Coming Home

The end of exile

  

Mea Culpa and a thousand pardons. I have, it seems, fallen off the proverbial (blog) wagon, but I am still here!  It’s not as if I haven’t wanted to share my impressions or thoughts, but I am not one of those who needs to always update my comings and goings on Facebook or Twitter, and it just seemed that my busy and pleasant life had become so normal and routine that I didn't feel the inspiration to write about it.

So where to pick up from?  No other way but to dive in with perhaps a brief update on ‘events’ since my last posting, and a few thoughts along the way.

WORK

I taught at the university all through the spring, and have secured contracts for additional courses through this fall and the spring of 2013 - a solid income base. I’ve also been teaching business English courses at various companies assigned to me by a very busy language school, and have even taken on a few private students. This is the part of my working life that I hope to build on in the coming year(s).

CULTURE

My personal austerity budget has loosened up a little bit, now that I have a fairly steady income, so I have been enjoying a few concerts, movies, and social engagements. Once this current heat wave breaks, I hope to get ‘out there’ a bit more.

Sitting on stage at a Musikverein concert was the thrill of a lifetime for me.

TRAVEL

So far this year, I’ve been to Salzburg (for a teacher’s conference), to Graz (for fun, with a good friend) and to London to visit with my son, Ben, and daughter, Michelle, for a week. The rest of the year will be even busier:  a few days in Prague with Ben later this month, a few days in the U.S. with Michelle in August, and a few days in Israel in September. I have a break between semesters in October, and who knows where I’ll go then?

A view of the river Mur in Graz

Spring sprang early in Graz

My favorite wise guys

By the Tower Bridge

FAMILY
What a year of joyous news it’s been:  

> Michelle got engaged and will be married next May in Israel (and I love my future son-in-law, Arnon):  

Celebrating engagement

> Ben received his Masters degree in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art (and picked up this year’s sculpture prize along the way!):  

Being interviewed about his exhibit

> My niece gave birth to her second son (my jubilant brother’s second grandson): 

Welcome Alexander, Declan's new little brother!

... and I managed to enter my seventh decade without any debilitating trauma, but with a little help from a traditional schnitzel dinner (– real comfort food). 

I ate out on my birthday, but this schnitzel I made at home.

And while not quite family, I had a great thrill meeting with my mother’s best friend from her childhood in Vienna, an amazing nonagenarian who lives in London and shared with me some personal and touching memories.

Edith and me, like old friends ourselves ...

So, what has all this got to do with the title of this post?  I think it’s my attempt to convey just how completely at home I feel here, and have felt since I arrived. Vienna is truly one of the most livable cities in the world — its size, culture, social services, and dedication to a more relaxed and pleasurable way of life, have all come together for me in a way that has produced a contentment I’d not previously known. These qualities have also attracted a diverse and fascinating array of people from around the world, many of whom I now count among my dearest friends. And while I may not have yet penetrated any inner Viennese social circles (no invitations to waltz at the ball), my encounters with the people here have been welcoming, wonderful, and supportive.

It’s not that I’m blind to the city’s and country’s faults. (I’ll leave that for another post.) It’s just that I’ve settled so completely and thoroughly that I don’t consider myself an expat, someone who lives temporarily in a foreign country. Although my move has been infinitely smoother and less wrenching than my parents’ immigration in the opposite direction back in the late 1930s, I feel in many ways that I, too, have immigrated - but back home. 

I’ve often said that my upbringing was more European than American, and that I’d felt this even since early childhood. Of course, the U.S. is clearly an intrinsic part of my identity; but I can appreciate now very precisely how truly Viennese my childhood and family life were, and how deeply it formed my character. Obviously, on a basic level, this accounts for how natural and comfortable it feels for me to live here.

On a deeper level, however, it also strengthens the conviction and validation I feel in returning to Vienna. It was from here that my family was viciously and ruthlessly either kicked out or killed more than 70 years ago – but not forever. I have come back to reclaim, to the extent it is possible, the identity and lives that were taken from us. This imbues my life with an intense and unmistakable mission, and as I walk the streets of my family’s and my neighborhoods every day, I feel their presence and their company, every step of the way.

My maternal grandparents, Emil and Selma Schorr, deported 1942

My paternal grandparents, Leo and Frieda Hollander, who made it to the U.S.

My parents, Otto and Lisl, ca. 1988