The closest I'll ever get to being an anime character

I should have had my hair trimmed in August, but life was busy. I finally buckled down and went to Mariahilferstraße last week, where I knew a good hairdresser would be. I decided if I find a wash and cut for 20-40 Euros, I would do it. My Austrian roommate and two other Austrian friends from our floor came along, and they recommend "Young Style", and the price was right (amazingly enough). I had Johanna come in with me to be sure about scheduling an appointment, but when I came back 45 minutes later I assured my friends I would be fine on my own. I have been studying German for a while now, and have been feeling very confident in my skills.

However.
Not only were all  of the hairdressers at Young Style very Young and very Stylish, but they also had music playing cranked up to make you think you were in a club. I am positive that I said I wanted just a wash and a cut of about 5 centimeters and bang trim, but somewhere something went wrong. I definitely got asked questions I didn't understand and remember myself nodding and smiling. After the incredible hair washing (nice massage, whicked relaxing) the very feminine guy with bleach-blond spiked hair and tight jeans started blow-drying my hair. In America, we cut our hair when it's still wet. Becoming very nervous and very flustered, I asked him about the whole cutting my hair thing, and he assured me he was just the washer and dryer, the other girl would cut my hair. But he continued to dry not just my bangs, but my entire head, to the point where I was getting embarrassed because my hair started resembling a badly-teezed fro. It was right about this point in the haircut when my friends came looking for me because they needed to head back to make a lecture.
Finally the first girl I spoke to about the entire process came back and proceeds to straighten my hair. The entire time I sat there wondering what the word for "to straighten" in German even is, and when along the way that they could have possibly asked me if I wanted my hair straightened. I'm still worrying that she's not even going to cut my hair after all, and I spent a lot of time doing so because I had so much whicked long hair.

Happily, I can say that everything worked out. I got the trim, I love my bangs short again. The worst part wasn't even having to pay a little extra, because it was nice to have my hair so expertly straightened and soft for a few days. The worst was just having no idea how I got myself into that.

Definitely best language fail to date--much more of an adventure than buying powdered sugar instead of regular sugar, or getting ham edged with asparagus because I failed to notice the word "Spargel" on the package.

seriously. anime. or hilary white.

the full effect straight-ness.

Das Wiedersehen

Vienna, April 2004

Vienna, October 2010

a 36 hour marathon

...might be the best way to describe my trip to Oktoberfest.

The group of about 200 international students met at 9:45 PM at the Meidling Bahnhof on Thursday, and by 11ish we were on our train. We had sleeping compartments with bunks, and 6 or so people to each compartment. The people in mine were from the States, Canada, Italy, Mexico, and the Netherlands. And we were basically tight after a round of introductions.

The trip from Vienna to Munich should only take 4 or 5 hours, but Erasmus plans it so that the trip takes all night with our train letting every other train pass us by. The tickets are also cheaper, but it's mostly so that people could party all night long and get to know each other. There were more than a few students who arrived at Oktoberfest and had no desire to even look at a beer, which is pretty unfortunate. I myself only got 2 or 3 hours of sleep, but after a relaxing morning sightseeing around Munich, I was ready for more action.

Did I mention that I was wearing my dirndl? It made me pretty popular on the train, and with the group once we were sitting at our tables in the balcony of the Löwnbräu tent. I'm definitely in a lot of random Spanish and Portugese students' facebook pictures. Too bad I'm American, not authentic Bavarian...

So a beer tent at Oktoberfest is a huge tent crazily decorated with the theme of that tent and full of people drinking, noise, and music from the bandstand. Every 5 minutes they would start up "Prosi, a prosi" and everyone would stand on the tables and drink. My favorite non-prosi song was their rendition of Amazing Grace. Three trumpet players came up to my balcony to play it, and I was one of the first enthusiastic people to stand on my bench and belt it out. The video will either be on the blog or fb soon, check it out. It was simply wonderful.

Tip: In case you're planning a trip to Oktoberfest, you should know that in the beer tent the only beverage on sale is in fact beer. Seriously. We saw girls try to ask for water and get completely shut down.

Once our table reservation was up, we spent the remainder of the day walking around the festival. We rode on the ferris wheel (Riesenrad) and got an incredible view of the city, and then I teamed up with Thomas, from Canada, to get pictures with men in Lederhosen. I had assumed I would take pictures with such wonderfully-clad men in our beer tent, but there were none sitting near us on the balcony.  So I put on my sweetest smile and asked in my most polite German whether it would be ok if we took a picture, because I was heartbroken that none of my friends had worn Lederhosen. My only regret is missing the very first pair of old men I spotted because I hesitated. We were never able to find a pair of old men like them the rest of the night. Definitely not a coincidence.

I couldn't resist the hat and coat, a complete ensemble.

I climbed back up to my bunk in the train compartment around 10:30 and slept the entire way home, and then proceeded to sleep all day Saturday, and then slept for 11 hours Saturday night. By Sunday evening, I was more or less a human again. What a great trip.

Sunshine

It can be pretty grey and gloomy in this city, and has been for the past week.
When I was on the U-Bahn yesterday, I realized that there are a lot of small things about fellow commuters that brighten up a gloomy day for me, including:

-guys wearing scarves (I don't mean indie kids with skinny jeans and a scarf flung about, but guys wearing neat coats and primly wrapped striped scarves)
-guys with pants just a little too short (seriously, as K would say, where's the flood?)
-middle school-aged abnoxious kids. Maybe I just like them because they're not my problem, and they're speaking really funny German.
-bikers with the one pant leg rolled up, regardless of whether the pants are jeans or dress pants. It just always makes me smile, I don't know why. Maybe because I rode a bike my entire childhood and never had the issue of my pants getting caught in the tires, but a lot of people take it very seriously here.

But of course, I woke up today to a marvelously blue autumn sky.

:)

My new favorite place

My friend Maria took me to a dream of a candy shop today. I'm basically in love with this place and the old man who owns it and who thinks I'm insane. Let's just say I may not buy any more groceries this week because I spent it on candy. and I'm five.

The Musikverein

Sunday and Monday I attended my first two concerts at the Musikverein, which is only 10 minutes away from my new dorm! 

David Zinman was conducting the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich with pianist Rudolf Buchbinder for the Brahms 1st  Symphony and 1st piano concerto on Sunday, and then the 4th Symphony and 2nd piano concerto on Monday. It was probably the best possible way ever to start off my year of attending concerts at this beautiful hall.
I went with my Norwegian friend from my language course (which we are both glad is over!) and we did standing room tickets. You have an awesome view, since the hall isn't too huge, but it gets pretty sweaty. I could buy a seat, but I liked standing room because that's where all of the students were. Except that I think that standing in flat boots may be the cause of my aching left foot...
Before these concerts, I had been to the Haus der Musik to hear a wonderful Italian pianist, Cristiana Pegoraro, play a Chopin program, and to the Orangerie at the Schloss Schönbrunn to see a very touristy Strauss and Mozart program, which I thoroughly loved. But that was my third day here, so it was ok to be so touristy. Now that it's October, a lot of the touristy concerts are finally being replaced by the more varied and interesting concert programs. (phew).

for mom

During a city walk this morning with our German tutor, Kurt Freimuller, we passed by the Lipizzan Stables right as they led a few across the street, just inches away from me.