so im thinking that famous people from vienna is a subject that doesnt come up much. however im sure it will work its way into some conversation and it is always good to be prepared yeah?
actually i was watching an interview with rainn wilson of "the office" and he mentioned that he was from seattle which caused me to do a little dance, and also made me wonder who else was from the lovely emerald city. so i looked it up.
exciting people include:
-danelle and i ((disclaimer- seattle area.))
-rick steves ((every travelers best friend.))
-sir mix-a-lot ((what would music be without him? i cant imagine..))
-jim whittaker ((first american to scale everest. my mom met him!))
which, in turn, led me to investigate who called vienna/austria the place of their birth. at last, we have arrived at the real topic. heres what i discovered...
-theres the really famous ones: Arnold Schwarzenegger. Mozart. Franz Ferdinand. Wolfgang Puck. Freud.
-theres the fighters: Andreas Hofer. Amon Hoth. Robert Bernardis.
-theres the scientists: Julius Wagner-Jauregg. Hans Asperger. Karl von Frisch.
-and theres the guy who didnt fit any category but i liked: Wilhelm Steinitz. won the first world chess championship. good work.
there are nobel peace prize winners and men who ran nazi death camps. women who fostered the growth of great philosophers and actresses. writers and fighters. its easy as an american to forget that europes history runs deep, much deeper than ours does as a nation. not that we are not patriotic, but weve only had 231 years. were an infant historically.
that was one thing that struck me about kiev last spring. some buildings downtown are older than any other structures ive ever seen. its overwhelming. to see churches and office buildings built centuries apart next to each other. theres a balance between pushing forward and remembering the past. they are intertwined naturally. its lovely. and different than america. what a fun opportunity to explore other cultures! im excited!
and think, "the office" started all of this. tv is occasionally educational yeah?