blogalicious: nary an e-note

I was apparently not as awesome at journaling as I thought, as I have nary an e-note on my last two weeks in Vienna (except a quick one about how we met Austrian teachers at a little soiree at the US embassy. We also got to hear a plug for the US foreign service, to which I say a big, “no, thank you.” It was weird because it seemed like a recruitment spiel, though to the wrong audience).

I do have lots of written notes on the magic flute and Kant (!). That man was a total ass when it came to issues of women, minorities and external beauty (the qualities essential to a woman are chastity and loyalty to a man; an “instinctual” man (ie not European) should not be expected to behave with honor; if you are pretty, then you must be morally good. Woman should attempt to be as pretty as possible in order to fulfill their moral potential.). But writing about Kant is best left to 19 year old college students! I do want to tell you a little bit about what I read whilst in deep study and contemplation: a book of letters that W.A. (Mozart) wrote to various family members and friends. He was such an irreverent cad with a ribald sense of humor! He loved poop jokes (truly my kindred spirit) and puns. He also ended most of his letters home with some mention of kissing the hand of someone 1,000 or 10,000 or one million times (a plug for the metric system?).

Some of my favorite Mozartisms:

On diarrhea (nickname for):
“Don Caccerelli”

On money matters (bad with):
“I would like to have all things that are good, genuine, and beautiful!—I wonder why it is that those who cannot afford it would like to spend all they have for this sort of thing and those who could afford it, don’t?”

On wishes for kissing:
“I am well. God be thanked and praised, and I kiss mamas hand and my sister’s face, nose, neck, and my wretched pen, and her rear end if it’s clean.”

A typical ending to a letter:
“I kiss your hand 1000 times and embrace my dear sister with all my heart and remain forever….
Your obedient son”

I do need to post some picture for the last few weeks in Austria, otherwise I will be left with the nagging feeling of jobs left undone.

We took a weekend trip to Salzburg! It's the birthplace of Mozart and since I was deep in study of the man and his operas, I had a burning desire to go.

This restaurant was visited by Constantine.

I really liked this cemetery

Me with the Alps and bucolic countryside in the background.

The view of Salzburg from Hohensalzburg Castle.

The castle had a marionette museum.

I could not convince life partner to go on the sound of music tour with me.

Quite frankly, I am not a SOM junkie, so the tour was sort of a disappointment, but I did get to see some of the area around Salzburg. This is a quaint town near the Red Bull headquarters where Mozart's mom was born.

The town where the SOM church is located.

The Pegasus fountain!

These are the gardens of Mirabelle park, home of the Pegasus fountain and nightly classical music concerts. We went to one here our first night, and it would have been awesome were it not for the 30 teenagers in attendance from the People to People program (do not like that program for its ability to ruin perfectly good acts of tourism with large crowds of badly managed children).

During our last week, NWB spent a lot of time at the Naschmarkt, buying smelly cheeses and local wines. This market was mentioned in the latest edition of the National Geographic Traveler magazine!