das Wochenende

Hallo!
I have had a very eventful weekend!  On Friday, I had my first German test, which was really easy.  I think they're trying to make it so we don't have to study very much...a very nice gesture!  After my test, I registered for classes (2 music classes and 2 Viennese culture classes).  On Friday night, I went over to my friends' apartment and we ordered 2 GIANT pizzas for 5 euros.  I have become quite the expert with public transportation because I have to take a bus, the U-bahn, and a tram just to get to my friends' apartment in the 15th District (my apartment is in the 3rd District).  But after our pizza, we went to a couple different clubs in an area called the Bermuda Triangle.  The are was so neat!  Both of the clubs were underground and in what looked like wine cellars.  They were made completely of concrete bricks and had crazy lights.  They played really funny music...a lot of old cheesy American music, and one of them even played the Blues Brothers!  All of the clubs apparently have really good beer.  I've tried them and cannot make myself drink it, but my friends say it's really good and cheap compared to the U.S.  It's kind of neat because all of the beer that people usually order is made here in Vienna or at least in Austria.

Then on Saturday, I woke up at around 8 in the morning (I'm still pretty jet lagged I think!) and we went on a bus tour around the city.  The tour took us up into the base of the Alps just outside of Vienna and we had an incredible view of the entire city.  We also saw a famous building that has no right angles except for the windows because the architect had some weird belief against right angles.  After the bus tour, I went back to my apartment to eat dinner, my typical toast with Nutella, cheese and crackers, Pringles, and a couple scrambled eggs.  The eggs here are extremely yellow, but they're delicious.  My 2 friends live right next to a Turkish bakery, so I get loaves of bread from there that are really good with the cheese here.  I also treated myself to a chocolate croissant because they are just too good to resist on the weekends.  The food here drives me crazy because it is SO delicious but just unaffordable!  There are schnitzel, kabob, and pizza stands and extremely delicious bakeries everywhere, but we try to cook in our apartments as much as possible.  When we do splurge though, it is totally worth it.  Whoever said the food in Vienna is not good did not get the same food that I've gotten!  After dinner, I booked my plane tickets to Greece!!!!  We got really lucky because our plane leaves out of Budapest, so we're going a day early so we can spend a day there and see the city.  So our plan is to take a bus from Vienna to Budapest for the day, then fly to Corfu for 3 days, then fly to Athens for 3 days, then fly back to Vienna.  I am so beyond excited, I can hardly stand it!!

Today we all woke up around 8 again (it's ridiculous!) so we got up and went to the Schonbrunn Palace.  It was beautiful and is right next to the Botanical Gardens.  We spent pretty much the whole afternoon walking all around there and laying out in the sun because it was so nice out.  When I got back to my apartment, I struggled with the washing machine, but finally figured it out.  There is no dryer, so everything has to hang on a drying rack.  Our apartment looks like a clothing store!  Tonight we are going back to the Rathaus to watch a showing of the Viennese Philharmonic.  The film festival is almost over, so we are trying to squeeze as many concerts and delicious food in as we can before opera season starts.  I think that's all of the exciting things that happened this weekend, but hopefully much more to come!!  I put a couple pictures up of the Schonbrunn Palace and a few other things so you can see a few of the places I'm talking about.  I couldn't get them to go where I wanted, so it might look a little discombobulated, sorry!  Salud!

First Week of Class

Hallo!
I'm almost done with my first week of classes and I think I've gotten to know my way around a little better!  I've figured out how to get to class, the grocery store, the gelato shop, and my friends' apartment without getting lost.  I got to do a couple of really neat things the past few nights, which helped me figure out some of the subway and tram lines.  On Tuesday night, there was a huge screen set up in front of the Rathaus, which is kind of the city hall of Vienna.  The building is BEAUTIFUL and there were so many delicious vendors all over.  All of you guys would have loved it!!  I didn't get any food, but it all smelled fabulous.  The concert was a broadcast of a live performance of Mahler's Symphony in F-sharp performed by the Cleveland Orchestra.

Wednesday was one of my favorite days yet...I got up and went to class early in the morning and studied in this beautiful study room in the palace that my classes are in until my friends got out of class.  After class, my friend Katie and I went exploring around the main street by our school.  We saw all kinds of churches and cafes and got some delicious gelato.  After we had taken a million pictures on the street, we went to the Belvedere Palace, which is about 5 minutes from my school and 10 minutes from my apartment.  I was so proud because I knew exactly how to get there!  The view of the palace is amazing and there were gardens and sculptures and fountains everywhere.  We got there too late to go inside, but we're going to go back when we have plenty of time to explore.  After the Belvedere, we went back to Rathaus for a screening of a performance of Hansel und Gretel, which is a opera by Humperdinck.  The opera itself was a little strange, but the Rathaus is so amazing that we all had an incredible time.  This time, I couldn't resist the food, so we all got the most absolutely fabulous Nutella crepes...Leah would have died!  I think I ate it in less than 30 seconds.  After the opera was over, the vendors stayed open and we found another area that was set up in a tent up some stairs.  It was a neat set-up because everything was outside and the weather here is beautiful at night.  The weather is very similar to Colorado, but maybe a little warmer during the day.

Today, I had class again and went to a delicious sandwich shop with some people from Emory.  I also got a gelato, which is almost as good as the gelato in Italy (if I remember right!)  After the yummy lunch, I just went back to my apartment and met my friends at a cafe once they were out of class.  Tonight will probably be pretty boring because I have a German test tomorrow, so I've got to study a LOT.  I guess my German isn't as good as I thought it was before I left... :)  On the upside, we decided that we are going to Greece for my 10 day post-intensive German break!  My friends Katie, Carrie, and I are going to fly into Athens and stay there for a few days before we take a bus to Corfu.  Then we're going to fly to Budapest and catch a bus back to Vienna.  (We won't get to stay in Budapest at all though, so hopefully I can go there when Mom and Dad come to visit!)  But anyways, I suppose I should study.  I'm going to post some more pictures onto Snapfish soon so hopefully you guys can take a look!  The link is http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2032729027/a=3578814027_3578814027/ in case you don't have it.  You might have to make an account to view the pictures, but it's really easy.  They send you a lot of emails though, so you should probably use a junk email address.  Anyways, I'll write more in a few days!  Auf Wiedersehen!

p.s. I forgot to tell Mom and Dad that I picked up a few boxes of Tucs at the grocery store the other day...yummy dinner tonight!

Weekend in the Alps!

This is my first few days away from home!  I feel like I've been all over the place in such a short amount of time.  On Wednesday, I flew from Orlando to Washington, D.C. to Vienna.  The plane to Vienna was amazing!  All of the flight attendants were dressed in red outfits from head to toe and the seats were lime green with red pillows and blankets...it was so cute!  Lots of people from my program were on the plane, so we lugged our ENORMOUS suitcases into a taxi and to the U-Bahn station, which is the train system in Vienna.  We waited at the station for a couple of hours and ordered pastries and coffee while we waited for our program leaders to come meet us.  From the station, we took a 3-hour bus ride to Mariazell, which is a small town in the Alps that is close to Styria, Austria.  Mariazell is most known for being a site of Catholic pilgrimages because it has a beautiful bascillica with a special statue of the Virgin Mary.  (I'm not totally sure why it is so much more special than other statues, but it was beautiful!!)  We have been staying in a hostel, but it is as nice as almost any hotel.  (It even had chocolates on the pillows!)

Other than going to meetings about the program, we have been able to do two main activities during the day and random things at night.  On Friday, I went to an amazing lake that was about a 15 minute bus ride from our hostel with one of my program leaders and a bunch of other students.  We stuck out pretty obviously as being American, but all of the locals were really nice.  We rented an electric boat and just laid out on the lake and took pictures.  On Saturday, we went into the town of Mariazell and toured the bascillica and walked around eating.  I have never seen anything like Mariazell...it is such an incredible sight!!!!  Mom and Dad, I think you guys should for sure drive there while I'm in class when you come to visit!  I can't even imagine what the town is like with snow.  On Friday night, we had a "surprise," which was a group of about 8 dancers dressed in traditional Austrian dress.  They did a couple of dances for us and then taught us to dance.  Part of the tradition is drinking this weird honey drink and eating bread in between dances, so the dancers would frantically give out the drink to all 150 us using only about 5 glasses.  It was mass chaos, but so much fun!  Then on Saturday night we were taught how to do the Viennese waltz, which is apparently different from the American waltz.  So I am now ready to go to one of the traditional Viennese balls...I am so excited!  After all of the dancing on both nights, we sat outside with an incredible view of the bascillica and the Alps.

On Sunday, we drove back to Vienna and moved into our apartment.  Our landlady speaks almost no English, so it was a pretty interesting situation.  Our apartment is a beautiful old apartment that is really close to the tram, subways, and delicious bakeries and gelato shops.  Today (which is now Monday night) we had our first day of class, so we took the tram all the way to the building where I have my classes.  The building is an old palace, so the school is absolutely beautiful!  (Even though there is no air conditioning!!)  It is also really close to the Belvedere palace, which is one of the most famous landmarks in Vienna.  After German class, in which I shamelessly butcher my German, I went with a few people from Emory to an Irish pub where I got a delicious chicken schniztel.  I forgot to mention the food in the hostel, but needless to say nobody in my program ate the entire time we were there.  So it was pretty nice to get back to Vienna and eat delicious food.  I also got the most amazing chocolate croissant before I went to class, so my tummy was very happy today.  After lunch, I went over to my friend's apartment that has 12 girls living in it and is huge and absolutely amazing.  It has an incredible view of the city, so I stayed there all day and we ate outside (Mom, you would be proud!) and then I took the train home.  My friends and I wanted to go out, but we got so lost on the train that they ended up just going back home once I finally found my apartment.  We took 4 different trains and finally ended up taking a taxi back to my apartment.  Even the taxi was confusing because I can barely pronounce my street name (Eslarngasse!!)  But I will have to write more and put up pictures later because all of my roommates are sleeping and I have to get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow for German class.  Gute nacht!!!