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

so i will run, until my feet don't touch the ground...

...and as the waves carry me out, keep listening

-ocean and atlantic, mayday parade

so people are really into this whole running/jogging thing. i mean really, you see it everywhere: on the streets, at the gyms, in the parks. these people run marathons and races and train, and i think it's weird, but i decided to try this whole running thing the other day. i mean if everyone's doing it there's got to be something good about it, right? so wrong.

i went to the park by my house and ran down a beautiful running path lined with trees, but i just really don't know how you people do it. i thought it was weird and uncomfortable and i'm convinced everyone knew i was a phony. after a while i started to walk instead and after that i really just didn't want to start running again. walking was so much nicer and it's awkward to just suddenly start running once you're already walking - or maybe that's just me?

there's nothing really to do while you run, i mean it's not like you can multitask. it's hard enough to remember to breathe and i was just trying not to trip over my own feet, so i ended up just getting lost in my own thoughts:

where am i going to be in 3 and a half months? i'll be leaving europe, heading back to the united states. back to my family and car and hopefully a job, back to vegas and then to hawaii, but what do i want to bring back from here? what memories are going to stick with me for years to come, what photographs are going to go on my wall? what lessons will i have learned, what questions will i have finally found answers to, what new questions will i be asking? what will my daydreams be, where will my mind wander to during class?

what about in a year? if everything goes according to plan, i'll be graduating from hawaii pacific university with a degree in journalism, and maybe a minor in writing or art. i'll have finished four years of college with (hopefully) a pretty decent gpa.

...and then what? that's where the plan kind of ends, the nice little packaged school setup is done. the beautiful 'elementary school-middle school-high school-college' plan is over, it just trails off into the 'well now you just have to find a job or travel or decide what you want to do with your life' thing, and i really don't know where to go from there. i don't want to get my masters, i think there's something better i could be doing with my time, but i just don't know exactly what.

i want to move to cabo san lucas for a while, i want to spend time in santa barbara. i want to be an airline attendant and get my writing published and have things i've created hanging on walls. i want to inspire and be inspired. i want to discover my deepest passions and my biggest dreams and i want to chase after them. i want to be content with who i am, where i am, and who i'm with. i want to know my family's history, where i came from and why i'm here. i want to look back at my life and smile, and look into my future with excitement.

essentially, i just want to be happy, i think that's what we're all really aiming for. genuine happiness is so beautiful. you can see it when it exists in someone, it's crystal clear. it's the gleam in their eye, the sparkle in their smile. it's the way little kids laugh, the way that couple looks into each others eyes, the way grandma drinks her coffee on the terrace. it's being surrounded by love, of loving, of being loved. it's such a simple, easy emotion but it's been turned into something so far out of reach, almost impossible to achieve. since when does happiness have to be searched for? it's not hard to find, it's within ourselves. i think our society has taught us to lose touch with ourselves, with our hearts. we've been taught to disconnect ourselves from our emotions. we forget that genuine happiness has to start from the inside, because only then can it come out.

any genuine emotion is beautiful. whether it's happiness, sorrow, anger, pain. allowing yourself to recognize emotions reminds you that you are human, and that is beautiful. let yourself feel.

the hills are alive with the sound of music

i just got back a few hours ago from salzburg, and i can say with complete confidence it is one of the most beautiful places i've ever been to. whenever i told anyone i was going there, they all told me it was amazing and i was going to love it, but i've heard that about so many places that it doesn't really mean anything to me anymore. i've gotten used to the natural beauty of hawaii and the beautiful city life of vegas, but salzburg was completely different. the architecture is different than that of vienna or prague or any other european city i've seen. it seems more genuine, it's as if the city was built with love and is still filled with a sense of goodness that seems to be missing from most other cities.

i went with five other girls and we were there for two nights, three days. when we first arrived we did the sound of music tour and although i hadn't seen the movie in years, i enjoyed going to see the gardens, the house, the gazebo, the church where they got married, etc. our tour guide was so sweet, dressed up and everything. when we were visiting the church in mondsee, we asked someone to take our picture and the girl was from vegas too - she graduated 2010 from durango; small world.

we saw a lot of guys wearing lederhosen, and i loved it. most places have traditional clothes, but it seems as if they're only worn on special occasions or for the tourists. we saw plenty of gentlemen, young and old, walking around the city in the traditional pants and it was golden.

we also took a tour of the salt mines that gave salzburg its name. on the way up there we made plenty of stops and got to enjoy the beautiful scenery and the snow filled mountains. our tour guides were incredible: andy and walter. the trip wouldn't have been the same without them - they let us stop and throw snowballs at each other in the mountains and put up with us for the entire day. they even wore lederhosen, so what more could you ask for? ;]

we saw the hotel where knight and day was filmed, walked on the mozart bridge, saw mozart's birthplace and one of his flats, and to be honest, i think i've had enough mozart for the rest of this semester. he's a great guy, but there's a lot more to austria than just mozart. although the mozart kuglen are some of the best chocolates i've ever tasted in my life..

the most beautiful part of the city was hands down the hohensalzburg fortress, which i wasn't expecting at all. it's in the middle of the city and was founded in 1077. from the outside it looks rather plain, no extravagant architecture or design, but with it being a fortress and all, it makes sense. i've walked through far too many castles, palaces, forts and museums to be able to remember one from the other, but i can't see myself confusing this one with anywhere else. it was enormous, very well designed and it contained so much history in it. we saw the torture rooms, the salt room, the archbishop's residence, etc., but the most amazing part of this entire trip was going to the observation deck. you can see the entire city - the snow covered mountains, the green fields, the pointed roofs, the bridges, the trees - everything. it was so serene, so unreal, it felt as if i was standing in a postcard. it didn't suddenly turn into desert and there wasn't an ocean to cut anything off.  you were able to see the life of the city, the life of nature, extending far into the distance.

all the famous places we went to and all the well known landmarks we saw were of course beautiful, but that's not what made salzburg so great. it's small - about 150,000 people - and has this sense of calmness that i haven't experienced in a city in a long time, if ever. it's different than the laid back island lifestyle of hawaii and doesn't even come close to comparing to vegas. people don't seem to be rushing to get anywhere. the weather was absolutely beautiful the last two days we were there and people had time to sit in the square and enjoy coffee. they had time to play a few games of chess, to walk around and let the sun dance on their skin. they had the time to ride their bikes by the river, to read a book, write in their journals. there wasn't the sound of cars honking and police sirens going off, there was no faint sound of people arguing, and that silence is something i haven't heard in a while.

it was an amazing trip with a group of amazing people - i wouldn't have wanted it any other way. walking through the city allowed me to reflect on things that i'm usually too busy for. not just self reflection, but i was able to really reflect on and connect with the history that thrives everywhere in europe. it has never been so clear to me that people walked on those streets hundreds of years ago, that they took protection in that fort, they danced on those fields and made it up those mountains.

i have no doubt i'll be returning to salzburg, hopefully in the very near future.

"the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
-marcel proust

prague, politics, and st. patrick

it's strange that on the other side of the world, my friends are taking midterms and celebrating spring break. i already finished one of my courses (public relations) and our easter break isn't for another month. and thankfully, none of my classes have midterms. i'm not sure if they even exist here?

st. patrick's day was yesterday; always a fabulous time, but it's not nearly as celebrated in europe as it is in the united states. there were a lot of students who had never celebrated it before, but i guess that americans will use any excuse to celebrate, whether it's from our culture or someone else's. ;]

last weekend i went to prague. i took a bus and the 5 hour drive went by pretty fast, probably because i slept most of the way, but i finally watched over the hedge and it was absolutely adorable. i stayed with my grandma in prague and it was really good to see her again. i went out with the other students one of the nights and then we did a city tour the next day. it was nice to see prague through "new" eyes - i've grown used to the  astronomical clock, the charles bridge, the castle, etc, and being there with people who had never seen it before made me appreciate the beauty of the city again.

i am definitely beginning to wish i paid more attention in history class, though. the european education system is so much better than ours. it's been said that the united states is self centered, and while i can't speak for everyone, i'm beginning to realize how true that is. as far as general knowledge of the world, i think we only tend to know about the united states and what's in the headlines. people here tend to know not only about their own country, but about other places too. i've never been into politics, but the people in one of my media classes know far more about politics in the united states than i do. well, honestly, i bet almost everyone, regardless of where they live, knows more about politics than i do.

the weather's starting to get a little bit warmer, but it's been raining for the past two days. i'm not complaining though, listening to the rain hit the window is absolutely beautiful. i'm going to salzburg early tomorrow morning with some friends, hopefully it doesn't rain there. and yes, i am being a complete american tourist and doing the sound of music tour :]

"i never travel without my diary. one should always have something sensational to read in the train."
-oscar wilde

nothing's bigger than love

i hear a lot of people say they're traveling to "discover what they're looking for", "learn what they want in life", "find themselves", whatever. it was hard for me to hide my skepticism when i heard this, because for a long time i thought that there was no need to relocate yourself halfway around the world to discover what you like and don't like. i figured hey, if you don't like olives in the usa, you're probably not going to like olives in asia.  just because you're in europe doesn't mean you're going to appreciate modern art if you couldn't stand it in brazil, and spending time in jerusalem isn't going to just suddenly make you religious.

i still believe we are essentially the same individual regardless of where we are. our core, our wants and needs aren't going to just magically transform overnight. i'm still not convinced that planting oneself in a different environment is going to cause you to discover the meaning of life, but i finally better understand the 'learning about oneself' part of traveling. i still don't like olives, but i've been learning things about myself that i probably wouldn't have learned this semester had i stayed in hawaii.

for example, today i learned that i am absolutely fascinated by the subway system.

okay, i know. there's a lot of things that i find fascinating, like fishtail braids, well done collages, and the way our voices travel through one phone to another. i also know this isn't a groundbreaking discovery and i would've been just fine going through the rest of my life without this knowledge. in fact, there's millions of people who have never and will never travel on a subway and it's not going to affect them at all, even a little bit.

but it's not the subway itself that i find fascinating. i don't really care how or why it works. as long as it gets me from where i am to where i need to be, we're good. if it gets me there on time, we're even better.

it's the people on the subway fascinate me. the way that everyone comes together from different parts of the city, the way that they're all trying to get somewhere...the way the majority forgets we're all human, the way so many people tend to leave their hearts outside the station.

there was a man who came onto the subway with his accordion keyboard and started to play. the second he started playing, everyone looked up and exchanged those glances, those 'what's-he-doing' looks of disapproval. i was about to do the same, but then i looked at him and changed my mind. he wasn't a great accordion keyboard player, not that i would be able to tell if he was, but he was happy. he enjoyed the music. after a few minutes people got used to it, and it was alright. everyone went back to sitting in silence, staring at their shoes, avoiding eye contact, staring out the window into the dark tunnel.

after a few stops, a man - i would call him a gentleman, but he was far from it - stood up and yelled at the accordion playing man. i've only had a few german courses and we didn't learn the colourful words he was shouting, but it was something along the lines of stop.

the poor man, bless his heart, put down his accordion and stopped playing, and it absolutely broke my heart. i know he was playing to make some extra change, not just because he wanted to make everyone's day better; i'm not that naive. but there was absolutely no reason for this man to speak down to him. what could he possibly be doing in the subway that's so important, and what makes him so mighty that he can tell others what they can and can't do?

i think that taking the subway can be extremely boring. it's silent, eye contact is awkward, it seems that people just pick a spot to stare at and try to permanently engrave it into their memory. what does a little music hurt? who's it hurting?

of course, there's more to it than an accordion playing man. when people exit the train, it's amazing how focused everyone is on their destination, it's as if they forgot all the manners they have outside of the subway. all of a sudden, it's not important to be polite. "excuse me" is a foreign language and i swear some people are convinced it's the end of the world if someone gets on the escalator before them. it's a little sad.

slow down, we're all human. wouldn't it be beautiful if we could remember that all the time, not just when it was convenient for us? and please, let that man play his accordion keyboard.

you better slow down, don't dance so fast.

time is short, the music won't last.

when you run so fast to get somewhere,

you miss half the fun of getting there.

when you worry and hurry through your day,

it's like an unopened gift thrown away.

life isn't a race, do take it slower,

hear the music, before your song is over.

-david l. weatherford