sex, drugs, and sausage rolls (and a little bit of that european class)

(note: sorry to disappoint, but this entry actually has nothing to do with sex, drugs, or sausage rolls - although i have really, really grown to love kasekrainer sausages. it's actually almost a little worrisome how much i love them. they're this beautiful, delicious combination of meat and cheese that goes so perfectly with bread and mustard and ketchup. to be quite honest, i would take that over a sachertorte any day.)

prepare for cultural overload, because i don't update this as often as i should and i've been flopping around vienna's museums and historical hotspots like nobody's business this past week, since my classes have been few and far between lately. plus i finally made use of the neon pink american apparel leggings i brought out here from vegas - which, by the way - everyone was convinced i'd never wear. hellooo tight and bright party?

well, just kidding about the cultural overload, i'll make it short and sweet, because i can't handle that much classy european culture all at once. i think i'm getting there though. mushrooms don't make me want to vomit anymore, i'm starting to actually appreciate history, and i've been drinking a lot of tea lately (okay...that's not me being a classy european exchange student, that's just me trying to get rid of my cold. whatever).

schwarzenbergplatz square is home to the hochstrahlbrunnen (right), a fountain built to celebrate the construction of the first waterpipeline from the styrian alps to vienna in 1873. this pipeline had a huge impact in the modernization of vienna and to this day, the people here are very proud of their clean water, and for good reason. the tap water here is clean and drinkable, unlike many other places. in the early 1900's lights were installed so that the fountain lights up at night. at the time, this was amazing. it's really beautiful, plus if you go there when it's windy you get really wet and so does your camera. and your jeans. jacket . gloves. bag. good news is vienna weather is seriously bipolar so you'll probably dry off soon enough.

behind to the fountain is the soviet memorial heldendenkmal der roten armee (left, behind the flowers, you can kindof almost see the blurry outline of it). it was built in 1945 to commemorate the 17,000 soviet soldiers that died in the battle for vienna. they were buried beneath the memorial, which was built by locals and prisoners of war. in 1955 a state treaty was signed in which austria guaranteed to take care of and maintain the heldendenkmal forever. not just for a few weeks or a few years or until it fell apart - until the end of the world, austria must take care of the heldendenkmal. ever since the soviets left vienna, a lot of politicians have wanted to destroy it but have been stopped by the police. vandalism (quite common on the memorial) must be removed by the republic of austria, per state treaty. it has a generally negative view by the austrian population, who have nicknamed it the erbsendenkmal, or "pea memorial" - after the conquest of vienna, food and other supplies were short, so stalin donated 1,000 tons of peas to the starving viennese. the good news is that the bodies of the soldiers were eventually moved to an honorary section of the zentralfriedhof cemetary.

fun facts that maybe one day will help you win jeopardy, or sound really smart on your next date. i'll even help you out if you're dating an artist. what's up friedensreich hundertwasser?!

a controversial painter and architect, he designed buildings using irregular forms, bright colours, spirals and uneven floors, working to connect humans and nature. he turned rooftops into gardens and often planted trees within his buildings, with their branches growing outside. he had a unique way of thinking and wanted to show that through his art, whether it was on a canvas or a building.

his architectural works in vienna include an apartment house, a museum, and a district heating plant (right). he designed both the apartment house and the heating plant without accepting payment. the only reason he agreed to design the apartment house was so that something ugly wouldn’t go up in its place. he was really into the whole environmentalist/save the planet/stop killing nature thing (we were a little late catching up), so he said he would redesign the district heating plant only if the city would supply it with the latest and most environment friendly technology. atta boy! the third building he designed is now museum kunsthauswien, and it's the world's only permanent exhibition of his works.

hundertwasser has also designed other buildings as well, including a church, an incineration plant and sludge center, a railway station, a winery, and a public toilet. the winery is in napa valley, california, by the way. all you people in the usa, hop on over there and feel cultured.

i'm reading music and kickin' it with mozart
(haus der musik)

vienna loves its music. more than a handful of great musicians have roots here. many were born here, some created masterpieces here, a lot of them lived here and well, they also eventually died here. so it only makes sense that vienna has an amazing house of music, or haus der musik: an interactive, innovative, fun museum of music and sound (that sounds so terribly cheesy, but it's really true).

it's in the heart of the city, in what was once the palace of archduke charles and the home of otto nicolai - composer, conductor, and founder of the vienna philharmonic orchestra. where the palace’s state rooms used to be is now a presentation of the history of the orchestra and its musicians and conductors. okay, i know, that doesn't sound that exciting, but there's five more floors that are filled with a lot of really cool stuff. there’s also a floor dedicated to mozart, beethoven, strauss, haydn, schubert and mahler, who were all musicians and composers in vienna. don't feel bad if you don't recognize all the names, i didn't either.

my friend beethoven

turns out, beethoven had a lot of mistresses floating around, but he was always really unhappily in love. mozart owed a ton of people money and vice versa when he died, and his family didn't even have money for a proper burial, so his body was simply thrown into a huge ditch-grave. strauss was the one who always wanted to be in the spotlight, in the newspaper headlines. if he was famous now, he'd be the one demanding an all white room with organic fruits and poached salmon caught off the eastern coast of alaska or something.

the place was more like a playground than a museum. we got to conduct a virtual orchestra that actually played according to our movements. i tried to get them to play the polka but they booed me off the podium within 20 seconds. we were also able to record a cd and make new sounds using some weird headphones and a microphone and putting our head into something that looked like a spiderweb covered brain. one room was created to make you feel as if you were in the womb again. it was dark and slightly shook. the noise was loud but strangely comforting, but at the same time it felt as if we were being taken away by aliens. there were so many interactive computers, video games, displays, etc. the carpet was awesome, it looked like some of the doodles out of my media and society notebook. but with more colour, i don't have that many markers.

and this is where the cultured european section ends.

(i also went to the belvedere but that's just another palace-turned-art-museum that's a lot cooler to see in person than to read about)

i know what everyone's really interested in is the fact that i actually got to wear my hot pink leggings. i originally got them for the neon themed party bus we had a few years back (ps why did we not do that this past break?) and haven't gotten a chance to wear them again since. i take them with me everywhere i go though, just incase there's an 80's/neon/tight and bright party. finally, after a couple years of me dragging them with me everywhere, i got to make use of them again. the night was so much fun, although i looked like i got dressed in the dark when we went out to a club after.

i also finally got a library card at the national library and i'm so excited to read new books it's almost embarrassing. bad news is i forgot to check if they have an english section. i also forgot to see if you can actually check books out. a lot of the libraries i've found are only reference libraries, which means you can only use the books there...i don't understand? i also actually have no idea if their english section (which hopefully exists) only has smart-european-national-scholarly-information books, or if they have i-just-like-to-read-for-fun books.

i definitely jinxed it when i said the weather was getting warmer, because i went to the easter market at schonbrunn palace today and got lucky my toes didn't fall off due to hypothermia. the wind is absolutely freezing and i had to pull out my big fuzzy winter jacket. it wasn't really a big deal though because it's just hanging in my closet, right next to the minnie mouse cardigan, which i'm still not exactly sure why i bought. probably to match the mickey mouse dress i got that same day.

i have class both tomorrow and friday, which is really weird, but then i'm heading off to mallorca for 7 days. we have our apartment booked and i can't wait. i'm flying with ryanair for the first time, hopefully my luggage meets their size/weight/height/colour/content requirements, or whatever it is they have now.

a lot of people say they really miss a certain type of food when they travel, whether it's a restaurant or a type of food or a specific item. that was always really weird to me, but now i understand that feeling, because i would kill for good mexican food right now. chips and salsa, a burrito with no guac, extra sour cream? beautiful. in other food news, i've only eaten at mcdonalds twice in the past two and a half months. i still can't cook, but i made a really great sandwich earlier today, and after successfully opening three cans of mangos (peaches?) in cooking class, chef said i earned my housewife degree. so, if nothing else, it's a start.

a beating heart and a microphone

"and i'm sure the view from heaven

beats the hell out of mine here

if we all believe in heaven

maybe we'll make it through one more year,

down here"

-yellowcard, view from heaven

mikey p, rest in peace. you had an amazing heart and it breaks mine to know that there are people in this world who have such cold blood running through their veins. i hope this crime does not go unpunished. you were a shooting star in so many people's lives, as you were the shooting star that night at the memorial. you will never be forgotten: not at school, not in the music scene, not in the football games. your spirit lives on through your family, through your music, through our hearts. you are truly missed, but there's no doubt in my mind that you know that, wherever it is your soul is singing right now - you are still here with us.

said if i had to go, would you leave with me?

....

and if i asked you to change, would you change for me?

all of these things i do for you,

give me a chance to prove to you

my love is true

if i had to die, would you pray for me?

-aloe blacc, 'if i'

i went to the aloe blacc concert tonight. it was at a beautiful venue, arena wien, about a 10 minute walk from where i live. the outside is brick, covered with graffiti and posters advertising both past and future shows. there's an outside stage and and inside stage, a bar and a food stand.

if he played in hawaii or vegas, there's not a chance i would go see him. i would have never heard of him if it weren't for some friends out here and even if i had, i doubt i could've found anyone to go with me. he's an interesting combination of soul, r&b, and jazz, with a dash of rap thrown into the mix just for fun. i know - me, at a soul/jazz concert? a joke, right? i hadn't heard of him until a couple of weeks ago and i have to say, i'm pleasantly surprised. he sounds even better live than he does on his albums and the way he moves on the stage is so natural; a change from the bands i've gotten so used to seeing live.

as we were waiting for his set to start, we joked that he was busy backstage smoking and drinking, but i quickly took that back when he got onstage. it's clear he has a true passion for music and not the party scene that comes with it. everyone in the band was great, they didn't have to rely on autotune and fancy clothes to get the audience's attention.

for the first time in my life, i watched a concert not from the floor or from backstage. we were on a sort of balcony, watching from the back, raised above the crowd. my heart was aching to be on the floor for the majority of the show. i realized how much i missed the music scene, the beat of the bass running from my feet to the rest of my body, the sound of everyone screaming in my ears, the sweaty bodies jumping up and down. sounds delicious, right? but really, it is beautiful and i miss it. it's what i grew up with, it's what i know, it's what i love. i've missed it since the day i moved out of vegas for college, and it's the one thing i regret about every place i live: the music just isn't there.

so yes, i miss warped tour and extreme thing and battle of the bands, i miss big music festivals and small local shows. i miss acoustic nights and open mic, but it was a change to watch both the stage and the crowd from a different angle. it was strange for me not to see a mosh pit open up or people crowd surfing. it was a different type of show but i was extremely content with my night as we walked out of that venue - which, by the way, don't let the name fool you, it's nothing close to being an actual arena.

on a side note, before one of his songs, he asked us to think of someone, someone who's had a positive effect on our life, someone who makes us smile and gets us through the day, and i was pleasantly surprised at the name that first came to my head.

in other news - we planned our easter break trip today: mallorca 2011! :] one week on an island off the coast of spain, 6 of us got an apartment on the beach, lets see what damage we can do.

 

il bel far niente: the beauty of doing nothing

ain't nothing like the sound of the leaves

when the breeze penetrates these southside trees

leaning up against one, watching the vibe

forgetting all about the stress, thanking god i'm alive

it's so simple, i had to keep the song simple

when i get home i'm gonna open all the windows...

-atmosphere, sunshine

sometimes i'm not sure what to write here, because i'm not really playing tourist every day anymore. even if i was, you can only read so much about museums and churches and palaces before it just gets old. i'm starting to fall more into a comfortable "home" lifestyle here, and i absolutely love it. i cannot express enough how perfect this change of pace is, how much i needed something new in my life.

i went to the movie premiere of pina - dance, dance, otherwise we are lost earlier this week. i didn't know what to expect from it except that it had a lot of really intense dancing. there was (thankfully) very little dialogue - the german subtitles are still too much for me to translate. it was a 3d film about the german choreographer pina bausch, who actually passed away during the making of it. pina turned into a tribute to her, with members of her ensemble dancing in her memory. it was a little strange, but maybe if i knew her work it would've made more sense. here's the trailer:

on wednesday night a family friend had an extra ticket to see marta kubisova in concert here. she's a czech singer who was extremely popular in the 60's, but because the government didn't like her lyrics, she was banned from performing and singing for 20 years. it wasn't until after the velvet revolution that she was allowed to perform again. she still has a beautiful voice and although i'd never heard of her until wednesday night, i'm glad i went.

one of the bars here had a beer pong tournament earlier in the week, tell me that isn't beautiful. i didn't sign up because the thought of drinking beer still makes me want to vomit but some friends were in it and we went to cheer them on. the bar (traveler's shack) was awesome, low key and really fun, although i wasn't sure why one of their bar games was hammering nails into a giant piece of wood. a hammer is one of those items i'd rather not have people hand me when i'm drinking. a fabulous guy dressed in lederhosen made up for that, though. a friend and i ended up getting asked to play a few games to sub in for people who weren't there. we won the first game (against the guys who ended up winning the whole thing!) but since we weren't actually in the tournament it didn't really mean much, but we got bragging rights and that's enough for me. and believe it or not, i somehow managed to choke down two cups of beer for the sake of our team.

the rest of the week was spent laying around in the parks and riding bikes, letting the sun thaw our winter skin. austrian classmates invited us to a bbq on saturday, and we spent the day on the terrance, bathing in sunshine and eating homemade hummus with turkish bread and chicken shishkabobs. we drank white wine spritzers and gin and tonics and saw how beautiful the change from winter to spring is.

i've recently started reading eat, pray, love. it's strange, because i'd been wanting to read it since before the movie came out, but no matter how hard i tried to get a copy back in vegas or hawaii it never seemed to work out. ironic that i finally got a copy while i'm doing my study abroad in europe, but i'm really happy it happened this way. i'm at the part where the main character is trying to learn how to master il bel far niente, the beauty of doing nothing, which is something i struggle with as well. america, you've taught us all to be workaholics and i'm not okay with that.

"...americans have an inability to relax into sheer pleasure. ours is an entertainment-seeking nation, but not necessarily a pleasure-seeking one. americans spend billions to keep themselves amused with everything from porn to theme parks to wears, but that's not exactly the same thing as quiet enjoyment...this is the cause of that great sad american stereotype - the over-stressed executive who goes on vacation, but who cannot relax."

-eat, pray, love