Frauke Says...

... that we should write down the little impressions that we have of places we experience so as not to lose them. I forgot that I used to do this when I traveled. I don't know how I forgot this. 'Tis important.

On Cemetery Island in Venice, we walked through a section of graves that were stacked on top of each other. I'm not sure what they're called, but there are some in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indpls. I always thought they were for cremated remains, but no one has been able to verify whether it's cremation or regular burial. Anyway, there was a little old lady decorating one. She was standing on a ladder, wearing a lot of purple. If I remember correctly, she had a purple hat, as well as a jacket and skirt in a similar shade. She had decorated much of her relative's placard with a predominately blue mosaic. Seriously, there were blue and gold tiles all over the placard. There were so many that they were encroaching on other dead people's placards. I liked it a lot.

Also, today we went to Frauke's apt for dinner. It was amazing. Any good feelings I had about Frauke were simply deepened and verified tonight. She made us amazing pizza, played her harp and sang for us, made Turkish coffee for Matt and I, brought out hats to wear, told my fortune from the grounds of coffee left in my cup (apparently I'm going to climb a mountain with a smiling girl with long blond hair sometime in the not so distant future), and she talked with me about predestination and listened to my newly discovered knowledge about bedbug mating rituals. Oh, she also played Amy Winehouse and danced and sang along.
It was all in all an excellent time. I stayed later than most everyone, because it was so nice there.
I also decided that I want to start having dinners (preferably weekly) for people at Ruthy and my house. We'll make food and eat it and maybe have deep discussions or share music or something of this nature.

Together with our excursion to the Central Cemetery earlier this morning and our afternoon excursion to the Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance (DÖW), both of which were very interesting, I feel that this day was a success.

I also realized that I feel at home in Wien. I didn't think it would happen, and certainly not this quickly, but I would love to live here. If I could move the people I love the most here, then I would be happy. Wien is an amazing city and it makes me sad that I only have a little more than a month here. Although I do miss people back home. A lot.

These are some mostly undirected reflections. It's almost 1:30am but I'm not particularly sleepy. I guess I'll work on homework and see if that puts me to sleep. :)