Recent Happenings!

View of Vienna

Don-Paul and I at Beethoven's grave!

The Philharmonic at the Vienna Konzerthaus...sooooo amazing!



Hello all!

I have had a great past few weeks in Vienna! My boyfriend, Don-Paul, came to visit fall break at Susquehanna, and we had a great time here in Vienna. We toured around and did the touristy things, such as seeing the Palaces, climbing the South Tower to St. Stephen's Cathedral, going to see where Beethoven and other composers are laid to rest, saw and Opera (The Marriage of Figaro) and saw the Philharmonic!!! It was all a great time, and the Phil was ASTOUNDING.

I just finished with mid-terms yesterday (had 5 exams...ugh), and now I have a four day weekend with today and tomorrow off! I'm staying in Vienna, and doing somethings I've been meaning to do that haven't had the time to do with my normal class schedule, such as seeing the Catacombs and going to a few Museums. I may be going to a different part of Austria this weekend to hike the alps(!!!) with some other friends who are staying in town this weekend, but we'll see!

My German is improving at a rapid pace. As I walk around the city, I can understand a lot more when I see signs and etc, and eavesdropping on people's conversations while riding public transportation has become a little easier. I'm still not perfect at speaking it--I'm a lot better at reading and writing--but it's coming along. It's a breath of fresh air when I hear English--especially American English--on the streets. A few weeks ago I was leaving school and going back to my apartment, and I was on a street car, and two British people were sitting behind me and it was completely weird to listen to their conversation and actually be able to completely understand what they were saying. I feel like when I get back to America, I won't know what to do with myself!!! I feel like I'll go into a store, and start talking and asking questions in German. I won't know what to do with myself when someone can actually understand what I'm staying.

This past Monday was an Austrian National Holiday called Neutrality Day. It is the anniversary of the day after Soviet Troops left Austria during the occupation for 10 years after WWII. Let me tell you, Austrians are CRAZY. Obviously, all the stores were closed, but people were ALL OVER THE FIRST DISTRICT. It was LITERALLY chaos. At the Hofburg, the Imperial Palace in the first district, there were tents and stands EVERYWHERE, not to mention tanks that children could climb on, military people everywhere shoving papers in people's faces trying to get them to sign up for the army (I had to explain that I'm American), and literally the biggest zipline I have ever seen---probably at least 300m long, that went from the Burg Theater to the Palace....see map below, the red line is roughly where the zipline was:

Me, being a little scared of heights, decided not to go on the roller coaster. Another thing I found interesting--that would never happen in America--is that they had "open Parliament day," where any person could just go into Parliament, with a guide, and walk around and see inside. Each tour group was at least 100 people. I don't think America would ever open up the Capital for massive amounts of people to go in at a time to explore. I wanted to go inside, but the wait was about 2 hours, and I had to take a mid-term :(

Also, recently I have booked a flight to go to Bucharest, Romania with a friend for Thanksgiving weekend. I'm really looking forward to that! I also plan to go to Slovenia for 5 days in December after my program ends and before I go home--on December 23--and may be taking one other trip before then. I was just looking for tickets, and I found to Stockholm, Sweden for 8 Euros round trip! I love cheap European flights. My parents come in two weeks (!!!), so I'm looking forward to that. They'll be in Vienna for about 2 days, then we're taking a weekend trip to smaller towns just North of Vienna, called Krems and Melk, for a weekend for some wine tasting :D Also, I have a friend at Susquehanna who is a full time international student from Bratislava. Currently, he is studying abroad in Tanzania, but gets back the beginning of December, and my friend Katie (who also goes to Susquehanna with me) and I to visit him the first weekend in December. Bratislava is only an hour away from Vienna, so it works out perfectly!

Until next time!

Enjoy the pictures!