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Students explore morbid side in rainy Vienna

February 16, 2006 by Pepperdine Graphic

LAUREN WAUGH
Heidelberg Columnist

A high-pitched scream pierced the air that filled Maria-Theresien Square in the heart of Vienna, Austria. A group of Heidelberg students rushed over to the base of the looming statue in the center of the plaza, searching for the spot the noise had come from. There, sprawled upon the pavement nearby, one of their own lay fallen. Some students looked confused, others smirked. “She’s dead,” several said enthusiastically. A few moments later, friends helped “dead” Sophomore Jessica Martin to her feet, and the group continued on their tour of the city.

The above situation may be strange or confusing to onlookers, but to the Heidelberg students involved, it was a perfectly normal part of occurrences that were to mark our stay in Vienna. The “Murder Game” had claimed its first victim. The idea of the game, as loosely defined by its participants, is for a professor to select one student in the group and designate her or him as the “killler,” and throughout the week this student will choose peers one at a time and tell them to “play dead.”

We were able to justify throwing around such morbid terms with the knowledge that it was all done in an effort to amuse ourselves. At the end of each day, all participants vote and select a suspect, who is then out of the game and must admit to whether or not she or he is the killer. If the killer remains undiscovered, the game continues the next day.

The game began out of necessity on the Heidelberg program’s educational fieldtrip to Vienna, Austria. Each semester, the Heidelberg program organizes an educational fieldtrip in order to provide weary world travelers with a well-organized opportunity to learn outside of the classroom. Guided by three professors and their spouses, we took the city of Vienna by storm from Feb. 7 through 11.

We arrived in the airport Tuesday afternoon sleepy but excited to take advantage of our prepaid trip, grabbed the excessive amounts of luggage that distinguish a Pepperdine student from those of other universities, and headed out the door to meet our bus.

Our first introduction to Vienna was the thick piles of slush that surrounded our ankles as we crammed our bags beneath the bus. After a quick unpacking of bags and finding of rooms once we arrived at the hotel, professors Mary Drehsel and Bruno Lerner heroically suggested that the group ignore the slushy streets and head off immediately for the scheduled walking tour of the city.

The weather in Vienna that Tuesday was all but conducive to the harmony of a city tour by foot. Rain began to pour almost as soon as we left the hotel, the wind picked up and our thin tennis shoes quickly flooded as we trudged through ice or puddles. Dr. Lerner forged ahead bravely, not missing a beat as led us into the heart of the city he grew up in.

Unlike Dr. Lerner, none of us had the same deep-rooted feelings of amour for Vienna. Few of us had ever visited the city before the fieldtrip, and therefore for the majority of the group our introduction to Vienna was of the dreary cold and the blurred images of historical monuments that we attempted to make out despite the heavy rain. We survived the next few hours and spent dinner thawing out en masse at a local restaurant.

Forecasts revealed that we were to experience similarly wretched weather the rest of the week. We began to bemoan the coming days of outdoor sightseeing, and for the first time in many of our young lives, students began to long for the comfortable haven of a dry and warm history or art museum.

However, if there is one thing that Pepperdine students seem to all possess, it is the ability to entertain ourselves and enjoy each other’s company despite the circumstances, and that is exactly what we did. Throughout each day of the fieldtrip, an average of four to five students inconspicuously dropped dead around Austrian national monuments or on museum steps.

At the request of all professors, students carefully avoided dying in airports, restaurants or on guided tours. “Thank you all for only killing each other theoretically” Dr. Lerner said.

Though comical and pointless, the murder game had the odd effect of unifying our group, bringing cheer despite the bleak weather, and creating a most memorable stay in Vienna. And for the record, sophomore Tauren Deatherage, a.k.a. the designated killer, managed to masterfully kill more 20 twenty students and won the game.

02-16-2006

Filed Under: Uncategorized

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