The First Week's Observations and Activities

Because lots of people have asked for a photo of The Villa, here it is! Evan and Elise are standing outside and you can't even see most of the top floor or roof! It really is quite lovely.

These last few days have been a whirlwind of activity! I still feel so lucky to live in The Villa, but these 9am German Intensive classes have been a bit of a struggle to get to. I'm no expert in the kitchen (meaning I can make eggs, cereal, and maybe pasta), so I've had to get up around 6:15am every day to make myself breakfast to sustain me throughout my morning of intensive language study. 

In order to get to class on time, I have to leave home at 8am on the dot, or else I'll be running after getting off the tram and U-bahn (subway) just to make it to Palais Corbelli. But just looking around at my home for the next four months makes me not so bitter about this commute. Europe is all about commuting, after all. At least the tram and U-Bahn are super easy to navigate here!

Elise on the U-Bahn: "I don't take the subway in NYC." But here, commuting is a breeze!

German Intensive is exactly that: intense. It's a lot but I'm actually rather enjoying it! I haven't learned a new language for more than 10 years after taking Spanish all through school, so I'm finding this exhilarating as well as a bit difficult. I also like going to class because I still can't get over that THIS is where we have lessons! It's so beautiful...

We found our Matheson Reading Room away from Emory in the Palais Corbelli Study Room.

Most of us are in the same boat with German, however, and we can all do our homework together. On Tuesday night, Elise and I went over to Anna's apartment in the 5th district. It was crowded with just 6 people, so when more came over to start a wine and cheese night, it was quite cosy. Let's just say her whole apartment is about the size of mine and Elise's rooms together.

Brian, Elise, Stephanie, and Anna attempt German homework.

We only have German class in the mornings (for the level 1 people), so our afternoons are either free or filled with IES activities we can join. We also get to explore District 1 and all the food options around there. Unfortunately, I haven't been impressed with the food. Actually, I've found nothing appetizing or filling. Like I said before, everything has pork! I can't even find meat in the grocery store that isn't bacon or pork. I'm worried I won't taste decent beef or chicken or turkey until I get back to America. However, I must say that the coffeehouses are wonderful. And they don't mind when you order one drink and sit there doing work for more than three hours. I've already found a favorite right by IES that I intend on frequenting when I get more schoolwork throughout the year!

I've noticed that the Austrians start to drink at a very young age. Yesterday, on Wednesday night, the IES RA's took all the students out to Loca Club for happy hour at 7pm. All the drinks cost 0.50€, and so obviously all us Americans went out to have a good time. However, as the bar was starting to get crowded, I realized that a majority of the people were under 18. In Austria, drinking is legal at 16 and we were told that if we get "pass-out drunk" at the bar, we'd be absolutely pathetic since we're over 16. They do start at an early age here, so they must be able to hold their alcohol by the time they're in their 20s.

Loca Club was popping for Wednesday night Happy Hour.

The club/bar was very full and it was fun to socialize and mingle, though hard to hear, making any communication with Austrians very difficult given the pre-existing language barrier as well. Many of the IES students hung out together, but it was good to start getting to know more people. Apparently, this Friday night is Austria's huge End-of-Summer party where over 50 clubs and nightride transportation are free! Elise and I have our tickets and hopefully that will be another typical Austrian night for us. However, for now we have to study for our first exam tomorrow in German! Bis später!

All Moved in and Living Like Adults!

I'm all moved into my place in Vienna! After our Welcome Weekend in Mariazell, we packed up and loaded onto the buses bound for Vienna three hours north of the alps. Around 4pm, we were all in absolute chaos trying to distribute and find our luggage and make our way to our separate apartments. Thankfully, Halmut, one of the IES instructors, drove my four roommates, RA, and I to our villa in the far-away 18th District. It was very lucky because the cab there probably would have cost a fortune and with Halmut driving, we were able to quickly stop at Billa, a local grocery store, in the last ten minutes they were open and buy food for the evening and next day. Vienna is a bit like Paris in that almost everything closes early and stays shut all day on Sunday. It would have been terrible if we didn't manage to pick up some food for the evening or next day, because we were all too tired to go out and search for a restaurant!

Our place is located on Scheidlstraße (the ß is really just a double s; it's called Scharfes S), and it's a fully residential area, a bit like Shadyside or Squirrel Hill in Pittsburgh. Trees line the hilly, cobbled sidewalks, providing a lovely green canopy above, and all the tall, connected houses are slightly hidden  behind individual mesh wire gates. When we pulled up to our house, it didn't look like much from the outside, but when we walked inside, we were all stunned.

Looking up our lovely street!

We have three floors! On the first floor is a kitchen, dining room, two bathrooms, and living room with a door opening to the backyard and patio. There's a giant, sweeping marble spiral staircase encircling a pale green mesh wire elevator with mirror decorations. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to work, but it's not a problem because I'm living on the first floor (which is the second floor according to the American system!). There are three bedrooms on my floor, one bathroom, and a grand piano. One of my roommates lives in the first room which has the piano and overlooks the backyard, and I live in the largest room facing the street. There are three huge windows in my room with green curtains and I can see the green tree leaves outside of them. I have a small twin bed, two big desks and chairs, two bedside tables, and two dressers, as well as ample floorspace. Even with all the stuff I brought in my three suitcases, it barely fills the room or wardrobes! It's the most wonderful room though. I have a set of double doors that leads to Elise's smaller room and our shared bathroom. It's the perfect set up for us two, and we just leave the doors between us open so it's like we're sharing a suite style room.

My amazingly huge room, with Elise in her room in the background

My two other roommates and our RA, Viola, live on the top floor and have two bathrooms to share. There rooms are a bit smaller and have a slanted ceiling.

Honestly, our house is too incredible for words. Though the furnishings aren't incredible, the space and neighborhood are lovely and certainly make up for it! I can't even believe how lucky I am to spend my whole semester here! It may be much farther away from school than our other friends, and farther away from them too, but it's like coming home from school to an actual relaxing house rather than a small, cramped apartment in the middle of the city.

Michaelerplatz, the entrance to the Hofburg Palace

Our house is about 45 minutes away from District 1, where the IES Palais is located, but the commute is pretty easy. Yesterday, after Elise and I woke up early to take a soon-to-be-traditional morning run around the neighborhood to get our bearings and did an ab workout in my spacious room, we ate breakfast and left with Viola and the other girls to learn how to buy tram tickets to District 1. One of my roommates had rolled her ankle the day before and wanted to go to the doctor to get it checked out and another wasn't feeling too well, so just Viola, Elise, our other roommate Evan, and I took the #40 tram from Alsegger Straße to the city center. It only took about 15 minutes on the tram and then we had a leisurely walk from the stop to the Palais for about 20 minutes. We stopped a few times to take pictures of the Spanish Riding School and Michaelerplatz, the outside entrance to the Hofburg Palace, before we made it to the main street called Kärtner Straße right by where the IES Vienna Palais is located. Now we know our way to school everyday!

Outside the Spanish Riding Academy, where we see horses everyday.

Just a typical scene on our way to the Palais

Viola left us to visit her boyfriend for the night and Evan, Elise, and I saw the central cathedral of Vienna, St. Stephen's Cathedral. It's too bad there is so much construction going on, because I'm sure it's gorgeous under all the scaffolding!

St. Stephen's Cathedral located in the heart of Vienna, District 1

Our (overpriced) lunchtime cafe

It started to rain more heavily and so we decided to be brave with our immensely limited German and eat at a cafe. It was very touristy, so they spoke English, but the food wasn't great. I'm so worried I might accidentally eat pork or starve here...everything is weiner schnitzel or some kind of -wurst (which is pork!). Hopefully we'll learn basic foods in my German class soon so I can actually recognize them at the supermarkets!

This morning, Elise and I went to two different supermarkets at 8:45am, Hoffa and Billa, to try and buy some more groceries before class. We only managed to recognize strawberries, blueberries, bananas, salad, and yoghurt... We decided to worry about our eating habits later, and quickly bought some toiletries and the essential hairdryer and straightener from Bipa, an outrageously pink store with a lot of good (but expensive!) American brands. We then had to hike up the cobbled streets back to our house with everything shoved into the two grocery bags we had brought with us. It's very economical in Europe that you have to reuse your bags, or pay for new ones at the stores, but it's also quite a pain to remember them and then pack everything yourself. I'd fail as a bagger at a grocery store.

By 11am, all the girls in my house set off for the tram to get to the stunning Palais in District 1 for our 12pm German class. The outside doesn't look like much, but the inside of the IES Palais where we take classes in incredible! It's literally a palace with all the ornate decorating and sweeping staircases and everything! 

The amazing interior of the Palais

At a lecture about taking sports classes and joining gyms in Vienna

The German class wasn't too difficult for me because I'd practiced this lesson over the summer, but I can tell it will be a lot of work as we move quickly through the material in the next three weeks. And it doesn't help that I find the German pronunciation almost impossible and always have the reply to my teacher's questions in Spanish, rather than German. "Wo wohnst du jetzt?" (Where do you live now?) "Cerca de Nueva York." No. That would be Spanish. At least I can quickly grasp verb conjugations since it's a similar set up to Spanish. I think schools in America should teach languages earlier and once you've chosen one, you stick with it until you master it. That's how it's done in Europe and it's amazing how many languages each person can speak! Nothing is worse than when you try and speak their language and they reply in English...that will probably happen a lot to me in the next few weeks. 

After my lesson, I met up with Anna while Elise had her lesson, and Anna and I went on a walking tour of the surrounding area in Vienna with our guide, Gretel. She was a wonderful, informative guide who had done the IES Vienna Study Abroad program in Fall 2004 and had come back to live and get her master's degree. She showed us some great restaurants and food stops for students, where the post office and school supply shops were, and then the Royal Opera House and how to get discounted student standing room tickets, as well as a lot of amazing history about the architects of the building and the Hapsburgs. It was actually amazing how much she knew. I can't wait to discover everything about this city!

The back side of the Royal Opera House, built by two architects who were thought to have been gay. One committed suicide after negative reception of this building and the other died 10 weeks later, maybe of a broken heart.

The Monument of Maria Theresia statue overlooking Vienna

Mariazell in the Austrian Alps

My incredible journey has officially begun! After packing for four days solid, I managed to somehow fit 5 months worth of clothes and belongings into two very large suitcases and a carry-on. My experience on Austrian Airlines from JFK on Tuesday was one of the most comfortable and enjoyable international flights I've ever been on, and definitely soothed my nerves slightly as I set off for a country where I knew absolutely none of the language. That really frightened me. I don't think I've ever been in that situation by myself. However, I'd been waiting for this adventure since high school, and it was finally time for me to study abroad and try things on my own! I was excited to explore Vienna, learn a new culture and language, and meet new people. It's the chance of a lifetime, and I intend to take advantage of it.

8:25am local time and I had landed in Vienna to start my IES Abroad program. There were quite a few other IES students gathering in the airport, waiting to be transported to the youth hostel in Mariazell, where we would spend our Orientation Weekend together, getting to know the IES staff and each other. I was dreading the upcoming icebreakers, but we thankfully were not forced to do anything of the sort.

Youth hostel right outside Mariazell. It's one of the nicest I've encountered!

Mariazell is three hours south of Vienna in the Austrian Alps, and is absolutely gorgeous. My friend Anna and I decided to skip the afternoon nap and explored down a creek by our hostel and found this fabulous view of the alps. It was like I had landed in an oil painting.

"The hills are aliiiiiiiive...!" I honestly just wanted to run around here and sing that.

The next day, we all took a tour of the tiny town of Mariazell up in the mountains and I was amazed by how clean and beautiful everything was. Even the air smells nicer and fresher here! All the shops, buildings, and houses were brightly painted in pastel colours and the weather was gorgeous.

Shops in Mariazell

As a group, the other students and I toured the Priker Schnaps and Lebkuchen (Schnapps and Gingerbread) factories, as well as a candle-making factory. We were able to watch how rolled candles were made from beeswax and learned fascinating things about the colour of beeswax before moving on to see inside the gingerbread factory. The place literally smelled like Christmas. We weren't told the secret gingerbread recipe, but we were all able to sample some of the delectable treats! We then washed those down with enormously potent schnapps...just the smell alone was enough for me!

Gingerbread that has redefined the Christmas season for me. The shop has already received orders for Christmastime, and I'm about to send my own in soon.

Anna, Elise, and I in front of the basilica

After we'd finished the tours, we learned of the legend of Mariazell, where a monk, Magnus, was able to escape robbers in the woods by holding his small statue of Virgin Mary up and praying to her. At the last minute, a giant rock split open and he was able to scramble through and climb up the mountain without the robbers in pursuit. He was so thankful that the Virgin Mary had listened to his prayer, that he built a cell around her in the area, which later expanded and grew into the Mariazell Basilika as people added to the cell to make it more impressive as the Virgin Mary began to answer all of their prayers. The name "Mariazell" came from "Maria-in-a-cell" because the statue was in a cell as the town around her grew. The cell is now the Mariazeller Pilgrimage Basilika and is stunning. Both the inside and outside are intricately decorated and carved. We went inside to tour and unfortunately entered as soon as Mass had started... We tried not to disturb anybody as we looked around, but we received many cold stares, so we quickly shuffled out.

Anna and I in Mariazell

We then had some free time to wander around, so two of my friends, Anna and Elise, and I headed down a small street market. We looked at the numerous rosary beads for sale, glanced through postcards of the picturesque little town, and even practiced our absurdly limited German as we ordered drinks at a cafe. (The extent of our German is "bitte" (please) and "danke" (thanks) and a few other odd words). It was nice to sit and relax in the sun, like all the other inhabitants of Mariazell were doing.

Anna and Elise attempt German in the street market. Luckily, iced-tea is "eistee" in German, so easy enough!

The day after touring Mariazell, we headed to the Erlaufsee Mariazell, or the glacial lake by Mariazell. The lake was a sparkling green and blue and nestled between the towering Austrian Alps. It was absolutely lovely, and so peaceful-looking. The weather wasn't too bad, and there were a lot of people enjoying the water and the sun by the lake. My friends and I joined some sun bathers by the frigid water, and were shocked to see how openly some of the Austrian men are. One man decided to sit down right in front of us and change out of his swimming trunks and into regular shorts. That wasn't the only show we got that day, though it might have been one of the most memorable.

Boats docked on the glacier lake

We spent almost three hours relaxing by the lake. Some people took advantage of the slides in the middle of the water, while others rented paddle boats or hiked around the expansive lake. My friends and I dipped our toes into the crystal clear water, then sat and had drinks under bright red umbrellas that contrasted with the landscape and made the area look like a postcard. It was very peaceful, until an enormous gang of elderly, leather-clad bikers decided to buy cakes and drinks from the snack shop and sit down next to us. It was quite amusing seeing their age and then the Harley-Davidson attire they all wore. We were all laughing, and one of my friends was brave enough to go up to them as they walked back to their bikes and asked to take a picture with them. She got not only that, but was able to sit on the bike and have her photo taken with Mariazell's old, historic train sitting in the background. We finished off the evening by watching some traditional Austrian dancing by men (and boys) in lederhosen doing some incredibly funny slap-step to the accordion played by a man named Hans. They put on quite a performance, with lifts, jumps, play-wrestling, fire, and chopping wood, ending with passing around small honey cookies and honey schnapps shots. Even though Mariazell is a small mountain town, it had proven to be an eventful place to spend a weekend!

Umbrella beach

Leather motorcycle gang with the historic Mariazell train in the back

Lederhosen and Hans = an eventful spectacle