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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!