Die Oper!

Dear People,

Just so you don't get the wrong idea, I promise I do not spend all of my free time in front of a computer. It's just that I figure when I get back to the States, I want to print all of this out and make it into a little book about my trip to Vienna, and thus I feel like I have to put in all the gory details of my life here. Also, if you want a postcard or something, send me your address, or put it in the comments section. Just keep in mind that it costs 1,25 Euro for each postcard, so don't make me go broke!

But onto my Wednesday adventures...

Tuesday night the flatties decided that it would be a good idea to go to the Opera the next evening, so we all set out our clothes for the next day ahead of time. Since we were going for standing room tickets, we had to be there about two hours before the performance started. This meant that I had about an hour and a half to kill in between class and standing in line. Which is why you all got a blog post yesterday. On a side note, German keyboards are really screwy. The y and the z keys are switched, and the umlauts are actual keys on the right hand side. That's why it took so long to write yesterday's post...that and I had to actually think about what my fingers were doing when I had to use shifts and apostrophes and y's. But anyway, we got all gussied up yesterday morning so we wouldn't have to go home.

The people in the morning class had to be at IES for 9:00, but Matt and I were going on the Art History Museum (Kunsthistorisches Museum) tour at 10:30. We were a few minutes early when we got there, so we took pictures of the Maria Theresa statue in the middle of the courtyard thing. It's kind of like a mall between the Art History Museum and the Museum of Natural History. She is shown sitting with all of her generals and advisors around her. Because I'm such a dork, I thought this was really cool...I also wrote a paper on her last semester for one of my German classes, so I recognized some of the names listed by the generals. Some of the following information is borrowed from other sites because they are clearer than I would be in describing the Museum.

The building of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna is one of the most important 19th-century museum buildings in Europe. It was commissioned by the Emperor Francis Joseph I in 1858 as part of his project for enlarging the capital. The monumental building was designed not only to house the magnificent art treasures assembled by the Habsburgs over the centuries but also as a suitably impressive setting for them. The construction work took twenty years from the digging of the first turf in 1871 until the formal opening ceremony in 1891.

Over the centuries, the imperial art collections had been housed in different buildings, frequently under somewhat cramped conditions. In order to rectify this cultural embarrassment ­ other cities such as Berlin, Madrid, or London had long been embellished with spacious and important museums ­ a new, centrally located museum building was planned in Vienna. As early as 1858, the erection of new museums and galleries had been included in the plans for the enlargement of the capital. But it was only in 1864 that the decision to build two identical buildings opposite the Vienna Hofburg Palace was taken: the Imperial Art History Museum and the Imperial Natural History Museum ­ the Kunsthistorisches and the Naturhistorisches Museum respectively.

Apparently, there were four architechs who submitted designs for the area.

Ferstel designed the museum square as a secluded, quiet area. The museum was to form a world unto itself. He envisaged the large inner courtyard of the four-winged building as a place where museum visitors could refresh and prepare themselves. Even enlarging the collections would have been possible, and a Hall of Austrian History was planned in the arcades.

Competition project, bird´s-eye view, 1867

Critics objected to the high building costs of the four domes, the fact that they would cast shadows over the wings housing the collections, and the limited space in the narrow museum buildings. They also criticised the lack of reference to the Imperial Palace, though it would be possible to drive from the Palace to the Imperial Stables, as required by the rules of the competition.

From an art-historical point of view Hansen´s design is the most important. The great Classicist envisaged two museums flanking a central square, a centre of urban life - an agora. It would have become one of the most important 19th-century town squares. The connecting corridors were designed to house shops and offer protection to promenaders in bad weather.

Total view of competition project, 1867

Hansen chose the "Greek-Renaissance style" as an expression of this democratic principle and the concept of the agora. In contravention of the competition rules, Hansen designed a columned hall to connect the two museums and embellish their façades; the main emphasis was placed on a central Glyptothek, a sculpture collection.

Competition project, detail, 1867

Note how Hansen planned to erect the buildings on raised ground. Thus Hansen´s large building would have completely dominated the Imperial Hofburg Palace.

Löhr´s design of two buildings facing one another fulfilled most closely the rules of the competition, the collections´ need for space and the wishes of the curators. However, the curators were unhappy with his lighting design. This question was of particular importance because there was, as yet, no electrification. On the whole, Löhr designed modest or even plain museum buildings, economical rather than lavish. However, those times were past and opulence was in vogue.

Overall view of the second, improved project, 1868, which includes a free-standing Hall of Fame between the museums.

Drawing showing the façade´s central bay and a side bay of one of the two museum buildings, 1866-67

Like Löhr, Hasenauer envisaged two museum buildings facing each other. However, his designs for the façades are much more elaborate and ornate. He believed that a museum´s façade should reflect the wealth of treasures housed inside. The outstanding quality of Hasenauer´s first design was also appreciated by Semper, who later put him in charge of the opulent interior decoration.

Overall view of the competition project for the Imperial Museums, 1867

First competition project for the Imperial Museums, façade, 1866

The jury, however, came to the conclusion that none of the four submitted designs was suitable. Thus they invited the famous architect and art theoretician, Gottfried von Semper, to Vienna to evaluate the designs. However, Semper not only criticised the designs but also the competition¹s frame of reference, and called for an overall concept. The emperor then commissioned him to design the two museum buildings and to choose an assistant familiar with local conditions. Semper chose Hasenauer. The Imperial Forum Semper´s design focused on an Imperial Forum in which the two museum buildings would play a prominent role but still be part of an overall plan.

On July 30, 1870, the Emperor approved Semper´s plans for the Imperial Forum. The imperial building permit was issued the following year, and the digging of the first turf took place in the autumn of 1871.

The Sculptural Programme
All four of the museum´s façades are decorated with numerous sculptures. They depict allegories and personifications as well as historical personages and artists. Gottfried Semper devised the iconological programme. For Semper the decorations of the façade illustrate the conditions governing a work of art: material aspects dominate the ground floor, artistic ones the main floor, and both are surmounted on the attic floor and along the balustrade by the individual as the crowning glory, the statues depicting famous artists.
The whole programme is devised in chronological order. The façade on » Babenberger Street is dedicated to classical antiquity, that facing the Museumsquartier to the Middle Ages, that facing » Maria Theresa Square to the Renaissance, and finally, that facing the » Burgring to art of the modern era.

Central Bay - Babenberger Street Greek and Roman Art

The art and civilisation of classical antiquity mark the beginning of the iconographic-iconological decorational cycle. The seated figures between the columns represent » Art Industry and » Architecture. - a laterally reversed continuation of the programme of the central bay facing Maria Theresa Square. The statues on the upper floor represent the social and political influences of classical antiquity, of Ancient Greece: » Pericles and » Peisistratos.

One of the main principles governing the design of the building is the conscious return to the universal Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art) of the Renaissance. For the 19th century, however, the term "Renaissance" was less restricted than it is today: it also included earlier and later styles and attitudes. For Gottfried Semper, the architect of the museum buildings and the devisor of the iconographic-iconological programme of the façades, the first collections of art were "started by the great Renaissance architects". Thus the sculptural programme of the main façade is dedicated to the Renaissance.

The sculptural programme along this façade forms both the end and the beginning of the iconological-iconographic universe of art. The periods of art end with contemporary art, i.e. the art of the late 19th century - with the museum building on the Ringstrasse itself bearing witness to the huge and successful urban redevelopment that marked Vienna´s birth as a modern metropolis on a par with other world cities.

Note in the » spandrels the personifications of cities housing world-famous art collections then open to the public: Paris, London, Madrid, Milan, now Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Dresden, Brussels, The Hague, St. Petersburg, and Copenhagen.

We had a lecture on the facade facing Maria Theresa Square. In the pictures I have up online, you can see what I'm talking about. Because the whole complex was built during the rule of Franz Josef, everything practically screams imperial. All of the lights in the Square have crowns on them. This detail was added later because they obviously didn't have electicity in the late 1800's, but was done to keep the continuity. Since you were meant to come into the Museum slowly, many details are on the facade that kind of tell you what to expect. On the upper level, you see the initials E and FJ separated by some leaves. These stand for Elisabeth and Franz Josef, the rulers of the time, just in case you forgot who had built the museum. Then below them, on the next level, are pictures of people painting and sculpting, so that you knew what to expect once you got inside. On each side of the door, there were two carvings. The left is Faust and Helene. Faust is a very famous German play, and Dr. Faustus, the main character, was searching for knowledge throughout this work. In this instance, that is what he represents -- the quest for knowledge. Helene, in ancient mythology, was the most beautiful woman in the world, and so represents beauty here. By marrying the two in one carving, the designer was telling visitors to the Museum that they were to search for knowledge through beauty. On the right side of the doors, there is a carving of Eros and Psyche. This is a marriage of emotion and spirit. The story of Eros and Psyche is also ancient mythology, and since I don't feel like typing it out here, if you don't know it, then you can google it really easily.

There are three great halls inside the Museum.

The central bay dominates the building´s centre and houses the State Rooms. Here are located the magnificent rooms that mark the beginning, middle and end of the museum: the » Entrance Hall, das große » Main Staircase and the central » Cupola Hall on the first floor.

The Entrance Hall
Entering by the museum´s main entrance on Maria Theresa Square, the visitor first encounters the classically cool, white, grey and black elegance of the Entrance Hall. The two smaller stairs on the left and on the right lead up to the ground floor exhibition halls. From the Entrance Hall, the magnificent » Prunktreppe (Main Staircase), leads up past the statue of "Theseus Slaying the Centaur" to the first floor. View from the Entrance Hall up into the Cupola Hall

Again, because you were supposed to be taking your time entering and visiting the Museum, you were supposed to be naturally drawn to the center of the room, from which you can go in the four compass directions. In front of you lays the Great Staircase, and to the left and right are wings to the rest of the Museum. On the right is the art from south of the Alps and on the left, from the North. I think its incredible the amount of thought that went into the construction of the Museum.

The Main Staircase is richly embellished with paintings. It is dominated by a large-scale » ceiling painting depicting "The Apotheosis of the Renaissance" by Mihály von Munkácsy. Each of the four walls is decorated with three painted » lunettes; all the paintings in this cycle of 12 are by Hans Makart. Note below the lunettes the » paintings in the spandrels and between the black-and-white columns. They are the work of the painters Gustav Klimt, Ernst Klimt and Franz von Matsch.

As you go up the Great Staircase, your eyes are drawn up to the painting on the ceiling. It is meant to make you feel like you are actually in the painting and that the stairs go all the way up to heavens. The painting depicts the great artists whose work is found in the Museum and Apollo presiding over his court in Olympus. You also see Fame, one of the gods from ancient mythology, holding the Palm of Fame and bestowing it on the artists below her.

The Staircase leads up to the magnificent and sumptuously decorated Cupola Hall linked by an opening in the floor to the Entrance Hall below. It is flanked by the Picture Gallery and overlooked by the balconies of the second floor. The colour scheme of the Cupola Hall´s interior decoration was carefully planned and creates a restrained contrast to the profusion of colours that marks the Main Staircase: the star-shaped designs of the geometric decorations of the black-and-white >> marble floor repeat the designs of the segments and ribs of the dome.

		The eight segments of the dome unite to form a magnificent panorama of Habsburg patronage. Here the importance of the imperial family as collectors and owners of these magnificent collections is clearly spelled out for the visitor. From the Emperor Maximilian I to the Emperor Francis Joseph I, all important Habsburg rulers and patrons are assembled and depicted together with their achievements in >> reliefs and >> portrait medallions. The reliefs, the winged figures of children bearing coats of arms and monograms of members of the imperial family and the caryatids next to the windows are by the Viennese sculptor» Rudolf Weyr. The portrait medallions are by » Johannes Benk.

We walked through the Museum with our guide from IES. She teaches the Current Exhibitions course here. I was really more interested by the architecture of the building than by the actual art it houses, so I'm skipping over that. If I get back there in the next couple of weeks, I'll take some pictures and probably have more to write about.

Once the tour was over, we had to hussle over to IES for German class. We did more of the same, grammar and some culture. This is when it hit me that not breaking in my heeled shoes before I left wasn't my brightest idea.

After class, I sat down and did some blogging before it was time to find dinner. Matt and I met up with the girls from the flat and walked over to one of the Wurst and Pizza stands that crowd the streets. On the way there, we heard a police car, and it was actually coming down the walking area! The entire center city is cobbled and it's pretty much a walking-only area. I kind of laugh whenever I hear a police or ambulance siren because it reminds me of "Lola Rennt." Natalia almost got run over by it, but they stopped just before that happened.

We bought Käsekrainer (a wurst with meat and cheese inside served with or without a bun) and pizza for dinner, and then walked over to the Opera to wait in line. Of course, I managed to get ketchup and mustard on my clothes and had to walk around kind of dirty the rest of the night. But dinner was REALLY good. Now, since I'm running out of battery and I want to do something on the Opera like I did with the KHM above, I'm going to stop here and do another post when I get home.

Squishing Monday and Tuesdaz into one post

Alright, I'm typing this on a German keyboard, so if the quality of the spelling or typing goes way down, I'm sorry.

Monday, January 15, 2007

On Monday morning, Sarah and Alison went to the corner market to buy breakfast and some provisions. They came back with all sorts of yummies, which I'll skip over because typing is rather challenging. Around 1030, Alex, the previous tenant who is also an Austrian RA came over to show us where to hand in our Meldezettel. He's in his late twenties and plays the classical guitar. Sehr toll. And since he lived in the apartment before we moved in, he knows where things are in the neighborhood.

The place where we registered was only a few blocks away from where we live, so it didn't take too long to get there. We each got a number, and went in turns of course. Apparently, Americans have a very specific accent when they try to speak German, which is a huge clue to a native speaker that they should switch to English. Alex did a little impression of us while we waited, and he makes us sound very gurgle-y and like we talk in the back of our mouths.

Then it was time to go to IES, but it was way to early to go to class just then. So me and some of the flatties decided to browse the center city. We visited H&M and Miss Sixty and started hunting down something cheap and filling for lunch. The pizza that Matt and I tried was pretty good, but it got very expensive because we bought drinks. Since then, I got smart and decided to start carrying water.

Our first German class was a little overwhelming. Andrea is the instructor and she's very nice, but she spoke a bit quickly. We had about 15 people in with us and since then numbers have changed a bit just because people needed to find the class that suited them better. I'm perfectly happy there. Andrea introduced herself (auf Deutsch natürlich) and we each did the same. I'm in the conversation and composition class, which is the second-highest level. We'll be talking about grammar and the culture of Vienna. Our homework for the night was an essay about ourselves and two grammar worksheets.

I had some time after class before the short city tours started, so Anna and I went shopping. Our first stop was Zara, which is a store that has an extremely short runway to rack time. They can copy an outfit from the runway and have it in stores in about two weeks, which is incredible in the fashion industry. Their prices are usually pretty good, and they might have some things from local designers too. I didn't see anything I absolutely needed, so Anna and I went to Bipa, the pink drugstore. In German-speaking countries, drugstores carry things like CVS does at home but they don't have a pharmacy. Pharmacies are called Apotheke and they are kind of like your corner doctor and pharmacist all rolled up into one. In Bipa, everything is pink. I bought shampoo there (their knock-off brand, called My) and Anna picked up a few things before we left for the tour.

At IES we met up with a group of us and our tourguide. I don't remember his name, but he was nice and had an afro. We saw some of the important things close to IES like the post office and cheap places to eat. After our super-short tour, I met a girl named Laura who wanted to do some shopping before she went home. Of course I said I'd go. Anna had a meeting with Helmut and couldn't come.

Laura goes to school in Maryland, but she's from Ohio. She's very tall with dark hair and eyes and a great sense of humor. We walked through H&M and I bought a purse there while she tried on scarves. I also bought a surprise for Matt, which he'll get in the next couple of weeks I hope, but that wasn't from H&M. We walked through Zara again before deciding that it was getting late and we should start heading home or get something to eat.

A few streets down from Johannesgasse, where IES is, is a pizza and wurst stand. Two girls from IES were standing there eating, and they said the pizza was really good. I had dinner waiting for me at home (the other girls were cooking healthy) but Laura bought a piece of mushroom. I tried a bite and it was really good. Just thinking about it now is making me hungry. It was about 530 now, and time to seriously start thinking about going home. We all went our separate ways and I got on the #2 streetcar, which runs around the Ring.

Now I hadn't walked all the way around the Ring at this point, so I didn't really know how big it was. I also didn't want to get lost, so instead of staying on the 2 S-Bahn, I got off. Vienna is a very safe city, but at the same time, I decided to walk like I knew what I was doing. You know, fake it til you make it and all that. It took me a good half hour to be exactly across from the Opera (like I was on the wrong side of the Ring), but I recognized the area, and cute through the center of the city so I would be near the Opera. Once I got there, I decided that it wasn't the best idea to try riding the 2 again, so I walked to where we transfer. Once I got there, I hopped on the 46A which is a bus. This should take me home. The night before when we had gone home, there had been six of us watching to make sure we got off at the right stop. I knew one of the advertisements we had passed and kept looking out the window for that. It turns out that our stop is only one outside the Girdle. And I was even smart enough to get off then. Needless to say, I was very proud of myself for getting home in one piece.

Once I was inside the apartment, the other girls started cooking dinner. We were having pasta with veggies and a salad. And wine. It was good and extremely healthy. The boys and I did clean up afterward, so that we would theoretically be equal. Matt cleared, Travis washed, and I dried. It worked out pretty well. Afterward, we all did our communal computer thing and I blogged and talked to people before actually starting homework.

Once I was done with my work, I went back out into the communal area where Alison and Natalia were laughing themselves silly. It was just like middle school with all the giggling going on. By the time we had all calmed down and were ready for bed, it was almost 2am, but we had such a good time that it didn't matter.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Tuesday began similarly to Monday with breakfast and some minor socializing before we had to leave for IES. The people that are in the afternoon classes (me) had a tour of the Palais Corbelli at 930 that was mandatory. Helmut ran the tour with the accompanying silliness. The fire alarms were the best part. Helmut would say, "If it is burning, press the button. If it is not, don't press the button." This may have been one of those you need to be there sort of things, but for some reason, it struck us all as very funny, probably because in the US people need weeks of training to press the button.

There was some time for lunch afterwards, but I decided to do my blogging thing and just munch on some peanuts that I had thrown in my bag. Class was similar to the day before with grammar and culture exercises, and we get a 15 minute break in the middle. I think it was actually easier to concentrate before the break than it was after.

Once class was out, I wanted to stick around IES and work on the blog some more so I could be all caught up. The people actually ended up kicking me out of here at 600. On my way to the S-Bahn stop, I ran into Jeremy (not my roommate). He's an international relations major and this is his second time in Vienna (he was here last summer for a bit). We ended up walking to a bakery with another girl from IES whose name is Val and having sandwiches for dinner. They were pretty good, and not too expensive because I had my water with me. Then I finally got on the bus to go home, around 730 or so.

Everybody was around the table when I got home, and they had just finished dinner. We sat around comparing stories and laughing and then decided that we're going to go to the Strauss Ball on February 14. It costs 45 euro to go or 65 to reserve a table. I'm not quite sure what the difference is, but it's supposed to be a good time, so I'm definitely going. After dinner, Jeremy made a little glass of absinthe, which we all tried. Since he did it using fire and being all special and stuff, I took a video of it, but I don't know how to post them online, so ya'll will just have to wait to see that. It tasted kind of like a cross between mouthwash and licorice, but it didn't do the whole hard alcohol burning thing.

Past that, we sat around and ate snacks and did homework for the rest of the night. Alex came over to "work" but we just ended up hanging out. We showed him on a map where we were all from, and tried our best to speak only German with him. He told us about different sites that list the club parties on the internet and some things to see and do in Vienna.

After he had left, I made myself a bowl of ramen, which tasted amazing. Mom, if you're reading this, please send more. The address is

Amanda Hess
c-o IES Vienna
Palais Corbelli
Johannesgasse 7
A-1010 Vienna AUSTRIA

and please send it using USPS because they have trouble with customs otherwise. Also, write on the outside "Used personal items" and then a "value" amount less than $40. This pretty much goes for everything that I may get in a box.

I stayed up a bit late to talk to Matt and Mom and Dad, so I didn't get to bed until 1am, but it was worth it. Anyway, now I'm all caught up with my back-blogging so I can write about my Opera experience when I get home tonight after I finish my essays for German.

Love,
Amanda

Sonntag

One more for today, then I'm calling it quits because I'm almost caught up. Hopefully, I'll have time to get in Monday and Tuesday tomorrow before class. Or at least Monday, because we're planning on going to the Opera tomorrow to see something and I have a German assignment due on Thursday that's creative writing and is going to take a bit of a while. So I might have to put off blogging for a couple of days so I can get all the good stuff done.

On Sunday, we packed and had breakfast before we got on the buses to head back to Vienna. This busride bothered my stomach more than the first one because I could see where we were going and I didn't have a book to sidetrack me. Rather than getting sick, it was a lot easier to just lay down (I had both seats to myself again) and go to sleep. I woke up just before we got to the truckstop, where we did the bathroom thing again and took a group picture. The weather up in Mariazell was kind of rainy and misty, but when we got out of the Alps, it cleared up a bit.

Did you know that Austia is building walls around the Autobahn? They are extremely conscious about noise, and have all these noise ordinances, especially in the city. So they're building these noise walls, but instead of looking like the ugly ones we have in the States, they're patterned and colorful.

Also, big trucks aren't allowed on the Autobahn on weekends during the skiing and vacation seasons because there's already so much traffic. They have to park until Monday.

About three hours later, we arrived in Vienna and there was a race to get our bags and money for our landladies/lords because we have to put down a deposit on the keys and pay for laundry. As our taxi driver was putting our bags in his trunk, he dropped mine and it went crash. I have to say, I winced because my computer was in there and so was the candle for my landlady. (Fortunately, everything was ok when I opened it later).

Our apartment is relatively close to the Westbahnhof because the taxi ride only cost 6 Euro for the three of us. We live at Liebhartsgasse 28/6. Gasse is kind of like a little street. Strasse is a bigger street. The 28 is the house number and the 6 is the apartment number. We live in the 16th district, right outside the Girdle, which is a wide road that circles the inner districts. Our landpeople let us in and helped us carry our bags upstairs. We live on the second floor, but Europeans call this the first floor and the American first floor the ground floor. Herb and Ellie are our landpeople. She is from NYC and he is a native Austrian. They've been married since forever, and they almost have a little comedy routine going on. Think almost like Ethel and Fred Mertz from "I Love Lucy." They gave us a quick tour of the apartment and then let us unpack. Around 4:30 they were back to collect our money and give us our keys.

The apartment is beautiful. There are four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, and a common area. the ceilings are really high and the rooms are big. It was just renovated recently, and everything is awesome. There's more than enough room for seven of us. It's kind of interesting though -- the Austrians, and maybe Europeans as a whole, have their toilets and their showers in separate rooms. I can see how this would work out really well, except that for the girls, our shower is on one side of the apartment and the toilet is in the boys' hallway. So that can be a bit awkward sometimes. The wooden floors are a bit squeaky, but you always know when someone is coming. Our bedrooms have black sheets that are flannel on the bottom and kind of silky/satiny on top. Austrians don't have layers of covers like we do at home, they have a duvet type thing that they use. It's really comfortable and I've yet to be either too hot or too cold since I got here.

After Ellie and Herb left, we sat around and had snacktime and talked. I also got on the internet and checked email. About 70% of what I got was junk mail. The rest was from you lovely, lovely people. I also looked through the book that Ellie and Herb keep all the addresses of their past tenants in. Katie, a girl from my German class last semester, actually lived in this apartment when she studied in Vienna last spring. Super crazy cool coincidences :-D

Then it was time to journey to IES for our last free meal. They fed us chicken schnitzel and rice. Since it was kind of early yet, the flatties decided to look around the city-center for a while before going back home. We saw St. Stephen's Cathedral, which is absolutely ginormous. There's also renovations going on here. Here's the link to the wiki article. I really have to get back there, maybe this weekend, to take pictures. I'd also like to go to a service there. When we went inside, there was actually a service going on. We heard the Apostales' Creed, and it was a really odd sensation to be able to follow the rhythm of the words, but not have it be in English. I mean, it was really cool, but it wasn't something I had experienced before.

While we were out walking, I started noticing women's shoes. They're much cooler than mine are. I need to fix that. And probably get a new shirt or two as well.

Jeremy had a hockey game he needed to go to, so we were on our own to find our way home. Needless to say, we were really proud of ourselves. Of course, it took six of us to figure out how to get here, but we managed nonetheless.

Once we got back to the apartment, we had communal computer time in the group area. We had bought a bottle of cheap red wine (which turned out to be pretty good) and sat around and laughed and bonded and discussed what we wanted to do for our respective birthdays. And then it was time for shower and bed.

And now I'm in Vienna full-time. Only a couple more days of back-blogging to go! Yay! Love you all :-)

Am Samstag

Breakfast consisted of a roll and an orange. And since I'm sure all of the people out there in cyberland really want to know exactly what I ate and when, but pretty much as soon as we get done with the first week, unless its something amazing, I doubt you'll hear about my meals.

Then began the waiting. Today was the day that we got assigned our housing and also had our German placement interviews. I was going to be living with the girls that wanted to speak as much German as possible. Since I had the lowest student number (030), we would all go in at the same time when my number was called. My group for German was called before my housing number, so I trooped into a little room with five other people to take our oral exam. We sat around a table and had mini-interviews with Helmut's mom and the director. We just talked about how much German we had had and some of our other interests. It didn't take long, only about 20 minutes to get through all of us. Then while I was waiting for housing with the girls, we were approached by Jeremy, the boy that had lived here in the fall, and he asked us if we would want to live with him and two other guys. After a lot of running around and interrogating him, we decided that it would be a good idea. The seven of us would live in an apartment with three double rooms and a single. Jeremy already had dibs on the single, so the rest of us were sharing. He said the apartment was really big and in good shape. It's in the 16th district, so we would have to take a bus or the S-Bahn to the city center for classes, but it was only about a 30 minute trip. Since he already lived here, we could jump the line and get our spots in the apartment before lunch, which meant we would have the rest of the day free.

Lunch was a turkey burger and mashed potatoes and gravy. The turkey burger was slightly suspicious, but with enough gravy on it, anything will taste reasonable. I ate with Ben and Sofia, who are hilarious together. (They didn't know each other before this meal) During lunch, we talked about the slappy-jumpy-dance from the night before and some of the social manners we would have to practice. Then, since it was such a nice day, we thought it would be a good idea to go for a walk in the Alps.

On the way back from picking up our jackets, we ran into Matt, Anna, and Andre, who decided to join us on our excursion. Once we got outside, we decided to head for the big mountain that you can see in the one picture behind us. Before we got to the picture area, we found a look-out post in a lumber-jacky area. Since we were all worried about bears (I'm not really sure why), we decided that it would be a good idea that if we saw one, to wave our hands in the air and sing at it. If nothing else, it would probably run away just to get away from the singing. There were also some horse turds on the trail, and Sofia became obsessed with seeing this mysterious horse. We started walking through the woods and came to a small stream, which we crossed, and continued walking along. Someone said, "Well, we'll come to the mountain eventually because we're following the stream." and I replied, "Yeah, but we're following it downstream." The stream followed a road and because it started going downhill, we got the bright idea to cut across a big field and take the way the crow flies. As we were running/walking up the hill, we started getting out of breath, but our excuse was that it was the altitude, not that we were out of shape. :-) As we were coming down the other side, still in the pasture, we saw something in the woods. Sofia was convinced that it was a horse, but it went through several transformations including a man and a wolf, before we finally decided that it was an old woman picking mushrooms. From that point on, we called it the granny-horse. Just in case it was Big Foot, Ben took a movie with his digital camera. Once we were back in the woods, avoiding the granny-horse, we started thinking about wolves. I mean, it makes sense; all the Grimm Brother Fairy Tales took place in southern Germany, which is really close to Austria. Since wolves seemed like a pretty decent threat, and there were a lot of trees, we cut through the field to a driveway and got back on the road. In doing so, we nixed the whole "let's climb a mountain" idea.

Instead of climbing mountains or going back to the hostel, we came to a sign that said we were close to Erlausee, which is an Alpine lake near Mariazell. This area was beautiful and there were a lot of Austrians hiking around the lake, so we got to practice our "Gruß Gott"'s a lot. I think it was a like a resort community or something. But people in Austria, especially in the rural areas, all greet each other, which is why we were saying "Gruß Gott." While we were walking around the lake, we saw chickens in a person's yard and wanted to watch them for a bit. They (three roosters) were chasing a raven off of their turf when there was dissention in the ranks. Two of the under-roosters started pecking the head rooster, and the charge toward the raven was dropped. Then there was a poodle in another yard that sat and barked at us the entire time we were looking at the view in front of his house. As we were walking away, an older gentleman was coming toward us with his wife and said that we were on the dog's territory, that he owned the house and the dock and the lake and that that was why he was barking at us. Now since we don't understand all that much German yet, we all just kind of laughed until we were past him and asked Matt what he had said. Then it was a lot funnier. It was getting late, and it was really time to head back because Andre still hadn't taken care of his housing. On the way to the hostel, we ran into several groups of other IES kids so we practiced more enthusiastic "Gruß Gott"s (which is short for something, but it's a greeting used in Southern Germany and Austria).

Back in the hostel, we still had some free time, so I made another round of calls to la familia and Matt. Then a bunch of us sat around and talked about the rules of squash, which is totally random, but it killed the time. FINALLY, it was time for dinner. We had schnitzel with rice and veggies and some more of the regular dessert foods.

After dinner, we filled out our Meldezettel. In Austria, each person has to register with the local (district) police where they are living. That's what these forms were for. We had to fill one out for the beginning of the semester, and then once we move out, the IES people will de-register us, which required another form.

Again, we had more meetings after dinner covering tips and hints for living in Austria; like where to do grocery shopping and where to find shampoo. We also got information on the Palais Corbelli, which is where IES is housed. The PC was built by an Italian military officer who wanted a house in Vienna for the Ball season held every January through May, with time taken our for Lent. It has been passed through the family, and one of his decendants still lives there. Apparently, she lives in the basement and the IES people say living in the basement does things to you. I saw her today, but we're not supposed to say anything to her because she doens't like American students. Her newest complaint is that we smile too much. I'll have more descriptions about the PC when we get to the post about that day -- hopefully I'll get that up here sometime tomorrow.

After our meetings, we learned how to waltz. In the ballroom class I took at PSU, the girls always stepped back first with their right foot and the boys stepped forward on their left. Here, we did the reverse, and we did what I call the turning box. It's not the one where you move around the room, but it takes four three-counts to make a complete box, and at each three-count you make a quarter turn. I'm sure that made sense to somebody out there, probably Matt. I bossed my partners around about their frames and I got to lead as much as possible, which is very bad for me because then I try to lead when I'm with someone who knows what they're doing and I get in trouble. One of the boys, Travis, who is now one of the flatties, is a good lead, but he had danced before. People started trickling out because they wanted to go out to local bars and such. Since it was only me and Travis left, we put on some swing music and he taught me some showy stuff like the death drop and the butt spin. They're both very technical names, but they're fun to do. Since we had been dancing on and off for about two hours, it was time to call it a night, but on the way back to our rooms, we started talking about our S.O.'s. It was really cute and I got to brag about Matt (who, as far as I'm concerned is like the bestest boyfriend ever).

Back in my room, Jessi was still a little bit awake, so we had a chat before I went out and called Matt again. Of course, boys became the topic of conversation because everybody is missing their boyfriends right now. But we did also talk about other stuff like Germany and Austria and music. She plays the piano.

Just before I went to bed, I called Matt again to tell him that I miss him and all that mushy, gushy stuff I don't want the whole world to read. And then I went to bed.

On a sidenote: The Pope is visiting Mariazell in September because it is the 850th anniversary of the church there.

Continuing on with the Mariazell Adventure

So back to this medicinal schnapps. If you look at the pictures, I took a few of the schnapps-making equipment and then the final product, but I think that one came out a bit blurry. As soon as the other IES kids put some pictures on facebook, I'll shameless steal them and post them on my picasa thing. Which I'll put the link to at the bottom of this post. It really helps to look at them and read this at the same time. At least til I get captions put up there, maybe this weekend.

Anyway, this schnapps. We went up a set of curving stairs into the upper bottling room. There, we all got mini-shots of each kind of schnapps. The first one took everybody by surprise because it wasn't pleasant going down. But after a minute, once you got past the burn, it got better and left a very clean, herbal flavor in your mouth. Honest to God, I felt that little mini-shot all the way to my belly. It was kind of cool, but I'm not sure I liked it. The next two shots were a little easier going down, but that's probably because we were expecting them a bit more. The semi-bitter is the most traditional kind.

In the previous post, I mentioned that this was a family recipe. The Arzbergers had three sons. Back in the day, the first son got the business, the second got the farm, and the third was essentially useless. So the father took his third son to the monks in Mariazell, but they didn't need another monk-to-be. The son could not go back to his hometown because there was nothing there for him, and so he decided to stay on in Mariazell and apprentice to the schnapps maker in the town. By the time he was 19, the son had bought the business from the original owner. This was pretty much unheard of because it usually took a lot longer to surpass the master and generally one would go somewhere else and begin his own business instead of buying him out. It was the son who developed the recipe for the schnapps. But he was very jealous of his neighbor, who owned a larger yellow house with a better business location. Finally, the house went up for sale, but the young man did not have enough money. There was another family in the area who had many daughters. Several of the daughters were of marriagable age, and each came with a dowry. Between what the young man had saved and what he thought his wife would bring with her to the marriage, he thought that he would be able to buy the big yellow house. He wrote a long, flowery letter to the woman's father requesting her hand in marriage. He recieved a missive that was very direct and stated that he come to the house with 5000 Gulden, the currency of the day. In doing so, he became a married man, and was able to buy the big yellow house. From that day on, the recipe has been passed from father to son and is now in the fourth generation.

By now it was getting late and it was time to walk back to the Hostel. The houses of Mariazell are all painted in pastels with light colored trim, and parts of the streets are cobbled. All the streets are kind of narrow and most of the houses are at least three stories tall. I don't know if I acutally got any pictures of them, but it's incredibly pretty there. If you google Mariazell and look at the pictures that came up, I'll probably have seen some of those places.

Once we were back at the hostel, we had some time to ourselves before dinner, so I used the time to call Matt and home, and go through a lot of internet-withdrawal. After running up my phone bill quite a bit, it was time to discover dinner, which happened to be spaghetti and either meatsauce or something that looked like alfredo sauce. I was excited for the meat sauce and dumped a lot on my pasta. After trying a few bites, there was something definitely different. It was made with pork instead of beef. It was strange and stranger because it was completely unexpected.

After dinner, we were bussed to another hostel about 20 minutes away. There we saw a few presentations on social manners and the educational internship. Then we had a special treat, that the IES people called and authentic Austrian evening. It turned out that our Austrian evening was full of guys in lederhosen. There were seven dancers and one man that played the accordian. They had on traditional costumes with the high socks, the lederhosen, white shirts and hats with feathers and edelweiss in them. The ages of the dancers probably varied between 25 and about 40. The accordian player was probably in his sixties. The seven came out in a column, doing mini-yodel-yells and formed a circle where they slapped their legs and hopped around in sync. It was impressive. They did a few rounds and then it was our turn to learn how to do the slappy-jumpy dance. We had to do it in two groups and the guys in lederhosen laughed at us because we were so uncoordinated. Afterward, they brought out a blanket, a log, four axes, and a two-person saw. They also carried out a little pan that they could heat from underneath. Then they started doing their slappy thing again and started chopping rythmically. I'm very glad that they had good aim, or else people would have been missing important appendages like feet. And they actually made something in their little frying pan. And I got to try it. I'm not sure what it was, but it didn't taste that bad or anything. During their clean-up from that activity, they played a polka and picked some girls to dance with them. Then they gave the girls brooms to clean up the woodchips. Their last number was an uber-slappy-dance, where they all dramatically beat on each other. They also passed out a sweet bread thing and schnapps at the end.

Finally it was time to go home, and I opted to stay in and look over paperwork and get a shower and go to sleep.

End of Friday!

Con't

Since I'm doing all this back-blogging, I have a severe lack of cute and funny titles. You can make them up if the spirit hits you (or whatever the phrase is) in comments.

Friday, January 12:

Breakfast at the hostel was very European I guess. There were rolls with a Nutella knockoff spread, jams, cheese, meat, and yogurt-y stuff with blueberries in it. There was also toast and fruit.

After breakfast, we had more meetings about security and welcomes and stuff. Then we had our first test of the semester -- the German placement exam. They had it divided according to the number of semesters you had had. For the part I took, I had to conjugate verbs, fill in adjectives and pronouns, and write an essay on myself. There were a few things I had issues with, like bestellen. I still don't know its meaning. And the essay was just a bit silly, but I did my best I guess.

Then for lunch, they served us fish. It took a while to connect, but the majority of people in Austria are Catholic and still practice the no meat on Fridays. We also had potatoes for this meal.

Following lunch, the PicCell (the phone company for IES students) guy came to talk to us about our calling plans. And it turns out that they're a rip off. Each call, even when we're in Austria and calling another PicCell customer, costs us 0,20E. That comes out somewhere around 36 cents just to say hi or have the voicemail pick up. The fees for calls to landlines and out of country are ridiculous. And apparently a lot of these were "hidden" costs because the IES faculty and staff were pretty upset about them. But they can't do anything because PicCell contracts with IES Chicago (the headquarters) and provides service for the entire student population that gets sent abroad. Some countries have much better plans because PicCell bases their rates on the local rates. If anybody wants to get in touch with me, my cell number is 011.43.676.831.47470. You may want to get a calling card or something, and most of the time my cell is off, but I can recieve calls for free. So if you email me and set up a specific time to call, I'll have it on and we can chat. Just remember that whole time difference thing. It's kind of important.

Now we get to some of the good stuff. After the PicCell meeting, we had a couple of options for afternoon activities. I chose to go to Mariazell and do some touristy things. The hike to town took about 35 minutes. First we visited the Basilica. There is a legend surrounding the origin of Mariazell. There was a monk whose name was Magnus charged with bringing Christianity into the wilderness of the area. He went into the woods with only a servant and a small wooden statue of Mary holding the baby Jesus. Since this was in the late 1100's, there were many knights running about, but they were of the robber-sort and not very nice to bump into. However, it was late and Magnus needed a place to stay with some protection. On the top of a hill, he saw a light and ventured toward it. The area was owned by a robber-knight, who was suspicious of Magnus because he kept his hand on his robe where he had hidden the statue. When the knight confronted Magnus, he was shown the statue, and instead of killing or robbing Magnus, the monk was set free. The knight told him to avoid the other robber-knights because it wouldn't be good for his image. Magnus and his servant traveled further into the woods, only to hear a chase start behind him. He and the servant ran as fast and hard as they could, but they came upon a rock that they couldn't go over or around. Magnus set the statue next to the boulder and suddenly a crack appeared that was large enough for him to fit through. On the other side, they came to a valley. It was here that Magnus built a box for the statue (box=cell=zell). From there, a chapel was built, and then expanded upon for the next several centuries. Just as a sidenote -- do you know how awesome it is to see pictures of places you've been in encyclopedias and on wikipedia? It has to be the coolest feeling ever.

The Basilica is ginormous. It's almost like looking up and losing your balance and falling over. It looks over a small area that's cobbled. The front door has all sorts of carvings over it. Right now there's a lot of renovations going on because the Pope is coming to commemorate an anniversary at Mariazell this September. So some of the pictures are better on Wikipedia, but I have some on my picasa thing. Which will have captions after this weekend. But once you get inside, its all marble and silver and gold. There's several pews before you get the shrine part. On the left and right of the shrine are larger than life archangels. Originally, they were solid silver, but they were melted down at one point and the angels that are there today are wood covered in silver. The gate of the shrine is silver and was given to the church by Empress Maria Theresa. The little wooden statue is still kept there, but most of the year it is covered by ornate robes that were sent by various monarchs back in the day. Each robe has a hole for Mary's head and one for Jesus too. The robes have real gems on them. There are only two times of the year that she isn't wearing the robes -- December 21 and in September.

Behind the shrine is the altar. It's absolutely breath-taking. It's done completely in solid gold and silver. Joseph Emmanuel Fischer von Erlach designed it. The center is a globe that's over 2m in diameter and made of solid silver. Curled around the globe is a snake who's head is tilted slightly up. This sybolizes both the Original Sin and that even evil must eventually turn to God, because Jesus on the cross and God are positioned above the earth. Mary and St. John are also there in positions suggesting that they were supposed to take care of each other after Jesus' death. The crucifix symbolizes both pain and hope. Up near the ceiling, there is gold that is shaped into angels and clouds and such. There are also two smaller archangels to the sides of the alter, both of which are solid silver. At one point, they disappeared, and nobody knew where they went. The process of carving wood to cover in silver had already been started because renovations on the church were needed for the Pope's visit, and suddenly the angels showed up again. Nobody knows where they went or when they came back.

As we walked out of the church, we looked up and there was the organ, which was done all in black and gold. It was enormous!

Back in the town, we walked over to the local musuem which depicted life in Mariazell and some of the local culture. In this area of Europe, people make huge Nativity scenes with incredible detail. The largest one in the museum had been built by a man who kept it in his house and made a log of when he displayed it and what repairs he had done from year to year on it. Eventually, he retired to a smaller house, and ran out of room for it, so it was donated.

Since the group was split into two smaller groups, we met up infront of a store that sold "medicinal" schnapps. It's made with a secret family recipe that is passed only from father to son. Pretty much, if you marry into this family, you have to keep having children until one of them turns out to be a boy so the tradition can continue. There are three kinds of schnapps that they make here from herbs. The sweet kind is green, then there is also semi bitter and bitter, which are both brown.

And now I'm getting kicked out of the IES center, so I'll finish up this in a couple of hours when I get back to the apartment. Love you all, Amanda

And the Saga Continues...

First of all, I want to apologize to anyone who doesn't want all the explicit details of my life, but I'm also using this as a diary for me, so that when I get home I can print it all out and be like, wow, that was my life. And since typing is much quicker than actually writing things out, you get to read all the gory and boring details that nobody really wants to know.

Now, moving onto Thursday, January 11:

Winny and I decided to go shopping for breakfast instead of eating the hostel breakfast. We walked over to a bakery near the Westbahnhof and I got a croussant (sp?) that had strawberry jam inside. We also went to a cheap store to get drinks and some fruit, and I got a ginormous apple and half a liter of orange juice. It came in a box, which was a bit different and took some thought as to how to open it.

After breakfast, I had to repack the suitcases. I also lost my key. Now this usually wouldn't be such a big deal, except that I was convinced I locked it into one of my suitcases. Ugh. I also had a 10 Euro deposit on the thing. So there Winny and I were, digging through my bags, until she thought to look into her purse... It turns out that she picked up my key by accident and put it in there. *shrug* No big deal. But I got really good at opening and rummaging through my suitcases.

The luggage area was supposed to be open at 11:30 in the Westbahnhof, but since checkout at the hostel was at 10, we walked over early and amused ourselves with other IES kids. Sure enough, around 11:45 a really tall blonde guy who kind of looks like Shaggy from Scooby Doo walked over and checked us in. Then we got to follow him to a moving van outside where he and the driver loaded our big suitcases into the back. All that was left to do until we got on the buses was hang out in the Westbahnhof or walk around Vienna. I didn't feel like schlepping all my crap around with me, so I opted to sitting in the station and reading and getting to know the rest of the students. The boy that I met the day before, Daniel, and I decided to try Dürüm, which is kind of like a soft taco with Turkish meat inside. It's kind of spicy, but it was good, and really filling, which was way more important.

Finally, it was time to get on the buses. I had two seats to myself, so I got to spread out a bit. We were on our way to Mariazell, where we had orientation for about three days. The ride there was broken down into two parts because we had a pit stop about an hour and a half into it. At the truckstop, Jessica, the girl I met in the airport who rides and managed to fit her riding clothes in her suitcases (I was impressed), and I took some pictures of the scenery. Then we ran down to the bathroom and got on line. There was all sorts of commotion in front of us because there was a dispenser there that sold condoms and vibrators. It was something you wouldn't ever see in the States, and I kind of wish I took a picture of it, just for amusement's sake.

Once we were back on the bus, we all got our housing assignments for Mariazell. I was placed in 17A. Usually when you're in a hostel, you're assigned a specific room and bed, but here we were in little bitty suites, and got to pick out our own beds. I was in a room with three other girls. Jessi had been here for three weeks visiting her family in Germany so she knew a lot that the rest of us didn't. Jessi is awesome, she has the greatest laugh and she's a lot of fun to be around. I hope I get to see her through the semester. Jenn is a harp-player who got lost coming home from the bar the first night we were in Mariazell. She was nice too, but I didn't see as much of her. The only thing I can say about the fourth girl, Mary, was that she slept a lot.

For dinner that night, we had pork and gravy over spätzle with veggies. The pork and gravy was kind of like beef tips, and it was really good. For dessert, they had something that looked like a nut roll with fruit in it and a vanilla pudding/yogurt. Jeremy, the guy that had been in Vienna for the fall semester too, also came to the orientation and a bunch of us quizzed him about Vienna and IES.

Following dinner, we had meetings about housing, classes, and security. This is where most of the faculty introduced themselves. Professor Schier is the director of IES Vienna. For the people at home, he reminds me a little bit of Mr. Bogden from church. He's got the grey crown with the side-combed hair across the top, glasses, and dark brown eyes. In my mind, I see him dressed kind of like Mr. Rogers, so that's what he must have been wearing at some point. I'm not totally clear on which woman was which, so once I figure that out, you'll get more details on who they are. The receptionists are named Gretl and Anne. Gretl was a theater major and Anne does opera as a soprano. They both went through IES Vienna and loved it so much that they came back to work here. Separately, they are larger than life. Together, they're nuts and awesome and extremely funny. Gretl has brown curls and green eyes. Anne is blonde with blue eyes and a very expressive face. The student assistants, Tobi and Helmut also introduced themselves. Tobi is the guy that reminds me of Shaggy. Helmut is shorter than he is, and somewhat goofy. He's really funny and easy-going. And since he's cute, all of the girls laugh at his jokes, which are even funnier because sometimes he says the wrong words and has an accent. It's one of those things I guess you just have to be there for to understand. The best part of this round of meetings was that they gave out free drink cards to everybody to use while we were at the hostel.

All of us trooped down to the Mensa area of the hostel and ordered our respective drinks. I got a white wine, which was pretty good. This was where I met Natalia, who is one of the flatties (flatmates) now. We were talking about housing, and she wanted to set it up so that mostly or only German would be spoken in the apartment. This sounded like a good idea, and less intimidating than a homestay, so I agreed to move in with her.

Once we were all good and loose, we took a quiz on Austria for some prizes like pre-stamped postcards and phrase books. There was a coconut too. Most of the questions were on music or literature, areas that I'm apparently lacking in. But I did know the answer for a question on Lippizaner (so did everybody else though...). After the quiz, a lot of people went out to a local bar but I was kind of sleepy and had a good book for some company and decided to call it an early night. That and Europeans must absolutely love smoking because everybody who came back later on reeked of smoke. Ew. That kind of spoils the whole bar scene for me. I mean, I guess I have to do it at least once, but that'll probably be it.

Since my Friday notes take up a lot of pages in my notebook, I think I'm going to let that go until later tonight or after class this afternoon. I'd like to get everything all filled in ASAP, so I don't have to keep taking notes on my life :-) Like I said, pictures are forthcoming, I just have to find a dummy-proof way of putting them up for you all. Facebook will probably happen first, and then somewhere that the rest of the world can see them. Suggestions are welcome.

Liebe,
Amanda

Ich bin hier!!!

Dear People,

I managed to get to Vienna in one piece. Which is pretty amazing, at least in my mind. And I have days and days of notes to write about, so if it all doesn't get into this post, watch out for frequent updating in the next few days. For the most part, I'm going to put up a heading for a day and go through everything I did that day. Pictures are forthcoming, probably to be posted on facebook first, then on some site that the rest of the world can access.

January 9-10 (this is one day because there wasn't enough sleep inbetween to make them count as two days)
So Mom and Dad and Cheers and I packed the car and drove out of Drums around nine, bound for New Jersey and lunch with Mommom and Poppop. This feels like a really long time ago, so I can't tell you all if I was worried or tired or anything, because I honestly can't remember, and this part didn't get into my notes. But we spent part of the afternoon with them, and I worked on various surprises for a certain boy.
Sometime around 2:30 it was time to go onto NYC and JFK. Apparently, we got there in extremely good time and without dying, which if any of you have driven in NYC, is a miracle in and of itself. Especially when there's conversation and directions and everything going on at the same time.
Daddy-O dropped me and Mom off at the front door (?) of the airport with all my bags, which I'm very proud to say totaled only four -- one ginormous one, two backpacks, and a laptop case. Keep in mind that I had yet to carry all of these bags by myself. We got inside and I only had to move a few things around in my carry-on backpack to make it fit into the little luggage thingy. One backpack and the ginormous bag got checked, and they didn't have to search them -- thank God, that would have been a mess. I still don't know how I'm going to move home at the end of the semester; I don't have the mad-awesome packing skills of my mother. If Austria has a SalVal, they're going to be very happy to see me at the end of the semester.
Now I'm pretty sure I didn't start crying et al by this point, but that's coming up soon. Since we had so much time to spare before I had to go through security, we beat down fellow travelers vying for a table to sit at and eat McDonald's. After munching through fries and an icecream thing (I can't think of the word for it right now), it was the dreaded time. But I didn't feel so bad because when we got to the security area, every single person around the age of 20 was bawling their eyes out. We all went in looking like we were on crack. Sehr toll. The people sitting there working the security area where they checked on the whole liquids in the small bag thing even told me to not cry, it's not that bad.
I'd like to say I got through security without mishap, but I didn't. I'm just that awesome, they had to wand me on the other side. Luckily, again, they didn't open bags. So the tears are pouring down my cheeks and I don't have shoes on and the lady with the wand must have thought I looked like I was 15, just because I was feeling that pathetic. But she was nice, I guess. Momma and Poppa got blown a kiss, and that was the last time I'll see them in person til about March (just thinking about it is making me get all emo).
*shrug* I guess the airport was nice. I didn't really explore at all. I had a really nifty book that kept me company until an older Asian man poked me and asked me if my book was funny. Apparently he noticed me laughing under my breath. He was a pretty nice old guy. Several chapters later, we got the call that the flight was delayed. The same thing happened again. By now the flight was running about an hour late, which all my stalkers at home knew, since they were watching their computer screens avidly. Finally, the plane showed up and we could get on. I got a window seat and the chick next to me was going to the IES program in Freiburg. She was nice, but she ate a lot. I know that sounds like a really weird detail, but I was kind of dosing for most of the flight or just feeling queasy, so I was a bit preoccupied.
The flight was as to be expected I guess -- not a lot of sleep, not such great food, and very LONG. I'd tell you how long it was in hours, but honestly, I can't. The whole time change thing really screwed up my ability to tell time, but either way, we got to Frankfurt on time. We got bussed in from the tarmak (?) and got hustled through customs. Again, I had to do the wand thing in security. What can I say? I just make all sorts of bells and whistles go off. But I did get a stamp from Austria in my passport, which is kind of cool. Not that its anything special, just the date, but it's the first one.
Did you know that people smoke in airports in Europe? It's super gross and I was really confused. But they have their own little smoking tower area. I guess it's better than having people smoke all over, but you can still smell it wherever you are.
I was wearing my Penn State Equestrian Team sweatshirt and a man walked up to me and asked me if that's where I went to school. His son and daughter graduated from there. Some other kids were in the area and overheard and asked if I was doing IES. That's where I met Amber, Jessica, and Daniel. Amber is from Texas; Jessica rides horses out west (but she rides English); and Daniel is from Salt Lake City, but he's not a Mormon. He clarified that ASAP. We compared life stories and talked about what we thought this whole Vienna thing was going to be like.
Our flight to Vienna left roughly on time (love those Germans). It was a smaller plane and a much shorter flight -- only about an hour or so. It was so cool to see the scenery out the window. It was all little towns and lots of fields and mountains. We arrived in the Vienna airport on time and were pretty much on our own at that point.
A group of IES kids found each other at the airport and decided to bus over to the Westbahnhof (West Train Station) together. Since it only cost 6 Euro each, it wasn't too expensive. On the bus, I called home to let Mom and Dad know that I was still alive. Then we all compared lives with the new people. Five of us were staying at the same hostel and decided to walk over together once we got into Vienna.
We got to the Westbahnhof and found out that that lovely storage we were supposed to keep our big bags in wouldn't be available until the next day. This is where I started wishing that I had packed even less crap. Our hostel was only about three blocks from the Westbahnhof, but with rest stops and direction-checking, it took us about twenty minutes to get to the Ruthenstein Hostel. Amy, Connor, Ian, Andre and I made our way through check-in and hauling our lugguage upstairs (I managed in two trips).
First thing to do was take a shower. I swear, Europeans don't condone being overweight. This shower stall thing was SOOO small that I could barely bend over enough to shave my legs. And I guess water conservation is right up there on their list of favorite things too because after about ten seconds, the water shut off. So I was like rinse, water off, shampoo, water on, rinse, water off, shave a quarter of a leg, water on, another quarter, water off.... Because of sheer aggrivation, this ranks right up there with one of the shortest showers I've ever taken. Once I got back to my room, I met Winny. She's from Maine and in IES. Of course I had to go through the whole dressing and make-up ritual, because then a bunch of us were getting together to go out to dinner.
That group met at the Westbahnhof and took a train to a different part of the city to a restaurant called Centimeter 7, which is part bar and part restaurant. Everybody ordered a beer (for anybody that cares, I got a Paulaner), which only came in size large. Needless to say, most of mine got passed off to the boys. But I did try it and decide that I'm sticking to wine the rest of the time I'm here. It's just not worth the effort to try and like beer. There were twenty-one of us at the restaurant so we ordered three big group dinners. They came on a sword. The pictures will be available eventually, I hope. But they had wienerschnitzel, fried steaks, grilled peppers and onions on the swords and then fries (which sucked), wings, and chili (which was really spicy) underneath. The schnitzel was amazing and I've decided that that's one of my new favorite foods. At the rate I'm going, peanut butter is going to be the next one.
Rather than going out with some of the others on a bar tour, most of us went home to sleep off the effects of jetlag. Back in the hostel, I met Rebecca and Emily. There were two other girls in our rooom, but I didn't catch their names. Rebecca was from Hong Kong and Emily was from Canada. I have Rebecca's email, so sometime this semester I'll send her a line or two and see how her travels went. I guess it's just normal, but I swear I woke up like 3 or 4 times that night for absolutely no good reason.
And now, since it took this long to get through day 1-ish and it's 1:24 a.m. here in Vienna, I'll leave the rest of my adventures for a later date. Love you all!!! <3 Amanda

The Packing Adventures!

I think the most commonly uttered phrase in the house over the past few days has been, "Take out another shirt." Apparently, airlines have rules about how heavy suitcases can be, and Mom planned on enforcing them even before we put all the shirts in. Then she caught me rearranging colors and said that that wouldn't fool her and to take ANOTHER one out. Does the woman want me walking around Austria without clothing on??? So we finally got it down to a mutually agreeable level and put everything in those nifty vacuum bags and still had space and poundage to spare.

In other news, I got to say goodbye to Pooks today. She got all teary-eyed and stuff. It was cute. But I'll see her and Paul and maybe Houdini in May when we're going to criss-cross Europe (yay!). Until then, I promised to send her letters (does anybody know anything about international stamps, etc?) and call when I got into Vienna.

Now I guess it's just waiting and throwing a few more things into bags. This whole thing won't feel real until I get on the plane. But I'm pretty sure it's going to be amazing. :-) I'm also pretty sure I won't be posting anything new until during or after orientation weekend. So auf wiedersehen, people!