Just contented :)

It has been a relatively peaceful week. How strange does that sound??? I guess Europe has changed my perspective on what being busy means...

Classes are still going well. We had two German classes that are worth mentioning, and they both happened on the same day. In Patrick's class we're talking about traffic. This time we got split into groups to represent different interest groups fighting for funding for different safety enhancement projects. Patrick asked if someone would be the moderator, and I volunteered. While the other groups were figuring out their arguments, he explained my job and told me to really get into my role. I enjoy acting and putting on a narrator voice, but I hadn't done it for a while. Sitting at the head of a table full of people to start a type of talk-show was cool... I remembered how much I missed acting. I enjoyed asking critical questions in a cool emotionless voice to get people to argue with me. I'm such a nerd!

In Peter's class we never got around to economics. Chelsea was talking about Justin, her fiance, just like she always does, and Peter asked her when she was getting married. It sparked a discussion that lasted for the entire class period on families... their roll in society, the divorce rate, gay marriage, everything. It was really interesting to hear an Austrian's perspective on it all, and it was so neat that he allowed us to use our class time to talk about something that was really important to us instead of sticking stubbornly to the topic. I want to teach like that too, and be flexible enough to deviate from the plan sometimes to just go where discussion takes us.

That same day (this was all on Thursday) our art class finally finished the theory for the baroque/renaissance period, and we went to the Kunsthistorisches Museum to put our new knowledge into practice. The interior is spectacular, and the paintings are even more so. My favorites were Madonna of the Meadow by Rafael and Bildniss eines jungen Kaufmanns by Holbein and Brustbild einer jungen Venezianerin von Dürer. I love that I'm finally figuring art out what art means, now that I feel like I've begun to understand literature and architecture. I love seeing the things we learn about in theory. I'm beginning to see my reactions to art as reflections of my identity. One of our assignments was to analyze ourselves and try to figure out weather we were more sophic or mantic and then how that would affect our reactions to art. I think I'm a pretty thorough sophist - I tend to rely on logic/reason/my brain to make decisions as opposed to my feelings.

I discovered my new favorite portable lunch this week... they have palat-schinken (just like crepes except a little bit thicker) in packs of 5 at Billa (the grocery store), and I brought a small jar of nutella with me from home, and heated the crepes up in the microwave at the institute... man they were soooooo good!

Lillian and Tasha went to Prague this weekend, and I decided not to go so I could get some research done. In addition to reading all about Elisa von der Recke, I went to the outreach center for movie night on Friday, then on Saturday morning I helped with a move and went shopping for a gift for my host mom since it was her birthday today. I wrote another article for the BYU life sciences magazine about hypertension in rats. I've missed talking to my family who is out in the wilderness just now... but they're getting back tomorrow!

Lillian just got back and it's getting late! Love and miss you all!

Margaret