Vienna- Laura White & AnnaMarie Sintetos

Greetings from Vienna!

This is the second leg of our journey through Central Europe and we can already see differences from our previous site, Budapest, and here. Vienna seems much more urbanized than Budapest and this is seen in everything from clothing to restaurants to transportation. Budapest still has various traces of Communism, which only ended there in 1989 while Vienna was relatively untouched by that era. There is a distinct "hustle and bustle" in Vienna, one we find similar to that of a native New Yorker. In addition we found that in Budapest there was an obvious central location for socialization among young people, while in Vienna we found that the social "hot spots" were more split up. Some of us visited the "Bermuda Triangle" a place our tour guide told us was the it place to go, but it did not live up to it's hype unless you want to be running around with fifteen year old boys.
Many of the central themes discussed in Hungary mirrored those in Vienna. For example, the three maternity leave common for working women also caused barriers in advancement of their prospective careers. Another major difference we found was that in Budapest several turned to entrepreneurship to balance the home and work life while in Vienna this is much less popular.
A major difference between Austria and the United States is the upper education system. The University System is free for anyone who desires to go to a public school, which is usually funded by the ministry. The students at University of Vienna were incredibly surprised that we attend a women's college and that we have such a complex college application process. If you go to WU try to start a conversation with a student, it is an enriching experience.

Look forward to Vienna if you are in the 2010 travel group to CE!

Laura and AnnaMarie

Note: The coffee is astronomically better than in the US!

Katie Bull, Central Europe: Budapest

When we arrived in Budapest, I my first impressions were hot Hot HOT! I was dressed for a cool foggy day in Boston in jeans, a sweater, and sneakers! However, it only took us two or so days to adjust to the time change, weather, and food. The first night in Budapest, we went to a traditional Hungarian restaurant with live music, dancing, and traditional food. The goulash tasted amazing—it was so rich and flavorful. The dancing was also really impressive; some of us even were able to try it!
Over the next several days, we met several entrepreneurs and scholars from Budapest and other parts of Hungary at Corvinus University. I particularly enjoyed our conversations with a gender scholar from America-who-lives-in-Germany, Jeanne Hamilton. She spoke about how anything we perceive as "natural" should be questioned because we have been conditioned by our societ(ies) since birth to think this way. This is how we can break down stereotypes, consider their true implications, and form our own opinions on them. I also thought her comparisons between female candidates for office in the United States and in Germany were informative and interesting. We were able to draw some remarkable conclusions from this about the similarities and differences in our societies.

CE 09 USA mary

Almost at the airport....concerns about swine flu---will Budapest let us in? Looking forward to a great trip!!