Thanks and Intermission!

Dear readers of this blog!

Thank you so much for your interest in occasionally following my life here. I also want to say thanks to my friend Magda who had created this blog (and it's immodest name) as a farewell - "gift" before I left last summer. (2007) Without having people who read all that stuff writing a blog would not make sense.
But the good news: Even though my American year is over, the blogging is not. I was writing a blog before, that I am now going to use again. You can find it here:

http://missbasilicum.blogspot.com

So if you want to keep in touch with what's going on in and around Vienna or if I plan to maybe come back to the US some time, you can follow me there. Have fun!

And here are the first pictures (all taken with my cell phone) back in Austria. They sum up pretty well what all is about here...

culture&history

traditional food. (my brother's first attempt to make Kärntner Kasnudeln and it was delicious!)

family

not everything is very alive

instead of water- we have chocolate fountains :)

...what we are wearing every day. Ok, just kidding. Only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Sundays. :D

Bye bye!

I am leaving today. Bloomington, Indiana, the US.

Right now I have 4 more hours to pack and clean up my part of the appartment, and I am still just starting to realize, that I said goodbye to all my friends here yesterday night- for probably a long(er) time. This was very sad. And it was almost exactly as it was one year ago - on the same day, but 2007, when I left Austria. I was not aware how much I loved some of the people I got to know here during the year. But actually this is a beautiful thing and I am thankful for it.

Now it is time that I face the bright side of the journey...the "saying hello - part" to everybody in Austria again. I am very excited, and it is still almost too unreal.
I should better go.... tomorrow at around 7:30pm I'll arrive in Vienna.

Wien, Wien nur du allein...

healthy summer-lunch

Romaine - spinach - cheese - pistacchio - basil - salad

I am currently attempting to eat as much healthy food as possible...
In San Francisco, without having access to a kitchen, my lunch mostly looked like this: a zip-lock bag full of raw baby spinach, baby carrots (Americans seem to like the baby-type of everything a lot), maybe sometimes some sugar snap peas and 2 or 3 pieces of String-cheese. (Dry mozzarella wrapped in separate "strings")

(Abby presenting the lunch bag in our hotel room in SF)

As this was not very juicy and as I have my kitchen here again (at least for 7 more days - yes I am leaving today in 1 week!), I have tried to spice up this lunch - idea a bit...and created a salad:

Romaine lettuce
Baby spinach
grated carrots
sliced cucumber
diced avocado
salt
pepper
basil
vinegar
olive oil
three-cheese - crumbles
pistacchios

Mix and mingle all of that together, and that's it :)

Last day in SF!

Yesterday was the last day that I spent in San Francisco.

I wanted to go to Haight street again, that I had already discovered 2 weeks ago. As Darcy, my current host and Christina, Katharina's friend from Switzerland, also wanted to come along, it was all 3 of us, who had a great afternoon with shopping in cool second hand stores and eating Indian food.

Here are our Afro - shots... I'm so bummed that I didn't buy one of those wigs, they were just 12$ and I'm sure my brothers would have had a lot of fun with it...



Darcy and me:

Another shop that had attracted Christina's attention: (with us passing it on the picture)


The Piedmont boutique, the craziest shop for boas, clothes, wigs, shoes, accessories, "jewelry", that all look like perfect for the next drag queen - show. (I bought earrings and stockings) Also the outside of the shop is fancy:


One of the numerous nice houses in San Francisco, on the way to Haight street:

GIANNI SCHICCHI

The headshots - Suchbild :)

It was sooo much fun! At first I felt almost overstrained about learning the role (Nella), as it's mostly ensemble or short lines inbetween here and there, that - by itself - sound more like new music than like Puccini. But she is on stage all the time and has to know basically the whole opera to not miss cues. So after rehearsing for a bit I started to love it! And I found out how much I love doing comedies or/and comic roles!
So here are some pictures of us on and off stage...

Nella and Schicchi

Nella, aka "the bat" and Zita, la vecchia

the girls - trio: Ciesca, Zita, Nella

Live pictures during the performance:
The trio:

Everybody wants to grab the will:


excitement... what are we going to inherit?


Nothing?!



my husband Kyle (Gherardo) and I:



The girls in rehearsal:


...and in the same scene during the show:



while waiting in the church - kitchen I found the hugest measuring cup I've ever seen:

meeting friends in San Francisco!

So many nice people I'm meeting here! - I don't even want to think about saying Goodbye to all of them in less than 1 week! The picture above shows Jessica (she is also going to school in Indiana) and me while eating in a diner during a break. (notice the Americana - flags everywhere in the back) She is wearing the same dress by the way, that I bought when I was in LA with Michi --- and I'm wearing it on the next picture:


This was the 1st going out with friends...late enough - after about 2 weeks here.


This was our Baby Doe - shot before the scenes performance :)
The next is Grant doing my hair for the scene.


I also could meet Christina, one of Katharina's friends from Switzerland, who by chance is attending an English language course in San Francisco right now. We've communicated online for quite some time, but finally we could meet in person!



Me and friends at our Schicchi - cast party yesterday night:


Schicchi - girls in the car - on the way to Mill Valley, a village on the other side of the Golden Gate Brigde.

Happy 4th of July

The only free day in our 5-week program:

4th of July!

The American Independence Day - I must admit, I never knew about it before, nor did I find anything special about July 4 - For me it was usually just a mostly sunny day, and until 2007 I had spent it EVERY year in Velden am Wörthersee - in the first week of our summer holidays. (Yes, I am a pround owner of the golden medal that honors me for having been "20 Jahre Kurgast in Velden")
Anyway, last year was the first year, that broke this tradition and we spent that (still not very unusual) day in Italy, on the island of Elba. And this year, - pataaa - I am in San Francisco and it turns out to be a biiig holiday.
So that was our day. I spent it with Abby, Darcy and her friends.

1. Getting out of the city (for the 1at time since we're here) by riding BART (Bay Area Rapid Transport):

2. arriving in Berkely, another city, located at the east side of the bay. Darcy (on the left, Abby right) picks us up and we pass interesting flowers on the way to her house.



3. We drive to a BBQ hosted by Darcy's friends who turned out to be vegetarian gourmet cooks! Heaven!


The food:



The dessert: