First Week of (Real!) School

The semester has officially started! Like, officially. After our ten day break, we got back to Vienna (and I can't tell you how amazing it was to be back to our familiar surroundings...I was even excited to see German because I could understand more of that than I could of Czech, Polish, or Hungarian!) and started classes the next day, on Monday. I have class every day at 9am, so I can tell I'll be getting up early and sleeping early (or just getting no sleep) every day. My classes are Arts, Entertainment, and Cultural Events Management, International Organizations, Europe Beyond the Nation State, Austrian Youth Cultures, and German. It's actually a really interesting schedule! So far my classes are all going well and I like them. Even getting up at 6:15am every day isn't too difficult...yet. When the sun starts rising after I've woken up or left the villa, then it will be hard.

Here's a quick recap of my past week, just to keep you updated and show you how normal life in Vienna goes.

Monday

Sort of a rest day for me, since I was still very sick from going out in Budapest that chilly night. I managed to get myself to class about twenty minutes early and after I finished at 12:05, I headed to the Naschmarkt to pick up fruit and nuts. My evening was spent relaxing in bed and finally catching up with Pretty Little Liars (my very guilty pleasure).

Tuesday

After class, I went to Libro with Elise and stocked up on school supplies before we headed to the 6th District to meet Anna and Meghan for sushi at 6:30. Once we finished, Anna, Elise and I were off the the Museumsquartier to attend a walking tour performance around the area. It was very strange. I thought that we were going to see their Music teacher perform an opera solo but we ended up on a two hour walking tour of the Museumsquartier, watching strange skits in German and not understanding anything, seeing a woman try to do modern dance on a cement floor,  and listening to our a cappella tour guides sing us to different areas of the Museumsquartier. We had been joined by a few other IES people, and so there were about 9 or 10 of us in total. After we saw the IES professor do his creepy solo in the dark, the IES group of us decided we'd had enough of the strange performance and left.

 

Above: performances from the Museumsquartier walking tour

Wednesday

Emory literally has taken over Vienna! There are thirteen of us on the IES program and then four more on the Vienna Business program. And tonight, we were all going out together to celebrate Allie's 21st birthday! Shreya and Allie (on the business program) were having a pregame at their apartment and invited us to join with our friends. I had a good time seeing Allie and Shreya, although the business kids didn't really reach out to us at the apartment. So, Becca, Anna, Maya, Eddye, Elise, and I left for Loco, our traditional Wednesday night spot. It was fun, but honestly, my favorite part of the night was when Elise and I left with Carly, CC, and Julia to get kebap boxes from the falafel stand. I wish we could bring the kebap and falafel stands back to America with us!

Emory girls in Wien!

Thursday

Meghan and I rediscovered a cafe I had found a few weeks ago called "Hidden Kitchen" just a couple blocks away from school. The salads they had there were all so interesting and so delicious! I just wish the pumpkin cupcake I had afterwards was just as tasty...for some reason the icing was incredibly salty  :( However, I'll definitely be going back to try some of their other delicious concoctions!

Where Meghan and I had lunch!

Friday

Fridays are great because I only have one class, but it's German. We have a new teacher for my class, and she's very nice, but I don't think I like her teaching style very much. We spend forever on concepts that go in one ear and out the other for me, just because we spend so much time on them in class without having a chance to practice them ourselves in class and then ask questions. It just isn't working for me. Hopefully, I'll be able to teach myself after school. My friend, Mukundha, was also arriving in the evening to stay with me for the weekend! I was excited to take someone around Vienna and act as a personal tour guide for my city. I don't really know him that well, but hopefully he likes my tour and enjoys his stay in Vienna!

So this was just a quick recap of my first week of classes. Hopefully it's not too boring to read! There won't be many more posts like these that are basically just a day-by-day of my week, but I wanted to write it down to remember exactly what I did in my new home, even though nothing of great interest happened. I love every minute here, though, and don't find anything boring. I'm finally starting to get into a routine here in Vienna and I'm still loving that I live here. I don't think that's going to change anytime soon!