The amazing Ms. V
Veronika gave me an interview yesterday. Here she is at her photo shoot right after:
"Among the golden corn rows of Indiana"
The Americans have a fascination with Europe. It's the "foreign" place to go: it has similar lifestyle yet is so much more,well, - "euro".
As a European I have always felt American tourists were a little strange. I guess, like many, I resented their quantity - but now I understand that it obviously isn't their fault: their country is just huge, so understandably they will come in throngs.
Having lived here for 3 1/2 years (I know, it's a reaaally long time so I must know what I'm talking about! ;) I have to say I feel my suspicions confirmed. Europe is like Disneyland for Americans. You go there to travel from attraction to attraction in order to get a different feeling from each place but those places are not "real", they are here to entertain you, not to be taken seriously.
If you want romance, obviously you will go to Paris (as shown in this movie) and enjoy those cute little bistros while you wear black and think of Audrey Hepburn in Charade. For a more serious romantic experience you will - of course! - go to Italy, preferably Tuscany, where you will obviously buy a villa on impulse, buy a white dress and meet new people. Read: fall in love with a hunky Italian who has lived a pictoresque life in a pictoresque village just so he can finally meet his American sweetheart. On the other hand if you are looking for a more historical or cultural experience you will visit Prague (I could say Czech Republic, but let's be honest, can anybody name a Czech city besides Prague?) or Russia or some other Eastern European country, hoping it's one that still suffers under Communist-Regime-leftovers so you get some good pictures of Lenin statues, empty grocery stores or people dressed in gray.
Generally though it has to be noted that people in those countries serve more or less as extras, hired by the travel agency to supply us with all the necessary details to make the whole thing as believable as we've seen it on TV.
Sitting in Indiana, where people take it for granted that even the best restaurant in town will be located on a busy street in a regular strip-mall-type of building, I get really frustrated. Why don't people make their own surrounding "romantic", "pictoresque" and "cultural"? Why not make beautiful things part of everyday life? It baffles me. People here will have gorgeous houses, with pretty porches, seasonal decorations, different shaped windows, impeccable yards, but then they go and throw their main public buildings into shapeless boxes that get destroyed every 5 years to make room for a new parking lot or something.
Well, there's always museums and Disneyland. And Europe. :)
Posted at 08:11 PM on October 29, 2003 | Comments (9)Thank you!
... all for your admiring words. I like the site quite a bit myself. I might just have a piece of Milka in your honor!
Posted at 08:09 PM on October 29, 2003Close your mouth
I know you are impressed! This is the new look of dinka, the website, designed by me and put into practice again by my dear husband. Feel free to compliment us on our creative intuition, our smooth collaboration, our good looks, high income, flashy car (it's a mini-van), our blarblarblar...
Posted at 10:07 PM on October 26, 2003 | Comments (8)We do fun stuff too!
It seems having a child makes you become more active - at least in our case. Suddenly there is the urge to make plans for the weekend. I suppose it has something to do with the fact that there is currently no time for entertainment for Lincoln and me - well, anything that goes beyond watching a movie half asleep. So we ventured out in the autumnal forests and had lots of fun. Even the dog.
Click here to launch Autumn Adventures
Look at my baby!
Some of you have seen these already but now they are available to the public: two little movies of Veronika smiling and cooing... be prepared to say: AAAWWWW! Check it out frequently because I'll be adding more.
The other links will take you to www.snapfish.com where you can order prints :)
Posted at 11:17 AM on October 17, 2003 | Comments (1)Schmatz!
You know your family loves you when you live in the USA, yet your coffee, bread and cheese have German labels on them! :)
As Reinhard F. would say: "I am from Austriaaaaa!"
Posted at 05:06 PM on October 12, 2003 | Comments (1)Surprise
(I posted, I posted!!! I did it! ... freedom, freeedom, freeeeedom!)
People say when you have a baby you instantly love the new child and are happy beyond words. I was secretly wondering if that was true. Then I had the baby and well, I'm not sure that's how it happened for me. Oh, I was happy beyond words and I loved my baby but looking back it seems more to me like going through labor was as if someone had hit me with a baseball bat over the head and out of shock I didn't just drop but started running for my life. And only now I feel like I'm slowing down. It's as if there was no time to feel just exhilarated and happy... from the terror and disbelief that after that marathon delivery I was not going to have a full night's sleep for months to the terror and disbelief that this baby would not nap anywhere else but in my arms two months later.
I can switch from wanting to run away from it all in one minute to missing her terribly right after she went to sleep in the other. Still, I noticed that from the start I have loved her in a completely new way. It's as if all the pain and discomfort of motherhood has slowly peeled away layers of fog and dust to reveal a constant and simple reality: I love like I haven't loved before. And it has nothing to do with happy baby feelings or pink fluffy thoughts. Believe me, those are gone after the first nap-less day. This love is different - it's there whether I have feelings or not, it's a normal reality like daylight... it's just there. Still, it surprised me because I had never experienced it before. It's like having the ominous pink elephant in your yard and thinking it's the most normal, yet completely unexpected thing to see there.
I realize motherhood has to give you some special powers, otherwise it's humanly impossible work. Until now I didn't know what 100% really means. No, I'm serious. And nobody could have prepared me for that, because it seems only your own child can trigger such dedication. Even on days when I really really don't feel like it.
Posted at 04:15 PM on October 12, 2003 | Comments (1)The morning of disaster
My goodness, this is so embarassing. I'm going to go hide. Austria does not deserve this... well, California does neither, but then again they voted!
Posted at 07:41 AM on October 08, 2003 | Comments (13)Babies-rabies
(It's a rant, take it with a grain of salt)
I've made a new experience since I had my daughter (talk about understatement): she is an attraction. Not so much for being Veronika Therese Souzek but for being "a baby". Now, I'm going to be honest with you, whether you agree with me or not, whether I'm right or wrong: I don't like it.
I'm a jealous mom. I love my daughter to death and I don't see why I need to let everyone and their brother satiate their cravings for babyness in their life with my baby-girl. I don't mind respectful admiration, yes, you can hold her, too (if you ask me first), I just don't get the whole "Oh-I-need-to-hold-someone's-baby"-thing. Get your own. Get a doll. I don't know... but MY daughter's MINE!
All I want for Christmas...
... is T I M E.
I think I didn't realize I will just have to go through a mourning phase for all the time I don't have anymore and all the activities I liked and took for granted.
Oh well, but I have this instead!