Playing Catch-Up

Hi People!

Since it feels like forever since I last posted, I feel like I have a lot to catch you up on...

Wednesday, January 26, 2007

Just as a note, for the German-speaking folks out there. Did you know that Janaury is called Jänner in Austria? I just think it's interesting.

So Wednesday was really exciting. I left for center-city earlier than usual because I wanted to pick up the ball tickets and visit the Naschmarkt. It was really easy to find Karlsplatz, where the Technische Universität is located, but it took a lot longer to find an ATM and then the actual building. It would have helped if I had looked up and seen the big gold letters that clearly state "Die Technische Universität Wien." What can I say? I'm used to things being on eye-level. But because we were from IES, our tickets were only 20 Euro, which is extremely cheap for a ball. We got tickets colored according to our genders (girls got mauve, boys got blue) and a little booklet on the ball. It was going to be held in the Hofburg, the imperial palace. Wow, huh?

Once I had tickets and money, I got to adventure over to the Naschmarkt. There are permanent stands there that sell every kind of food you can imagine. They have cheese stands and fish stands and meat stands and spice stands. I was there a bit early, so not everything was open, but it also wasn't very crowded. All around Vienna, people are wearing these really nice scarves, and I've been lusting after them. One of the girls from IES bought hers at the Naschmarkt last week for only 5 Euro. I'm not quite as good at haggling as she is, because I paid seven for mine, but I did manage to talk the guy down a bit. Mine is a gorgeous turquoise, and even though it doesn't quite match my coat, I wear it all the time! (All the time being the two days since I bought it.)

Since I still had time before I had to be at the Leopold Museum for my German class, I walked over instead of taking the S-Bahn for a stop. I'm pretty sure this wasn't my greatest idea ever because it was really windy and cold and my fingers were numb by the time I got to the Museum Quarter, where the Leopold is. My class was visiting there to see the Expressionist paintings it houses. They had several from the Blue Riders, who are really interesting. I didn't care much for the Expressionist paintings and sculptures, but I tend to like Impressionists better. However, Kandinsky's painting was interesting. When the guide was pointing out different shapes, I could see them. Did it make sense overall? Not at all, but it was interesting all the same.


If you look at the upper left quadrant, you can see something that looks kind of like a horse jumping and the rider crouched over his neck. This form is in every painting that Kandinsky did.

I also liked the Blue Riders' works. They used bright colors and simple, almost childlike, shapes. The paintings we saw also actually had blue horses in them, which may play into why I like them so much. I can't find photos of the paintings we saw in the Leopold, but take my word for it that they were sehr toll.

Sidenote: Did you know that in the EU, an artist has to be dead 70 years for the copyright to end on his work? That's why we weren't allowed to take pictures of the art in the Leopold, most of the artists haven't been dead long enough.

Another sidenote: The whole tour we took was in German. It was interesting, even if I couldn't understand every word. A lot of people not in our class (like just random citizens or tourists) joined us, and at times the guide had to tell them to chill out and let us answer. :-)

We were given a free afternoon once the tour was over, and I took the chance to try Skyping at IES. I found a really good little area, where I get decent reception and and is relatively private. So I chatted with Mom and Matt until my batteries were getting low. Don't worry Pooks, we'll chat next week sometime.

Since it was so cold, I decided to skip the Opera and head home. I don't really feel bad about this because Don Giovanni is still playing a few more times before it leaves. Besides, I needed to come home and do some work so I could have lots of fun at the ball!!

Ball posting coming tomorrow...I need sleep <3 Amanda

Interlude Post

Dear People,

I know it's only been two days since my last post, but I feel like I've been letting you down. I'm going to a ball tonight (yay!), so I won't be able to post when I get home, because that will be around 3 or 4am. However, I plan on taking lots of pictures and blogging my heart out tomorrow after class before I go to Anne's opera. I'll put pictures up then too. So I love you all, and I'll do a waltz just for you :-)

Love always,
Amanda

Weekend in Wien

Hello People!

On Sunday, we all slept in. It was really nice to just chill out for a couple of hours. Around noon, Alex gave us a call to see if we wanted to go on a tour. We said we'd meet him in about an hour and a half at the Psychiatric House of Vienna. I know, it sounds a bit shady, but the area around it is really nice. The boys were still sleeping, but Travis managed to drag himself out of bed to come with us.

Once we figured out which stop to get off at (it was a bit interesting there for a few minutes), we met Alex outside of the walls that surround the area. I didn't know that this whole excursion would include major hiking, so I had worn only my little brown ballet flats. But so did Natalia, so I didn't feel too bad...lol. We walked through a few fields and up a path that took us to the top of a hill. (Note: "Hill" in any context this whole semester refers to the fact that said mountain didn't have snow on top, and since almost none of them do, this isn't the most exact description.) On top of this hill was a viewing tower from which we could see all of Vienna and some of the Alps. The stairs to the top viewing deck spiraled around the outside of the tower. And it was windy. You could feel it pushing and pulling at you, and I think it was the first time I've ever been scared of the weather. It felt like forever until we got to the top, and that was even scarier. The wind could literally blow you across the viewing deck because it was so strong. And the tower swayed. Needless to say, I had one hand on the railing at all times. Except for the two pictures I took, but I had the cord around my wrist because I was scared the wind would steal my camera. However, after only two pictures, I decided to let everybody else take them and I'd borrow them once they were up on facebook. Alex took a picture with Alison's camera of all the girls with our hair sticking straight out in the wind. Finally, it was time to go back down, after Alex had seen the look on my face and said my eyes were very big and kind of glassy. Going down took a lot less time and wasn't as scary as going up. I mean, I'm glad I did it, and I will again if it's not as windy.

We hiked down to a restaurant in the area and ordered soup and drinks. Since I still had a craving for fries, I ordered them too. I got goulaschsuppe (goulash soup) which was amazing. It ranks right up there with all my favorites, including my momma's stew. The fries were good too, and they were golden all the way through. I also got a melange because my fingers were stiff. During our snack, we spoke mostly German with a little bit of English thrown in. Travis did a lot of listening, and afterward he said his head hurt from trying to concentrate too much. I also did a lot of listening, but I could understand it all without having to listen too much. Don't get me wrong, I had to concentrate, but I didn't have a headache afterwards. I really need to do more speaking, but I think that that will come in due time. I'm just worried that I won't have the words I need or that I'll say something wrong. And I know I shouldn't worry about that, but I want to sound good when I eventually do speak. Since we were in the restaurant for a good two hours, it was dark by the time we had to go find the bus stop.

We had just missed the bus when we got there and had to entertain ourselves for about 10 or 15 minutes while we waited for the next one. Travis and I did a little dance for the "audience." It was fun, but I missed Matt :-) When the bus showed up, we all piled on for a few stops, then we had to transfer. Except we didn't know where we were. But Alex did (I hope). I'm assuming he did because he walked in front and the S-Bahn stop was around the corner. Once we were on the S-Bahn, it was just a matter of getting off on Thaliastraße and walking to the apartment.

Since we were still hungry, we decided to make dinner. I volunteered to make french toast. But we took the smoke detectors off the wall first. I have a tendency to use too much heat to make things cook faster and end up burning the pot (the food turns out just fine, but the pots and pans are black by the time I'm done with them and the apartment is full of smoke). Sarah was also making scrambled eggs and sausage to go with the French Toast, so she was over there telling me to turn the heat down a bit. There was a lot less smoke after that. Because Austria doesn't have vanilla extract, we had to improvise with vanilla sugar. Since the toast tasted good, I'll assume it worked. Everything was really, really good, but now we owe Jeremy some eggs because we were all out of ours. Almost a whole loaf of bread got eaten, but I think the leftovers went toward breakfast the next morning.

Sunday night was full of sitting around working and then we watched "V for Vendetta." I think it's a really good movie, and it was the first time I had seen it. Travis had read the "graphic novel" (aka comic book) that the movie is based on. Afterwards, I stayed up to talk to Matt online and work on some of my essay. I've realized that I have to start going to bed earlier because when it's 9:00 at home, it's really 3am here. Not one of my most brilliant realizations, but what can I say? I'm getting there, but this whole time difference thing is really annoying.

Yesterday was much the same, starting with finishing up my homework in the morning. I also met with my advisor. Professor Schier is the director of IES Vienna, and I ran my classes by him. He okayed me for doing an overload. Yes, I know, I promised I'd chill out, but old habits die hard. Besides, its only 19 credits and most of them transfer. I'll be taking German 330, CU 322, DR 347, EC 357, PO 308, and the business internship. The German, the drama, and the culture classes are all in German. Of course, the internship is too, but the other two classes that relate to my minors are in English. After a quick schnitzel sandwich, it was time to go to German. Class was ok, and afterwards the flatties went grocery shopping in the center-city Billa. I picked up all sorts of necessary items, and most of them even fit into my backpack, which was really exciting because I refuse to pay for bags. Sarah decided to make chili and rice for dinner last night, and it was really really good. I still like Mom's best, but what can I say? Sarah did a really good job with it though. Then I did homework for real that night, so I wouldn't have to do it this morning -- see, I'm getting smarter. We went to sleep early, around midnight, because everybody was so tired.

Today I had a lazy morning and got to IES around 11:30. I stopped in at the post office to send my dancer mail and then went upstairs in the Palais Corbelli to have lunch with everybody else that packs one. I made myself a chicken, swiss, and tomato sandwich on bread that reminds me of paska bread. I also had two clementines and a round of Babybel cheese. I think I'm getting better at this healthy eating thing too. Again, we had class, but since the first hour was just interviewing each other about where we lived and then presenting to the class, it didn't require a lot of thinking, which made me perfectly happy. After class, I ran over to H&M and bought a sweater that was on sale because it finally started snowing a bit today. Not a lot, more of a wintery mix. But it was enough for me to break out the ear-warmers and mittens. I rushed back to IES because I had emailed Mom this morning before I left for IES about maybe skyping her. I couldn't find a private enough spot, but I'm working on it. On Fridays, this place really clears out, so I'll probably be able to do it then. I got an email back from her after my laptop took ten minutes to load and go through its Norton scan thing (is this ridiculous?). It said that she wasn't going to be home, but she'd add the sweater I wanted to my package (yay!). I went on AIM and got to do a video with Matt for a few minutes, which was very nice, but then he had to go to class, so I started updating pictures online and writing this. In case you didn't catch that, I have more pictures posted. Again, without captions as of yet, but I might work on that later tonight. The address for them is picasaweb.google.com/kisslets if you want to browse through them. As soon as I have some time, I'll borrow pictures from other people and put them up too. Facebook takes too long to upload them, so I won't be doing that until I get back to the States. But now I really have to go home, because IES is closing soon, and I'm hungry again.

Love and kisses,
Amanda