Klein Aber Fein

"Small but pretty" were the words once said to me by my barber here when he was trying to sum up all that Salzburg is, and I think he hit it right on the nose.  A friend and his sister were passing through town on their way from Munich to Vienna, the two largest cities in this area, and I could tell they felt a little claustrophobic here.  We walked through the old city and saw all the major sites within a couple of hours.  It is small.  But I think that's what I like most about it.  As much as I adore Vienna, for example, I'm overwhelmed at times by how vast it is spread, with a large multinational community, far laying suburbs and distinct neighborhoods, subways and tram cars, endless streets and apartment buildings, the business and rush of a major capital city at all times.  Maybe having lived in a smaller city like Salzburg has conditioned me to feel so small and insignificant when staying in Vienna, but I definitely lean towards life here.  

Salzburg has, in my opinion, the greatest combination of city and nature.  It is home to world class concert venues, attracting artists of the highest caliber all year round.  It contains over a dozen museums, over 20 beautiful churches, a plethora of quality restaurants and unique cafés, two major universities, a mountain top fortress, professional sports clubs, and beautiful, preserved architecture spanning 1,300 years.  My favorite aspect of the city is that within 15 minutes from city center, I can be in the Alps.  How crazy is that?  There's not a single American city I can think of where that's possible.  It's city surrounded by smaller cities, surrounded by smaller yet cities, surrounded by suburbs, upon suburbs, upon suburbs, until one can find nature on the scale that one does here.  Three alpine mountains are within the city limits, and, in fact, the old city is confined by two of these.  It is the only large city in central Europe to have cow fields within the city limits.  I love that I see the same people all over the city - it makes me feel as if I know them, like I've been here long enough to distinguish myself from the tourist.  Frequenting the same places, and having the people who work there recognize me makes me feel more like a local.  For example, one of my favorite cafés, Café Würfel Zucker, reopened after moving from their former location.  They were ridiculously busy on opening day, but I went back the next day, and the owner stopped to chat - he remember that I and my friends visited their old location often, and he was really glad that I had returned.  I know nothing about him, and he knows nothing about me, but simply because we've seen each other a few times, we can strike up a conversation and learn, and that's a really great feeling.  Salzburg's an unbelievably beautiful place, and it still doesn't fail to take my breath away on a daily basis.  There are some days where I wake up, walk down to the river, plop down on the side, and, while taking in the sheer brilliance of the view before me, think to myself "there's no other place I want to be."  It's often said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but I don't think a thousand words could do this place justice.  Beautiful.  It just is.

Small but fine, indeed.  

Thursday evening I was called by the school for something urgent.  Friday morning is the first day of the students' final examination, and the test begins with a listening section.  The test preparation books three of the teachers had came with a CD, which they assumed contained the spoken texts.  Wrong.  They waited until the day before to discover that it was just a practice test to use on the computer, which meant they needed their resident native speaker at the ungodly hour of 6:30 to read the selections aloud in 5 different voices, as it was a dialogue between 5 people.  I remembered earlier in the year when I had worn a tie and jacket to school, and consequently nearly gave several students a heart attack, that I was told only to wear a tie if someone's died or if the students have a major, major examination, such as this Matura.  So, I wore a suit and tie, thinking I'd fit in.  Wrong again.  Apparently that dress code is only for the final, final oral presentation, and I could have gotten away with wearing a t-shirt.  Oh well!  Some good news was that in return for coming in for a few hours at the last minute, and on my day off, 5 of my classes will be cancelled, and, as 4 of them had already been cancelled due to scheduling conflicts, I have only about 20 classes to teach over the next 4 weeks...and they can't come soon enough!

I'll be able to see my parents on Tuesday, and my best friend and another friend from university are coming the following week, and I'm really looking forward to seeing all of them again.  Getting caught up work, research, school work, and my friends here, I can sometimes forget that this isn't going to last forever, and that in coming here, I left my whole life behind me, including the people I miss the most.  Sometimes, in order to grow, though, you need to do that yourself, and that's probably the most important thing I've gained from this experience abroad.  7 weeks, and counting!