Being Cultured

May 26, 2011 – Thursday

Today for class we again went to the Kuntistorchious Museum but this time to look at paintings rather than sculptures. We had pizza for lunch and then headed out to the aquarium, which Amanda and I had both been looking forward to seeing. The aquarium has nine floors; and it’s filled with much more than fish! We saw seahorses, black tipped sharks, a sea turtle, an alligator, some bats, a couple odd looking monkeys and copious varieties of everything under the sea.

We stopped at Prater, where the second largest Ferris wheel in the world is located. Anna got her Vienna ornament there which was very pretty - hand painted glass. We also found out that for one rotation of the wheel it cost 8.50 €, which I think is a large price to pay!

After my failed attempt of satisfying my brownie craving last Friday for Ancher, I decided to head to Starbucks, the only American place I could bring myself, just because I had started to imagine the delicious taste of a perfectly baked brownie. Low and behold even Starbucks could not satisfy my craving since they did not have a simple brownie. They had three kinds: one was espresso (gross) and the other two were not going to help either. So disappointing. I also skyped with Mom, Mady, and Max while I was there; it was nice to be able to catch up with them all.

May 25, 2011 – Wednesday

Today our class went to the Haus der Musik, where we learned a lot of information about Beethoven, Mozart and other famous composers. After class we grabbed a chicken cabob from one of the many stands at the market. I think this is my new favorite sandwich, which I even put lettus on (!), and the price makes it even better – just 3.50 euros!

We did our homework this afternoon before heading out to the ballet tonight. We snagged a hot dog from a stand and rushed over to the ballet where we got our discounted student tickets. The hot dog bun was super weird. They put a skinny loaf of bread on a debreadifier (got rid of the middle) which then they warmed and stuck the dog in.

The ballet was very good, and well worth the 12 euros we spent to have a seat. It was much more contemporary than I had imagined and only the last few minutes did my mind begin wandering and my eye lids start drooping.

May 24, 2011 – Tuesday

Today for class we went and visited the Greek Orthodox Church. And afterwards headed to a Chinese place for lunch. The restaurant, if you could call it that, had a regular door but also a window that slid to the side so that you could order from the road, like a walking McDonalds drive through. It was quite funny. I got fried chicken with noodles.

For dinner we met up with Anne and Michelle and went to the Australian pub restaurant just a couple blocks down from the institute. I did try the kangaroo burger which I felt bad about before hand and for the first couple bites but was assured that in Australia kangaroo’s are pests similar to deer here in the US. Also the burger was 70% roo and 30% beef because the kangaroo meat is much leaner and therefore the meat doesn’t stick together nearly as well as a beef burger would. With dinner I got a drink called Snake Bite which was a raspberry drink. Everything was quite good but I’m not sure it was 17 € delicious.

May 23, 2011 – Monday

Today we went to the Theater Museum for the end of class. After class we went and picked Jenny up for lunch. We headed over to the market where we were to a crepe place for lunch. I got minced meat and cheese in mine. It was good but not so good that I’d get another one. After lunch we needed to bring our laundry over to Judith’s and go grocery shopping for breakfast and lunch/dinner supplies when we are too short of time to go out for a meal.

Anna and I went to the little pizzeria just a few buildings down from us for dinner. We both ordered our own pizza which we found out was massive. The pizza hung over the edges of our large plates. With the light crust, delicious taste (maybe best pizza ever) and how hungry I was I actually ended up eating the whole thing!

We went back and did homework and before bed I snooped around the apartment to find a top sheet since that is apparently not used here in Europe… and I found one! So it’s not on my bed. Haha.