Las Vegas Wedding Reflection

Recently, I traveled to Las Vegas with my mother to "attend" a wedding of some close friends of the family. When I say "attend" I of course mean that without my mother, there wouldn't be a wedding. My mother was the officiant. Apparently, it is not difficult to become a minister in the eyes of the State of Minnesota, and that legal status also extended to Las Vegas.

This was a wedding unlike any I've attended before. It was small, so much so that we took a group photo with the wedding party and every guest in attendance. But it was quite possibly one of the sweetest weddings I've ever experienced. It was overflowing with joy and appreciation.

Everyone in attendance, except me (behind camera)

The bride and groom met in high school and were sweethearts throughout. After graduating, he joined the Navy and she went to college. They wrote letters and attempted to stay together, but life took them in different directions. Years later, my mother was friends with both of them through Facebook, and they reconnected. They spent hours talking and though he was back in Minnesota and she was in Oregon, they were closer than ever. Eventually, he proposed outside the Starbucks in the Minneapolis Airport on one of her arrivals in town because he couldn't wait any longer.

The wedding took place in their suite in the Monte Carlo. There was little in the way of pomp and circumstance and no need for show. Friends came in jeans and had a seat for the short (about 5 minute) ceremony where my mother rehashed the story most of us knew. The bride went out of her way to create a personal touch in the room, creating all of the decorations by hand including the feather bouquet she carried. Bucca di Beppo take out was ordered for dinner and the cake was purchased at Costco (and decorations added by the bride). But no one was there for the food or the decor so there was no need to take out a second mortgage for this wedding. After the wedding, we went to the strip and took photos of the two of them as they enjoyed each other and a city they both love.

Las Vegas has a reputation for having quickie weddings that don't last. The reputation of treating the institution of marriage as if it was part of a fling. A town for floozies and addicts. That was no where near the experience created that day. The focus for the wedding was their upcoming life together. The money that could have gone toward a large, extravagant wedding, instead went to build their marriage. I was honored to be a part of it, and glad that I could capture it for them. Knowing how creative the bride is, I am sure she's found many ways to display the effortlessly beautiful day that it really was.

If every wedding could be like this Vegas wedding, maybe there would be higher success rates.

Enjoy.

I love that her ring fit inside his

She added the poker chips to her shoes

Her shoes and bouquet

My mother reading their vows

Enjoying the view

Signing the marriage certificate in "the biggest bed in Vegas"

First Dance

Inexpensive Costco cake which was delicious

Bellagio Ceiling

Dancing on the moving sidewalk

You can view more on my Facebook page

Long time no see!

August 04, 2014 - I have modified the original post to remove the broken photos. Most of the text remains, except where it references the photos. 

I apologize for the delay in updates. It seems that everything that could go against me - did.

My computer broke. This computer is less than 3 months old and cost me $1000. I purchased it in August. I opened the lid and found it in this state. Now, I know enough about LCD screens to recognize that as bad. But this is where it gets funny. Not more than two weeks before, one of the other girls in my group, came back from a Mexican restaurant and found her computer in the exact same state. This is the kicker: She has the same model, purchased around the same time, from Best Buy as well.

I have never purchased a Toshiba before this - and, unless they stand by their product and actually repair my computer with the warranty - I will never have another Toshiba anything again.

My final paper for International Law had been finished - but I still had a final paper for International Relations to write and research. So, I was now at the mercy of the school computer. Where Becky's computer had half the screen (thank goodness for Windows 7 snap to fit!) to work on her paper with - mine only had the top 1/4 - the rest of the screen flickered in a way in which I couldn't see anything (I could fumble the controls enough to pull up iTunes and use my computer as a $1000 crappy radio).

Let me tell you about the computer labs at the Webster campus in Vienna. Firstly - they aren't made for all day research/writing considering the wooden chairs that are provided. The campus goes in waves - the computer lab gets extremely loud at some times. Usually around lunch (which means that it is break time for me once I can no longer drown the sound out with my iPod), and it is not 24 hours. Which meant, that my writing was at the mercy of the computer lab hours (8:30-9:30p if I recall correctly, except Saturday - only til 2:30 and Sunday its completely closed). When you have a major paper to write and can only use campus computers and you have limited days to write it - it was by far the most unbelievably frustrated thing.

And - not only did I lose my ability to work at home. I lost my ability to communicate with my family and friends - and I lost my entertainment on my 12 hour journey to Bangkok.

So, Toshiba is really high on my shit list at the moment. My dad is awesome and mailed my old laptop to Bangkok (Sony rocks!) - but I was pretty much sans-computer for all of October.

So, what all did I do between my (forever ago) last entry and today?

First, I went to Prague, Czech Republic. I have to say - the whole EEC/European Union/Whatever - is making me super sad. Mostly because I don't get stamps in my passport anymore. On the other hand - you know they could make some good money at the border selling 'souvenir' passport stamps. JS.

Prague was so beautiful! I met some awesome people at the hostel. I will say - this is an observation I have made after years of hosteling: Pretty certain there are no Australians in Australia. It doesn't seem to matter where in the world I am, when I am at a hostel, there are always Australians present. Not that this is a bad thing - I actually find it quite incredible. Anyway, I took a tour of Prague, it was a great tour of the city and the castle grounds. I also splurged on a river dinner cruise the last evening, where the musician hired to entertain us thought My Heart Will Go On was an appropriate song to play on a boat -_-. I also walked by the house of Franz Kafka, it was closed which was sad to me, and I didn't have time to visit the Kafka museum, but I have been a fan of Kafka since I read the Metamorphosis so it was cool to see that.

The astronomical clock in Prague's town center was phenomenal  though I would say it wasn't worth waiting around for the "show" at the top of every hour (if you stumble upon it great). Our tour guide taught us how to read the clock, though today I can not remember, I am sure it available on the internet somewhere.

What struck me most about Prague was how incredibly beautiful it was. It struck me in a bad way, because it made me realize that I was not expecting it to be beautiful. I think if you had asked me what I envisioned of the Czech Republic before going to Prague, the mentality I had probably would reflect more of a Cold-War-Era style of thinking about the Soviet Bloc. I tend to consider myself a very open-minded person, so anytime I am confronted with dealing with my own prejudices of any kind, it's always very unnerving. Mark Twain once said "Travel is fatal to bigotry, prejudice, and narrow-mindedness" and I think it most certainly rings true. Travel makes you confront your own misconceptions about the people and places outside of your walls. The process for me is unsettling because it makes me wonder what other pre-concieved notions I have about other places that I am not actively aware of. Prague was never high on my list of "must see" destinations, not for any particular reason that I knew of - but mostly because of this misconception I had that was rooted far deeper than even I knew. I am glad that my cousin, Laura, encouraged me to go - it would be a shame if I had missed it - because it is now on my list of must-return places, and quite possibly one of my favorite cities in Europe.

So: here are a few shots from "Pretty Praha" - you can see them all HERE and HERE

Prague was my last out-of-country excursion for the remainder of my time in Vienna.

Webster arranged for us to take a tour of the Jewish quarters in Vienna. You can see the photos of that HERE

I celebrated my birthday on September 27. I had an amazing birthday! This morning I went out to Mödling with Mom's friend's parents (keep up with me here). They gave me a tour of historic Mödling and then took me to their house for lunch. They stuffed me with the most A-MA-ZING traditional Austrian food - and all the veggies came from their garden - and fresh squeezed Lindenberry juice from their garden!

Then, they took me to a 12th century castle. Very - very Mid-evil castle! It was awesome. After, we drove to a 13th century monastery. All of this was a drive through the Austrian countryside. The leaves were beginning to turn - so the mix of greens, oranges, and yellows was spectacular! Afterwords, we went back to their place for coffee and pastries and conversation.

Kara and I went to Stephensplatz and found a cafe where Beethoven used to dine at - and had wine and desert. When we got back, it was insisted I go see Samantha - and I walked in and everyone was there - they had baked a cake and had Reese's Peanut Butter Cups for me - and made me a really awesome birthday card from a Vienna city map!

Here are a few photos from my day in Mödling, you can see the rest HERE

Me at a Castle - I'd look good with a castle!

Castle Lichtenstein from a distance

My gracious hosts!

My birthday gift to myself was a day trip to Salzburg for the Sound of Music Tour that weekend. Yes, it's overly touristy and campy - but it was so much fun. I highly recommend doing the tour because it gets you out of the city and into the "alive hills". Really the views were incredible. Here are a few shots, the rest are HERE

Do-Re-Mi Fountain

Me - doing the Do-Re-Mi pose at these statues

I took a break from my final paper writing to go on a Wine Tasting Excursion with Webster. We went way out into wine country - to Retz, which sits right on the border of the Czech Republic. It was a nice day. Photos are HERE

I also voted absentee for the first time ever - everyone I voted for won! YAY for Obama and Representative John Barrow in GA-12! Here's hoping that my ballot actually made it to the states! :-D

I finished out my time in Vienna with a trip to see The Marriage of Figaro at the State Opera House. I can't think of a better way of capping off an amazing 8 weeks in Vienna than that.

So, my first 8 weeks was filled with encounters with long-dead political heros, music, art, wine, opera, and new cultural experience. I will forever remember Vienna as smelling like fresh baked bread, and the abundance of waltz music. Vienna finds a way to make even their UBahn an experience.

Kurt, waltzing in the UBahn with some other tourists


Also - for my first term in graduate school - I got straight As!


I will try to update with my time in Bangkok very soon. I have two papers to write this week, mini-papers, but still, that writing has to take priority. 

Vienna, Week One

So, I am going to try to make Sunday my updating days (that will last until what do you think - midterm?) but it will be my valiant effort!

I already talked about my journey from post-Spain, until I arrived in Vienna, which was exciting, to say the least! If you go to the MAPS section of my blog, there are now two maps of my journey. The first was a projection, which has been posted here for sometime now. The second is updated, real information, from graduation day (May 12, 2012) until my arrival in Vienna last Saturday.

But here it is:



My original projection, for the entire year was 46,619.6 kilometers to travel. This new map, for three months of travelling, I have already covered 42007.9 kilometers! That's a lot of planet covered and still a lot to go!

Anyway, we arrived in Vienna Saturday night. A group of us had booked together, we all met the driver at the airport and he drove us to the apartments we would be calling home for the next 8 weeks. I am living in Vienna's 10th district, Favoriten (we later were told that we are in the 'ghetto' though it is the absolute nicest ghetto I've ever seen!). The apartments are very, very spacious, big for even American standards - something I had not expected at all. After a month in Spain I was growing used to the tight quarters that are common in Europe.

Living room of my apartment

My roommate missed orientation, but she arrived early Sunday morning and we got to know each other, then I took her to meet the rest of the cohorts. We had all been getting to know each other a lot since Wednesday and all seem to have clicked very quickly. Everyone was curious about the missing girl from our cohort so they were all excited to meet her.

On Sundays everything is closed, but we took some time to take a walk around the neighborhood and see what we could find. There is a bar across the street from us Mabel's No90. So far, that has quickly become our hangout spot.

Di (my roommate), Rach, and Sam at Mabel's

Monday morning, first thing, we all went to the grocery store. We arrived Saturday after the store was closed, and it wasn't open on Sunday, so we were all ready to ditch the bar food and get some food in our (very small) fridges. Then we all locked ourselves in our rooms and studied for class that was to begin the following day. 100 pages of International Law on the computer screen (we had yet to receive our textbooks) was most definitely the highlight of our entire journey!

Tuesday, the Globals coordinator, Guergana "G" picked us up to walk us to campus. We are quite a distance from campus, about an hour (but we are only about 30 minutes from the city center).

We had orientation just for the Globals about an hour before the orientation for all the graduate students. Between the two orientations we went to the bookstore to pick up our books. The program fee covers our books, but they had run out of some of our books, so as of now, I am still short 1 book, some girls are short 2. It was nice to get a chance to mingle with some of the other graduate students. Webster University really is a global university. As we went around the room, people were introducing themselves from Russia, Ukraine, Egypt, Turkey, etc. One really good-looking guy stood up and said he was from Serbia. Of COURSE he was! Seriously - what is in the water there!?

Our first class was International Law (Tuesdays 6-10pm). Our instructor is Polish and works for the United Nations so she spends half her time in New York City and half her time in Vienna (teaching in both cities). She works in Human Rights issues and is very interesting, she is also very detail orientated and likes examples, as she was constantly asking us for examples of NGOs, IOs, treaties, customary laws, etc. So, I imagine the tests are going to be very specific. The class is structure pretty basic: two quizzes, one final exam, one final paper, and a presentation. Because the classes are all only 8 weeks long, we had to pretty much decide on our presentation topic (which would also be our final paper topic). I am going to be writing on Women's Right to Health laws (mostly on reproductive health). We shall see how that goes!

Wednesday was our International Relations Theory class, same time (6-10). The instructor is Italian and is Director of Research, Austrian Institute for European and Security Policy. I made the mistake of wearing my Spanish football jersey. In my defense I have no loyalties to any European football teams, I happened to be in Spain for the Eurocup, which is why I had it. The rest of class he kept calling me "Spain" though (since he doesn't have names yet). He told me he may not let it affect my grade. (My undergraduate professor told me a few days later that one of the other professors is teaching Politics of Soccer and I got a small taste of his lesson plan!). Same basic structure. Midterm, final, final paper. We also will have group work each week. Midterm is on a Sunday and the last class will be on a Saturday, so we can have our final on Wednesday! Ohy!

On the way home from class! Becky, Amber, and Sam

Speaking of my midterm being on a Sunday (the 23rd) - that is the last day of Photokina, I have my Professional Seminar classes on Fridays, so that pretty much killed my hope of going to Photokina.

And speaking of cameras, before class Wednesday morning, I made my way to the camera store to see if they could do something about my camera. The guy who was helping me went through all the troubleshooting things for me: checked battery on his charger (50% full), checked his battery in my camera, tested the internal battery (I had already gotten a new one to try to see if that was the fix), cleaned battery contacts. Nothing brought my camera to life. So, he packed it up and sent it off to the repair center, and I bit back tears.

The hospital for my baby at the moment

Thursday we took a bus tour of the city. After the hour or so tour, Kurt and I went back to the Hofburg Palace, I wanted to see the gardens where the Mozart memorial is and he wanted to go to the arms and armor exhibit. He knows a lot about ancient weaponry so it was really informative for me!

Karlskirche

Hofburg Palace

Pretty certain this gun would knock me on my butt!

Mozart Memorial before my battery died

Kurt told me about a show he had gotten tickets for. Mozart and Strauss, in a smaller venue, and the performers would be dressed in period costumes. I bought tickets for the show for that evening and we headed back to the apartments (well meandered - went the long way). Sam decided she wanted to go to the show as well, so she reserved tickets and the three of us went out that evening.

There was also a ballet dancer and opera singer!

I figure, I am in Vienna, I am going to take in as much classical music as I can afford! The show was really entertaining, I liked the size of the venue and the performers were all very good. The pianist rocked Turkischer Marsch (Click here if you are unfamiliar) which is one of my favorite pieces. The venue had very good natural acoustics. It is an old house, at one time Mozart performed there with his sister! 

After the show we walked up to Stephansplatz to see Saint Stephan's Cathedral at night, the meandered around the city, getting up to the river and back down toward Stephansplatz, just talking and enjoying the weather. We had our "Oh my goodness, we are in Vienna!" moment then. It was so beautiful, the weather was perfect, not too hot, not too cold, and the city was lit up, there were lots of other people out walking around, and it's an easy city to navigate. 

I think I am in love! I can see why this city inspired so many great artists and musicians! 

Saturday morning, Di, Rach, Amber, and I went to Naschmarkt, which is a large, open-air market in the city center. We didn't walk the entire thing and it was raining the entire time, but it was a lot of fun to see all the different stalls with fresh foods. Before heading back we all stopped at the cheese store and got some amazing cheeses! 

Di and Amber buying some stuffed olives. 

The really awesome cheese guy! :-D

I spent the rest of the day studying and managed to get the two chapters for International Law read, which only left two articles to read. So, I went out with all the girls. There was supposedly a "Welcome Webster" party at one of the local clubs (Aphrodisiac). We all dressed up and went out, the cover was 12ϵ and it was pretty lame. and way overpriced (10.50 for a gin&tonic - no.) But we made the best of it. We were the only ones dancing for quite sometime. It got a bit better by the end of the evening, but by then we were all pretty much done.

And today, I have done nothing productive. I got my two articles read, cleaned a bit, but for the most part, have had a nice lazy day. We just had a wine and cheese get together for a few hours to relax (since unlike me, most people have been studying all day!) and hang out.

It is really hard for me to believe I have only been in Vienna for a week, and with Webster for 11 days! We have all been going so hard and fast the whole time that I feel like it's already been forever, I am losing track of time.

But so far this is working out brilliantly, my cohorts are amazing - everyone has such interesting, different backgrounds with such fun stories, and varying personalities. So far we all get a long really well, hopefully that lasts for quite sometime since this is going to be one crazy, long year!

Me and my Roomie at a Cafe!

Spain - part 2

My last two weeks in Salamanca went by so fast and taught me an extremely important lesson. I am somewhat of a shutterbug (of course) but in Salamanca I didn't get out and take photos that much because I kept telling myself I have plenty of time to explore and photograph, since we were going to be there 4 weeks. Well, the 4 weeks went by and I had only a handful of pictures of the town I spent the majority of my time in. Lesson learned - time is relative and make the most of it right now. The last two weeks in Salamanca were filed with term papers and final exams.

My second weekend excursion was to Lisbon, Portugal. It was interesting to me, since Portugal and Spain are so connected, both physically and historically, I didn't expect to see many differences in culture between the two countries. I was very wrong. The culture from one country to the next was extremely different. The Portuguese are a very warm, friendly people (not to say the Spanish weren't but it was a different kind of warm). They were also very eager to help with my pronunciation of Portuguese words, because my Spanish would get in the way of proper Portuguese pronunciation. Though, it was amusing to me how they would have to add "It is very different from Spanish" after each "lesson". I started to wonder if it was some sort of law since everyone seemed to do it. The languages are very similar, but I was surprised how much more like French it sounded than Spanish.

It was wonderful being near an ocean! As much as I am *not* a beach person, I love the ocean. Though, unfortunately for my wallet, I tend to start craving seafood too, which is never "cheap" (at least not the stuff that is edible).

Lisbon = San Francisco. Hills and everything. Which is not a dig at all because I really do like San Francisco a lot. But it was very shocking to me how much hiking there was to do in Lisbon. There were some spectacular hills that were so steep I wasn't certain if I needed shoes or climbing gear to scale them. But walk it we did!

View from the old palace

 You can see more of my Lisbon photos HERE

Day 2 of the excursion we went to Cascais and got a chance to go to the beach. Again, not really a beach person. But me and my friend walked around the town. We had lunch, and I'm not entirely certain if I said this in the other post or not, but one of the things I adore about Europe is the "food culture". I love that I can sit outside in a cafe for hours, enjoy my food, and there is generally some sort of street music playing nearby. It's the most relaxing thing. You can just hang out without feeling pressured to "turn over" the table for the waiter.

After eating, we wandered around and got "lost". We stumbled across a book fair, which was selling antique books. All published in Portuguese, but it was still cool to look at. Later we found a coffee shop that had a rooftop terrace to sit on that had wonderful views of the city. We had coffee and just enjoyed the sun and the sea there for a bit. After a bit more wandering around we got on the train and headed back to Lisbon (our group left before we felt we were "done" with the city so we took the train back separately).

You can see more of Cascais HERE 

On the last day we stopped at a small town of Obidos, which is a walled in city. It also happened to be preparing for a Medival festival which was starting the next day (of course!). We also made a stop at Batalha Monastery. We visited a couple of monasteries in Portugal. They each had chapels which looked suspiciously like cathedrals (though they were not cathedrals). 

Photos of Obidos and Batalha HERE

My last week in Salamanca, I finished up my dance class and took my exams. Then wandered around taking photos the few days before we departed for Barcelona. 

Barcelona is an incredible city! Most definitely my favorite city we visited - I can see myself living there (and summering in Segovia!). I always sort of liked Gaudi, but seeing his works in real life was incredible! He is a visionary in every sense of the word. 

First off, La Sagrada Familia is spectacular! I didn't know where to even *begin* taking photos of it. Then walking inside was sensory overload. It was like walking into Wonderland, and it seemed like every turn I made something new and interesting was waiting to be photographed. But the exterior, the detail is astounding. From far away it looks like a melting candle. But as you get close, and the detail work begins to show - it's mind blowing. 

You can see all my photos of this masterpiece of Gaudi's HERE and see it at night HERE

Then we went to Park Güell, a park that Gaudi designed in the middle of the city, and finally we saw La Pedrera, an apartment complex he designed. All of his designs are beyond words. Though I found them difficult to photograph (at least in the capacity I was there - as part of a group) because they are so different from every angle - and capturing it was a real challenge.

Park Güell

La Pedrera

See more photos HERE

We took a day trip out to Figures to the Dalí Museum. I have never been much of a Dalí fan personally (apparently this is blasphemy), I don't dislike Dalí, but I have never really enjoyed his works. There are some motifs of his I have liked, usually the melting clocks, and there are a few pieces by him I like, but overall I wouldn't put him in my top 10 favorite artists. The museum though, I will say, definitely kept you interested because everything was so bizarre, and it seemed as if every corner was filled with something to look at.

See more of Dalí HERE

The final day in Barcelona, and my final day in Spain, was a free day. I wandered around getting lost. I really enjoyed my time to myself. After five weeks of being with a group, it was nice to have a day to myself, to wander around with my camera and get lost, get un-lost, and lost again.

My wandering photos are HERE

I also took the time to assess how I felt about the trip. I will say, in some ways I was a bit let down with Spain. I expected to fall in love with the country, much in the same way I fell in love with India. There is a passion that I can't help but feel when I talk or think about India. With Spain - I really enjoyed myself, but I wasn't in love either. I would go to Spain again, especially Barcelona, but I can't really say it changed me as a person either. It was an interesting experience. My Spanish definitely improved over my time there. I found myself much more comfortable with the language by the end of the trip, and more confident with my speaking abilities by the end of the trip. I was glad to get to go somewhere that speaks my language as a first language and spend a significant amount of time. There are things about the Spanish way of life that didn't "click" with me. For one, the concept of not going out until 1-2 in the morning. Call me an old fart (I am) but 1-2 in the morning I am winding down and ready for bed, not just getting started for the night. But it is an interesting country. It has an incredibly rich history (I was very glad I changed from Spanish Translation to History of Spain at the University) and I was glad I got a chance to study it a bit more.

Overall it was a wonderful trip.

For those in the Georgia area (or nearby) I highly recommend the program. You can find more information about it HERE.