MooreHogwarts

Ashley and I even dressed up for the occasion :) I love my roomie

     Let me begin with a simple, undeniable statement: the people with whom I live are amazing.
     Basically, this week was stressful, filled with midterms and papers GALORE. However, by Wednesday the worst of it (ie the intercultural communications midterm) was over and we were ready to relax and just have fun. Our fantastic RA's John and Courtney and our student representatives Josh and Chelsea came up with the idea to turn Moore Haus into Hogwarts and sort all of the students into houses. Needless to say, I was sehr aufgeregt (google translate it :D).
     At 9 PM everyone went down to the Frühstückzimmer, which had been closed to the general population of Moore Haus for a few hours beforehand in order to preserve the surprise. Finally we were allowed to enter and found that our breakfast room had been transformed (as much as is possible) into the Great Hall. It was completely rearranged, with four tables in the four corners of the room (one for each house of Hogwarts). The lights were turned off, but the tables had lines of candles running down the middle, and there were christmas lights hanging from the ceiling. Basically, it was magical.

Someone's sock has been hanging out in the Frühstückzimmer. Before, it was gross. Now, it's Harry Potter appropriate decor!

   Our visiting faculty, Dr. Lemley (aka Dumbledore) was decked out in a blanket--er, cloak--and wizard hat. He welcomed us with Dumbledore's speech: "I'd like to say a few words before we begin: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!" (By the way, forgive me if that's not word for word what Dumbledore said-- I don't have a book nearby and my computer's not liking google at the moment. Close enough, though, right?). After that, we were summoned one by one to the middle of the room, where the sorting hat was placed on our head. To be honest, I would have been happy in ANY of the houses, because just being officially sorted into a Hogwarts house is fun enough on its own. However, I was absolutely overjoyed to be placed in Ravenclaw, which I've always said was the house I would fit in most.

The ladies of Ravenclaw making the claw sign and our fierce faces. Don't judge. Also, sorry Bri for putting this up even though you look like you're sneezing. It was the only one.

     I love my fellow Ravenclaws! We're going to have such a wonderful time competing for the house cup. And, of course, we're going to win. Apparently we're going to have a Quidditch match sometime too. Would it be too redundant if I said that I love Moore Haus?

Wonderful Wien

     Last week we went to Vienna (Wien) for our educational field trip. I struggled with figuring out how exactly to convey the awesomeness of the experience to you readers-- a separate blog entry for each day? Each activity? Truth is, there's no conceivable way to express every separate moment's joy, so I'll attempt to condense it to the best stuff and, for the sake of time, give a brief overview.
     Day one of our stay in Vienna was, for the most part, taken up with travel-- going to the airport, waiting there, flying, driving to the hotel, etc. But shortly after our arrival in the imperial city, we had already begun our whirlwind tour, starting off the trip with a tour of one of Mozart's apartments. I expected it to be more like Goethe's house in Frankfurt, which was furnished much as it was in his time. Instead, it was filled with information, more of a museum than an exact preservation of his house. Still, though, I found it fascinating, especially because here I was within the same four walls that Mozart had lived and composed. To top off the night, we had a group dinner consisting of-- of course-- Wiener schnitzel and apple strudel.
     Day two was rainy and cold, but that did not at all detract from the experience. In fact, it made for the perfect day for going to museums. We saw two that day-- the Kunsthistorisches Museum (art history museum), which was incredibly gorgeous inside and had exhibits of Greek, Egyptian, and 17th and 18th century artwork. The other museum my group saw that day was the Albertina Museum, which housed modern art. Admittedly, I didn't like that one quite as much, since I'm not really a modern art fan. They did have a Monet painting though, which was so cool to see in person and catered to my tastes a lot more than other forms of modern art. After that we went to THE Cafe Sacher, which was pretty much across the street, and had the famous Sacher Torte which was invented there.
     Day three, which was Thursday, we went to the Stift Melk, which is a monastery and school in the town of Melk about an hour outside of Vienna. I thought monasteries were supposed to be bare and austere, but this one certainly wasn't! It was filled with gorgeous baroque architecture and had beautiful gardens. My favorite room was, of course, the library. Gilded books filled shelves which completely covered the walls-- if I remember correctly, there were ladders too! Basically, that room will have to be in my house someday. Then that afternoon we had "free time" in which we could do whatever we wanted. I went with a group to Belvedere Palace (yet another gorgeous place in Vienna-- there's no shortage of palaces, it seems) and looked at an exhibition of Gustav Klimt's paintings inside (among other artists' works). I previously did not know any of Klimt's works besides "The Kiss" (which is gorgeous in person), but I have to say that after seeing so many of his works I am quite the fan of Klimt's works. After that, almost everyone in our group went to the Circus Roncalli in front of the City Hall. It was so much fun, and the acts were incredibly impressive-- especially the trapeze artists and the strong man.
     I think Friday, day four, was my favorite. We started off the day with a journey to the Schloss Schoenbrunn, the summer palace of the Hapsburg Family (you know... like Marie Antoinette before she was married off to Louis XVI...among other important historical figures who lived lavish lives). It was rather cold but it was well worth braving the cold to traverse the palace gardens. We didn't have a ton of time to do so but a bunch of us walked up the hill to the cafe at the top. Only my friends Ashley, Evan, and I went to eat inside the cafe, though. The views were gorgeous and the prices weren't terrible, and we had a great conversation over lunch. So great, in fact, that we might have lost track of time a wee bit... the three of us went and found the subway station. We were only 10 minutes later than when we were supposed to meet the group, but of course they had left by that time. It was no problem, though-- we got on the subway, figured out where we were supposed to go, and problem solved. From there I went with my separate group to the imperial crypt of the Hapsburgs, where people like Maria Theresa are buried.
     Friday night was the best. We had LOTS of extra time to get all dolled up, and Ashley's and my room was basically a beauty parlor. After everyone's hair and makeup was done and we were sufficiently dressed up, we headed down to the lobby because the whole group was about to go to a Strauss/Mozart concert together. Seeing a classical music concert was basically the one thing I HAD to do in Vienna (it is the classical music capital of the world, you know...), so I was ecstatic that Pepperdine had planned just that for us. I loved every minute of music and soaked it up as much as I could. It was incredible and ended far too soon.

Stift Melk... can you believe this is a monastery?

pretty BOOKS! Cue drool...

The cafe at the top of the Schoenbrunn gardens. Can you believe we actually got to eat lunch in there?

     Saturday was, sadly, our last day in the beautiful city of Vienna. We started the day with a tour of Stephansdom, Vienna's famous Cathedral which was partially burned in (I believe) the 1940's. It was, like so many other things in that city, absolutely gorgeous. After that I toured the Kunsthaus Wien, an exhibit of the works of Friedensreich Hundertwasser, an eccentric artist (his first name, clearly not the one he was born with, basically means "peace kingdom"). He was very into the green movement and had some very interesting ideas about sustainable living, and his art looks kind of like an acid trip (at least what I would guess an acid trip would be like). While we were there, my friend Chris and I had a pretty intense discussion about the art of the future and how technology is changing everything-- what will our museums be like in the future? Will art on canvas be a thing of the past? How will people in the future define the culture of our day? All in all, it was a pretty cool day. After those activities I personally was exhausted and, after getting some cheap food, went back to the hotel lobby for the 30 or so minutes I had left until we were to depart for the airport. After that, we left Vienna. Our travel home was uneventful, and before long we were back in our beloved Heidelberg.

Schoenbrunn ist so schoen!

     That, in a nutshell, was our Vienna trip. It seemed like a VERY short 5 days, and I wish we could have had so much more time to soak it all in. But, conversely, I'm also thankful that we had so much time there-- Vienna was at the top of my list of places to visit whilst in Europe, so I'm glad that it ended up being the location of our field trip so that I had 5 days of vacation rather than trying to squeeze all that amazingness into a 3 day weekend. And now, it is back to reality: papers are due soon and there's always homework to do. Sigh. But I can't really complain; either way, I'm still in Europe having the time of my life :)

Rain and Apple Crisp

     Tonight was rainy and windy-- the perfect weather for a cozy night in. For the past week I've had quite the appetite for apple crisp (plus a desire to experiment in the kitchen), so I decided that tonight was the perfect night to see if I could come up with some kind of delicious concoction given the random supplies in Moore Haus available to the students (without stealing someone else's food).

          Here is my (completely unofficial and unmeasured) recipe (I was definitely winging it...):

I promise it looks tastier in person...

     I sliced up some apples that they give us every morning for breakfast, laid them in a pan, and covered them with apple juice, cinnamon, and a bit of sugar.

     For the topping, I combined sugar, cinnamon, and "Schoko Musli" (kind of like dry oatmeal, plus chocolate), and some butter. I cut in the butter to create a crumble topping, popped it in the oven for about 30 minutes, and there you have it. Apple crisp is, thankfully, pretty simple.

     However, I wasn't going to be satisfied with the crisp alone. I went out on a ledge completely and decided to make up some kind of sauce to put over it. After stirring together and heating up some plain yogurt, honey, cinnamon, and sugar, I found that the sauce tasted good but was a bit problematic, as the yogurt made it kind of lumpy. Thankfully, at this point my friend Bri, a fellow baker, came into the kitchen and had the brilliant idea of straining the sauce. Once that was done, the sauce was rather liquidy but certainly scores better than before.

     The final assessment? Not too bad! It wasn't quite as crispy as I wanted (maybe too much butter or apple juice?), but I still really liked the flavor. And though the sauce worried me at first, I actually think it really takes the crisp to the next level of tastiness. I still think that the crisp could have used some brown sugar, but given that I made this without a trip to the grocery store and completely without a recipe, I'd consider it a success. I think I learned a lot about what to do differently next time to make it perfect :)

     And, if any Heidelbergers happen to be reading this... there's apple crisp in the kitchen!! Come and eat it!

Better Late than Never

Home sweet Heidelberg!

     I officially apologize to all of you who have been waiting (quite patiently, I might add) for me to start a blog about my travels in Europe. There's not really an excuse, other than the typical "I've been really busy!"... but it's true. Between homework, travels, and bonding with the people in the house, I've been so distracted lately that blogging was honestly the last thing on my mind. But here I am, ready to give you an update!
     It's currently 10:30ish in the morning here in Heidelberg. I was blessed with a pretty amazing schedule this semester-- Mondays and Wednesdays are ridiculous, with class from 8:30-5:10. But then on Tuesdays I only have German class in the morning and convocation from 10:40- noonish. And Thursdays I have no class at all! One of two-- just Patrick Rear and me, because we are in the same German class.
     Today, however, we will have "class," if you can call it that. We are tagging along with the English class as they make an excursion to Frankfurt today as they visit Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's house.
     And speaking of Goethe, I have to say-- that guy was amazing. A womanizer, yes... but a genius. According to our German teacher Frau Wuttke, he had the largest vocabulary of any German. At one point in his life he was in love with a woman who was engaged to his friend. He considered suicide but instead wrote the book The Sorrows of Young Werther-- in 4 weeks without an outline or any kind of plan. And he was only in his early twenties at the time. Just...wow.

     Anyways, I'm sure I'll have more to say about Goethe after taking the tour today. You probably are interested in how I've spent the past 4 weeks of my life (I really can't believe it's been so long already!). Well, I'll have to give you more details later as I'm a bit pressed for time at the moment, but I can say that I think these past 4 weeks just may have been the best of my life thus far. I've traveled so much farther than ever before and met so many lovely people. Maybe it's crazy, but I don't feel like I'll ever be ready to leave this place.
     Last night, especially, felt like a turning point in the dynamic of Moore Haus. We had small group, which usually lasts for about 30 minutes, but for some reason about 18 of us just hung out in the reception room for almost three hours, lost in deep conversation-- the kind where everyone basically bared their souls. Not like I didn't respect these people before, but now I feel that my affection and respect for them has increased exponentially-- every single one of them has a unique story to tell and I can't wait to get to know them further. I could have spent that time writing an essay, working on this blog, planning a trip, whatever, but I feel that there is no better way I could have spent a large chunk of my evening last night. It was a beautiful experience and now I feel that there's just so much love in this house.
     On that happy note, I'll leave off for now. Feel free to pester me if I take another 4 weeks to write a blog entry. More to come soon, I hope!