I'm not down...

Hallo ihr Lieben!

I am back in my home town, in southern Carinthia, with my mum and my little sister Anna-Lisa. I am happy to be here, they always make me feel home...and I also have my guitars here and got already two blisters on my fingers because I have been playing so much...and since my skin was not used to it anymore after 6 weeks of abstinence, it reacted...
I have started writing my CSI:Vienna paper...tomorrow I go to Vienna to go out and celebrate my homecoming with my best friend Corina...Arena, I am back in town!!!





Well, here some info on my past days:
The flight to Austria has been a torture!! The day before I had to leave, I felt kind of weak, I had a headache and I just didn't feel ok!! So I didn't do very much, I just went for a bike ride and said goodbye to the many squirrels that I will definitely miss, especially the little, black buggers...their sight cheered me up so many times on my way around Stanford, Palo Alto and Menlo Park...
I also had to say goodbye to Celia. She has been so kind and nice to me, bringing me along to events or Lake Tahoe, Santa Cruz...we have had very many interesting discussions and I'm sure I would not have enjoyed my time there that much, if she wasn't there. And we plan on continuing this good thing by keeping and meeting in Berlin or Vienna....
Next one on the farewell list was my "hostmum" Lynn, who has also been incredibly nice and delightful...she told me to come back as soon as possible, there'll always be a place for me and that they enjoyed my company as much as I did...
Moreover, Humberto and Ana came to wish me farewell...and gave me their adress, so I could say Hi if I ever come to Lisbon, Portugal...
The evening before, I had dinner with Prof. Juan José Sanchez, who was really nice to me...I will miss the breakfast conversations and his advice concerning my thesis!!
I also had to say goodbye to my professor Dr. Fellner after our CSI: Vienna class presentation in House Mitt, where I had to show our project concerning "transcultural music" to some Stanford students while drinking Eiskaffee, a Viennese version of Iced coffee with vanilla ice cream...

I made me really sad to say so many goodbyes...I got really melancholic and had a hard time not to cry while packing my backpack and stuffing all the new shirts and shoes and gifts and copies of texts into it...

My "hostdad" Rich brought me to the airport on Friday morning at 5 a.m. It was good we started out so early because the airport was really busy and I had to wait in line with a 35kg backpack and a heavy purse...after I checked in, I had to run to the gate to catch my first flight to New York. I changed flight there...I was so thirsty so I bought this stupid vitaminwater for the first time...I had resisted buying it because I think it is a complete bullshit...but well, then I didn't care...I was ust thirsty!!

I boarded the next plane to Warsaw...and the plane was crowded, the service sucked sooo much...never again I'll fly with LOT...even if they are cheaper than all the others...
For them, being vegetarian obviously means you only eat things that volontariliy fall off trees or so...because I only got salad!! 4 meals on a 10 hours flight and I only got salad...
Then, I felt really cold and bad...my tonsils were already swollen...so I asked a stewardess for another blanket because they had really small ones....she said she was going to bring one...well, she never came back...I asked another one...nothing...I got so angry...and they always talk to you in Polish...even if they understood that you do not speak their language, they will still adress you in Polish...no matter what...

I was so happy when I boarded the last plane to Vienna, executed by Austrian Airlines...another 1,5 hours and I finally arrived in Vienna. Well, even though I had arrived, my luggage did not...so I had to stand in line for another 20 mins at the Austrian Airline counter and file a baggage report...they told me it could talk a day or two until I'd get my stuff...

My brother Martin and his girlfriend picked me up and brought me to their (my ex-) flat in Vienna...and we had some dinner...then I passed out on the couch...when I woke up, they went to cinema...I slept some more hours...
When I woke up, it was Sunday and I felt really bad....I had sweated the whole night, my head felt like some B52 bombers where doing their rounds right inside it and I couldn't swallow...I got scared...I just came back from the U.S. and had these flu-like symptoms...swine flu alarm!?!?!?...so I decided to get myself checked in hospital...
The cousin of my brother's girlfriend is working in the hospital, so I did not have to wait for ages...first thing I got was a mask...and I had to keep on for the whole time in the hospital...she checked my vitals and told me to sit down in the waiting room...
The scene was so funny...there were hundreds of people, old, young, mum's with kids...and they all stared at me like it had the Black Death...some girls started whispering behind my back...one mum told her child "Do not approach this girl, she could have something really BAD!!"...It made me smile...it felt funny to be the odd person out...
However, after a test of some snot out of my nose, they told me that I did not have the swine flu...just immense tonsils...and they gave me some pain killer...and sent me off...

At home, I watched tv, I felt like being in transit since I had not arrived in my final destination, at home...so I decided to go for a walk in Vienna...and walked around Mariahilferstraße, the main shopping street and down into a little park, next to the Flakturm, a tower that had been erected in WW II to fight off attacking planes and had been turned into an aquarium...I felt so detached...like everything around me was totally unreal...I was a bit sad that I was not in California anymore...but well, what can I do...so why feel sad and not just make the best out of it...

The next morning my luggage arrived and I took the next train to my home region and my mum and little sister Anna-Lisa picked me up at the train station...then I felt like I had finally arrived...and now I'm here...

Since this is my final blog update, I want to thank everyone who read it and followed my story and adventures abroad...I really enjoyed keeping this diary and let people all over the world know what I have been doing...I know it is not the most exciting thing in the world, but in my world this journey was probably one of the most exciting things ever...
And I want to thank everyone who has supported me in any way during my time in the U.S. Without you people out there, I wouldn't have had such a great time!! Thanks guys and gals!!

Well, now I'm back to daydreaming about San Francisco, the Bay area and the sunshine at the beach in Santa Cruz...and I am missing so many things...
The sunshine that woke me up in my room at 8 every morning, my American breakfast, the daily bike ride to university, the Lane reading room, Stanford campus, the Green library, coffee at Moonbeans, coffee at the Stanford bookstore, coming home and talking to my hostfamily, taking the Samtrans bus to Frisco, run around in Frisco, see Haight-Ashbury and its people, say Hi to Derick in the tattoo parlor, eat pancakes at Ann's cafe, riding around with Celia, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, huge milk containers, huge cars, burritos, fish tacos, downtown Santa Cruz, cheap Vans and Converse, discussions with my hostfamily, discussions with everyone there...I guess I could go on endlessly...

Well, I'll be happy to receive some emails of you guys, if you feel like writing me, because now I plan on going into hermitage to write my thesis...I want to get the bugger done until October and then get my degree...and go back to California as soon as possible!!

Big kisses and hugs,

Sonja

A Long Slow Goodbye...

Hey there!!

Today was kind of a sad day. I had to say my first goodbyes. First of all to San Francisco and all the city now means to me. And then also to Dr. Fellner and Stanford University. Because tomorrow is my last day here in California. And this makes me incredibly sad.
But let me tell you about the last few days I have spent in the Bay Area and the good experiences...

Last week after my birthday, I went back to studying and my thesis, as well as the CSI:Vienna course. I did some more reading and I think I have read about 5000 pages in my time here....I guess this is a lot...and it does not include the stuff I read privately...

On Saturday, I broke out of the routine and went to San Francisco to get my personal birthday present. Therefore, I had a little "date" with Derick Montez in the tattoo parlor. When I arrived there, I felt totally comfy and fine, a good mood for gettin something that you will carry around for the rest of your life...It took us quite a while to figure out the exact position for the script on my wrists...but when we finally had found it, it was done pretty quickly. And it didn't hurt as much as I had expected! Moreover, Derick was really fast and I enjoyed watching him working "on" me...I never had the chance to sit face-to-face with a tattooer and actually observe what he is doing...so I enjoyed seeing it from a different perspective this time! And we had a pretty good conversation going, so the time flew by...
And now it says "Buy the Ticket" on my left arm and "Take the Ride" on my right. This is actually a sentence by Hunter S. Thompson, taken from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. For me it means that whatever situation I find myself in, I should enjoy it, experience it, go with the flow and not be afraid of anything...If I am a good person, good things will happen to me...and I do not want to ever forget this....so now it's inked into my arm forever...
It is also a souvenir from this journey to California, Stanford and my thesis...
The tattoo came out really neat!! Very fancy and special - perfect for a stupid girl like me! I love it!!! I can't wait to see what it will look like when it is all healed up....uuuuu!!

After it was done, I walked back to Market Street and found my name written in concrete on the floor...it was a funny coincidence...so I took a picture...(maybe this tells me about where I should live in the future??)

It was so funny how people looked at me running around with my wrists wrapped up in foil - like I had just tried to kill myself by slitting my wrists...and one guy even walked up to me asking what was wrong with my arms...I casually answered "I just slit my wrists" and I would have loved to take a pic of the expression of horror in his face...I then admitted it was only a joke and I only got tattooed, but he was absolutely not amused....

My aunt had sent me on a mission to buy some clothes for her at Abercrombie& Fitch. And this damn store is my worst nightmare! It is dark inside, it smells like a super strong "male" -kind of perfume and the music is loud and annoying. And every minute a guy walks up to you and asks if you find everything alright. I got kind of scared in there...it is horrible! And the worst thing is I had to work my way through the whole store and also to talk to these people working there, but still I didn't get what I wanted because they just didn't have it. I was so happy when I could leave the store...I will definitively avoid it in the future...It is just unbearable...like Ikea for more than one hour...NO WAY!!
My friend Celia had decided to come to Frisco and we wanted to go to a club, but ended up talking and drinking beer in a pub...

I was back home at 2 a.m and slept like a stone. But I got up early since people had advised me to go to San Francisco again on Sunday. It was the day of the Bay to Breakers run...and everyone said it would be a crazy scene with people all dressed up, drinking and running around the city... like a carneval procession...So I went there...But the bus got caught in a traffic jam...and then it did not stop where it usually does, but some blocks away...so I had to walk....I was already late for the damn run and missed the fun (it started at 8 a.m. and the main run was over at like 12)...and then I wanted to go to Haight-Ashbury again...but the bus did not arrive for like 30 mins...and when it did arrive, it was so crowded that I felt claustrophobic...face-to-armpit...not a nice thing if it is really hot...and people are sweating...
And the bus moved so slowly...at some point, I had enough and decided to walk...but walking in San Francisco is sometimes pretty exhausting because it is going up and down like a rollercoaster...and with such a heat...I felt like toasted when I arrived at my destination. I said "Hi" to Derick in the tattoo parlor and then went to the Golden Gate Park. On my way there, I started gettin an idea of this Bay to Breakers run...there were crazy people all around...drunk...and there was music all over the place...I enjoyed watching people...
In the park, I sat down and observed...there were musicians playing...people lyin in the sun, playing ball games, some were even sitting in the trees...singing, dancing...totally relaxed and enjoying their lives...I was kind of contagious because my mood totally changed and I felt good...like really good...
But this is a thing that I love about Frisco. People here are so liberal and open-minded. It feels free, like you can be whoever you are and it is just fine...and there are so many interesting things around...you get the feeling that you can be easily a part of it...and some people there made me think a lot...reflect on the way I am...and my attitude towards life...it really opened my eyes in some way...I learned a lot, the few times I have been there...
Yesterday I went there again and I got totally caught by its atmosphere...I really fell in love with its spirit...there is also one place that feels and somehow also looks like the Arena in Vienna, my favourite club/bar/place to get a beer...I don't wanna even think of it, otherwise I get sad...and sadder...I will come back though, I somehow left a piece of me there...and I hope it is going to be soon...the sooner, the better...





Well, today we had the presentation of our class work in the CSI:Vienna class in the House Mitt here in Stanford. It was really nice...and interestingly enough, some people showed up...we had free iced coffee with Vanilla ice cream, Wiener Eiskaffee is what we call it back home...and we presented some of our ideas to the students...it turned out pretty well...

Then I went to have dinner with Prof. Juan José Sanchez, who lives in the same house I live in...and he is a great person...I enjoy talking to him because I get the feeling I can learn something...he is so smart...and aroused my interest in the Spanish/Mexican culture...which was something I had considered impossible first...but since Spanish is way more present here in California than in any place I have ever been to before and I got confronted with many aspects of this culture and had to make sense of it. So Prof. Sanchez was the person who helped me a lot with that....

I took my bike, and rode home on campus, for the last time...I don't know if I will see Stanford ever again...it made me sad. I had really a great time and my brain swelled to the size of a basketball with many new ideas..and also new plans for my future...
Here a goodbye shot...while driving away from the Main Quad...

Now I am home...updating this blog for the penultimate time...and I started packing my bag...and I tried to be a strong girl, not to cry and behave like a damn grown-up person...but still I am not happy to leave this place...I've had such a great time, met some amazing people and enjoyed myself so much...this journey has triggered so much in me...I can't say I am the same person...I am not the Sonja that has arrived here 6 weeks ago...I feel much stronger, more optimistic and more self-confident...and I definitively needed that!

I guess I will update this blog as soon as I am home in Austria (where my friends and family are waiting - the only thing that I do care for there) and post some more pics...

So this was not the last time...but the beginning of a long, slow goodbye...

Hey ho, let's go...

Hey everyone!

How are you doing?

I feel fine today, I was pretty productive and did my first interview with Prof. William McKeen, who was really nice and endured my useless questions...and I got some really nice aspects out of it that I had not thought of before.

Well, one reason I feel really good these days is that I have celebrated my birthday on the 12th May and I had such a great day!
First, I wanted just to relax and not go to the library and planned to have a picknick with Celia somewhere around Stanford...but at some point, Celia called me and had a great surprise for me - her classes were cancelled so she asked me to chose any destination, she'd bring me there!! I told her she should pick me up and I'll announce the destination. When she arrived, I got a little box as a present. I didnt't open it immediately.

As some might have guessed, I asked her if we could go to Santa Cruz again and spend the day on the beach...and she agreed...
Off we went, we stopped at Trader Joe's to buy some Californian wine and some bread and cheese and pretzels and nuts and apples....to be fully equipped for the beach.

When we arrived, I knew this was going to be great....the weather was awesome...


First we staying on the rocks and opened the wine bottle....it was really sweet, I mean really sweet. We didn't expect that...but we drank it anyway...I also opened the little box Celia had given me. It contained a piece Velvet Ginger cake which was totally red. I have never seen something eatable that was soo red! Since I didn't have a fork, I ate it with my hands...and it was good...but the color was more impressive than its taste! But I enjoyed it!



We then decided to go to the sandy beach...first, we sat by the trees in the shade....and I wandered around alone and watched the beach and the kids playing....and Celia tried to read since she had some homework to do....but we decided to lay down in the sun and the sand...she read, I tried to read and watched the few people at the beach because I totally didn't feel like reading...

I helped Celia to study some German poems and we really had fun, laughing about the funny stuff they described. And we laughed some more, when the frickin' birds, whatever kind of species they belonged to, let down some poo while flying over our legs...not much...but still it stank like fish....I wanted to hit them with stones, or thought of breaking my vegetarian diet for some revenge chicken...nasty bastards...I think they chose us over all the other people at the beach...for whatever reason...maybe we looked better ihihi =)


It got a bit cold, so we thought that going to downtown Santa Cruz might be a good idea. On our way to the car, a guy who was lying quasi next to us on the beach and was among the people I had been "observing" while being there, approached us. He had some nice tattoos. He asked us if we were from the area and knew a good tattoo parlor because he had seen my tattoo and wanted something similar. I explained that he needed to go to Italy for one of these...However, I don't know if he was really only interested in the tattoo *g*...I told him to go to San Francisco and off he was...

In downtown, Celia and me checked out some shops. I bought something totally stupid - gloves! Who the hell needs gloves in summer and especially in California!? But they are so cute, with ears and a little cat face, and in Austria summer will be over sooner than we want...and then, then I will definitely need them...
Well, after some shopping, where I saw so much cool stuff, but didn't buy anything, (I'm a moody shopper) we needed to go back to Stanford since Celia needed to study for real...and I didn't wanna keep her from doing something.

At home, I quickly changed clothes, ate some cereals and went to the Guild cinema in Menlo Park. This is a really small and old cinema that only plays independent movies and small productions. It has been build in 1926 and some of the interior, like lamps and some decoration, is still original. They even have a curtain that opens when the movie starts - I have never seen this before! Well, I guess I'm too young...

I watched "Little Ashes", the story of young Salvador Dali and his friend, the poet Fernando Garcia Lorca. They had some sort of homosexual relationship that affected them both to some extend. I didn't like it that much to be honest since the actor imitated some sort of Spanish accent on their English. Robert Pattinson, who is English, sounded kind of ridiculous by doing this. I mean it's fake. They should just do this movie in English. People understand that the characters are Spanish and that the movie is set in Spain! And when the Lorca character cited his poems, he did so in Spanish, with a English with Spanish accent voiceover that ruined the beautiful poems...So even though, the movie was kinda crap, I had a great time, enjoying myself there...with only 2 other people!!

And then I went home, finished "One flew over the Cuckoo's nest", which is really a great novel, and fell asleep like a stone...happy and one year older....

However, I got a sunburn on my shoulders...the sun here is really strong and if there is wind you don't realize how strong it shines...

Yesterday evening, I cooked dinner for Celia to thank her for everything she has done for me so far. I cooked some Roman pasta with beans (pasta e fagioli), baked potatoes with rosmary (patate al forno) and a salad (insalata mista - my Italian is still working...). We had some red wine from the neighbours of my landlords, if you remember the pics of the barrels...it was really good...
And then we started watching Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas since Celia had never seen it...so to make her understand what the hell I'm talking about all the time...and I realized how much I love this movie! I'm laughing all the time during the movie!
She liked it (maybe she didn't *g* and this is the reason), but had to leave in the middle...since she had to get up early...
After she had left, I had a writing frenzy and wrote some lyrics for songs I will have to write as soon as I'm back to my guitars...which I miss sooo much!

Well, I need to lay down...Lynn gave me some berry pie with cream and I feel like a stuffed turkey...

And if some of you don't leave me comments, I'm not going to update this blog anymore since it really demands time and passion, and if no one cares I ask myself "Why the heck am I doing this??"
So DO comment..or you'll have me at your hands!!

PS: If you like Rancid-like sound, check out the band Left Alone. They are awesome! Happy, (dumb) summer sound...great for riding the bike to university in the sun!

As Dust Dances...

Dear my friends!

It's Sunday evening, I have read my class readings for tomorrow's CSI Vienna class and I caught a sunburn in the incredibly strong Californian sun today.

It was a special day to me...let me show you why...

Well, I guess the story starts yesterday, when I probably had the worst day since I'm here. Basically nothing worked out.
I was so excited about spending the day in San Francisco with Celia, which is never a good thing, then you'll be disappointed if things do not work out the way you expect them to go. Which was what happened. Celia couldn't make it.
So I decided to go by myself, take the bus and do a little shopping trip to Frisco. I had to get some money at the ATM and when I arrived at the bus stop 2 min before the departure time, I saw the bus driving off without me.
I thought, Ok this can happen! - I'll take the train instead!
While I was buying a train ticket, I saw the train depart 1 min before schedule and me standing at the other side...watching it with my mouth open because I couldn't believe it!
Then I had to wait for the next train, 30min. The train ride was horrible because like the bus, it stops in every little town all the way down to Frisco. When I arrived there it was like 3:50pm and COLD..clearly, I hadn't brought a jacket because I thought it will be as warm as in Palo Alto. It wasn't since in the Bay, it is always windy.
I took the bus to Market Street, then decided to go to Haight-Ashbury to fix an appointment with the tattooer. The bus didn't show up for another 15 mins, it was cold and a lot of weird people where around - homeless, freaks, geeks, drunks, probable drug addicts. I didn't feel really save in some moments!
The bus ride took another 15 mins , but arrived in Haight Street. However, it took me a while to find the tattoo parlor of Derick Montez, since all the stores look the same there...I walked in and asked another guy, if Derick was there...The answer was "No, he's in Albuquerque!"...I thought "Great!...This was soooo clear!!!"...So I left again...sad and weird...
I thought I might need some recreational shopping and went back to Market Street. I went to a HUGE shopping center, which was awful. It took me ages to find the Vans store...however, I bought a nice pair of Vans for 42$!!

After this, I had a pretty bad coffee in the shopping mall, and then, pissed off and demotivated and lonely, decided to take the bus home. I had to wait for 20 min for the bus, it was cold and I was close to a freak out. On the bus, it was not warmer until I decided to close all the windows in the bus! As soon as I was home, I had dinner and then locked myself up in my room to continue working on a story I've been writing for some time..and feel asleep, trying to forget this totally wrong day.

I woke up in a better mood and went to Ann's Cafè with Till for another American breakfast. It was delicious! Even though the coffee was not as good as the last time. I had strawberry waffles and a cinnamon toast....RRRrrrrr!!


Then I went home to relax a bit and to talk to my mum...I had sent her an ecard saying "Thank you that you haven't disinherited me yet!"...and wished her a Happy Mother's Day...




And then I went to the Stanford Powwow. Powwow is a Native American word for a gathering of people and in this case it is a sort of dance contest of Native American tribes from all over the U.S. I didn't know what to expect, but I remained totally impressed. I arrived there and it was full of people standing and sitting in a large circle...some Native Americans were standing in the middle and singing in a native language. I found a place to sit down in the sun and watched what was happening. It was sooo cool! There was a commentator who talked and also explained what the happening. There were honoring dances for various families, for which natives just got up and danced one round in the circle, all together, moving to the drums of some live musicians who sang and drummed somewhere in the shadow. It was so amazing. They wore their traditional costumes, with feathers and adornments in such beautiful colours, head gear...I can't explain all the stuff I saw, so I add some pics and a video of some dances I have seen...

At some point there was a dance contest in the category of "fancy dancing" and five guys competed against each other. The judge himself was one of the most famous fancy dancers of the U.S. It was so interesting. I have never seen anything comparable before!! And the traditional, ideolized picture of Native Americans we get in Europe is just commercial bullshit. Sure they wear feathers and dance to drums and strange songs, but it is really magical! The songs are different, you can recognize patterns, varying speed...it was so interesting! And the little kids in costumes are sooo cute...and dance like the big ones...

I had a look around the area and found some nice handmade jewelry and rugs and painting and and and....there was a man who had a wolfdog (yes, it is a mix of a wolf and a dog) and showed them to people...they were totally calm and one could touch them...

But I couldn't resist the fascination of the drum, singing and dancing and went back to the dancing arena. I sat in the sun for another hour and took some more pics and videos. And got a light sunburn on my nose, my arms and my legs...

I would have loved to talk to one of the tribe members, get some more information, but I was kind of scared to walk up to them and I wouldn't know what to ask for real...
However, I was amazed that they were showing the flag of the United States...I mean to me, it kind of represents a power that has ruined or diminished most of their tribes and culture...the settlers have commited genocide among the Native Americans who now wave an Star Sprangled Banner, that for them didn't mean freedom. I don't know anything about their current status in the U.S., their social situation, but some years ago I did a course at university and we learned that it is pretty bad - alcoholism, unemployment, violence are very high among Native Americans...and I don't know if the state has done something to improve this...
I would have so many questions, but I was, like always, a chicken and didn't find the courage to walk up to one of them and address these things...
At some point, I felt kinda weird and went home...where I realized that I had a sunburn and a sunstroke because I feel asleep in the darkness of my room as soon as I laid down...

I talked to my landlords about the Powwow and showed them some stuff I bought (for my little sister) and some videos I have made...they were impressed, but did not really care...and I think this is the general attitude towards Native Americans and their culture...
Lynn told me she felt kind of guilty for the genocide the white forefathers have commited...and we compared it somehow to the feeling of guilt German speaking people feel about their Nazi past and the Holocaust....
However, I decided I want to learn more about Native Americans and will definitively buy a book on that subject...I think it is really important to raise the awareness...like we do in Europe about the Holocaust...here, people do not really remember this dark aspect of their past...which in my opinion, is really necessary...if only to pay some tribute to all the lost culture that has been killed with millions of Native Americans....

Rockaway Beach...

Hey there!

It's Saturday and I'm going to San Francisco this afternoon to do some shopping and then maybe see the Mae show. Not that I'm really into this band, I used to be some years ago when I was a nice girl, but who cares, I wanna see at least one live show while I'm here...

My Thursday was great! When I woke up, I didn't feel well at all. I had another crazy dream of me being a heroin addict and my dad kicking me out. Whatever this means, I felt weird and claustrophobic. So I sent a mail to Celia, asking what she was up for. And she proposed to go to Santa Cruz. And so at 3 p.m she picked me up and we drove over the mountains to the lovely beach town Santa Cruz! And I felt that this was the place to live for me, like with Frisco.
However, Santa Cruz reminds me a lot of a surfer town called Byron Bay in Australia where I spent 3 weeks because it was so laid back! And Santa Cruz is the American version of it! We first went to the beach and sat down in the sun for about an hour, just enjoying the sun, the wind, the ocean...
Then, we decided to head downtown to have a look. It is so lovely! Cars are banned from some streets and so there are a lot of people walking, musicians on the street, it smells like cookies and good food everywhere...we checked out some shops and I bought some hilarious stuff for my friend Corina. And I bought a shirt at Urban Outfitters, which is going to be my new favourite piece of clothing. Then we had some dinner. I had a "Strawberry Nirvana with an extra vitamin boost" shake from Jamba Juice and I think it would be great if we had juice bars like this in Vienna!! And Celia had a hardboiled egg (she's "nuts" for eggs) and a sandwich.
Well, unfortunately we had to go back early since our teacher, Dr. Fellner, had planned to screen a film noir called "The Third Man", which shows an American story in Vienna, at House Mitt in Stanford. So we went back and watched this really good movie.





Yesterday, I went to the library, finished my new abstract and worked out some interview questions for the professors I'm going to interview for my thesis next week. And I did some more reading...I think I'm up to 6000 pages in my fourth week!
And one could see that it was Friday afternoon on campus since people were inside the fountains, entertaining themselves in the water.

In the evening, I asked Till, my housemate, if he wanted to grab a beer and watch a movie. So we went to Saveway to get some beer, but the girl at the cashier would not accept my driver's licence - she said I needed to show her my passport with the visa for the US. I found this pretty strict for one goddamn bottle of beer. So Till& me walked back home, got our passports and the beer at Saveways. The second time I didn't have any troubles. The guy at the cashier asked me if I was from Russia. This happens a lot to me. I dunno if I look so Russian, I wouldn't say so. And while waiting for my receipt, I told him I was from Austria. He then asked me if we had a huge Philippino community in Austria and I was amazed and told him that he probably means Australia, not Austria. I explained where Austria was. And he said, "Well, yeah, my mum is a quarter German. Maybe we are related." Obviously, it was a joke...
Well, at home we drank some Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and watched Nacho Libre with Jack Black - it was really funny. If you like really stupid movies, this is one you can go for.

Another funny thing happened to me yesterday. I had ordered 3 shirts at Machete merch, 2 Rancid (one for 15$ and one for 5$), Rancid shorts (for 5$!!) and a Die Hunns shirt. However, the customer service of Machete informed me that they didn't have the Die Hunns shirt in stock anymore. I said it is fine, I take the other one. They wrote me again, apologizing that they didn't have this one either. So I ended up taking the last one they had in stock and a Social Distortion shirt, they offered me to apologize for the trouble.
Yesterday I got the package and I was surprised by receiving 7 shirts (!!) and loads of stickers and a Rancid tour booklet...I found this so nice!! I mean I didn't get angry at all that they couldn't deliver the shirt I wanted, but they seem to care a lot...or they wanna promote Rancid since they are going to release a new album soon...However, I have now enough Rancid shirts for the rest of my life!!

Ok, enough information for today. I'll have some lunch now and then wanna get ready for leaving to SF...I can't wait...I love this city.
Cheerio!

Sad Story...

Hey there...

Another week, some more days in the library...After the crazy weekend in Tahoe, I have returned to normality, or at least I try to.
However, I'm having some stress...first of all with writing my new abstract! Yes, a new abstract! Because I needed to change my whole approach in order to make it more like a cultural studies text instead of a mere summary of what Hunter S. Thompson said about the American Dream. But even though I have written like 40 pages that I can not use anymore for my actual text, I am not pissed off or demotivated...It's ok and I have definitively learned some new stuff....which I will also apply on my thesis...

Another thing that I have discovered today is the fact that there already is a thesis on Hunter S. Thompson and his idea of the American Dream!! First, I was close to a major freak out , thinking of how I could get rid of the person who wrote the thesis and destroy all evidence. I was scared, I might need to change topic...but my professor calmed me down and told me that I can cite it and can write my personal ideas and contrast them to the other work. And I had a look at the paper: The girl who wrote it did exactly what I wanted to do in the first place!! This is so funny! Because I have decided on Friday not to do it this way because we considered it too little theoretical...well, even though I am not going to do a pioneer's work on Thompson and the American Dream, I am now motivated to write a better thesis than this one!!

However, there is one problem that keeps me from working 100% - my stomach. I have a really sensitive stomach and as soon as Im stressed, worn out, angry, sad, my stomach is not able to do what he is there for! So I'm pretty much in constant pain these days! I have already bought some pills (they are pink and taste like cherry - God, why can't there be more pink, cherry medicine in Austria???), but they did not help at all, they made it only worse (cmon, they are pink and taste like cherry, how can you assume they work??)!!
And so today, I went to the pharmacy, explained my problem and, if you believe it or not, I got another pink medicine, this time some sirup! And I had to drink it, I feel a bit better...but still, I feel like a goddamn balloon and can not sit upright since it aches then...So, I will give this pink sirup one more day before I try yet another thing...I hope I won't end up like Kurt Cobain, who actually took heroin to kill the pain his stomach was causing. However, I won't ever reach this state, since I'm not even close to be such a genius as he was...at least mentally...the heroin addiction might be easy I guess...not that I wanna try it...I stick to my pink stuff...

Well, now I'm going to watch a movie with my new housemate, Till from Germany. He has arrived on Sunday, starts an intership in Stanford on Monday next week. And so to waste some time, I proposed myself for wasting it with him...

I'm eventually going insane...so leave me a comment!! Goddamnit!!!
Music of the moment: Scratch Acid - Owner's Lament!! (I love this one!!), Left Alone (good, simple ska/punk/surf band) and Deerhunter - Microcastle, for my soft moments....

As the Rope Bridge Sways...

Hey everyone!

It's Monday evening, I had an interesting day with loads of exercise (had to ride to uni twice because I had forgotten my library card the first time!!!), my CSI:Vienna class that was fun and now some rice and salad for dinner....and I watched 2 episodes of My name is Earl...my favourite American pasttime...

However, I want to share with you my weekend that was really exciting...It all started out Friday afternoon, when I met Celia in the library and we were talking about what we're going to do this weekend...and I had actually planned to go to San Francisco to do some shopping and more exploring...and Celia asked me if I wanted to come to Lake Tahoe with her and some friends...they had rented a house there and there would be other students and she convinced me....
So after a nice meeting with my professor that helped my research a lot, I met Celia again, we drove to my place and grabbed some clothes, books, the electric blanket and off we were. We went to her room in one of the dorms on campus and she packed her stuff...And at 8.30, her friend Nicole plus her boyfriend Martin, picked us up...before hitting the freeway, we bought some really good Tacos...it was actually the first time I ate fish/tofus tacos...in the car, not even seeing what I was eating...but they were really good and fresh...
And then I sat in the car for 4 hours...the first part of the ride was fine, we passed by San Francisco and headed towards Sacramento...but then we came into the forest, it started raining and the closer we came to Tahoe, the more it rained and eventually also snowed...
The road is really windy and I got a bit scared since Martin is a rather fast driver....and I was soo tired.

Once we had arrived there, it had about 15cm snow in Tahoe! I thought, "Damn, this is for what I had left Austria???", but as soon as we entered the house, I was fine again. It was really nice, one of these wooden weekend houses...and it was full of people and booze.
As soon as we had found a corner for our stuff, we got some wine and talked to the people who were mostly friends of one another...and a lot of Stanford graduates...
What struck me early, was that the guy who was renting out the place, seemed to be obsessed with order and cleanliness. There were post-its everywhere, telling you what you had/had not to do....and threats that he would not give you back the deposit if something is wrong with the flat.
Since we were tired from the drive and the wine, we went to bed and also managed to get the upstairs couch to sleep, even though it was not really comfortable...
Here a pic of some people and the cute dog Penelope, who is not into contact...but it looks like ALF in my opinion...

The next morning we got up, had some cereals and coffee and then read the stuff Celia and me had to do for the CSI class. Then we decided to go for a hiking trip, even though the weather was not really inviting. And I definitely had the wrong equipment - Converse, skinny jeans and a leather jacket are not really suitable for rain hiking!
We drove a bit and got off at a spot that indicated some hiking tours...and how you should behave...I liked the warning sign and took a pic! And off we were...
It was raining, it was windy, there was snow on some spots of the trail and I was definitely not in the mood to hike...like you can see...but I did not want to disappoint the others who were totally into experiencing nature...it made me feel funny somehow...maybe I have had too much hiking in my childhood and now can not understand these feelings anymore...or maybe I prefer hiking in the sun with a cold beer in my hand like we do it every September for my brother's birthday...

However, after about 40mins that we went into the forest and a lake that we saw, we decided to return to the car since the weather was not getting better. And we drove back to the house. On our way, we stopped at Starbucks and got some Chai Latte, my new favourite drink. It sounds really "gay" (I'm sorry I use this word, I know it's not politically correct but I can't think of any other word that might fit as well as this one! If you have any suggestions, let me know!), but it's sooooooooo goood. Spicy tea with milk....RRRRRRrrrrrrr!!!
In the house, we had some sandwiches and then turned back to the texts we had to read and post comments on in an online forum. And then we took a nap...and then waited for the time to pass. At some point, I started watching My name is Earl because the general mood was a bit weird. I felt like did not fit in...which I feel like most of the time. But maybe I'm really paranoid about this...
And Celia joined me with some wine and some more My name is Earl, which she really enjoyed...she had never seen it before and meant that it gives you a really bad impression of America, so at first, she did not want to watch it, but she kind of liked it in the end...
We drank some more and listened to music...I showed Celia some stuff I like, she did the same and for the rest of the evening we were entangled in Youtube videos of Ein echter Wiener geht nicht unter and Alf Poier, all stuff that I showed her to represent Austrian culture =) And she liked it...We also started to watch my favourite documentary About a Son on Kurt Cobain, which for me is the creation of a genius! I love this movie! It gives me the creeps all the time because it is not a simple, boring summary of a guy who became a famous rock star, consumed drugs and eventually killed himself...but it is Kurt Cobain who tells his own story (they used parts of old interviews done by the guy who wrote the official Nirvana biography called Come as you are) and they show pictures from where he grew up, the people who live there, the general mood and play music that has influenced Cobain for his own sound...If you're into Nirvana or like documentaries, you really need to check it out!!!
Well, then Martin and Nicole brewed the killer stuff of this weekend - Feuerzangenbowle, a mix of sugar that is caramelized into warm alcohol which contains oranges and tastes like Christmas!! After two cups of this and two cups of gelo-shots (take some flavored gelatine and add vodka instead of water), I was really wasted....to I decided to lay down on the floor next to the dog...and watch tv...but unfortunately, the others were playing drinking games and loud so I couldn't hear a word...Celia was equally wasted so we fell asleep, watching the rest of About a Son...then we set up the bed and with the sound of our iPods and pillows on our head to hide from the lights, we fell asleep like chicken...

On Sunday, we got up, cleaned up and got ready for going home...we hopped into the car and hit the road...here some pics from along the way...really impressive for me...how weird things look there....and the funniest thing is that as soon as you cross the border between Nevada and California, you see casinos and wedding chapels....then you know you're in the Silver State Nevada....where gambling and wedding are important economical features.....
We stopped in Davis, a small university town, for some Chinese lunch. It was pretty good...and for dessert I had a Snoball...I saw this, of course, in My name is Earl. It is the culmination of all the good, sweet things that exist in this world...it is a filled chocolate cake with some pink marshmellow and coconut covering....it looks totally chemical, which it probably also is...but it liked it somehow....it is really cheap too =)

As soon as I was home I took a shower and went to bed. I hadn't slept well so I fell into bed....to be able to go back to routine today...which I did....
Well, not awfully exciting because of the weather mosty but I had fun seeing all the stuff and hang out with Celia and be spontaneous...it was a good decision to go there...
Let me know, if you like my pics...I'll really appreciate some comments...

Good night and good luck!