Gösser Kirtag

Tomorrow is my Friday and I'm off to see Susi in Leoben. She invited me to the annual Gösser Kirtag, which is a beerfest put on my Gösser, a popular brand of beer in Austria. I'm looking forward to a fun night with Susi and her friends. 

On Saturday, I'm planning on going with Cyd and Ian to see the Hundertwasser-Krawinahaus. http://www.flickr.com/photos/dandayamana_dhanurasana/3770893161/in/photostream/ It was designed and built in the 1980's and has over 250 trees going through the building.  

"An uneven floor is a divine melody to the feet"

I will post pictures this weekend:)

differences..

As usual, I am loving my time in Vienna. But lately, now that the rush and excitement of the unknown have faded, I am starting to miss things about America, about home. I miss ice cubes. I miss getting water as a main drink, not in addition to kaffee. I miss freedom and understanding everything. But that is what you pay for with study abroad, that feeling of "oh-my-god-I-am-a-scared-shitless-and-do-not-have-a-clue-what-is-going-on".

I've always been of the mind that living permanently anywhere outside of America would be great. That Europe would blow my mind and I would never want to leave. Truthfully, I really do enjoy Vienna, the thrill of living in a big city and forging through the streets like an angry New Yorker, trying foreign food, and drinking at cafes. But I also miss the simplicity of Oregon, the delicious water, the fresh air, and the friendly people. I probably sound like a typical American when I say I love the US, but there is something to be said about enjoying where you come from. I am positive the Viennese feel the same way, since they are a proud people who will boast their Viennese heritage, even if it only goes back a generation or two.

I guess I'm at a point where I've left the honeymoon phases and feel the need to nitpick and compare.

Vienna is truly an exciting and beautiful city and I am so grateful to be here studying, but its not quiet home yet...

Bratislava and Birthday:)

9/17/10

This first week of school was great. I enjoy all of my classes, especially my German class. Last night, Alice, Andrew, and I went to Mariahilfestrasse and walked around. After a couple beers from the kebab stand (“kebap” auf Deutsch) we ended up walking to Stylez, a bar close to my place. A drink was 7,50 Euros, which was way more than I would ever spend normally, but it was fun to sit in an Viennese bar and chat.

Today while Cyd and Ian were on a hike, Bibi took me out for lunch and coffee. We went to Der Mann Trunkel and I ordered chicken schnitzel and mashed potatoes. I was told this was the equivalent of eating spaghetti with rice. Bibi has been really helping with showing us cheap places to get a hot meal. She said this place usually serves hot food for fewer than 5 Euros. After we finished our food and did a little grocery shopping, we went to Aida, which is a Konditerei. We had some coffee and a little desert and talked. While sitting at Aida with Bibi, I saw a Great Dane and a hairless Chinese crested walking side by side. Such a funny contrast.

9/22/10

I only had one class today, History, and it was interesting and depressing. Of course we talked about the past wars and the Holocaust, but it is kind of scary to see old slides of Nazi Vienna and be able to recognize places I have walked by in person, having had Nazi propaganda or symbols on them.

Bibi and I had a nice talk today for an hour or two just about my classes and her cats. One cat, Emmi, has a cold. So Bibi took her to the vet this morning. I asked to see if there were any Animal Humane Societies in Vienna that Cyd and I could volunteer at but Bibi told us they are very far away, outside the city limits.

A group of us are going to Bratislava, Slovakia, on Friday. I am very excited to go but whenever someone mentions Bratislava, I always think about the movie Eurotrip and their representation of it.
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbcH_qYkeTc

I hope being there in person can erase this movie scene from my head;) Cyd, Ian, and I bought our tickets to Amsterdam, Netherlands, this past week. We are going during the Halloween weekend and I know I cannot wait to dress up. I also bought my ticket to Israel for December, when my program ends. So I will be in Israel December 6^th through the 16^th!  I cannot wait!

9/25/10

Lazy Saturday in Vienna. We went to Bratislava on Friday and had a lot of fun. Cyd, Ian and I had a late night before so we caught the later train (the group set 9am departure time, we left at 10:30am). After finally arriving, we realized that our cell phones did not work when we tried to call others who had come earlier. So after wandering around on foot for a couple hours, we stumbled upon the 10^th annual market (not sure of the name). Each booth had a pamphlet and with broken English and our mediocre German, we were informed that it was an annual charity market. People with disabilities made goods and sold them at this market. My roommate bought a sand painting and some cute picture frames. After that we moved on towards the Bratislava Castle. Alice and Rose, from our program, stumbled upon us shopping around. They showed us the castle since they had just come from it and later on we got an amazing, inexpensive dinner. I had salmon and rice and lots of beer:) We all made our way back the train station and found the rest of the students on our train ride home. Long day but very fun.

9/27/10

Today is my 22nd birthday! Thanks for all the wishes via email, skype, cards and facebook:) I'm sad I cannot be in Eugene to celebrate with family and friends but I still had a great time here.  Bibi bought me a little cake and gave it to me on Sunday since its was in the fridge and she did not want to surprise ruined by me finding it while making breakfast. I will upload a photo later. On my actual birthday I went to class as usual, and Alice and Rose bought me a slice of cake from Aida, the Konditorei. When I got home after class, Cyd had left me some little cute birthday presents and some apfel strudel:) I had people over for wine and cheese around 6. I made mom's famous brie bread bomb and while it was not sourdough bread like she does, it was still a hit. I think it was demolished in under 5 minutes! Overall it was a really great birthday and I'm lucky to have so many good friends and family members in my life:)

Classes..

I'm sorry I've been bad about updating! There has just been so much to do and see!!!

Our group has meshed really well and went out on Saturday to the 1st District to meet up with the two guys who live over there. Cyd (my roommate), her boyfriend Ian, and his roommate Andrew, and I got on the wrong bus trying to get there. So we got off and decided to take the U-Bahn, which is the subway. Well 10 minutes on the U3 and it broke down. Since we were already running late to meet up with the group, we went upstairs and took the correct bus we were supposed to take in the first place, and then another U-Bahn, that eventually put us in the 1st District (or Erste Bezirk).

We found the rest of the group near Philharmonikastrasse near the outdoor Opera. After buying a Pizza and 2 Gösser biers, I sat down with the group at the back and watched. After it was over we wandered around for a bit and went to a couple bars.

Overall a fun night and stayed out late enough that Cyd and I were able to sleep in until 11am (we had been waking up at 6:30am consistently).

School started this Monday, and while I'm not looking forward to being in a classroom instead of out wandering the streets of Vienna, I like my classes so far.

I'm taking History on Mondays and Wednesdays, which is mainly about the Habsburg Empire and Austria. We get to watch old movies and I think write a research paper on one of them. Mon/Tue/Thurs I have German class with 3 other students. My teacher is really nice and since the class is so small, I think everyone will try really hard. On Tue/Thurs I have International Organizations and get to tour many of them in Vienna, like Amnesty International and the EU! We have to write a paper and do a presentation on it to the class, which I am not looking forward too. My summer INTL 399 Human Rights class gave me leg up in class, which is nice for a change.

Everyone has to take this Cross-Cultural class every two weeks and the teacher is lame. She always seems bored and doesn't really seem interested in what we have to say. I think she is more of a researcher and less of an instructor because she just did not mesh well with our class.

Vienna has been great this past week. I've continued to get lost a couple times but now know my way to school and back and can now use most public transportation without panic ;) I found great grocery shopping deals at Hoffer, a local store. They don't have as much organic and fresh fruits and veggies as Spar does, but I got a bag of bread for under a Euro. I've pretty much been surviving off sandwiches but I finally went to Spar and got a head of broccoli and some rice so I'll have stir-fry for dinner tonight.

I love my hostmom Bibi and my roommate Cyd! I couldn't have asked for a better set up and agree with mom that it is our good host karma! We spend a lot of time talking about cats, babies, and of course, videos on youtube.

Tonight a group of us are going to see an Opera! Its only 3 or so Euros, so probably not the best singers in the world, but after watching the outdoor one last Saturday for a little bit, I definitely want to see one again. Its at the Volksoper Haus.

Oh, I do have a phone number while I am here (on a very old school Nokia brick phone;) but I think its too expensive for anyone to call or text, so please add me on Skype if you want to talk :) My username is Lydia.Bolton.

That's all for now since I need to get ready for the Opera! ;)

Tschuss!

Volkhochschule

Today was my second day in Vienna and I love it.
I arrived last night at the hotel after wandering around for an hour. It was my own fault. Susi and I looked the directions up on google maps and I somehow passed by the building several times because the building number was 3A but the name was not the one the site director gave us. Turns out that Hotel Avis, the original place, was under construction. So Hotel Acadamie was were I was actually supposed to go.

I got there with 30 mins to kill and talked with my roommates for the night, Alice and Rose. Later the entire group went to an informal dinner with the faculty. I am very excited for classes on Montag. There are 11 students and 12 teachers, so each class has no more than 5 students. 

Later that night some of us went out for some Bier and got to know each other. The group of people are very nice and I think there won't be any problems, since everyone seems to get along.

Today we woke up at 8am, got ready, ate from breakfast, and met Frauke Binder, our site director, for a tour of the city. We spent some time at the place where I will be attending class, the Volkholkschule. It is almost a community college type place and offers other classes outside my program, like Yoga or dancing.

We ate lunch at this inexpensive (and delicious!) Persian restaurant. It was buffet style for 5 Euros!! After a little more instruction at school we went back to the hotel and waited for our host families to pick us up. Cyd, my roommate, had flown into Vienna a couple days earlier and so had already been staying at our hosts apartment. My host mom, Bibi, is very cool. Her apartment is really modern and quite large for a Viennese place. She has 3 Katzen named Kurti, Emmi, and Fanni. She keeps them on her side of the apartment because in the past the cats have gotten into stuff and some people don't like cats. I'm excited to give them the catnip toy I bought them tomorrow:)

Bibi took us out for a delicious dinner at a typical Viennese Inn (name to follow). Cyd and I ordered Schnitzel mit Salat, and Bibi ordered Goulash.

I'm very happy with everything so far, minus the bugs. I have yet to see a mosquito but have been bitten at least 9 times and boy, do they itch like crazy!
Right now I am finishing up a couple quizzes from summer class and might do some of the reading tonight, so that I can start my take home final. I really should work on it tonight since I think the students are going out tomorrow. We will see;)

I will upload pictures sometime this week.

Tschuss!

Leoben and Wien

It has been a little bit since I have posted because I haven't had internet. Here is what I wrote on the train:

9/9/10

16:35

I’m sitting on the train on my way to Vienna. I woke up early and repacked all of my suitcases because Susi and I were going to Leoben, where she goes to school that day. We arrived in Leoben and she showed me around, did a little shopping, and then got lunch with her boyfriend, Christoph, and his sister, Christina. I got a Groesser Radler to drink, which is combination beer and soda (like sprite). It was very tasty, so I’m writing the name down here so I can remember to order it again. Susi told me about a great beer fest in October so I hope I can come and wont be too busy with school. I’m excited to get to know my host mom but nervous about speaking to her. I can’t wait for school to start so I can improve my German. I feel more comfortable learning German in a classroom than in daily life. Go figure, I’m a scardy-cat.

Adjusting

Its been a great couple days in Waidhofen but I am excited (and scared) to go to Vienna on Thursday. Yesterday Susi and I went to Linz to a large shopping center. We shopped around for a while and I found a cute skirt at H & M for €4,95 (incidently after skyping with my friend Annie, I found out that we bought the same one!) Around noon, Christoff, Susi's boyfriend, met us there and we went to Mongolien BBQ place (kind of like the Jungs we have in Eugene). He was very nice and goes to the same university in Leoben as Susi.

Last night I hung out with Susi, her cousins, and her friend at a little bar/cafe type place. They taught me some German words and tried to teach me slang but some of the pronunciation was guttural that I could not say it. We stayed up late, which was great for fixing my sleep schedule because I was able to sleep in until 9am today, after a couple days of 4am-6am mornings.

Susi and I were going to go hiking with her cousins but the weather isn't that great right now so I think its going to be a lazy day. Later tonight, Susi and I are going to her grandmother's farm (father's mother) to milk some 200 sheep! I've never milked a sheep so it should be a fun experience:)