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

rothenburg ob der tauber: no. 4

There will be quite a few postings from the streets of Rothenburg ob der Tauber -- it was a very picturesque, quaint little town, despite being so tourist-y. I really enjoy all the cobblestone streets. And, yes, I can walk on them in heels -- though I didn't have heels with me for the trip. I fit everything I needed for nearly three weeks into my backpack. Impressive, yes?

Winding down the last week of my spring break. Can we just extend it a little longer? I've been hanging out with my favorite kid since Tuesday, and it's just she and I today because she doesn't have school. She's pretty tuckered out from all the excitement, so she's still asleep and I have a chance to get some early morning work done and to post another Europe photo.

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iTunes: Brandenburg Concerto No. 1, by J.S. Bach

rothenburg ob der tauber: no. 3

Quick Sunday afternoon post. I managed to have a productive day thus far. I read six articles and even managed to spend some time knitting. But, the day is not done and I'm going to try to make it through four more articles...

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iTunes: Wißt Ihr, Wann Mein Kindchen, Op. 103/3, by Brahms

rothenburg ob der tauber: no. 2

I love how brightly colored the building were on the main square. It almost gives the town the feeling of being an enlarged doll's house. I imagine they weren't so bright during the Middle Ages, especially with all the soot, dirt, and grime that a city produces. But it looks nice now.

I've had a lazy day today. Watching the Harry Potter movies and knitting while in my pajamas. (I'm on the sixth movie now!) Perfect way to spend a rainy day in West Virginia.

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iTunes: Hochgetürmte Rimaflut, Op. 103/2, by Brahms

rothenburg ob der tauber: no. 1

And the next location on our tour: Rothenburg ob der Tauber. It is one of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe. And certainly the most tourist-y one. But regardless, it made for some good photo ops. I'll be sharing a lot more Rothenburg pictures--we spent longer there than the other cities we had been to thus far, and we had great weather. When the clock in the main square chimed, everyone came out to take pictures. I thought it would be an appropriate first shot to share.

Spending time with cats today has been lovely. And I finished a button pidge scarf. But the highlight of the day was probably running on the treadmill and doing lip-trills to the Zigeunerlieder. Which are one of my new favorite pieces. Check them out.

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iTunes: He, Zigeuner, Greife In Die Saiten Ein! Op. 103/1, by Brahms

würzburg: no. 5

Last Würzburg post. Which may not technically be Würzburg since it was taken during the train ride. But we'll just say it's Würzburg. The sunshine was just gorgeous that day, which was a welcome change from the pouring rain we had when we first arrived in Amsterdam.

I made it to WV in a record 7 hours, including stops. Not entirely sure how that happened, because I didn't have the heaviest lead foot on the road. Not by a long shot. But it was nice once I crossed into WV and the speed limit went up to 70 mph! Tonight is my friend's masters recital, so we're stapling programs and such this afternoon and preparing a ton of food.

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iTunes: Bad Romance, by Lady Gaga (yes, I do listen to more than just Classical music on occasion!)

würzburg: no. 4

One of my recently discovered favorites from the trip. I like the lines and the crispness of the black-and-white. And yes, still in Würzburg. Sorry, but there will only be train station pictures. I may or may not post one last Würzburg picture, or I might move onto the next city we visited. Only time will tell...

I just finished up the first half of my semester, and the next two weeks are spring break. Thank goodness. Two weeks for spring break is exactly what I need -- a week to get some extra work done and a week to relax. I wish there was a two week break during the fall semester as well, but we just have one week at Thanksgiving. Which is better than just a couple of days, don't get me wrong, but it comes right at the end of the semester when you're behind on work, need to get ahead on final papers, and are completely exhausted from the semester. I won't miss the stress of coursework this coming fall!

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iTunes: String Quartet No. 12 in Eb major, Op. 127, by Beethoven

würzburg: no. 3

Based on the number of pictures I'm posting of the Würzburg train station, we must have had a decently long layover there on our way to the next destination. This shot has some grunge-appeal as well. I'm curious as to what all these buttons do. I resisted the urge to press any of them and just took pictures instead.

Preparing for a big presentation on Wednesday on an article on this movement of a Beethoven string quartet. I've listened to it about 40 times in the past 5 days. Thank goodness I really like late Beethoven string quartets!

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iTunes: String Quartet No. 12, Op. 127: I, Maestoso/Allegro, by Beethoven

würzburg: no. 2

I really liked the red train in Würzburg.

Today I anticipate spending a lot of time on hold. I'm hoping for half-decent elevator music. Renewing car insurance and trying to sort out a credit card mess since it was stolen last week. Ugh.

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iTunes: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling

würzburg: no. 1

May as well squeeze in the little cities where we only spent a few minutes (or hours) while changing trains. Normally I find black-and-white photos with masked color sections a bit... tacky. BUT sometimes it works. I think this was one exception to that general rule. I think it's the grunge aspect of the black-and-white portion.

Anyway, back to reading Foucault. (What have I learned from reading Foucault for two weeks? I don't like Foucault, and I don't like his manner of writing. I prefer the Germans.)

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iTunes: The Turn of the Screw, by Benjamin Britten

frankfurt: no. 1

I like shots of train stations, so I thought I'd share another one. This was the main station at Frankfurt, where we changed trains on the way to our next destination. So it's one of the few Frankfurt shots I have, since we never left the station.

Today is a reading day with a couple of meetings thrown in. I was thinking about having some leftover shrimp for lunch, but I don't know that they'll reheat well in the microwave. Perhaps I'll have to dig up something else to take with me for lunch.

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iTunes: Der Glorreiche Augenblick, Op. 136, by Beethoven