Knallige Nacht von Dorothy Sayers Kapital 1, ersten Teil

Harriet Vane saß am Scheibtisch und blickt in Mecklenburg Platz hinaus. Die späte Tulpen machten eine mütige Aufführung im Platzgarten, und ein Vierbiteinheit von frühe Tennisspielerruften dynamisch die Punktzahl eines ziemlich erratisch und ungeübtes Spiels. Aber Harriet sah weder Tulpen noch Tennisspieler. Ein Brief lag offnen auf der Schriebunterlage vor ihr, aber sein Bild blühte von ihre Gedanken ab, um Platz für einen anderen Bild zu machen. Sie sah einen Häuserblock aus Stein, von modernen Architekt im Stil weder neu noch alt gebaut, sondern einer, der abgleichende Hände zum Vergangenheit und Gegenwart aufspannte.

Paris Part II

Me at the Eiffel Tower. Geoff and I were going to go up it, but due to time and weather we ended up coming back on New Year's Day.

It was very foggy.
The Arc de Triomph. We didn't get to go to the top, sadly.
This is a Paris sanitation inspector.

Wisdom Teeth

Apropos of nothing, I would like to tell you a story from last winter, when I had my wisdom teeth out. But first, I have to tell you a joke.

There are two fish in a tank. One says to the other one, "I'll drive, you take the guns!"

Geoff has an entirely unreasonable liking for that joke. When he told it to me, I gave him a look of "really? That's really the joke?" and maybe an unwilling chuckle.

To return to the story, when I got home from getting my wisdom teeth out, I was on a combination of laughing gas and vicodin, and generally not anyone's idea of good company. But Geoff came over to keep me company anyway. I spent the next few hours incoherent and flopped over his chest. I was so out of it, in fact, that apparently at one point he told me that joke again...

...and I laughed hysterically.

And now you know about the horrible, mean things people will do to you when you have your wisdom teeth out.

Paris Part I

Someday, I will figure out how to upload photos and not have them show up in reverse order. Today is not that day.

This is taken in the Louvre. It's the Rescue of Psyche by Amour. So beautiful and romantic!

You know what this is.
The Pyramids outside the Louvre.

My favorite graffiti in Paris. It's on the Rue Mouffetard in the Latin Quarter, where Geoff and I had dinner every night.

Wien Part II

This is the central building in the Wien Cemetery. If I remember correctly, it's the biggest cemetery in Europe.

A grave I thought was especially beautiful.
In front of Schloss Belvedere. It was my favorite castle in Wien, not least because it houses a beautiful art museum. Gustav Klimt's "The Kiss" is the highlight of the collection. I had seen reproductions of it about a thousand times, but seeing the real thing was very moving.
Here's the castle from a distance. The roofs symbolize the tents of the Turks who laid siege to Wien. Prinz Eugene, builder of Schloss Belvedere, began his rise to amazing fortune by defeating them. Interestingly, he was hunchbacked and a Frenchman. He offered his services first to the Sun King, but was turned down for not being pretty enough. Prinz Eugene went next to the Austrian Emperor, who care more that he was a brilliant tactician than that he wouldn't win any beauty contests.
The Wien Ferris wheel. When I make my post on Paris, there will be yet another Ferris wheel.
In short: Wien/Vienna is beautiful, interesting, and amazingly cold!

Wien Part I

I went to Vienna as part of my History class, and we were sent to some pretty shady areas.

Some of them were even filled with hooligans.

Me enjoying Cayi Limon, traditional Turkish lemon tea.
A rather impressive-although not very old-church in Mexikoplatz.

Me in front of Castle Schoenbrunn, home of Maria Theresia. This is where Marie Antoinette grew up. I was kind of disappointed in the castle, but there was an amazing Christmas market in front of it.

Lots of News!

Well, as you would expect from letting two months go by since I wrote, I have a lot to talk about! I also have a lot of studying to do these days, so I think I'll be catching up on this blog in my study breaks.

First, in answer to my last post: my mom has now figured out Skype! I really should have cut her more slack, because she is very much of the generation that finds computers mystifying. So I got to see her, not to mention the dogs and cat, for the first time in over four months! It was very nice, especially since I'm starting to feel homesick. Bizarrely, one of the things I feel homesick for is my mom's maroon Honda Odyssey. It's not like the car itself is special, it's just a big symbol for Home for me.

I won't write about this properly now, because it needs a post of its own with photos, but I went to Vienna! It was a trip with my history class, it was completely exhausting, and I enjoyed it very much.

And perhaps the biggest news of all: Geoff has been here, and is now on to his job in Ireland. We were in Graz for Christmas, Paris for New Year's Eve. I'll be writing a post about all that soon.

Now I'm in class again and studying for finals, and the time is going fast. Before you know it, my time here will be half over! It's hard to believe. Harder still is that some of the good friends I've made here will be going home. There's so much to be sad over. Luckily, there's just as much to look forward to.