*Not* Viennese Cooking

So...I've been finding new ways lately to offend the sensibilities of most of the culinary world...partially due to having a weird mix of food left, and partially, out of boredom. I'm definitely looking forward to having my food cooked for me next month.

BEHOLD:

Mexikanische Semmelknoedel--(German/Austrian) Bread dumpings seasoned with Mexican spices and served on a bed (or smile!) of Mexican-spiced lentils and veggies


Thai Gnocchi--Gnocchi with cheese, served with a Thai vegetable sauce




I wouldn't really call these "fusion" dishes; they're more like collision dishes. They tasted alright, but I think I prefer my Gnocchi with olive oil, garlic and tomatoes, and the Mexican-style Austrian dumplings may need some tweeking...

Where I'm Working this Summer

I just found out a couple weeks ago that I will be working in Ftan, Switzerland for a month this summer. I'll be working with Concordia Language Villages again, and this will be in their English program, called Hometown, Europe. There is also a Hometown, USA in Minnesota.

Ftan is a small village/town in the Alps, and it looks like this:



I'm pretty excited to work with this program. There are fun names for everything. The living groups are named after streets, like Abbey Lane or Easy Street. The nurse's office is called "Queasy Street." The morning signing hour is called "Rock-n-Roll" and I believe the rooms are called Madison Square Garden, Washington D.C., etc. This is what all the other language camps do (our office at Salolampi was called "Helsinki" and the dining hall at Lac du Bois is called "Paris"), but it's even funnier when it's in my native language.

If you want to see some pictures of the program, you can view last year's village production page here: Hometown, Europe

I'm leaving Vienna for Ftan on June 30, and I'll come back to Vienna for a couple days before my flight back to America, which leaves on August 6.

The Prater

Vienna's Prater is an amusement park that has been around for quite a while... I need to find the date again, but I know it has existed since before WWII. The ferris wheel you can see in the distance in this picture is called the Riesenrad (the Giant Wheel), which was built in 1897. It's the symbol of the park, and often, of Vienna. It was a gift to the city by a wealthy Jewish business man, but when the Nazis came to power, they "Aryanized" it; they didn't want to take it away from the people of Vienna, so they had to change its history. It used to have 30 compartments, but it was rebuilt after WWII with 15 compartments.

The Riesenrad has also become particularly famous because in The Third Man Orson Welle's character, Harry Lyme, gives his famous speech with his take on humanity in once of the compartments of the Riesenrad. The Third Man is one of the few successful movies that take place in Vienna, so even people who have not been to Vienna know about the Riesenrad.

It does not cost anything to get into the park, but you have to pay for each ride. To ride the Riesenrad, it costs 12 euros. My friend Lauren (who was visiting Vienna for the weekend) and I went on the Blumenrad (Flower Wheel), which is just as tall, but only costs 3 euros. This was the first time I got to see a whole view of Vienna. There are not a lot of easily-accessable hills to view the city from, and it doesn't have a famous skyline, so the Riesenrad has usually been what people associate with Vienna.

The rest of the park has the usual make-you-dizzy rides, stands with games, and a lot of vintage-looking haunted houses.

Ha ha, get it? Hallo Wien? (Vienna...) Ugh...

Walkin'

What Europe will do to perfectly-good Payless shoes:

No worries--I have a different pair of shoes now, and I've always had my running shoes with me, but I made sure to get my $10 worth of Payless quality. These are now going in the trash.

Servus!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to Dad & Grandpa!

UEFA Cup

The UEFA Soccer Cup (Europa Meisterschaft) has been going on this month in Vienna and other Austrian and Swiss cities. I've heard that it's the third largest sporting event in the world--just behind the Olympics and the World Cup.

Generally, things are running smoothly, but around the evening, things get a bit crazy. I wandered over to the "Fan Zone" an hour or so before the game between Austria and Poland started. I didn't actually get into the Fan Zone, because there were so many people, but for this reason, I also didn't want to try to get in. I gawked at the soccer fans for a few minutes, took pictures, and made my way back to the comfort of my Wohnheim room to watch the game.

Me, in front of the Central College office, after Austria in Context class, ready to enter the Fan Zone...in cognito....

Not the Fan Zone...but one of the many cafes and bars showing the games

A moonwalkesque tent(?) in the Votivpark

Fans around Schottentor

gifts from football tourists

a soccer ball on the Burgtheater

Disappointed Geman fans near the University and Beethoven's house--Germany managed to lose to Croatia...somehow...

Croatian fans celebrating on the Uni's statue

Austrians warming up for the game with a few cheers in front of the Schottentor McDonald's

Fans of Austria and Poland...or perhaps just the colors red and white...in the U-Bahn station at Schottentor

Home at last!

An Italian dinner with Austrian colors

Austria ended up tying with Poland, which was actually better than I expected. Neither Austria or Switzerland qualified for the cup (but since they're hosting, they automatically get in), and Switzerland lost its second game and its chance of moving on earlier this week. But since Austria is also in the same group as Germany, which, as I stated earlier, lost in an upset to Croatia, there is a small chance that Austria could prevent Germany from moving on in the tournament, if they beat them on Monday. From what I could understand in the news, the last time Austria beat Germany in the the Euro Cup (or perhaps, in any match) was in 1987 in Cordoba. Some German companies are selling "Revenge for Cordoba" shirts. The chances are incredibly slim that Austria will get even one goal, especially since Germany is considered a strong contender for winning the cup, and Germany got a wake up call this week, but who knows...

Wachau Excursion

Melk

a historic monestary

No change allowed!

What the western side of North America was though to look like--and perhaps what it may look like after a few more earthquakes....

On the riverboat to Duernstein

a bus-sized train

CNN International and Art Class

My roommate and I stayed up quite late watching CNN International to see the results of the last primary and watch Barack Obama's speech after he won enough delegates to get the Democratic Party's nomination. It was great to see his speech in St. Paul--it made me almost forget that I still wasn't in America.




My drawing class finished last week. We mostly spent time practicing getting the right lines and angles, since little mistakes can make what was meant to be an exact drawing of a table look quite abstract.

Besides the ceramics class I took last semester, I've had no experience in an art class since I was in middle school, so I think I improved a lot. Here's the first portrait I actually finished--it's of Franz Kafka:

Adventures in Neuroscience

Signs that my prefrontal cortex is finishing its development:

1. I'm wearing a lot more sunscreen, since I realize that I soon be more concerned about having my skin age at a normal pace, and I realize that a tan isn't that great--especially when it's just on my nose. I'm Finnish and Norwegian--I shouldn't force anything.

2. I take my calcium supplement.

3. I think about cholesterol--at least once a day!

4. My ability to keep my thoughts about other people's behavior or my complaints about the weather to myself while traveling in a large group has improved. I may soon be allowed to participate in a Rick Steves tour...which I believe has a no whiners or trolls policy...something like that.

The prefrontal cortex is responsible for many of our personality traits and helps us deal with conflicting feelings, predict the consequences of our behavior, and control impulses that, if left uncontrolled, could lead to negative social outcomes. Supposedly, this region is not fully-developed until about age 25. It's a strange feeling to read that my brain hasn't matured yet, but I hope maturing won't end at age 25. :)

It's June!

Temperatures were in the mid- to high-eighties this weekend, so my friends and I spent about four hours at the beach on Saturday. Don't worry, I put on multiple layers of sunscreen.

The Alte Donau (Danube) Bad--it's on Arbeitersstrandbadstrasse--The Wokers' Beach Bathing Street (Vienna had a couple strong socialist streaks in the past...)

Rob and Rachel

Annie

Me

After a day on the beach, we stayed inside and played Scrabble on my Travel Scrabble board. I got the highest scoring word, "acclaims," which got a double letter score, a double word score, and a 50-point bonus for using all seven tiles, for a grand total of 84 points...just for that word. Depending on who you ask, I may or may not have bribed someone for a switch for the second "a."

On Sunday, I got to move back into my room after being temporarily in another one while laminate flooring and new wallpaper was installed. I'm enjoying not having stained carpet or carpeting for wallpapers.

My toilet, like every other toilet I've seen in Europe, does not flush with a mini-handle, but with a button--either on the wall or on the tank.

Vienna is getting ready for the European Master's Cup which will be going on here, and in various locations in Austria and Switzerland all through the month of June. A "Fan Zone" is being built in the historic center of the city, near the City Hall (Rathaus) and the giant entrance gate at Heldenplatz. People will be able to watch the games on giant screens. There's also a giant inflatable tent/dome going up in Sigmund Freud Park, which I pass before class. I'll try to get a picture of that eyesore.

This comes just in time for University Finals, and the main university building is located right next to this Fan Zone. Thankfully, most of the noise will be in the evening, while most classes are in the morning and afternoon.

The Fan Zone is under construction. (I wonder if they got this idea from the Bush II-Era "free speech" zones)

Someone wasn't so happy about the Euro Cup or sexism, and decided to share this sentiment on one of the Uni builing's walls. I've probably mentioned before that graffiti is EVERYWHERE in Germany and Austria.