Spring Break! (but not exactly wild)

The last few weeks have been rather hectic, I have to say. Aber alles gut. I have settled into a groove with my classes in Vienna, just in time for a two week Oster Break. I also finished the revisions on an article that is now forthcoming in an American music journal back home. (Hallelujah!) Yesterday marked the end of my class in Salzburg and I also Skyped with my students back home to discuss the study abroad program with them. Between the inquisitiveness and, dare I say, sweetness of the students here and the excellent questions and enthusiasm from the ones still in California, I was reminded exactly why I love my job so much. It didn’t hurt that the class gave me chocolate on the last day (and a fantastic bracelet that will probably make it into a picture soon). All in all, a good couple weeks worth of work.

The best part, though? My brother came to visit!

Sibling self-portrait with Hofburg.

I think we’re both glad he’d been to Vienna and Salzburg before, because I unfortunately had to leave him to his own devices some of the time. I did manage to “clear the decks” enough to play around in Vienna, though.

We went to see both the Kunsthistoriches and the Natural History museums (the two official museums created by the Hapsburgs).

"American and Australia" on the facade of the Natural History Museum.

Maria Theresa's incredibly inbred dog. Stuffed.

The Natural History Museum was really my brother's excursion, but I enjoyed the paintings that decorate the inside of the museum...

Famous archeological sites in Europe.

Important cultural sites from all over the world.

Likewise, the trip to the Bestattungsmusem (Mortuary Museum) was really for the anthropologist among us, but I still am amused by this contraption...

An "economy" coffin introduced by Joseph II... one of many unpopular Josephinian reforms from the late 18th c.

Haydn's death mask.

 We also went to the Lower Belvedere Museum to see both some modern and Baroque art and strolled around the third district a bit...

Karlskirche

One of the original Jugendstil metro stops at Karlsplatz.

And oh hey, a picture of me since I actually have someone else around to take them!

A traditional Easter Market.

With traditional Easter eggs.. hollowed out and painted with a dizzying array of designs.

I’ll never know why he decided to join my class in Salzburg once we got there, but “Brother Baber” as he is now known to my students, was definitely a welcome presence. Once he toddled off again for his last quarter back home, I finished up both my archival work and the class in Salzburg and the whole crew--program director, his wife, and the assistants--went out for a wrap party (plus a birthday).

The venue? Hanger 7… aka where the owner of the Red Bull franchise keeps his toys. Like these…

The bar and restaurant, located in the hangar, is sehr hip. This would totally be a good place to bring a date you wanted to impress. I didn’t really care about anything other than the fact that I finally got to have some avocado. In a dessert no less!

Anyway, now I’m off to do some travelling myself. In fact, I am writing this post from the train between Salzburg and Vienna. I'm headed somewhere warmer than Austria, where we just had a late spring snowfall (just for the California boy). I’m also excited because it’s a country I’ve never been to before! Want to know where? Stay tuned…