Midterms

My roommate's father passed the night before our Mahler final. The rest of the week was spent not studying for our midterms. I took them, I passed them. And I went to Hallstatt.

The Apartment

The real reason I stopped updating, oh so long ago was because my roommates father passed away suddenly. It hit our apartment pretty hard and it took a while to get back together. No details necessary, but maybe this explains a little bit.

Why study when you can eat Pie?!

Tomorrow we all have our german midterms, so a german study party was a necessary thing in my mind. And since Thursday night dinner was cancelled this week, food was the next obvious addition to our night. Thus came our German Midterm Pie Party! Which shortly after the night began, simply became Pie Party!

First course? Ice Cream Pie, courtesy of Abby and Claire, which was essentially layered ice cream and other yummy chocolate, nutty goodness frozen in a pie shape.

Second Course? Addictive soft cake-y Chocolate Brownies made by Peggy

Third Course? A Sara Lee peach pie, which Claire and Lily slaved over for hours and hours and did not by any means pick up from the store on the way home.

Fourth Course? Jane's intensely dark and dense chocolate pie, which was almost a fudge pie really.

Fifth and final course? My homemade buttermilk custard pie with a blueberry sauce! Which was easily one of the best things I have ever made. I made the blueberry sauce similarly to how I made my cranberry sauce, with less sugar since blueberries aren't so sharp. I got the pie recipe from Dishing Up Delights one of my favorite food blogs.

The pie crust turned out perfectly, except for the fact that it was super thick because I made too much, thinking I was going to make a top, which I for sure was not. The recipe came from my mother, whose helpful hints were essential in the creation of this masterpiece!

Enjoying drooling.

Salome

For the past couple months, I have been reading up on my Strauss, the Richard version, for my program notes on his opera, Salome. Today was the actual production at the Wiener Staatsoper! Jane and I got all gussied up for our box seats - that is right actual seats! - and went to the opera at the same time as regular people, not three hours ahead like we do for standing room! Our seats were not as partial view as I had expected, since we got them for only ten euros, and if we stood up, then the small bit that we couldn't see sitting was visible. But just being in the box was a huge part of the fun, having our own private room for coats, and the velvet everywhere, that isn't worn down and old like the velvet in standing room!

I have to write a newspaper-esque critic as the second part of my assignment, and won't bore you with the details, but here is a short run down on the production. The set and costumes were Jugendstil with a very Klimtian feeling, probably to pay tribute to the major artistic movement at the time when Strauss was writing Salome. A bit overwhelming at times, it was effective and made for an absolutely beautiful set.

Salome was played by Christine Naglestad, a stunning soprano with incredible power and control. Her portrayal of Salome was spot on vocally, with a growling low G and chilling pianissimo upper register that contrasted sharply with her dramatic hich C which penetrated Strauss' giant orchestra with ease. Her dance for "Dance of the Seven Veils" left something to be desired, but was not too bad comparably. My only real disappointment was her treatment of Jokanaan's head, which she carried around stage like it was a feather. She really did not sell the fact that it was meant to be a human head.

The rest of the cast was fairly strong, except for Herod, whose vibrato was so large you had no idea what pitch he was actually singing. Overall though, this was one of the best productions that I have seen at the Staatsoper and probably my favorite show, which bodes well for the possibility of me writing about Strauss for my honors thesis next year!

English Speaking Nanny

So I have had "English Speaking Nanny" as my employer on Facebook for while now, but I finally actually started working today!

I met up with Inge - wife, mother, designer, woman who gave birth a week ago and my employer - outside their apartment in the 18th district. She and Arthur (pronounced AH-tur with the adorable german accent) her week old son were ready to show me the way to Leon's Kindergarten, which was just around the corner. I met his teachers and helped his put on his shoes, before we walked home through the park where I attempted to talk to him about the trees and their current bright colors, since I know he knows the colors. I don't really know how much English he knows, I just kind of talk at him mostly. He isn't very comfortable speaking back.

We then slowly made our way to Stella's Volkschule - elementary school - where I met her teachers. On our way home, I pushed the stroller while they chatted with their mother in German, which I could understand but had to pretend like I couldn't understand, because their parents don't want the kids to know that I can speak German, so that they are forced to speak English. A good plan so long as the kids get a little more comfortable.

When we got back to their house, Inge took a well deserved nap and me and kids watched Muzzy! Which I remember watching in my German I class back in high school, but the german version. Good times. We chilled, read a little, ate a snack and before I knew it, it was time to head home!

I think I am really going to enjoy this job, although I think it will be a challenge trying to work with the kids and teach them English. I feel like I need to search for some activities or something, because I don't know if just talking is enough. Maybe that is the overachiever in me talking.

Follow the D Straßen Bahn! Follow! Follow! Follow! Follow!

Made my first visit to a Heurigen today! A Heurigen is a traditional Austrian restaurant that is essentially the equivalent of the German Beer Garden. The word Heurigen is interchangeable with Heuriger, depending on how you use it in German (for those who know German it is an adjektival nomen), and it comes from the word "heute" which means today, because the Heuriger specialty is this years wine.

Alex, our RA knew of a few traditional places, so we took the D line Straßen Bahn out to its end at Nußdorf and found 3 adorable Heurigers, all of which were completely full. So Alex made a reservation at his favorite and we went and got an Aperitif at a nearby restaurant. Charlotte and I got martinis, which came in oversized shot glasses without olives and tasted mostly of vermouth: weirdest martini ever?Yes.

We got a call shortly after and headed back to the Heurigen, where our giant table for 10 was waiting. Christina's friend is in town and she is a former IESer, who is currently in Salzburg with the Fullbright program, so our group was a fun mix of old IESers, current IESers and then of course Alex, the perpetual IESer. We order enough white wine for all of us, as well as two bottles of carbonated water, so that we can make our own Spritzer.

Heurigers are different from restaurants and do not serve food, but there is a buffet style counter, from which you can order breads, cheeses, potato salads, meats, etc. I asked the lady what she recommends for a first timer, and she put together a plate of a slab of meat, sauerkraut and a hunk of knödl or dumpling. Amazing meal and amazing wine! The whole experience was incredibly fun and relaxing and even though I was extremely tired by the end, it was so worth it!

Sunrise at Schönbrunn!

I woke up at 6:00am to a phone call from Zan, who was letting me know he was almost to my place. Why 6am? Because we were heading to Schönbrunn palace, the former summer home of the Habsburg family, to watch the sunrise! Abe and I had planned to do this Friday, but he wimped out, so we did it Saturday instead. I made hot chocolate for the cold morning, which we transported in regular mugs because it's all we have, and we went and hopped on the U-Bahn.

We got to Schönbrunn shortly after and I hoped to God the place was open, which it was, but every closed gate we passed, Abe made some snide pessimistic comment. We got to the main gate which was open and went searching for the entrance to the gardens. We had about 20 minutes to sunrise and could not find a direct route, but eventually got into the gardens and started heading toward the hill, where we planned to watch the sunrise.

Of course, at 12:30 the night before when we made plans to do this, none of us thought to check the weather, so it was cloudy and we all knew we weren't really going to see much. But once we reached the top of the hill, we settled onto some benches and watched as the city of Vienna got slightly brighter and the street lights started going off.