The Beginning of the End

Sorry to sound so Doomsday-sy (that word has got to be too cute for its intention) in the title, but today I have inadvertently taken down a mental landmark of, well... truly the beginning of my last days here.

Why today specifically?

As with second semester, I've simply become good friends with my tutors from first semester, now that they are no longer tutoring me*. Today, one of my tutors from last semester had sent me a text saying she had something to give me. I met up with her briefly at a café where she was with some friends, we greeted, and she handed me a delightful and heart-felt mixed CD. (Yes! Expanding my music horizons!) On it is mostly German music, but also some songs in French, English, (technically some Austrian, because there's a Mozart piece), and Spanish slotted in between the rest.

*FYI: Vanderbilt requires that I have a tutor for every class that I take. But I'm not really complaining. Without them, especially first semester, I would have drowned.

She lives a little ways outside of Regensburg and is going home tomorrow morning, so we hugged 57 different times and said a bittersweet goodbye. We didn't get to hang out as much as I realize we should have, but I'll really miss her. We had a good time, and I'm glad to have met her.


I popped it in and started listening as soon as I got back home. Track #1 is "Adieu" by 17 Hippies, and as I listened, I felt it draw a deep sigh from within me somewhere.

I've come here now to say "Adieu,"
The others have already gone and are waiting...

Click the link and give it a listen. Musically speaking, in certain categories, this is just my cup of tea. I love it.

The music she's given me is excellent, and I'm quite happy to find how much I like most of the tracks. Some are somber and mellow, like "Adieu," while others are purposefully humorous and make me laugh, like "Denglisch" (Deutsch/Englisch, a very well-known term between those who speak both languages) and "Mein kleiner grüner Kaktus" ("My Little Green Cactus"). And still there are a few that I already knew.

Track #14 is "Wonderful World" by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. I already knew this song because it was used in Juggleville III at Vanderbilt, which I was in last year. I always liked it a lot, but had never actually heard the entire song (just the segment during rehearsals and shows).

Thinking about leaving the people I've come to adore and love here, and then, listening to this track on this farewell CD, I suddenly burst into tears. Uncontrollable tears. I upgraded from Kleenex to hand towel in record time. I had to follow me with a mop.

But believe it or not, that was already the second time. When I was still on "Adieu," I read the small message in red that she also wrote for me at the bottom of the inside cover. It reads in German: "Dear Elayn, your year here has flown by far too quickly. It made me really happy that I got to know you. Best wishes for the future. Maybe one day, we will see each other again."


And when I reached the last sentence, I lost it. I'm sorry. I lost it.

This is truly the beginning of the end.

The Sound of Music

Most of the pictures are already explained in the photo album, so instead of describing every detail of the trip in long, boring, drawn-out detail that you probably won't have the patience to read, I'll just elaborate on a few trip stories here and there that are too long for the picture captions. Speaking of long stories, that was a long sentence.

From Whirlwind Alpine Tour

In Salzburg, we came across this marvelous music shop called Klanghaus Gandharva Loka (Klanghaus means "House of Sounds," which was extremely appropriate). This store was smaller than my bedroom, but had virtually hundreds of different instruments. The picture above is a mere portion of the woodwind collection alone. I couldn't believe how much they could fit in there.

I was particularly drawn to a few certain instruments:

Sansula - First, the Sansula (Sansula video). It's basically a variation of the Kalimba (Kalimba video), which in turn is a variation of the Mbira, an originally African instrument. (Isn't instrument evolution fascinating). The Sansula has the extra drum skin stretched around it, which you can than use on flat surfaces to bend the beautiful little notes and make "waa-waa" effects. At one point, he said, You can play with a wide spectrum of sounds using objects as well, whereupon he scattered three paper clips on the drum skin and played the instrument with yet another surprising timbre. I adored it and wish I had the €85 to spend for it.

Waterphone - The shopkeeper happily demonstrated any instruments we asked about, and the Waterphone (video) is the first instrument in the store that caught my eye. I'd never seen anything like it. I thought it was a percussion type of instrument, but surprisingly, he picked up a bow and started drawing it across the rods. WHOA! This heavy instrument filled the room like a cave. It produced something I thought was only available in cinematic sound effects :P . If you watch the video, be sure to see the whole thing for both methods of playing.

Singing bowls - Last but not least, I've now been motivated by this trip to get myself a Tibetan/Nepalese/etc. singing bowl (video). We even saw them a second time from a street vendor in Zürich, from whom Kristen actually bought a small one. I must get one! They really made an impression on me, and I love the deceptively small size for a sound you could probably hear from half a mile around. Also, they are often beautifully ornamented. I am smitten with this little, round, metal bowl.

We also got to sit in the "harp-chair" :

From Whirlwind Alpine Tour

Someone plays the long strings on the side of the (rocking)chair while you sit in it. It's sort of a series of low, eerie twangs. When it starts building louder and louder, you feel all the vibrations going through your body.

Oh, everything we touched in that little store made a sound, and not just any sound, but a beautiful sound. Kristen and I easily spent over an hour and a half in that shoebox-sized store. A definite highlight of our time in Salzburg.

Vienna, Street Artists

Kristen and I mapped out the trip shortly before departure, and we agreed to meet in Vienna on Saturday. We would then gradually work our way eastward and hopefully closer to Aix by the end of the trip. I would get to Vienna in the early afternoon and Kristen in the evening.

Unfortunately, the poor girl missed one of the trains on her first major experience with the European train systems. But she made it there early the next morning.

So I took Saturday to explore Vienna on my own. Along with all the areas I visited, I came across many a street artist, mostly all located throughout points in the Altstadt ("Old City"). This included several musicians, a diabolo (what's a diabolo?) artist, stunning break dancers, and ethereal spray paint landscape artists.

Oh, but pictures say 1000 words. And a video is like a really, really big sequence of pictures!