The Leopold

There are a RIDICULOUS amount of museums in Vienna, here is another one I visited, they had a lot of Schiele pieces as well as some by Klimt.

























I just love this city so much, forget nyc, I'm moving to Vienna!!! (sigh, I wish).

The Natural History Museum!!!

I got into the natural history museum for free because apparently I can still pass for an 18 year old. And the museum was awesome!!! They were having a Darwin exhibit, but everything was in German, so I couldn't really understand what exactly was going on. Nonetheless the museum was full of old artifacts, interactive games, models, and replicas of things that were significant in history.

The coolest part about this museum???? THEY HAD THE FREAKING VENUS OF WILLENDORF!!! Not only is this piece historically significant, it is one of the most important pieces in art history! I remember back in sophomore year of highschool reading up on this very piece in my art history text book. Ahhhh nostalgia.

Ich liebe Philosophie!

I have been in Vienna now for about 6 days, I've been so crazy busy I haven't been able to update this thing! Being busy is a good thing though. From making new friends, to academics, I've been filling almost every moment of my day to the point of exhaustion! But its pretty rad, I love this place, I love the people, I love my studies in Philosophy.

In case ya'll didn't know, I am in Vienna studying at Universistät Wien (Vienna University :P ) at a 2 week summer session entitled "Scientific World Conceptions". Specifically, I am studying the Science of the Conscience Mind with a philosophical focus. I feel truly blessed to be given this opportunity, and I really feel like being here helped me confirm my decision to pursue philosophy as life long career. There are only 25 participants in the program and I get to work (m-f from 9-5) with renown philosophers as well scholars from around the world on the topic of consciousness, oh this really is my dream come true!

Ya wanna know the sweetest part? I have a sick dorm/apartment in a building thats really central to lots of cool stuff. I have my own room, kitchenette, bathroom, and its super spacious! Wish I could keep the apartment :P

I've met a lot of students from Duke here, as well as Owen Flanagan (a Professor at Duke) and they have all encouraged me to apply there for my Phd. I guess we'll see about next year :D

Aside from academics, I've been spending time with my fellow participants and exploring the city with tours set up for our program. We had a philosophical tour of Vienna on wednesday, some of the destinations included: Wittgenstein's house, Freud's apartment, and the location of the Original Vienna Circle (the original philosophers of the University of Vienna).

Ah a philosopher's dream come true! I'm in heaven.

Last Day in Paris & The Louvre

I had failed at going to the Louvre 3 days in a row for an assortment of reasons: it was closed one day, I woke up too late, etc. But finally, on my last day in Paris I made to the Louvre, and I decided to have an agenda. I decided that I wanted to see the 3 pieces used in the novel “The Da Vinci Code” (If you’re an art history nerd, I highly recommend that book). Anywho, as a goal for myself I wanted to take pictures with the 3 pieces, which I might add were some of the most famous and crowded pieces in the whole entire Louvre; they were: The Mona Lisa, Winged Victory, and the Venus de Milo.
As I wandered around searching for these pieces I came across many other gorgeous pieces, some of which I recognized. I felt like the art-historian in me was awakened all over again (fun fact: I applied to Berkeley as an Art Historian and even wrote a personal statement emphasizing my love and commitment for art history, but I quickly abandoned that when I arrived at college and discovered my TRUE LOVE for philosophy, muahahaha). The Louvre was truly magical, it was like the Disneyland of paintings.
After the Louvre, I packed my things, bought some crepes for the road, and said good-bye to Paris. <3