The Dynamic Duo

I forgot to mention that on Wednesday I went to the Albertina, an old palace that has been turned into an art museum. And yes, I went there by myself. Lame, I know, but it was actually pretty fun that way. I am a very slow mover through museums, so it was nice that I could go at my own pace and see the things I really wanted to see. In the museum there were three main exhibits: a Dutch painters exhibit, an exhibition called Monet to Picasso, and an exhibit of paintings and photographs by an artist named Gottfried Helmwien. My favorite exhibit was the Monet to Picasso because I love impressionist painters and there were some really beautiful impressionist paintings as part of the exhibit. The Helmwien exhibit was interesting but disturbing as well because he uses children who are hurt as his main focus, so it was really hard to spend a lot of time looking at them. However, he makes some really great statements with his work that I could definitely appreciate.
On Thursday, we had two sets of presentations. In the morning, we heard from Vladimir Rimac, a native of Sarajevo in the former Yugoslovakia. He told us a lot about the history of Yugoslavia and all the wars that it went through, especially in the 20th century. He also told us about his own history, and he has traveled all over the world and managed to escape when there was a war happening in Sarajevo. He also told us about his family life, and he has two sons, one of whom is autistic. In order to take care of his son he had to give up studying at the university and it's been a lot of work taking care of him. But he said that he wouldn't give it up for anything, which was very inspiring.
In the afternoon, we heard from two very amazing and cool women named Judann Weichselbraun and Lilly Warenits who are both American and married Austrian men. Doc likes to joke and call them the "dynamic duo" because they are best friends and always do their presentation together. Their presentation was probably my favorite one so far because they are just such cool women. They have so many insights about what it is like to live in Vienna for a long period of time and their stories about how they ended up in Vienna are so funny and interesting. I especially loved Judann, who is a singer, performer, and teacher who is currently running a program in primary schools all around Vienna where she gets students excited to learn English by using songs and dances. Basically she's doing what I would love to do! We might get to go visit her classroom next week and I am so excited to observe her.
On Friday we got to get out of the classroom and go to a Protestant German-English church to hear Reverend Ines Knoll talk to us. She described her life to us and that she wanted to become a Reverend at age 10. Austria is more conservative than some other countries so she found it a little more difficult to be a female Reverend, but she has convinced every single person who doubted her that she really is good enough. She was such a cool woman to hear from since she is working in a profession that is very male-dominated. She also talked to us about how important it is to do what you love but not to get overwhelmed by stuff you're trying to do. She gave some really good advice that all of us could really take to heart.
All of these speakers so far have been so inspiring and I am so excited to hear more. This weekend we went to Budapest, so I will write about that later!