Greetings from Austria and my first weeks in Europe!

Guten Tag! I'm studying abroad this semester in Vienna – or Wien (pronounced like 'Veen') as it's called in German. I'm doing so as part of the Vienna Diplomatic Program (VDP), under the broader Austria-Illinois Exchange Program (AIEP) at University of Illinois. Six other Illinois studies are also enrolled in the VDP. We'll be joined by several business students and about thirty German-language students, mostly from the University of Illinois, who are also studying under the AIEP.

The VDP focuses on the study of international organizations and diplomacy. Few cities rival Vienna in that department: not only is it a UN city, but a wide range of regional and international organizations are headquartered here. Academically, my semester consists of writing a research paper for the University of Illinois on one of the international organizations located here and taking classes in Vienna. For my research paper I will be examining how the development of a common European foreign and security policy is impacted by the presence of five neutral member states (Austria, Ireland, Sweden, Finland, and Malta).

In addition to that project, I'm enrolled in six classes locally. Three are at the Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, or Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, and the other half are at Universität Wien, the University of Vienna. Those at the former are a basic German language course, one called 'World Englishes' which looks at the spread of the English language outside of England and the United States, and 'The European Union in English', which is a broad survey of the politics of the European Union. At the University of Vienna, I'm taking a culture studies course titled 'CSI Vienna?' U.S. Cultural exchanges in Austria since the 1980s ' (more details on that in a later post), a political science course of sorts called 'Information Society and e-government', and a history course about the British Empire.

Classes only start at the beginning of March, however, so for the first couple weeks I'm in an orientation session along with the rest of the AIEP students (split between a group for German-language and non-German language students). The non-German section was run by Alexandra, an Austrian grad student, who works with the head of the AIEP program, Prof Murray. Orientation was very helpful: we studied basic German, cultural advice, how to get around in the city, and so on. It was helped by the fact that Alexandra could relate to us not only age-wise but also in that she too is not a native of Vienna, having moved there from southern Austria when beginning her university studies. In addition to orientation, every Monday morning I have a meeting with the other VDP students and Prof Murray to check in on how things are going, to discuss upcoming events, and so on.

Of course, these first several weeks haven't been limited to academics. Among other things, I went on tours of Stephansplatz, Vienna's historical center, and the Naschmarkt, one of the world's largest markets, led by Prof Murray and Alexandra. Along with various Illinois students I've ice skated outside the Wiener Rathaus, Vienna's city hall, gone to local clubs with other Illinois students, heard the Vienna Philharmonic, one of the best regarded orchestras in the world, and even went the Opera to see Lucia Di Lammermoor, an Italian version of Romeo and Juliet....though that last one I probably could have done without. And more recently I went out with a few Illinois students to take advantage of free Sunday admission to museums, seeing among other things the Römermuseum, or Roman museum, and then later to the Uhrenmuseum, or clock museum.

I also really enjoyed the two Europa im Diskurs (Europe in dicourse) forums. The first, titled 'Twenty years after 1989', reflected on the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism and the Iron Curtain in Eastern Europe. Participants included Timothy Garton Ash, professor of European Studies at the University of Oxford, Kurt Biedenkoph, the former Prime Minister of Saxony, Adam Michnik, editor in chief of Poland's largest newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, formally an illegal, underground publication in communist Poland, and Viktor Orban, the former Prime Minister of Hungary. I found Orban particularly interesting. In June 1989, he gave a daring speech on the occasion of the reburial of several martyrs of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, demanding free elections and the withdrawal of Soviet troops. Which, amazingly enough, soon happened. That was the theme of the night: the historically unprecedented revolutions of 1989, which, without any significant amount of bloodshed, brought an end to the Eastern bloc and reunited Europe. The second forum held a few weeks later dealt with the topic of borders, focusing on the debates that have ignited with the expansion of the European Union eastward, particularly the very controversial debate over whether Turkey should be allowed the join.

Finally, I ventured outside of Vienna on a group trip to Salzburg. West of Vienna, nearby the Alps, Salzburg is probably most famous in America as the setting of The Sound of Music. We had planned on going skiing, but that ultimately didn't work out – only after some of the girls bought tickets for the Sound of Music tour on Sunday did we find out that it was too late on Saturday to try and make it out of the ski lifts. So instead, we spent the first day touring downtown Salzburg and later the Hohensalzburg Castle, one of the largest medieval castles in Europe. That night, in perhaps a less-than-wise move I trekked up the mountain behind our hostel with Mitch and Ben to see the city before the Alps at night. The next day, after reuniting with those who went on the Sound of Music tour, we further explored the city before heading back to Vienna.

Overall I've had a great time so far in Europe, and I'm really looking forward to traveling outside Austria in the coming months. At the link below you can see the various photos I've taken so far.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32227991@N02/sets/