A Day of Exploration

Thomas got up and left really early this morning. Maybe he had to go to the bank before class or something. The rest of us had trouble moving, because it was cold & rainy outside. By the time we were ready, it wasn't too bad, but like the Americans we are, we made it seem a lot worse. So we met out on the corner and walked to the U-bahn and from Stadtpark to school huddled like a pack of penguins. Kelsea and I had our umbrellas, but we're calling her's "the leaf," because it is more like a green floppy mess of polyester. Emily and I came up with a system where we can both squeeze under my tiny one if we walk everywhere in an tight hug.
The weather seemed to be affecting everyone. Kelsea, Sara and I kept making eye-contact and taking pictures of all the sleeping people in class. When we were finally out for lunch, none of us wanted to move, but a pack of people eventually went out, driven by their teenage-hunger. Emily stayed with me and we finally decided to try the McDonalds next to the school. Of course it started pouring the minute we left, but we did our hug-walk and even though we probably got as wet as we would've without the umbrella, we didn't feel that way. The restaurant was PACKED! Not only with other UT kids, but all e other Americans who wanted something homey on their rainy vacation day. Europe does fast food MUCH differently. We didn't really notice a difference in the fries, like Billy said we should. However, their selections were more Viennese - Schnitzel from Mickey-D's might be interesting. We decided to get plain burgers though, because they were 6 euros as opposed to 15. They were pretty bland, so I wouldn't recommend wasting a european meal on fast food. We tried to eat at the restaurant to wait out the storm, but it didn't let up. When we were done, Emily couldn't find the trash can, and we discovered that they didn't have any! Just carts to put your trays in, so the staff would come around and collect them. But since the carts were empty, we stood there for about 5 minutes wondering what the heck we were supposed to do with our trash. We hug-walked back through the downpour, nearly fell into a puddle, and got hard-core JUDGED by this one viennese guy who was just strolling down the street in a coat with his tiny dog.
Back in class, Billy talked for most of the lab time, so we were there nearly the whole time today instead of being able to get out a little early. Right after lab, a lot of us went to Philadelphiabruke to verify our rural passes. It turns out we didn't need our passports anyway...weird. Most of us got Budapest tickets but the Interlaken group also went and got their overnight-train passes. After that, we went back to Bitzerk 1 to Aida, a big coffee-house/pastry chain in Vienna. All of their desserts looked so good, but we couldn't pronounce any of them or tell what they were, so we ended up walking the waitress over to the bar and pointing out what we wanted. Whatever I got was good, and I also got a hot chocolate with rum. The rum was a little overpowering, but it still tasted good. I may or may not have lifted the tiny thing the rum came in...it's a good memento. We left and decided to go exploring as a group. Jonathon & Kelsea wanted Kasekrainers, so we had to stop and let them satisfy their urges, and then we strolled. We found all kinds of funny shops with weird mannequins (and we have pictures posing in from of a few these). We also found a cast bronze model of the old Vienna next to a still-existing section of the old wall around the first district. Eventually we had meandered our way to Landstrasse, where the big mall is. We almost went to see a movie, but then we realized the Schonbruun concert was starting soon so there was some deciding to do. Kelsea and I were cold and curious, so we went ingot the mall instead of standing with the group outside. We told them to call us when everyone had decided what to do but I guess they forgot. Kelsea and I got carried away looking at all the shops. We spent a lot of time in Thalia, a bookstore (with a bunch of other cool stuff). I bought a "Super Frau" keychain for Kristen, and Kelsea bought one for herself, along with the ping-pong balls she'd been searching for for days. We went out to find other people, but they were gone, so we went back into Thalia to look around. We found ourselves in the kids' section reading books next to people less than half our size, and we also had our own puppet-show (yes, it's documented)! As we started walking to the exit, we noticed that right next to the kids' section there was a table COVERED in porn - and it was on clearance. We were SO close to buying one or two books from here as gag gifts, but instead we stood over by the greeting cards and watched as literally every old person who walked in perused the material. Kelsea was all excited because the store had free wifi and she was able to Snapchat her friends. She tried to make me think that her ridiculously distorted faces were a valid form of communication, but I still don't get it.
We decided we wanted to go to the concert, but after stepping outside and feeling the dropping temperatures, we decided to just go back to our apartments. And the people who were there said it wasn't worth it. I cam san wrote part of this post when I got back to my apartment, but then we all went to Aaron's to play beer-pong. And by beer-pong, I mean water-pong, because we wanted to drink at our own paces. Emily, Kelsea and I ended up back in the park swinging on hammocks, Kelsea's shoes, and hiding in the tourism shop's alcove around 3AM. Then we went back to our rooms, packed, and slept so we could get to the train station on time in the morning.

Frolicking with St.Stephen

I set my alarm for 8 this morning so I would have plenty of time to get ready and out the door by 8:30. Thomas woke up at 7:50 and went to take a shower. I set a timer for 10 minutes and went back to bed. When I woke up again, the water was still running so I set another timer for 5 minutes. Even still the shower was on. This boy took FOURTY MINUTES in the bathroom, 30 of which were spent IN THE SHOWER! HOW can you spend that long in a shower?? It’s beyond me. Anyway, I had to skip my shower then, because there was no more time if I wanted to be on time (9, NOT 9:30!). I put my UT Study Abroad shirt on (because Billy told us to wear it for the Stephansdom tour), and reminded Thomas to, because he was about to forget it. Jonathon was casually making breakfast in the kitchen, but since we were all leaving, I made sure he knew we needed to be at class by 9. He wasn’t concerned

Thomas insisted on going this new “shorter” way to class that he had discovered, walking from Karlsplatz instead of StadtPark. It actually was a little faster, but really only saved us about one minute. Then the group waited, because Jonathon wasn’t there. He came about 10 minutes later and we clapped for him.

To climb up the South Tower of Stephansdom, we had to enter directly into the spire from Stephensplatz. We climbed the 418 tight-circle stairs to the top (I had a lot of fun speeding up and waiting to jump out at Kelsea, who was right behind me), where there was a gift shop. I bought another keychain for my friends here, and a postcard to send home. It was very cool to be able to pick out all the places I had already been to or at least seen– Peterskirche, Karlskirche, Votive Church (which was constructed as a “thank you” to god for a failed assassination on Emperor Franz Joseph’s life in 1853), Le Belvedere, Hundterwasser’s incinerator, the Vienna woods, and New Vienna (with the Donatorum). There were also huge horns at each of the 4 windows, because the tower was used to spot fires and alert the city. Since all the buildings are connected, they wanted to make sure to catch it as soon as possible and send the bucket brigades.

After seeing what we could, we took a few pictures (including some in fron to df listening ) and then made the descent back the way we came. It’s difficult to use that staircase for opposing traffic, especially when you can’t see when it’s coming (and sound can’t help you determine how far away someone is, due to echoing). When we got out, we all felt like our bodies were trying to continue to walk in a counter-clockwise circle.

We took several group pictures around Stephensdom(and I took a couple of Billy, because he needed headshots) for the Study Abroad Team back at UT. We saw the place where you come out of the catacombs over by the North Tower. Definitely a tour to try. We went into the enormous church and waited until about 10:45, when we went back to IES for our German class at 11. Today she talked more about ordering food from a resturaunt. At the end, I asked her how to exchange money and I went to get rid of the last of my US Dollars. Carlos awkwardly followed me, and then jumped up to the counter at the same as me, thoroughly confusing the bank teller and myself…This kid is a very odd duck. One of us really understand him. He kind of clings to me though, because we were in the same cabin at Camp Texas. We all find it very difficult to communicate with him, because the things he says never make any sense or are totally random.

Anyway, I went from the bank to H&M to see what they had (and because I knew a group had said they were going). Everything was EXPENSIVE! And THIS is Europe’s discount store! The least expensive thing I was were some V-necks that were 6.95 (euros, of course). I guess those weren’t so bad.

I didn’t see anything I wanted to buy, or anyone from the group, so I left and went to Pasha (where I found the group that wanted to go to H&M) to get a Kebap Box. I tried ordering in all german, but I really had no idea what to say whenever he would ask a question, so it became an English thing very quickly. He asked if I wanted a little spicy sauce, and I said yes please, but he gave me FOUR SCOOPS of spicy sauce. My food was very hot.

By the time I’d walked out with my kepab box, they’d left. I went again to search in H&M, and then I gave up and went back to IES. Billy made up the lost time from the morning by lecturing now, in our lab time. Kelsea and I had a blast watching all the I-just-can’t-help-it sleepy people. Especially Thomas.

Finally he let us do the labs, and though I didn’t finish in time because I couldn’t find one of the commands for over 20 minutes, I think ‘ll be able to finish it for homework tonight, no sweat.

After lab, Kelsea and I went home together and finalized our plans for this evening: we were to “frolic” in a meadow in the Vienna Woods. She told everyone to wear “FROLICKING ATTIRE!” Apparently this means business casual. We waited for over an hour outside because people were taking forever. Then Emily, Corin and I went ahead to the stop where the bus picked us up to take us to the woods. It was here that I realized I had left my SD card, and I was pretty upset about it. Fortunately, Ashley let me use hers. We were supposed to have wine & cheese & grapes, but we replaced the grapes and cheese with more wine instead. Adriana decided to come with us, and we probably scared her with how much alcohol was consumed (however, she said when she came with her group, they did a pub crawl in Budapest and got free shots between the bars which made them all REALLY drunk, so we know she isn’t personally opposed to drinking at least. It was just strange because there are rules that she may not consume alcohol with us. She says she’ll forget the rules the last week and just hang out with us. We’re excited. Adriana’s great.). I think the final number was 11 bottles. However, there were a lot of us – about 25. But it is true that the wine was not distributed evenly among us. Kerri, Paige, Thomas, and Zach B. all had way too much. Before not too long, Zach was trying to make a fire with 2 sticks, Paige & Kerri were falling over and calling themselves “tree nymphs,” and Thomas was telling an elaborate story that all takes place a couple hundred years ago in his made-up version of history.It got the girls laughing pretty hard. Kaelsea had quite a bit to drink too, but it had worn off by the time we were back home.

On the U-bahn ride home, we were talking about when Germans stare at you in a subway. We had some pictures of previous starers, and also some of those around us were doing it right then.Emily has the BEST one on his phone.

Back at the apartments, I went over to the girls’ briefly to drop off Ashley’s SD card after transferring the pictures to my computer. I realized I accidentally left my camera charger in there too from earlier today. Kelsea says I can get it tomorrow, because they’re all asleep. I guess I’ll just charge it during lecture tomorrow (9, NOT 9:30!).



That’s all I can think of right now. WOW! Look at how much shorter this post is than the others!

Working out the kinks

This morning I set 2 alarms, and they both went off correctly, so I woke up at 8:30. It was very very quiet, so I was going to wake everyone else up, when I realized…everyone was gone. I thought maybe they had decided to go get breakfast or something, so I wasn’t too concerned about it and I started making myself some toast. I noticed when I glanced in Corin’s room that David had chosen to respond to Helmut’s email by moving all of his stuff into the closet and putting it on hangers. I decided I would deal with this today.

I went into the kitchen to figure out how the heck a European toaster worked, and then I heard the toilet flush. It was Thomas. When he came out of the restroom, I asked him where everyone else went and he said he didn’t know because they were all gone when he woke up. I said “class starts at 9:30, right?” and he said that was correct.

He left the apartment about 9:05, because he wanted to try a different route and take “getting lost” time into account. I left at 9:15. The train was on time, so while Thomas (who did get lost) got there at 9:25, I did what any Mills would do and showed up at 9:30, satisfied that I was on time. False. Apparently everyone but us  got the memo. Class started at 9.I was especially embarrassed because I had been late the day before due to the train, and Billy knew it. I didn’t want to disturb anyone else, so I just picked the seat next to the TA, Adriana.

Today he was talking about circles. Geometry…gross. I didn’t like it the first time, second time, third time, …

Then I woke up. Oh. My. God. Did I really just do that? Again? What is wrong with me? I was so angry at myself I didn’t know what to do. I remembered little snippets of consciousness where all I knew was that people were staring at me and laughing. Right now I was awake because as everyone was walking around to stretch between lectures they all said something like “did you have a nice nap, William?” I was livid with myself. Billy came over to say something to Adriana, but didn’t even look at me, which was very unlike him.

I was about to get up and try to apologize somehow (…please excuse my idiot body for only becoming sleepy while you were lecturing), but then Brittel came into the room. She randomly asked us individual questions in German, like what’s your name, where are you from, etc. and then she talked about numbers for awhile. We learned how to ask and answer “How much does that cost,” and listened to a dialogue of a couple ordering food at a restaurant. She told us our homework was to go to a restaurant and try  ordering in all German. Hahahahahahahahahaha.

After class, I got everyone’s’ crap for sleeping again, and I decided to get it all out before lab time, so I took a nap instead of eating lunch. As I was settling in to sleep, Helmut walked in with his 3-week old baby boy, so I had to at least go see him first. He only had a few minutes before his wife came to pick the baby up though, so I was back to the sofa not too long after I had meant to be. Of course, I was photographed and made fun of when I woke up, because I tried to fall asleep while taking up as little of a sofa as possible. However, I felt well energized for the lab, which went by SUPER fast. I was one of the first to finish, because I understood the software after playing around with it on my own the night before.

Taking advantage of this extra time, I coyly asked David if I could borrow his key to go see Thom. He knew exactly what I was going to do, but I had figured out that I needed to do it myself because he sure as hell wouldn’t do it willingly. Of course, he had writtenen “David” on the key cover in Sharpie. MY KEY. I got back the apartment, grabbed 40 euros (basically all I had left), and went to Thom’s office.

I explained the situation a few times to Thom, and when he finally understood what I meant, he stamped his feet and said “And now the cookie crumbles! Tell him he needs to move his s**t because that messes with our cleaning staff if you have to, but you get that hoe to leave! If there’s bloodshed, please clean it up best you can. But do try to be nice to him, because those are the people you need to put on your front lines in a war. Are you excited for that World War Z Movie? The CGI is gonna be faaaaabulous. Did see the new Star Trek?” Then we talked about Star Trek for about 20 minutes, and I was off, with 2 sets of keys(MY pair, and David’s CORRECT set to HIS apartment rather than MINE).

Back at the apartment, I put his keys on his bed. Everyone else came home and we dicided we were going to make chicken for dinner. Corin & Thomas went to get some wine from the Billa (one for drinking and one for cooking, of course!). Corin had mentioned something about how he shouldget some more coffee, because what we had gotten the day before was actually coffee BEANS. I told him not to, because we could crush them ourselves. We tried several methods, in a baggie using hands, a knife handle, a frying pan and a cup. Then I realized we could just put it in a bowland find something to serve as a pestle. The consensus was the curry powder seasoning jar. As we took turns, we suddenly realized we’d found a new favorite pastime to relieve stress, and for the rest of the night our apartment was filled with “crunch crunch crunch.”

But to the more important thing here – FOOD!

I got the corkscrew ut to open the cheap wine we were going to cook with, and I thought “man, this cork is really rotten, because the corkscrew was too easy to get in. I realized this was because there WAS no cork, which made us all laugh. I made the pasta & the chicken seasoning (white wine, basin, thyme, salt, & pepper), Corin dealt with the actual cooking of the chicken, and Thomas made the caprese, while Ryan crushed coffee beans and Jonathon did homework in his room. Joren knocked on our door in the middle of our cooking and quickly said “canwehavesomewinenowpleaseweneedwineIcanbuyyouanotherbottletomorrow.” We had already taken what we needed to cook with, so we gave him the rest of the cheap bottle…without the lid. Maybe we’ll find out later what the emergency was. We were laughing about it saying there was probably  a bleeding person in his apartment and he needed alcohol to clean the wound.

Rosa, the RA that moved into the girls’ room, also came by to ask for our names so she could add us to a Facebook group. As she left she said “now remember, I’m your Austrian friend, not your RA!” She seems like a nice lady (probably mid 50s).

We were all so proud of our meal. It was very very delicious. I usually don’t like chicken, but this was superb. Our 2012 Wien Manu Faktur Krems Chardonnay went very well with it too, so our home cooked meal was a big success. We would like to try cooking some other things too, but have decided that we should make this exact same meal again at some point before we leave.

David came in as we were cleaning up from dinner. He went to his room and came out holding the keys from his bed saying "who left their keys on my bed?" I told him they were his, and he said "no, mine have my name on them." "These keys are the ones to your apartment though." "My apartment? So I guess they're officially kicking me out? This isn't fain. I live here." None of us wanted any trouble, so we just didn't say anything. He bickered and bickered and bickered about how they were out to get him and I was out to get him. He took several of our things from the kitchen and bathroom, but they're nominal enough that we don't care (a jar of Nutella, a bar of soap, and a sponge). But he is now officially GONE. Day mission accomplished.

Te rest of the night was spent doing homework and laughing at Thomas as he danced to “That’s Not My Name” and “Car Wash,” until Kelsea invitedus to go back to Bitzirk Eins (District 1) to get some gelato. The original plan was to go to Zanoni & Zanoni  again, but we decided to go to Eis-Greissler instead because it had been recommended to us several times and the line was only out to the street instead of all the way down the block like it normally is. I got a 2-scoop of the hazelnut & butterscotch, and it was totally worth the extra 25 cents per cone (also, the cones didn’t taste like paper, so even that trumped Zanoni & Zanoni.). We went and looked at the creepy teddy bears again, and then went back to our apartments. Thomas and I finished up our homework and he went to bed. I stayed up to write this post, and now I’m about o hit the sac too. Class starts at NINE (NOT 9:30!)! Tomorrow (er…today) is the day where we will tour the South spire of Stephansdom! 

First class day (oh yeah, this is school)

Hopefully my blog posts will be a little shorter from now on, so they are less painful to read and to write. For some reason, my phone decided to be dyslexic this morning. Thomas (who was fully awake at the time) verified for me that I was not just delirious. At 8:54, my alarm went off and the screen said “Alarm: 8:45.” Weird. Everyone else in my apartment was gone by 9. Thomas waited back for me, but I told him to go ahead. I had to scramble a little, because class began at 9:30, but I made it to the U-Bahn station by 8:15. Naturally, the train was broken, so it didn’t start moving until 9:23. I was still able to manage getting to class by 9:40, but Billy was clearly upset that I had come in late. Somehow, I beat Thomas and Jonathon there despite having left way after them, so at least I wasn’t at the top of the bad list.

Our first day of class, Billy talked about the process of an engineering project. It’s reminded me of when we learned the process of turning a bill into a law. Then he talked about how drafters must write very neatly, and only in caps. So our homework is to trace the alphabet and copy it down onto the kind of paper that kindergarteners learn to write their letters on.

Our german professor , Brittel, came in at 11. She said “so this is where I should say I like to get to know you, blah blah blah. Instead, let’s begin.” She asked what things we would like to know how to say, and we told her we wanted to be able to order food at a restaurant and shop at a retail store. She mainly spent today talking about hellos & goobyes in the formal & informal. Our homework was to go to a bar and ask a real Viennese person things like “what’s your name, where do you live, where are you from, etc.

When class let out, I went to talk to Helmut about David. He said he would send an email nicely telling him that he needs to stop squatting in our apartment, and move to where is supposed to be. Hopefully this will painless.

Then I went to exchange some money at the Endo Bank on Kartnerstrasse. I was going to try the local Handelsbanker, but The receptionists in the IES office said it would be better to go to the middle of the city for some reason. They seemed kind of upset at the moment, so I didn’t ask whya bank in the heavy touristy area would be better – I just went.

I think I’m starting to blend in a little better at least. The banker greeted me with “grüß gott” instead of immediately speaking in English, but she did speak English, fortunately. She got a little tripped up as she was trying to count the euros aloud in English to me (here’s 20, 40, eh…), and I learned that whether they need help with the numbers or not, you never help a banker count money. I think she thought I was trying to tell her a false number, because she gave me that german glare and told me to stay quiet.

I took my euros and went back to the IES office so I wouldn’t be messing with my moneybelt in the middle of Kartnerstrasse. Then I went to the little kebap place Billy has been recommending as the best in the city since our first meeting. Honestly, I thought it was ok. All the ingredients were separate, so I either got a mouthful of lettuce, tzaziki sauce, tomatoes, OR meat. The bread wasn’t great either. Maybe next time I’ll get it in a bowl and mix it up.

I went back to the school and worked on some homework for the rest of lunch, as I ate my kebap. Our lab was a little difficult, but just because we were all unfamiliar with the software we need to use. I was the last one to finish, but I feel like I understand how to use the program well enough now that I won’t always be the last one. I have been playing around with it tonight on my own.

After lab, we went ot Philadelphiastrasse to validate our eurail tickets and get reservations for our trip to Prague. Billy said we wouldn’t need our passport to validate a ticket that has alredy been purchased, but let it be known that you do indeed need your passport. We were told by Tobi to leave our passports in our rooms at all times and never carry them with us, so I didn’t bring mine. However, I was still able to reserve a seat on the train with the group. Weird. I’ll probably go validate my ticket tomorrow or the next day. Billy still needs to BUY a ticket, and he did not bring his passport either. We were going to have him reserve a seat with us, but when we turned around, he was gone. He keeps doing that.

Corin, Thomas, Ryan and I went to the Hofer with Emily, Kelsea, Kerri, Ashley, and Paige, which has the same logo as Aldi in the US. It is a cash-only grocery store that sells food for discount prices in bulk. My kind of place! I was tempted to get some Grand Mariner and make margaritas, but it was 10 euros, and we already were getting a lot of food since we were still in the process of moving in (also, because we are American).

After taking our groceries back, Ryan & Corin went to get some better vodka from Billa than what they had at the Hofer, so the girls and I waited for them and then we went to the Museum Quartier to find a restaurant I had read about as having “the best schnitzel in the city – and for an awesome price.” We only walked by it once, but we finally got to Centimeter. Our waiter fortunately spoke English, and her was very tolerant of our American-ness. I got a hausbier and the swienschnitzel with pommes for 2,30 + 8,60. and it was the best schnitzel and beer I have ever had. Kelsea was really excited when she saw that she could order 2 meters of wurst for 8,80 and a Sex On The Beach for 5,60 (which we all thought was expensive, but she said it was worth it – it was pretty strong). Paige has us all cracking up, because she ordered a water, no gas, and a Pepsi Lite with vodka. They didn’t understand, so they brought her 2 waters, a Pepsi, and a shot of vodka. …so she ordered two more to be put in the same glass. That poor bartender was so confused.

I was surprised at the experience we had at the restaurant. We had been told that in Europe, waiters are very difficult to get a hold of, food comes out very slowly, and the custom is to be there for several hours. Eating here felt like eating in an American restaurant would, we also ordered in English and didn’t stay longer than about 2 hours (though we were there long enough for Kelsea to write several things on her plate using the detergent-sized bottle of ketchup).

Afterwards, Ryan and I went to the girls’ apartment to finish our very tedious homework. Kerri & Paige went back out to go to clubbing, but the rest of us sat in the kitchen to work. We were all done within about a half hour, and then our study party became a youtube-watching party. The girls didn’t want us to leave, because Rosa, the RA, was supposed to come back today, and they’re afraid she’ll be mean so they wanted us there when she got back (the apartment they are living in is actually where the RA lives,). It’s pretty funny for the rest of us, because the RA is a ver organized person, so she has sticky nothes and chore charts and all kids of notes for the girls to pay attention to all over the apartment. We ended up leaving about midnight though, and Rosa was still not back.



When we got back to the apartment, David was all pissed off because apparently he received an email from Helmut telling him he needs to move. Hm, wonder where that came from. He is still fuming to the other guys about it, who are just sitting and listening to his rant, saying “uh huh…uh huh…uh huh…” I couldn’t take any more of the ridiculousness. Why is he so upset? He is not supposed to be living in here anyway! Whatever. Hopefully he’ll just listen to Helmut and move out so he’s out of our hair and I can have a key to MY apartment. More tomorrow, I have class at 9:30. Gute (not guten) nacht.

Free Day

I planned to go to church today with most of the group to the Beethoven-written mass, but I slept too late. Oops. I’m kinda disappointed about that since I’m here in Vienna, but I guess I needed it, because I was OUT.

I opened my window to check the temperature before I left, and it felt warm, so Corin and I decided to leave our sweatshirts in the apartment. Oops again. Windchill here is almost as ridiculously awful as it is in Austin. At 2, Billy took us out to Zanoni & Zanoni on Kartnerstrasse for his birthday to get some double-scoop gelato. While we were eating, we noticed a "teddy bear museum," which was basically just a glass box with a ton of different teddy bears in different scenes, none of which are cute & cuddly. My favorite depicted a bear with red eyes drunk driving and killing another one (how morbid...for a TEDDY BEAR). We got several laughs out of seeing these ridiculous awful things the teddy bears were doing, and imagining them coming to life when nobody's looking.

Anyway, Tobi met up with us a few minutes later and most of the group went to a futbol game with him. And by most, I mean all but 4. Corin and I had no idea that practically everyone had decided to go to the game when Tobi had mentioned it a few days before. I certainly wasn’t willing to pay 24 euros for a sports ticket for a team I hardly knew, but obviously only 4 of us felt that way. As soon as the big group left and the 4 of us realized we were the only ones left, David quickly took off to “walk around” alone, and Jonathon decided to go to the Albertina Museum. Corin & I felt a little lost for a few minutes, as we slowly walked back toward Stephansdom. What were we going to do in the middle of Vienna for a whole day? First world problems, eh?

We stood on Stephensplatz for a few minutes until I realized that we really only had to look around us and be spontaneous. So, we went in Stephensdom! The inside is just as spectacular as the outside, if not more. Every stone that makes that church is intricately carved. I kept taking pictures and gawking around me, but the old church never got old to look at. There were gates to keep people from waltzing down the middle of this ancient place. So only the sides were open to actually walk down. There were at least 10 altars apart from the high altar (but in the same room…weird), many with their own set of pews and worshippers. I can’t imagine trying to attend church while thousands of talking, picture-taking people shuffle through your sanctuary. Definitely got several of those characteristic German glares from some of the old people who were in the pews I walked by. But still, being in that place was a beautiful experience. As goes with gothic architecture, people’s eyes were naturally drawn up by the great red-wood-like stone columns that disappeared into the vaulted ceiling __ meters above our heads. As we walked out, Corin described it as a very “humbling” experience, and that is the only way to sum it up.

Wandering aimlessly toward IES, St. Peter’s Church caught my eye, so we went there next. I actually may have liked this one better, because it was off the touristy track, and it was more of a renaissance baroque church. Lots of intricate carving in this place too, but in mostly marble and gold instead. This church was more of a cylindrical room instead, and it was much lighter. When we walked in, the doors were actually closed instead of being held open specifically for tourists. The ceiling was one of the main things that definitely set it apart from Stephansdom though. Peterskirche has a HUGE painted ceiling. I think the biggest reason I liked this one so much more was because no matter what you looked at, everytime I looked again, there is something new to see that I hadn’t caught before. I stared at the beautiful realism-style ceiling (representing the different levels of heaven, I believe. I will need to research this more for next time I go) and craned my neck back for a little bit, until I noticed that they had a large picture of it at eye-level for people to look closer at. My camera died here (sad trombone- I forgot to charge it after Team H-Town’s concert last night!), but I am sure I’ll be back at some point during this trip. In fact, I think it might be in our class schedule. I know Stephansdom is, but Corin and I will just have had a head start. Also, we’ll be going up in the south tower (the bigh one) of Stephensdom when we go with the group. Corin and I didn’t do it today though, because it costs money to get to do that (or to explore the catacombs underneath, which I would love to do.)

We walked out of Peterskirche and noticed that there was a statue of a gladiator-like man on the outside to the left of the main entrance wielding what appeared to be a giant golden saw. Interesting.

Anyway, we left Peterskirche and wandered back toward the city center slowly. We stopped for a couple minutes to look at the Anyway, we left Peterskirche and wandered back toward the city center slowly. We stopped for a couple minutes to look at the Pestsäule, which is a sculpture Emperor Leopold I had erected as thanks to the Gods for ending the Black Plague.

Corin had no idea what to do next, So I suggested we go walk around the Prater (the thing I researched for Viennese research project). It reminded me of the State fair, except it was free to get in. Most of the rides we saw were 4-4.5 euros to ride, and there are some we do plan on coming back to ride. We’re broke, so we didn’t do any of them today. There was a hang-gliding roller coaster and a racecar rollercoaster that looked fun, and a cool thing where you are put into a life-size plastic sphere that is waterproof. Maddame Toussads may be fun to do too, but it’s probably expensive, so we probably won’t. We wouldn’t know a lot of the celebrities anyway.

I don’t know if we will ride the famous Wiener Reisenrad, a big, very old ferris wheel. It is kind of the heart of the Prater (although they’ve built a more modern ferris wheel to accommodate people who don’t want to pay extra to be in one of the antique closed-in cars.), but the price may deter us. I would definitely like to try at least one of the famous restaurants there - Sweizerhaus or Salmucci. Not a good place to be at night though. The Looney Tunes is to Six Flags as theis REALLY creepy gnome-like thing is to the Prater. Even in the daylight, he reminds me of Chucky.

We also saw what may be the smallest nation in the world (I feel like someone somewhere has probably beaten it though, or tried very hard to). The Republic of Kugelmugel is a spherical building with windows that was declared by the artist and inhabitant, Edwin Lipburger, to be an independent nation in southern Vienna. He decided to split because the authorities told him he could not have a spherical house (it was against code) His address? “2 Anti-Fascism Square”). His house was taken after he started printing his own stamps, and he would’ve gone to jail for it if not for a pardon from the president of Austria. They put his house in the Prater with a barbed wire fence around it to show that it is indeed separate.

When we didn’t feel like there was anything else to do at the Prater, we decided it would be a cool idea to try and find the stadium even without a tour guide. I mean, we had quite a bit of time left to kill, so why not? We went to the very ambiguous U-bahn stop named “Stadion.” Hey, whaddya know? There was a stadium there! We got off the train and went over towards it to listen to all the crowd cheering. Oh wait, just kidding – it was deserted. There was literally not one other person we saw anywhere near this stadium. So we did the next best thing by hopping on the U-bahn and seeing what would happen if we rode it all the way to the end of the line. Apparently nobody else does that,because we were the only people on the train for the last several stops. We came up and saw that at the end of the Purple line there are…apartments. Cool! So we hopped back on the go the other way and when we connected with the red line we decided to take that out to the very end, at which we found…an U-bahn station! We decided to stop at this point, because we were getting sleepy on the empty trains in the middle of nowhere, and I needed to charge my camera.

When we got off at the Margartetengürtle stop by the apartment, we noticed that all the people from the game were getting off at the same time, so we just came up behind and joined their group. When they asked “wait, were you at the game?” We both said yes. I think they’re still clueless, because they keep talking to me about how impressed they are with the fact that I only had a t-shirt & shorts on (apparently the stadium was VERY cold). Past then, the night wasn’t really very interesting. Ryan mixed ground beef, potatoes, and tomato sauce in a pan and heated it up for our dinner (apparently it’s some special family recipe or something. SUPER complicated…I’m thinking his Dad came up with this one). Everyone else in the apartment went to bed early and I guess I should soon. We need to be at class at 9:30! Oh yeah, I forgot I was in school. J

Last Orienting Day!

Thomas and I planned to wake up before everyone else today so we could go exchange money. But since it was a Saturday, there were no banks open. The only money exchange places are in the very touristy area on Kartnerstrasse, which is close to the IES office, but the exchange rate is awful. I was very desperate, but I only changed $50 for today, which got me 30 euros. That sucks.  We finished up our orientation information, learning about things like tipping and staring and frowning. Unlike America, where people smile a lot and are taught that it is rude to stare, people here only smile when they laugh and feel no inhibitions to just staring at someone (this has happened a couple times on the train, where there will be some lady that just stares at me. Kent says it’s just because they’re “interested in what you’re doing or what you look like”).

                After the orientation session, we had about an hour before we had to meet up at Schwedensplatz. Corin and I wanted to go to the flea market, and David overheard us so he decided to come too. The flea market only happens Saturday mornings. This is the only Saturday morning I am going to have in Vienna, and Billy told us so many good things about it. But unfortunately it didn’t really meet our expectations. It was like a disheveled Goodwill, with nothing really good to offer. I considered buying a stein, but I wasn’t willing to pay 14 euros for a used mug (that’s basically what steins are like here, not like the intricate Black Forest stein Amanda brought home from Germany). One guy tried to sell me a very used jacket for 160 euros. WHAT?

                Needless to say, I didn’t buy anything there. But next to the flea market is the farmers market that is open everyday. I wish I had more time to try everything in that place. All of it is very fresh and smells super (“zoop-her”)! We were short on time and cash, so Corin and I bought Böraks and ate them as we hurried back to the U-bahn, while David ran around trying to convince the vendors that he was actually interested so they’d give him free samples.  Corin’s Spinach & cheese one was way better than my meat one, which tasted like hamburger helper.

When we got off the train at StadtPark, we saw Adriana who was on her way to Schwedenplatz, where we were to get on a boat and take a Danube River Tour! We went together and met with the rest of the group there. We boarded the Schlögen, a small 2-story floating restaurant that also had an observation deck. The cruise was nice, but the views from the boat were just as spectacular as they normally are. One cool thing that happened is we went through a lock to raise the boat up from the Danube canal to the Danube River. We were fascinated at how we could not feel any movement, but could notice the water level rising, if you stared in one place long enough.

                We got of the boat right in front of The Church of St. Francis de Assisi, which looks like a really awesome castle. It’s actually not old at all, built from 1898-1910, so it has much less recognition than a church like St. Stephen’s Cathedral.

                We walked across the Empire bridge to “new Vienna,” where the skyscrapers are. We made our way to The Donatorum on the northwest side of Downtown. The Donatorum is a spinning restaurant, much like Reunion Tower in Dallas. It is also absurdly expensive, so we just went to the observation deck. Standing up there where the wind was strong and you could look DOWN at the skyscrapers, I felt a little bit like I was flying. We scurried around the outdoor balcony trying to get views and pictures from every direction, and when the beautiful view lost its “ooh-ah” factor, Kelsea bought some gummy bears and we VERY MATURELY avoided cameras and dropped some off the edge. We stopped when we realized that there were three wedding-picture groups below us. Oopsies.

                I bought my first keychain here. Before I left, I promised to buy keychains for my friends, and I decided that instead of getting a bunch of the same ones, I’d rather get different ones and let them decide which they want. By the way, keychains are EXPENSIVE here. Then again, everything is. Kent says that’s because of all the benefits workers get (by law), like full medical for their whole family & extended family, 15 days of paid vacation per year, and 2 double-paychecks per year! Woah.

                We left The Donatorum and went to the grocery store. We were all glad to get to go, because we’d needed to since we got here. All the Billas close by 19, so we usually run out of time to make it. We went and got some basics – cereal, apples, bananas, bread, cheese, mustard, salt & pepper, and of course, alcohol! Ryan got some meat, potatoes, and tomato sauce, because he is planning on making meat & potatoes tomorrow night.

                Tobi had emailed us earlier that he was part of a hip-hop group, and they were having a concert tonight, so we decided to go see him. We knew the drinks would be expensive at the bar, so we decided to meet up and drink some before going. Eishann was the only one who didn’t drink anything, and a couple of people got pretty drunk, so we had a lot to laugh at which made the night a lot of fun. We took the U-bahn to Praterstern and the club was right up above the subway station. There was no cover, but there was a donation bowl. Of course, most of the people just walked in, but for some reason the bouncer stopped me and asked me to make a donation, so I put 70 cents in the bowl.

                Kelsea and Kerri got Zipfers (like Vienna’s Budweiser – just a general beer) and Andrew got a real beer from tap, but the rest of us didn’t get anything. When Team H-Town came on, we all started chanting “Tobi Tobi Tobi!” He only rapped 2 songs though. It was funny to hear their music, mostly in German but with some random English words thrown in there. Billy was there too, which kinda surprised us since it was a hip hop bar, but he stood on the other side of the room from us.

                After Team H-Town’s performance, we went to sing Happy Birthday to Billy, but he left IMMEDIATELY after it ended, so he was already gone. Instead of going back just yet, Kelsea wanted to go to Flex, a club she read about online. She wasn’t able to find it though, sowe ended up just taking the U-bahn back home, stopping for some food on the way.

                It was around 2 when we got back, so I was afraid nobody would still be awake, since all of my apartment-mates go to bed  so early. Thomas thoughtfully waited up for me though, because he knew I didn’t have a key.  I really need to go get my key from Thom, the landlord’s manager, but I need David to take his key back and get the one for HIS apartment first, since he has the last key. He “moves in” a little more every day, which is making all of us uneasy that he will just stay, when we really only meant to let him eat some pizza as a nice gesture after having so many travel issues. I’ll figure something out. I’m very tired now, so I think I will go pass out now. Night!

Tag Eins

Today was a really nice get-to-know-Vienna day. We walked to the closest U-bahn station, punched got our 72-hour passes stamped, and rode the train to the Stadtpark (like central park, and near IES) Once we got to the school, Corin, Zach, and David were given their luggage and told they would have to carry it with them all day! I offered to help by taking turns with the luggage, but I think they were so happy to see their bags that they wanted to keep THEIR hands on them. Understandable.

We went on a walking tour to see what was in the surrounding area. The tour ended with the office where we registered as Austrian residents. I officially LIVE here now! We got to see several things. Let me try listing them...Zanoni & Zanoni Gelateria, the tourist center, the Operahaus, the Albertina museum, the natural history museum, the tourist info, where we can add more money to our pre-paid cellphones, the post office, the closet ATM, the Sacher hotel (home of the sachertorte, which we are to get and then go to La Madeline back home and order it so we can understand why Europeans seem so picky when they eat American food and promptly spit it out), the big Billa (grocery store – not to be confused with Bilo, which is like CVS – not to be confused with Apotheke, which is like the pharmacy in CVS but with prescribing doctors) that has a restaurant-like part in, like Whole Foods or Central Market. Right outside it is the Donnerbrunnen fountain. Someone in our group described it as "basically a bunch of naked people trying to get into some water." I noticed that each of the 4 statues around the fountain had one part specifically rubbed off, like the "John Harvard" statue in Harvard Yard. We thought maybe it was a tradition, so we ran from one statue to the next to see what the special "places" were: A foot, A shovel handle, A knee, and a right-butt-cheek (haha). Billy told us that there was some competition between the artist who designed it and an artist who lived above where the Billa is. The guy who lived above the now-Billa lost, so it was built in such a way that all the statues had their bare butts facing the Billa. Now that's how you get away with mooning someone you don't like.

I was in the last group to arrive at the dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischenWiderstandes (Documentation Center of Austrian Resistance - what a mouthful!). It worked like the DMV - you took a nummer and when it showed up on the screen, you went through the big frosted glass doors to tisch (table) nummer listed on the screen. The workers weren't very happy.Then again, they did have to stay about half an hour later than normal to account for the fact that about 50 people pulled numbers at approximately the same time. I noticed that the lady said “bitte” to me at the end. Apparently it means “thank you” AND “you’re welcome.” Interesting. Anyway, this obviously pushed our tour group back time-wise, we didn't have a chance to exchange money or go to a sit-down restaurant like some of the other groups did. Billy lent a few of us 10 euros for lunch. Kelsea, Emily, Corin, Ryan, Caleb, Billy, and I went to a würstelstand on the way back to grab a hot dog. I ordered a Kasekrainerwurst Hot Dog (cheese-filled sausage, with ketchup, on sub bread).This. Was. The. Best. Sausage. I. Have. Ever. Tasted. Even better than when mom tries her taste-testing dinners where she gets several types of sausage. It was awesome.

When we got back to the school, we were escorted to the natural history museum, where we got on a private bus tour by one of the IES professors, Dr. Ottersböck.

She described many things to us, complaining over and over about how the bus was moving “horrendously fast.” My posts on here are already pretty long, and this one would really be a novel if I tried explaining everything she said, so I’ll just describe our 4 stops:

Le Belvedere:

This palace used to be on the outskirts of Vienna, in some hunting grounds, and was built by (well, paid-to-be-built-by) Prince Eugene of Savoy, a Frenchman. He was apparently a scrawny, sickly-looking man, so when he went to Napolean asking to be one of his generals, he was laughed at and sent away. King Leopold I gave him a chance though. He might not have had the brawn, but he was an amazing strategist (one of the best in history, according to Dr. O). He saved the city of Vienna TWICE against the Turks! He became super, super rich and built this magnificent, beautiful, baroque Belvedere…………….FOR HIS GUESTS! It was finished in only 2 years, which is a testament to just how wealthy this guy was, to be able to hire that many people. Dr. O told us to look around at the view, imagining that there were no modern buildings. Without them, there wasn’t really anything. She said we should go around the back to see if we could figure out where the name “Belvedere” (“beautiful view”) came from. We whipped around the corner and were a little startled by the big naked part-griffin-part-woman statue that was right in fron of us. There are 2 just like it at every entrance to the gardens that connect the Upper Belvedere to the Lower Belvedere. Andlooking down the slope and over the short Lower Belvedere was the obvious reason for the palace’s naming. Stephensdom was in the middle, and the rest of Vienna, squatty relative to THE church, was all sprawled out around it. In the distance were the Viennese woods, which are the ending hills to the Alps, preserved by city regulation. One of Eugene’s first guests (a woman whose name I do not remember) looked out over the gardens connecting the Upper Belvedere to the Lower Belvedere and exclaimed something like “Oh, was ein belvedere!” (“Oh, what a beautiful view!”). Ta-Da!

Ironically, the Turkish embassy is in Eugenestadt, right next to the Belvedere.



Hundertvasser’s apartments:

This building reminded me of the Stata Center on MIT’s campus. It was very modern and beautiful to me. This man ABHORED straight lines and standards, so none of the windows or balconies are alike. He also believed it was only fair to allow trees to grow on and/or out of buildings, since trees were destroyed in the process of construction. The more Dr. O said about him, the more fascinated I was. She said “Imagine your mother getting the bathroom retiled. Say the workers brought random pieces of mismatched tile and put it wherever it fit. She’d be furious. This man was the opposite.” I asked how much people pay to live there, and she said it actually isn’tmore than the price a nyone else would pay for an inner-city apartment. That’s all regulated. What does cost a lot is moving in and out, because they need to divert the tourist for that. I thought this was a very cool place, and I plan to go back to hang out at the café nearby.



Vienna Woods (more like “the view from The Vienna Woods”)

The Viennese love their woods, especially sincc most of them live in apartments. It is a huge area that has tons wood-trails to walk on, and at the tops of the hills is something truly spectacular.

The view from the Belvedere was fantastic, but this was truly awesome. St. Stephens was so small from way up there that it blended in. We could now truly see ALL of “Old Vienna,” the Danube, and” New Vienna.” It was a little hazy, but MUCH cleaner than any American city I’ve ever seen an overview like this of. New Vienna is north of the Danube, and it is the only place where the “no building s taller than St. Stephens” is waived. The UN is there, and I believe we are visiting that at some point. The Danube had a huge island that is basically a median. The southern half is used for commerce and river cruises, and the island & northern half is designated as a place that people like to swim or boat or just hang out. There’s even a section where a wave machine was put in! Definitely a place to come back to.



A Heuriger:

A Heuriger is a traditional-style place to get fresh wines from the vineyards that back up to the Viennese Woods, and eat schnitzel, wurst, and all other kinds of Austriany stuff. The best part is that the school paid for this meal, so we were free to drink and eat and not worry about the cost! The wine here is way better than anything I’ve ever sipped from a parent’s wine glass. We experimented a little to figure out what we liked best. Kerri and I had basically the same taste in wine, so we experimented together. Usually people mix sparkling water with the wine to make it last longer and not get them so drunk. This sounded werd at first, so we began with straight white. When the glass became HALF FULL, we added some water, and we thought it actually made the wine taste better. It was champagney. When we finished the white, we tried the red and both hated it, because it just tasted bitter. After playing around with some different things, I put the red + some sparkling water + a little bit of grape juice, and everyone at the table agreed that it was better than the white was. It was like the tiny buit of grapejuice was enough to cancel out the bitter so it just tasted like a sweet wine (which is what all of us wine-virgins like). We had schnitzel and turkey breast to eat, with potatoes and sauerkraut and rolls (mustard is good on EVERYTHING). For desert we had a sampler plate with several different things. My favorite was the white-chocolate-cheesecake-like one, but I probably couldn’t have pronounced, any of their names.

We took public transportation back past the Hundertvasser Incinerator (yes, he built an incinerator, because he thought factories were too boring), and the Karl-Mark-Hof (a HHHUUUUUGGEEEEE apartment complex built by the socialists when they were here during the WWII separation of Austria – which was split up by the Nazi’s just like Germany was). Now I’m back here in my dining room, waiting to make sure my apartment-mates all make it back from clubbing okay (most of the group went out for Juan’s birthday, but I decided to stay here an write a long-ass post instead).


The guys have just come in, and they are very loud. They say David got some Austrian girl's number at a karaoke bar in distrikt 1. and some of the people in thr froup spent over 30 euros on alcohol! Geez. David still hasn't switched apartments. He went and got a key for our apartment today, so I think he's trying to find a way to get in here...

As I get into the swing of things, I hope these blog posts will get shorter. They’re painful to write and probably painful to read (so if you’ve made it this far, congratulations), but I want to keep a good record of who said what when and how I felt in the moment so I can remember and have a reference when I see something I took a picture of and can’t remember what it was. Thanks for reading. Guten nacht!