decided!

cross your fingers that red AZ properly processes my blue absentee ballot.

shameless birthday promotion

tomorrow is my birthday! it is also united nations day, and also OPEC is convening in Vienna. in honor of my birthday, no doubt.

it has been a very good year. i had a real job, got a raise, went to Texas for said real job, quit real job, kinda started a business, had a successful first "pitch meeting," saw crater lake, celebrated my 5 year anniversary with michael, began learning german, sold my car, sold 90% of my belongings, relocated to austria, saw the parthenon, saw freud's apartment, started a potential freelance reporting job with SPIN, and drank a lot of coffee. i'd say my 24th year on earth was fairly successful.

my decadent solo celebration will take place at the lindner am belvedere, where i will have a room with a bathtub (no kitchen in sight) and a television! i am going to get indian take out and catch up on pop culture. very very exciting. today mikey sent me a dozen beautiful red roses with a teddy bear who looks very angry and austrian. best gift ever.

tonight i am going to see larkin grimm (of dirty projectors fame) at the verein with meaghan. then home early to agonize over my ballot, then bed.

alles liebes,
ashley

fun with self-containment!

since i am usually alone here in vienna, i am going crazy have found myself inventing really fun games. these games are so good i might pitch them as game shows when i get back in the US.

1) Welcher Haltestelle? U-Bahn Ausgabe!
In this game you stare at people on the subway and try to guess which stop they are going to get off at. Tweedy fellow with an umbrella and a copy of Der Standard? Rathaus. Pair of skinny tweenagers with black hair and BIPA bags? That's easy: Johnstrasse! Lady wearing at least one piece of clothing made of fur, looking uncomfortable on public transport? Operring! This is a really fun game. I swear.

2) War Time? Dinner Time! (alternately titled "Meal or No Meal?")
This game can only be played on Sundays or any other day past 8pm, which is when 99% of grocery stores are closed. If I have failed to plan accordingly, I get to come up with really creative and Depression Era-inspired meals (foreseeably a pretty good skill to come home with). Usually I am equipped with something along the lines of: old bread, rice, a few carrots, half a head of iceberg lettuce, some peanuts, unidentified gelatinous meat products given to me by Monika, sparkling water, and chocolate. Points awarded for presentation, taste, and absence of next-day salmonella poisoning. Points deducted if bouillon cubes are used (too easy).

3) Where'd That Ant Come From?
For reasons completely indiscernible to me, I will occasionally find ants in my apartment. Not in the kitchen, where one would normally find a wayward ant, but in strange places - like on a lipstick tube or in my sock drawer. I'm not very good at WTACF yet, though I am good at a related game, entitled "Bug Squasher 5000!"

ummmmmm yeah. tonight i think i am heading to a concert with meaghan. hopefully also meeting up with a pair of great old friends from tucson who are, by a stroke of amazing luck, both in vienna right now.

i leave you with this very self explanatory photo.


xoxoxo

it's not the ending of the world... it's only the closing of a discotheque

i've been busybusybusy!

saturday i went to this amazing "brothel inspired" performance art festival in the university district with that nice girl from yale. various singers/artists/weirdos would "seduce"/recruit patrons, then for a few euro they'd perform artistic "favors." a great premise, if you ask me. i saw a wacky old circus performer telling stories over tea and bundt cake, a scary performance artist lady dancing around in an apron in a mildew-filled cave, and three or four great bands. the evening was totally surreal, though, because under the circumstances i was prone to think most everything that happened was part of an act. it was all very 'down the rabbit hole.' for instance, at some point, three austrian boys were following us around to different performances, acting totally (in my opinion) like stereotypical drunks. after we finally shed them, i said something about how they were very convincing. meaghan (the girl i was with) didn't think they were part of an act. later we saw them peeing behind a port-a-potty (not IN it, but behind it), and meaghan was more apt to agree with me. a similar situation happened later, wherein meaghan was approached by a very strange couple and propositioned to go upstairs for reasons unbeknownst (but guessable) to us. a few people said that the austrian art scene is not as subtle as i was thinking, but i'm still confused.

sunday i was sleepy and had allergies so stayed home watching episodes of intervention downloaded from itunes.

monday i did some work, cleaned the apartment, and went to the market. this delicious drink called "sturm" is in season here in austria - it is essentially "young wine" that is not fully fermented. it tastes like carbonated, unsweetened grape juice. sooo delicious. but you can't close the top of the bottle all the way because the sturm is constantly fermenting and thus emitting gas. i found this out on wikipedia. i wish i would have checked wikipedia prior to the sturm-exploding-in-the-fridge incident. later in the evening, i made another mess trying to open a can of black beans with a hammer and a corkscrew. weee!

today was super productive. i composed a plan of action for next year's autumnal 'adventure' (law school). 9 schools in 4 states. i started my applications and hope to finish them in the next two weeks. also submitted another article to SPIN, arranged to meet with the lady offering me a museum job here in austria, and got $75 in foreign fees reversed from my wells fargo account. tonight i am going to see silver mt zion in a former slaughterhouse/coopted art space. i have some fun pictures but will wait until after tonight to post them.

tomorrow i am SUPER psyched to see animal collective! it is 18 freaking euro but i think it's worth it - don't you? also exciting this week is an orchestra where all of the instruments are composed entirely of vegetables. i don't know what night this is yet but you can bet your booty i will be there.

some funny random stuff:
as i was leaving the park with wifi this afternoon, one of the centenarian regulars at the turkish pub i sometimes go to (actually, why am i calling him a regular... i think i've been there more than he has) asked if i was going to come in tonight and "drink on your computer!?" i love that i am the girl in the neighborhood who drinks on her computer.

one of the musical acts i saw on saturday had 4 male members and one female lead singer. after the show, meaghan and i noticed that all four boys had matching shirts and FANCY italian leather shoes. matching! on purpose! we asked about it, and the drummer said something like "the hot [band member]'s girlfriend ordered them for us online." who spends 150 euro on matching shoes for a free-entry art festival?

one of my neighbors does not have a WC in his apartment. there is a WC next door to him i guess - i see him coming out of it all the time in his skivvies and going back into another apartment. very strange. i'm glad i have a WC in my apartment, shower in the kitchen or not.

xoxoxoxo
ashley

i'm boring today

nothing too exciting going on... trying to take it easy (financially and otherwise) after greece. i would like to take trips to malta, the netherlands, greater austria, and switzerland, so i am working on that... also looking into taking a mini german course to get my speaking confidence up a bit more.

am going to 'preview/interview' for a job on thursday, serving drinks at some art event that takes place twice a week. would be great fun - i hope it works out.

fast forward two weeks - my birthday is coming up! i have never spent a birthday alone! does anyone have any good ideas of what to do for a solo b-day party? michael says go to the zoo, but i don't know about that... maybe it would be a good time to take one of the aforementioned trips?

okay... time to go get lost trying to find the international grocery store and score some black beans and jalepenos. yaaay!

xoxoxo
ashley

all greece-d up and nowhere to go

greetings loves!

i just got home last night from a week-long trip to greece. in a word: indescribable. here's a rundown of what i can remember.

Pre-S: pictures are all here

sunday: wake up, still totally debilitated by flu. get self on subway, airport train, and then airplane. sleep. arrive in athens. get self on metro to port, then ferry. the ferry is like the worst possible cruise ship you can imagine. packed to the brim, with expensive food and water. i got excited because it appeared that there was wifi, but it turned out wifi cost 9 euro an hour. sleep more. wake up several times, worried that i missed my island stop. finally arrive in naxos, greece, 7 hours later. it was already beautiful, even at 1 in the morning. someone from my hostel picked me up at the port and took me straight home, where i pretty much just passed out. the hostel was so cute - very clean, super central to the best parts of the town ('hora' or 'naxos city'), and super cheap. i was steps from the beach and great restaurants.

monday: wake up and go exploring! check out the beaches, the seafront, the shops, a museum, and basically just take ridiculously long walks. went to agios georgios, a beautiful beach right by my hostel. it is lined with umbrellas and cute beach bars, plus a splendid view of the sunset. took a 'shower' (more about this later), and went into town. had a kitrone, which is a lemon liquor that is made exclusively on the island of naxos. kind of like italian limoncello, but more syrupy and packs a bit more of a punch. then went to dinner. had greek salad and chicken souvlaki. made friends with waiter. his name was 'sefi,' like 'jeffy' with a 'z' instead of a 'j.' he was SO nice - having trouble getting back to school because his parents make him be a waiter every year. we had great talks over dinner, then went to a german bar in town where i made numerous international friends. some of them made fun of my greek, while others appreciated my german skills. also, sefi said 'you are so funny' about a million times and i felt special. even though he would say that for anything, like if i spilt beer on myself, or made a grand and illuminating mathematical proof clearly evident to the bar patrons, or put a scarf in my hair. he still said 'you are so funny.' it was great fun. it must have been, because before i knew it, i was walking home AT 6 AM. the sun was coming out!! i haven't done that in years!!

tuesday: was kinda rough at first, because of the night before. still, i managed to get my butt out of bed before 11 and head to breakfast. breakfast in greece consists of a cup of coffee and a piece of toast (and cigarettes, obviously. everyone in greece smokes. all the time. everywhere. airport, hospital, bus, you name it), but it sufficed. then i attempted to walk to another beach, agios prokopios, not realizing that it was a few hours' walk away (until 1.5 hours into it, wherein all i could see was goats and construction sites). found my way back to naxos and took the bus instead. read and swam in the warm, beautiful agean sea, then headed back to naxos for dinner (in a crowded bus where i had to sit on an old lady's lap - literally). went to a great little restaurant and had the greek equivalent of a denny's sampler - stuffed olive leaves, falafel, greek meatballs, stuffed tomatoes, tsaziki, octopus salad, the works. soooo good. went home and had a much needed good nights' sleep.

wednesday: woke up and wandered a bit more - got some postcards and took one final dip in the agios georgios. someone from my hotel took me to the port, where i hopped on board for a 2 hour cruise to santorini. this ferry was far less eventful, as it was much shorter and by this time my flu had completely disappeared. arrived in the port on santorini, which is a bit scruffy to say the least. i was kind of worried until i met my hostel's owner, who picked me and 4 other girls up. his name is stelio, and his hostel 'stelio's place,' was unbelievably cute. had great rooms, a pool, beach towels, etc. and was maybe 15 steps to a gorgeous black sand beach in perissa, santorini (much prettier than the port). stelio and his wife and daughters run the place and do an exquisite job. i put on my walking shoes immediately and went out exploring, though i didn't manage to get more than a few kilometers before i was accosted by my other new waiter friend 'adi.' he is from albania and spends his summers working in the greek islands (this is a running theme for young people from the area. they work 12 hours every day for 6 months, then go back home and have a 6 month vacay). he spoke great english and we got along swimmingly. i finished my walk and went home to shower. then went to dinner, had some lovely falafel. the best part of the meal was that my waitress left mid-way through (in a car!) to go pick up her puppy from home and bring it back. then the whole rest of my meal she was a crazy maniac shooing kittens away from her puppy so they did not fight. [all over both islands i was in greece there were kittens and puppies everywhere, just laying around and sometimes scrounging for sardine scraps. i was very tempted to take one home.] after dinner i met adi and we went for drinks and played backgammon (i kicked his ass; he said he didn't let me; i believe him]. another late night - home at 4 AM!! WTF!?!

thursday: woke up and read/sunbathed on perissa beach. so beautiful. the water was unbelievably warm and clear. then home for a nap, then dinner with two girls from my hostel. they are from south africa but are living in dubai. they had the most delightful accents and were truly fun to hang out with. it was great to eat with other people! we took the long walk home then i crashed into bed.

friday: i rented a car! and drove! on a greek island! with greeks! i felt okay because there are signs everywhere that say "i enjoy life, so i drive safely." i saw basically every city on the island, the stand-outs being fira, oía, and akrotiri. fira was busy, bustling and fun. oía, was (as cary previously described to me) science fiction beautiful. just amazing architecture and painting and views. unbelievably gorgeous. akrotiri had an amazing red sand beach that required a small hike to get to, but was well worth it. i swam in the ocean, looking up at these monumental red cliffs and a crystal blue sky, wondering how life could truly be so good. had perfectly delicious tarama salata and toasted break with olive oil at a nearby restaurant, plus a glass of santorini white wine (which was free, like all of my other dozens of glasses of wine on the islands), and headed home. i picked up the international herald tribune, which was kind of a buzzkill (given the international financial crisis), and drank some coffee. ran into the other two girls from my hostel (from texas but living in cairo) and had a few beers. they are totally hooked up in cairo - they teach at an american school where they get free lodging, free maid service, free tickets home, plus a salary. and i guess it ridiculously cheap in egypt. i will look into getting this teaching certificate when i get home... anyway, they were great and were supposed to stay at the same hostel as me in athens the next night. we exchanged emails and i went to bed.

saturday: woke up, read on the beach, and went for a final agean swim. said goodbye to adi and went home to wait for stelio to take me (+ the four other girls) to the port. we all had some lunch there, which was entertaining because all of the waiters/management had a huge screaming brawl half an hour into the meal. the greeks are not shy about their emotional outbursts. then we waited like packed cattle for the ferry, finally being forced (again like packed cattle) onto the ferry. it was scary. they were closing the loading dock while i was still on it. then settled into my seat (this time i paid the extra 10 euro to secure a spot, so i was not wandering cluelessly and aimlessly with my heavy bag throughout the seven hours) and had a pretty comfortable ride. mid-way through, we hit a very rough patch of waves. i did the sensible thing and got a glass of red wine and sat by the life boats (just in case). most other passengers were not so smart, and were sprawled out everywhere, with a noticeable stench of vomit in the air. lovely! about an hour after that, a huge chorus of no less than 100 passengers broke out on the back deck. they were singing greek folk songs and having a great time. while this interrupted my sleep, i still enjoyed it. finally got to athens, where i chugged a red bull and waited for our cab driver, expecting a fun night at my hostel (whose main draw was a rooftop bar overlooking the acropolis). got to the hostel - the poor girls i was with did not secure their reservation and thus did not have beds. they spent a solid hour getting lost in downtown athens looking for a hotel. i, on the other hand, was not minorly disappointed to find that the rooftop bar had closed at 11:30 and that all of my 5(!!) roommates were already asleep with the lights off. i had to brush my teeth with dr. bronners and wear the sundress that was in my purse as pajamas, as i didn't want to dig through my bag or expose my laptop to these grubby, hippy, sleeping strangers. worst night of sleep ever (as you can imagine, after drinking a redbull [i have not had one for a year] and not showering). still an adventure, and a learning experience. note to self: always splurge for the private room.

sunday: after maybe 2 hours (i'm being very generous) of full sleep, i woke up at 7, 'showered,' and went to see the sights. all of the fancy attractions in greece are free to get into on sunday so that was a big score. saw the acropolis, the parthenon, socrates' prison (supposedly), all kinds of monuments, beautiful walking paths, the agora, etc. i was going to get lunch but got nervous about missing my flight so hopped on the metro and got to the airport. 5 hours later, i was safely home in vienna. a much needed sleep was had, and here i am, pirating wifi and drinking some rotwein.

miscellaneous things about greece:

you cannot put toilet paper in the toilet. apparently it screws everything up. you are supposed to put it in a nearby trashcan, but this feels so unsanitary. last night when i got home i flushed some toilet paper and almost had a heartattack, but quickly realized that even my shower-in-the-kitchen apartment can accommodate such complicated plumbing issues.

a shower in a hostel (in greece, at least) is a hose attached to the wall where your hips would hit. and there is no way to attach said hose to a head-height fixture. so all showers are quick, joyless, and without frills.

food in greece is unbelievable. whether you are getting cheap streetmeal souvlaki or a fancy sit-down dinner, everything is just incredible. kind of heavy on the olive oil, but what do you expect? plus olive oil is good for your skin and digestion, if you ask the greeks.

there were so many tours for foreigners going on while i was seeing "the" sights in athens, and many were hilarious. i overheard one memorable spiel "so one wall is 6 meters and the other is 13 meters. what is that? it is double!!" clearly, it is not double, but i certainly admire this tour guide's attempt at a simplistic explanation of the aesthetic value of the golden mean.

so there is the rundown. certainly incomplete but at least a summary, if anyone cares. this week i will be finishing my final application to SPIN, sleeping, reading, and hopefully getting a booze-serving job here in vienna. more blogs to come. missing and loving you all.

ashley