I haven't posted a blog in a while, and I do apologize for that! I have had a busy couple weeks, and for one week I was back in Mainz.
The 26th of October is Austria's National Holiday. No fireworks, no hot dogs, no bbq. However, there was free entry into the Parliament, and the Chancellor's office, the European Union building and a big military celebration at Heldenplatz (Hero's Square) in Vienna. It was called, "Tag der offenen Tür" which means, "Day of open doors." Just like the museum adventure I went on a while back, this is the same kind of concept. All of the city offices and important government buildings are open to the public free of charge, whereas they normally have a fee or you can't go in them at all, let alone be on a guided tour.
Austria's Parliament building is amazing. It is really a special building. It was interesting to see where all the important and official business takes place.
I had heard that the Chancellor was going to be in his office, and that you can stop buy and meet him, so I jumped at the chance to do that! And, lucky for us, we got to shake hands with him, and talk to him for a minute. I explained to him that we are teaching assistants from the US on the Fulbright program. He seemed impressed!
We also went to the European Union building, and got some cool free stuff: a cloth bag (which comes in very handy when you have to carry your groceries home!), a ruler, a pen, and nice big map, and some information on Europe. Also, we couldn't miss the opportunity to present ourselves to the European Union, and think about what it would be like to be called Madame Diplomat...
No comments:
Post a Comment