So much to catch up on, My parents visit! (Part One of Two)

Dienstag 16 November: I don't really remember what I did this day. I guess it probably wasn't very eventful...

Mitwoch 17 November: So today my Art and Architecture class went to the Belvedere. We learned a lot about Metterschmidt. He was an artist that towards the end of his life moved to a shack in Bratislava and would hurt himself, scrunch up his face and then sculpt his expressions. He didn't want anyone to see them and when one of his friends tried to buy one he refused to sell them. He tried to drown them in a river, but they were recovered. After he died, they were sold anyway and now a bunch of them are in the Belvedere. They're pretty interesting, but the story is really sad. After learning about Metterschmidt, we went upstairs and learned more about Klimt and Schiele. We learned a lot of really interesting stories about both of them, including that Klimt would often paint people naked, and then paint their clothes over them. (Not with commissioned portraits, though, that would be awkward...) This was seen in one of the paintings he was working on while he had his stroke, then other paintings were x-rayed and found to have the same thing. And of course we talked about the Kiss. We learned about the tragic story of Egon Schiele and Wally in his "Death and the Maiden" painting. We also learned about Schiele's blind mother theme in many of his paintings. 

One of the Metterschmidt heads.

The people that found them gave them these stupid names, like "man just saved from drowning"

Ok, so this guy totally saw me taking this picture, but I couldn't help it, the resemblance to the painting is just too uncanny!

Donnerstag 18 November: Today we went to the Mozart Figarro House with my music history class. It was by far the best of the composers houses that we've seen yet. There were multiple floors and we each got a little audio guide so that we could learn about everything. It was really nice to have the audio guide. We had a lot of fun looking at all the portraits and learning all about Mozart! haha, I love going on field trips. We also learned about this awesome thing that happens once a year, where one novel is selected and is printed so that anyone in Vienna can go to select book stores and libraries and get one. So on our way back from the Figarro House, we stopped in a bookstore and got our copy of "Balzac und die Kleine Chinesische Schneiderin". I don't know if I'll be able to read it, it might be a step up from Harry Potter.

We like to imitate the paintings.

This is the view that Mozart saw, but not really...

Aw, the little DU clan learning about Mozart.

I don't know what the point of these were, but I just thought they were so cute.

Our feet at Mozart's house.

Yes, you can pay a euro to have a giant picture of your face cover a photo of Mozart's house and put it on a postcard.

Free book weekend!

Freitag 19 November: Today I mostly just tried to get stuff done and started getting excited to meet my parents tomorrow!

Samstag 20 November: So today began with an early morning coaching and then I went to Landstraße to meet my parents!!!! I got there early and stood outside where I was going to meet them, but then this blue-mouthed guy (We see these people all over the place, mostly the Karlsplatz ubahn station, that have blue mouths. I have a theory that it's from some sort of meth/vodka/cough medicine concoction.) anyway, this guy kept trying to ask me something so I went into this bookstore for a long time and when I came out my parents were there!!! It was so exciting and I'm so glad they were able come to visit!! We went to their hotel, then we went to the Naschmarkt to get some dinner. We ironically enough ate Japanese food for dinner. It was really good! Then we went to the Christmas market at Schoennbrunn. We bought some Christmas stuff and then we split a giant Krapfen with chocolate filling. Yum! (It's like a giant filled doughnut)

Alright, that's part one of my parents' visit, I have to move locations, plug in my computer and then write part two later tonight.