The Little Things in Life

Due to overwhelming demands for more posts on my life, I've decided to give in and write again. However, you have to realize that the majority of my life between Monday and Friday is very scheduled and mundane, so you're probably going to have to read about a lot of little events. With that in mind, we'll do some catch up again, and I'll write about my trip to Salzburg in my next post. Shall we?

So with my drama class that I'm taking at IES, I get to go and see six shows this semester, which is kind of cool, but then I have to write a paper on them, which is kind of uncool. I say uncool because I'm not the sort of person to interpret literature or drama without a lot of energy expensed, and to do it in German is even worse. Now the first show we saw was called "das label ist schön" or "the label is pretty." The writer finished the first draft and sent it to our professor by email, so what we read and what we saw were somewhat different. In my mind, it was about how commercialism and consumerism is bad, but how people would buy them anyway in order to be fashionable. I'm sure there were a lot more deeper meanings in there, but that's what I got out of it. The next play we read is called "Woyzeck," which is about how the societal pressures on the lower working class affect them. In this play, there is a distinct difference between privileged and poor, and the rich take advantage of the play's main character, Woyzeck, who ends up killing his mistress in a fit of rage and then drowning himself. Very uplifting play. Eking out four to five pages on this one could be tough, especially since Austrian paper is longer than our paper at home. I think they just want us to write more.

At various theater institutions, it is a requirement to check your coat. This is a national law, because at one point, I think in the 1800's, there was a fire at one of the theaters. The people could have gotten out okay because it wasn't a big fire, but they tripped and fell, and many of them were trampled to death. So the emperor passed this law and now everybody has to check their coats and bags.

Last Sunday, Barbara, Wini, Mandy, and I went ice-skating in front of the Rathaus. They have two different rinks set up there and a "path" conncecting them. The Rathaus is all lit up at night, which you can see in my photos, and it's absolutely gorgeous to skate there. Between 10 and 11 at night, which is when we went, the prices are cheaper. There were these three nice boys who gave us their tickets so we didn't have to pay for admission, only for the skate rental. That was so nice of them. The rest of us chipped in and helped pay for Barbara's admission since she didn't grab a ticket from them fast enough. The lockers to put our shoes in were a bit of a challenge. Usually, you put in a one Euro coin and get it back when you open the locker again. Here, there was a maschine that you put your money in and got a special token from that you put in the locker and didn't get your money back. We were having a rough time with it, and finally I asked someone to help us.

Skating was absolutely wonderful. They had music playing the entire time, and I didn't fall down once! But it's really hard to skate and take pictures, so I think I managed maybe two or three, but the other girls got more, so I'll just borrow some of theirs when I get home and have time to go through facebook.

I also spent an evening last week planning my Post-Semester European Adventure. It's pretty much amazing. If everything works out the way I want it to, we'll have seen it all. And by we, I mean Erika, Paul, and I. The grand plan is as follows:

May 11 Erika and Paul arrive
12 Train to Salzburg
13 Train back to Vienna
14
15
16
17 Plane to Athens
18
19 Plane to Rome
20
21
22 Train to Florence
23
24 Train to Venice
25
26 Train to Innsbruck
27
28 Train to Munich
29
30 Train to Paris
31
June 01 Plane to Dublin
02
03
04
05 Plane to London
06
07
08 Plane to Frankfurt/Plane to JFK/Home

All the days that are left blank are going to be spent in that city that we arrived at the previous day(s). I'll make sure to fill them up over the next few weeks with agendas and plans and things to do and see so that we're never bored. But pretty much, its going to be a study in logistics, and I'm going to make it happen (and without breaking the bank).

One of my other adventures last week was in practicing my domestic goddess skills. I made penne with vodka sauce for dinner on Monday and then I made Black and White cookies for dessert. It turned out really good, but there was something not the same between my vodka sauce and Vanessa's vodka sauce. I'll work on it for next time. The Black and Whites came out really good, and looked so pretty. On Tuesday, I got up early and made scones for breakfast. That was really nice, and since buttermilk is on sale this week, I'm going to make it again since we already have all the other ingredients. Wednesday was zucchini bread day, since zucchini was on sale last week (are you starting to see a trend here?). I asked if everybody liked zucchini bread, and Travis said he liked banana bread, to which I replied, "Bananas aren't on sale this week." *shrug* When they are, I'll make banana bread. But everything turned out really good, so I'm pretty impressed with myself.

I also stressed out about classes last week because I have to schedule early Wednesday for next fall. Since I started thinking about going to grad school to become an econ professor, I had to move some classes around so I can fit in some extra math. If I'm home for the summer, I'll take the Wilkes equivalent of Math 140, so I can take 141 in the fall and then 220 and/or 230 in the spring. Then I'll have at least half of the math requirements to go to grad school. I'm not quite sure how to make up the rest between my undergrad and my graduate stuff, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to Penn State this summer to pester my advisors. :-) And I think I found a topic for my theses. I want to write about the Social and Economic Integration of Eastern European Countries into the European Union. I think I'll write about some of the more recent admissions into the EU, and then address the topic of Turkey's impending membership as well. The only problem thus far has been finding an advisor and working through all the red tape. But it will all fall in eventually, I hope.

Last Thursday, I decided to go to Salzburg with Andre, Barbara, and Mandy. It meant for a slightly hectic Friday, but it was definitely worth it. I had my bags packed and brought them to IES with me because I wouldn't have a chance to get back to the apartment before we left. From class, Barbara, Mandy, and I went to the train station to buy a Vorteilskarte, which means I get to travel by train within Austria for 50% off and from Austria to another country for 25% off. With just this one trip to Salzburg, the card paid for itself. But in order to buy the card, you have to have a passport photo and I didn't have any with me. However, there's a machine where you can buy them. It's kind of like the photo booths you see in malls, but this one has a real purpose. There was a touch screen inside, and I had Mandy put my money in the machine from the ouside. This is where it started going wrong. Apparently, there's a place on the INSIDE of the machine where you're supposed to put your money in. So I made a donation to someone else. I let Barbara get her picture taken and explained the situation to the guy in the information desk (in German). He told me (in German) that the machine was privately owned and that there was nothing he could do for me. Oh, well. We'll chalk that one up to experience. Either way, I got my picture taken and filled out the paperwork to get the card. Then I got a temporary piece of paper and they'll mail me the real one in 4-6 weeks. Paul and Erika will get one when the come, just for the Salzburg trip because I'm planning on using a 15-day EuroRail card for our more extensive train rides across the continent.

After I bought my ticket to Salzburg, I hopped on a couple of U-Bahns and got to the UN to meet Magda, who is a friend of my sister's boyfriend's grandfather's family. Now if you can follow that without a map, I'm impressed. She works for the UN and Paul's grandpa contacted her family to get in touch with me while I am here. She invited me to lunch at the UN and to meet her and her sister, who also works there. Lunch was fabulous -- I had salmon and potatos and some steamed vegetables. It was pretty incredible. And Magda and her sister are both really nice. We talked about traveling and Vienna and study abroad. Unfortunately, I had to rush a bit because I had to be on the 1:34 train out of the Westbahnhof, and I had to leave the UN at one in order to make it. Since we didn't have time that day, Magda offered to set up a tour of the UN for another time and also invited me to lunch any time I would like. I can't even explain how nice it was to meet them, and they said it was just Romanian hospitality. They also said I should try to visit Romania, because they have family there and would make sure I had someplace to stay and someone to show me around. If I get a chance, I might take them up on their offer.

But at one o'clock, I was back on the U-Bahn headed for the Westbahnhof. It was a bit of a race against time to get there, but I made it with about three minutes to spare, literally. I was running through U-Bahn stations and up escalators, and my legs were burning like crazy because I was doing all of this wearing my backpack for the weekend. It was exhilirating, and pretty much amazing because I managed to get there on time. I found the others waiting for me by the pizza stand, and we went off to find our train and a place to sit.

And now we'll take a slight intermission for my fingers to regain their strength, and I'll continue on with Salzburg either later today or tomorrow.

Love,
Amanda