die Antagonista

Underage German literature

2012-01-17T23:00:00.000+01:00

Last week I purchased these two items at my local grocery store. I had planned to buy only the rum, originally. Then I saw a box with books being sold for half price, since I always worry that they throw books that have already a discount away if they're not getting sold, I decided to graciously save this one book about German literature. The cashier at the checkout was new and I didn't realise how suspicious it looked to be buying alcohol and a book. To me alcohol and literature go hand in hand. So she looked up to me and asked, can I see some ID please? I was so shocked I had to laugh and said, "I haven't been asked that in a while." As I got out my ID I continued to say, "but I realise German literature shouldn't be sold to the underage." Not only she started laughing really hard but everyone who was behind me in line also. And I was like,

I can only imagine what comedians must feel like. Probably like kings. There's something magical about making a group of strangers laugh.

Fun Things

2011-12-26T22:18:00.000+01:00

I wanted to do them, but then I got sick. It must have been my Christmas underwear rain wandering, even though you don't get sick from the cold. Maybe an elderly lady at the church sneezed into my mouth when I wasn't looking.
Medication consists of Minecraft videos on Youtube (that raccoon people sent me) and ramen noodles soup. Sadface.

Crazy Christmas

2011-12-25T00:51:00.000+01:00

This year I planned on spending a peaceful evening with my father, but after he fell asleep as we were watching The Simpsons, I got drunk instead and ran through the streets of my hometown like a madwoman. It was great. First I walked home when I realised he wasn't going to wake up again after all the food he had eaten. Then I thought I was going to shower and even go to bed, but THEN holy shit, then I simply put my coat over my underwear and satin bathrobe and decided, oh yeah, it's time for a walk. At first I just walked around with no plan, staring at the lights in the windows, wondering about all the normal people enjoying Christmas with their families. Suddenly, as I was about to pass by our church, I've noticed that normal looking people were entering it. So I thought, there must be something going on in there, maybe one of those night mass thingies. I entered, it smelled of delicious candles, the lights were gentle and there was music in the air. Just what I needed on a lonely evening like this. It was so pleasant, I wasn't even bothered to worry about the people around me, I simply sat down in the second last pew. It was delightful, remember that I was sitting there practically in my underwear with a coat so every time I had a sober flash, I was desperately trying to cover my almost naked knees. I did have tights on but still, it was pretty cold and I could hardly feel them. And when I came home, I realised why.

There were these huge holes around my feet, and as for shoes, I was wearing black Mary Janes. Also, there was an unwritten rule, since it was raining, whenever I saw a puddle, I had to run up to it and jump over it. Let me tell you, I haven't had this much fun in a while.
As for drinkage, I got drunk off this delicious Chinese plum wine.

My conclusion, I did feel like a loser at times. However, I can't imagine all these boring family people could have had that much more fun than me. Not with my half naked drunk pew sitting puddle jumping stuff I had going on. Did I mention that every person that passed me by looked suspiciously like a potential rapist so I kept changing which side of the street I was walking on? Like I said, great fun. Merry Christmas.

Happenings, 23rd December 2011

2011-12-23T16:35:00.000+01:00

1. Semi recent photo, but I'll post more current ones soon, as well as a video.
2. Birthday card for a Russian friend
3. The best punch in the entire world
4. The best incense in the entire world
5. My latest clock. It was white when I got it, but I had some gold and decided to paint it. Painting it felt like decorating a cake. Which is good because I like cake. You'll get to see it in all its glory in the apartment photos I'm going to post. Golden clocks are what it's all about yo.

Hypocrites and Beauty

2011-12-21T01:54:00.000+01:00

Now they can continue walking around wearing their expressionless faces while pretending everything is the way it's supposed to be without me, I have too much to laugh about and I was getting tired of frowning all the time anyway.
I am no longer a penguin, the head penguins will have to learn that they cannot afford to lose someone like me, the hard way. Either that or I'm just a coward, probably a little bit of both. I'm going to continue talking this way about them even though our bond has been ripped, because I'm cool like that. That's one thing they have taught me indeed, I shall not let other penguins govern my behaviour through provocation or any other standard below mine.
And so another chapter in my life ends, though it feels like an entire novel. Thankfully the epilogue is (going to be) even longer than the actual story. I can already feel it beneath my fingertips. There'll be a new author, either Sen no Rikyū or Archestratus, that sounds like superb company does it not. So long, Johannes Theodat! It was nice knowing you, you burnt my hands and abused me the Italian way, but I'm not holding it against you. I'm left with one unanswered question however, how come every chapter ends with me running out the back-door.

So little time, so viel zu erzählen

2011-10-02T12:30:00.000+02:00

Here's a kind of summary. I've got so much more, including a review about a gorgeous book a penpal of mine has written, my excitement for Mdot's new (and old) film. But the goal for today is to finish editing at least one video. Now that school starts again, I'll be working only 1 or 2 days a week so I'll have loads of time to waste more bandwidth. School is a piece of cake compared to gastronomy in Vienna.

I'm at 80% in the game. This however was 100% spontaneous.

Glückskeks

2011-10-02T11:52:00.000+02:00

My first fortune cookie. I already knew this though.

How Japanese ladies tip

2011-09-14T02:46:00.000+02:00

This is what I got from a Japanese lady as a tip. It's the most precious tip I ever got. The note says,

Souvenir (small gift)

These are Japanese stamps.

Do you know Ukiyo-e?

Please come to Japan ♥

Yumie

More musings of a Viennese waitress

2011-09-14T02:15:00.000+02:00

Because when you call your thoughts 'musings' they seem that much more relevant. It's going pretty well so far, better than many, who know me personally, would have thought. I'm not going to lie though, I've never worked at such a busy, touristy, place and it already left marks on my body and mind. Which sounds melodramatic, it is the truth however. Right now I've got a ginormous bruise on my knee, I fell for the third time at work. It's not all bad, I'm one of those people who can't help but feel proud of bruises. And then there are those nightmares I keep having since it all started. The first couple days after work and after I went to sleep, I got up in my sleep, essentially sleepwalking, just to wake up with an urge to serve someone coffee. It doesn't feel good, though at the same time I was disappointed that I was dreaming and nobody was awaiting my coffee. Then there was a much more impressive incident, where I attempted to carry a stack of books from my desk with one hand, in my dream I believed it to be a tablet with coffee on it. I woke up as I dropped the books mid-air.
While it's hectic and you can hardly catch your breath, I enjoy my work very much. There is a specific type of customer which can ruin your day for a while, it's the type that comes in and is oblivious to everything going on around him. He expects you to care only about him, to take his order immediately and make sure only he is satisfied. He can't see that you're carrying a plate with every part of your arms that has room for it and that you're taking the order of six people who arrived before him, no, only he is there and he wants his coffee and pie now.
I forgot last week's Current state of things, I'll have to post two this week. Here are some more photos, the one baker you can see in two photos was really adorable, he's leaning on stuff because he thought it made him look busy.

Current state of things, 3rd September 2011

2011-09-03T14:36:00.000+02:00

Pretty coffee, Chinese girls and Romanian judges

2011-08-30T06:02:00.001+02:00

Yesterday I worked for the second time at the bar at my new job and it was delightful beyond measure. There was a Chinese girl, she was wearing a chequered shirt in red, blue jeans and sandals. Her hair was shiny and short, her toenails were painted a bright red. After she sat down, she timidly ordered a Melange, I repeated her order and she smiled and gestured that she was happy about having pronounced it correctly. Later she asked me about coffee, explaining that there's hardly any coffee culture in China. That they do have Starbucks but everyone ridicules it by saying that you can get only milk with sugar and coffee flavour there. So I explained to her the difference between the different kinds of coffee, Arabica and Robusta, wet and dry preparation, filter and espresso method and why she should always order espresso over filter. Then an elderly man and his two daughters sat down next to her. I heard them talk to each other a couple times, but only vaguely. I understood some of it and assumed they're Italian, which is usually the case when I can understand them.
So the girl asked me if she could have her picture taken with me, I agreed and she asked the elderly man to take a photo of us. He told her it was a good idea because I'm pretty and took the photo. Before the Chinese girl left she said that she would show the photo to her mother at home and tell her that I taught her about coffee and asked if she could hug me. Her name was Phoebe.
Then I tended to the man with his two daughters. They ordered a Melange, a Latte Macchiato and Sachertorte. Suddenly the man's phone rang and he began talking loudly in his mother language. I understood quite a lot more than I usually do with Italians so I asked one of the girls what language they speak. She smiled and asked, what language do you think it is? And I explained that I understood much of it and that usually it's Italian because so many Italian tourists come here, but in this case I thought it was Romanian. She confirmed it and I had to laugh. We continued the conversation in Romanian for a bit and then I had to go get something from the kitchen. When I came back, she had apparently told her father, because he turned to me and said, so I had no idea where you come from when I told that Chinese girl you were pretty - no wonder you are, you're from Romania. He was very proud of me being from Romania and working there, it was quite adorable. Then he asked about my plans for the future. I told him I wanted to study law and he got all quiet and had a stunned look on his face. Then he said something that in turn had me all silent and stunned, he said, well do you know who you're talking to? He gave me a really long and impressive title that meant he is one of the highest judges in Bucharest. I felt really honoured to have spoken to him, we shook hands and him and his daughters wished me good luck before they left.
So here is the magical place where I work and a cafe macchiato I made which is the most perfect I have ever accomplished. It was so good I asked the customer if I could take a photo and she ended up doing the same.

Happy Birthday G

2011-08-29T20:42:00.000+02:00

He's 262 now. I lit a candle and stomped on a shadow for him.

Current state of things, 24th August 2011

2011-08-24T10:41:00.000+02:00

This is what I'll do weekly from now on. It's more for my own purposes like most of these posts are, but posting them on the Internet pressures me into keeping up with it. It'll probably be different every time except for one thing that will stay constant until I run out of them, which are my treasured vintage photos I ~~stole~~ got from my parents.

Karakter by Ferdinand Bordewijk is my new favourite book, you should really try to get your hands on it. Then read it. If you can't, watch the film from 1997, which is equally amazing. You should listen to my advice because I have good taste.

Introducing Owl, Scarecrow and the Goblins

2011-08-19T01:51:00.000+02:00

Vienna has been kind to me, despite what all the naysayers said. Note to future self: don't listen to people who don't have anything good to say about anything. Not even to be polite.
I work at a café at the centre of Vienna now and it's glorious. If you happen to come by on the right day, you might catch me giving little Italian children ginormous ice cream scoops or trying to convinve French tourists that truffle cake is the one thing missing in their lives. It's been painful too, my feet are on fire and my legs covered in bruises. Although that doesn't stop me from frequenting a gorgeous old books store that's governed by a scarecrow with massive OCD. He looks quite all right, but I pick at his books like a crow and he feels the need to correct each and every book's position after I touched them with my sticky fingers. Late at night when I get off work I have to run to catch the last train home, so if you see a girl in uniform with powder sugar all over her black skirt running as fast as her skirt will allow, that's me also. At work there is an owl, she's correct and proper, I enjoy the precise instructions she's giving me though nobody else seems to share my sentiments. There's also a feud between the penguins and the goblins. However, me being a penguin from a little town and not the mean city, I've had no reason to join their battles so all the goblins are confused by my presence and I've been enjoying that too. If you're wondering about my strange speech, which you must be at this point, it's because it would be ill advised to write explicitly about politics at work when the aforementioned could easily access your writings. Here are the relevant places concerning everything I wrote so far, a fake Mozart who turned out to speak my mother language and a child that survived thanks to the British. Thank you Britain. Yes all of it, because "UK" doesn't harmonise with the prior sentence.

Things to be looked at

2011-08-19T01:16:00.000+02:00

Good Design

2011-07-30T05:37:00.000+02:00

Imagine if every product at your local supermarket was as well designed as this chocolate. Most FairTrade products I've seen are very artsy though, their designers definitely deserve a raise. Coca Cola, despite its awful reputation in so many aspects, is well designed too in my opinion. It's not that hard to match colours and choose a font that's not obnoxious, if we have to pollute the world with all this packaging why not make it at least pretty. Also, more inexpensive jewellery that nobody had to die for.

New Flat

2011-07-30T04:19:00.000+02:00

Recently I moved into my first own flat, it's really small but it's all mine. I'll show you more once I'm done decorating. Until then, here's a corner I'm comfortable with, Mr. Muzzy Foth, my window of doom and the view. The doom thing happens only when there's a draft and it's sucking at my curtains from the outside. I do enjoy when that happens, yes.

No Theft was committed

2011-05-28T20:12:00.000+02:00

This time.

IT HAS HAPPENED

2011-04-25T12:55:00.003+02:00

Here is finally the very anticipated trailer for M dot Strange's new film HEART STRING MARIONETTE

The Heart String Marionette site
Mdot's Blog
Mdot's Youtube
The trailer for his first film "We are the Strange"

If art is in any way important to you, especially independent big-soulless-company-FREE art, you have to absorb this filmmaker's creations.

Thievery on a Thursday

2011-04-21T05:32:00.004+02:00

It's 5am and I just stole flowers from my neighbour's garden.

Yesterday I went to St. Pölten, there I listened to a man tell me why I should study at his school, took photos of naked angels, got a Cinderella coach with a slipper in it, little time men for my ears, met a boy who comes from my father's country and discussed global politics with him for three hours. Everything is the way it should be.

Romanian Superstitions

2011-04-10T15:41:00.000+02:00

There are a number of superstitions I came across while in Romania, they sound pretty funny now that I'm back but back there it was awfully exhausting. Whenever someone caught you violating one of their superstitions, they'd either confront you in a very dramatic manner or make you ask for blessings or something like that.

- Looking at your hands means someone is talking ill of you. If you do it anyway you have to spit on your hands and rub them on your butt. Yes I'm serious.
- Looking at your feet means someone is talking well of you.
- Destroying a swallow's nest gives you freckles. (Genetics? Pfft)
- Cold hands means you're an honest person. (Sucks for you if you have good circulation)
- If the second toe after the big toe is longer than the big toe, your husband or wife will die before you.
- If someone with green eyes looks at you and finds you pretty, they have cursed you. Non-green eyes can do about the same damage but only if the person finds you pretty. Should this happen, you may get ill or even die. You need to be brought to really old women who know the spell to cure you. I think the spell contains some biblical stuff but also things the Inquisition would have burned you for.

I've read about the last one before, I believe it's called "the evil eye." What I described there was actually done with me after I went for a walk to look at the area and came back with a headache. I even recorded the whole thing, it's pretty hilarious, I may upload that as well.

The Teat

2011-04-09T16:37:00.001+02:00

This is me emulating the grabbing of a cow's nipple. I really just wanted to have mentioned that here as well because how often do you get to say that. Here's the video. I failed during the actual act however, nothing would come out. See another line you don't get to say whenever. Okay I'm done now.

Radioactive Day

2011-04-09T14:28:00.000+02:00

It really looked that way in the morning, nothing is edited. The sun was so bright and abnormal that everything looked gray, it got a little bit better later on. I was told sunglasses aren't recommended any more, they're a necessity. So when are they going to build those domes and only let us out at night.

How to make Gogosi

2011-04-09T12:23:00.001+02:00

It can be made without eggs or milk too, which is how I like it best. Video coming up.

The Goats

2011-04-09T11:36:00.000+02:00

How to make Sarmale

2011-04-09T01:20:00.002+02:00

And that is how it's done. There'll be a video too.

Caragiale, New Friends and Me

2011-03-14T20:05:00.000+01:00

Hello. This is me in my room on the countryside.

Here's Mariana, she is very kind and beautiful.

Have some Caragiale as well. I found these treasures in a little store for a price so small it should be criminal.

The Bazar and its People

2011-03-14T17:50:00.001+01:00

There are many bazars here in Romania, needless to say I enjoy them immensely. Here they're called "piata."

While groceries are ridiculously overpriced, everything else is dirt cheap. So for a superficial vacation it's more than ideal. Especially if you're a girl. But I also met really sweet people.

Their names are Costica and Mitica. Costica saw my camera as I was looking at his stand,

he said, "Where are you from? I saw your camera, you must be from somewhere else, the people here are dying of starvation." He was laughing while he said that, I explained I'm from Austria and asked if I could take a photo of his stand. He said yes and that I should take a photo of him and his friend as well, that I need to take them with me to Austria.

Then I found a white blouse, the owner of the stand offered to let me try it on in the back. I did and decided to buy it. When I wanted to pay her I struggled with the money since I'm not used to Romanian currency. I smiled apologetically and said that I'm not from here. She asked where I'm from and I said Vienna because everyone knows Vienna and it's very close to my hometown. My friend however told her the name of my hometown, the woman repeated it in disbelief and told us that her sister works there. We exchanged numbers and I promised her I'd come by before I leave because she wants to give me a package for her sister. Her name is Gaby.

More City

2011-03-14T17:23:00.000+01:00

The City

2011-03-10T18:46:00.000+01:00

It's been pretty exciting, now that I'm in the city. I've got loads of footage to edit, so meanwhile, here are some things I did and people I met.

This is Mariana. She is the daughter of the person that took me with her to Romania. Her hair is straight but she saw my curling iron and asked if I could do her hair.

Then I acquired some goods. With currency. Currency is an actual person, Mariana's neighbour, in fact. Her parents didn't really like her.

Romania

2011-03-06T21:44:00.000+01:00

It's been almost a week since I travelled to Romania. Until now I haven't had an Internet connection so I've been filming a lot, you can see some of that here. I met cannibal dogs, chickens, goats, baby goats, stray dogs and very nice people. Expect more exciting stuff now that I'm in a city nearby, though.

And then there's also this tradition in Romania, on the 1st of March every girl is supposed to get a gift, they sell them everywhere on that day and it's usually something with a flower. I'm not sure about the rules. Here's my first 1st of March thingy I ever got.

私の素敵な親

2011-02-12T01:19:00.001+01:00

The photo of my mother was taken in Romania but her natural hair was actually straight and dark blond, at the time she was studying medicine. My father's photo was taken in England, he was studying English but later he began studying medicine at the same university as her. They both had fros, because fros rule. I have so many pretty vintage photos that are subjected to natural decay, I think I will use this place to make them last longer.

Purple butterflies made of light

2010-11-10T09:00:00.006+01:00

My obsession with one building.

The reflections that look like purple butterflies made of light, show up only when it's winter and when there is snow. I'm pretty certain I'm the only person who discovered this, they would show up only for a very short time at 11am. The second set of windows that has the same effect shows up around 2pm but none of the windows in between are at the right angle for the sun to have this magnificent effect.

2010-11-10T02:58:00.000+01:00

So here's something I did for M[c]S, that way you know what my face looks like. The photos below are smaller than the original though.