Sign in all the U-Bahns.

It says "I am a horse" on the Stable there in English. This was outside the Leopold. My family knows what I'm talking about here.

Friday June 22, 2007
Can’t believe it’s over

Wow.

I am in disbelief. Vienna will be over for me in two days. Today was full of goodbyes and a bitter reminder that most of us would just stay if we could. There are a few people in the group already applying for various jobs here so they can move as soon as they graduate. I think the only thing keeping me from being senseless with grief is that I am just so happy that it happened I don’t resent that the end was inevitable.

Let’s just start with Wednesday.

“I’m the green fairy”

So you know one of the opening scenes of Moulin Rouge, where they drink the green alcohol and start hallucinating about the infamous green fairy played by Kylie Minogue? That would be Absinthe, real wormwood Absinthe which has only been legal again in most of the EU since 1998 and still is banned in the US and France. There are several knockoff absinthes they sell to tourists who don’t know the difference, but guess who had the real one?!?!?!

Van Gogh, Manet, Gauguin, Oscar Wilde, Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, and Hemmingway all drank absinthe because of its “creative” effects.

Definitely had the real one. It was just about the strongest thing I’ve EVER tasted in my life. I must admit, I preferred the absinthe chocolate bars.

So Wednesday morning our class met at Café Landtmann, “Freud’s Café”, to discuss Freud and a few other things. We had a nice round of coffee and then all headed to the Schnapsmusuem, a locally owned and run company since 1875! Our tour was sooo neat. We learned all about the various types of Schnaps, including the four different types of spirits which are as follows:
1) Traditional Schnaps
2) Liqueurs
3) Creams (the only ones I could handle)
4) Bitters

Our tour was given by the Great Grandson of the founder as a special favor to IES. We learned all about how they make Schnaps, how to taste and test to see if it is an authentic Schnaps, and many other useful things. Afterwards they set up this huge tasting for all of us, and beside the absinthe and a few others I also had Schnaps that had gold floating in it (no I’m not talking Goldschlager, they would scoff) that is a premium Schnaps they often mix with Champagne. It was the best, and everyone made lots of purchases in the store. For the absinthe, since technically the real wormwood is banned, the company just gives you a note for customs saying that it isn’t real (even though it is) since customs has no way of testing. lol

I don’t think anyone actually could handle the taste, but since it has such a forbidden fruit status many are taking it back to the states. I’m serious, my head whirled and I couldn’t breath for a second. Strong stuff. I’m glad I can say I tasted it, but I’m afraid I will never be a Picasso.

So after that, it was so hot we were all dying. We came back and tried to cool off before we went and had class and a guest lecturer again with Dr. O. We went to the art museum in the Belvedere (Prince Eugene’s Summer Palace) and saw some biedermeier and the art piece that shares the same status as Mozart in Vienna, Klimt’s “The Kiss.”

Insert a bunch of ooooooooooooooo-ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhsss here.

Thursday

I felt like the clock was ticking. We had the morning off, and then our class met at the Leopold Museum with Dr. O again. We saw more Klimt and spent a lot of time talking about Egon Schiele, which disturbed me greatly.

That morning it had been unbelievably hot. Before the museum I had gone to get a Kebab sandwich for lunch, and walked around.

So look at these pictures, beautiful but hot day.

Well after the museum, I went outside and noticed some grey clouds in the distance. I went and sat with two other girls who had put their feet in a fountain because it was still hot. The next thing we knew, this giant, and I mean GINORMOUS gust of wind swept through the plaza, blew sand in our eyes, and wiped out a complete patio café. You can see in that picture that people were scrambling to pick up all the tables, chairs, and dishes that blew away. Running maddness!

At this time we were all like “what the crap” and started putting back on our shoes. Everyone was running around confused and people were screaming as the gusts of winds took over. As a Texan, my first instinct when the weather gets this bad is head for shelter cause there’s a gonna be a twister. However, the logical side of me knew better here in Vienna. So we set out to find a U-bahn station, and on our way the wind and rain got so bad these huge chunks of trees were flying all around us. We ducked in for shelter in this travel agency, and then ran for the U-bahn in the wind and the rain.

We found out today that it is one of the worst rain/wind storms Vienna has ever had, which was apparent just be looking at all the fallen branches today in the park.

After that I had to get bundled up for the Ballet, Romeo und Julia (Romeo and Juliet) at the Staatsoper. The performance was breath taking. The scerery, costumes, dance, and music blew my mind. Loved it.

Funny commentary from Viennese Culture, and one of the things I’ll miss, or maybe won’t. After the performance, all the groups of performers start to come out and bow, group by group, then they do the group bow, lots of cheers and applause, then they will without fail, do it all again, after that they will make more bows and take the applause and at this point you’re getting ready to go, so they shut the curtain.

But wait, there’s more! They will then come out group by group outside the curtain, not once, but twice. It’s starts to get awkward at this point because people are leaving and the moment’s over. All of this, yet, never a standing ovation like they often do in the US. Fickle people.

All of this went down as usual but when Romeo came out, they had men in black stationed in the balconies to throw down about 10 giant bouquets of flowers. Then Juliet came out, who was equally fantastic, they threw one tiny bouquet. Talk about politics.


Friday
The End.

This morning our class met at the Staatpark, which is filled with monuments to famous composers. We all sat and presented our final projects. We were assigned to talk about something on this trip that has personally struck us or that has changed us in some way, without any guidelines. We had an amazing like 4 hour discussion.

I talked about how I came to Vienna to escape the noise. To get away from the pressures and just “noise” I encounter everyday, and overwhelmingly so for the past several years. Whether it’s the media, friends, family, myself telling me what I “should” be doing, and even though some of it is good and helpful it is still overwhelming and deafening after awhile.

I came to Vienna to escape that. This laptop is my only link to anybody in the US and I’m not really around it a lot. One of the first things about the city that struck me was how the city itself is so quiet. We always have our windows open yet hardly ever hear the city noise. On this trip I remembered how to listen. Listen to countless operas, concerts, street performers, fellow students who are nothing like me, and above all to listen to the part of me that I normally drown out. I’ve rediscovered a lot of my more simple passions and things I want aside from the big things I’ve been pursuing so hard the past few years.

After that we went to a place in Northwest Vienna and had a huge dinner with wienerschnitzel, various salads, and strudel. It was so good, but I’m totally not used to the fried food. Wienerschnitzel is basically like chicken fried steak, it just is made with pork instead. We had some sad goodbyes, and as we left another rainstorm blew over Vienna. Vienna is in mourning.

This is duh, me, with Prof. Hoelscher's kids, who are by far the sweetest young ladies I've met in a long time. I think if you asked anyone on this trip they would be more than happy to take them home with us. Everyone has just adored having them go on some of the trips with us, and we are all just in love with them.

My day starts at 7:30 tomorrow when I go and pick up Daddy at his hotel and we go through our first big day in Vienna! I have tickets for us at the Opera to see Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin. It should be very exciting.

For those of you unsure of how the rest of the trip is going down, here’s the 411. I will spend the next two weeks with my dad. We are spending the weekend in Vienna, and then are traveling all around the Bratislava, Budapest, Slovenia, back through Salzburg, and through Southern Germany and ending up where we will fly into London together and then I will start my program in Oxford. Yay.

Ok, Goodnight everyone!

Love,
Elaine