Fun at ¡Salud! Tex-Mex Cantina

We went to a "Mexican" restaurant, which is apparently Viennese for
"Salty". Can you spot the comical errors/interesting facts featured
in the menu?

Vienna Staatsoper WLT: 2-1-0

The score for the Vienna Staatsoper is currently 2 wins, 1 loss and 0 ties.  The WLT scores will be tabulated for every show we see here.

We saw I Puritani last night.  We got really good student seats (4th row orchestra).  We think it was the most stereotypical opera we've ever seen.  The tenor was nasally, the coloratura couldnt hit the high notes (neither could the tenor, actually), the baritone stood and gestured with one hand until he was done with that hand and switched to the other, there was one good asian bass.  

The lighting was terrible...once someone sang a whole section of an aria in pitch black because they accidentally put the spotlight on the guy to the left of him.  If you can imagine fake-play-acting a swordfight, such that you're PRETENDING to ACT OUT a swordfight, you have some idea what the swordfight between the tenor and the baritone was like, except the one in the opera was in slow motion.  For whatever reason, everyone (This is an opera about the Puritans and George Cromwell) was dressed as Samurai.  

But aside from being just bad, it was totally weird.  The coloratura, after kind of failing to sing her first act aria, got so much applause that she broke character, walked forward and bowed.  Three times.  This happened in the second act as well.  The audience went nuts.  We eventually got an explanation, which makes the story less entertaining, so you'll have to ask us personally if you want it.  Anyway, it was nuts.  Vienna Staatsoper score is set at 2-1-0.

IMG_4780.JPG

We saw Werther tonight in the 6th row, orchestra for €12 each
(Student tickets = awesome). Here's one of my photos:

Various! (Vienna, Week 1)

Some photos of various happenings during our first week.

Stuff we've accomplished:
-Saw the pope
-Went to Shabbat & Rosh Hashana Services (AND saw the pope!)
-Bought furniture
-Bought ficus, carried it through town in the rain and the wind
-Bought and then killed Basil plant
-Enrolled in school
-Dined with folks from school
-Failed to get health insurance
-Got special enrolled-student confirmation papers
-Succeeded in applying for health insurance
-Got special enrolled-student under the age of 26 ID badge (Gabe only, alas)
-Got semester-long cheapie subway pass with above ID badge
-Got our laminated floors redone, got bedroom wood floor refinished, got water damage on walls repainted
-Got our ATM pin numbers
-Found out our debit cards have a $0 limit, and are just ATM cards
-Bought the best baklava we've had at the Naschmarkt outdoor market
-Cooked various things
-Got Skype & iChat more or less working
-Saw Simon Boccanegra at the Staatsoper for €3.50 each (Standing room). Fantastic. (And totally worth standing for 3 hours, weirdly!)

Generated by Flickr Album Maker

A Tour of our Apartment! (Week 1)

We bought furniture from an *awesome* second-hand furniture/clothes/everything place down the street, so now we're almost set up the way we like! Explanations are in the photos.

Generated by Flickr Album Maker

Hurrah! Posts!! (Contact info, etc)

Hi everyone! I've finally put up the pictures from Pennsylvania (With a few pics on the Los Angeles and the Vienna sides of PA). We're doing pretty well getting used to everything out here, and are planning on going out to get some big pieces of furniture today (2nd hand furniture shop + IKEA). Classes start in a week or so, giving us another week to get situated and do paperwork (and maybe some touristy things).

Contact info:
We've ironed out most of the bugs we were having with Skype, so if you'd like to reach us, call (818) 935 5039 (Studio City local) or (917) 720-6203 (New York Local). That should reach our voicemail (or if we're online at the time, it'll ring us and we can pick up). If you want to check and see if we're online, we're using both Skype (user name sirionn) and AIM/iChat (usernames sirionn and operasiren). To get a Skype client, go to http://www.skype.com, register, download the client, log in and add sirionn as a friend. If you have a mac, you already have iChat, so open that and add sirionn and operasiren to your buddy list and we can talk or videoconference for free (with better quality than Skype). We can also videoconference via Skype, but haven't tried that yet.

If you need to reach us ASAP, our local cell phone is +43 676 390 5638 (I think the +43 corresponds to 011 43 when calling from the US)

Our mailing address is
Kohlgasse 44/22
A-1050 Wien
Austria

Sunday to Monday (PA - NYC - LHR - VIE)

Sunday: Breakfast with Alice, Brette, Paul, Rachel, Cathy & Pete & Andrea, re-packing, Monday: Off to NYC. Went to Museum of Modern Art & then Airport (Air India -> LHR, British Airways -> VIE). Tuesday: Still in the air, then to train, then to elevator up to apartment...

Generated by Flickr Album Maker