Notes on Eurovision

Since I´m Icelandic I´m a big fan of Eurovision, it´s very big in Iceland, everybody watches it and celebrate it with big parties. I think mostly because it happens to be around the time when people are graduating and finished with exams so it´s just another reason to celebrate! Also because we don´t compete in a lot of international competitions (at least not as big as these ones). 

1) Azerbaijan
Good song, beautiful voice and stunning dress. I particularly liked the dancer and the extra effects like wind machine and lights...it helped since it was a calm song and the singer didn´t move much. But when she moved during the "drip drop drip drop" I couldn´t help but laugh..

2) Spain
Interesting song and characters on stage. Good singers.
Did you notice the guy who came on stage and was later taken by security...what an entrance!!

3) Norway
Beautiful song and melody but his voice bugged me.

4) Moldovia
I remembered the woman from the semi-finals because of her makeup, the moves by the guys were so funny. At least they had a blast performing. That was obvious. Otherwise funky clothes.

5) Cyprus
His voice really impressed me, such a sweet one. The song was only ok, not really memorable.

6) Bosnia&Herzegovina
Interesting to hear a rock song in Eurovision...but not my cup of tea

7) Belgium
Nice voice and mellow song, haven´t heard such mellow song with only guitar in Eurovision=interesting. I bet next year more indie artists will try out for Eurovision after hearing this.

8) Serbia
Remember a few years ago, Serbia sent a woman that looked like a man, well this year they did the opposite. Didn´t really like the song or the performance, but i predict it will be popular in dance clubs.

9) Belarus
 This reminded me of old Eurovision songs, which were majority melodies. I liked the glitter dresses. Interesting to have the wings appear when they sang about butterflies :P

10) Irland
Irland has won most Eurovision contests with their slow songs so no wonder that they have a slow song. It sounded more like a soundtrack music than Eurovision entry.

11) Greece
OPA! typical greek...loved it. Very interesting choreography.

12) United Kingdom
interesting stage setup with the boxes and backup singers on top , but a horrible song and badly sung. Such a shame since UK has amazing singers.

13) Georgia
Beautiful voice but the modern dance choreography did more for the song than the song itself.

14) Turkey
Interesting music, very different from anything else this year.  Too much lighting for my taste. Loved the robot (woman) dancer in the back.

15) Albania
I liked that they had modern music once again (in the past they´ve had too traditional music) but i didn´t like her outfit. Otherwise nice rhytm and good voice.

16) Iceland
My homecountry, we´re eurovision fanatics so we pick very carefully who goes each year. I´m so proud of Hera, she was amazing, sang so well and i loved the choreography of the background singers. Didn´t like her dress, liked more the one that she had in the video (where i used to swim in school, funny). Loved the volcano on their waiting desk. Nobody can say we we don´t have humor :P

17) Ukraine
What a voice, very emotional but i barely understood her english

18) France
Good summer song...Ale, ale , ale...i don´t know what they were singing about but their movements were very diverse, everything from acrobatics to bootylicious.

19) Romania
Liked the piano and her voice (especially when she went up high)...will definitely played in the clubs

20) Russia
Slow song, talking in between.... was ok. Nothing more, nothing less.

21) Armenia
Interesting music, clothes and instrument

22) Germany
Really interesting and catchy song, couldn´t believe she was German since her English was really good. Unfortunately her dance moves were not. She should have had some dancers.

23) Portugal
Beautiful voice, song and outfit. Very charismatic and worked the camera well. Reminded me a bit of Christina Aguilera. 

24) Israel
Ok song..very dramatic and nice voice.

25) Denmark
Interesting play with the wall and seperation of the two singers. Easy on the wind machine. Otherwise good song.

My favorite were Iceland, Greece, Germany, Azerbaijan, Portugal, Denmark and Belgium. I´ll say Albania too because my boyfriend is from Kosovo.

I loved the flashmob dance (both in Norway as around the world), especially showing from people´s living room, so funny. Nice way to kill time.

I was worried after watching the semi finals that it would be a boring competition but it turned out to be the opposite, really interesting songs and fun competition. Norway did such a good job hosting it.

Germany WON! Although I didn´t like her performance i love the song so I´m very happy with the results.




Great Eurovision. To celebrate we can dance the fabulous mob dance

Ice-English MP3 player

If you haven´t notice I have an amazon mp3 player on the sidebar featuring songs in English by Icelandic artists (Steed lord, Bjork, Sigurros, Gus Gus, Paul Oscar, Emiliana Torrini, Sprengjuhöllin and Hera) or as I call them Ice-English songs....check it out! Which one is your favourite?

"This is dedicated to the one I love"

In my earlier posts, I totally forgot to mention our datenight.

Those who haven´t seen Date Night should go see the movie, it´s hilarious...but then again it has Tina Fey and Steve Carrell, can´t go wrong with those two in a movie. And i saw it in German so if it´s good in German it´s amazing in English.

Back to our datenight, Me and Lumi went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D. It was my first 3D experience and i thought it was great to have Alice in Wonderland in 3D, since it fits the story and Tim Burton´s world really well. Although, I couldn´t help but laugh at us with those funny 3D glasses. Too bad we had to return them, would have made a great christmas card ,heheh

Anyhow, since my love works in a club as a bartender from 6 pm to 6 am, he doesn´t have much time for anything else but sleep so when he gets some free time we normally spend it together at home, watching TV&movies and relaxing. Only occasionally do we actually leave the house.

Lately we´ve  done tons of things, he took me to a stroll in the city center and dinner at an Italian restaurant, went shopping the other day (where he bought me a beautiful pair of shoes) and best of all, he surprised me at a graduation party of my friends. He even bought a round of shots for my girls.

Do I have the best boyfriend or what?

Raindrops keep falling on my head

I´m literally "Singin' In The Rain" ...it´s like British weather here in Vienna these days. It doesn´t stop raining. The worst was Thursday the 13th, I haven´t seen such rain since Florida ´95 (anyone who has seen rain in Florida, knows what I mean).

On the same day, i had to say goodbye to my friend Patricia, who graduated and was leaving to Romania. I joked that this was how much i was crying and pointed at the rain outside. I went with u3 from stephansplatz (see map below) in the direction of ottakring (orange line). My u-bahn only went until volkstheater (because of some water damage at Westbahnhof, which meant i had to take u2 to karlsplatz, u4 to hietzing and 10 to Hütteldorferstrasse and walk from there. What normally takes me 20 minutes took 1 and a half hour.

When it rains, it pours and that´s Austria for you. The streets were filled with water, up to the sidewalks even. It was chaos. Meanwhile I was just amazed at the rain and it´s affect on the public transportation. It´s fine for now, I haven´t been feeling well (in and out of doctor´s office) so I´m fine with the weather, i sleep better in the rain :P but it better get better when my best friend is coming in June. I want some summer in Vienna...and that includes sun :P

My favourite video these days

Happy mothersday

My sister, the mother of twin girls, me and then our mother.

My way of saying happy mothersday to all the moms reading this.
I´m amazed at everything you do. You are stars. Enjoy this day!

Buy the ash from Eyjafjallajökull

Do you want a piece of the ash from the unpronounceable Icelandic volcano (Eyjafjallajökull) that stopped airtraffic in europe, as a souvenir?

The Icelandic web store Nammi.is is now selling the ash....check it out
http://nammi.is/icelandic-volcano-ash-160-gr-p-2306.html

March-April

So I´ve talked a lot about Vienna vs. Iceland, my perspective but here is what I´ve been up to

3 months of German classes done, 3 months to go. I actually like the course, our group is very international, each from different country, Turkey, Poland, Egypt, Serbia and Lithuania. Two people already left us because they got jobs but the group became even closer because of it. Our teacher is wonderful, very patient, open,  and makes sure we understand what she´s teaching us. She also picks out good exercises. But it can get intense, studying German 4 hours from Monday-Thursday.

I´m also on the lookout for jobs, I got another interview at Western Union (another department), they wanted me but it was only a part time job so i couldn´t accept. I have another interview this week with another company so we´ll see how that goes. I´m always applying.. still waiting for the right job to come along. I want a job that I´m interested in so If I have to wait for it so beat it.

"Cha...cha...cha ..cha...changes" Valentina (the owner of my dance studio) had to quit, which left me sad since she made this dream a reality, opened up her own studio with blood, sweat and tears (literally) so to have it be in the hands of others is unfair. In my mind it will always be her studio. We (the teachers) bought her a little book, wrote sweet messages with pictures,  and gave her at her goodbye party. Then she invited us all to her apartment for a final goodbye. It was so sad. I´ll miss having her there and the events that the teachers had because of her. It was great to be a part of something special like that so I´m grateful for that.

I quit the jazz lessons. They were not working and since the summer is coming I knew that even fewer people would attend so I quit it. But no worries, I might have a jazz workshop later on where people can sign up and come. Until then I have wedding workshops (http://www.casomai.at/Hochzeitsworkshop.html). I had one the other day. Man i love teaching people in love how to dance. It´s so adorable.

I attended my first Austrian Graduation, my friend Sanja became a doctor (a real one). It was held in the big room (Grosser Festsaal) at the University of Vienna. That building is so beautiful and the room was exquisite. The ceremony was short and sweet, first came in the professors (dressed in black capes with weird hats on) and then the students (dressed eloquently) and sat down on chairs on the left side and in the direction of the podium. The professor spoke, joked and then each student had to come to the professor, place their hand on oak and say in latin "I swear" (totally different from the oath on Grey´s Anatomy, hehehe). Then they received their diploma...more latin spoken and done. It was barely an hour and afterwards we went to the next room where each student had his/her own table (with water/champagne/orange juice) and catering. I liked it. So now i call my friend Dr. Sanja

So when i was not in class I met my friends Claudia, Tina, Teodora,Sanja and the Cashmere mafia. I also went to my friend Anca´s housewarming party (great apartment) and met old school colleagues from Webster and some new people. 

Best one was when i met Tina at the bar 15/16, we sat at a table of four and the waiter told us we could sit there until the people who reserved it came. The later it got more guys came in and wanted to sit next to us. Since it was reserved the waiter kept kicking them off our table. So we thought of a great way for girls to meet guys. Reserve a table for four (you two opposite) at a bar when a big football tournament is on and then pick and choose the guys you want sitting next to you. Not bad ;)

I´ve been jamming with a band called The Hurricane Project. The band consists of four Austrian guys in their late thirties/early fourties, playing keyboard, bass, guitar and drums. We play a mixture of songs, from AC/DC, Joan Jett, Cher, Bryan Adams to Robbie Williams, Queen and Bon Jovi. It´s really fun. I didn´t want to say anything since we just started but I really like playing with them.

It was cool because on my dad´s birthday I could sing with them "Another Brick on the Wall" since my dad loves Pink Floyd. I also dedicated a video to him (from simpsons) on my site.

Talking about my site. I just opened a new look on my site... check it out
www.brighten-your-day.com

I´ve been sick, started with a throat ache, then runny nose and finally such bad cough i got stomach cramps. I went to the doctor and got some medicine. Turns out I have low blood pressure as well so i will have a blood test next Wednesday, until then i have drops to even out the blood pressure. No fun.

But it´s the end of the month and I´m finally better so now i can start fresh, healthy and new.