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Monday night....
2002-08-06 03:43:33
Lessee...long classes yesterday, lunch was pretty bad (fried celery hearts), Dinner was much better (spinach lasagne).
Finessa mint bars remind me of Frango mints. These are on the "Buy a bunch to take home or at least to Germany" list.
Manitu did happen last night after the seminar ended. I didn't go and wound up just playing FreeCell on Sabine's laptop until Damir ran back to his room and got the DVD. When we STARTED the movie it seemed like everything would go well - almost every Austrian was there and a few other people. By the end it was me, David, Jesse, Gun-Kristin, and Eshi. The biggest problem was that there are only 5.1 Audio tracks on the DVD (except for the commentary), and we were using a 2.0 setup...and I didn't even think about going into PowerDVD's settings and having it downconvert for a better mix. So it goes. We ended up turning on the Hochdeutsch subs about 1/5 of the way in and let them run. It helped except on a couple of the musical numbers which were in English and unsubbed. Also got a couple more things to add to the liner notes now...
Went to bed afterwards. Got up dead tired, went to the Doctor's/Pharmacy to get more bandages, then came back here. Today during Sport I'm either taking photos from the lake or going to town to get chocolate and juice or something.
And one nice thing - Monika offered to carry my stuff back to the states that I don't want (sheets and suit) and mail it to me from there. This is especially good as the post office here isn't open on Saturdays. I could wait until I got to München, but why?
I also didn't get my regular computer today, which means anime music instead of Hedwig. I'm slightly disappointed, but I guess I'll deal with it well enough =) Right now Heaven's Drive by L'Arc~En~Ciel is playing.
Tonight is supposed to be a dance course, otherwise the regular regiment of classes and meals and such. Maybe I'll watch Nadia this afternoon... -
4000 hits and counting....
2002-08-05 09:29:14
Quick update. Last night was fairly dead, as was most of yesterday - just hanging around, watching TV, being braindead, etc.
Today was classes (OK), and a pretty bad lunch. I think the people who cook for us are getting tired of it.
Tonight is movie night with the DVD of none other than Der Schuh des Manitu! w00!
Irit is also a sweetie - she has extra bandages and gauze which is good, as I ran to get more and the ADEG didn't have it and the only pharmacy in town is in the Doctor's office...which closed at noon. Changing it today revealed some blood and some yellowish puss type stuff...and a bulb over part of the nail. i think this means the infection is retreating to one area, dunno. It hurts less tho.
Anyways, off to German class. -
Sunday p2
2002-08-04 11:05:59
MP3 player still doesn't work. Fortunately I was able to get the warranty registration in to SonicBlue, and fired off a quick help request email, got the auto-reply, and being useless like most auto-replies are, sent back the tracking number email to say that I haven't gotten useful help yet. This really pisses me off, but it's probably my fault - playing DJ with this thing is probably NOT the best idea in the world. If I can't get it fixed, I'm gonan just save up for a while and go for a hard drive based player.
So all in all we saw 5 churches, some gardens, part of the fortress road, Mozart's birth and life house (or at least the fronts), a pizza place with OK pizza but good (and cheap) tiramisu, and a lot of Salzburg's streets, including an overpriced netcafe. Found out my bank only charges me $2 for an ATM withdrawl here, and the machines here don't charge at all. I like it.
Last night was the homemade drink night by the Austrians, and I got to supply some of the music, which is when the MP3 player died. At least they got to hear some good Jpop and a couple of the Sharon Apple tracks.
I am confused tho - How can someone who likes the Gorillaz not like Cibo Matto? Miho Hatori's a member of both groups and they have some VERY similar aspects in the songs. Weird. It's not like they're totally different, either, as opposed to say, The Brilliant Green and Tommy February 6's solo album.
Today was a lot of sleeping, finishing up my Donald Duck comic, sitting online a lot (I've got two more hours signed up for after dinner as well), and not much else. I'll go to to the Konsum or the ADEG for the last time sometime this week, and get some good pictures from the Dock. And take my German exam and all that fun stuff.
Otherwise not much is going on. Finishing off today's listen to Hedwig, and then it's back to the room to dump off the CD I dumped it from (because mp3's skip when the old computers have to access the cd) and then the Bürglhaus to watch The Osbournes. I love this show now, thank goodness for European uncensordness.
Something else that's fun, I saw a cartoon of Die Königen Der Nacht on TV this morning. Most of it was spoken and obviously kiddie-ized, but it was quite enjoyable. The art style is distinctively European as well, though it was made by far on the cheap - there's no shading at all in the characters. Compare this to most anime or american stuff where there's shadows on faces, etc. None of that here, but it was still cool.
6 days remaining in Austria. Here's not not getting arrested for anything resembling assault or manslaughter before going. -
Officially sunday's update....
2002-08-03 18:14:46
There's a massive thunderstorm in the background here, and even worse there's a big one in my head, as I think my MP3 player has bitten the dust. I don't know if I'll be able to finish this period without it around...it's a very big crutch.
Salzburg was a very long, tiring day. Saw a lot of churches, enjoyed the city, took about a roll's worth of film, and had pizza and tiramisu for dinner, and also came up with a new reason to hate monica: she hopped onto the trip (and to cameron) and basically took off instead of waiting for anastasia (who hopped along but was a much better travel companion) and I to meet up at a point. We were early, looking around, they came out, looked, didn't immediately see us, and took off. The man needs to get a backbone. Of course, the fact that anastasia and I waited an hour for them....
At least I got my German copy of Vom Kriege. -
This is Saturday's update...
2002-08-02 20:04:05
Well, it *IS* 1:30AM here.
The netscape update plan died when the download kept freezing, disconnecting, and restarting, and would've taken until 11 to finish, and I don't need to spend 3 hours online reading things when I'm on pretty much every day. I cancelled it and figured that I'll just run to the netcafe tomorrow in Salzburg to check things quickly.
So the walk to the Dr.'s was ok, and his assistant (and him) spoke passable English (because I do not know how to say "My foot is infected and needs something done to it because walking is incredibly painful" in German, even though I *should.*) He perscribed a creme that's part hydrocordizone for pain and swelling and half antibiotic. I'm to apply liberal amounts to all the area where nail meets skin every day and put on new bandages. There was one problem - the prescription cost (the summer school pays the 5 euros for the visit). I had exactly 1 Euro 55 cents on me, for a 9 Euro 90 prescription. They didn't take Mastercard either, which meant...
Going down the block to the Bankomat (ATM). Only to realize that I didn't know the pin on the mastercard, and the thought of the instant interest and ungodly rates didn't help. So I dragged myself back across Strobl to the summer school (10 min.), grabbed my card and a 10 Euro bill I'd forgotten I'd had, went back to the doctor's, paid up, and headed back, forgetting to stop at the Bankomat on the way back to get money for tomorrow. At least I remembered fairly quickly. I also got a bus schedule for tomorrow, so we can plan accordingly in the morning and know when to leave/return.
After getting back, I had missed all of Workshop 1, and didn't feel like braving 2. So I went back to my room, washed some socks, and read a couple more chapters from Foley is Good before going to lunch which was also good, but heavy and in great quantity. It was tomato soup (mmmmmmmm), salad, and some fried sweet dough that I can't remember the name of because it's over 3 syllables.
Following lunch was once again not Nadia. Instead I went back and finished reading Foley is Good. Great book, but Mick does get a bit long winded when ranting about the PTC and all that.
German was long, we had our presentation and went over the grammar of um...zu constructions (Ich bin nach Österreich gekommt, um Deutsch zu lernen) and a couple of funny in class presentations. I like German more now than when Hella was teaching (though I saw the evil bitch on the way down to the computer room), but I still don't feel like I'm learning too much of it.
After dinner was running home, changing, and having Dinner which was great. Another long German word, but basically it was breadballs (like matzah balls) with spinach in a gorgonzola sauce. Very tasty, I hope we have leftovers at brunch tomorrow.
Dinner ended and it was on the bus to Salzburg. The driver was about as good at driving as Eric, which meant minor nausea for the whole trip. Conversation was OK, and we finally got into Salzburg about 10 min. before the show.
What we saw was not the full Wiener Philharmoniker (Wien as in Vienna), but about 12 people switching off between octets. It was all clarinet, oboe, trumpet, trombone, french horn, and bassoon. The pieces were by Mozart, Stravinsky, Schubert, and Beethoven. There were free Mozartkugeln handed out (Mirabelle - the chocolate maker, not the castle - sponsored the event), and I had to quickly eat mine as they were melting on sight from heat in the concert hall which was, like most of Europe, not air conditioned.
Seating was cramped, and my mind drifted a lot during the performance. I think I got a new editing angle to try, but it'll have to wait until I get home to try out (duh.) The reason I didn't pay too much attention to the concert was that while it was very good, technically, the pieces chosen weren't so hot, and to top it off, it was a very dull, lifeless performance and even duller, more lifeless audience.
Afterwards we had 25 min. before the bus came. A group of us wandered around to the Mirabelle Gardens. There were a couple fountains and some flowers, and a beautiful clear view of the fortress. I think the best description came from Asako who said, heavy Japanese accent and all, "Jesus Christ".
Bus trip home was loud and nauseating. Put on some DDR and Cowboy Bebop tracks to pass the time and give me something to focus on.
We got back, had some loudness at the bar here, and went to Billie's. Damn the drunken youngsters here are as bad as at home, including one nasty guy dancing with his shirt off and going up to mostly every girl (and a couple guys) that he could find. The DJ sucked ass too, almost every song was at lesat 3-5 years old minimum, most of them older than that, and while he went between songs OK, he wasn't picking anything with real variety or true dance music. He also must not wear earplugs because the levels between songs varied widely - a big nono as you don't want to suddenly blast people off the dance floor.
Now here, trying to find out what my foreign ATM fee is, and going over in my head the final numbers for tomorrow. It's as little as two people (me and cameron) taking the bus, and as many as 4 (us and kathy and martin, both .at), if martin comes we get to go in a car and spend the evening seeing manitu. Otherwise we're out 12 Euros to take the bus both ways. Glad I grabbed cash today.
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