This morning it was
very cold. The sky was covered in clouds
so I couldn’t see that in the mountains it snowed sometime yesterday. As the afternoon began I saw an opening in
the clouds, and a white peak emerging into the sunlight. Although beautiful, it seems strange to
imagine that in a thirty minute hike I could reach the edge of the snow, and
yet none reached the city streets.
Skiing is a very important pass time here in Austria, and
especially in Innsbruck. Many of the
people I’ve met have told me that it is worth getting a year ski pass. My roommate was telling me that you could
easily go every weekend. I hesitate
though because I wonder if I’d really have the time. It does not take that much time to get to the
slopes though. I think the nearest one
could be reached in about ten minutes.
One of the studios at the architecture school is dealing
with sport oriented cities and activity using Innsbruck as a primary example of
a city that is geared toward mountain sports, and investigating how that might
guide and shape its development. I was
intrigued by the topic and considered taking the course; I chose however to
take another professor who came highly recommended.
My studio course had its first meeting last Thursday. Our topic is dealing with the voids in the
fabric of Berlin. Berlin was bombed
during the war so many spaces and even buildings still remain empty and
abandoned. Of course, the fall of the
Berlin wall also led to many industrial warehouses and factories becoming
abandoned. These warehouses where the
spaces that hosted the various underground rave parties that took place in the
early 1990’s; without their abandonment and the lack of jurisdiction and police
the underground culture became the night club culture that thousands of people
from all around the world come to visit.
The moment also generated artistic and musical movements that now are
the popular almost mainstream culture of Europe, and maybe even the U.S.
I’m not sure what we are going to work on yet, but I know we
will have to make a series of proposals that engage this artistic culture along
with the remaining voids. There is a threat
that the voids could be filled by developers and investors. The issue isn’t that economic activity is
taking place in Berlin, but that if the voids get filled with luxury apartment
buildings and condos, the culture that is Berlin now could be lost, and the
charm of the empty spaces that can be used as passage ways and hiking routes
through the city, would become closed.
Taking this class I have realized what is so important about
the experience of a place, and how even what might be considered beautiful
buildings, could ultimately destroy the experiential atmosphere of the
place. After all, it’s the local
restaurant with cheap pizza, or the café tucked away in an alleyway where we
meet friends, that create the joy of our experience in a city, not the
monuments or land value.
Since school has started I have to say that I am extremely
happy to be working on something. Before
I was soaking in the sites and getting situated to my environs; now I am making
friends, going out, working on projects, and getting a sense of what daily life
is really like here.
I have three supermarkets within about 5 minutes
walking. One of them is a chain that was
started in Innsbruck by a family that owned a bakery. Now they are a supermarket that has a special
bakery section in it that serves fresh and cheap bread. I usually go there to get it. On Fridays a there is a farmers market where
I can buy local produce. I get
vegetables from one stand, cheese from another.
Another sells honey and mead.
While the food quality here is really good, everything is
closed by 6 or 7. So I have to carefully
plan my day in order to get everything I need by the morning or early
afternoon. Then I spend the later
afternoon working on things at home.
I also began a German course. It is quite difficult, but my roommate today
was surprised by my improvement. I wish
I could learn everything so quickly, but language is more of a habitual kind of
learning, and getting used to the vocabulary and grammatical rules are habits
that build on top of each other, so it can never come immediately. From an outsider’s perspective, however, it
may seem to happen at lightning speed, especially when the student is immersed
in it.
Last Saturday I had a chance to put my German skills to some
use. A new friend of mine invited me to
a housewarming party where I knew no one except for her. I arrived with some difficulty because the
apartment was located on the other side of the city. Innsbruck is not very large, but it is dense,
and it is not organized in a square grid, so orienting yourself is not as easy
as in the U.S. I did arrive at last and
began to meet people and talk to them. I
always greeted in German, and attempted anything I could say in the course of
multiple conversations. Soon enough people
were helping me by teaching me new phrases, correcting my grammar. It was a fun night. I didn’t realize it, but it was soon 3 AM and
everyone was leaving, but not to go home, to go out dancing in clubs
downtown. There is a little district in
Innsbruck of clubs that are all located underneath the railroad. The railroad is raised up on brick arches,
and so under these arches are multiple clubs, bars, and music halls, and so
when I arrived with the party, most of Innsbruck’s students were out on the street
or in the clubs. This is something that
does not exist in Dallas. There are some
small areas with a few bars or maybe a club to dance in, but they all close
around 2 AM, and then everyone has to drive home. The best part about this district here in Innsbruck
is that it is within walking distance to most of the city.
I think beginning the school year has market the beginning
of me becoming part of the city and culture; the beginning of new friendships
and deeper experiences. I do miss
Mexican food though.
Until next time,
