I had an amazing and pretty religiously uplifting experience this weekend at Melk Abbey. So, when our leader told us that we would be getting to go to an art museum, I began to look forward to some Jesus paintings and some pictures of landscapes and bunnies. However, when we got to the Museum Quarter for our tour, I saw a huge sign that said, "Traum und Trauma," which translates to "Dreams and Trauma." That tipped me off right away that the next hour was not going to be spent looking at pictures of religious figures or trees. A lot of the "inspiration" for the exhibit was Freud's dream analysis and free association, which was another BIG indication that this art would be a little wacky.


AND TRAUMATIC IT WAS! This art exhibit (if you could even call it that) was completely about the shock factor. We saw some of the most gruesome and disturbing pictures that I've ever seen. Also, at one point in the tour, we came to a painting that was basically a big red splash with painted rocks at the bottom. According to our guide, this painting was inspired by the book Left Behind. She asked if anyone had ever read the book before, or if any of us were born-again Christians. Well, of course, I raised my hand..... and I was the only one who did! Right away, the guide pointed me out and said, "Oh, only one of you in the crowd. Well, would you explain to the rest of the group what the book is about? Something called the Rapture, right?" My heart skipped a beat. When I am first introducing the rather important concept of Christianity to a large crowd of people (which hasn't happened too many times), I usually don't start off with the book of Revelation. Telling them who Jesus is might have been a better starting point, but I went ahead and did my best to explain the concept of the Rapture. In my opinion, this piece of art was the furthest thing from a Godly painting, but... each to his own, I guess. Let's just say that Amanda Kalyn Tyree was glad to get out of that creepy place!



Yesterday, our group had a tour of the Ottakringer beer brewery. This beer is special and only brewed in Austria. The rest of the group was a tad more excited about this than I was, but I decided to go and attempt to be culturally stimulated in some way. Maybe after seeing this beer place, I would find out why the art people from the previous day were so messed up! The tour was actually pretty interesting, and we got to see how everything was made. Inside the fermentation room was about 100 degrees (F), so I almost died! The entire place also smelled like barley, which was pretty nasty, but it was pretty cool to see such a big part of the Austrian culture. I had a hard time concentrating, though, because our tour guide looked like Barbara Streisand with crazy hair gone bad (well, worse, haha), so I kept laughing when she'd talk. :)

Today, we went to the ORF, which is the Austrian news station. We got to go in front of the green screen and film ourselves. Three of my friends looked like they were riding a magic carpet, and then Connie and Nirveen were put onto the back of a cow in a pasture. It was halarious! They put me, Nirveen, and Connie in the middle of a yodel German dance hall, so we started line-dancing! Our tour guide made us a DVD of our performance, so I will definately bring that home with me! :)

I have recently been named the "Unofficial Chef" of the 4th floor. I think this is because some of the boys from the north east US saw me cooking pasta (really challenging, I know) one afternoon. Their only wish for this week was to be cooked a real "Kentucky style" meal. Amber and I successfully cooked chicken, potatoes, green beans, and garlic bread. They loved it! Nobody died or was poisoned (from what we can tell.... the side-effects might take longer than a few hours to set in.... time will tell), and our meal was called "absolutely delicious." Yay! Greg and Paul (both go to Bentley College in Boston, but Greg is from NYC) said that I should make dinner every night (maybe this is how I can make money over here!).

I have my first German language exam tomorrow! We are going to study a lot tonight, and hopefully they will allow me to stay in the country. I really like this German stuff, so I think that I will continue it even when I get back to UK. It's so much fun, and actually is a much prettier language than people think. German is just kind of hard to speak, because we don't have a lot of the sounds that they have, but I'm trying! Today on the city bus coming home from the TV station, there were about 10 or 11 young military boys standing all around where Amber and I were sitting. Then this little old lady got on the bus, and Amber and I offered to get up so that she could sit down. The lady insisted that we stay seated, and began talking to us in English, asking what we were doing in Vienna. All of the military boys (most of whom looked around our age) were listening attentively, we could tell. Then the woman asked me if I would say something in German to her, and the first phrase that I could think of was "Ich komme aus den USA," (which means, "I am from the USA.") All of the boys started smiling and laughing and I heard the word "American" and "English" come out several times. Then we got some kisses blown at us when they all got off the bus.... oh, Europeans! At least I said the sentence right!

Wish all of us luck on the exam! I'll keep everybody posted on how I do! :)