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SubscriptionsSites I Read
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| www.flickr.com/photos/annieberge
make sure to explore this site, too! i'm no artist, but many of
the contributors here are. some of the photos are amazing!
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| i can't escape the schnitzel. when i order "baked chicken breast"
they bring me schnitzel. when i order "cordon bleu" they bring me
schnitzel. vienna does not know chicken unless it's pan-fried.
other than the food, vienna is alright. on tuesday i think it was
i saw a ballet at the staatsoper, and went to the theater thursday and
saturday for class. but it certainly doesn't help when your
professor tells you how much she dislikes the city. oh
kiarina. she emails us for everything...could someone bring an
envelope and stamp to class for me monday? could someone teach me
how to turn my cell phone off? could someone please rent a movie
for me? SERIOUSLY! can't she find a post office herself?
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| communist leftovers. i hope you're not squeamish.
the wall, of course, as seen from the east
alex platz. i love this place.
nazi and war leftovers, infinitely more creepy.
olympiastadion, home of the 1936 olympic games. and the leni riefenstahl film.
the kaiser wilhelm gedaechtnisskirche it was bombed out, they didn't fix it.
this is autostadt. it was creepy, too. they make volkwagens here:
this is in and around potsdamer platz, indicative of new berlin:
this is the Deutsche Bahn building up close:
the philharmonie, it looks cool i think:
site of the berlinale, the film festival:
and finally, rachel being terrified of the 16 year old daughter of her landlady:
 i've got some more of the my class at goethe etc if you want.
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| ok, this is an update:
i am vienna. much to my dismay. no no, i can't say
that. it's just sad to leave berlin. the city is so young
and hip and new and big. i loved it so much. i especially
loved the side east of where the wall was--that's where it's all
happening. one of our friends has a site with some pics from our
fun times: berlinphotos.blogspot.com. i've acquired a taste for beer. but i can't drink too much, don't worry. it's filling.
right before we left berlin, rachel and i took a quick trip to krakow,
poland. i really liked that city, too. we got by with a
mixture of english and german, but it was quite the adventure. i
ate pierogi ruskie in the airport. it doesn't get much better
than that, i don't think. i've decided i have an affection for
former communist countries. i think weekend trips to bucharest,
sofia, bratislava, tallinn, etc might be in order. it's so far
away from what's comfortable. old europe is nice, yes. but
you can see that on tv. there's something very mysterious about
the former iron curtain. i like it.
there are a lot of old people in vienna. and tourists. it's
a good place for tourists. there's so many breath-taking
buildings and opera and fancy stores to buy all the rolex and helmut
lang you could ever want. berlin was construction. it was
libeskind and pei architecture (amazing). it was a bombed-out
church and karl-marx allee as a "palace for the worker." i hear
if i let it, vienna will grow on me. i sure hope so, because
right now i feel really guilty being less than ecstatic about this city.
i have class here at the austro-american institute on mondays and
wednesdays from 3 until 5. we read plays and go see them.
class is so late because kiarina, my prof, doesn't like waking up
early. me either, but is 10 really that early? oh
well. we see our first play on thursday, i think. we
finished it yesterday. it's called 'vor sonnenaufgang' (before
sunrise) by hauptmann. i was excited, i thought it would be like
the linklater picture of the same name i so do love (which happens to
be set in vienna). no such luck. alcoholism and family
structure in the 1890s. gooooooooood times. another class
is with a woman who has been working with mac students for quite some
years, which will give us a history of austria and she'll take us to
museums and the like. that's on tuesdays and thursdays from 2 to
3 30 i think.
as for the uni, that is a different story. it's so difficult
because no one of authority knows what's going on, and when we ask we
get little to no information. on how to register and the
like. so we just search around aimlessly for courses.
luckily, i really only have to take one. it's hard, though,
because most of them are at the same time as the others at the austro
institute. that, my friends, simply does not fly.
what else can i say? oh yes. my dorm is funny.
it's called technik haus and is, as the name implies, for students of
the technical fields. it's nice, relatively. i have my own
bathroom, and there's a tv as well. and there's internet in my
room. which is just fantastic. as far as the roommate goes,
i've seen her once in the past, oh, 5 days. her name is farnaz
and she's from iran. she leaves some stuff here, but her uncle
lives here in vienna, so i think she's staying with him. she's 23
and speaks hardly any german. oops. i've made myself quite
the little home now, with a little help from ikea. a rug, a
flower bedspread, an 8 euro floor lamp, and pictures from home
(including, of course, a map of berlin) go a long way.
rachel and i went to see rilo kiley and bright eyes on friday.
what an amazing show (what an agressive crowd!). RK is definitely
my favorite right now. jenny lewis is just so darn cool; after
all, she did star as hanna nefler in my favorite 80s movie about girl
scouts, troop beverly hills (sister, can you believe she has a
band? and it's cool?). and bright eyes, woah. they
call him the bob dylan of our (my) generation, but i didn't know why
until i saw him play. so intense, so young (25)! i'll be
honest, i got teary during one of the songs (land locked blues, listen
to it you'll like it and be a little off-put). it was a good show.
i'll have to put my pictures up soon. maybe now? why not, i
just have half a play to read for tomorrow! but internet in the
room...such a luxury, people! things will get better. i
will love this city, too. if i can get over my disdain for the
jugendstil architecture and monolithic churches and opera and
overpriced cafes.
oh, as a sidenote, my german is getting better. of this i am
sure. but then there's vienna again. i can hardly
understand this wiener deutsch. and they LOVE to practice their
english on you, so it's like a game to sound yes foreign, but more
german than american. like a spy.
write me emails!
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