rothenburg ob der tauber: no. 14

I've been quite caught up in preparing for comps, hence the lack of posts. I've read seven books in the last four days, and have twelve more to read in the next seven. I can do it, right?

I've been taking a little bit of time off over the past week, first to visit with friends before they left for Scotland, then to edit some pictures (and regain a bit of mental sanity). I have about 750 more to edit, and lots now posted on Flickr (some of which will appear here).

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iTunes: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on the AppleTV

rothenburg ob der tauber: no. 13

I really liked these doors. I think big doors like this are fabulous. These in particular remind me of the doors in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Not entirely sure why, but they do.

Spent all day reading up on the manuscript sources for Bach's Violin Sonatas and Partitas and Cello Suites. I think I have successfully memorized all the necessary minutia.

And now for sleep! Hooray!

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iTunes: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

rothenburg ob der tauber: no. 12

I thought this would be an appropriate picture to post after seeing the Met's last HD broadcast of the season this weekend. It was Die Walküre, and during some of the pre-opera filming of the audience, the camera panned to show a couple of women wearing rather similar headgear. I snapped this picture because of an inside joke about Screaming Helgas being my mascot of choice. Perhaps I should have bought one, but I took a picture instead.

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iTunes: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

rothenburg ob der tauber: no. 11

And the sign from the Kriminal Museum.

Working on my last paper of the semester at Panera today. Hopefully finishing it?

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iTunes: Alejandro by Lady GaGa

rothenburg ob der tauber: no. 10

These wagons were outside the Kriminal Museum, and they completely remind me of the ones in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang that the child catcher drives. When I was a kid, it was one of my favorite movies, and in order to keep me from being scared of the child catcher, my mom called him "The Bad Nosey Guy." To this day, I still think of him as The Bad Nosey Guy, and when I first heard him described as the child catcher, I was confused.

Anyway, back to work. One paper down, one exam down, now onto the last paper and then the semester will be officially over and it will be summer! Which means, studying for comprehensive exams. The sad part is that I'm actually excited to just focus on exam preparations.

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iTunes: Bad Romance by Lady GaGa.

rothenburg ob der tauber: no. 9

Quick post. In paper-writing-mode. Have to crank out a seminar paper by Monday morning, and just started writing this morning. Blurgh.

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iTunes: Paparazzi by Lady GaGa

rothenburg ob der tauber: no. 8

Apologies to my vegetarian and vegan friends, but, oh man, did these look delicious! (And apologies to all my Catholic friends as well--posting pictures of meat on Good Friday?) Being from a good German family, I grew up on Bratwurst, Sauerkraut, Braunschweiger, and the like. I knew I couldn't carry a whole pack of German sausages around with me all over Europe, so this picture had to suffice. I love the little wooden signs from the different types of meat. Imagine being able to stop by and pick up dinner here on your way home from work. Yum!

And now, my goal is to make a to-do-list for everything that needs to get done over the next week (or few weeks, depending on how far in advance I can plan). With any luck, I'll be able to cross "find a new apartment" off my list by either this afternoon or this coming Monday. My friend and I looked at an apartment this morning and it seems quite promising. Now we just have to decide whether we want to go for it or not. Fingers crossed!

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iTunes: Grosse Fuge, Op. 133, by Ludwig van Beethoven

rothenburg ob der tauber: no. 7

A shot of the square in the mid-morning, before the lunch rush comes and people fill up all of those picturesque café tables. I wish they hadn't been so pricey, or we would've sat down and had a bite. But we did stop at another shop on the corner of the square for cold drinks. You'll have to wait for those pictures!

Alas, the delay since the last posting is due to the end-of-semester workload and my stubborn determination to make weekend trips whenever possible. Oh yes, and doing my taxes. Now that taxes are filed and I only have one more weekend trip on the horizon, the only thing keeping me from posting is coursework. And I dare say that it will only get worse over the next couple weeks. However, there is (sort of) an end in sight: my last class is 27 April (unless additional classes are scheduled), and my last paper is due 15 May, so in 33 days, I will be done with coursework!

As a side note, a friend of mine asked if I would photograph her wedding in October! It's been a while since I've been able to do much photography, but I'm really looking forward to it. It will be even more fun since I've known the bride for about 5 years and met the groom when they started dating, and they're both fun-loving, laid-back people. So my new goal is to finish editing these pictures from Europe by the time their wedding roles around...

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iTunes: String Quartet No. 3 in Bb, Op. 130/i, by Beethoven

rothenburg ob der tauber: no. 6

Every street was perfectly picturesque. It helped that there weren't cars everywhere, since they would seriously throw off the aesthetic.

Last night I discovered a new bar and a new beer. The bar: Cask Republic. The beer: Fransikaner Hefe-Weißbier. I don't tend to be much of a bar person -- they're usually too loud, too grimy, and too annoying, but this one was even palatable on a Saturday night. I think we'll be going back in future. The beer was good, too! Not only do I tend to prefer European brews, but I just enjoy ordering anything in German because it's so fun to pronounce. (And I sound like I know what I'm doing.)

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iTunes: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling

rothenburg ob der tauber: no. 5

Taking a quick break from reading another intense musicology article to post another Europe photo. I just find this sign charming. Oddly enough, I find the Fraktur script rather nostalgic. Don't know if that was the case while I was studying for the German proficiency exam or if this is a more recent development, but either way, I like it now.

Speaking of Fraktur, while I was out of town for the weekend, I briefly stopped in to visit my grandparents. My grandmother gave me a set of books her mother had purchased at the Wagner Festival in New York City in 1923, which included the entire set of Wagner's operatic librettos (in Fraktur)! It was really neat to learn that my great-grandmother shared my love of these works, and my grandmother was thrilled that I was so excited to have the books.

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iTunes: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling