Meine Klein Welt

Back in Vienna

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After spending a little more than 2 weeks in the US, I’m back in Vienna and back in the thick of things at VCS. I had a great time seeing family and friends even though the weather was equally hot and muggy in Tampa and Philly.

Here are some other highlights from my brief stay in the US:

  • Visited my old pal, the ENIAC, for inspiration
  • Attended a block party in Philly
  • Played with an iPhone – pretty snazzy, but I think I’ll make due with my latest hand-me-down cell phone
  • Fired a .44 Magnum – wow. No way Dirty Harry is firing this thing one-handed. I don’t care how cool Clint Eastwood is.
  • Stood in an airport security line with the 2007 NCAA Strutting Champion – and she had the trophy to prove it. I’m not really sure what a strutting competition looks like, but I think the picture I have in my head is a lot more amusing than the real thing.
  • Watched 2 movies and a couple of sitcoms on the way from Tampa to Washington DC. – fyi that’s usually a 2 hour flight.
  • Crashed at my dad’s apartment in DC after missing my flight to Vienna.

As you can see my time in the US was very exciting.

I’ve just finished my first week of orientation at VCS, and am looking forward to the school year…though I think I wouldn’t mind if I had an extra couple of days…or a week even…to get ready. Though I probably think that every year. School starts this Thursday!

Prater Film Festival

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Prater Film FestivalFor the last few years, there is a Film Festival in the Prater during July.  Older films are featured here and many of them are black and white. This year’s theme is science fiction and they’re showing everything from The Forbidden Planet to Star Wars on the big screen.

I caught two films while I was here: the first was Alphaville which was French with German subtitles. I had a little trouble following this one even though I got the basic gist of it. The fact that the main character was an American portraying many of the accustomed stereotypes was quite amusing.

Tonight I saw Westworld, which was written and directed by Michael Crichton. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Westworld is part of an amusement park where people can pay top dollar to spend a few weeks in the Old West. It is populated by highly sophisticated and life-like robots that have all the functions of a normal human beings. Patrons can even go so far as to shoot and “kill” these robots in realistic gunfights without fear of harm.  Everything is going fine until the robots start acting strangely…cue sinister music.

Both nights were perfect for outdoor movie watching under the Riesenrad.

Why I Love Vienna

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RathausMaybe it’s just the sunshine talking after enduring the summer weather in Plymouth(temps in the 60’s with plenty of rain), but yesterday I felt a little pang of sadness for that day when I might leave Vienna.

Since the weather was so nice, I decided to take a walk along the canal and then through the city to the Rathaus where there is a summer film festival. It was the middle of the afternoon, so I was just planning on checking out the scene, snagging a few schedules for future reference and maybe grabbing a bite to eat. Just as I was about to leave a group of musicians assembled on the stage and began to play some toe-tapping jazz/blues/ragtime numbers. It was a wonderful way to spend my afternoon, taking in some live music with a cool beverage and the sun overhead.

I’ve included three short video clips of the music below. Unfortunately my 5 year old point-and-shoot camera doesn’t take stellar video and it forces my clips to be 30 seconds or less. So the video’s not so great, but the audio comes through nice and clear.