It is spring in Vienna–beautiful, amazing, spring.

I have to admit that when I first moved here, I wasn’t so sure about the city, which is awful because it’s a cultural capital of Europe and it’s amazing and blah blah blah. It was cold and dark, my feet were always wet, and the overwhelming impression I had was that things were Big, Old, Impressive, and Grey. Vienna in spring, though, is a whole different story.

Cafes have put their tables outside, street musicians are playing on every corner, even the buildings seem different. Now they gleam instead of glower. The parks are full of people sitting, walking, picnicking, drinking, playing music, reading… It’s just an amazing place to be. And there are ice cream shops on almost every street, which I definitely didn’t understand when I first got here, but now I get it. Every day is just better and better.

And now, best of all, it’s time for spring holidays. At Davidson, Spring Frolics was one of the happiest days of the year. Everyone set aside schoolwork and went to Patterson Court to frolic, which meant getting drunk laying out in the sun, eating barbecue, listening to music, and generally doing nothing except have fun. Today in Sweden, they are doing almost the exact same thing, except as a country. They’re having Valborg, some holiday that requires everyone to go to a park with all of their friends and get drunk enjoy each other’s company in the nice weather. In Vienna, there’s going to be a May Day celebration at the Prater, which I’m going to go to. I imagine that there will be a lot of people loitering around the park, eating, getting drunk listening to live music, and so on. I hope it’s awesome. Then, the celebration to trump them all: Grand May Day at Bryn Mawr College. Both my sisters go to Bryn Mawr College, my mom went, and my dad went to Haverford, so they’re all there for Sunday’s BIG DAY. Because Bryn Mawr is part sorority, part pagan cult, part feminist action coalition, they celebrate May Day in a really big way. And every four years they have a Grand May Day, so this is an even bigger celebration than usual. Parades, hoop races, dancing around a Maypole… you know, normal spring activities. Plus belly dancing, a screening of “The Philadelphia Story,” a Greek play, African dancing, henna tattoos, and a flute choir, of course. At least Davidson’s Spring Frolics had a slip ‘n’ slide. That thing was awesome.

So anyway. Hope you’re having a fabulous spring wherever you are, because spring is the most wonderful season of the year and everyone should be as happy as I am that it is here.

*   *   *   *   *

Update!

The parental unit on the ground at Bryn Mawr’s May Day sent these photos–looks like an amazing May Day. I want to go someday!

The may poles set up and ready for action.

Dancing.

Hoop races.

(The part of me that was secretly home-schooled/is a middle-aged dad can’t keep this one in any more: “seems like a whole lotta hoopla to me.” har har har har har)

I don’t know who these men are or what they are doing, but the next time I go to a Caribbean island I want my cabana boy to look like this. Do you think that can be arranged?

Yesterday, Emily and I picnicked at the Prater, which I am fortunate enough to live close to. It was amazing weather, and Emily and I packed a tub full of risotto, one beer to split, a bottle of water, 2 bananas (which went uneaten), iPod, and speakers.

Emily with her beloved bikers behind.

Grassy knoll + picnic = delight.

Speakers, strategically located on top of my German notebook and thus prohibiting its use. Weird how that works.

Entering Prater theme park.

Paying a special visit to a special friend.

Gorilla, caught in the midst of peeing.

Sidenote about the damn gorilla. It peed on me!!! I was taking a picture of it when all of a sudden this stream of water erupted with some force from its nether regions. Needless to say, I was not pleased. I took solace only in the fact that it wasn’t real gorilla pee, although Emily acted as though it was for the rest of the day.

He’s got me! He’s got me! AAAHAHHAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Bronze casts of forks, roses, and croissants buried in the pavement. Why?

FOR THE HIGHEST FEELINGS — DO NOT FEED THI’S TIGER

Flower Ferris Wheel.

FIRE  DE  PARTMENT

More clown action.

Me: “Emily, show me what a clown looks like.” Emily: “Ok, wait a minute, I’ve got to feel it.” And then this is what happened.

One more sidenote. As we were leaving, we walked by this ride, which seemed pretty tame. Notice, for example, how few people are on it. As we walk by, Emily says, “Now this is the kind of ride that I could go on. Except that we’re in Austria, and I don’t know what the litigation culture is like here.” At which point I burst out laughing.

This man has trade-up written all over him. As in, dump your boyfriend for him, because he would be a trade up. Yummy.

That’s all for now. I am feeling pretty tired and therefore not up to writing much beyond photo captions. Stay tuned for more, though.

SERIOUSLY, people? You live in Austria, you’re taking a beginning level language class, and you can’t be bothered to bring a dictionary?? And you’re annoyed because you don’t seem to be learning that quickly???! Ma dai.

Here’s a piece of advice to anyone learning a new language: buy a dictionary, and then keep it on your person at all times. It should be one of the things you don’t leave the house without. Wallet, phone, map, dictionary. Everything else is optional. (Except maybe chocolate. Yeah, bring some chocolate too. You never know when you might need it.)

But anyway… you will never learn a foreign language unless you have a dictionary. Or maybe you will. I could be wrong. Maybe you have a friend or significant other who will walk next to you all day long and then sit next to you in class and translate. Or maybe you learn by magic. In which case, I don’t understand why you’re in my class in the first place, because German class costs money and learning by magic is free (as I understand it). Basically, there are a thousand language learning theories out there, but all of them involve actually learning new words. Even Rosetta Stone, which claims to teach you entirely through pictures and repetition (as a baby would learn, supposedly), doesn’t teach you the thousands of words you need to become proficient in another language very quickly. I used Rosetta Stone to learn Swedish, and while it was great for getting the basics, I had to supplement it with another book to cover more ground. Rosetta Stone is thorough, but slow.

And now here’s part two of my teeny-tiny miniscule rant, because really I’m a person full of inner peace and not full of inner rage, so obviously I only have Rantchens. In a class full of people from all around the world, it is not fair to ask the teacher to translate into English. I don’t care if you speak 15 languages already and German will be your 16th and English is only your fourth. It excludes the other students, and besides, when the teacher explains a word in the language you’re trying to learn, you learn other words that contextualize it… thus FURTHER increasing your vocabulary. And since people from all around the world speak English (I do love that it has become a global language), someone else can translate for you. It hurts me when I see the annoyance and frustration on a non-English speaker’s face when the teacher resorts to translating in English. It’s not an equal playing field, and it’s not nice.

So get a dictionary before you come. If you’re going to pay 250 euros or more for a class, plus the cost of the books, the dictionary is only a small cost on top, and it’s actually a CRUCIAL part of your language learning process. And it will empower you to learn on your own and to understand the newspaper and to situate yourself in another language-universe. And that can only be good.