It's already Thanksgiving...?

Having Mom and Khala visit me seemed to have opened my eyes more to the abundant cafes and little, hidden corners in Vienna, as well as be more comfortable with doing things by myself. On Sunday, after I slept in from my night at Lutz with Evan, I tried to make like a Viennese student (or what I think Viennese students do), and go do work in a cafe. Too bad Sunday brunch is very popular here. I tried to go to three cafes to no avail, and ended up in the cramped and noisy Starbucks on Kartnerstraße as it poured outside. I couldn't believe I was sitting in a Starbucks in Vienna. But after walking around for half an hour, I really had to get some work done before the gym. It was some good alone time though.

Monday also had a bit of alone time, too. I really wanted to see the new Hunger Games movie, "Catching Fire", at the English Kino (cinema) on Mariahilfestraße, but everybody I asked was either busy or too sick to catch the 20:15 showing. I walked over at 15:00, after my business field trip to the Dorotheum Action House (the oldest auction house in Europe! It was so cool!) and my politics class, just to see if there were any tickets available for another night, and noticed that there was a 15:30 showing...so I thought, why not? And it was one of the best movies I've seen in a while! I'm glad I decided to go watch the movie by myself, on my own time. Sometimes, coordinating with others can be tricky.

I was too freaked out to get a picture of the vapor/fog room...
So here is a picture of an interesting piano, instead.

On Tuesday, I decided to walk through the snow (it snowed Monday and Tuesday, like big flakes! So gorgeous) to school, but a different route than normal. It was beautifully scenic, with new architecture to look at, and I stumbled across the Hof and Freyung advent markets. Those are definitely going to bring me back in a few days! After class, I wanted to visit the Leopold Museum, but of course, Tuesdays are the only days it's closed. So I opted for a quiet afternoon at the Mumok Museum (Modern Art Museum) in Museumsquartier. It was pretty interesting, and since I was alone I could spend as much or as little time as I wanted there. One really cool exhibit that kinda freaked me out was this glass room that seemed to be foggy or smoky. As I peered in, I saw four chairs lined up near the left side of the room and a table with four water bottles on the opposite side. I was looking through the glass door, so I decided to pull it and see if it would open. It did! The room was filled with some sort of fog or vapor that settled heavily in my lungs and made seeing difficult. It really freaked me out so I walked in, and immediately turned around and came out. It felt like an obstacle in the Triwizard Tournament or something, where you'd have to figure out how to pass the mysterious room and learn it's secret. I'm obviously not brave enough to be a Champion.

Wednesdays are always horribly long, since I have class until 19:35, and this was especially tedious because I had to give a presentation on the lengthy reading my teacher had assigned. Once it was over, however, Meghan and I met Amanda and Megan at Rathaus Christkindlmarkt where we wandered around for a bit and had a giant pretzel (which was filled with vanilla pudding and pretty gross) and a bread bowl of soup. It was so Panera, but in an Austrian way! Then, since it was the first night of Hannukah and I'm obviously very Jewish, we went to Orli's apartment where she made us latkes to celebrate. I haven't had a latke since Elyse W's mom brought us cold ones in 3rd grade back in Texas. They're much better warm, but they're a bit too oily for me. It was nice to hang out with a lot of different people. Especially because I was sad that Elise had left me for Mallorca with her family :(

Rathaus Christkindlmarkt

Shreya, on the Erasmus business program, had our friend, Sumer, visiting her in Vienna for the weekend. She arrived on Thursday, and so I organized for us all to meet at Haas&Haas for brunch after my German class. We had a lovely meal and, of course, hot chocolate, and caught up with one another. Then we showed Sumer the Stephansplatz market, took a quick photo outside Stephansdom, and popped into a few shops before I went back to school for my politics class. 

Photo courtesy of Sumer! Shreya, Sumer, and I outside Stephansdom

Since it was Thanksgiving, pretty much everybody skipped...I'd honestly forgotten that we normally don't have class on Thanksgiving. But it didn't matter to me, because I was heading to Baden for Thanksgiving dinner that evening! It was quite a feast, and very delicious, but it wasn't Mom's Thanksgiving dinner. I missed her cornbread! But we were all fed and happy and even had a few of the music students perform for us to round off the evening. It was nice spending Thanksgiving with all my IES friends (except Elise. I can't tell you how disappointed we were to be spending the biggest day of eating apart!) in an 800 year old Heuriger in the spa town of Baden! Of course, I missed my family, though we are all spread out around the world right now, but I was spending Thanksgiving in a place I was so thankful to be in. Austria has captured my heart, and I've already decided I never want to leave.

Ben, Molly, Maya, Becca, Anna, and I celebrate at the Heuriger!

Glorious Thanksgiving dinner! Photo credits to Meghan Daly

Where all of IES celebrated...