Playing catch-up

The 9 muses on the ceiling of Theater an der Wien

This post is more of a photo drop than a post... but I'll include details too!  After my last post Erin and I went to Theater an der Wien for an opera.  It was about Achilles, Iphigenie and her father Agamemnon- before the Trojan war.  They did it in a very modern way, and it was especially cool to see after we had walked through the set.

The Iphigenie set

 With the 'mirrors' on the 'cement' walls and the rotating stage they were able to create some really incredible imagery that lent to the drama of the story.

A group of Teaching Assistants on stage at Theater an der Wien

Agamemnon's war room.

On the other side of the stage there was a giant light wall, which would either be see-through, white, or show pictures/silent videos of the cast and choir.  That side was mostly creepy... Since the stage (and really the whole theater) is quite small they have a rotating stage- so instead of changing the set they just turn the stage, and they turn the stage during the performance.

A lovely Sunday night at the Opera

Me, Erin and Dragan posing with his painting of Obama at the HAK Ball.

 I took some other pictures at the HAK ball, but most of them were of the opening show and midnight show.  This was the best one that had Erin and I in it.  Dragan is one of my students at the HAK- in his last year.  His English is really good, and he's one of the few in his class who talks to me- plus he's a lot of fun.

On Friday of last weekend I went to Bopfingen, a small town in southern Germany to have Thanksgiving with coworkers from Waldsee.  It was a lot of fun- of course! Plus we had some really good food.

Lotta and her mom (our hostesses) taking care of Clothilde the turkey. 

Bread, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce (I made the cranberry sauce) 

Stuffing, gravy, Schwarzwurzel, red cabbage and green beans

I forgot to take a picture of my plate before I started eating, but Elsa took a picture of hers.

The next day we walked around Bopfingen.  They have these viewing things that we had some fun with. 

The hill is called the Ipf- one group walked up it, one went around it, and another group went back to Lotta's and took a nap. 

Bopfingen sure is a pretty little town!

Frauenkirche Konzert

 This week one of Erin's schools had their winter concert- so I went to go see it.  I didn't realize that the church would be SO packed! When we got there all the seats were full, so everyone else had to stand at the back of the room.  There were also about 100 people up at the front singing!  When the younger kids were singing some of them were wearing santa hats, so I thought they'd sing a Christmas song, instead they sang Somewhere over the Rainbow and then sat down again.  It was a nice concert, and afterwards there was food and drinks in the school for anyone who wanted.

Erin, Dragan and I at the MQ drinking Punsch

Friday was a full day for me!  I taught 5 lessons, babysat for 3 hours, and then Erin, Dragan and I met up and went into Vienna.  It was a nice night out, but nothing too crazy since I'd had a long day of work and my knee was sore.

On Saturday Erin and I met up with the Spanish TA in Baden and went up to Gumpoldskirchen to support some of our colleagues who were selling crafts at a Christmas market.  While in Gumpoldskirchen we also had dinner at a Heurige since the town is full of them.  It was a nice little trip into the country.  It's been a good few weeks!