Life with The Princess

Dear Family, Tuesday December 9th 2008
I got up, went to four hours of class, and then made lunch. I had to eat my hot, hot soup in 10 minutes because we went to a museum for our last day of Fine Arts, which was unexpected. I burnt my tongue about 15 times in those 10 minutes, and my tongue is still smarting. We went to the Carriage Museum, which actually has a lot of Sisi and other Habsburg stuff, so it was really interesting. Afterwards I went to Stephansdom and climbed the tower there. The view is not very good, it's not an open tower like most, it's just a room with a gift shop in it.

Climbing down we passed a two year-old who was 8 steps into it, there with his grandmother. There are about 350 steps to that tower. I hope they made it. I then went back to school and took care of business and some homework. I went grocery shopping, going to several stores to see the sales, and also stopped at H&M. Yep, I finally went there. I have not been there at all this semester, but I found a really cheap sweater that I'm excited about. Other than that and my soccer jersey I have not bought any articles of clothing here—only accessories like scarves. And hats. And that's about it Oh! I do have some sweet mittons/gloves. They're pretty exciting. And entertaining at the same time.

Dinner with my host family was at 7, and there was a little bit of drama because Josef's son has been staying with us for about a week, and he was supposed to be here for several more weeks. However, he apparently reconciled with his wife (if I understood the phone conversation Tante Hanna had correctly) and just took off today. I think Tante Hanna was pretty offended. We had a pleasant conversation, and then afterwards we were able to ask loads more personal questions than ever before. It turns out that Tante Hanna was born a Countess, but then married a Prince, so she is considered a princess. They divorced after having five children, and then she married the man her name comes from, Bernthaler. He died about 20 years ago, and then she married Josef.

Josef on the other hand, married an American, they divorced, he married a German, they divorced, and now he's married to Tante Hanna. I had no idea! I had just assumed that they had just had a lot of spouses die, but Tante Hanna's Prince of an ex-husband lives only a few streets away and they're still good friends. And all of the Habsburgs things stayed with her. Including the 60 pieces of heirloom jewelry that was stolen a while back when their apartment was robbed. Josef hasn't actually lived in Vienna all that long, he was born in Hungary like Tante Hanna, both fled to Vienna during the transition between the Second World War and the Communists, but then Josef went on to Germany and Italy with his first two wives, and Hanna stayed here. It's so weird to think of a life like that.

Anyway, I was interested in their opinions about recent Austrian history, so we ended up talking for an hour after dinner, without me realizing. So I am now bunkering down to do homework for a few hours. I only have two more days to study before my exams, and I still have a lot to write on my politics paper....
Love,
Anna