St. Nikolaus is coming to town!

Dear Family, Saturday, December 6th 2008
Shoving things in as fast as possible! I got up and went to the Naschmarkt to see the flea market there. It was pretty dirty. I felt pretty gross afterwards, and did not enjoy all of the smoke that surrounds it. I did find a pretty cool scarf though! I don't know why I've been buying scarves elsewhere, because they're so cheap at the Naschmarkt!

I then ran off to the Kunst Historiches Museum for the umpteenth time, this time to see the newly unveiled Saliere. It is a very fancy, expensive salt and pepper shaker that was a gift from somewhere like France to the Emperor in Austria. A few years ago a guy who worked at a security company came to the museum, saw that the security wasn't that good, and came back on the Long Night of Museums and stole it. He then dug a hole and hid it in a forest. They finally caught him last year when he tried to sell it, and in return for a shorter sentence he told them where it was hidden. They've spent the last year going over it milimeter by milimeter to check and make sure everything is ok, and to restore a hand or something on the statue. They unveiled it Monday to an Imperial audience, and the museum was opened to the public on Tuesday again. We didn't have a chance to go until today, and needless to say, the piece has much better security now.

Afterwards we ran off to the Museum of Applied Arts, which is free on Saturdays. It was kind of weird, but enjoyable nonetheless. Seeing how early it still was, we hopped on the U-Bahn and went to Alte Donau to climb the Donauturm. It's just as hideous as the Fernsehturm in Berlin is, and the Restaurant is even more expensive. However, the Restaurant and Cafe were completely booked, so we left and found lunch at a street vendor.

Willow and I talked for an hour, and then I had to go to my host family's party. Josef dressed up as St. Nikolaus, and it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. He handed out presents to everyone, and so my flat-mates and I got chocolate in the shape of St. Nikolaus. The bad guy, who comes along and whips bad children is called “Krampus.” He does not bring coal, just a whip. I thought it was pretty funny. I'm definitely thinking about doing St. Nikolaus instead of Santa Claus when I grow up...but I do really like stockings.

My flat-mate Kristin and I didn't really want to talk to the the others as much, as it was a family party, so we left after the presents were handed out and everyone left the sitting room. However, our family was really offended that we didn't talk to anyone else and we were told off afterwards. I thought it was respectful to let the family talk amongst themselves, but apparently not. Whoops!

I am currently taking a break from writing my paper, which I am doing great on. I've gotten really far in the past hour and have really gotten into a groove of reading, paraphrasing, writing, and such. It is going miraculously well, and hopefully I can have Cindy read over it tomorrow, and turn it in on Tuesday so I can just concentrate on studying for all of my finals, which happen to all be this Friday, the day the paper is due. It's kind of a difficult topic, but not too bad, and I really think I can do it! Aside from the paper and the finals, I still have loads of other homework, so once again, I will be doing a lot of it tomorrow. I feel so bad, but if I want to be able to finish my cultural list I have to be out and about during the day to get more done, instead of sitting at home and doing homework. Hopefully I can complete everything in time.

Can I just say how excited I am to have Internet tomorrow night? I was so used to it, and now I suddenly have to wait until I'm at school or Cindy's to use Internet, just like Berlin...it was just so abrupt. I had no time to say good-bye! However, I shall be reunited with my e-mail and my housing dilemma tomorrow afternoon, and am looking forward to it!
Love,
Anna