Eckerd

Just heard from Mr. Keith Gauthier yesterday.

Everything is on track for Eckerd. Apparently my emails got lost in the SPAM FILTER.

No worries.

Es regnet, es regnet...

It is raining today. Blah.

We had four weeks of absolutely stunning, beautiful, warm weather. But alas, it was unseasonably warm and now we have to go back to the dreariness.

I swam in the outdoor pool on Sunday and almost froze to death. I felt very sympathetic for all the victims of the Titanic. I could only stay in the water for 20 minutes because my heart felt like it was going to explode and my teeth started chattering. BUT... afterwards I lay outside in the sun on my towel and soaked in the rays. THAT was nice.

Only 36 days left until I touch down in Washington D.C. and I am really really excited. Now that the end is in sight I am feeling slightly nostalgic about leaving... and also incredibly anxious about the state of the American Economy and lack of jobs, as well as not having heard from Eckerd in the last month after writing two emails AND calling. Grrrrr.

It will be really weird to not be speaking German every day anymore. BUT... the beaaaaaaaaaaach, omg. I can not wait to see the lovely seashore of North Carolina, attach that leash to my ankle and paddle my 9'2" out into the waves. I have been having stress dreams about surfing. Usually my board turns into a spaghetti noodle so that I sink and can't pop-up or paddle because I am trying to float on something that is not incredibly bouyant... Sometimes it turns into a wooden hot pad with holes in it and creases (where you can fold it up to fit in a drawer, see link).

http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/pitroviz/pitroviz0902/pitroviz090200075/4363910.jpg

Usually there is a wall between me and the waves as well. Like literally a Clear wall. In other words, the waves can not reach me, and I can not reach the waves. SO incredibly frustrating.

I have a lot of pictures still on the memory card of my camera, but I have been so lazy ( I blame the rain and my current job neuroses) that I have done nothing with them other than gaze longingly.

Anyway. 4.5 more weeks, 36 days. But who's counting!?!?!??!

PHOTOS!

Bactrian Camels came to Wieselburg for a circus. I tried to make friends with this one, because I think camels are awesome... but I don't think he wanted to be friends with me.



These horses kept biting eachother like this. It was very odd. I think they had itches. It's kind of hard to scratch your back when you are a horse... no opposable thumbs.



Camels loving on eachother.

























Eric's hands and mine.









Eric Campbell came to visit me, and I made him model...




















more hands...
























I'm a little obsessed with hands














Sarah and I took this shot to convince people that it's not always gray and rainy in London!










Guy dancing at the Victoria Tube Station.








Sarah in the only legal grafiti street in London (or so we were told). It's a little flat, and not in focus, but I like it anyway.



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Alliteration to the extreme... notice how unhappy they are.



London Eye... way too expensive, hence the ground shot.









Sarah doesn't like pigeons... but one snuck into this shot. muahahahahhaa












Boy, Cellphone, Jellyfish












The Ray Pool. The rays came up to the surface like this, wanting to play and be touched. We got yelled at though, for sticking our hands in the tank and touching the rays.











Sistine Chapel shot.












Stingray... I am pretty sure they had had their barbs removed.



touching God



Boys reaching



...



Boy at the Ray tank





Tube, Moon, Big Ben
























By Sunday we were exhausted

















Museum of Natural History















Classic Telephone Booth shot.

Spring Break

So I now have only 55 days left in Austria and it is both going too fast and not fast enough.

I had an excellent Spring Break. I saw Sarah Campbell for the first time since last July and that made me supremely happy. We wandered around London thoroughly exhausting ourselves in the two and a half days that we had in the city. Pictures will come probably next week.

After London I went to Idolsberg where I celebrated my birthday (am now 23) and worked in the forest with the Webers doing manual labor. It was a lot of fun, and I have decide that I missed my calling as a lumberjack! :-)

I then returned to Wieselburg, mildly suntanned and exhausted. Eric Campbell then arrived to visit me on Monday, and left this morning. We had a lot of fun, hiking, eating Austrian icecream... muahahahah, watching violent movies, and cooking. He left just a few hours ago, on his way to Munich and then back to Paris.

I am currently in the computer lab at school, ready to leave and get out and enjoy probably the last day of sunshine for a week or so. (sad) I am simply grateful for the two full weeks of cloudless sky and 75 ° weather we have had.

My parents will be arriving in exactly a week from today and I CAN NOT WAIT!

I hope all is well back in the states. I am coming home soon.

photos

Peace rally, march against capitalism, racism, sexism, and sexuality preference as well as against the mal-treatment of animals.






























































































































































































































The School where I teach in Wieselburg.






















I was trying to be cool like Edward Weston. This is what happens when you forget you have an onion in your room.

I am a slacker...

Okay, okay, okay. It has been a really long time since I posted anything in here.

I have a lot of photographs to post, but it has been hard to motivate myself to load them simply because I miss working in the darkroom, so in some weird BACKWARDS way I am protesting digital by not working on my images at all.

updates:

I thought spring was coming last week but then it snowed again... 4 inches in 3 hours. CRAZY.

I go to London for a short vacation with SARAH CAMPBELL (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) in two weeks!

I turn 23 in 2.5 weeks!

My parents are coming to visit me in 31 days!!!!!!!!!!

I leave Austria in 79 days--an incredibly short number.

Blue Revolution, Rum and Coke, Red Bull, and Fuzzy-Wuzzies

I partied this weekend. Hard. It was great!

I got invited early Saturday morning by Sandra (pictured above) and Emmerich to the Blue Revolution Party in Krems a.d. Donau, sponsored by Red Bull. They had very nicely bought me a ticket! :-)

The party had 3 seperate dance halls, 6 bars (3 of which were VIP, which basically meant their were comfy chairs and tables), and over 15 DJ's. Sandra and I mainly stayed in Dance Hall #2 because that is where the best and most danceable to music was. I stayed out until around 4:30am, and did not fall asleep until 5:00 am. So I have finally discovered what it feels like to be a party animal. muaaaaahahahaha.

Friday night was equally as exciting, because I had a man pass out right next to me while I was at a talk on Tibet and Nepal. It was amazing to see how NO ONE responded to me yelling at them to give me a cell phone to call the Rettung (144, Austria's 911).

The poor man passed out twice and vomitted all over himself, and then said he didn't need to go to the hospital... and so I am standing there saying outloud... "Nein, nein, nein, wir müssen den Rettung anrufen. Du musst ins Spital gehen, keine Frage." I have never seen someone look white, grey, and blue at the same time. It was quite frightening.

I think he was having the beginning of a heart attack, signs being the presence of vomit and loss of conciousness.

Any way.

Sorry this post is slightly durcheinander...

I am now feeling the need of having a puppy INTENSELY.... I need animal love. badly. every other weekend is simply not enough... HOWEVER, there are NO animal shelters or pet stores anywhere NEAR me that I could volunteer at. NONE. it's quite pathetic. grrr.

Amy and I spent quite a long time this morning discussing our overwhelming need for a dog and sending puppy pictures back and forth...

I am currently obsessed with the American Bulldog.

http://ryansspace.com/pics/AmericanBulldogPuppy.JPG

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/American_Bulldog_puppies.jpg