Schlußprüfung

Finally finished! I took my Schlußprüfung or Final Exam for my class at UniWien today! It was an oral exam, which luckily my professor let me take in English, and yet I was still incredibly nervous. I had no clue what the format would be like, what the questions would be on, and how detailed it would be. In the end it was 20 minutes of essentially essays and short answers, which you had no time to think about and ponder. It was just here is your question - now shoot! Just as intense as I imagined it. But in the end I passed, survived and now I can relax and enjoy the rest of my semester! *breathe a sigh of relief*

Krank

My Salzburgian adventure got me sick. Too much wandering the city in the cold. Granted it was totally worth it and I swear I will post photos soon. Life has just been crazy hectic since I got back to Wien. In addition to all my fun traveling, I've been studying for my final coming up this week in my real, taught-in-German-class at UniWien. And I just got my assignment for German Intensives: I have to read a 300 page German book (Das Parfum von Patrick Süskind) and then write a 6-8 page paper auf Deutsch and then give a presentation auf Deutsch all due by the 31st. In the middle of my crazy studying, this just happened to come along. Whee.

And in addition to all that, the music people at school asked me to help copy and organize music for the music workshop students while I am working at the library, meaning I actually have to do work while in the library and not just sit around and study! The nerve! But I just have to keep thinking about the 2 week vacation that follows all of this and the over 100 euro paycheck coming my way to help fund that...

On an absolute sidenote, I am officially incapable of making rice on the stovetop. No matter what I do it comes out weird. I miss my rice cooker.

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.

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.

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!