belated day 96

day 96
yesterday i went to the catacombs in st. stephans cathedral. first we did a tour of the church. it amazes me what the catholics claim is praise of god. the tour comprised mostly of showing us the big unfoldable wood carving of non biblical figures. and then a big marble tower thing with carvings on it. and a sand stone carving of mary. as a craftsman i looked at it from this perspective. every thing in the church was made by craftsmen but the catholics still place a relic type value on them. as a craftsman i have a hard time believing that anything i make has a higher value than my life. also i have a hard time beliving that any craftsman would belives that somthing that he is making with his hands has religious value. frankly it seems to go against the part of the bible were somebody ridicules idols saying that they are made from wood and the parts the craftsman doesn't use gets burned on a fire. well thats all the catholic bashing for this paragraph (if you want more read the next paragraph)
then we took a tour of the catacombs. we walked down there and i looked around seeing 2 hallways that seemed to go on into different rooms and then turned into other rooms making a web of rooms and hallways underground. i told andrea this place looks like fun. but it was actually quit small. we saw he tombs of the bishops and carnidals. then walked to the other less important people. then we walked to what the tour guide called "the fun part" the old mass graves of vienna. the first room was a small cave like room with cast iron bars covering a back lit window with bones scatered around in it. (this was pre plague) the next room was a mass grave room were there was a similar cast iron bared window looking over a bigger pile of bones. the next window was abunch of bones stacked around the window (i was obviously stacked to impress the viewer on the other side of the window.) then we walked up to the street and we all went our separate ways. (now comes the more catholic bashing (cover your eyes if you don't wanna read it) at the beginning of the catacomb tour he said please no pictures because that would disrespect the dead. honestly if i were dead i would be more offened if some people came dug up my grave and stacked my bones along with all of my friends bones in such a way to show my corpse off to tourists. and then charge to let people gawk at my remains.
after the tour i went to the central ofice and checked my email and noticed i hadn't been signed up for classes yet. i emailed my prof and asked why. he said i was not actually a senior i was one credit short (i hate it when people say i'm short!) and i had a debt on 24 cents to the college. i forwarded it to mom and dad and they cleared every thing up. it was amazing. i still can't get registared until monday but with the classes i am taking i shouldn't have a problem getting into them.
today i woke up and found out i still didn't have internet. so i went out to find a ATM. i couldn't find one any place. but i knew i saw one at the naschmarkt. so i went there with the intention of getting money and some bread and maybe a parsley plant. i got there i got the money and i looked at the produce area and everything was closed then it hit me today is a holiday so everything is closed. so i came back to my dorm did some planning of stuff. then went to the u-bahn to go to the central office to check my email. i transfered to the strassen bahn and on the train was a little boy talking to his mother (who wasn't paying attention to him) and he said somthing that i learned last month "er stiegt auch aus" using the seperatable verb "ausstiegen" (to exit a train) "er stiegt auch aus" (he also exited the train) "er stiegt nicht aus" (he doesn't exit the train) i laughed he probably new more geman than me and he was millers age. then a man (i assume the man he pointed at ans said he doesn't exit the train) said somthing i didn't catch. and the kid said somthing i didn't catch. then the man asked "wie hiesst du den" (whats your name) the kid said "ich hiesse tim" (my names tim) then the kid said "wie hiesst du den" and the man said amadeous (or somthing sounding like that) and the kid repeated and the man repeated like 3 times (the kid didn't understand that that was his name) then the mother decided to get off the train. the man and the kid continued to talk. it was fun to listen to. (i didn't remember that ausstiegen was seperatable until the kid said it.)
then i went to the office and checked my email i got 2 emails from my advisor and the registrar. they both wanted to know what classes i was taking in vienna. however my advisor asked about "core focus" classes i was taking. i didn't know what he ment. so i looked at my transcript and the student hand book and found out that inorder to graduate i have to complete 9 credits in one of the core fields. on my transcript it said i had 2 music credits already applied to that field. i started to get worried then i remembered i was taking 3 music credits here in vienna. so that would bring me up to 5. i was planing on taking swe next semester that would bring me up to 5.5 so i have to take another music group class to complete it (either orchestra or community band.)
so i'm still gonna graduate on time
the other email wanted more detailed into about the classes i was taking but i don't know any of that info so i'll ask ruth on monday when she gets back to the office. the email also wanted to know how i want my name put on my deploma. i think i want it to be "Phillip Mark VanderWoude" of course nobody knows how my last names is suposse to be spelled but i like it with the capital W and no space.
then i rode home and started typing this.
tomarrow i have class again. but i doubt any one will show up. if thats the case all the better for me, i like small class sizes.
i already mensioned my plan to ride my bike to yellow stone national park. however i realize that 25 days of camping and biking requires alitlle bit of experience and experimentaion first. so here is my pre-yellowstone bike tour plan. in mid march (spring break) i plan to ride my bike from pella iowa to farmington minnesota, camping in story city and albert lea. the total for camping should be under $50. and the total for food should be under $50 so if i use my workstudy money (which i will have enough of by that time) i should have no problems. a tent would cost about $100 and a tent is mearly a piece of fabric with poles so i decided it would be cheaper and probably lighter to just use a tarp some rope and some poles. the total milage is about 270 it will be split up into 80 the first day then 110 then 80 i would prefer to make the days more even but the choice of camp sites is rather limited. not sure about the rout yet. i know that cycling is permited on iowa highways but i think that they are prohibited on minnesota highways so once i get internet again in my room again i"ll figure it out.