Mosaics, Crown Jewels, Strawberry Desserts, and Cinnamon Foot Scrub

We went to Café Landtmann this morning for German. It was Corpus Christi, so they couldn’t letus in the building til later. We WOULD’VE had class cancelled, but they decided we had already had too many holidays. It was really fun. We got free food and coffee. I got a yogurt, ice cream, and strawberry concoction that was simply divine. I also got a Mozart Kaffee, which I found out was merely a cappuccino with almonds and a shot of "Mozart" brand chocolate liquer. Yes, mom, I drank before 11 today. Fun times. Our teacher is very knowledgeable and loves to tell us fan facts about Austria and Europe, etc. She told us today about how two people died in Schonbrunner Zoo last year, one by a tiger and one by an elephant. They were both keepers, not visitors. She also explained why the people we see in the subway station have blue mouths. Apparently they are on acid.

After that Lindsay and I tried to go shopping but everything was closed for Corpus Christi. I did not bring enough clothes. I guess it’s a good thing the center is right near the Grabe, a major shopping district. So, we started to walk back and ran into a 17^th century church. When I go walking in Columbia, I run into a new convenience store. Here, it’s churches. There is almost literally one on every corner, especially in the first (or central) district. This one was very neat; it’s called the Minority Church. there was a mosaic of Da Vinci’s The Last Supper and many, many coats of arms on the walls. Pete, Matt, Lindsay, and I went to the National Treasury after my voice lesson. There were lots of pretty crowns and swords. Some of them had paintings of coronations by them and the objects they had were IN the paintings. Sehr toll.

Don’t eat, though, just scrub.

Paulette is a great teacher. She used to sing at the Staatsoper. She is really helping me hook my breath up and I am making sounds, BIG sounds that I never thought I could before. I think that she’s really good for me, but it will be weird to go back to Dr. Blake after her. Paulette is very focused on feeling natural and makes me feel like everything I’ve done before is forced. I know it’s not, b ut things are just so easy with her. She’s very new-agey and voice lessons are almost like voice therapy or visiting with a guru.

I got flowers from Jon yesterday. It was very sweet, yet embarrassing. My flatmate Lindsay was talking (jokingly) about dying alone the night before. I mean, I guess she’ll always have her nineteen cats, so she won’t technically be alone... ;-)

Our music history class is great, despite having two papers due yesterday. So far we’ve talked a lot about Viennese history and the changes that were taking place in Viennese society during the last half of the 19th century. We’ve covered plenty of composers already, but this week was more about the direction that art and philosophy were taking. The most exciting thing was studying the Secessionists and Gustav Klimt, who I think is my new favorite artist. If you are asking who the Secessionists were (which I didn’t know until this week,) here’s a handy-dandy excerpt from one of my papers:

"The Secessionists were ceding from the traditions and mores of the Victorian Era and the tradition art of the Academy. Before the Secession’s efforts to bring modern art to acceptance in Vienna, Viennese art was as traditional and imperial as the Ringstrasse itself. Its most famous paintings were landscape, still life, portrait, or historical paintings. According to Vergo, the narrow, provincial values that Vienna had come to hold were stagnating the culture. Secessionists sought to recreate the public’s concept of Viennese art, not only by working in different and non-traditional mediums, but also by pushing the envelope as far as sexuality and aesthetics."

Anyway, we have a field trip every week to a different cultural/historical place. Last week, we went to Beethoven’s apartment. This week we went to the Secession building, which has Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze. It was amazing. I spent about a half-hour looking at it, and really, it’s not huge or that full. In fact, most of it is rather sparse. The philosophical message behind is just so interesting.

OMG, Drop Dead Gorgeous is on! They have a channel of American TV shows and movies, as well as MTV. They have the Simpsons and South Park, but the voices are dubbed over and I guess don’t always "translate."

Krissy, Yoonju, Lindsay, Melissa, and I all did this awesome homemade foot scrub that Krissy made.

2 TBS olive oil

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup milk

dash of cinnamon (or more)

It smells like French toast. Don’t eat, though, just scrub.