main shopping streets in Vienna. The first thing we ran into was (I am not making this up) a Kentucky Fried Chicken, so we zombie-shuffled in and ordered two large chicken strip meals with Coke and Coke Light (diet Coke). We realized we were in Austria when the soft drinks had no ice… and we died a little on the inside. But, the meal was recognizable and I was able to zombie-order in English, so it was okay.
We then continued down the street to a giant electronics store called Saturn, which is very similar to Best Buy or Circuit City. We wanted to buy an alarm clock (although waking up was not something I planned to do anytime soon), a dust buster (so we could clean up rabbit hair, etc.), an iron (although we didn’t buy an ironing board…again I say… zombies), and a big oscillating fan (to wean ourselves off air-conditioning). We had our first surprise of the day when we tried to zombie-pay for the stuff. I pulled out my VISA card, which is accepted EVERYWHERE, RIGHT?! Not so much. At Saturn, it’s cash or ATM card, which is called ‘Bankomat’ here. The ensuing exchange between myself and the poor girl at the register was priceless: “VISA?”... “Nein”… “VISA?”... “Nein”… “MasterCard?” ... “Bankomat” ... “VISA?!”... “Bankomat!” We didn’t have enough cash on us, and we had no Austria Bankomat card, so we had to give up an item. We decided the alarm clock would be left behind, since we would have no desire to awaken anytime before noon the next day.
We returned to the apartment, where Kristi promptly inflated our air mattress, pointed the fan towards it, and crashed. I still had a little energy, so I went about trying to find a pillow on which to sleep. We had packed Kristi’s because it’s a special orthopedic deal, but I can sleep on any ol’ pillow, so we left mine behind so we could have room for important things... like more games for our Wii. Anyway, I returned to Mariahilfer Strasse to look for a pillow, where I was greeted with my 2nd Austrian surprise. Everything closes at around 6PM, with very few exceptions. Those that don’t close at 6:00 close at 6:30, and by this time it was 6:15. There are actually laws in the books here in Austria that governs opening hours of different kinds of businesses. We hear they are gradually being relaxed to give businesses freedom of choice (imagine that) over their opening hours. Long story shorter... I didn’t find a pillow, so I used a quilt Kristi’s Mom made us for the first two nights. We both slept well until about 1AM, then were wide awake for an hour or two, then slept again from 3AM to 10AM.
The next week...
The first day was strenuous, and the following week would prove to be pretty easy in some areas and pretty frustrating in others. After having our first good night’s rest, we wanted to do more exploring the neighborhood. Unfortunately, what we saw was really pretty disappointing. We had found the apartment on the internet, and the apartment itself was not bad, but the surrounding area didn’t feel like the area we wanted to stay in. We had signed a 3 month lease, but we knew within a day or two that we didn’t want to renew it. The apartment building was really in disrepair, and the main street outside our front windows is one of the busiest in Vienna, so there was constant traffic noise. The Turkish bar across the street liked to play Turkish Dance/Techno music till all hours of the night, and there was also a strip joint just across our intersection. One bright spot was that there was an internet café just down the street, so we were able to use the internet to look for more apartments and use the internet phones to call our parents most every day for the first two weeks.
We were able to secure our Meldezettel within a day or two, which is basically where you register with the police so they know who you are and where you’re living. Once you have that, you can do most anything. We used it to get an Austrian bank account and the all-important Bankomat card. We did a little more shopping the first week, but we didn’t buy anything big like furniture because we were 99% sure we wanted to change apartments ASAP and we didn’t want to have a ton of furniture sent only to move it a week later. For the most part, we walked around a lot and explored the city so we could have a better idea what area we would like to settle in.
Finding the new apartment...
During week 2, we set up appointments with some English-speaking realtors to see some apartments. We finally found one in the 14th district (the city is divided into 20 some-odd districts), which is a much more residential section. There are lots of trees, it’s very quiet, and it’s a much cleaner and prettier part of Vienna. When we came to Vienna for my audition, we had visited the famous Schönbrunn palace, and it was probably our favorite place of the whole trip. The palace and gardens are absolutely awe-inspiring, and it never occurred to us that we could live in that area. But... God is good. It turns out the 14th district is just outside the gates of Schönbrunn, AND our apartment’s terrace overlooks a famous structure in the palace gardens called the Gloriette.
This apartment is larger, nicer, more modern, and not that much more expensive than the first one. It has a TON of built-in storage. It’s on the 3rd floor, and there’s no elevator, but two flights of stairs is well worth it to have this place.
Finally...furniture...
After moving into our new place, we then focused our attention on filling it with furniture and other necessities. We shopped a lot...really... LOTS. We made 3 trips to IKEA, and half a dozen more trips to stores like Reiter, Kika, Leiner, and Lutz, which are all sort of like a cross between a Bed, Beth, & Beyond and an IKEA. We had all the IKEA furniture delivered to our apartment, and I spent about a week assembling everything. Now all we had to do was wait on our shipment from America, which was running several weeks behind schedule.
My first day of work...
After nearly a month of trying to get settled and buying obscene amounts of furniture, dishes, appliances, etc., I was really ready to do what I had come here for...play trombone! My first night of work in the opera was a performance of Verdi’s Simone Boccanegra.
We were able to get Kristi a ticket, but we had to pay way more for it than we wanted to. The Vienna State Opera is the busiest opera company in the world, performing every night of the month from September through June. Over the course of the season, we will perform more than 40 different operas, but still almost every show is sold out. So... members of the orchestra get first dibs on buying the tickets.... IF you sign up for them more than a month ahead of time. Since we were in America a month ahead of time, we couldn’t do that, but we figure I’ll only ever have one first performance of my first job, so we felt it important that Kristi be there for it.
The experience is one I’ll never forget. To be playing with this orchestra, with these musicians, and getting paid for it?!?! I’m in musical heaven! I was a little nervous at first, but as we got into the first act, I calmed down considerably. Everything seemed very natural and very calm, and there’s a feeling in the orchestra pit that everyone’s ‘in it together’. Since the orchestra doesn’t rehearse for most of the performances, in a way everyone is in the same boat, whether playing the opera for the first time or the 50th time. Very often, the opera will have a different conductor than the last time it was performed, so everyone has to be on guard.
It also helps that there are 8 other ‘rookies’ this year. I think that’s unusual...normally maybe 2 or 3 new people every year... but at least for this season I’m not the only ‘fresh meat’. Everyone I met was very nice, and most everyone was willing to speak English. In fact, a couple guys said they wanted to use me to practice their English. The only problem is I need to practice German somehow! So...I’ve been trying to do as much in German as I can. It’s very broken German at this point, but I’m learning stuff every day. All in all, my first day of work was really an incredible thing. I can’t believe I have years more of these experiences left ahead of me. God is good.
Getting into a routine... After the first night, I performed 8 more nights in a row. Each night, I learn so much about how things work here, and about Viennese musical style. I feel that every performance I get a little closer to their unique sense of timing, articulation, and sound. I keep meeting more and more really nice people, and I keep having really great musical experiences.
One I will not soon forget was the night after Pavarotti died. Before the opera began, the opera director Ian Hollander came out on stage and made a very solemn and respectful speech about Pavarotti and what he had meant the opera world and specifically to the Vienna State Opera. The strings and Woodwinds then played (without rehearsal and without conductor) a Mozart Trauermarch that was simply unbelievable. I was so glad there were no trombone parts, because I just sat there and soaked it up. When they finished, the audience stood silently for about a minute to honor Pavarotti’s memory. It was so moving it was hard for us all to play
Carmen afterwards.
Speaking of
Carmen, the conductor for our run of that opera is Alan Gilbert, who was just selected to take over for Lorin Maazel in 2009 as conductor of the New York Philharmonic. Pretty neat. It’s weird because I don’t feel like I have a job, per se. I enjoy working so much, and I’m so musically fulfilled by it, that it’s hard to consider it working. I realize that after years of playing in the opera pit, I might feel differently. But for now, I’m still shocked that I get PAID for this! I like the fact that I’m home most of the day, even when there’s a rehearsal in the morning. I like that I have plenty of time to spend practicing, hanging out with Kristi, and just doing all the stuff I never used to have time for.
God is good.
The shipment arrives...
I played for 9 straight performances before I got an evening off, and it worked out well because the day of the 9th performance we reached the day we had been waiting for... our shipment from America came! It was a little scary at first, because many of the boxes looked roughly like someone had become very angry at them and had kicked them down a couple flights of stairs. Also, our two end tables had the legs ripped off.
Most everything else was ok, though, with the exception of Kristi’s decorative pumpkin thing that had been flattened.
We unpacked everything really very quickly, and in many cases we were like 5-year-olds at Christmas, opening up boxes and remembering what we had sent. I wanted to make sure my trombones were ok, which they were. Kristi wanted to make sure all our breakable glass was ok, which it was. I set about hooking up all the electronics things, including our region-free DVD player and our all-important Nintendo Wii!!!
I was relieved because everything seemed to work ok... until... I plugged in our desktop PC without switching the tiny switch on the back that allows you to plug in European 240V current into the power supply. Let’s just say there was lots of smoke, a loud pop, and a small fireball. I had destroyed our computer’s power supply. I was upset, of course, but now it’s fixed so it’s OK. We were very happy to have all our winter clothes since it is quickly becoming fall in Vienna. We were also really glad to get our personal things like photos so we could make our apartment feel more like home.
So that's where we stand right now. We're busy unpacking and putting everything away. More to come later!
