T-Minus 5

I am wanting to do pretty much anything but study for my "Post Cold War European Security" final. And so I write a blog entry.

I am down to 5 days, 2 finals, and 1 paper until I leave Vienna. The paper is pretty much finished and the finals won't be terrible. Though the thought of doing an essay-style final for my "Central and Eastern European Economies" class makes me sick. I will survive though.

Nothing too crazy or exciting has happened to me since I last wrote. I went to see the Nutcracker at the Volksoper a couple days ago. We showed up to do the Student Rush (students get whatever seats are leftover for 10 Euros), only to discover that the whole ballet was sold out. But then some lady came up and sold us some other tickets for 12 Euro, so we got to see the show. Needless to say, it was very cool. And also full of obnoxious children.

Other than that, I've been passing my days going to the Christkindlmarkts, watching Sex and the City online, and doing last minute touristy things. I went on a tour of the parliament building a few days ago, which was very cool. It's a Greek-style building. I even got to see the huge parliament room that was used when Franz Josef first allowed the Hapsburg Empire to have a parliament. This is also the room that a young Hitler came to and watched the parliament proceedings. Everyone spoke in different languages (because they were from all over the empire) and no one understood each other. This is supposedly why Hitler was so fanatical about having everything be in German.

I have a lot more to do before I leave. In about an hour, I'm heading to the UN complex here in Vienna to go on a tour. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to see a practice of the Spanish Riding School (yay horsies!). I'm also going to go the Succession building. For you art history people, this is the building that was built for member of the Successionist movement (jugendstil) in 1899. This movement included Gustav Klimt, Otto Wagner, Adolph Loos, Gustav Mahler, Schiele, etc. And since I'm in love with Jugendstiel, I figure I should go see it.

Thursday and Friday will be spent packing. My stupid flight from Vienna to Paris will only allow me 20 kg (45 lbs) TOTAL, so I get to give away about half my stuff. Oh well. I needed to purge anyway.

I'll probably update once more before I leave and again once I get home. If I ever make it home...

See you soon!