So far my quest to stave off the monotony of the five-day weekend has gone as follows:
runs: 2
summer jobs applied for: 1
Robin Hood books read: 1
clubs joined: 1 (archery - I'm really trying to get into the Robin Hood experience, as I think that it will be beneficial for my dissertation. So far I have really shown the floor who is boss. The target, not so much.)
pub quizzes participated in: 1
movies viewed: 3
So, as you can see, it's an ongoing quest. The good news is that I am now very caught up with my world news, and I attended a free lecture the other day. Adrian Holliday, Professor of Applied Linguistics at Canterbury Christ Church University, gave a talk on "Cultural Understanding in a Globalized, Unequal World." As someone who a) has nothing to do on Thursdays and b) is very interested in other cultures as well as information processing in a globalized and digitalized world, I decided to check it out.
Professor Holliday made some very interesting points. He discussed how, even though we have access to so much information about different parts of the world in this age of digital information, our quest for cross-cultural understanding only addresses the shallow differences between different ways of life: festivals, foods, religious practices, etc. . . We divide people easily into groups based on our definition of culutre, and this can oftentimes mask racism or other prejudices. This tendency is actually stereotyping to the extreme, as we tend to ignore the fact that individuals are not defined by their cultural backgrounds. For instance, the protestors in Egypt are not defined by the regime that they recently succeeded in ousting, and I have spent the past five months trying to convince my flatmates that not all Americans are defined by former President George Bush and his administrative decisions or speeches.
Professor Holliday made the point that Westerners as a whole tend to be especially guilty of generalizing other peoples using a sort of “us versus them” mentality, and that we consider “modernization” and “Westernization” to be synonymous. This means that accepting Western ideals of democracy and fast food industries are factors that make a country “modern.”
After declaring this notion absurd, Professor Holliday said that Westerners have no right of ownership to things such as the English language, Western art, or even McDonald’s, because other people around the globe adopt these as part of a global heritage and “colonize” them for their own use. It makes sense: Americans have colonized English so that the language that I speak at home is very different from what I speak here, which would be very different from what an English-speaker in South Africa would speak. Where I disagree with Professor Holliday is the issue of material exports such as McDonald’s. I have always considered McDonald’s to be a metonymy for Europe’s view of America: supersizes, fake meat and lots of grease. But of course there are McDonald’s and other fast food chains everywhere here, and Professor Holliday seems to believe that this is not the result of Americanization, but of European countries adopting these chains for their own cultures. I’m sorry, you can try to disguise McDonald’s as a cafe, but it is still McDonald’s, and you can still get American fries there, even if they’re called chips. I’m sure that it’s also a lucrative business – a large percentage of travellers are American, and they’re drawn to the familiarity of the golden arches because it’s something that they know and recognize from home. The same holds true for Starbucks – I went into a Starbucks in Edinburgh, Scotland, and 90 percent of my fellow customers were American. It’s like having little American embassies everywhere.
It’s an interesting thought: is there such a thing as Americanization, or, as Professor Holliday believes, do other countries just adopt American or Western practices and colonize them to fit their own ways of life? And if other parts of the world adapt features of our culture, what do we colonize from other peoples? Is it balanced? It’s something to chew over while I avoid Starbucks like the plague in favour of restaurants that I can’t find at home. If I'm ever on the run from British authorities, however, I plan on fleeing to the nearest Starbucks, because they will harbour me as an American citizen.
Because that was a little on the deep side, here's another British cultural export: Mumford and Sons. They're an awesome band, and they just did an awesome performance on the Grammy's last night. Definitely worth checking out!
Friday, February 11, 2011
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Salzburg: The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Mozart
Onto Salzburg, land of mountains, Mozart, mountains, The Sound of Music, and oh yes, mountains. Salzburg is a beautiful little city nestled in between hills that give way to the Alps (!), and it is probably best known as the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and as the home of the Von Trapp family. For me, though, it reminded me of Innsbruck, which is where I fell in love with Austria three and a half years ago. So where Vienna disappointed, Salzburg enchanted.
Looking over the River Salzach to the Monchsberg ("berg" meaning mountain). The castle-looking building on the left is the Museum of Modern Art, and the one lower down the mountain on the right is the Augustine Brewery.
View of Hohensalzburg (Salzburg Fortress) on top of the Monchsberg from the city square. Clearly, people in Salzburg heard about the crazy statues in Bratislava and so decided to build their own.
The Big Man himself - Mozart is absolutely inescapable in Salzburg, even though he himself found it a stifling place to be. He moved to Vienna when his career took off and hardly ever looked back.
Mozart's birth house, which is now a museum overrun by tourists. Seriously, I was almost bulldozed by one very eager group. But the museum has a cool collection of Mozart artifacts, including a violin that he played on as a child. It also offers an interesting look into the Mozart family, all of whom were musically inclined, but of course Mozart's sister couldn't do more than teach piano because God forbid, she was a woman.
Climbing the Monchsberg, where we saw gorgeous views of Salzburg. Such a beautiful city.
View of Hohensalzburg from further down the mountain at Richterhohe. The fortress was built between 1077 and 1681 by the ruling archbishops of Salzburg - each one made some kind of alteration or addition, which accounts for the mixture of architectural styles in the building. It is the largest completely preserved castle in all of Europe, and we climbed the watch tower to see:
MOUNTAINS!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean, normal levels of excitement. The big mountain is Untersberg, and it's the mountain where they filmed Julie Andrews singing "The Hills Are Alive," and the Von Trapps escape over the mountains into Switzerland. It's not the actual route they took, however, as Germany lies just on the other side of this particular mountain!
Confession: I could hear Bilbo Baggins in my head saying, "I want to see mountains again, Gandalf, mountains!" the entire time I was in Salzburg. Much as they tried to beat it out of my head by blasting Mozart and The Sound of Music incessantly.
The famous pavilion where Rolf and Leisl sang "You Are Sixteen Going on Seventeen." It was built specifically for the film and has since been moved to its present home at Hellbrunn Palace. Unfortunately you can't go inside of it anymore because an 80 year-old woman attempted to play Leisl and go hopping from bench to bench, and she broke her hip. Also, it was miserable and pouring rain!
The wedding church in Mondsee, a village in the Lake District outside of Salzburg. This is where the interior of the wedding scene was shot for the movie, but not where Maria and Captain Von Trapp were actually married. Their real wedding took place at Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg, where Maria was also a novice. The exteriors of the wedding church were shot at another church, but filming crews got into trouble for putting up swastikas without permission and they had to move to this church.
The interior of the wedding church, where Maria walked down the aisle.
So unfortunately our Sound of Music tour was very wet and miserable, and we didn't get to see very much. Our tour guide drove us through the Lake District, which is supposed to be absolutely stunning, but it was so foggy that we literally could not see the mountains that I know were looming up ahead, just teasing me. We stopped in the tiny village of St. Gilgen's, where Mozart's mum was born, to admire the alpine scenery that we couldn't see and because we hadn't gotten our daily dose of Mozart yet, and then ended the tour in Mondsee, where we combatted the grey weather with delicious, hot apple strudel.
So although the weather didn't cooperate, we enjoyed ourselves and we got to see a lot. I really, really want to return to Salzburg in the summer when the sun will be shining. But yeah, that's the last installment of our trip! The next day we flew back to London, and I experienced air traffic for the first time. I had never seen another plane fly by in midair - they give off black exhaust, none of this white, puffy jet trail business. So I was looking out the window, clutching the arm rests with white knuckles because I hate flying, when I saw black smoke billowing up on the horizon. Sarah turned to me and said, "Are those... Death Eaters?" Thankfully we were not attacked by any Harry Potter villains, however, and we made it safely into London, where we were greeted by more clouds and rain. Sarah and I got back to Norwich and just collapsed at UEA, very glad to be back.
I was surprised at how much I missed England while I was gone. I think that I definitely needed a break from its eccentricities, but as we encountered obvious anti-tourist prejudice in Central Europe, I started to miss the famous English politeness more and more. When we got on the plane in Salzburg someone said, "Cheers!" and I was very excited. So this trip was perfectly timed - I got back to England ready to forgive all of its inconveniences and to have a great second semester. And so far it has lived up to my expectations! Although we miss Laura a lot, the person who moved into her room was actually my next door neighbour from uni last year, which was unexpected to say the least, but a nice surprise. I keep expecting the Doctor to show up because there are two parts of my life that are never supposed to have touched, but there don't seem to be any galactic ramifications yet. So the past two weeks have been full of readjusting, going out with my lovely flatmates, enjoying visits from great friends, and getting into the swing of classes again. Normal living business, but very enjoyable! I'm going to start traveling again soon, though, but I needed a break for a bit. I learned a lot planning this trip, and I feel like I grew up quite a bit. I never thought that I would be navigating airports by myself, let alone navigating public transportation in different languages and planning an entire trip. And yet I did - I think that this is the kind of education that I'm really receiving this year. Yes, I have my amazing King Arthur class, but I'm learning how to travel and to do the things that I want to do, not to mention shaping my world view by encountering different cultures and ideas. A global education, indeed.
Looking over the River Salzach to the Monchsberg ("berg" meaning mountain). The castle-looking building on the left is the Museum of Modern Art, and the one lower down the mountain on the right is the Augustine Brewery.
View of Hohensalzburg (Salzburg Fortress) on top of the Monchsberg from the city square. Clearly, people in Salzburg heard about the crazy statues in Bratislava and so decided to build their own.
The Big Man himself - Mozart is absolutely inescapable in Salzburg, even though he himself found it a stifling place to be. He moved to Vienna when his career took off and hardly ever looked back.
Mozart's birth house, which is now a museum overrun by tourists. Seriously, I was almost bulldozed by one very eager group. But the museum has a cool collection of Mozart artifacts, including a violin that he played on as a child. It also offers an interesting look into the Mozart family, all of whom were musically inclined, but of course Mozart's sister couldn't do more than teach piano because God forbid, she was a woman.
Climbing the Monchsberg, where we saw gorgeous views of Salzburg. Such a beautiful city.
View of Hohensalzburg from further down the mountain at Richterhohe. The fortress was built between 1077 and 1681 by the ruling archbishops of Salzburg - each one made some kind of alteration or addition, which accounts for the mixture of architectural styles in the building. It is the largest completely preserved castle in all of Europe, and we climbed the watch tower to see:
MOUNTAINS!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean, normal levels of excitement. The big mountain is Untersberg, and it's the mountain where they filmed Julie Andrews singing "The Hills Are Alive," and the Von Trapps escape over the mountains into Switzerland. It's not the actual route they took, however, as Germany lies just on the other side of this particular mountain!
Confession: I could hear Bilbo Baggins in my head saying, "I want to see mountains again, Gandalf, mountains!" the entire time I was in Salzburg. Much as they tried to beat it out of my head by blasting Mozart and The Sound of Music incessantly.
The famous pavilion where Rolf and Leisl sang "You Are Sixteen Going on Seventeen." It was built specifically for the film and has since been moved to its present home at Hellbrunn Palace. Unfortunately you can't go inside of it anymore because an 80 year-old woman attempted to play Leisl and go hopping from bench to bench, and she broke her hip. Also, it was miserable and pouring rain!
The wedding church in Mondsee, a village in the Lake District outside of Salzburg. This is where the interior of the wedding scene was shot for the movie, but not where Maria and Captain Von Trapp were actually married. Their real wedding took place at Nonnberg Abbey in Salzburg, where Maria was also a novice. The exteriors of the wedding church were shot at another church, but filming crews got into trouble for putting up swastikas without permission and they had to move to this church.
The interior of the wedding church, where Maria walked down the aisle.
So unfortunately our Sound of Music tour was very wet and miserable, and we didn't get to see very much. Our tour guide drove us through the Lake District, which is supposed to be absolutely stunning, but it was so foggy that we literally could not see the mountains that I know were looming up ahead, just teasing me. We stopped in the tiny village of St. Gilgen's, where Mozart's mum was born, to admire the alpine scenery that we couldn't see and because we hadn't gotten our daily dose of Mozart yet, and then ended the tour in Mondsee, where we combatted the grey weather with delicious, hot apple strudel.
So although the weather didn't cooperate, we enjoyed ourselves and we got to see a lot. I really, really want to return to Salzburg in the summer when the sun will be shining. But yeah, that's the last installment of our trip! The next day we flew back to London, and I experienced air traffic for the first time. I had never seen another plane fly by in midair - they give off black exhaust, none of this white, puffy jet trail business. So I was looking out the window, clutching the arm rests with white knuckles because I hate flying, when I saw black smoke billowing up on the horizon. Sarah turned to me and said, "Are those... Death Eaters?" Thankfully we were not attacked by any Harry Potter villains, however, and we made it safely into London, where we were greeted by more clouds and rain. Sarah and I got back to Norwich and just collapsed at UEA, very glad to be back.
I was surprised at how much I missed England while I was gone. I think that I definitely needed a break from its eccentricities, but as we encountered obvious anti-tourist prejudice in Central Europe, I started to miss the famous English politeness more and more. When we got on the plane in Salzburg someone said, "Cheers!" and I was very excited. So this trip was perfectly timed - I got back to England ready to forgive all of its inconveniences and to have a great second semester. And so far it has lived up to my expectations! Although we miss Laura a lot, the person who moved into her room was actually my next door neighbour from uni last year, which was unexpected to say the least, but a nice surprise. I keep expecting the Doctor to show up because there are two parts of my life that are never supposed to have touched, but there don't seem to be any galactic ramifications yet. So the past two weeks have been full of readjusting, going out with my lovely flatmates, enjoying visits from great friends, and getting into the swing of classes again. Normal living business, but very enjoyable! I'm going to start traveling again soon, though, but I needed a break for a bit. I learned a lot planning this trip, and I feel like I grew up quite a bit. I never thought that I would be navigating airports by myself, let alone navigating public transportation in different languages and planning an entire trip. And yet I did - I think that this is the kind of education that I'm really receiving this year. Yes, I have my amazing King Arthur class, but I'm learning how to travel and to do the things that I want to do, not to mention shaping my world view by encountering different cultures and ideas. A global education, indeed.
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