(8/20/12) Mozart Time!

Cue the Mozart music! Finally, we got a chance to see all the Mozart posers who hassled us at the Graben in action. I absolutely loved the Mozart concert we attended this evening, which had an orchestra of Mozart-imitators and wonderful opera singers to complement the beautiful music. Although I did enjoy the first concert we went to, this one was much more entertaining, a tribute to one of the many great people who contributed to making Vienna, and Austria, well-known. The first concert we attended was set in the beautiful Karlskirche, but I personally preferred the bright, ornate setting of the Mozart concert to the church (perhaps we can chalk that up to church overload– I love a good church as much as the next Jew, but eventually, the Baroque churches start blending into each other). 

Oh look, another Baroque church!

In addition to the magic of the evening being set by a beautiful building with melodious music, I encountered a bit of a funny, culturally-weird happenstance. There was a young Chinese girl, no more than ten years old, sitting a few rows in front of us, and she spent most of her time playing with what I assume was her mother’s iPhone (yet, who knows, maybe it was hers). Occasionally, I would catch her texting in Chinese or looking at something online. It was distracting, but I also understood that when you’re ten, you’re not really interested in a Mozart symphony complete with opera in a language you really don’t understand. 

Then, we had intermission, giving us a chance to stretch our legs and down a red bull. The second half of the show was even more entertaining than the first, with upbeat Mozart tunes and exciting things happening with the opera singers. I was getting really into it, when the Chinese girl’s iPhone caught my eye. Particularly, a picture of my friends Annemarie and Maria caught my eye, on the background of the girl’s phone! She had snapped a candid shot of the two of them during intermission, and set it as her background. I was so taken aback that I just started laughing, and immediately told my friend Jon of what I’d seen. Unfortunately, she changed the screen by the time I could call his attention to what I’d seen. It took me a few minutes to refocus on the concert, as I’d never seen something like that before. Although, I also recalled on how before the Mozart show, we took pictures outside and some tourists started snapping picture of us. 

We did look fine...maybe that's why.

Later on, as I was telling the story to most of the people in our program while sipping on Hugos, my friend Gezi (who happens to be from China) mentioned that she had done that before when she was little. Apparently, taking pictures of white women as a Chinese girl is something kind of normal. I felt a little ignorant for finding it so funny initially, but it was just shocking to catch by accident. I love that in Europe I can have such a unique cultural experience at an already-unique cultural event. Go Vienna.