I ate gelato at Zanoni & Zanoni and if I could eat gelato every day I would come here. They have so many flavors and all the gelato servers speak Italian so it's fun to interact with them.
We went to the Lomography store and it's like I died and went to heaven. I love plastic toy film cameras. I was able to touch and play with all the cameras and gadgets that I've seen on their site. I bought a blue lomolito and I can't wait to use it.
There is a very serious student protest going on in Vienna right now. Everything started with a student occupation of the University of Fine Arts in Vienna. Two days later on Thursday last week a sudden turn happened after a spontaneous student protest at the Main University of Vienna. Hundreds of students invaded the finally occupied the biggest lecture hall of Austria - the Audimax. At the end of the afternoon a storm of students flooded the lecture hall. Thousands of present students of the Main University present at the Audimax agreed to form a plenum.
The plenum is based on a "grassroots democracy". Every day two plenums are held in the lecture hall. The present students elect two moderators twice a day. On this platform discussions are held about the current state of the movement and "task-forces" present their achievements during the day.
The movement is participatory and volunteers form and join "task forces". Those task-forces have the purpose to tackle certain administrative problems within the occupation. Although they are concentrate on their postulations.
Daily, thousands of students participate euphorically in the occupation and a new critical political atmosphere can be sensed among the Viennese student's community.
As a matter of fact, this motivation has jumped on several other universities in Austria and attracted a lot of attention in other universities around the world. Students in Graz, Linz, Klagenfurt and Innsbruck, what are other major university cities in Austria are protesting and occupying their universities. Messages and visits of professors from around the world are legitimizing the occupation in the Main University of Vienna.
After a week of prospering occupations around Austria universities, major protests were held in the whole of Austria. More than 30,000 students were on the streets of Vienna demanding their rights and their nonnegotiable postulations.
The demands of the protesters include funding for the democratization of the universities, as well as the abolition or non-introduction of tuition fees.
To view a full list of their demands, click here.
Sabrina made us a delicious cake, it was like nothing I've ever had before. The cake was moist and full of tiny poppy seeds, almost like a Lemon poppy seed muffin, only a hundred times better. The "frosting" was made out of yogurt and crushed berries. It was sooo good. Note: listen to Sabrina's speech, I love the way she talks and pronounces things, I could listen to her for hours.
Me, Sabrina and her roommate....
Her roommate was heavily involved in the student protests so that night she took some food to feed the student occupying the university. The internet plays a central role of communication and when she wasn't hanging out with us she was watching the live-feed of the University. She has been interviewed on television a few times and I admired her intense passion for the cause. That night Greg and Sabrina and I played cards and showed each other magic tricks.
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