On this occasion, and in light of the past year, let us contemplate the words of Commander Susan Ivanova:
"It taught us that we have to create the future, or others will do it for us. It showed us that we have to care for each other, because if we don't, who will? And that strength sometimes comes from the most unlikely of places. Mostly, though, it gave us hope that there can always be new beginnings, even for people like us."
And let us continue with an excerpt from the works of William Blake:
America a Prophecy
02 The morning comes, the night decays, the watchmen leave
03 their stations;
04 The grave is burst, the spices shed, the linen wrapped up;
05 The bones of death, the cov'ring clay, the sinews shrunk & dry'd.
06 Reviving shake. inspiring move, breathing! awakening!
07 Spring like redeemed captives when their bonds & bars are burst;
08 Let the slave grinding at the mill, run out into the field;
09 Let him look up into the heavens & laugh in the bright air;
10 Let the inchained soul shut up in darkness and in sighing,
11 Whose face has never seen a smile in thirty weary years;
12 Rise and look out, his chains are loose, his dungeon doors are open
13 And let his wife and children return from the opressors scourge;
14 They look behind at every step & believe it is a dream.
15 Singing. The Sun has left his blackness, & has found a fresher morning
16 And the fair Moon rejoices in the clear & cloudless night;
17 For Empire is no more, and now the Lion & Wolf shall cease.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Further notes of my descent into silliness
Some people had problems finding the latest waste of time I put on the webalbum, so here's the exact link: http://picasaweb.google.com/zerstorer.von.welten/PhilosophyCartoons#
You probably won't get all the jokes unless you can recognize philosophers based on images the internet has rendered up to me, but I hope that you'll find it amusing enough to not begrudge the few seconds you invested in it.
-JA
You probably won't get all the jokes unless you can recognize philosophers based on images the internet has rendered up to me, but I hope that you'll find it amusing enough to not begrudge the few seconds you invested in it.
-JA
Friday, January 9, 2009
The End of the Grand Christmas Romp
Isn’t it wonderful how punctual I am?
Anyway, in blog time, me and the family had just left for Salzburg. The train ride was uneventful, as we passed through the farmlands of Bavaria on a cloudy, windy day that was about to get a lot worse. We disembarked in Salzburg and walked into the Old City, about 15 minutes from the train station. Our first stop was the Mirabell Palace, built in the 18th century by the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, Wolf-Dietrich, for his mistress (Wolf-Dietrich was evidently a very naughty person). If you’ve seen “The Sound of Music”, the “Do Re Me” song finishes in the gardens of the Mirabell Palace, which we walked through. Unfortunately, it being the depths of winter, all vegetation and foliage was gone, and the bulk of the gardens, excepting a few perimeter paths, was chained off, presumably to keep stupid American tourists from trying to reenact “The Sound of Music.” We got a few good pictures of the High Citadel of Salzburg (it’s the huge castle in the webalbum photos) from the palace, before leaving the palace gardens and walking along the River Salzach, crossing it at the Müllnersteg footbridge, where I took a group photo (the 3rd picture in the webalbum).
We then climbed up Mönchsberg, one of the two small mountains that surround the Old City. Mönchsberg is basically shaped like a curved loaf of bread: it has sheer cliffs pretty much everywhere except on one end, which was where we climbed it. The mountain is driven through and through with tunnels, dug through the ages, beginning sometime around the 14th century. We climbed up an asphalt road which runs along the top of Mönchsberg, accessing all of the houses built there. Eventually we left the road to climb up a set of stairs before crossing a wooden bridge and going under an ancient gate, part of a medieval fortress (which is still very much in existence) protecting one of the two routes of access to the Citadel. Then our path took us up to the top of Mönchsberg, past some very pretty overlooks of the Old City, before going underneath the city wall, a massive edifice built in 1488 and still standing. The wall begins on the top of Mönchsberg, in a small castle, and circles around the Old City before coming to rest at the Citadel. We crossed through the wall and continued our walk, past houses and more small fortifications, before halting below the Citadel. We took some pictures, then proceeded by steep alleys into the Old City.
We wandered some time in the Christkindlmarkt, and ran into many of my fellow students, who were also spending the day in the city. Dad bought glühwein from the Lions’ Club booth, much to the consternation of Rose (who seems to think that glühwein is the root of all evils in the world) The Salzburg Christkindlmarkt is a well organized and long-established affair, with convenient maps of the three areas where the booths were set up, detailing each vendor and what they sold. By this time, the day was dwindling, the sky was overcast, and a bitter wind was blowing, so we took refuge in Café Tomaselli. The café was built in the early 18th century, and was one of the (then) new “Viennese coffeehouses”, and was something of a local curiosity when it was established. The interior was quite crowded but we found a table, and restored our strength with cakes, hot chocolate, and Café Tomasellium, a drink made from strong Turkish coffee, amaretto, and cream, garnished with whipped cream and toasted almonds. Afterwards, we crossed the river and climbed up Salzburg’s other mountain, the Kapuzinerberg. Kapuzinerberg is not nearly as developed as Mönchsberg, and is frequented by campers and hikers. We didn’t go very far, stopping at a Franciscan monastery perched on the side of the mountain (if you look at the webalbum, I took two pictures of a tan brick building surrounded by trees. That’s the monastery). After that, we walked back to the train station to find our train delayed, but only by 5 minutes. We traveled back to Munich in pitch darkness, ate in the Munich train station, and returned to our room quite thoroughly exhausted.
The next day we repacked, checked out, and took our train to Innsbruck. The day was wonderfully clear and sunny, giving everyone a beautiful view of the Alps from our compartment window. We got to the hotel in fine spirits, if a bit exhausted from lugging our baggage through Innsbruck and then up a steep and narrow lane (25 minutes all told). But the hotel more than satisfied everyone, and after we were all settled (the family in the hotel room, me back in my dorm) we toured through Innsbruck’s Old City and shopped around at the Christkindlmarkt, which was half-closed already, it being Christmas Eve. We made our plans for the evening, and then returned to our rooms.
We went to the English vigil mass at the Jesuit Church, a building of singular Baroque magnificence located in the heart of the Theological Faculty buildings. The mass was short, there being only around 30 people there, but not bad, and afterwards we hurried through the deserted streets of the Old City to our dinner reservations at the Weinhaus Happ, a hotel and restaurant located in the center of the Old City. The dinner was excellent, consisting of a carpaccio of squid and prosciutto ham for the appetizer, cream of arugula soup, salad, and our choice of roast beef or broiled carp for the main course, followed by a chestnut pastry, cookies, and a hot eggnog punch for dessert, all washed down with champaign and wines (riesling for Mom, and a rather dry red for me and dad). After the dinner was over, we went to bed stuffed to the proverbial gills.
The next day I walked to the hotel, and we exchanged presents, before taking a bus to visit my host family, the Gschliessers, in the town of Völs, about 15 minutes from Innsbruck. I don’t think I’ve explained the host family part of the Innsbruck program yet, and I have, then I’ll explain it again regardless. Every student is assigned a local family as host family, in order to help them get accustomed to the city and to make them more at home. Students regularly visit their families (I, for example, visit mine every Sunday for dinner) and the system is a very good one. We ate a sumptuous Christmas dinner with the Gschliessers: turkey, potatoes, salad, and all manner of good things. After dinner, barely able to move, we visited their church and the nativity scene therein, a very detailed piece of work. Then it was back to Innsbruck to walk through the city, shop a little, and then to bed.
The next morning it was decided that the family would take a later train to Munich, in order to have more time to see the city and bask in the beauty of the Alps. We visited the Cathedral, and saw the Jesuit Church in more detail, as well as the Christkindlmarkt, where we ate kirchl (see two blog posts ago for a description of this dish) and drank hot chocolate. Then we retrieved our luggage from the hotel and arrived at the train station to find the train over 80 minutes delayed. The delays increased as we waited on the platform, shivering in the crisp chill of the winter afternoon, until finally the train’s final destination was changed due to the delay. Fortunately, there was another train that we could take, but we ended up waiting over two and a half hours for it. The new train was on time, everyone got on board in plenty of time, and I waved them off as the train pulled out of the station. I walked back to my dorm, chilled through, and drank a good deal of tea to ward off the cold. I went to bed, and began my Christmas break, which can very easily be described as: great sloth interrupted by bouts of diligence.
Now the final month of term has started, and we’re all preparing for final exams and presentations in our classes, though the start has been slow due to one professor being quite ill and the other absent, although that will change next week as our noses meet a particularly spiky grindstone.
My pictures of the Christmas romp are up on the webalbum at
http://picasaweb.google.com/zerstorer.von.welten , as well as a particularly amusing waste of time which I made earlier this morning. Enjoy!
-JA
Anyway, in blog time, me and the family had just left for Salzburg. The train ride was uneventful, as we passed through the farmlands of Bavaria on a cloudy, windy day that was about to get a lot worse. We disembarked in Salzburg and walked into the Old City, about 15 minutes from the train station. Our first stop was the Mirabell Palace, built in the 18th century by the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg, Wolf-Dietrich, for his mistress (Wolf-Dietrich was evidently a very naughty person). If you’ve seen “The Sound of Music”, the “Do Re Me” song finishes in the gardens of the Mirabell Palace, which we walked through. Unfortunately, it being the depths of winter, all vegetation and foliage was gone, and the bulk of the gardens, excepting a few perimeter paths, was chained off, presumably to keep stupid American tourists from trying to reenact “The Sound of Music.” We got a few good pictures of the High Citadel of Salzburg (it’s the huge castle in the webalbum photos) from the palace, before leaving the palace gardens and walking along the River Salzach, crossing it at the Müllnersteg footbridge, where I took a group photo (the 3rd picture in the webalbum).
We then climbed up Mönchsberg, one of the two small mountains that surround the Old City. Mönchsberg is basically shaped like a curved loaf of bread: it has sheer cliffs pretty much everywhere except on one end, which was where we climbed it. The mountain is driven through and through with tunnels, dug through the ages, beginning sometime around the 14th century. We climbed up an asphalt road which runs along the top of Mönchsberg, accessing all of the houses built there. Eventually we left the road to climb up a set of stairs before crossing a wooden bridge and going under an ancient gate, part of a medieval fortress (which is still very much in existence) protecting one of the two routes of access to the Citadel. Then our path took us up to the top of Mönchsberg, past some very pretty overlooks of the Old City, before going underneath the city wall, a massive edifice built in 1488 and still standing. The wall begins on the top of Mönchsberg, in a small castle, and circles around the Old City before coming to rest at the Citadel. We crossed through the wall and continued our walk, past houses and more small fortifications, before halting below the Citadel. We took some pictures, then proceeded by steep alleys into the Old City.
We wandered some time in the Christkindlmarkt, and ran into many of my fellow students, who were also spending the day in the city. Dad bought glühwein from the Lions’ Club booth, much to the consternation of Rose (who seems to think that glühwein is the root of all evils in the world) The Salzburg Christkindlmarkt is a well organized and long-established affair, with convenient maps of the three areas where the booths were set up, detailing each vendor and what they sold. By this time, the day was dwindling, the sky was overcast, and a bitter wind was blowing, so we took refuge in Café Tomaselli. The café was built in the early 18th century, and was one of the (then) new “Viennese coffeehouses”, and was something of a local curiosity when it was established. The interior was quite crowded but we found a table, and restored our strength with cakes, hot chocolate, and Café Tomasellium, a drink made from strong Turkish coffee, amaretto, and cream, garnished with whipped cream and toasted almonds. Afterwards, we crossed the river and climbed up Salzburg’s other mountain, the Kapuzinerberg. Kapuzinerberg is not nearly as developed as Mönchsberg, and is frequented by campers and hikers. We didn’t go very far, stopping at a Franciscan monastery perched on the side of the mountain (if you look at the webalbum, I took two pictures of a tan brick building surrounded by trees. That’s the monastery). After that, we walked back to the train station to find our train delayed, but only by 5 minutes. We traveled back to Munich in pitch darkness, ate in the Munich train station, and returned to our room quite thoroughly exhausted.
The next day we repacked, checked out, and took our train to Innsbruck. The day was wonderfully clear and sunny, giving everyone a beautiful view of the Alps from our compartment window. We got to the hotel in fine spirits, if a bit exhausted from lugging our baggage through Innsbruck and then up a steep and narrow lane (25 minutes all told). But the hotel more than satisfied everyone, and after we were all settled (the family in the hotel room, me back in my dorm) we toured through Innsbruck’s Old City and shopped around at the Christkindlmarkt, which was half-closed already, it being Christmas Eve. We made our plans for the evening, and then returned to our rooms.
We went to the English vigil mass at the Jesuit Church, a building of singular Baroque magnificence located in the heart of the Theological Faculty buildings. The mass was short, there being only around 30 people there, but not bad, and afterwards we hurried through the deserted streets of the Old City to our dinner reservations at the Weinhaus Happ, a hotel and restaurant located in the center of the Old City. The dinner was excellent, consisting of a carpaccio of squid and prosciutto ham for the appetizer, cream of arugula soup, salad, and our choice of roast beef or broiled carp for the main course, followed by a chestnut pastry, cookies, and a hot eggnog punch for dessert, all washed down with champaign and wines (riesling for Mom, and a rather dry red for me and dad). After the dinner was over, we went to bed stuffed to the proverbial gills.
The next day I walked to the hotel, and we exchanged presents, before taking a bus to visit my host family, the Gschliessers, in the town of Völs, about 15 minutes from Innsbruck. I don’t think I’ve explained the host family part of the Innsbruck program yet, and I have, then I’ll explain it again regardless. Every student is assigned a local family as host family, in order to help them get accustomed to the city and to make them more at home. Students regularly visit their families (I, for example, visit mine every Sunday for dinner) and the system is a very good one. We ate a sumptuous Christmas dinner with the Gschliessers: turkey, potatoes, salad, and all manner of good things. After dinner, barely able to move, we visited their church and the nativity scene therein, a very detailed piece of work. Then it was back to Innsbruck to walk through the city, shop a little, and then to bed.
The next morning it was decided that the family would take a later train to Munich, in order to have more time to see the city and bask in the beauty of the Alps. We visited the Cathedral, and saw the Jesuit Church in more detail, as well as the Christkindlmarkt, where we ate kirchl (see two blog posts ago for a description of this dish) and drank hot chocolate. Then we retrieved our luggage from the hotel and arrived at the train station to find the train over 80 minutes delayed. The delays increased as we waited on the platform, shivering in the crisp chill of the winter afternoon, until finally the train’s final destination was changed due to the delay. Fortunately, there was another train that we could take, but we ended up waiting over two and a half hours for it. The new train was on time, everyone got on board in plenty of time, and I waved them off as the train pulled out of the station. I walked back to my dorm, chilled through, and drank a good deal of tea to ward off the cold. I went to bed, and began my Christmas break, which can very easily be described as: great sloth interrupted by bouts of diligence.
Now the final month of term has started, and we’re all preparing for final exams and presentations in our classes, though the start has been slow due to one professor being quite ill and the other absent, although that will change next week as our noses meet a particularly spiky grindstone.
My pictures of the Christmas romp are up on the webalbum at
http://picasaweb.google.com/zerstorer.von.welten , as well as a particularly amusing waste of time which I made earlier this morning. Enjoy!
-JA
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