Spring has arrived

It's finally warm out, the island is covered in mini daisies, the trees are all in bloom, it smells lovely, the pigeons are molting so badly that it looks like its snowing....yup, spring has finally come to Venice.

This is the promised update on my trip(s) with Tia. But first, I must share my news! My last day of class with Massimo is this Thursday! When I found out this morning I rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And then I did a little dance and ate a cookie. (I was at the coffee break). It was a wonderful morning. Actually all day has been pretty good-- other than class, where I sat daydreaming for three hours, I managed to "borrow" some paper from the printer and came back to my room, where I've been drawing for the past few hours. It's quite a masterpiece if I do say so myself. Well, it will be once I finish it.

Anyway, the whole week with Tia was fantastic. Two Fridays ago I met Tia at the airport and we flew Austrian Airways to Vienna. I liked that airline-- they gave us a snack, complete with dessert and a candy. We stayed at the Grand Hotel Wien, which was very nice and high-tech. Mom would've had a problem if she had stayed with us- everything was operated through the phone; even the lights were turned on and off by the telephone. We ate dinner that night at El Gusto, which was a Spanish restaurant which was very good. The tapas were especially yummy. On Saturday we saw St. Stephen's Cathedral, which was pretty, but they were having mass so we couldn't really look around much. Then we headed over to the Hofburg Palace complex, where we saw the National Library (lots of very old books; very pretty), Church of the Augustines, Imperial Treasury (baby linens, jewelery, and literally tons of dishes and kitchenware), the Imperial Apartments and the Sissi Museum (about Empress Elisabeth, who was a depressed anorexic woman who never wanted to be Queen in the first place....we even got to see her personal 18th century "gym", which was cool). The whole palace was very pretty, and extremely huge. On our way out we walked past the Spanish Riding School, but we didn't go watch because my guidebook said the tickets aren't worth it except for a trick where "the horse bounds around on its hindlegs like a demented kangaroo." That night I had wiener schnitzel for dinner. On Sunday we woke up early and saw the Vienna Boys Choir, which was very good. In the afternoon we went to Schonbrunn Palace, which was the summer residence of the Habsburgs. The palace was very cool because they kept all the original furniture, including beds, toilets, and exercise equipment. It was huge-- 1440 rooms! The gardens include the world's first zoo, where supposedly Marie Antoinette played with the koala before she was shipped off to France to be beheaded. On Monday we went to the Haus der Musik, which was very cool. It's an interactive museum about music. One of the "exhibits" was to roll dice and create your own waltz, which was then printed out for you (for a small fee of course). My favorite was a screen where you could conduct the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. They don't listen to the baton though, because they definitely weren't following my tempo. Anyway, then Tia and I went shopping. I got new jeans to replace my ripped ones! Good thing, because my second pair of good jeans are on their way out too; they're even older than the ones that ripped. The next day we flew back to Venice, and I had class for two days but stayed with Tia at night. Glorious air conditioning! And real food! The Londra Palace is quite a nice place to stay, although it's not as high-tech as the one in Vienna.

On Friday we took the train to Lake Como, where it was cold and rainy almost the whole time we were there. The lake area was very beautiful anyway, though. After we lugged our bags up and down the stairs at the train station, we arrived at the Palace Hotel, which was right across the street from the lake. We walked around for a bit, saw the Duomo, and by 6:30 we were starving, and I ate a rather yummy seafood pasta and fried calamari. The next morning we took the funicular up the mountain to get some pretty scenery pictures, and then we went to an open-air market, where I got a cute cheap day dress. Then we went back to the Duomo and then we took an hour long cruise on the lake. The cruise would've been really fun except for a whole bunch of rowdy Italian teenagers who were sitting with us...and it was cold. It was pretty though. I think Como would be a great place to spend summers. For dinner we ate at a small restaurant called Lo Storico, where we ate the most delicious shrimp appetizer thing EVER. Tia has to write to her cooking magazine and make them get this recipe. Dessert was cool too-- gelati in weird flavors, like walnut and chestnut, stuck into the shells of the respective flavor. On Sunday we took the train back, and Tia got off at Mestre (the stop before Venice). I helped her get the bags to a taxi, and then we said goodbye and I went back to my bleak reality of perverted Italian professors and mystery meat. But not for long! Massimo is DONE on Thursday, and I don't think I could be happier. I kept trying to wipe the smile off my face during class...I'm hoping Massimo just thought I was obsurdly obsessed with Italian opera music, because I was finding it hard to sit still.

Here are the pictures from Lake Como:

http://williams.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016080&l=ea9f1&id=3901306

Okay well I'm off to sample the mystery meat for the night...tomorrow night I'm cooking dessert for a dinner at Professor Chafe's house (the professor from Duke). That should be fun. Let's hope my creations don't come alive like they did last time I was home!