Monday, May 17, 2010

Surreal, but nice

Blogger is not very user-friendly when it comes to picture posts - this takes entirely too long. I'm going to start looking for more efficient ways to post blog and pictures. I'm sure, blogger being a google program, that there's an easier way.

I don't know if I can accurately capture the complete surreal-ness of the day in a single blog post - especially since it's almost 11:00pm and I have yet to start tomorrow's assignments. But I'll try.... :)

Let me start with two things: 1) Love the comments! Blogging doesn’t feel like I’m talking to anyone back home from my point so it’s nice to hear what y’all are doing, etc! So thanks! And 2) the sunset over the mountain yesterday. We haven’t gotten to see the sun much, but for maybe 15 minutes last night, I could see the gorgeous pink/orange sunset rays in a few lines over the mountain. It was stunning and made me long for nice weather!!! The pictures aren’t great, but it’s the best I can do:

I get to breakfast this morning about 30 minutes before class (the classroom is adjacent to the breakfast hall), and bam, before I can even set my purse down and grab a plate – work. Being the GRA definitely keeps me busy, and I’m going to have to plan to get to breakfast earlier every day just in case…


Class today was long (we sit there forever!) but not overly boring. The professor this week is adequately engaging, especially when compared to some of the others… I actually paid attention and took notes the whole time, which is rare for me. I would post my notes, but I’m sure it would bore you to tears. The material isn’t complex yet and today was basically a review of the reading, which is rare for law school – normally just doing the reading doesn’t help you understand the material, but at least for now, it does. It’s also kind of unfair because only half the class has to write and turn in a memo tomorrow, and I’m in that half.


It stinks, again with the whole GRA work thing, because every break we were given, I had 7 people come up to me wanting help with different things or needing me to do this or that - making my to do list longer and my fun list seem less likely to get done. This is more forgivable when stuff like this happens back home. Here, though, it’s borderline unforgivable. C’est la vie! And I can’t complain too much because at least this job got me here and got me my awesome room. But more on the GRA later.


After class, the three of us ladies planned to head into town to pick up a few necessities, which for me included:

And....

But then, to our surprise, a beautiful day showed up! I'm talking delightful light coat breeze, blue-sky, Mr. Rodgers gorgeous weather. So, naturally, we couldn't just go home. We walked up and down the Landstrasse (remember, that's the main road leading into the Main Square - Hauptplatz - a major shopping district) all the way down to the train station then back up to cross the bridge going over the Danube River. Then, we explored the Danube coast line. We basically went down every little alley or road that looked interesting. It really was a residential neighborhood type place once we got a couple blocks off the main road. I almost felt like we were trespassing or snooping because it was a part of the city not made for tourists. And it was stunning - beautiful homes, gardens, fences, etc were everywhere! I took over 80 pictures today alone which (rest assured) will all be included in the home slideshow, but to post them all here would take forever, and I do have to do some homework. Though, not wishing to tease or disappoint, here are some of my favorites:


Flowers are a-blooming!


An adorable old Austrian couple enjoying the park on this park-weather day!


We found this cool (and expensive) little honey/candle store on one of the back roads. I made everyone go in and insisted on telling them how my grandfather and uncle were beekeepers. It had an odd selection of items. You could buy your own little incense thing like the priests use during mass.

A cool government building that we walk through frequently and proof that we had blue skies!


Walking down to the Danube. I'm so artsy at taking cool angled pictures...


I put my feet in the icy waters of the Danube River and may die from the resulting foot fungus.


Me and Jeanette rocking by the Danube!

The view of the Schlossmuseum (see previous posts for a description of what this is) from the banks of the Danube.


I'm starting to notice that I have a thing for yellow houses. I've admired this one from afar since we got here, and today, we walked past it.


The sun starting to sink in the sky over the Blue Danube :) (notice the yellow house from above on the right)


So after a delightful day, which included an ice cream break:


We had some beers at an outdoor eating area on the Hauptplatz. Unbeknownst to me, my world was about to change forever. For there, on a charming little cafe over a delicious Glosser beer, a pigeon tried to take my life at the exact moment that Rachel and I posed for a picture.


Because I'm so brave, I was able to pull myself together moments later for a real picture or two:


Our party at the cafe soon started to randomly grow as people we knew out enjoying the city saw us and also thought that a beer sounded delicious. Unfortunately, I had to leave our growing party because I had a work meeting with Lanier over dinner.

So a really really cool day with some extremely weird, surreal moments thrown in. That pigeon picture is no joke. I thought I was going to die.

1 comment:

  1. your boss has to eventually come home and your gun toten dad can make a body disapear real quick.
    wren brought harris to school today and i showed him off to all the teachers who had put him on thier prayer lists. there is power in prayer. so pray for the soul of your unruly boss because his ass will be mine if he messes with you...love dad

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