Tante Silvia gave me a necklace she got from Peru. It's made of seeds -- all "natur". I've got something for keeps. :)
Hope to see the snow again in the next few days!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Snow, snow, (delete: go away), come again another day
We're off to Tante Silvia Mondel, my parents' employer. My new pair of boots...ready to run! Didn't really expect that it'd snow today. You can really see the "drops" of snow smack into our car's glass windows. When a drop reaches a surface, it looks like a pinch of crashed ice. And when these drops accumulate, now that's snow time! Too bad, I left my cam at home. Technically, this is not my first time to experience snowfall. The first one, we had to go up to the mountains during spring time.
Tante Silvia gave me a necklace she got from Peru. It's made of seeds -- all "natur". I've got something for keeps. :)
Hope to see the snow again in the next few days!
.Raph.
Tante Silvia gave me a necklace she got from Peru. It's made of seeds -- all "natur". I've got something for keeps. :)
Hope to see the snow again in the next few days!
Continuing my first week in Vienna
23-Jan, Friday
Oh, after all, the reason for my wardrobe shopping yesterday was today's walk to Vienna University of Technology (Technische University, TU: read as "te-u"). Pseudo-scientist that I am, I insisted on going to the university on my own to experiment on my yet another adventure. Subtly worried, my brother suggested that I should just take the U-bahn (in Philippine context: MRT). Still, I didn't waver. So I went straight ahead, just as he instructed me. He told me it's on the right side of the road and when I see cars coming from different directions (maybe an intersection) I must be in close proximity already. Upon seeing vehicles from different directions, I looked around but didn't see any sign of TU. And so I turned right, the nearest direction I could see. Alas! Across the street, I saw it! Only to find out that the Institute of Chemistry is in another building. I got to ask the desk officer and he wrote me the address. Guess what? I was fortunate enough to interpret his directions accurately. He can hardly speak English, that's why. In about 4 minutes I'm walking through the door of the building I'm looking for. Hooray! And then I asked for that particular department I'm looking for. Again, damn language barriers! But I got the message, nonetheless. The desk officer answered me in 6 words -- "stairs", "left", "automatic door", "4th floor". Yes, sir, thanks a lot. To be fair, it was clear enough. All I had to do was to follow the exact words he mentioned and voila! I'm on the right track. Who would have thought that I'd meet yet another obstacle? The door won't open. It says "ziehen", which I know means "pull". But the strength of my arms doesn't work at all so I figured I must be doing the wrong thing. So there I was looking around somewhere for some clues. I found one. I found a switch, but I can't understand the words written on top. I had to ask my brother for it. He told me to press the switch and open the door simultaneously, which, by the way, I can't do at all. Maybe because my arms are quite short. Have I mentioned that there are 3 swithces in there? Left with no choice, I pressed all the switches! Yes! Someone opened the door for me!! Well, thank you, Ma'am. What's the catch? Here's the catch, the person I'm looking for is on a business trip and the lady told me to just come back next week. Great. What can I say? 'Twas another adventure for me. Then, I walked home.
24-Jan, Saturday
Woke up early. Dad tagged me along in his sofa shopping. We went to three big stores to look for one that fits in our place because almost everything seems to be too big. When at last we found one, it had to be picked up in the afternoon. Evening came and the sofa arrived. By any chance, did we ever remember to measure the dimensions of our cute little door? Because how else is that sofa gonna enter our place if not thorugh the main door? Nobody cared to think of that beforehand. We're all left dumbfounded. To return or not to return, that is the question. But one of us (can't remember who) suggested that we open the sofa and see if we can unscrew some parts of it to make it pass through the door. After about an hour of trying to unscrew things, everyone seemed hopeless. But after I left the "crime" scene, minutes later, they found a way to unscrew it. Yey! The rest is history. The sofa was put in its rightful place...
...but the bedroom looked awful.
Seems like this would be a never-ending makeover for our home. Enjoy!
.Raph.
Oh, after all, the reason for my wardrobe shopping yesterday was today's walk to Vienna University of Technology (Technische University, TU: read as "te-u"). Pseudo-scientist that I am, I insisted on going to the university on my own to experiment on my yet another adventure. Subtly worried, my brother suggested that I should just take the U-bahn (in Philippine context: MRT). Still, I didn't waver. So I went straight ahead, just as he instructed me. He told me it's on the right side of the road and when I see cars coming from different directions (maybe an intersection) I must be in close proximity already. Upon seeing vehicles from different directions, I looked around but didn't see any sign of TU. And so I turned right, the nearest direction I could see. Alas! Across the street, I saw it! Only to find out that the Institute of Chemistry is in another building. I got to ask the desk officer and he wrote me the address. Guess what? I was fortunate enough to interpret his directions accurately. He can hardly speak English, that's why. In about 4 minutes I'm walking through the door of the building I'm looking for. Hooray! And then I asked for that particular department I'm looking for. Again, damn language barriers! But I got the message, nonetheless. The desk officer answered me in 6 words -- "stairs", "left", "automatic door", "4th floor". Yes, sir, thanks a lot. To be fair, it was clear enough. All I had to do was to follow the exact words he mentioned and voila! I'm on the right track. Who would have thought that I'd meet yet another obstacle? The door won't open. It says "ziehen", which I know means "pull". But the strength of my arms doesn't work at all so I figured I must be doing the wrong thing. So there I was looking around somewhere for some clues. I found one. I found a switch, but I can't understand the words written on top. I had to ask my brother for it. He told me to press the switch and open the door simultaneously, which, by the way, I can't do at all. Maybe because my arms are quite short. Have I mentioned that there are 3 swithces in there? Left with no choice, I pressed all the switches! Yes! Someone opened the door for me!! Well, thank you, Ma'am. What's the catch? Here's the catch, the person I'm looking for is on a business trip and the lady told me to just come back next week. Great. What can I say? 'Twas another adventure for me. Then, I walked home.
24-Jan, Saturday
Woke up early. Dad tagged me along in his sofa shopping. We went to three big stores to look for one that fits in our place because almost everything seems to be too big. When at last we found one, it had to be picked up in the afternoon. Evening came and the sofa arrived. By any chance, did we ever remember to measure the dimensions of our cute little door? Because how else is that sofa gonna enter our place if not thorugh the main door? Nobody cared to think of that beforehand. We're all left dumbfounded. To return or not to return, that is the question. But one of us (can't remember who) suggested that we open the sofa and see if we can unscrew some parts of it to make it pass through the door. After about an hour of trying to unscrew things, everyone seemed hopeless. But after I left the "crime" scene, minutes later, they found a way to unscrew it. Yey! The rest is history. The sofa was put in its rightful place...
...but the bedroom looked awful.
Seems like this would be a never-ending makeover for our home. Enjoy!
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Herzlich Willkommen in Wien, Raphlin!
Cheers! My first trip this year, my fifth in my lifetime. Welcome to Vienna! The last time I was here was about four years ago. This is by far the longest I haven't been here. 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005. Uh-oh, I could be wrong. I just felt like it was a long time. In any case, it's been a week already spent in an almost foreign land. I might need to backtrack a few days.
17-Jan, Saturday
Negative 2 degrees Celsius. It's a freezing afternoon at Vienna International Airport. My dad and my brother came to fetch us. Our small apartment unit was a mess when we arrived. We're doing a home makeover. What in the world is jet lag? I ignored that term for a while because definitely I'm not supposed to have one when every thing at home is not in place. So before hitting the sack, we made sure that SOME things were put in place especially the living room cabinet that we had to assemble.
18-Jan, Sunday
With our newly made-over home, this is my new personal space.
19-Jan, Monday
I woke up as soon as everybody did. One by one, I sent my parents off to work and my brother off to school. I'm home alone. Yes, the same old feeling in our QC apartment unit. Feels good.
20-Jan, Tuesday
Dad left me something to do today. He's tasked me to organize sewing stuffs into the brand new sewing box.
After accomplishing my task for the day, I immediately grabbed a plate for my much-awaited breakfast and devoured my sandwich and pasta. Yummy.
22-Jan, Thursday
Time for winter wardrobe shopping! Yiha! My brother volunteered to be my shopping buddy. Aw...how sweet. Haha. We went to Vienna's famous shopping street, Mariahilferstrasse, which is just a few blocks away from home. It's definitely a pain in my a** to buy clothes that I'm not used to wear. We spent more or less two hours trying to find a decent jacket and a pair of boots (yes, boots!!). But at the same time, it's equallt fun to try on these kinds of clothes. My mom gave us a hundred euro to spend. We ended up spending a hundred and forty for two jackets and a pair of boots. Stores close at 7 or 8pm so we just got whatever we saw at the last minute. Whew!
.Raph.
17-Jan, Saturday
Negative 2 degrees Celsius. It's a freezing afternoon at Vienna International Airport. My dad and my brother came to fetch us. Our small apartment unit was a mess when we arrived. We're doing a home makeover. What in the world is jet lag? I ignored that term for a while because definitely I'm not supposed to have one when every thing at home is not in place. So before hitting the sack, we made sure that SOME things were put in place especially the living room cabinet that we had to assemble.
18-Jan, Sunday
With our newly made-over home, this is my new personal space.
19-Jan, Monday
I woke up as soon as everybody did. One by one, I sent my parents off to work and my brother off to school. I'm home alone. Yes, the same old feeling in our QC apartment unit. Feels good.
20-Jan, Tuesday
Dad left me something to do today. He's tasked me to organize sewing stuffs into the brand new sewing box.
After accomplishing my task for the day, I immediately grabbed a plate for my much-awaited breakfast and devoured my sandwich and pasta. Yummy.
22-Jan, Thursday
Time for winter wardrobe shopping! Yiha! My brother volunteered to be my shopping buddy. Aw...how sweet. Haha. We went to Vienna's famous shopping street, Mariahilferstrasse, which is just a few blocks away from home. It's definitely a pain in my a** to buy clothes that I'm not used to wear. We spent more or less two hours trying to find a decent jacket and a pair of boots (yes, boots!!). But at the same time, it's equallt fun to try on these kinds of clothes. My mom gave us a hundred euro to spend. We ended up spending a hundred and forty for two jackets and a pair of boots. Stores close at 7 or 8pm so we just got whatever we saw at the last minute. Whew!
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