August 15

We had no class today because it was a holiday (the Assumption of the Virgin Mary). Once again, Austria is a very Catholic country where its people celebrate and honor many more Christian holidays than we do in the United States. We still had to meet at the Belvedere museum for our tour with Dr. O though. It was my first time going inside the Belvedere, and I was expecting it to be fantastic, which it was. I loved the grand entranceway in the front of the palace. I could only imagine how awesome it looked when the doors were open so that you could hang out on the big front porch. Anyway, the museum inside the palace was full of many paintings by famous artists. One of the paintings that Dr. O talked about at length was “The Kiss” by Gustav Klimt, one of Austria’s most famous painters. It depicts a man and a woman in a kneeling embrace. Dr. O told us that people interpret the painting based on how they are feeling. Those who are happy in love usually see the two people in the picture as being in love as well. Those who are in a melancholy mood while looking at the painting usually see it as a picture of a woman who is uncomfortable in the man’s arms. I guess that I was in a good mood, because I thought it looked like the two were in a loving embrace. While in the museum, we also looked at many paintings that depicted Vienna’s Biedermeier period, which generally lasted from 1815 to 1848. Biedermeier is a term used to describe a certain type of lifestyle as well as a style of art. It is usually marked with simplicity and elegance. Dr. O was telling us that many of the tradition-minded and strict relatives that we have in our families would be considered Biedermeier, so the term is still used to describe a type of lifestyle today.
After the tour, a few of my classmates and I rushed off to the train station to catch our train to Salzburg, where we decided to visit for our 3-day weekend. After another train ride spent playing many rounds of 20 Questions we made it to Salzburg, where it was pouring. We checked into our hostel and then went out for dinner down the street. This was my first time staying in a hostel, so I didn’t know what to expect, but the place was pretty nice. I was pleasantly surprised. We didn’t do any sight-seeing because we were too tired, but tomorrow we are going on the Sound of Music tour. That movie used to be one of my favorites as a kid, so I am very excited about the tour.
The German word of the day is zu Fuss, which means “on foot”. “Ich gehe zu Fuss” is “I went on foot”.