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we've already told you, on Friday we were at our friend's birthday
party. Now, when you hear the word »party« I'm sure a lot of you think
of going out, drinking and dancing. That is, however, not the way we
celebrate - au contraire! We always stay in, reminisce about former
times (we all went to the same school and some of us know each other
since kindergarten), eata lot and
afterwards sit immovable on the floor, stroke our bellies and solemnly
swear never to eat as much ever again - only to reach for some crisps a
couple of minutes later. This birthday party was no different. We had a
lovely time gossiping and eating. Simone (the birthday girl) ordered
food from a local »Mostheurigen« (must tavern), made the best
feta-spread in the history of mankind and baked a delicious cake with
chocolate-peanutbutter frosting. Some of us drank cocoa and barbecued
some marshmallows over a candle.
One of the big advantages of summer, besides the marvellous weather and the tons of ice cream you can eat during the day- is the big summer sale in almost every shop in town! A few days ago I decided to make a quick stop at Zara after university to check out the sales mix. Of course, this "quick stop" turned into a one and a half hour visit, but in the end I got some really great stuff that I've been longing for quite a while now. The first thing I bought was this boho-chic-hairband which I just love! I'm definitely going to combine it with a long black skirt and a basic white sleeveles V-neck T-shirt and maybe a red lipstick or something.. :)
The second thing I bought- (and that's the one I've been longing for over half a year now) is this earth coloured or pink-ish looking Blazer which I just ♥ ❤ ♥!
I actually fell so much in love with it when I saw Mary Kate Olsen wearing a pretty similar one at a presentation of MK&A's fashion line Olsenboye in New York City! Even though I'm more fond of Ashley's style and Esther is the one who prefers the way Mary Kate dresses, I still found this look really appealing and I knew I had to have it. So now that it was reduced I figured, ... why not? :)
Here's a link to the video of her wearing the Blazer- sadly you can only watch it via Youtube, not on this blog!
I also got myself those fantastic sporty and comfy black pants, which, as I just realized, are pretty similar to the ones MK is wearing as well.. But that is not why I bought them. :) I actually consider it a miracle if I can fit into a pair of pants that I actually like, so you can guess how happy I was that the size M fit me perfectly! :)
Last but not least, I got myself those really nerdy glasses, I've also been thinking about buying for quite a long time now. I took it as a sign that after having been reduced twice they were still lying around in the shop and nobody else seemed to want them.. So I seized the opportunity. They are actually just an accessory and UV-sensitive, but I'm thinking about turning them into my new reading glasses! I've been looking for a cute spectacle frame for quite a long time now- but this is the one, I know it! :)
Also, yesterday we were celebrating Simone's birthday - and by "we" I mean me, Esther and our friends Lisa, Lisa, Nina and Julia. Julia has actually missed quite a few birthday parties since she's frequently been spending a lot of time abroad working or studying. Here you can see the - at the time not finished - birthday basket for Simone!
Also, I felt the strong urge again to show you what I had to eat yesterday.
We had salmon on asparagus with parmesan and potatoes with cucumbers (which were not served as a salad but warm,- freshly out of the pan! Yumm!!!!
Before I got ready for the birthday party, I received an overly excited call from Lisa who just installed Skype on her mobile phone and tried her new App out on me. Of course I then had to install it too and we kept talking for quite a while, constantly pointing out the genius that is technology and how crazy it is to talk to one another without actually "calling" each other! :) Yeah, we're freaks, I know...
Yesterday I was bored and as I was gazing over my room, I asked myself: »What would my bed look like in the middle of my room?«. No sooner said than done. I actually quite liked the look of it. That was when my dad came upstairs into my room and was pretty shocked, to say the least because he discovered little holes in my wall (I used to be an avid poster-hanger and when I took them down, the wall came off). So he very much disliked the idea to reorganize my room - because then all the well-hidden holes would show. I, however, disagreed and we had a very long and not so calm discussion about it. After a long time of arguing we decided to paint my room. That way we both would be satisfied. There wouldn't be any holes, and I could rearrange my furniture.
So that's what we did today. Paint my room. And it only took two hours!
That's how it looks like now. I'm very excited to reorganise on Sunday (tomorrow I am going hiking with my grandmother).
Now I really have to go because I'm invited to my room-mate's birthday party and if I am late, all of my friends are going to be late (because I am driving).
When I read Esther's post yesterday I was awestruck by the admirable seriousness that was added to this blog! It almost seems a little bit stupid to me now to post photos of the things I ate in today's blogpost, considering that yesterday's post dealt with such a sociocritical and important topic. I will, however, let go of my complexes and will continue with my original plan of telling you what I did today. :)
First of all -(and actually that's the only exciting thing that happened to me today)- I had an exam in the midmorning. (YAY- it's exam season again! A round of compassion for all the students out there, please..!) Normally, I don't prepare for an exam longer than a week. However, for today's test I studied even longer. You know that feeling on exam day- when you feel secure enough while you're still walking to university, you even get a good cup o' Joe in the morning -
.. and already happily think about the summertime to come..? DO YOU? Well, in my case that's what it's always like. Unfortunately, 20 mintues before the actual exam I simply freak out and lose all the information I've been painstakingly trying to force into my head the days before! And now I'm sitting on the stairs in front of the auditorium, sweating heavily and hating myself for not having gone through my lecture notes one more time when I was at home! I couldn't help but remind myself of one of my favourite episodes from "Mr. Bean"- the one where Mr. Bean's taking an exam. Have you seen this? If not you've got to watch it now, it's hilarious. :)
When I started to read the questions, which were projected to the wall before us, I couldn't even read them at first since I wasn't wearing my contact lenses. So I started squinting my eyes like an idiot and tried to decipher the sentences on the wall. The guy sitting next to me must have thought I'm a freak when I looked at him while I was still squinting (I forgot to stop that) and asked him a question. Of course, in the same minute one of the supervising students, or traitors,- as I like to call them,- went "Shhhhhhhhhh!!!!!" And I was like- "I just wanted to know if he could borrow me a piece of paper!" And they were like: "Oh.. ok, go on." Well.. I then tried to read the questions again and this time I succeeded.
Unfortunately, when I read the first question I went like this:
... and then like this...
... and then I thought ...
This has got to be a joke, right? Of all the questions, why did the professor had to pick the hardest and most extensive ones? WHY? Well, I did the best I could. During the exam I didn't even try to do this - ...
... -since I know I would have been interrupted by the wonderful sounds of "SHHHHHH!!" or "Hrmrmr!". Even though I only had to answer 3 of the 4 questions I also took a shot at the fourth one, just in case. We'll see how that one turns out. :)
After the exam I got myself a delicious bagel and went home to write this blogpost and to continue learning for my next exam..
However, for the last 2 hours I couldn't stop thinking about getting myself a gorgeous little cupcake from my workplace- (I work at the Museum of Modern Art in Vienna and there's a new tenant of our restaurant who turned it into.. guess what .. a Cupcake store! We were so thrilled when we found out about it, but I guess our increasing body fat will soon keep us from spending all of our money on those evil yet beautiful treats..
I am sure that by now all of you know about Wendy Davis' amazing achievement. But just in case you missed it:
The Texas State House voted (on Monday) to pass a bill which would ban all abortions after 20 weeks, plus adding new restrictions on how clinics get licensed (which would mean that a lot of clinics had to shut down).
However, yesterday, Democratic State Senator Wendy Davis (backed up by a whole lot of feminist supporters), launched a 11-hour (!!) filibuster and managed to shut the whole thing down!
I actually didn't know what a »filibuster « was and had to google it. For those of you who are as ignorant as me on this subject: a filibuster is a way for one person to delay or even prevent votes on a specific proposal.
So here's what she did: she started reading aloud testimony from doctors and people who would be impacted by the restrictions at 11 am and didn't stop talking 11 hours!! She wasn't allowed to take any breaks, a sip of water or eat. In addition to that, she couldn't lean against anything for support but had to stand. The Texas Senate, however, voted anyway. But because it was discovered that the Republicans changed the timestamp in an attempt to fake the bill's passage (the final vote approving was taken at 12:02 am) - the vote was declared invalid!
What I like about it a lot are the overwhelming discussions on the internet that are currently motivating everyone to think about women's rights - which is pretty fantastic I think.
Here are my favourite quotes from tumblr from today:
»Being a feminist is okay. Being angry is okay. Being loud as you want about the problem is okay. But could we please put away the "down with men"shit?? The point is equality, not hate for another gender.« source.
»If "Pineapple Express" had been about two girls, they wouldn't have made it. And if I were a woman, I wouldn't have a career.« - Seth Rogan acknowledging Sexism in Hollywood
»170 000 people tuned in the texas senate livestream and hollywood still thinks women can't carry a superhero film.« source
»If the child you save is born gay, will you still continue to protect it?« source
»If you're banning abortions, why not ban male masturbation and condoms and birth control pills and periods because technically you're killing potential human beings.« - »Because then men can't get laid and that would be "unfair"« source 1 - source 2
»Why do fetuses have more rights than women?« - »Because there's a chance they can be born male. Hypothetical males are more important than actual existing women.« source 1 - source 2
and finally:
»It was worth it, absolutely.« - Wendy Davis concerning the filibuster.
Hi you guys! :) As you may or may not have figured out by now- I am going to London in July! :) I've never been there before so I'm really excited. I must say though that I've always been opposed to visiting this city, I don't really know why. I guess, I wanted to explore some parts of America first, - and now that I've been to the East- and Westcoast I can allow myself to spend my vacation money on something else. Actually, the more I focus on reading London travel guides and watching touristy videos, the more thrilled I get! One thing I am going to do first when I arrive in London (after taking the Heathrow airport train to the city and checking in at my hotel) probably is to visit Big Ben or, if it's rainy, to go to the British Museum or Tate Modern! I cannot wait to spend some time there! :)
Normally, I always book my hotels and flights at a travel agency because I do not want to take the risk of making mistakes during the booking process online. I know that sounds dumb and I know that I'm not 70 years old - I just feel better when someone else is doing that for me. :) However, last year, when Esther and I found a flight to SFC for only 660€ we HAD to act fast. There were 3 seats left at that time and we just went for it. I'm telling you, it is such a nerve-wracking thing to know that you are going to spend over a 1000€ on something, -and since you are going to the USA you better not make ANY mistakes when typing in your name, passportnumber etc.. I honestly had to refresh the booking page 50 times to make absolutely sure that everything was in order.. This time it was almost as bad,-just almost. The flight to London and the 4 nights at the hotel there cost me about 580€, which really is a good price considering that I booked everything totally spontaniously. The only "bad" thing is that I have to switch planes in Germany both at the inward and outward flight. But I can do it! :) I am brave and I won't get lost! I can do it! London, Baby! :)
