Class Trips and Dinner Out

So yesterday started off with food shopping before class. I can't say that any of it was traumatic or anything, so I guess I'm adjusting. I got tons of bread and cheese so I can eat good for the next few days. Then we (Matt and I) went to center-city for class.

I only had about a third of class in the Palais Corbelli (yeah, just in case you missed that, I have school in a palace) and then we went to a cafe to practice our conversation for the rest of the time. This cafe was a lot bigger and newer than Hawelka, and there was a LOT less smoke. Everyone got a drink and a dessert, and the teacher paid for it (awesomeness!). I got a melange and apple strudel, which was kind of like very thick apple sauce in a pastry. It was good, but I think something chocolate would have been better. Even though there wasn't a lot of smoke there, I still came out smelling like I smoke a pack a day. It's so gross. Can somebody send me fabreeze?

After our field trip, I ran back to IES and found out that Anne, one of the girls in Reception, is going to be in an opera next Friday, so I got the info and promised to go. Then I tried skyping Matt. It didn't go too well, but I tried. So I think on Monday I'll try closer to the router.

Once I was home, all the flatties sat around discussing dinner plans. We wanted to go out somewhere, so we looked in our handy dandy red booklets that our Reception girls gave us. They have like everything we'll ever need to know while we're in Vienna. We picked out a Gasthaus in centercity. It took a while to actually find it when we got there, but eventually we managed to get to the Gasthaus. It's on a little side street and you have to walk down stairs to get inside because it's kind of in the basement. They even had a non-smoking section -- it wasn't particularly effective, but they tried, so they got brownie points. Our waitress wasn't especially nice, but since waiters and waitresses get paid a better salary here and pool their tips, they really don't have any real incentive to be nice. But the food was really good. I got Wiener Schnitzel and a glass of Welschriesling. The schnitzel was good, but I didn't care for the wine. Two other girls got wine spritzers, so I think I'm going to try one of them next time. We were probably in the Gasthaus for three hours. We had only gotten there around 7:30, and then Laura met us there around 8:30. Then we just kind of sat around talking for a really long time, but it was soooo much fun. We talked about all sorts of things, and there was a lot of laughing. After we had paid the bill, we decided to go for gelato.

The gelato place is near der Stephansdom (St Stephen's Cathedral) so it wasn't too too far from the Gasthaus. A cone is only 1,70 Euro and you can get two flavors. I got coffee and tiramisu. I liked the coffee better, but the tiramisu tasted like it had actual kahlua in it. And the guy serving me told me that I was very beautiful (and he said it in English). We stood around and ate our gelato and bs'ed for a bit outside the gelato shop. Two guys came up to us and asked us if we knew where the Burmuda Triangle was. The Bermuda Triangle in Vienna is an area in the first district where there are a lot of touristy bars. But we couldn't help them, because we don't know where it is. I personally thought it was really cool that we actually looked like we would have known.

The others decided to go to a bar afterward, and I wanted to go home, so we went our separate ways. We met up again before I got on the bus to head home because they left the bar as soon as they got there. Apparently, it was very full and smoky and not worth it. So we all headed home and called it an early night. Early being sometime after one. But whatever. So that was my first Friday in Vienna.

Today we had a lecture and bus tour of Vienna that started at 11. I was kind of sleepy, and didn't get all the info from the lecture that I would have liked. But the tour was nice. We saw the Ringstrasse and Belvedere and Kahlenberg. I'll put more up on here on each of them either later tonight or tomorrow. But suffice it to say that it was really pretty and I took some really nice pictures.

We got home and everyone did their own dinner thing. I cooked up the chicken I bought yesterday so I would have it for sandwiches for a few days. Because we have really crappy pots, all the stuff that was on the chicken was sticking and it burned and the fire alarm went off. So I had to get up on a chair and pull the batteries out of the verdammte thing. The chicken came out good though; I tried a small piece before I put it away. So yeah. That pretty much brings me up to now.

By the way, did you know that they don't have vanilla extract in Austria? It's horrible. I want to make french toast tomorrow (have to remember to take the smoke alarm out again) but you need vanilla for the dip before you fry the bread. They only have this vanilla-infused sugar stuff, so I hope that works tomorrow. Otherwise, we may end up with something not quite french toast-like. *shrug* Guess we'll find out.

So I guess I should go be social, or at least go eat some ice cream.

Love,
Amanda