Ode to Joy (Hollariedlduliooo).

Everyone's got his great days, they just appear completely unexpectedly. Today was one of those for me: I had my first day of work experience at that translation office I'd applied to and it went all increadibly well - the people were nice, the atmosphere was good and they do some German as well which is very advantageous for me. Hell, I even got complimented on my English today! After some seven hours of hardcore-proofreading of patent scripts in German, English and even Japanese and some good small-talk with the boss they seemed to be quite content with me and so, despite the fact that they'd actually only taken my for today I can come again tomorrow and Friday.
Just having had my first success in the world of professional translation I'm exceptionally happy. Mood of the moment: over the moon.

Christmas fair in Vienna.

Last week I saw on my blog's Vienna webcam that the annual Christmas fair had already been built up in front of the Viennese town hall. I had been there in 2004, it's really nice - you can do some Christmas shopping, drink some hot mulled wine or just enjoy the lovely atmosphere - I love Christmas fairs like that. At the square in front of the town hall they also have an ice skating rink in the winter months. I haven't been ice skating there myself but I'm looking forward to doing it some time, maybe next year. In the meantime I guess I'll just have some mulled wine here... :-)

This is what the town hall looks like on December evenings...

Elusive words.

Don't you just hate this feeling of knowing that you know a certain word or expression but you're just not able to think of it that moment? Happened to me today, when Jim asked me how you address a letter in Japanese when you're not sending it to one particular person but to a whole family. The word's 様方 (samagata) but it just kept eluding me for a whole fifteen minutes... terrible! ;-)
As to the other news of today, I got work experience at a translation office for next week so I'm quite happy!! Yahoo!

Bond, James Bond.

Tonight I went to see the latest James Bond film, Casino Royale, which has been released last week (still enjoying the advantage of earlier release dates whilst remaining in Britain, haha) and I must say that I wasn't disappointed but also not overly impressed.
Somehow it seems to me that Bond films are one of the mirrors in life that reflect the change of time: take the eighties for example, when I was still a kid. Back then, Bond still had the KGB to play with and that's what made Bond movies much better in my opinion - Bond chasing some high-ranking KGB officials through the steppe of Kazakhstan or whatever part of the USSR. But of course the cold war is over, the KGB is no more and so the Bond makers had to rely solely on maniacs trying to take over the world. Which still worked quite fine in Tomorrow Never Dies but then - The World Is Not Enough was already not so good anymore, Die Another Day I can't remember very well and Casino Royale, well, it was just lacking in substance. I mean, Bond is chasing after a ridiculously high amount of money, fine, but no one's trying to seize world domination or anything. They did mention that the bad guy, Le Chiffre, was going to use the money to finance war and terrorism but there just wasn't enough attention paid to that point. And of course I was missing Q and his demonstration of technical gimmicks.
Anyway, I found it quite entertaining and had a really enjoyable evening.
Conclusion: I should go to the cinema more often.

My room in Vienna.

Today I authorised my bank in Austria to send a debit order to the operators of this hall of residence here - and thereby I got a room secured there now, ready to move in in January.
With these words that's been confirmed:
Wir haben Ihren Abbuchungsauftrag erhalten. Das Zimmer können sie am 2. Jänner 2006 ab 7.30-16.00 Uhr beziehen.
The hall of residence's in Vienna's 8th district, it's quite near a tube station (U6-line), not too far from uni and it's even got its own refectory. Thursday night's Schnitzel night. Haha. I'm gonna love it! :-)
And the greatest thing is that I know now that once I move to Vienna I'll have a place to live. So no worries...

One of the rooms there

Connected.

This weekend I could talk to my brother on the phone for the first time in two weeks - finally. He'd moved to a new flat in Vienna two weeks ago and he hasn't yet got internet there so we can neither use e-mail nor Skype. A pity, actually, as Skype's such a great invention...
Well anyway, I enjoyed our chat a lot and then, as it was a lovely day today and not too windy - pretty rare conditions - I went for a walk. That's when I took this photo here. I like taking photos. I like landscapes. And I absolutely love it when the sun shines!
Apart from that there's not much I could write about - last week was pretty uneventful.

Je comprends un peu le français...

As some of you might know, I've been studying French recently. And finally I got to a level where I can read / understand very, very basic texts and simple books. So I started reading "Histoire d'ours", a book about a family of bears that travels to Paris and explores the city.
Of course I had to start translating too, as I really like translating, and so I did the first chapter (I translated it to German). The translation can be found here. I left out a word or two and guessed another couple but that's about it and apart from that it went really smoothly! It was a real joy translating it!
Voilà! I can understand some French! Hahaha...

A not so busy weekend.

After being quite busy last week and probably going to be pretty busy again this week, I decided to spend a not so busy weekend last weekend. On Saturday, for example, I went on a bike tour again for the first time in ages. First I didn't quite know where I wanted to go and so I ended up cycling away in some random direction - only to find a quite nice park where I stopped and spent half an hour or so walking.

Quite a nice park

On Sunday I finally took some time for cooking. Oh, aren't Knödel (dumplings) and Sauerkraut just wonderful? Anyway, I really enjoyed that meal!

Knödel - the joys of Austrian cuisine

Movie Night.

Last Wednesday I went to a little movie evening organised by the uni. In the G01 lecture theatre they screened "Nirgendwo in Afrika" (Nowhere in Africa), a German film in a subbed version. Here's the synopsis:

A deserved 2003 Academy Award winner, director Caroline Link’s engrossing Nowhere in Africa was similarly acclaimed at numerous festivals worldwide, including prize winning successes at Karlovy Vary and an outstanding five German film awards, Outstanding Feature amongst them.
A beautifully realised World War II-set love story spanning two continents, Nowhere in Africa is the extraordinary true tale of a Jewish family who flee the Nazi regime at the very last moment for a remote farm in Kenya. Torn from her comfortable life in Germany, the shy, five year-old Regina embraces her new life discovering the magic in the wilderness of the sun-burnt African plains and the initially strange African people who live there. Her parents however find it harder to leave their European roots behind and adjust to the poverty and isolation of their new home. As the war rages on the other side of the world, the trio’s relationships to their strange environment become increasingly complicated as Jettel grows more self-assured and Walter more haunted by the life they left behind. As they eventually learn to cherish their life in Africa, they also endeavour to find a way back to each other.

It was nice to see something in German again, all the more because it was a really good and moving film.

Austria re-visited.

Hiya, I’m back! Well, actually I’m not quite back yet as while I’m typing these lines I’m still sitting at Stansted airport and got some seven hours of travelling ahead until I return to that room I call home away from home.
First of all I want to apologise to anyone who might have checked my blog hoping to find some potos and updates from Austria. Fact is: I really was too busy. So busy that I only had time and energy once to post on my blog – and exactly that time the Blogspot server was down. Poo.
Anyhow, as always when I’m enjoying myself (and I did enjoy myself in spite of being so busy) time passed far too quickly and today I caught myself wishing for a few extra days to stay. But no. Of course not. C’est la vie, mons amis… (sp?) I did, however, get a lot of things sorted out and also spent time with my family and so I’m quite satisfied now.
To maintain the appearance of a regularly updated blog (as it should be) I will write separate entries for single days, pretending that I’m writing the entry on the respective day and trying to remember the things that happened and to revive my impressions. Pretending to be in the past you could say… ;-)

Wednesday, 25th October 2006
First day in Vienna.

Yes! After a long and tiring jouney I have finally arrived! Monday evening I got on a coach to London after choir rehearsal. It was a double-decker bus, my first trip on that sort of bus and while it drove through the dark night I did recognise a few places along the way. First there was the corner of Grosvenor Park in Chester where I’d been two times before. I like Chester. Then I happened across that building in Birmingham that I’d seen on my England trip in summer. And I also saw the garage where I’d parked my car in Stratford. Memories. It was also the first time I saw a number of British cities at nighttime. A good opportunity to do some comparison. In Chester, for example, high street shops generally don’t have metal shutters while shops in other cities do. Thus there must be a difference in crime levels because seemingly shops need to protect their goods and shop windows in certain cities and in other cities they don’t. I found that quite interesting. Anyway, after celebrating the reunion with my family yesterday evening I went to Vienna today visiting various locations of the University of Vienna and getting things sorted out. What did strike me again is (as always when I go to Vienna) the good state public transportation is in, how cheap a day ticket is and the general cleanness of public places. Discipline and consideration seem to be common there.

Back home!

Main building of the University of Vienna

The time-honoured university library

The Translation and Interpretation Centre, part of the University of Vienna

Thursday, 26th October 2006
Hiking.

Today is a public holiday in Austria, the so-called “Nationalfeiertag”, the day on which we celebrate Austria’s becoming independent in the 1950’s. As you naturally can’t do much work on a public holiday, my family and I decided to go hiking. We went to the quiet and beautiful area of Lake Laudachsee which isn’t far from Lake Traunsee (and also Lake Mondsee which is mentioned in one of the stories on my translation blog). The weather was perfect and the warm air outside made it hard to believe that it is actually almost November. So we spent the afternoon walking, talking and enjoying the scenery. I was taking landscape photos again, of course. I just can’t help it… :-)

Scenic spot near Lake Laudachsee

Sunday, 29th October 2006
More Vienna for me.

Yesterday evening I got back from two more days in Vienna. On Friday morning and afternoon I was quite busy again and there isn’t really much I’d actually write on here but in the evening I met my brother and his girlfriend (whose name is Jasmin) who have a flat in Vienna now. Together we went to the cinema and then for a few drinks in several Viennese pubs and taking in the great beer & atmosphere and chatting on end and before soon it was five in the morning. Good thing there are night buses in Vienna. The next day, on Saturday, my parents joined us and together we went to meet Jasmin’s parents. An extended family reunion if you wish. Much of the afternoon we spent in said parents’ flat in the 14^th district of Vienna, talking over coffee and cake. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before but I really like talking over coffee and cake. Thus it was the perfect afternoon for me and to make it a perfect day we went to a wine tavern (called “Heuriger” in Austria – or at least that’s what the type of wine tavern we went to is called…) in one of the townships just outside Vienna. I drank some “Sturm” which is wine that hasn’t riped for a long time and thus is still really light and sweet. Its taste almost resembles grape juice you could say. It can normally only be bought in autumn and so I was totally happy to get some. Unfortunately my parents and I had to leave at 8pm but it had been a great day. I really like Jasmin’s parents as they are lovely people and I’m looking forward to meeting them again soon (December it shall be).


Tuesday, 31st October 2006
And Vienna again.

The last two days were spent in Vienna too. I’ve been five days in Vienna so far: Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. Again, I don’t want to bore you too much with the details, only so much: I had a talk with some university professors and got some answers to questions I’d had before. I travelled around a lot by tube again and saw some of the representative (and quite impressive) buildings of the 1^st district, the historical city centre. A glimpse of it you can catch by looking on the Vienna webcam on the right side of the blog. It’s been my last time in Vienna for the time being as I won’t go there in the next three days. I shall return in December.

Centre for Japanese Studies at the University of Vienna

Halls of residence next to the Danube

Friday, 3rd November 2006
First snow.

The day before yesterday, 1^st November, was a public holiday again. As it is the custom on that day or the day after, we visited the family graves. 2^nd November is called “Allerseelen” which means “all souls”. It’s called that because it’s an occasion for people to remember their late ancestors and their souls. Probably it’s not so different from the Japanese o-bon where people return to their ancestral homes, mind the family graves and remember the dead.
Yesterday was quite a relaxing day on which I stayed home and didn’t do too much and today is my last day in Austria already. I got up quite early and after a quick breakfast I drove my brother to the train station in Linz. He’s moving to Vienna now for good as he found a job there and starts working on Monday. So, after dropping him off there I returned home and packed my bags for my return to Britain. Soon I’ll have to leave the homestead again and I really don’t want to go yet. However, I have to. And I’m tired. The long journey and all that being busy and staying up long have taken their toll. I bet that I made mistakes in this text which I normally wouldn’t make. But who cares. Too bad that I won’t even get much chance to catch up on sleeping once I return to Britain as I have work on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. But on Tuesday I shall rest. That will be nice.
Ah, by the way, the first snow of this winter has fallen yesterday. Looking out of the window, everything is white. A truly beautiful sight.
So, goodbye is immanent now and it reminds me of an Austrian song of which I have translated the first few lines into English. It’s called “Muss i denn”…

Do I have, do I have, do I have to leave this town,
Have to leave this town,
While you are staying here?
When I come, when I come, when I come back again,
Come back again,
I will visit you, my dear…

That’s it for now, Austria will be left behind today. I’ll be back in December.