Date: May 8th, 2023
Location: Vienna, Austria
This morning I woke up around 8:00 am to get ready for the day! I'm still exhausted and didn't get too much sleep last night but oh well. I was able to get dressed and get ready for today in just a couple of minutes, so I ended up heading downstairs and getting breakfast at around 8:30. The hotel had free self-serve breakfast so I filled my plate with toast and honey, some fancy bacon, and got myself a glass of apple juice. It was a very nice, relaxing breakfast and everyone from my group was already downstairs, milling around. We all knew that at 9:00, we had to head over to a local Technical University called TU Vienna!
TU Vienna stands for the Vienna University of Technology. It's a pretty small school and it seems to be a specialty school focused on engineering, computer science, technology, and natural sciences. It's separate from the University of Vienna, which is one of Europe's biggest universities!
At nine, everyone in my program left our hotel and set out on a twenty-minute walk to TU Vienna. It was a nice and easy walk though it had its fair share of twists and turns. but on the way there, we passed by, so many cool shops and beautiful buildings. We even made our way past this amazing-looking marketplace. I hope I'll be able to visit there soon! But pretty soon, we made our way to the TU Vienna building where we were going to be working at!
We got inside the building and made our way upstairs to one of the classrooms. There, we were met with a few professors from the University and around 20 or so graduate students from TU Vienna. We had a round of introductions of the professors and they began to tell us all about the program and what we were doing as partners with TU Vienna. Naturally, we had to go ahead and get a picture to commemorate the fact that we all met so everyone went up to the rooftop to get a picture together! I wasn't able to get a picture of all of us but the view from the rooftop was amazing so here are a couple of pictures of those. But after a couple of minutes of picture-taking, we ended up heading back downstairs to the classroom.
Now, you may have read this in some of my earlier journal entries, but while I'm on this trip, I have to complete a project related to COVID-19 data. Well, we're supposed to be working with some of the graduate students currently at TU Vienna to develop this project in groups of 10! Though before we could talk more about the project, one of the TU Vienna professors went through a mini-lecture about data and the many things to consider when creating maps while one of the Penn State professors did a presentation about the different types of map projections. It didn't take long and they were both pretty interesting presentations.
Eventually, they both finished up and had all the students introduce themselves. We started with all the TU Vienna students. A bunch of them came from different countries which usually isn't that surprising when you consider the nature of graduate school programs. But what was surprising was the actual program itself. This particular group of students belonged to a Cartography Graduate School Program that has everyone travel to a new school each semester. Last semester, I think they were at a technical university in Berlin. And next semester, they'll be in Dresden. I had never heard of a program like that before so it was really interesting to learn about. But I also just really enjoyed listening to everyone talk about where they are from. Just to name a few places, there were students from Poland, Canada, Singapore, China, Malaysia, Mexico, Ghana, and more! And then once they were finished giving their introductions, all the Penn State students got up and shared where they were from. Most of us ended up being from Pennsylvania, but there were a few students like me who were from out of state and one or two of the graduate who weren't born in America.
After introductions were finally wrapped up, all of the Penn State students got into four teams of five. Our groups consisted of three undergrads and two grad students. But we each had to get five students from TU Vienna to join up with our group. It didn't take long for some people to come up and wander over to us and eventually, we had a group of five consisting of a guy from Germany, a guy from Poland, a guy from Ghana, a girl from Mexico, and a girl from Long Island, New York!
While we were forming our groups, some of the professors walked around and told us what we had to do for our project. The plan was for our groups to design a mock-up of some type of data visualization related to COVID that would be beneficial for a health-related non-profit to use and promote. It was kept pretty vague about what we were could or couldn't do which is not my favorite but I think we had enough to start formulating ideas so it wasn't too bad. At this point, it was around noon and the TU Vienna students offered to show us someplace to get lunch and have a meeting about the project. And so off we went!
We walked around a little bit, trying to find a nice place for us to all get food. It was a nice day outside so we were hoping to get take-out (or take-away as they say in Vienna) and sit in a nearby park. It was a little difficult finding a place to get something to eat since most places were cash only but we eventually settled on a quick Japanese place near the park. We all ordered our lunch, picked it up, and headed out to where the park was.
There have been plenty of times when I've eaten outside while back in the States. But I don't think it was ever as peaceful as it was today. There was just something really special about sitting on the side of a fountain, eating lunch in a bunch of tiny take-out boxes underneath the sun. There was a nice, cool breeze. It wasn't too hot and too cold. There were so many people outside around us talking and chatting and getting coffee. And all around us were pretty sculptures and beautiful, historic-looking buildings. It was just so nice!
During lunch, my group didn't end up talking about the project at all. Whoops! We were too wrapped up in getting to know each other and sharing our differences and comparing countries and cultures. It was really nice getting to hear from everyone and what their homes were like and what they all thought about Vienna since they had been in the city for about two months now. Luckily, we all had some time after lunch to work on the project so we threw out our trash and headed back to the rooftop of the building we all originally met at and got busy. We brainstormed for a while and threw out a couple of ideas here or there and nothing truly, truly stuck until the end. But we all had our fair share of tossing out ideas and trying to come up with the right project.
You see, this project that we're doing on the trip is pretty vague and kind of relaxed. However, the Penn State Grad students will be continuing this project on their own when we get back from the trip. And all the Undergraduates will be doing a poster of something similar during one of our classes in the fall. That being said, the TU Vienna students didn't have to do anything with this project afterward so they were good. Either way, we wanted to make sure we had a good project idea that was simple, unique, and very doable by everyone. So we put our heads together and brainstormed the best we could.
Though after about of hour of work we all got pretty tired and decided to call it a day. It's Monday right now but our project is due Thursday so we figured the ideas that we came up with today would be enough to hold us over and we could always come back tomorrow with new, fresh ideas for our approach. And so, the TU Vienna students all went their separate ways while the Penn State students went back to their hotel after sending a text to remind everyone that we should try to meet tomorrow.
Me and the four other students I was grouped with made our way back to the hotel and took a quick rest before we had to be back on our feet again. For the rest of the day, Penn State had two things planned for us: A visit to St. Stephen's Cathedral and Dinner at a place called Zwölf Apostel.
Our first stop was the Cathedral. It was about a twenty or so minute walk from our hotel and not going to lie, my feet were beginning to ache with just how much they had been going at this point. But on the way, we passed by so many beautiful buildings and so many familiar shops, and it ended up being all okay!
Though the absolute best part of this day was actually seeing the Cathedral! It was so amazing! It's the tallest church in Vienna and it sits in the absolute center of the city. You can actually see some of the spires from different rooftops across the city, including the TU Vienna building. I got to go inside and worlds are just so hard to describe how gorgeous everything was. It was just so magnificent. And a bit humbling when you looked at all the detailed carvings and architecture while remembering just how old everything was. Truly mindblowing- especially considering the fact that pretty much everything was built by hand.
I also got to ride an elevator up to the very top of the cathedral. And while I know I could have survived it, I felt pretty grateful for that elevator. Going up and down 200 steps would not have been my friend after all the walking I'd done (and still had left to do). Though the view from up there was absolutely breathtaking! You could just so see so much of the city and the people and landmarks that I could recognize felt so small. And I got to see the giant bell that used to ring from the tower up close. It was just so cool! I was so happy that I went. I loved every single second of it.
Once everyone was finished exploring the cathedral, it was time for dinner. Like the welcome dinner, this event put on by the school so everyone (including the TU Vienna students) had to attend! We all walked to a restaurant called Zwölf Apostel, or Twelve Apostles. It was a traditional Austrian restaurant that served a bunch of different regional dishes. But for the main portion of the dining room, there was living music coming from a violinist, and someone placing the accordion as they walked from table to table entertaining guests. But since we were a group of about 50 or so people, we got to be seated in a private dining room deep underground!
When seated, I got to sit with a couple of the Penn State students and some of the TU Vienna students. One of the guys in my group (the guy from Germany) was seated at my table so of course, we had to ask him for dinner recommendations since the cuisine was so similar to his home country's. I ended up ordering a breaded chicken filet which was pretty similar looking to a schnitzel but was very, very tasty. Everyone else's meals looked really good too.
We spent the entire time at the restaurant getting to know each other and talking and laughing. From time to time, people at different tables would get up to come to join my table and talk to some of the people there and vice versa. At one point, one of the undergraduate girls let it slip accidentally that today was her birthday so naturally, everyone had to sing her happy birthday. You could tell that she was very embarrassed by it but we all knew she was happy to hear everyone sing to her on her birthday! But it was a really welcoming, exciting, and just overall enjoyable atmosphere. I loved talking to everyone and getting to know the people a part of the program better!
Though eventually, dinner had to end. I didn't have to worry about cost again today because TU Vienna was footing the bill! And was a relief because the food there wasn't exactly cheap. For a little bit, a big group of everyone decided to go out to celebrate the birthday of the girl who was with us! She was very excited to spend it with a large group of people and everyone ended up going to a local bar that was good for travelers and students! I heard they spent a lot of time there but I wouldn't know for certain because I was one of the first people to leave. I wanted to get back to the hotel before the subway stopped working and so I could get a little bit more work (and my journal) done!
Naturally, I was extremely tired the moment I stepped through the door. I had been out and about for a long time at this point and it was nearing midnight so I was more than happy to take a shower and get ready for bed. I had just enough energy to get a few things done and this written up. My roommate was already asleep by the time I came in too so I can't say I blame her. I had quite the day too.
Alright! That's it for today's entry! Pretty eventful and walking-filled day but I know I'll be seeing a lot of that during my time here. I only hope my shoes can survive! But thank you so much for tuning in! And I hope you'll tune in for my next journal entry as well! Until next time!
- DD
Picture Sources (in order of appearance):
View from TU Vienna! - My photo!
Lunch Fountain (ft. Karlsplatz) - My photo!
Vienna State Opera - My photo!
The Albertinaplatz - My photo!
Outside St. Stephen's Cathedral - My photo!
View from inside the Cathedral - My photo!
View from the top of the Catherdral - My photo!
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