nice people and not so nice people

yesterday was my last day with the english II class - another eight weeks over in what seemed like the blink of an eye! my students gave me a mandarin tree, now called amy, and a couple of frogs (not real!) that i can try to throw at the wall if i feel like it: ferdinand and floggy. and chocolate and candles. :) we threw a farewell party on the last day, of course. ;)

i have recovered from being ill, and the weather is now back to summer, very hot, too hot to be working in stuffy rooms or spending more than three minutes on the u1 underground trains. thursday evening i honestly thought i'd pass out in there. ugh.

but what other way to get to my date? and that thursday evening was most definitely worth it. a perfect summer evening on a terrace, stars out, and late at night a bit of mist hovering just above the ground on neighbouring fields ... a candle, a couple of drinks, pistachios and chocolate, good music ... relaxed conversation, laughter ... and the rest, my dear readers, will not be disclosed (no, not even for the sake of science, valerio! *g*).


but ... tonight this girl here is not quite so thrilled and wondering where exactly it says "please piss me off!" or "show me how much of an asshole you can be!" - or is standing women up and generally behaving like complete bastards the latest fashion among men?? in this particular case, maybe i should have seen it coming. maybe so. but that does not make it right. by the time it became obvious that the man in question had better things to do than stick to his promise, it was too late for anything else, so i spent the evening at home, working, and chatting. sometimes i really am beginning to think i should give up on men altogether.

no new poetry. but i now have copies of alex stolis's and my chapbook signed by us both, so if you fancy a chapswap or would like to buy one of these (rare) copies, get in touch!

we've received our copies of the book about the armenian massacres in turkey, so i have started reading and taking notes, and we will decide soon which parts will be translated by ka and by me respectively.

i am re-reading cecilia woloch's late, and some of the poems choke me up no matter how often i read them. such great work. and i still have tons of (chap)books piled up that i hope to get around to reading soon: latest additions are ivy alvarez's mortal and sam byfield's from the middle kingdom.

off to bed now, i am an official photographer at steve gander's videoshoot for copulate and populate tomorrow (today, really)!

oh, and: me!




song of the day: salsa caliente by marisa monte & cesaria evora.

the working life and the other life

my english III class ended on wednesday - my farewell presents from my lovely students were two books, one about alaska (i had mentioned it was my big dream to go there) and a survival handbook (to avoid meeting the same fate as chris mccandless of into the wild), chocolate for comfort and tissues to dry my tears. :)

i had a reunion with some students of the previous english group last weekend - unfortunately some could not make it, and some did not show up, which i found disapppointing. but it was lovely to see those who were there!

more work for me: monday i started working afternoons as well as mornings. what i am doing is new for me. i'm working with under 21's, helping them with job-hunting, preparing them for job interviews, personality development, etc. georg, who is responsible for the english trainings and this q4u project, said i was his first choice for the job, which is nice feedback. :) the good thing is that i will not have to worry about finding work the rest of the year, the down side is the commuting that takes up my one-hour lunch break. it's quite nice that one of my ex-colleagues, heinz, is now working at the same office again, and one of our old colleagues, franz, works downstairs for another company. :) so far, things are going okay, though a couple of the youngsters can be quite a pain in the butt at times. ;)

i also had to turn down two jobs on tuesday - one translation job, and one as a business english trainer. much better than last year when i was so worried about not finding enough work!

* * * * *
me and my tattoo are both fine - it is healing well, and i am very happy with it. i guess i am getting another one done on my birthday, although i actually feel like doing it sooner. but i will have to figure out what and where. maybe alice, the wonderland girl.

* * * * *
i met poet cecilia woloch on thursday, she was reading at shakespeare & co in vienna's first district with my friend hillary keel. i fell in love with cecilia's poetry straight away. check her out on the web!

and yesterday it was kafka time again - open mic sans mic, this time, due to a missing cable. and i swore right after my five minutes that i would not use the mic there ever again - i felt so, hm, i guess, liberated. i have come to really enjoy reading, but i never feel absolutely comfortable with the mic. and yesterday it was almost like trying it out at home! i read two of my alice poems (the first two when you follow the link) and got looooovely feedback from several people.

girl not quite able to pull off the missing-someone-look amidst all the laughter


all in all i thought the quality of the poetry and stories was particulary good last night. hillary keel - yesterday's MC - kicked the reading off, we heard work by jean almeida, sylvia petter, carlota rokita, evelyn holloway, nathan horowitz, der kosmonaut, horst prillinger as well as some first-timers and special guest cecilia woloch. she is quite a lovely person and her poetry really is beautiful. steve gander finished off a sometimes very raunchy evening with his classic song "copulate and populate". yay!

special guest cecilia woloch


kafka laughter: sylvia petter, cecilia woloch, bob hewis, hillary keel


steve gander in action


i went to salz&pfeffer with sandro miori to talk business (website) until about 02.45 and i did not actually get to bed until nearly 5!

bottle shapes

quote of the night: "try to unblur your face! you're moving in six different directions at the same time!" (nathan to me, trying to take a picture entitled "girl missing mexican")

* * * * *
today, the unthinkable happened: i bought a dress. my first in i-don't-know-how-long (except wedding dress and a ball gown). so, unless i take it back to the shop, some of you might actually get to see me in it.

ah yes, and the euro2008 has finally begun. let the next few weeks pass by quickly. please.


song of the day: cut here by the cure.