An eventful week!!
So, it looks like I already have a lot
of catching up to do on the blog. The only reason I'm updating this now is I start teaching TOMORROW! SO much has happened since I last
posted. I also realized I am not very good about taking photos so
many of these photos are courtesy of other TAs. This batch has a lot
of photos from the other American TA in Villach, Karen.
OKTOBERFEST
So this past weekend I attended the
Villacher Oktoberfest. In the past this was originally celebrated to
honor the wedding of “royalty” in Bavaria way back in 1810.
Obviously since then, Oktoberfest has become famous for being a huge
fair full of Bavarian food, large steins of beer, and Tracht
(dirndls, lederhosen, and other outfits constructed as
“traditional”). Because of this fame which has nothing to do with
dead married people any more, a few nearby areas began to hold
festivals for a few days overlapping with the 16-day Oktoberfest in
Munich. Villach is one of those places, and even titled it “Villacher
Oktoberfest.” Villach has it's own festival in late July/early
August called the “Villacher Kirchtag”, but why NOT have another
excuse for pretty dirndls and delicious beer 6 weeks later?
So naturally myself and some other TAs
in Villach and Klagenfurt attended one afternoon
Of course the obligatory tent, large Bier, and Dirndl pic
And now just the Dirndl
Note too, the huge Austrian
flag/banners everywhere. There was also a large flag of the town
shield/coat of arms. Which seems a little strange (or involves a trip to the museum/asking around as to WHY a severed bird leg).
ORIENTATION
From Monday to Friday this week I was
at Orientation. The location, Saalbach-Hinterglemm was supposed to be
central for everyone teaching in the western half of Austria.
Above is the map of Austria showing
where I am in relation to the camp. It's located IN the alps (my town
is south of them) and in the winter is a popular skiing area.
Orientation was a LOT of fun and probably the only time I'd get to
see so many other TAs in one place at once.
The group was full of characters. Our
“teachers” were all wonderful. The one assigned to us was Hans.
He loved playing up essentialized “Austria-ness” which was
infectious.
Here's Hans walking up the Alps, in
Lederhosen, probably yodeling
Though Tuesday was mostly filled with
lessons, the other days were full of some interesting experiences.
Wednesday afternoon we hiked up a local
mountain. It was pretty strenuous since I'm not used to hiking AT
ALL. But it was beautiful and so worth it. There was a little
restaurant near the top, where a bunch of TAs played music and
danced. All in all it was very gemuetlich.
I also geeked about the cows and sheep (their wool will be mine!!) just hanging out around the mountain
That evening there was also a hired
Folk Dancing group. One part of this was the Schuplattler section,
invoking a “traditional” dance of slapping one's thighs, and
stomping, and hitting one's shoes. There were lots of other dances,
and the dancers frequently grabbed members of the audience to go out
on the dance floor. Since I was wearing my dirndl, I was probably and
easy target. I didn't have my camera with me, so these pics are all
courtesy of Karen
I have since done very basic surface research about Schuhplattler. I assumed what we were watching that night had its basis in something very old and variable. But had since been transformed with the expansion of the Austrian Empire, forces of nationalism, AND tourism both generations ago and especially in recent years. Sort of accurate without any specifics, I guess.
Factoring into these strands of reinventing this dance, though, are women and LGBT groups also laying claim to this. There are a few all women groups, when the dance had been previously only for men. Something I had NO idea about was how some members of the LGBT community here have also laid claim to the dance. For instance, in 1997 a group from Munich formed calling themselves the "Schwuhplattler" (Schwuh is sort-of Bayerish-German for gay). I can skip over anthropological gushing and rambling about identity politics, but in short, I think this is the coolest thing ever.
Anyway, here's the website for "d'Schwuhplattler" which also gives a good brief history of the dance and its ever-changing forms and contexts (in English)
I just graduated from studying anthropology, of course I would analyze a dance that only made up an hour and a half of my week =P.
Back on track: meeting the other TAs and people from the program was amazing. Sad I probably won't get to see all of them in one place ever again, but I'll manage. I'm glad it'll be easy to meet up with many of them in my Austrian state, at least + have some people to visit when I want to travel.
I should go to bed soon since tomorrow IS my first day of teaching, and you'll all get a very different sort of blog post very soon. Bis bald!
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