Karlskirche

So, we got to do something amazing today that not many people get to do ever.

(Wait, don't I do that every day?)

For our Art history class today from 12-2, we went first to Karlskirche then to St. Stephan's Cathedral.  In Karlskirche, the inside is covered in scaffolding, blocking all the beautiful frescos on the walls and ceiling.  A regular tourist might be disappointed when walking in and seeing this, but NOT US!  Because we are allowed UP THE SCAFFOLDING!!!  We got to go right up next to the dome fresco.  It was awesome.  So if you don't know this already, the dome frescos are painted to be viewed as proportional from the floor of the church.  So when you get up eye-level with them, the perspective is a little bit off!  It is very interesting.  We got to climb up an extra set of stairs into the window at the top where there is a tiny fresco of the dove.  You could see St. Stephan's from up there.

this shows Martin Luther being cast out of heaven to hell with the demon and two-faced woman for writing the 95 Theses

We finished up there, then headed over one stop on the subway to St. Stephan's Cathedral.  This is a very GOTHIC structure...Gothic arches, and skeleton structures.  It is beautiful.  We learned a lot of history of the inside...we learned about this gothic looking pulpit...how it is carved from three chunks of stone...it is unbelievable.  During WWII the church burned down a lot...and they had to rebuild the roof and some of the inside, so before that all happened, they somehow sealed a bunch of sand around this pulpit so it would be safe...and it worked!  So wonderful.  We learned about toads representing the devil, and lizards representing the good, and dogs representing a safe guard.  All three of those animals are on the banister of the pulpit staircase.

We had 45 minutes until German at 2:30...I heated up my leftover pizza slice in the microwave at school, and ate that with some yummy raspberry yogurt.  I don't know if I have said this already, but the yogurt here is SO GOOD for some reason.  I usually don't like yogurt if it has chunks of fruit in it, but here it is so real and so good.  German class was rough...I fell asleep a bit.  Our teacher is really confusing and not strict sooooo good thing I'm not taking 102 next semester...!  (Sorry, Mom).

I love Mara.  This is why I love Mara.

Mara always wants to do something.  Not in an annoying, super active, go-go-go, overbearing way, she just realizes something better than the rest of us--we are only in Vienna for what, 5 more weeks? and we need to not be lazy and we need to SEE VIENNA!  I feel like I did a good job of that this last weekend, but usually on weekdays I stick to school, dinners, and not much more other than food I guess.  Anyways, today after class she came into our classroom and suggested a million things for us to go do.  I really just wanted to go home and sleep or something, but I knew I should go do something with Mara.  So, after some motivation, Mara, Tanner, Monika and I went to the Freud museum.  This is the house of Sigmund Freud!  WHAT!  Somehow I didn't even know this was here...I knew that his grandson, Lucian Freud, was an artist in Vienna and there is an exhibition of his work in the art history museum right now...but I didn't know Sigmund Freud's HOUSE was here!

We took the D Strassenbahn for a few stops, and had an hour and a half with an audio guide in this house.  It was awesome.  I learned a bit about him back in AP Psychology with Mr. Fong senior year.  It was all so interesting.  At the end, I had ten minutes before close, and they just had a huge bookshelf of books about Freud (and about the artist).  Most were in German, but I found some in English and skimmed through them.  I want to review his theories.

the waiting room for patients.

The Id and the Ego!

in his study, his desk was by this window with this exact mirror hanging on it.

I got home at 6:20 ish (a new way I had never been before), and we sat down for dinner at 7!  I take this same photo every time, and Frau Feest notices and gets confused, "but it is the same every week!"  I just want a picture every week.  Haha.  We had green soup with celery, broccoli...everything green except zucchini, and with ginger of course.  YUMMY!  Then spaghetti, cucumber salad, and grapes for dessert.  I ate a chocolate bar when I got back to my room.  She showed us the teddy bears she has for her grandkids who are coming this week!!  Hopefully we get to see them sometime.

Ooook so after my chocolate bar, I watched some Grey's Anatomy.  I love that show.  I'm sad we missed FHE tonight, but we had to have our dinner tonight for some reason.

I miss home a bit, I really miss baking.  I miss our family gatherings and I REALLY want a pumpkin pie when I get home.  And an apple one.  And maybe banana cream...I'm just really sad I'm going to miss Thanksgiving :(