FRIDAY

Blueberry ice cream = best thing ever

The moral of the course was that Vienna is the center of Europe (metaphorically and geographically)
This is the new mirroring the old. (but a lot of people just think it's out of place)

UN building

Thursday's history course centered on all the stuff in Vienna that isn't older than the dirt. Since we lived in the inner city, which has been declared a world historical site, we never really got a good look at this stuff

They are currently building a building that will be the tallest in Austria when it's done. Almost 80 stories tall. In Vienna there aren't many buildings more than 4 or 5 stories, because they want to keep the Stephansdom the highest thing. So all these must be across the river, in the new and upcoming Vienna DC (Danube City).

This is what happens when you let an artist design your church...

...but it is pretty

And then there was food!
This is the famous Sacher hotel, where sachertorte was invented

And I finally drank a real Vienna Melange

Monday Morning

So the Chocolate Museum was a bust... Their brochure says, "tours, mon - fri" but according to the mean lady that works there, that means "mon - thurs"...

Maybe we'll try again some this week, maybe not. Who knows?

I have decided, among many other small, but frustrating details, that someone did not think our trip through when they were planning everything. Check out time for the dorm is 10am. Our flight leaves at 6:45, which means we have to get on the train around 2:45am. There was a 50 euro key deposit that no one told us about, so on the way to the airport, I'll get a 50 euro bill back...

But what good is complaining? This trip was worth whatever inconveniences it comes with. Not to mention that it's not 112, or whatever it is back home! I'd take 50F and raining over a heat-pocalypse any day!

One Week To Go

Today in class we learned about the Jugendstil and Art Nouveau. It was a big cultural shift in Austrian culture during the Turn-of-the-Century, and apparently is newly "retro-vogue"

Frankly it's still the style of stuff that Grandma had in her house... But that means it was already out-dated when she had that stuff... (Not that there's anything wrong with that...)

The important aspects of this style were function, low-cost (but still attractive), and using materials efficently

They liked mosaics because they were decorative, but easy to fix or update

I liked the Turtles

Gold leaf was also a favorite material - this is the Succession Building. Basically the Stick it to the Man monument of the young hip artists

They liked to use pink and light green...

I also went clubbing for the first and last time. It was free and I had a free Coke, but I also got a free migraine...

Tuesday 19

Today, we visited the State Opera House. Most of this is all re-done, since it was bombed in the War. 

Large, pretty center lamp

Iron curtain, to prevent the spread of potential fires. They repaint it every year with a new picture.

Subtitle Boxes. Cheaters!!!

Did you know Mozart was a Freemason? This is the  Masonic Human-Metaphor Block

I thought it was supposed to be a lantern...

We then continued our tour of Austrian Music in the cemetery...

Beethoven 

That's a snake eating itself, and a bumblebee

Mozart's memorial, his body is in a common grave somewhere.

Johann Strauss

Austria's Presidential cemetery - there are only six or seven presidents of Austria...

this is the catholic chapel in the center - built in the style of the 1900's.

there are 999 stars, really

Riese Boese Tiere

The Danube

Kahlenberg

Third Weekend Already???

 On Saturday we watched Otto Hapsburg's funeral procession. It was cool to see all the traditional costumes and noble families.

And at this point my camera poo-ed out. But it went on for nearly two hours.

Saturday night I went salsa dancing. A seven-foot Bulgarian taught me to salsa. It was a lot of fun, but it was super-crowded, and I had a nasty incident with another high-heel, and we ended up going home early.

So Sunday, I didn’t do much because it was swollen, but nothing’s open anyway. In the evening, we went to the music festival and watched opera fantasia-style. The others weren’t so interested, because it was weird, and even though it was in English, we couldn’t understand a word.

So actually, I spent last night listening to Gina, Asya and Angela argue – which is quite entertaining. Angela speaks Bulgarian and Gina and Asya are Macedonian, but the languages are so close that they still understand each other.

Ece taught us the Turkish word for hiccups, which was really fun to say, but I already forgot it. Between the seven of us, we could say Hiccups in four different languages, but not German – we agreed that “der Hiccup” is as likely as anything.

In class today, Juraj (from Slovakia) told me the six languages he speaks. Apparently Czech and Slovakian are so close that it hardly counts as a second language, Hungarian is apparently very similar to the roots of Scandinavian languages and literally everyone knows English. Juraj told me that proper Slovakian is the third most difficult language in the world, right underneath Chinese. Even normal native speakers can't do it, so English is easier for him.  

Despite my low-energy weekend, the approximate half-way point of this month has hit everyone here in the face. I only recently stopped feeling like we “just got here.” And at the same time, I feel almost at home here, as though I’ve done this for years.

It is a truly unique sensation. Half of me feels like I love this city and I love living with my international friends, and I don’t want to leave in less than two weeks. But the other half of me couldn’t stop thinking about how much I’d rather salsa with Sloan, and that I miss my friends and family more now than when I’m at college.

Anyway, I'm still having tons of fun!!!