The Third Week

I can't believe we've already made it to our last day of the German Language Intensive program! It literally sped by so quickly. I'm in the midst of studying for my final exam tomorrow morning, but wanted to make sure I posted about my past week in the lovely city of Wien. So, just quickly so I don't bore you with details of how amazing the chicken I had for dinner was on Monday night or how sore my legs were after Tuesday night, here's a run-down on my past week's activities.

Monday

• Exploring Vienna's numerous old churches. I went inside Stephansdom in District 1 right by school and then found a hidden church called St. Peter's with my friend, Stephanie.

It was stunning inside Stephansdom!

Very intricate and some parts looked similar to areas in my all-time favorite, Westminster Abbey

That green dome is St. Peter's Cathedral!

Inside St. Peter's! I think it was even more spectacular than the over-hyped Stephansdom.

• Stocking up on fruit and nuts at the Naschmarkt. I couldn't resist getting a small bag of pecans for 2.50 Euro or a giant grapefruit for just a Euro. I just had the grapefruit today and have never seen one so pink or tasted one so juicy!
• Registering for classes. I keep forgetting that this is actually real school until December and my real classes will start on September 24th. I managed to get into my top four: two politics courses, an anthropology course, and a business management course. In addition, I get to continue learning German!
• Party at the Prater! The Prater is an area near the Danube River with a giant Ferris Wheel offering a spectacular view of Vienna, a large amusement park that you can just walk right into, lush outdoors, a huge nightclub that we were all warned to be wary of, and a number of delicious restaurants. It was Meghan's birthday and she had invited us to eat at Schweizerhaus in the amusement park. It was set underneath the humongous swings in the park and they were all lit up at night! I'll have to go back to Prater and ride the swings, as well as get a better picture in the sunlight! All the rides were glowing with the night lights and we all felt like we had gone back in time to the era when staying out late at an amusement park was the coolest teenage activity ever. Only Elise is still a teen, whereas Meghan...well Taylor Swift recently wrote a song about her age and we were singing it to her all evening.

Partying in the Prater for Meghan's birthday!

Tuesday

• Trying various Austrian delicacies from the Naschmarkt in my German class. We were all sent out to buy different foods, and then we all got to eat and enjoy back at the Palais! I finally got to try my Austrian Kipferl (and it was scrumptious), as well as eine Topfentasche, which is a delicious sweet pastry filled with a bit of cheese. It sounds like an oxymoron, but it actually was sweet! There were also fruits, veggies, salami and sausage, falafel and hummus, and Espresso chocolates that Mom might get addicted to when she tries them here!

Yum, Kipferl! The world's original croissants!

• Receiving the most wonderful care package from my aunt in London! This lifesaving package contained all my favorite treats from England and I can't thank Khala enough! This will definitely keep me going for quite a while now.

She is the most wonderful person ever. YAY BRITISH CHOCOLATE!!!

• Becoming cultured at the Royal Opera House (Staatsoper). This was an all afternoon and evening affair. Elise, Anna, Eddye, and I got in line around 4:15pm to buy our standing room tickets for just 4 Euro. What an amazing deal! We got our tickets around 6pm and quickly claimed our spots in the very front and center of the standing room area in the beautiful Opera House. It was magnificent. As soon as we'd draped our sweaters and scarves over the railings to save our spots (it's the done thing in Vienna), we ran out to our neighborhood Falafel stand and wolfed down our dinner before the show started at 7pm. It was a bit hectic at dinner, but I absolutely loved it. We saw "Carmen" and I was shocked to find out that some very popular music I have always known is from this opera! All my musically adept friends just groaned and rolled their eyes, and Stephanie later told me very kindly that almost everybody knows this song from "Carmen." Do you recognize the song? The woman singing in the Youtube video here is the same woman who performed for us!

Pre-Opera

• The opera was spectacular. I've been on stage and in the audience at enough performances to recognize true masters, and the Viennese did not disappoint. Every note was clear and perfectly on pitch. The facial expressions were amazing. The main guy sort of looked like Matthew Crawley, but a bit pudgier. His voice was excellent. I didn't even notice any body microphones on him or anyone else. The set was incredible and beautifully constructed and the costumes were quite pretty, as well. It was a bit strange that the show was set in Spain, sung in French, and then there were German and English subtitles at every seat. But I didn't mind. I could practice my German by reading both sets of subtitles and even pick out a few words sung in French. I know Zaynee would have absolutely loved coming with me. Hanaa probably could have even understood some of the spoken language if I could, now that she's so good at French! 

Anna, Elise, Eddye, and I at the Staatsoper! Photo creds to Matt S. on Eddye's phone

• I stayed standing through all four acts, for over three hours. Elise, Anna, and Eddye didn't really want to stay the whole time so they left to go to a bar for a friend's birthday after the second act. I just couldn't bring myself to go with them and leave the rest of the performance, despite being desperately dehydrated in that hot standing area and having the back of my calves ache. The show was that good and definitely worth the slight discomforts. I found myself missing España and wondering why I didn't go abroad there once Act 4 opened with a traditional Spanish street scene in Sevilla. I absolutely adore Vienna, but I was reminded about the sun and sea in Spain and how I could be taking classes in Spanish and understand the language perfectly. But this opportunity to be daring and try something completely different is a big step for me and I'm proud of myself for following through with what I wanted to do, rather than what was expected of me. Who knew I would be learning German in Vienna as a junior in college?

The Matthew Crawley look-alike is on the far left in the white shirt! You can't really tell from this picture but I noticed it instantly!

Wednesday

• I had double German class... It wasn't the most fun thing in the world. We had regular class, then a three hour break, and then class again to take our oral German final. My class was the only one who had to do so, but at least we didn't have class Thursday like everyone else when they would be taking their oral final. It didn't go as well as I had hoped. I've been doing quite well in German, but I got thrown into performing a dialogue on something we had never practiced. My partner and I did the best we could while other people got off lucky and recited memorized dialogues about being in a hotel or restaurant. At least my individual answers to my teacher's questions went well and I conjugated all my verbs correctly. It was hard staying at the Palais until 6:15pm. I went and burned off steam with Evan at Loco Bar, and even met two Danish guys who were pretty interesting and told me all the fun things to do in Copenhagen. So at least it was a good ending to a day that shot my confidence in German. 

Evan, Steph, Anna, and I at Loco - now our traditional Wednesday night outing

Thursday

• Thank god for no class today. I automatically woke up at 6:15 like I always do, but today I allowed myself to actually fall back asleep until 8am. I did some morning cleaning, laundry, and reading, then packed for my upcoming 10 day trip starting Friday after my German Final Exam. Now, I'm procrastinating on studying by uploading this post. But now, I think it's time I returned to learning to rules of split and modal verbs in the German language, because after it's all done tomorrow, I'm off to Prague, Krakow, and Budapest! Tschüss!