The original,

at the Sacher Cafe, Vienna.

Cologne cathedral

More soon

An idle day in Cologne

Instead of seeing Laacher See on a geological excursion today, I went to see an exhibition about Christian Dior and Germany at the Museum für Angewandte Kunst. It was excellent. I want that rust-red evening dress that Marlene Dietrich once had!

Irr...rrrr....rrrr....itated

Please remember that I prolonged my stay in Europe by a week due to the American embassy in Reykjavik not having any available interview slots during the week I originally planned to be in Iceland. Now, it is not an altogether horrible thing to spend an extra week in Europe. It does have its undeniable benefits. It is, however, also entirely perceivable that this would not be the case.

You can therefore imagine my surprise when I booked my interview today. They had lots... let me repeat this... LOTS... of openings during the week that I will spend in Europe, waiting for an available interview slot at the embassy.

Now, please join me in sincere irritation. And trust me, I plan to yell at a certain receptionist when I get the chance.

Conference - day II

Well, guess what. I already gave my talk!

It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. Everybody in the room heard me. I stayed within time limits. My throat was dry towards the end, but that's manageable. At the end there was time for only one question from the audience, and the question I got was one that I had actually researched and found a pretty cool answer to. An altogether encouraging experience.

Talk talk talk - undubbed

I am in Köln. Or Cologne, as my boyfriend's compatriots like to call it.

Ich bin in Köln. Dass heisst, Cologne, wie es die Landesgenossen meines Freundes nennen möchten.

See! I can still speak German (or something akin to German). Hah!

For your edification, I am inserting a slide from my upcoming talk at the awesome schmawsome conference:



Now don't complain that you have no idea what I'm trying to tell you - just go and find out!

I forgot that all TV is dubbed in Germany. There is something decidedly odd about watching Buffy the vampire slayer in German.

Wondering why I'm watching TV? Well, I'm practicing my talk in the hotel room, and assuming my neighbors aren't interested in hearing the talk ten times, I'm trying to drown out my voice with the TV. Which is why I'm listening to the King of Queens having a fight with his wife in German right now. Sigh.

Crappy

These last three days haven't been good. At all. Wednesday the headache started and since I didn't knock it out right away with some ibuprofen it grew to astronomical proportions, rendering me totally incapable of working until now. In fact, I almost didn't sleep at all for the last two nights. This morning I called up the doctor and was sent home with a bag full of prescription painkillers. Those fortunately allowed me to sleep for 6 hours straight, but now my back hurts instead of the head. And my stomach is a total mess, not having seen a regular meal in three days. The joy. And all this just as I was supposed to be composing my talk for the Goldschmidt conference. Yikes.

The dates

Arriving on the 3rd of September, leaving on the 10th. Homeless in Central Europe for the preceding week.

Something's in the air

Ah, bless the 'Mercan Embassy in Reykjavik. They are apparently so swamped with visa applications these days that one has to wait over a month to get an interview. And nowhere does it say so on their website. (And even if it did, I would still have a problem since it didn't become clear that I would have to change visas until last week). Therefore, after a conversation with a seemingly rather overworked but ultimately very friendly receptionist at the embassy, the verdict is that I have to push back my visit to Iceland by a week or so. That is of course monetarily not very convenient, but the pecuniary inconvenience is probably more than made up for by the fact that luvely people I know who won't be around in late August, such as my friend Stina, will be in town, and I'll be around to give my dad a happy b-day hug. Nicht schlecht.

Which reminds me. The conference is looming large on the horizon. Better get some work done!

Breeze

This morning there was the slightest breeze as I walked to school. A most welcome change from the stifling heat and humidity that has been enveloping us these past weeks.

Moi, The Dreamer

A new blog

No more knitting stuff here on this site. Nay, for that I created an all-new knit blog, knitting hurricanes.

Þór

Thunderbolt and lightning-very very frightening me-

... well, I actually LOVE thunderbolts and lightning - which is why I'm happy as pie now :)

Progress

Still knitting the baby cardigan. The progress over a week is recorded in these two pix; old on the left, new on the right.

Here's what the whole thing looks like right now. Cute, innit?

What IS that??!?

Poor scheduling

I can't believe this: Stína won't be in Iceland when I visit. Out of all the 5-day slots in a year, what are the chances that both of us would plan to be away from our homes at EXACTLY the same time?? Anyone??

It's unfair. Hrmpf!!