Cultured and Beloved

Liebe Familie, Friday, October 3rd 2008
What a cultured, dignified woman I am. After finally being home for a little while, I'm now mentally preparing myself to take off for Italy next week. All of this traveling is really fun and everything, and I have no idea how long it will be until I am ever in Europe again, but I just wish we could stay in Vienna for awhile and see the city! I have been making an extra effort to go out there the past few days, but it's hard to find the time!

Wednesday I got up nice and early to go running, complete with my new flashcards! I am currently doing poorly in my German 320 class, so I'm going to be spending every second working on that. It's a grammar course though, so new vocabulary can only help so much....

After breakfast I went off to the Albertina, an art museum owned by the Son-in-law of Maria Theresia. There's an exhibit there of Van Gogh's work, which was really cool to see. I have definitely wikipediaed him since then. However, Museums here tend to be in old palaces and random buildings like that, so they were not built to be a museum. Therefore, the rooms usually don't connect, and it's really hard to make sure you've seen everything in the museum. In this case, I missed out on the Picasso/Monet exhibit, which is rather upsetting as it's €7,00 to go in with the Student Price. But don't you worry. I have a plan to rectify the situation.

I had an afternoon class, and then ran home to do homework like mad. That evening I went to Institut, understood most of the class, and ate some amazing tacos afterwards. I'm meeting a couple new people every time, but we're just not here enough for us to be friendly enough to hang out all of the time.

Thursday I had school until 2, and then I took off for cultural experiences. I went with a couple of friends to the Secession building in Vienna, where they have some modern art exhibits. Did we know that when we went? No, but we sure do now, after staring at posters of fungi, cars with their windshield wipers going for all of eternity, and tvs with strange repeating programs on them. Do I like modern art? Nay. I do not. Although, to give credit where it is due, the Gustav Klimt Beethoven Frieze isn't bad at all.

After the Secession we ran down the street to see the Wagner Apartments. They're just buildings decorated in a weird style that was looked down upon at that time period, but they are very pretty. Also on that street was Theater an der Wien, and I got to see the famous Papageno statue, as “Die Zauberflöte” is my favorite opera. After hanging out in the Naschmarkt, I tried to go to the Academy of Fine Arts. For some strange reason, the Academy is closed until December 15th for renovation. I fly home on the 16th. What a cruel, cruel world.

After several nights in a row of waking up fairly often, I'm exceedingly tired, but as I'm in Vienna, I'm pulling through still. I got up this morning to go meet some people to see the “Morning Exercises with Music” at the Spanish Riding School.
Horses are pretty, but I completely understand why we never had a pony growing up.

Directly afterwards we went and saw the Roman ruins they discovered in the middle of the city in the early 1990s, then to the famous Loos Haus, a few other things you've probably never heard of, before going to the State Apartments and Treasuries. A free museum for Austro-American Institut students, and it was amazing! I've seen enough jewels and golden robes to last a lifetime. They of course had loads of crowns, scepters, and the robes that Popes wear, coronation robes, etc. However, they can also boast having an 8 foot tall “Unicorn” horn (I'm not going to tell you what it really is, it would ruin the magic,) the biggest emerald in the world, and a baby bassinet made of 2,000 pounds of silver. I need to research the Habsburg who married Napoleon, I got to see their wedding present there....

After seeing all of the splendor I toned things down and went to the Kunsthistoriches Museum—or Art History Museum. I didn't even finish one wing. Thank goodness that place also free for me, because I think I'll have to make at least two more additional trips to finish it. Luckily, it's just down the street from me, so I am perfectly ok with this.

Now for the title...Yes, I am beloved. The maid who comes on Friday adores me, as she shows by making me late to everything on Fridays by telling me all about her grandchildren and life here. Eve also adores me. She invites me personally to come eat the left over food, and not my roommates. I kind of feel bad, but they're not willing to put in the time it takes to talk to her and make her love you, so I guess it all works out. Tonight she invited me to try her chocolate carrot cake. Very delicious, as usual. I guess she has to make food for parties for the next few days, so she's going to be busy, and I can only hope that there will be leftovers, as grandchildren are coming into town for these.

Still working hard at the homework, I've taken on extra homework (and quite a bit of it, to) so that I can catch up on grammar, so we'll see how soon I can be up to par. I wish everyone well,

Love,
Anna