blah blah

Summer in Vienna

Julia and Johanna at Prater.



















Giant Bug!!!!



















The fountain/pond in front of Karlskirche. There is a little stand where you cant buy white wine spritzers. Julia and I had a very nice time sitting here. It's really pretty at sunset.



















A group of Erlachplatz kids went on a hike and then to a outdoor restaurant at a vineyard which was super pleasant. Here I am with Harry.



















And again. It's too bad there aren't really pictures of the rest of the group.














Here I am at Schönbrunn Palace. The Gardens are beautiful.














This is the Prater Ferris Wheel. It's famous but too expensive to ride.



















Here's Julia waiting for the subway.

EM 2008

European Soccer Championship:

Some of the Turkish celebration.














Some Erlachplatz friends at Holland:Romania and France:Italy.
In the Rain.














Big buildings decorated for the event.



















Croatians. They had the coolest uniforms.














Literally everything was about soccer.

Update.

Sorry I've been so bad at blogging lately. Anyway. An Update:
I am done with classes. But not with work.
Hannah came and visited me last week which was nice and Harry is here now which is also nice. But visitors make it hard to concentrate on work. Oh well.
The EuroCup 2008 is the greatest thing ever. I love soccer. Holland won yesterday 4-1! (I'm rooting for Holland. Unless Germany makes it to finals...then I don't know what I'll do.)
I keep dreaming about Mexico Viejo. But I guess I'll get some soon enough.
I don't really have a whole lot else to say. I'll try to get some pictures of recent events posted soon. Love!

some travels.

So I'm back from my trip:

Krakow: was a lovely city and we had beautiful weather which didn't hurt the experience.
i didn't take many pictures because i'm so sick of having hundreds of pictures of buildings.
but here are a few that i did get:

the tower you used to have to go through to enter the city.



















the courtyard at the university where copernicus studied.






















a pretty view of a church and the old castle buildings.




















me and a pretty tree.



















me inside a statue of apollo.

Erlachplatz!

My room.



















Our balcony.



















Ivana and Elin(two of my kitchenmates) out on the balcony.
This day was wonderful.














Our kitchen.















The courtyard.



















I really love Erlachplatz.

99 Luftballons

So. Another week in Vienna.
Thursday was a holiday so I ended up not having much class this week which was nice.
On Wednesday Sebastian (the boy who shares my kitchen) asked me if I want to join him and a friend who were going to go to a concert at Prater.
Prater is the big permanent carnival thing here...it's as seedy as one would expect.

This is the big Ferris Wheel at Prater.




















Anyway, the concert was kind of funny for me.
There were a million hippie looking austrian college age kids just kind of sitting around the park area where the concert was, drinking and picnicking and such.
The music, though was one of the rappers or whatever you call them from Jurassic 5 and he just didn't really seem to have much in common with the audience. I mean he was also singing or whatever and stagebantering in english and I don't really know how much of what he said the people there understood. Anyway....it was free.
Then there was this German band/singer who sings in maybe Romanian or something. Anyway. He has one famous song and it's funny to watch everybody try to sing along to a song in a language they don't understand.

Friday night and yesterday I spent doing work. I feel like I might actually catch up soon.
Then last night I went to another concert with people from my dorm. We saw Nena who sang 99RedBalloons. And it was free. I'm happy I went even though the concert was pretty boring since I only know 2 songs by her and they were the last two played.

Here is Nena:

Sommer!

Wellhello.
Not a lot has happened in the last week.
Went to some plays as usual.
Friday I went with friends from my dorm to an organ concert.
A Croatian kids who lives here studies organ. A strange thing to study but I think he will actually have job prospects. Whatever.
It was an interesting experience. Not really at all what I was expecting.
Then we had a going away party in our dorm for the girl from our program who is going home.
Saturday I just sat around at home because the weather wasn't that pleasant and then last night there was a ridiculously large party on the floor below mine for a girl who is moving out. It was ridiculous. And really really loud until like 7AM. But the girl is so nice and everyone likes her so much that no one was going to complain about the music. Most people were probably too drunk anyway.
And then today the weather was really really really wonderful. Like the kind of wonderful where you just can't be in a bad mood. And since everyone in the dorm seemed to be trying to recover from last night there were a lot of people sitting out on all of the balconies in their pajamas drinking coffee all afternoon.
I laid out in the courtyard for a while and tried to get work done but it was really too nice to be able to concentrate. So I came back up and have been sitting on my balcony all day and I think I'm sunburned now.
Anyway. A really good day.

Bratislava

I went to Bratislava, Slovakia today with some friends from my dorm.
It's only an hour away from Wien and a roundtrip train ticket only costs 14euro.
No one there spoke English...or German.
The people for the most part were highly unfriendly.
I liked it nonetheless. It was gritty in a way that I enjoy.
There was also lots of pretty stuff.
And it was nice to see flowers!
The trainride there made me realize how much I like the countryside and how I will explode if I spend the next four months in this concrete jungle.
I need to take a trip to the middle of nowhere and go for a hike or something.
Anyway: Here are some pictures from my trip.


Welcome to Eastern Europe.















An ugly building and an ugly car.















A pretty building and pretty trees.



















A funny little statueman climbing out of a sewer thing. And a matching street sign.



















A pretty fountain and some tulips. Spring is finally here.



















Me in a chair outside of the restaurant where we ate.



















A cool vine-covered building.




















A crazy looking house.

Kunst und Curry.

So today I went with my class and our Austrian teacher person to the kunst historisches museum (art history museum). There was a lot to see. Kind of too much for one trip and I don't even think we really saw the majority anyway. That woman also talks up a storm and about the most boring things.
Then after class a few us went and ate at this pakistani restaurant where there is a buffet and you pay as much as you think you should. moral dilemma i tell you. but it was delicious and i ate far far far too much.
Also I've dyed my hair a ridiculous shade of red/orange. The internet is however not letting me post a photograph.
And this weekend I am travelling to Bratislava, Slovakia with some friends from my dorm. That should be interesting.
As for now I'm going to go attempt to get some late work done.

Juno.

Was really good.
I went today with friends.
It was nice to have some exposure to the American media.
And Minnesotan culture.
But I'm exhausted and going to bed.
Love!

So. Robert visited me this weekend.
It was really pleasant but now he is gone and I have to face all of the work I didn't do while he was here.
Because he was here though I actually managed to see some of the city which was nice. And on Friday at least the weather was wonderful.
Tonight I have to go to a play.
Some sort of experimental piece with no script. It's going to be an experience.
I think though that I will go and try to take a quick nap before I have to leave.

Noise Musik.

So. Last night Elin (a girl from Wales with whom I share a kitchen) had a friend coming to Vienna with his Noise band to play a gig at a bar thing here. She invited me and a few other people to go and while I don't really think that I appreciate Noise bands I didn't have any other plans so I went along. The bar it was in was pleasant and grungy and full of people that reminded me of home. When we got there there was just a DJ and the band ended up being like 1 1/2 hours late because of a tire blowout or somesuch. Anyway. They got there eventually and set up their instruments and things which was funny to watch because they had 3 drumsets and like 10 members in the band and the stage/bar was really small and two of the drumsets just had to be set on the floor off of the stage. Eventually they played and while it was pretty bizarre (no words just really really loud instruments making something that can only questionably be called music) I had a marvelous time and found even the "music" itself pleasant. After the set which didn't last very long the band came and hung out with us since one of the drummers knew Elin and we had a nice time dancing. They ended up giving us a ride home so we wouldn't have to wait for a nightbus since the subway and such stops running at 12:30. Anyway being in their weirdo tour van thing made me realize how much I miss my car. I haven't been driving at all in soooo long. And because they were from England the steering wheel was on the wrong side! It was crazy. But I can say I've been in a weirdo english style car now. (And they had such wonderful accents!) All in all it was probably the weirdest experience of my trip so far but was really really pleasant.
Today though I have to do a ton of work which I'm really not looking forward to. Lame.
Hope all is well!

Weekend.

So it is finally the weekend which is nice.
Last night a huge group of people from my dorm went to a concert being performed by someone who lives with us. It was in a turkish restaurant in another district of the city and was pretty pleasant but the restaurant was kind of expensive. So then a few of us made an attempt to go bar hopping and had a nice time walking around but everywhere we went was really full so we ended up just getting döner (its like a turkish gyro that they sell everywhere here) and coming home. It was still really late by the time I got to bed and today I would like to actually get some work done.

Light as a feather stiff as a board.

Man.
So there are like a million Mac kids all here in Vienna at present. All staying in our dorm.
So tonight we were just hanging out in the dorm and we decided to play that slumber party game where four people can lift a person up using two fingers if they concentrate. And it works.
Crazy.
I probably would have known that in 7th grade if I had been cool enough to play slumber party games.
But it works and it is crazy and now Im freaked out about ghosts. Whats new?
We are totally playing that next family gathering that I am in America. Be prepared.

Hope all is well!

Mluvíte anglicky?

I'm back from Prague.
I had a lovely time.
It looked kind of like a Disney Movie sometimes.
This castle/church being an example.






















Our Hotel.
Pretty from the outside.
"Faded Glory" inside.
It looked like the Shining.























The famous clovk thing.
It's pretty but I couldn't figure out how it told time.
And it is perpetually surrounded by tourists.























I'm at the Opera.
It was super pretty.



















Me with Prague.























This church was really pretty.



























Here I am inside. The stained glass was really nice.



























Hope all is well. I'll give more details of my trip later.
Love.

Donnerwetter?

I think it is thundering outside. But it is also snowing.
Weird country, Austria.
Today I went grocery shopping. A big accomplishment.
Later I intend to do laundry and eat dinner.
My life is tremendously exciting over here.
But tomorrow I'm heading to Prague.
Also:
Sugarfree redbull only costs 99eurocent here.
Even with the exchange rate that is a good deal.
Thanks, Austria.


James: Here I am taking pictures of myself. Do you see how well this works?
Anyway. Here I am going grocery shopping.
It's snowing.























This is the grocery store I went to.

Gott und Eier.

So. We went to church. It was a cute little collection of people who all pretty much had no idea what that guy up there was talking about. Not only was he speaking German-with an Austrian accent-but also it was Catholic. A lot of standing up and kneeling and sitting back down. And the church was mostly empty...even though it is Easter. And we were the youngest ones there by 30-40 years. But all the girls got red easter eggs. That was exciting. I also learned from the Slovenian girl who lives here that you can dye easter eggs with onion peels...and blueberries. Next year.
I wish I were in America right now eating scalloped potatoes and Ham. And Jello eggs. Hope you are all having fun!


Here I am chilling with Goethe...dressed up for Easter.


















Goethe wünscht Frohe Ostern!






















The Easter Eggs in the Market.





















The church we went to on Easter.

Frohe Ostern!

Happy Easter everyone.
Not too exciting here. The Easter Bunny doesn't seem to have found my room. Oh well. A few kids from the floor below me and I are planning on going to evening Mass. Everything here is Catholic which is weird for me.
Anyway. Break is still going okay.
Erin left yesterday for Italia so now I am the only American left in the dorm.
It's really quiet here. There are maybe 3 people on my floor.
And 4 on the floor below me.
So. Yesterday I went shopping. Yay for having an H&M three blocks from home. I got a spring jacket, two tanktops, summer shoes and some socks. I have no idea how I'm going to get all of my stuff home. I'm really not looking forward to lugging it around this summer. Too bad I brought stuff I don't want to have to part with.
Anyway, last night Devrim, the Turkish guy, Phillipine, the French girl, and I made crepes....more accurately stated...Phillipine made Devrim and me crepes. Then we decided to go out since we have all just been sitting around the dorm for the past week. So we went to the Naschmarkt which is during the day a big food market. At night there are bars/restaurant things. So we got drinks and sat around til they closed (at 1! lame.). Then we bought döner which is like a turkish gyro and walked the whole way home....its a long way.
I still need to make a photo album of Vienna.
It will happen soon.
Happy Easter!

Schnee!

Google tells me that today is the first day of Spring. Strangely it is snowing rather intensely for the first time since I have been here and it is crazy. I don't know what to think of it. It reminds me of home, but the snow doesn't stick to the ground and it falls a lot faster.
But yay for snow in Wien.
It's still Spring/Easter break and I still haven't accomplished much.
Most of the students went home for the break so the dorm is incredibly quiet always. But the few of us here spend a lot of time playing this game where you have a name written on your forehead and then have to ask yes or no questions to figure out who you are. It's fun but I'm really bad because I don't know any celebrities.
Then yesterday Erin (a boy from Mac who lives in my dorm) and I went out exploring Favoriten, the area of Vienna where we live. It's a very working class neighborhood with a high immigrant population-mostly from Turkey-and the buildings and all aren't that beautiful. But I like it nonetheless. We were probably the first tourists Favoriten had ever seen. But we found some pretty stuff amongst all the pawn shops. I'll post pictures soon.
Hope all is well!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

There does not seem to be any corned beef available in this country.
So I'm going with cabbage and potatoes.
But no one but me seems to understand the significance of this holiday.
Tragic I know.
I'm celebrating regardless.
Also: I forgot to bring any green clothing. If this were America I would get pinched left and right.
It seems so sad to me to not have this day as a holiday.
Weirdo Austrians.

Pommes mit Senf.

Vienna.
Is pretty. But everyone walks with a cane.
And wears fur.
I feel kind of out of place here.
But I like it all the same.
Friday we went to the Burgtheater and saw a play that we had read.
Reigen.
It was good...
I didn't like it as much as everyone else I think.
But conceptually it was cool.
And it was good to have read it.
Austrian accents are intense.
Then we had a birthday party for a girl in our group.
That was pleasant too.
I took the last subway home and was sitting in the common room reading and some crazy kid with an austrian accent asked me something, I have no idea what he said really.
But somehow I ended up invited to a party in the hidden part of my floor.
Everyone was nice enough, but the 3rd floor, where I live is pretty intensely austrian so I feel kind of stupid. But there was a girl from Duesseldorf whose German I could understand so I talked to her for a long time and then went to bed.
Saturday I overslept and was tired all day because of it.
I only left the dorm to go to the grocery store with the people on the floor below me.
We bought ourselves some Austrian beers and I bought bread and such because on Sunday there is nowhere to buy food.
Last night we had a party of sorts on the 2nd floor, where all of the people I would call my friends here live. It was pleasant. You just sit around and try to speak German...it seems like it would be so unpleasant for the two or three people who are actually German. But they are pretty nice about it.
Then rather late we walked a long way to find an open bar. We had a drink and came home. On the way I bought french fries from a very attractive Turkish boy. They always look at you like you are crazy if you order french fries with mustard here. But I don't like ketchup. Or mayo. And the mustard here is really very good.
Then we sat around in the common room and talked until an unreasonable hour.
Today I haven't accomplished much.
I think I will attempt to get some homework done now.
Austrian History is sooo boring though so I feel pretty uninspired to do the readings.
But I'm off.
Love.

I miss:
My Mom and Dad.
My sister.
Chester.
Jaime.
Jamila.
James.
Carrie.
Connie!
Mexico Viejo.
Fryn' Pan Coffee.
Driving in Cars.
Snow.
Edamame.
My blankie.
Sen~or.
Stone Arch Bridge.
Running along the Mississippi.
Ranch Dressing.
My cell phone.
Double Cheeseburgers without ketchup from McDonalds.
Ice in my soda.
Corn fields.
Free refills.
Tampons with applicators..
Chips that aren't bbq flavored.
Cheddar cheese.
The Dollar.
Country Music.

suppe.

also.
i lovelovelove having a kitchen.
i made soup for dinner and it made me so happy.
i love cooking!!!!

wien!

so. i have made it to vienna.
i don't have the internet yet because i need some sort of cable and all the stores are closed
on sundays.
my dorm is interesting.
i think i will like it well enough here.
my room is small but comfortable enough.
i have a lofted bed and i hate climbing ladders but i suppose i will get used to that.
the dorm itself isnt really at all what i was expecting.
on my floor there are probably 12 rooms. maybe 16.
each group of four rooms has a kitchen and bathroom that they share.
but everybody seems to just share the entire space.
i just discovered that the kitchen/bathroom that i thought was mine is in fact not.
but no one seems very upset that i have been using it.
anyway. everyone i have met has been friendly enough.
i cant really understand that much of what the people on my floor are saying.
i think some of these girls are maybe from austria. or very east germany.
they have bizarre accents.
last night though i hung out with the people on the floor below me because
that is where the other mac kids live and everyone there was really pleasant.
two of the people were from germany and i could understand them well enough,
although their accent is very different from the Berliner accent.
then there was a girl from france and a boy from turkey.
they were both pleasant as well.
i think im glad i ended up here and dont have to share my room with some weirdo.
i cant wait til the grocery stores are open tomorrow so i can buy real food and
cook again.
i miss cooking so much!

anyway.
my last week in Berlin was probably the best.
I wish I had been as adventurous the whole time.
it was really nice to have Liza around. It really helps to have someone to show
around.
and i had been feeling really lonely so it was nice to have a friend.
we did basically a repeat of all the touristy stuff but this time i took lots
of pictures.
we also climbed to the top of the tv tower which i had been wanting to do the whole
time.
it was great.
then on thursday after liza had left christian made me a really delicious
traditional german meal and we went to the movies with these free passes i had gotten.
we saw sweeny todd.
it was really bizarre i thought.
it was also really strange because it had been dubbed into german but the songs were
all still in english with just german subtitles.
it was kind of hard to switch from one to the other the whole time.
then friday i did as much exploring as i could trying to get everything accomplished
before we had to leave.
then the whole group met at the hauptbahnhof at eight and our train left at nine.
i had a bunk in a sleeper car with 5 other people from the program.
there wasnt any storage space for luggage though so it was really funny to try to
fit all of our stuff and all of us into this tiny little room.
these people brought an incredible amount of luggage.
then we got to vienna at 8:00 in the morning and Gisela took us all out to breakfast.
then a rainstorm just rolled in right as we needed to find our dorm. im glad my
computer didnt die.
and since then i havent done really much exploring.
today i went out walking around our neighborhood.
i feel much less safe here than in berlin for some reason.
i also feel much more foreign since the language here is so crazy and im not at all
familiar with how anything here works or where i even really am.
but i suppose i will get all settled after a week or so.
it does seem really pretty here.
not here so much.
but in the center of town at least.
anyway. im going to go try to cook dinner in this crazy dorm.
wish me luck.
lovelovelove

Besucherin!

Liza is here.
I am excited.
It's nice to feel like I have a friend here.
Hope all is well at home.
I probably won't be able to Skype til I get to Vienna on Saturday.

Bist du Obdachlos?

I have €1.65. Thanks Wells Fargo!
Tomorrow I am going to collect plastic bottles to get the deposit.
And get a mohawk and hang out drinking with the homeles kids.
I love Germany!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!!!!!!one!!!!1!!

Fussball und Pictures

I'm at home right now where the internet doesn't exist. But I have some time so I figured
I could write and post this later.
It is Sunday morning and I am up unreasonably early for how late I was out.
Last night was mostly unexciting. I feel like I'm not taking full advantage of this city.
Especially when it comes to weekends. I should hang out less with people from our
group because when we are together we always speak English which is so unhelpful.
In the afternoon though, we went to a professional soccer game. It was the team from Berlin
versus someone whose name I never did catch. Berlin's team though is pretty awful so they
don't have that many fans and it wasn't as crazy as I'm sure it could have been were we in
say Bremen. But I had really never seen anything quite like it. There was a lot of shouting
and booing and everyone was dressed in blue and drinking disgusting beer out of plastic cups
and eating bratwursts and prezels. But the people who were really into it were fun to watch
and Berlin actually won so on the walk back to the subway there were a lot of drunk 20somethings
chanting victory songs.
Then we ate at an overpriced Chinese restaurant that wasn't very good. I really don't like being
in large groups in public. We are really loud and I'm always overly conscious of how much we
stick out and then everyone gets angry with me when I try and get them to quiet down. And it is annoying to eat with people because some people just don't tip at all here even though you are
generally supposed to leave at least something. So then I feel obligated to tip for people. Lame.

Friday though I went out for sushi with Christian and then we went to art exhibitions at two of
the art colleges here and that was super pleasant. Then we just sat in a cute little bar and
talked. In German. That always makes me feel better about life.

I figure it is time to post some pictures from Berlin.

1) My room. It is big and nice.














2) The Brandenburg Gate.















3) The Siegesäule. Victory Tower.



















4) Kairer-Wilhelm Gedänktnis Kirche. Church that was partially destroyed during WWII that I think is really nice looking.



















5) Holocaust Memorial.




















6) My subway stop.















7) Julia and I dressed up for Karneval.




















8) Karneval!















9) The Palace at the end of my block.















10) Valentine's Day group.














11) Heart Soup.















12) Heart Salad.















13) Fernsehturm.