Also, I am going to be pulling my narration from a variety of sources, and I may well end out having to backtrack and fill in information I forgot to include the first time around.
***
"Man is the product of economic processes; history makes him what he is.
Why should we be interested in communism? It matters because one third to one half of the world is influenced by communist thought. If we are to speak to the world we live in, it is crucial for us to understand the philosophy of communism.
But what do we mean by communism? We may mean a philosophical and political theory. This level of theory is the basis of the revolutionary workers' movement. To grasp this theory we need to examine the works of Mark, Lenin, Stalin and Mao. This would give us insight into the presuppositions that underlie communist theory. But another thing we may mean by the word "communism" would be the revolutionary movement itself. That means communism as it is practiced in Russia, the Eastern bloc countries or in China. The revolutionary movement is the practice of communism in a particular context at a particular time. It is what communists do and how they behave.
Perhaps what most people mean by "communism" is the society which is the communism's ultimate goal in the future. Russia does not pretend that it is a communist state. That is what the name says - The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The communist state is an ideal which lies in the future and all communists in that sense are working toward the creation of that perfect society which is truly communistic.
We can sum up then what we mean by communism. We may mean either a theory, a process, or an aim."
Cook, David. (1979). Christianity Confronts... Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House, p. 95-96.
***
I am relying on my pocket calendar in this post to recreate the last week in Seattle and the first week in Vienna.
I don't have noted in the calendar, however, when I brought all my boxed up earthly belongings (with a few childhood things and the like left in my parents' attic) to the shippers in the Industrial District in West Seattle just across the West Seattle Bridge. My things were going to be shipped to Hamburg and then go be land to Vienna, which would take about 6 weeks altogether. I arrived in Vienna a week or two before my shipped belongings did.
On Monday, June 15, 1987 I spent the evening with my paternal aunt. It doesn't say here what this is, but she did have a family going away party for me, so I think that's what this evening was. She put on a nice party for me with her kids and Grandmother and my family. It was very nice of her to do that. Below is me and the cake. I'm sure my cousin made the tapestry behind me; she got her B.A. in textiles and did some very good weaving (at least I thought it was good).
Then a friend from church had me over for dinner the following evening. We both grew up in the same church together, although she was three or four years older than me so it wasn't until after I joined the young adults' group at church (that is, after I graduated from high school) that we began to get to know each other. She and her sister were both in an Eastern European folk dance group, and we just seemed to have common interests and outlook on things anyway. She also worked (still does) at the cancer center where Anatoly Grischenko, the Soviet test pilot who contracted leukemia flying over Chernobyl, was treated.
Wednesday morning I went to the University of Washington hospital to visit the adult daughter of missionaries my church supported. She had just donated a kidney to her younger sister and she was in need of some spiritual encouragement too.
That evening I went to the evening service at church.
The next day, Thursday June 18, I took my parents out to dinner. To be honest with you, I don't remember this, so I don't know where I took them. Maybe mom remembers; I'll have to ask her next time I talk with her. Her memory's not so good now though, because of health issues.
I don't have anything marked in my calendar for June 19, but on the 20th my family (me, my parents and two brothers) all went on a hike to celebrate Father's day and the 3 June birthdays (mom and my two brothers). It was a fun day as I remember it and the weather was nice too.
Then that evening some singles from church had a going away party for me. I knew what the party was for - I guess that would be hard to hide under the circumstances. But I was totally surprised by the singing gorilla that came to the party! It was really funny, to say the least. Below is the certificate the "gorilla" gave me.
The next day I assume I went to church, but I don't know what else I might have done that day.
Monday, June 22, 1987 me and my family and Grandmother all met in the chapel at Sea-Tac Airport for final prayers and farewells. My flight left at 6:00 p.m. for Vienna. I probably had a stopover somewhere or the other, but I don't remember. Below is a picture of Grandmother and I in the chapel.
***
The whole next week is blank in my calendar, so I'll have to try to recreate it a bit. I know that the first couple days were spent just settling in like getting registered (all foreigners living in Austria had to register with the authorities), opening a bank account, getting basic groceries, etc. I didn't have much to unpack yet, though, because I only had my suitcase.
I do remember starting work at the office just about right away. So I flew out Monday evening from Seattle and would have arrived sometime Tuesday in Vienna. I think I was already starting to go to the office on Thursday, but definitely by Friday. I was put in the office right adjacent to my boss, and the director and his secretary were across the hall. The director's secretary was my main mentor as far as showing me the ropes was concerned.
What I mainly remember about the first week or two was being so bowled over by the lavish welcome, or at least it seemed lavish to me. Everyone seemed so excited to have me there. I remember thinking it was very nice to be so wanted and appreciated, but I'm not the kind of person that particularly needs excessive amounts of encouragement so it ended out taking me aback a bit.
Meanwhile, in the office I was given the office policies (which I soon learned were virtually meaningless, as they were only applied according to management's whims) and... software manuals to read. You may remember that about a year prior I had offered to take a software class at the local vocational technical institute in Seattle if they told me what software they were using. My sending mission relayed this offer to Vienna, but Vienna said that wouldn't be necessary. So then I realized why it wouldn't be necessary, which was because I was going to spend some time reading software manuals when I first got to Vienna.
I can't remember the exact order things started happening, although the software manual thing started pretty much right away. But the other thing was that my boss kept telling me he didn't know what to do with a secretary because he'd never had one before. Occasionally he gave me a letter to type and I set up a few basic files the other secretary suggested might be useful. But that was it.
Just to finish out the month, I'll end with saying that on Monday June 29th my secretary-mentor and her roommate, the straight-out-of-high-school secretary, had me over for dinner. My mentor secretary had an interesting background. She became a Christian as an adult, I guess in her 20s and before that had evidently led somewhat of a fast lifestyle. I think maybe her past background gave her kind of an understanding of the world that came out in her personality. She was very sharp and I think she had sort of a distinctive laugh, too, but I'm not sure I can describe it.
The younger secretary was very sweet-natured. I should say that I'm actually wearing a denim jumper as I write this that she gave me. So it's a hand-me-down. I've started wearing it more recently because anything around my waist for very long hurts (I think it's my 3rd spinal stenosis in the making).
Then, on the 30th I had dinner with another couple - the head of human resources, one of the military chaplains. If I remember correctly he came from a Presbyterian pastorate in Colorado before joining the chaplaincy and then the mission. I don't remember which mission they were with, but they were with one of the ones that made their workers change their names for social interactions, so I never did know their real names even. Anyway, I expect that that was the one and only social engagement I ever had with them that was very pleasant for me.
***
Before I move on, it might be appropriate for me to tell a little about my living. Here's a link to a Google Map image of where I lived: http://maps.google.com/maps?t=h&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=48.252634,16.293669&spn=0.002043,0.004667&z=18. Look for the 6 identical buildings all in a row, the ones with the orange-red roofs. I lived in the top building. This was actually a hill and to walk up it involved some 100+ steps. If you had a car you could drive up as far as between the 3rd and 4th buildings.
On the hill opposite me was a cemetery that you could hardly tell was a cemetery from my window, because it just looked like a park. On All Saints Day, however, it was all lit up with candles that people brought to remember their lost loved ones.
One thing I really liked about where I lived was its proximity to the Viennese Forest. I was only about 1/2 a mile from a trailhead, and I made use of it too. Here's a link to the trail system of the part of the forest closest to me: http://www.natuerlichwien.at/files/content_rundwalk_1/Etappe02.jpg. I would walk down to Hameaustrasse and turn right (heading west), and then turn right onto Sulzweg, which turns into Dreimarksteingasse, and from there I would enter the forest. I also hiked from other starting points, too, but that was a close and convenient one.
That's it for my last week in Seattle and my first week in Vienna.
