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