Day of Second Bests

Since I couldn't actually be with my family tonight, I got the second best thing.

Skype Session with the family! But Daddy's face was blocked a bit...

So, I took another photo of him... dancing!

I slept all of this morning and then spent the afternoon at the Naturhistorisches Museum with about 8 other stranded IES kids. Then Abe, Jess, Steph, and I went out to Wok and More! A chinese restaurant with a buffet, in which you create your own Hauptspeisen, or entrees, from a selection of meats, veggies, noodles and sauces. Basically Mongolian Barbeque, but buffet style and way better. I've got about 3 hours before I take off to the airport. Wish me luck!

Flight Updates!

I went to the airport this morning - left at 3 am after half an hour of sleep - where after a mess of fun, we were all told that unless you were flying directly to Amsterdam to be in Amsterdam, then you could not fly on the flight and they would not check you in.

Luckily, since I had left at 3 in the morning to get there, I was the first person in line and the second to the reticketing window. At the time, many of the major hubs were canceling flights left and right and the standbys for almost everything were totally full. So, I am confirmed on a direct flight from Vienna to Toronto tomorrow, at 10:30, arriving at 2:00. The I leave Toronto for Detroit at 16:15 and land at 17:35 on a small jet plane (with propellers!!!).

Alas, I will not be home today, but I should get out tomorrow, since Vienna is still flying and tomorrow the snow should be stopped. I am lucky, after I was done I totally randomly ran into Abe in the airport - what are the chances?! - and he had spent 17 hours in the airport yesterday trying to get home. Today he again had no luck and is on a flight tomorrow. Yikes. Positive: his Austrian friend drove me home! Negative: I had to lug my present-filled suitcase up 5 flights of stairs. Yikes.

Home Sweet Home

Home is funny word. I am very comfortable using the word "home" for where ever I am at the moment. The Amazonian jungle lodge, the shady hostel near the Rome train station, the tiny bunk bed in Maple, the dorm room in Ann Arbor: where ever I lay my head. The saying, "home is where the heart is" doesn't necessarily describe what I consider home. Because, you see, my heart is always at 28727. Fortunately, the amazing, wonderful, incredible people who made 28727 feel like home, taught me how to create the same warm, loving, caring environment where ever I go. My surrogate homes feel almost the same as that dear old suburbian house, with only one thing missing:

Lucky for me, I leave in about an hour to (hopefully - let's see if I can beat the snow) get on a plane and head home. A three week vacation at the best place on earth - I deserve it.

Frugurt. Yogurt Style.

Got a Christmas present from my favorite Asian grocery store today!

It was like one of trips to the Asia Mart, when I only buy things that I don't recognize. But now in small quantities with a gold ribbon! The exciting contents are as follows:

- "Frugurt. Yogurt Style." Mandarin Single Serving Yogurt.

- Mysterious Silver wrapper with surprise inside. Surprise: Seasame seed granola bar thing. Yes, it is as weird as it sounds.

- 21 peanuts

- A "lemon flavour" hard candy in a green wrapper

- A hard candy in a red wrapper, with only chinese writing explaining what it is. I think it is Lychee!!! YUM!!! So much better than lemon.

- One "Glückskekse" or Gelukskoejes or Fortune Cookie!

Best gift eva!!!

Hippie Crap

Today was our last official meeting of the Musicology Internship and Dr. Solvik gave us a ton of things to have ready for today. Unfortunately, 1 hour and 30 minutes is not enough time to go through everything, so all of that work which I did, including completing a thematic analysis of the first 500 measure of Mahler's 1st symphony, was for naught. I mean, not completely, I did learn and all that blah di dee blah hippie crap, but still.

Writing that made me realize, I have been away from the RC too long. I am becoming a real student who cares about things like grades and recognition and silly stuff like that. What happened to my inner hippie, who loves the blah di dee blah hippie crap?!

Probe im Festsaal

I spent a good 6 hours today at rehearsal. The first three we rehearsed Saint-Saëns Christmas Oratorio and then next three were for Beethoven's 9th. So long. And there is not nearly enough space in the Großer Festsaal at the Uni for the combined choir for Beethoven 9, so even with people off the risers and standing at various places in the general area we were still squished. It was also the first time with the full orchestra, which takes up half the room - its actually a pretty small "large room"...

Although it was far too long, I enjoyed myself and got to do homework while listening live to the first three movement's of Beethovens 9th. Can't beat that.

IES Student Recital

I was up and moving today, mostly because I had to be, since today was my friends' recital, for which I was concert managing. Christina set up a recital featuring her, Jessica, Claire, Abby, Jane, and Charlotte and wanted to use a photo for the facebook event with me in it, and thus I became the concert manager. My duties, move chairs, stands, set-up the piano, turn on and off lights, introduce the concert and make the program.

The lovely performers!

Everything almost went off without a hitch, until mid-way through, Charlotte was no where to be found and was on next. So I went back out there, rechanged the set up and sent Christina out early, since she was the only one around. Wasn't too bad, Charlotte ran upstairs to warm up and didn't go early enough, so it was a bit awkward but not really a big problem.

Post recital, I went home and napped for a bit to try and shake this thing off! Hopefully I'm fully recovered shortly!

European Germs

I spent all of yesterday in bed with a weird European sickness. I am not really sure what it was, I woke up in the middle of the night feeling feverish and then my head was just completely congested, but it didn't feel like a normal cold. Either way, I slept for well over half the day and watched far too much television and today I am feeling much better! Not quite 100 percent, I've spent a lot of today in bed too, but definitely better than yesterday.

I think tonight I am going to brave the snow and cold and go see a bunch of my friends perform in an IES Recital, which consists entirely of works composed by two IES students. I think all of my roommates are in one piece or another and it should be good. It will also be nice to finally leave my bed!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

First Snowfall. Wandering around the city in a blizzard. Baking cookies. Christkindlmarkt. Hot Chocolate. Love Actually. I think you know that means folks: the Christmas season is upon us!

I woke up this morning to a snow covered Vienna and it kept right on snowing all day long. It was a perfect snowfall really, light but constant, coating everything in a clean white. Unfortunately, when I was packing in the heat of August, I did not think about my amazingly incredible snow boots, which I need for such weather. I've been sliding around the city all day in my adorable and completely impractical grey suede boots. No warmth, no waterproofing, and no grip.

I was surviving in them for the most part, until I went to work. I took the baby in his stroller to pick up Stella from school, about a 15 minute walk away. Normally, the walk is fairly pleasant, wandering through unused streets under tall trees, but normally the sidewalks are clear. Alas, Vienna does not really use salt on sidewalks, nor do most people clear them. Leaving me, my grip-lacking shoes, and the stroller to traverse the 4-6 inches of snow covering our path. Going slowly, I managed to get there fine, albeit a bit chilled.

Stella's school is on a bit of hill and as I waited for the bell to ring, I saw a taxi cab slide slowly down it, unable to stop even with it's brakes. That did not bode well for me making it back up the hill. I made it about the first 20 feet before a lovely older Austrian woman offered to help me, which I tried to politely refuse, but she would not hear it. She scolded me a bit for my poor choice of shoes, but since the kids don't know I can speak German, I just kind of pretended not to understand and apologized for "not" knowing German. Together, we made it up the hill and I thanked her profusely before we headed home.

When we arrived, Inge asked me if I knew how to bake roll-out cookies. Like that is even a question. Who knew that I could have put all my years of rolling dough at Cookie Bake on my resume? I quickly googled the Wilton no-chill roll-out recipe and we got started. It was so nice to cook in a kitchen with proper utensils and supplies!!! Inge is a furniture designer and she was having a client party for her company, Airture (airture.at), so Gerd made a cookie cutter in the shape of one of their signature couch. It was awesome. In no time we had whipped up a batch and cut out our couches. Just as I was about to put them in Arthur started crying, so I was holding a crying infant while baking cookies. I am too young for this. The whole infant thing is totally throwing me off - they are so much work! Although I have yet to have to change his diaper, so in my book, we are good.

Anywho, after work, I met up with Jess, Abe, Rochelle, Hannah, and Georg at the Rathaus, which ended up closing up right as I got there. Schade! Although my favorite pastry stand was still open, so I got a warm delicious nutty twirly thing before we departed. When we got home, I whipped up a batch of my famous hot chocolate and Jess and I sat around watching Love Actually: the quintessential snowy day movie.

All in all, this was pretty much the best December First since the creation of the International Day We Could Be Models.

One Day, Four Countries

In a little while I begin my journey from Vienna (Austria) by bus to Bratislava (Slovakia) and then by plane to Brussels (Belgium), topped off with a train trip to Amsterdam (Netherlands). I am pretty sure this the most countries I have ever covered in one day! Back on Monday!

ANTM!

My choir director is a fool! Austria's Next Top Model approached my choir to perform on their show and he turned them down!!! I could've been on ANTM. Granted it wouldn't have been Tyra's ANTM, but ANTM nonetheless.

It actually makes a lot of sense, they wanted us to just kind of show up, no music and since something entertaining while they played the background music. We are currently preparing Beethoven's 9th, an Oratorio by Saint Saen and Britten's Ceremony of Carols. Not exactly the ANTM kind of music.

The Taste of Nostalgia

I made Lasagna today! Abe had a disappointing experience with lasagna in Pisa, so I promised to make some based on padre's delicious recipe. Layers of noodle, spinach ricotta filling, meat sauce, and mozzarella melted and gooey after 2 hours in the oven. It was delicious. And best of all, it tasted like home. I can't duplicate everything over here and I most definitely cannot duplicate dad's cooking, but this came pretty darn close.

Hey, I put some new shoes on!

This morning was homework morning. To compensate for shopping afternoon. Abby and I met at Cafe Sperl, my local Viennese cafe, for an expensive but amazing traditional breakfast with incredible Viennese coffee and proceeded to hang out, drink more coffee, and finish up some homework for the next few hours.


Come lunchtime, we headed back to my place to grab a quick and much cheaper bite to eat, before walking up to Mariahilferstraße. We were on the hunt for Abby's perfect peacoat: warm, good lines, easy to wear with scarfs and blue. We walked the entirety of Mariahilf, at least all the parts worth hitting, before coming up the last mall at the very end. We went inside, partially just to get warm, and ran into a tiny store that was going out of business and was clearly in its last day or two from the lack of merchandise. We found a practically perfect blue peacoat at the front of the store, but of the two left, neither were in her size. Then I spotted the few left over pairs of shoes in the back of the store and headed straight there. Along the way missing the rack full of those blue pea coats, which luckily Abby did not miss. Both of us ended up winning, with Abby finding out this dream coat was only 25 Euro! And me finding a great pair of black high heeled ankle boots for 15 Euro!


And the day only got better from there, as we headed off to Schönbrunn for the opening day of their Weihnachtsmarkt! Probably my favorite of the three I've gone too so far, the Schönbrunn Christmas market was less crowded, more organized and had more homemade goods: all in all less touristy. We enjoyed some Nockerl the Austrian version of Spätzle, Krapfen an Austrian donut which was fried and filled in front of our eyes, Punsch and Glühwein!

Strauss under the Sea!

Went on a musicological mission today. Goal: find the sources for two newspaper articles, find the origins of a photo and then identify the people in the photo. A daunting task to say the least, we headed to the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek or Austian National Library to look at microfilms of old newspapers.

The library is in the Hofburg, which is the old city palace of the Habsburg family, meaning it is incredibly large. So we ended up in the wrong portion of the palace at first, and then once locating the right portion, we bought out yearly passes to the library, since we will be back to do more research and look at old scores. After dropping off our backpacks in the Garderobe (coat check), we headed inside to attempt to find the newspaper collection.

Dr. Solvik had given us somewhat specific directions, the first of which being go left. We did and after following a few signs, ended up in the current newspaper section, which does not have newspapers from 1943. We then followed Dr. Solvik's directions more specifically.

Go Left. Open the door, it should lead to a staircase. Follow the spiral staircase downward. At the bottom, go straight down the hallway. At the end of the hallway, there is door. Knock three times and tell them you eat lunch on Thursday. Enter. Go to the desk and ask for help.

We ended up in the right place and asked for help. Only two of us are german speakers and I am the best of the bunch, so I did most of the talking, and pretty much got that we needed more information in order to get anything from them. So we headed back upstairs to the information desk, who gave us a book in order to look up all the relevant newspapers published in Vienna in 1943. Being during the middle of WWII there were not many, but the book is organized by year and includes a range of 200 years so it took us half an hour to read through every Wiener newspaper titles in the past 200 years and determine the dates they were published. We only found 3 and one we already knew. Oh well, it's all about learning the process. Oder?

We got the microfilm for the important one and were able to date and identify one of the articles. The other two are probably within the other two newspapers which are going to head back and find later. Still no signs of the photo.

At a premier of a work by Richard Strauss (right) in 1943.

After our fun there, I headed back to IES and met up with Abe in the tiny baby IES library. I have to say our the library at the Hofburg palace beats out Palais' little library any day. We decided to make a trip to the Haus des Meers with Zan, getting the German Team back together for another fun and fluent adventure.

The Haus des Meers is about a block from my house and is housed in an old builing from WWII that was designed to be a concrete safehouse in a sense, with lookouts on the top, so it is essentially a tall concrete tower with a outdoor walkway level that goes around the entire outside of the building near the top. It was converted into an aquarium after the war, and two 3 story glass greenhouse looking things were built onto part of it.

I have to say it was pretty awesome. In general I love aquariums, and this one, although small had some pretty cool stuff. Including piranas, one really cool larger tank with a giant sea turtle, and the two greenhouses which were open and had multiple floored walkways to check out the various types of wildlife living within them. Those parts had birds flying around your head, monkeys running along the railings, and bats hanging around above your head. Pretty sweet. Best part is: I got a yearly pass, so now I can go whenever I want to!

Zan left early for class and Abe and I walked around on the lookout level and saw gorgeous views of the city at night. We attempted to identify the buildings but weren't always successful. We petted some koi and then went back to one of the open areas and sat around for a bit, before heading to Pablo's Zuhause for pizza and lasagna.

HARRY POTTER!

On a major Harry Potter high.

The movies are not all that good, we all know this. But my friends and I, our generation really, grew up with Harry. I started reading Harry when I was 8 years old. I was too young to read it myself, my mother read it out loud to me, my brother and sister. I couldn't make it through the third book on my own because I was too scared for a long time, so I just pretended I was reading it slowly until I could read it during the day with my dad nearby.

Point being, I dressed up with my friends. Granted most of my friends do not have the extensive wardrobe which I lugged with me to Vienna, so my costume was pretty much the greatest thing ever (photos to come). I was, as any good Asian would be, Cho Chang. And borrowed a blue and yellow tie from Zan to match my Ravenclaw badge which I made, also awesome. I don't dress up for movies. Not my thing, but this was so great.

Like I said, the movies are not high quality and I give them no high acclaim, but that doesn't change how amazing that movie was. There were of course differences from the book, but for the most part it was surprisingly true to the story. Scary and intense with the right amount of cheesy, made for a great night!

Sidenote on Austria Movie Theaters: Just a fun cultural fact, at Austrian movie theaters you purchase a seat in the movie theater like you are going to a show, so my friends and bought our tickets at the Haydn English Cinema weeks ago and got to the movie right before it started and had amazing seats. Good stuff.

Harry Potter!

Harry Potter 7.1 is going to be in Austrian theaters tomorrow! Austria has the earliest possible premiere date outside the UK, meaning I am seeing it a full 33.5 hours before it reaches US theaters! But who is counting.

I tried to make it to London for the Premiere, but alas was not so lucky. Instead my friends and I are going to see it tomorrow at an English theater up the street from mi casa. And post premiere returning to mi casa for homemade Butterbeer (courtesy of yours truly) and general HP jollyness!

In preparation I have been scouring the city today for various things needed for tomorrows frivolity. I picked up large amounts of ginger ale and butter and searched high and low for anything that has butterscotch flavoring. I am proud to say that there is nothing in Vienna, which possesses such a flavoring. After extensive interwebical research, I have concluded that there is not only a way to make butterscotch, but the best way in which to do so, is with brown sugar. Which also does not exist in Vienna.

Ach, mein Leben!

Fortunately, my friends and I were able to go to a costume shop and find hair dye for our Wesley twins (a short mexican and a tall blonde haired bearded caucasian), glasses for our Harrietta, and nothing for myself. Although my bearded friend is letting me borrow his tie so I can pull off my Cho look. I later went to H&M and purchased a lovely white blouse to really complete the look.

All in all an exciting Harry Potter Premiere Eve and have no fear, photos will of course be posted later.

Apologies

Dear Family, Friends, and Strangers,

I apologize for my lack of posting, it's been a crazy month. I plan to start updating from where I left off and getting to here, all while attempting to keep updating on what is going on in my life currently.

It may be confusing, for a while, since posts will appear on days that they happened not necessarily when I post them. Bear with me, and enjoy! Maybe this month I will get the hand of more consistent posting.

Also thanks to my lovely siblings, who yelled at me enough to get on here and just do it.

Love Always,

Rachel

Föhn!

In German, there is a word for this kind of weather: föhn. It basically describes a warm wind, which comes in the fall or winter and reheats everything. We haven't really had any cold weather here yet, one or two days below 15ºC, but mostly its been pretty warm! Right now, it is gorgeous and sunny outside, I don't really need a jacket - I am just wearing one for looks - and I love it.

Government

So I've been having trouble with getting my Austrian Residency Permit, allowing me to live here legally for the year. Today I made a trip to MA-35, which is essentially the department of immigration to check on my status and see if I could move things along. Another girl in my program, Theresa, needed to get her visa issues sorted out as well, so we went together. When we arrived we were given a number and told to go wait in waiting room G on the 5th floor for our number to be called. The room was full and there were small children running around screaming and all the chair were sitting facing a small screen on the wall which posted numbers and rooms. Everyone sat waiting for their number. The best part was, the numbers didn't go in order, in fact they really didn't go in any sensible pattern.

After waiting for about half an hour I got called in, explained my problem auf Deutsch and was told to go back outside and wait to get called again. I waited another hour before getting called back in, only to be asked why I was here? Why did I come? My permit wasn't ready? I asked if I could do anything. No, so why are you here?

I thanked him, left, and went and got a Kebap.

Midterms

My roommate's father passed the night before our Mahler final. The rest of the week was spent not studying for our midterms. I took them, I passed them. And I went to Hallstatt.

The Apartment

The real reason I stopped updating, oh so long ago was because my roommates father passed away suddenly. It hit our apartment pretty hard and it took a while to get back together. No details necessary, but maybe this explains a little bit.

Why study when you can eat Pie?!

Tomorrow we all have our german midterms, so a german study party was a necessary thing in my mind. And since Thursday night dinner was cancelled this week, food was the next obvious addition to our night. Thus came our German Midterm Pie Party! Which shortly after the night began, simply became Pie Party!

First course? Ice Cream Pie, courtesy of Abby and Claire, which was essentially layered ice cream and other yummy chocolate, nutty goodness frozen in a pie shape.

Second Course? Addictive soft cake-y Chocolate Brownies made by Peggy

Third Course? A Sara Lee peach pie, which Claire and Lily slaved over for hours and hours and did not by any means pick up from the store on the way home.

Fourth Course? Jane's intensely dark and dense chocolate pie, which was almost a fudge pie really.

Fifth and final course? My homemade buttermilk custard pie with a blueberry sauce! Which was easily one of the best things I have ever made. I made the blueberry sauce similarly to how I made my cranberry sauce, with less sugar since blueberries aren't so sharp. I got the pie recipe from Dishing Up Delights one of my favorite food blogs.

The pie crust turned out perfectly, except for the fact that it was super thick because I made too much, thinking I was going to make a top, which I for sure was not. The recipe came from my mother, whose helpful hints were essential in the creation of this masterpiece!

Enjoying drooling.

Salome

For the past couple months, I have been reading up on my Strauss, the Richard version, for my program notes on his opera, Salome. Today was the actual production at the Wiener Staatsoper! Jane and I got all gussied up for our box seats - that is right actual seats! - and went to the opera at the same time as regular people, not three hours ahead like we do for standing room! Our seats were not as partial view as I had expected, since we got them for only ten euros, and if we stood up, then the small bit that we couldn't see sitting was visible. But just being in the box was a huge part of the fun, having our own private room for coats, and the velvet everywhere, that isn't worn down and old like the velvet in standing room!

I have to write a newspaper-esque critic as the second part of my assignment, and won't bore you with the details, but here is a short run down on the production. The set and costumes were Jugendstil with a very Klimtian feeling, probably to pay tribute to the major artistic movement at the time when Strauss was writing Salome. A bit overwhelming at times, it was effective and made for an absolutely beautiful set.

Salome was played by Christine Naglestad, a stunning soprano with incredible power and control. Her portrayal of Salome was spot on vocally, with a growling low G and chilling pianissimo upper register that contrasted sharply with her dramatic hich C which penetrated Strauss' giant orchestra with ease. Her dance for "Dance of the Seven Veils" left something to be desired, but was not too bad comparably. My only real disappointment was her treatment of Jokanaan's head, which she carried around stage like it was a feather. She really did not sell the fact that it was meant to be a human head.

The rest of the cast was fairly strong, except for Herod, whose vibrato was so large you had no idea what pitch he was actually singing. Overall though, this was one of the best productions that I have seen at the Staatsoper and probably my favorite show, which bodes well for the possibility of me writing about Strauss for my honors thesis next year!

English Speaking Nanny

So I have had "English Speaking Nanny" as my employer on Facebook for while now, but I finally actually started working today!

I met up with Inge - wife, mother, designer, woman who gave birth a week ago and my employer - outside their apartment in the 18th district. She and Arthur (pronounced AH-tur with the adorable german accent) her week old son were ready to show me the way to Leon's Kindergarten, which was just around the corner. I met his teachers and helped his put on his shoes, before we walked home through the park where I attempted to talk to him about the trees and their current bright colors, since I know he knows the colors. I don't really know how much English he knows, I just kind of talk at him mostly. He isn't very comfortable speaking back.

We then slowly made our way to Stella's Volkschule - elementary school - where I met her teachers. On our way home, I pushed the stroller while they chatted with their mother in German, which I could understand but had to pretend like I couldn't understand, because their parents don't want the kids to know that I can speak German, so that they are forced to speak English. A good plan so long as the kids get a little more comfortable.

When we got back to their house, Inge took a well deserved nap and me and kids watched Muzzy! Which I remember watching in my German I class back in high school, but the german version. Good times. We chilled, read a little, ate a snack and before I knew it, it was time to head home!

I think I am really going to enjoy this job, although I think it will be a challenge trying to work with the kids and teach them English. I feel like I need to search for some activities or something, because I don't know if just talking is enough. Maybe that is the overachiever in me talking.

Follow the D Straßen Bahn! Follow! Follow! Follow! Follow!

Made my first visit to a Heurigen today! A Heurigen is a traditional Austrian restaurant that is essentially the equivalent of the German Beer Garden. The word Heurigen is interchangeable with Heuriger, depending on how you use it in German (for those who know German it is an adjektival nomen), and it comes from the word "heute" which means today, because the Heuriger specialty is this years wine.

Alex, our RA knew of a few traditional places, so we took the D line Straßen Bahn out to its end at Nußdorf and found 3 adorable Heurigers, all of which were completely full. So Alex made a reservation at his favorite and we went and got an Aperitif at a nearby restaurant. Charlotte and I got martinis, which came in oversized shot glasses without olives and tasted mostly of vermouth: weirdest martini ever?Yes.

We got a call shortly after and headed back to the Heurigen, where our giant table for 10 was waiting. Christina's friend is in town and she is a former IESer, who is currently in Salzburg with the Fullbright program, so our group was a fun mix of old IESers, current IESers and then of course Alex, the perpetual IESer. We order enough white wine for all of us, as well as two bottles of carbonated water, so that we can make our own Spritzer.

Heurigers are different from restaurants and do not serve food, but there is a buffet style counter, from which you can order breads, cheeses, potato salads, meats, etc. I asked the lady what she recommends for a first timer, and she put together a plate of a slab of meat, sauerkraut and a hunk of knödl or dumpling. Amazing meal and amazing wine! The whole experience was incredibly fun and relaxing and even though I was extremely tired by the end, it was so worth it!

Sunrise at Schönbrunn!

I woke up at 6:00am to a phone call from Zan, who was letting me know he was almost to my place. Why 6am? Because we were heading to Schönbrunn palace, the former summer home of the Habsburg family, to watch the sunrise! Abe and I had planned to do this Friday, but he wimped out, so we did it Saturday instead. I made hot chocolate for the cold morning, which we transported in regular mugs because it's all we have, and we went and hopped on the U-Bahn.

We got to Schönbrunn shortly after and I hoped to God the place was open, which it was, but every closed gate we passed, Abe made some snide pessimistic comment. We got to the main gate which was open and went searching for the entrance to the gardens. We had about 20 minutes to sunrise and could not find a direct route, but eventually got into the gardens and started heading toward the hill, where we planned to watch the sunrise.

Of course, at 12:30 the night before when we made plans to do this, none of us thought to check the weather, so it was cloudy and we all knew we weren't really going to see much. But once we reached the top of the hill, we settled onto some benches and watched as the city of Vienna got slightly brighter and the street lights started going off.

Vorsingen

I auditioned for the Uni Wien Chor today! I went back to campus tonight and found the building where auditions were being held, which was right next to where I bought books earlier; yay getting to know campus! I wandered up to the Festsaal, and found several german-speakers waiting to head in as well. We chatted for a while about what to expect, how they work, etc. before getting called in all together. We each individually sang a few warm-up-esque exercises to determine range, did some sight reading and then he placed it. Not at all difficult, especially compared to the audition I imagined in my head for such a large school in such a musical city. I was auditioning for Symphonic Choir, who has the rep (Beethoven's 9th is on the menu for this semester and Carmina Burana for next) and level that I was looking for, and was the only one in our group to get in, which was weird because there was this British guy who was very talented, but he is only staying a semester.

After the audition I was supposed to meet up with Abe for dinner, but had some time to kill, so I went and got a drink with the British guy and another German guy from auditions. We had such a great conversation about music, since Christian, the Brit, was a music major back in college with a real enthusiasm for it and Martin, the German, had recently fallen in love and is just starting to learn more. Between the two of us, we essentially gave Martin a crash music history course. I completely forgot about Abe until he called and told me he was already at Schottentor, so I quickly paid, exchanged info, made plans to hit up an opera and practically ran to Schottentor.

We took the U2 over to the Rathaus and Abe asked me to pick a number, I replied with 22, of course. Then he told me that we were going to walk and count restaurants and the number I picked corresponded to where we were going to eat, and both of our hungry selves decided that 22 was far too big, so we cut it in half and began walking. Number 11 was a cute Italian place with a non-smoking section (!). I enjoyed a great meal of Umbertto, which I am pretty sure was a creamy white wine sauce served with shrimp over spaghetti.

As we were finishing, Zan called and asked if we wanted to meet up, which we did. So we headed over to Karlsplatz and went to 1516, a pub in the first district, which was playing American football! I was so excited even though it was only a weird highlights show, I still got to watch some football! We were all pretty tired and didn't stay long, especially once we made our plans for the morning... more to come about that!

Uni Wien Studentin!

Heute hatte ich meine erste Klasse an der Uni Wien!!! Translation: Today I had my first class at the University of Vienna!!!

I found campus pretty easily and then finding my building was super simple because there are signs and maps all over campus. I am taking Oper im 18. Jahrhunderts, aka opera in the 18th century, and I was not expecting there to be nearly so many people there for such a course. I show up, and there is this long line of people waiting to get in after the other class gets out, once they clear out, everyone heads in. I am expecting a room large enough to fit everyone, if not fit everyone comfortably. But since you don't have to register for lecture courses, they don't know how many people will show up and in a school with 75,000 people, it could be a million. It was not a million, but more than the room could hold, there were only enough tables for about the first half of students, the rest of us grabbed leftover chairs in the back, brought chairs in from the outside, sat on window sills or stood. Utter chaos.

Once the class got started it wasn't too bad. My professor is very animated and a good lecturer, not reading from the slide, but definitely elaborating off those points, making funny jokes auf Deutsch that I can't understand. In spite of understanding well more than half of what he was saying, I could not always hear, translate in my head, read the slides and take notes successfully, leaving me actually capturing and retaining about half. And the half I did get, was written completely in Denglish! Which I don't mind too much, since I can understand both, but this means typed study guides will be a must.

Why yes, that is a Chandelier

While all of you are hanging around the Ugli doing homework, I just thought you would appreciate knowing where I am working right now.

Me. Baroque Gold Leaf Decor. Carving of Cherubims playing music.

To quote Terry, "That's Raw."

Arts Marketing Adventure

Due to the high demand for adventure in my blog, before catching up on Italy and Styria, which I will eventually transfer over from my travel journals, I promise, I figure I will write about my chapter by chapter reading of "Arts Marketing Insights: The Dynamic Building and Retaining of Arts Audiences" by Joanne Bernstein. As unexciting as that seems, I can turn anything into an adventure.

It all began at the Kettbrückengasse U4 station, where I hopped onto the U-Bahn heading toward the Prater, so I could go read at the site of the former Habsburg hunting grounds, which is now a lovely park. When I reached Schwedenplatz, I got off to go and check the Eissalon to see, what happens to a gelato place in Vienna when the season is over? Abe kept asking what takes its place, and well, nothing does and now I know.

Rather than get back on the U-Bahn and head to the Prater, I decided to walk up the Donau River, along the way running into a British couple who needed directions and were happily surprised when they heard I was American. I kept on my way until I saw one of the old Strassen Bahns headed my way, which I jumped on, not knowing where it was heading cause I was getting a bit chilly and the old Straßen Bahn cars are my favorite with their wooden nostalgic charm!

I read the Foreword then hopped off. To my surprise, I was at the main Uni Wien building! I headed up the front steps to my new campus for the first time and into an absolutely gorgeous building with tall ceilings and impressive staircases. I meandered through the halls, getting lost, until I found an exit, or so I thought. In reality, it was an adorable courtyard, with Viennese hipsters lounging on beach chairs and park benches.

I read the Introduction and then headed out. I did eventually find a real exit out of the building and wandered down the Ring until I hit the Rathaus or City Hall building. An epic gothic style building with a lovely little park out in front. I found a bench underneath a giant Sycamore tree in front of a fountain with a view of the Rathaus, where I sat as the sun set and the streets lights turned on.

I read Chapter One and then jumped on the next old Strassen Bahn that came along. That took me to the Belvedere, which at this point was closed, but I wandered around the palace walls, looking at the stunningly lit palace, until I got chilly again. It was also getting close to 8pm, which meant it was about time for me to head back for Sushi Monday.

I read the beginning of Chapter Two at the stop. Then when the next old Straßen Bahn came, the second car's front seat was open, which is my favorite seat. So rather than finishing Chapter Two, I spent the whole trip to Praterstern staring out the windows at Vienna by night. There were a few stops along the way, where I could've gotten off and hopped on the U-Bahn, but since the Prater was my original goal, I felt it right to take the Straßen Bahn all the way there and complete my spontaneous Straßen Bahn tour of Vienna!

Autumn at the Prater

Went to Sunday dinner at Mayo's today for the first time in quite a while. We enjoyed an incredible homemade meal and chatted auf Deutsch for a while, before heading out to go for a walk in the Prater, which was only a few bus tops from Mayo's place.

Packed with people on this sunny afternoon, the Prater is just gorgeous this time of year. There are some weeks, I do not get outside enough, so the crisp air felt especially amazing after this past week spent mostly in class or at the library. The leaves are beginning to change and there were some crunchy looking leaves strewn about the path, that I just wanted to jump in. The perfection that was this particular Sunday, meant that the masses were out and about, strolling like Mayo and I, picnicking on the open greens, wandering the trails with their puppies, or mayhaps they rented a bike buggy madoodle(a la he Flintstones, but with bikes, not feet). It was the perfect way to spend the afternoon.

American Dinner

Today I hosted another Thursday night dinner, this time with an American theme! Since I was missing the deliciousness that is a good burger, I decided it was time to make burgers for Thursday night dinner.

Before everyone arrived, I opened up the baked bean and was going to just throw them in the oven, until I realized that baked beans in Austria are not quite the same as in America. I tried to fix it and give it some flavor, but really it needed barbeque sauce, which I just didn't have. They ended up kind of sweet, and ok, but what I wanted. But my appetizer turned out wonderfully! I made Mac and Cheese bites, with the leftovers turned into baked mac and cheese for dinner. They were adorable and cute and so good!

This is my much larger recipe for Mac and Cheese Bites adapted a recipe from Food & Wine:

Ingredients

1 pound elbow macaroni

3 tablespoons butter, plus more for brushing

3/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

4 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1-1/2 cups milk

3 packed cups of cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425ºF. Cook the macaroni in boiling water until al dente, about 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.

2. Place a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet and spread butter on top the parchment paper. Take 1/2 cup of parmesan and sprinkle 12-20 circles onto the baking sheets, spread out enough so that you can create small balls of your desired size. This size recipe yields 2-3 baking sheets.

3. In a large saucepan, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour over moderate heat for 2 minutes. Whisk in the milk and cooking, constantly stirring, until boiling, about 5 minutes. Add the cheddar cheese and whisk until melted. Remove from heat and fold in the macaroni.

4. Spoon rounded balls of macaroni onto the baking sheet, packing them gently. Sprinkle the remaining Parmigiano on top.

5. Bake the Mac and Cheese Bites for about 10 minutes or until golden and sizzling. Let cool, transfer to a platter and serve.

Abe and Jane took care of the inside-out-burgers, which were filled with swiss cheese. Abby made the mushrooms and I started the caramelized onions, which she then finished. Then I baked an apple pie, which didn't quite turn out as expected, cause the pan was giant and I am not quite sure if I actually bought shortening or not, but it was still pretty yummy. Claire took care of the french fries and picked up some ketchup for us. As for the rest of the meal, everyone contributed to the making of the salad and lots of chopping for the other projects was also involved.

As always, we enjoyed the meal and each other's company, but I think I am going to take a week off next week, maybe do a smaller one, but nothing this large again for a while.

Styria!

I got an email today offering me a spot on the IES trip to Styria, due to some girl getting sick! Whee! I of course snatched the spot and am headed to Graz tomorrow! We are heading first to an open-air museum, somewhere between here and Graz, then we get to the city and wander and tour and have lunch at some place and I have ordered Wiener Schnitzel. Afterwards we have more touring fun and then dinner at our hostel. Post hostel we have the night to ourselves and I think we are going to hit up Lange Nacht der Museen, in which over 650 museums around Austria have extended hours and there are bus shuttles running you back and forth within your city and it is awesome and cultural. Then Sunday we are heading into Austrian wine country and going to a wine festival, before heading back to Vienna.

Of course, this means that I am packing now, at 2am for a trip that leaves at 7:30am tomorrow. Whee...

Last Day of Gelato

Today is Vienna's last day of Gelato. A sad and depressing day, yes, but this also means that anytime I see a gelato place that is still open today - especially if it has a "Letzter Tag" sign - then I am totally allowed to buy a cone. I have reached a count of three today: cookies, pistazie, and pralinetta.

The Viennese tradition of gelato is actually Italian, but the Viennese have fully embraced this amazing art form. Stand gelato is very good if you are passing by, but if you are seeking gelato, my two favorites are Eissalon an Schwedenplatz and Zanoni and Zanoni. Zanoni has very traditional gelato, more ice like, and Eissalon has extremely creamy gelato, more like ice cream.

Zanoni is open all year, but Eissalon is closing today! So Jessica and Jane are going to pick up a liter on the way home for our Mexican Thursday dinner tonight. My only consolation for the disappearing of the gelato is that means tomorrow is the first day of heat! No more wear coats in class!

Update: Us eating our gelato later in the week!

Practicality

Yes I realize this blog makes it seem as if my life revolves around food. In a way it does, but here is a little bit about some other fun things happening in my life that are not food related.

I can't remember if I have mentioned this before, but I was accepted into the musicology internship here under Dr. Morten Solvik and for the first time I am getting a real look into legitimate musicology. So far, I am working on transcribing and translating a handwritten letter from Arthur Seidl, written in the late 1800s, meaning it is written in Frakture, a cursive-esque handwriting that looks nothing like modern handwriting. Fortunately, my handwriting is weirdly similar in a lot of ways. I am not sure what that says about my handwriting, but my roommate claims it means I am a genius. I wholeheartedly agree. But really, the letter is very difficult to read, his Es, Ns, and Ms, all look the same and sometimes he gets lazy and will write the same letter 5 different ways. But by now I've gotten pretty good at reading it, that said I am only half way through the first page.

Another project is a transcription of a setting of "Wanderers Nachtlied" by Hans Rott, which my colleagues and I finished a basic copy of and got into Finale. Then today in class, Dr. Solvik ripped our edition apart! We made several silly mistakes and a few Finale ones, but major props to Daniel, who put it all in for us, and we cannot figure out where the postlude is. Rott simply wrote down what looks like "hehe" and "Aß" and left a measure blank. Where is the missing postlude? I have no clue and have to find it before next week.

Third project: choose a concert, write programs notes for the concert, attend the concert, and then write a newspaper critic. I chose the Wiener Staatsoper production of Richard Strauss' "Salome," since I am thinking about doing the operas of Strauss for my honors thesis and I plan to begin my research while I am here. I began my research and have probably about 8 million books out from the library, each contributing about 2 pages worth of info, except one very large book taking apart all of Strauss' operas. I bought my tickets for the performance already and got two box seat, partial views for 10 euro!

We also have a bit of intern-esque work, just things that need to get done, but it isn't too bad and I am learning a lot from the experience!

Sushi with Mahler

Time again for our second Sushi Monday, but Abe and I (mostly I) got mixed up with timing and Jessica and I went by ourselves. Jessica had some great vegetarian sushi, some of which had steamed egg! I miss steamed egg, but I can't justify getting steamers right now, schade. I had an elaborate fish-shaped combo platter that was really really great. Also, their avocado maki was amazing, like seriously great.

Post sushi monday, we went to Mahler 2 performed by the Jeunesse Orchestra under Möck at the Konzerthaus, for which we got 7 Euro tickets from our Mahler class. Party! First time I've heard Mahler 2 live and wow. Why did I not see this when UMS presented the SFO under MTT last year? I don't remember why I couldn't go that night, but I am so convinced that whatever I had wasn't worth it. The Jeunesse wasn't all that good, they are a younger orchestra and the soloists weren't amazing, although I liked the mezzo. Still an impressive work, and earlier in the day during our Nietzsche discussion, Dr. Solvik gave us a crash course in the philosophical implications of Mahler 2, as Mahler may have seen it. It provided a whole new way to listen to the symphony, which was interesting since the next time I listened to it after this discussion was live.

Italian Dinner

Tonight I had about 10 friends overs for Italian dinner! In honor of our trip to Italy, and also just because I wanted to try the ravioli that are sold in the Naschmarkt and at about 2 Euro a pop, these handmade giant ravioli were the best investment I've ever made. I bought some spinach-ricotta cheese filled ravioli and made a butter sage sauce to go overtop, the idea I got from a restaurant we went to last week. I also whipped up a quick pesto, using my mortar and pestle, when I realized more people were coming than I thought. Anna also prepared this really yummy tuna sauce, for which I need to get the recipe.

I made some easy sage wrapped pears for an appetizer, which is really simple, but tasty and they look fancy!

Ingredients

1 ripe medium sized pears

8 large leaves of fresh sage

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200ºC. Core and slice the pear into 8ths. Wrap on leaf around each individual slice. Butter a baking sheet and place the wraps onto the sheet.

2. Bake until the leaves are crisp and the pears are golden brown. About 10 minutes. Remove and transfer to a platter. Let cool and serve.

Post-meal, we hung out for a while, drinking the better than bad wine that Abe brought and enjoying just being able to see each other, which surprisingly doesn't happen very often. At the end of the meal, we decided that this needs to become a weekly thing! Can't wait for Mexican Dinner next week!

Sushi Monday!

Abe and I have started a new tradition: Sushi Mondays! The sushi place by my house, Natsu Sushi, advertises a special of 50% off all sushi: all the time. It was late by the time we ate, cause Abe had class, but the place was packed when we got there and we shared a long table with some Austrians. I enjoyed a lovely platter of salmon and tuna with a few maki and some really good jasmine tea and it came in an adorable little tea pot! It was really good, hence the formation of a tradition. We hung out and chatted for a while and after we payed the ridiculously cheap amount, they brought out our (free!) bowl of a few lychee in their juice and a shot of some sort of sweet, possibly lychee, drink. It was a great night and I can't wait til next week!

Italy Day 1: Harry Potter Compartment

Claire, Jane and I left Westbahnhof today at 8:30 and have been on this train in our Harry Potter compartment for nearly 6 hours. We slept through the first half and woke up around Salzburg, when we headed into the Austrian Alps. It has been an absolutely beautiful journey: blur green rivers, ephemeral falls, snow capped peaks, and Schlösser! There was one which sat high on a hill overlooking the small town in the valley below, which was so gorgeous and perfectly stereotypical. The older Austrian couple we were sharing our Harry Potter compartment with pointed this out to us. They were very nice and the lady laughed histerically along with us when Claire pulled the entire Hofer store our of her backpack:

A pack of oranges, half a loaf of sliced whole wheat bread, raisens, almonds, a bag of Haribo gummies, a jar of peanut butter and a knife to spread it. It was incredibly impressive.

We stopped at Villach and wandered a bit in the (small) city tucked away in the Alps, stopping off at a cafe by a church to get some Austrian Spritzer before we transfered onto a MegaBus style double decker to drive the rest of the way to Venice. At first we thought we were taking the 16:56 train, but luckily we realized it was the 16:56 bus. Big difference.

When we crossed into Italy, the sun began to set. The Alps sat behind us like a fortress wall and before us golden fields of corn and dark forested hills. Sometimes we saw homes, but usually the only sign of life is a church spire peaking up into the skyline. With about two hours left of our bus ride, an Arizonian woman struck up a conversation with us. At first a simple "Yay Europe" discussion between a few Americans, it quickly turned into her telling us her life story. In a nutshell: a writer of Dracula centered historical fiction, she has two kids (ages 18 and 20), claims to be 34 and claimed to live in Ecuador for a year at age 17, recently divorced now running around Europe being insane.

We got to Venice just fine and Spent a little time oohing and aahing over Venice by night, before finding the bus to our hostel, which was not on the island but the second stop just across the bridge, not even to Mestre, so we weren't far, about a 5 minute bus ride.

Our hostel (Hotel Primavera) wasn't that bad, a few things in disrepair i.e no toilet seat, but the beds are comfy and we have the room to ourselves with our own sink and it is clean. We are staying at what is technically a hotel, meaning we get a free continental breakfast!, but we are staying in the shady rooms out back in the second section of the hotel, which is the hostel section. Not too shady, but since it is in a separate building, it is a bit weird.

Note: Italy Blog Posts take from my travel Journal!

Italy!

I am off to Italy in the morning! Venice first to visit with my cousin Amy then Florence for a hot second and down to the warm weather in Rome to visit my friend Meredith! We finish up in Cinque Terre wandering the coast and then to Pisa, from which we will fly to Bratislava and hop on a bus back to Vienna! I cannot wait! I have always wanted to go to Italy and I can't believe it is actually happening. Vienna has gotten so comfortable that sometimes I forget I am in Europe and I am living this life. Then I go and hang out in the ballroom where Beethoven premiered his 3rd the Eroica Symphony, like I did yesterday, and I remember, oh wait, this is amazing and this isn't Michigan and this is my life.

Working on Updates!

I am working on updates for the past week, sorry for being behind! Lots of exciting news to come, but it might not be until after my trip to Italy! I'll work on getting everything up asap!

Leopold Museum

We went to the Leopold Museum today with my german class and my german professor, Monika Johnson, who I love. The Leopold Museum is another of Vienna's famous art museums, named after the professor who donated his enourmous collection to the museum and giving it one of the world's largest collections, if not the largest, of Egon Schiele, the turn of the last century artist who was an early expressionist but mostly still associated with the Jugendstil style. We had a guided tour - auf Deutsch natürlich - and we ended up seeing a lot of the museum's most famous works, including Egon Schiele's Porträt von Wally, but also other artists works, including several works by Gustav Klimt. We learned about several of the cultural differences in artist expression and interpretation between the US and Austria, such as different implications in color meanings. I hung around with several of my friends for a bit and saw lots more awesome furniture, my favorite, before heading home to bake Torte and Kuchen for tomorrows German Referat (presentation), which is also my oral final exam.

WIENER STAATSOPER!

I WENT TO MY FIRST PERFORMANCE AT THE WIENER STAATSOPER!!!

Go ahead and be jealous now. It's okay.

This second day into the season, they were doing Puccini's La Boheme, one of my favorites, and playing Rodolpho was none other than Stephan Costello, who I love. The performance blew my mind. A traditional design, nothing exciting there really, but what was truly incredible was the pit: the Vienna Philharmonic. Good singers can be attracted by any well-reputed opera house, but only the Wiener Stadtoper has the Wiener Philharmonik. I have watched a million you tube clips, seen several recorded productions and been to a few live performances of La Boheme, but nothing has ever come close to the incredible musicality of the orchestra that was displayed last night. The first violinist had solos that made you want to cry and there were moments I forgot there was a stage. Although that might have had to do with my €3 partial view standing room tickets, but we can just forget that. I am sure that I will see many more performances that will be just as incredible and will probably learn to be more picky, but for this first production I figured more than anything else, I should record this initial wonder and amazement.

Free Museum Sundays

Before locking myself up in my apartment to work on my German Referat, I spent a day on the town with my friends soaking up Free Museum Sunday! On the first Sunday of every month, there are a bunch of museums that open up for free and we figure we will use this time to hit up all the museums we don't want to pay for but should probably see. Today we went to the Wien Museum for their exhibit on "Wien in Film."

You walk into the dark exhibition hall and see screens hanging from the ceiling attached with what looks like nothing. These floating screens are paired with floating plaques explaining the movie clip or series thereof. On the black carpet floor, bold white letters pronouce the type of clips in the area, for example "Love in Wien" or "Wien and the War." Depending on the size of the screen and what it is showing, they are equipped with overhead speakers that contain the sound to the area right in front of the screen or with a series of headphone sets with which to listen. Impecably designed, the exhibit was incredibly interesting and a great way to view Vienna.

Post Wien Museum we attempted to find the Roman Museum, but ended up just getting Käsewurst at a stand on Kärtnerstrasse and just people watching for a bit, since the heavily used Kärtnerstasse always has some imteresting characters. Sometimes the present is much more fun than the past.

Shopping, Wining, Dining, and Eising!

Went shopping on Mariahilferstrasse today! But not for myself, rather as the personal image consultant for my friend Abe, a Mexican from Texas, is in dire need of a warm coat. The 5th avenue of Vienna, Mariahilferstrasse has everything you could possibly need. Of course finding what you need at an afforadble price, takes the skill of a seasoned shopper, like me. We wandered for quite some time and eventually found an H&M coat he liked and I approved, but not in his size, so we went and got sushi.

After sushi I left for Mayo's place, where we were having dinner and on the way picked up a few sweets and treats. When I arrived I was warmly greeted by Mayo's brother, Kay, and her mother, Edita, who was already in the kitchen preparing the chicken. I helped Mayo make a Gugelhupf cake and when we were finished, we had some time to chat in both English and German. Dinner was fantabulous! It was so nice to have a real meal with real family and sit down and enjoy it together.

When we were finished, Mayo and I headed out to Stephansplatz to meet with a few of her friends from school. They introduced me to Zanoni and Zanoni, an Italian gelato place right off of Stephansplatz that has the best Eis creations! They are a bit expensive but not too bad if you split them and they are totally worth it! Vienna is known for it's Eis but really it all just Italian. We chatted - auf Deutsch - for hours and I learned a lot about the Austrian school system and about the matriculation process for Uni, which is good because I have to figure out how to register.

And after a while, we decided to head to happy hour at First American Bar, not the famous Alfred Loos one, but another American bar. We sat upstairs in this classy little place, in a cozy little booth and ordered half off - because how else can a student afford to go out - American named drinks. Yay understanding what is going on and not having to translate everything! By this point, my brain was pretty drained from trying to keep up with Dani's speedy German and I was beginning to feel tired, and I am sure the dim lighting and cosmo didn't help. We were here for about another hour, until the waiter rudely told us if we weren't going to order anything else, we had to peace. Which ended up working out well for my exhauseted self, although the girls were very upset by how rude he was, since in Vienna typically once you order something you can sit for as long as you like and not have to worry about it and it wasn't like the place was packed, there were several spaces open around us. We couldn't figure it out, but oh well, they lost a few clients.

24 Stunden Wien

This Friday marked the first weekend where the Viennese U-Bahn (aka subway) was open for 24 hours from Friday to Sunday. To celebrate this momentous occasion, 35 bars and clubs all over the city were free to everyone with a ticket, which I just happened to have.

Our RAs hosted a Schnitzel dinner in our apartment before the night began and our apt was crowded with the other IESers from the building (there are about 15 of us in total). The schitzel was really good, since Alex - one of our Resident Austrians (RAs) - is a chef. My friends and I left a bit earlier than planned because it was just too hot and crazy in the apartment.

We got to the U-Bahn station near the Prater, Vienna's amusement park with the famous ferris wheel, and waited for the rest of our friends to show up. We knew we wanted to go to the Prater Dome, the largest club in at least Austria and I believe also Europe, because when else are we going to go? Problem was, we didn't really know where the Prater Dome is. So once my friends showed up, I decided we should just start following the girl in the highest heels with the shortest skirt. What a surprise, it took us right to the line.

We headed in and after wandering about for a while checking out all the various rooms, Jane and I headed to the main dance floor and partied it up with the kiddos, who enjoy mostly just standing and bopping up and down. We had a great time and especially enjoyed the following song and the guy who danced hilariously to it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O1BtEx2dA0&feature=player_embedded

I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Skype!

It is 2am here, so I'm going to make this short, but I just wanted to say that Skype is the greatest thing that man ever invented. Not the internet that you use to Skype with of course, just Skype. I just finished a call with Mike, Ali, Bree AND Blaize. It was amazing. Also, fun fact: the past tense of "to skype" in german is geskypt. I love the german language.

Only In Wien

Vienna may not be the only place you will find a free film festival set up in front of City Hall that shows Mahler symphonies, Humperdink's Hansel und Gretel, Verdi's La Traviata, Mozart's Don Giovanni, etc. But it will be the only place you find where people actually go to it! I have been to see several performance thus far, the aforementioned to name a few, and at almost every one, nearly the seats are taken! Mahler actually drew the smallest crowd, except for tonight since it is like 45 degrees and far too cold to be outdoors, but the rest were very full. By the time we headed to La Traviata we were getting wise and got there early enough to get seats.

Tonight's Don Giovanni was probably my favorite production and it was from the 2006 Salzberg Festival. A Martin Kusej production, it is as thought provoking as ever and worth watching if you have some free time and are in a Mozartian, albeit dark Mozartian mood (you can find the DVD online). The modern set is stark white, with revolving floors, walls and doors all used cleverly to create various effects. In addition to the hospital-like set, there are minimal props, which accentuates the feeling of loneliness and emptiness. In lieu of objects as props, Kusej uses people, to portray various themes or events. In particular he portrays the different aspects of the opera's sexuality using scantily clad woman.

One of my favorite scenes, occurred during Leporello's aria where he describes Don Giovanni's various conquests to Donna Elvira. The stage begins to rotate and Elvira walks through what seem like Bloomingdale's window displays. Each display representing a different demographic of Don Giovanni's sexual conquests. The final display is an unsettling scene of disheveled men and women, which upon the end of the aria, perform an incredibly costume change on stage and transform into the wedding party of Zerlina and Masetto.

Most of the singers were wonderful, I especially enjoyed Christine Schäfer's Donna Anna, which I did not expect. Although except for Thomas Hampson's Don Giovanni, I don't feel as though the acting did well in the conceptualized production, it felt very traditionally Mozartian, which just did not work with this production.

If it weren't for the quality of the production I would not have stuck around until the end, especially considering it was probably about 45 degrees out and my roommate forgot to bring me an extra jacket when she met us at the Rathaus.

It's Just Like a Mini-Mall

Every Saturday at the Naschmarkt there is a large flea market set up adjacent to the open air market, where you can find anything from an old chandelier to a sweater to a clam shell shaped butter dish. Yes, a clam shell shaped butter dish, much like the one I purchased on that fine overcast Saturday. It was truly love at first sight. I spotted that shiny silver clam from across the market, as I made my way towards the vendor's table, I knew it was meant to be. I asked him how much, he told me 12, I told him no way. I am cheap even with love. The vendor asked me, what would you use this for, I told him I had no clue! Just then, a lovely Austria lady overheard our conversation and explained it was indeed the butter dish of my dreams! I offered him 6, he say 10, we settled at 8.

Yes, I spent 8 Euro on a clam shell shaped butter dish. No, I do not use it for butter. Mike, don't hate me.

I have an audition today and little time to post.

Billy Joel Wrote this song about my life, therefore I feel I should share it all with you. Please click on the link below:

Vienna

How's Vienna?

My response: "Beyond perfect! I speak german and bake bread and buy food at open air markets and live in an amazing apartment and drink incredible coffee and drink incredible wine and take classes in a baroque palace and is this real life?"

This is how I feel right now and that makes me so happy.

Just Bread and Salmon

I have a feeling this blog will include a lot about food... For instance, today I made myself a lovely dinner of salmon in black bean sauce on a rice bed! Mostly because I went to the market and found cheap frozen salmon filets! I am very excited because that means meat! Even if it is fish! I could afford meat! I don't know if you understand how happy that made me. Either way, I was excited and (over)cooked it for dinner. Turned out pretty well, although over cooked a bit since I had no tin foil to really bake it in.

You wish you had this lamp.

Earlier in the day, when I was at the market I was looking for flour and such to make things like pancakes and bread. You know, because bread is so difficult to find in a pastry centric, bread shopped filled city... I guess I just really like fresh bread out of the oven and I usually by mine the night before so it is half off. You never have to wait for homemade bread to go on sale! Anywho, I wandered around the store reading labels and found one with a german recipe that I half understood, so I got that thinking it was bread flour. Unfortunately it was not bread flour, but fortunately it was a premade bread mixture that was just add water! Easy peasy! So I added my water, kneaded until I was happy, let it rise and then baked it and poof, fresh baked bread. I really don't understand why people don't do this more often, it is economical and yummy! I have a feeling more bread is in my future. Anywho, I ate a piece of bread with my yummy salmon meal.

So basically the point of this post is that my dinner was the highlight of my day. Nothing exciting really happened. Just bread and salmon.

First Day of Classes

Heute haben wir unsere Deutschklasse beginnen! Translation: Today we started german class! Not über exciting, except that we did get to see our palace for the first time! Palais Corbelli is an old baroque palace about one block from Stephansplatz, the city center.

This staircase was the center of Palais Corbelli until WWII when the other half of the building was bombed. The only thing that saved this half was the 3 foot firewall separating the two sides.

Our baroque concert hall seats 50 and has two grand pianos and a harpsichord!

Detail of the fresco on the concert hall ceiling!

Even our study rooms are gorgeous!

After class I headed back to the apartment, got lost, got found, and went grocery shopping. We live very close to the largest open air market in Vienna, the Naschmarkt. There you can find many incredible fresh fruits and vegetables, a few I saw were lychee, jack fruit, and hot peppers. You can also find fresh meat and fish, cheese, olives, and very excitingly hummus! I picked up a few things for stir fry and general goodness and then we headed to Spar and Zielpunkt, two local chains, to check out basics. I really like Spar, it had a good selection and quality, and the Spar brand was relatively cheap. Zielpunkt had a lot of deals and was overall cheaper, but much less selection and there were some name brands that cost the same.

After the grocery stores we headed to an Asian Specialty market, where I was completely at home! Most of the brands are the same and all chinese broccoli looks alike! I picked up the rest of my fixings for my noodle stir fry, including all the sauces I could ever want! Then I spotted the frozen section where oohed, aahed, and drooled over the yummy looking frozen dim sum. Less than 5 minutes from my place I expect to be there very often!

1-2-3, 1-2-3!

Just thought I would add that tonight, we learned to waltz in preparation for BALL SEASON!!! Which isn't actually until January/February, but there is the Chimney Sweepers Ball coming up this fall, which I think we will just have to attend. Party on people!

Erlaufsee

About 20 minutes from Mariazell is the small Alpen lake, called the Erlaufsee. There are many fun activities there on a hot summers day, including swimming and sun bathing on the beach, enjoying ice cream at the lakeside cafe, paddling around on rented boats, or taking an hour long walk around the lake, which I decided to do with a group of other students.

Our walk began by following the lakeside road from the beach toward the other side of the lake. Eventually reaching a small side street where we walked through a small neighborhood of sorts and out toward green pastures and huge Austria cows. Especially coming straight from California where the cows eat brown grass in large herds, seeing an Austria cow, who noms bright green grass with maybe another cow or two, is quite a sight.

We wandered quite a ways away from the lake, taking mostly small one way roads. As we headed back into the woods we found many adorable lakeside cottages, which were very well maintained with an incredible attention to detail! Even the fences to keep the tourists off their lawns had hand painted wooden decorations!

As we continued on our way, we came across an alter for the virgin mary, which are found all over this very Catholic country, in what I thought of as odd places like on a trail in the mountains.

The trail eventually returned us to the lake, where we found a plaque which told the legend behind the silver and black colors of the lake. It was in german, but I think I got the jist of it and basically, there was a miller who lived by the lake with his beautiful wife. Every night she would go down to the waters edge to hear a flutist play and the miller got very jealous, so one night he threw her into the water and she drowned, at this spot the water turned a silver color. Eventually, the miller regretted his actions and was so distraught that he threw himself into the lake as well, and there the water turned black. What a lovely little story, eh?

Well, none of us threw ourselves in and so we headed back to the beach. Although the water was deemed by many to be too cold, another girl and I jumped in off of one of the many public docks and we splashed around for a bit, before heading back to the rocky shore and beach. There were several public water slides available, but some were nicer than others and the one closest to us was on a floating platform covered with bird poop, so we avoided it.

Eventually it was time to head out, so we all piled on the bus and headed back to Mariazell for more orientating! As much fun as it's been, I can't wait to get back and see my apartment!!!