Another Day Came

The New Year Revisited

2009-01-20T18:20:00.001-08:00

I don't think I ever posted pictures from the New Year! How silly. Here are a few.

Michael and I at the Museum of Science and Industry

Friends!

My Love :)

Teaching...?

2009-01-20T17:58:00.001-08:00

Every time I think of something fun that I want to share in my blog, I wait until I have completely forgotten about it. What a shame.

Three weeks ago (wow, can't believe it's already been that long), I started student teaching! "Are you sure you're old enough for that?", you're asking? I know, I've already asked myself that a thousand times, and unfortunately it seems that indeed, I am. As my 22nd birthday and *gasp* the end of my last semester in college draw closer, I am seriously beginning to freak out (for lack of a better term). Am I ready for "the real world"? Who the heck knows.

I started my student teaching placement in the Grandville school district, about 25 minutes from Hope's campus. Since my certification will be K-12 music education, I have to spend half day in a secondary class and half day in an elementary class. Therefore, friends, I am at Grandville High School in the morning (from 7:50am-12pm) and at East/West/Grand View Elementary school(s) in the afternoon (12pm-3:40pm). If you took a close look at the times I attend school, you would have noticed that I have a ridiculously long day. Yep. And let's not forget that I go directly to choir after school. Woohoo!

In all seriousness, I'm really excited for the semester regardless of the long time commitment. I'm looking forward to figuring out what class level is my favorite, though I'm sure each will have it's pros and cons. I'm also really looking forward to having fun with my students and investing myself in their lives and in their educational progress. I can't wait to be a real teacher. Ah, so soon!

I'm only going to my schools on Tuesdays and Thursdays for now, but starting February 9th I will go 5 days a week. Once full-time begins, I'm sure I will have some great stories to tell about my adventures in Grandville!

Who loves clothes?

2009-01-14T16:07:00.001-08:00

I do.

Compliments of toast.

Jewelry

2009-01-06T18:51:00.000-08:00

I have to post this picture of the jewelry I inherited from my Aunt Erna. She passed away fairly recently, and so when her husband (aka Uncle Jack) came to visit for Christmas he gave it all away to the female relatives. I chose each of these pieces on my turn, thinking that some had some serious vintage potential.

What do you think?

ModCloth

2008-12-29T14:15:00.000-08:00

In the search to find some great boots online, I came across ModCloth. They have ridiculously cute dresses. Seriously.

Cute, right?

More soon.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-26T23:48:00.000-08:00

Whew. Long day of post-Christmas shopping done and gone, thank the Lord. My Mom and I decided that 10:30am was soon enough to get to OakBrook mall; good thing, too, since the mall was a complete madhouse when we left at 2:30pm. Moral of story: never go to the mall on the day after Christmas after 2pm. You won't come out alive.

Recap of Christmas Eve/Christmas Day:

--Enjoyed a long day of cleaning and cooking to prepare for dinner with the cousins and Uncle Jack (Dad's uncle).

--Ran random errands for Mom at the last minute.

--Feasted on peppercorn beef tenderloin and mashed potatoes (among many other delicious dishes) for Christmas Eve dinner, served by Mother L. Job well done.

--Went to church with the cousins and Jack.

--Opened presents the next morning with immediate family.

--Ate breakfast: waffles, bacon, fried potatoes. Yurrrrm.

--Took Xmas nap.

--Saw "Marley and Me" with the Jaderholms, cried like a baby.

--Went to sleep happy to have a young and healthy puppy.

Needless to say, it was a great couple of days. I've actually really enjoyed having Uncle Jack around, too--not that I wasn't looking forward to having him, I just wasn't sure how I'd feel about having a guest in our house for two weeks. His jokes and snacks around the house have been quite fun. :) I exchanged some stuff I got yesterday morning for some really great "layering pieces" (as my Mom loves to say), and I'm feeling very lucky that I found so many good deals today. Best deal of the day:

The bridesmaid dress for my roommate Lama's wedding. Ralph Lauren, bought at Macy's. Down almost 60% of the original price. I was seriously wondering if God sent me to find that deal today. It's possible.

Favorite (can I actually choose one?) thing I received on Christmas morning:

Funny thing is, I've been trying to wear my hair like hers for weeks. Can't manage to get it to obey like that. Sweater's cute though, even if my hair has major static issues.

Whatever.

Merry Christmas!

Senior Year: First Semester Highlights

2008-12-21T23:44:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that the first semester of my senior year in college is already over! These last couple months brought a lot of fun into the lives of the 24/7 residents (nicknamed because of our address, 247 13th Street): off-campus parties, dressing up in costumes (our favorite pastime), and spending lots of quality time doing crazy things together.

On the other hand, it was also a very challenging and time consuming semester in regards to schoolwork. All of the roommates seemed to be overwhelmed around Thanksgiving break, especially since we all sat around during the Norovirus epidemic. Whoops. Nevertheless, we all finished the semester with heads held high and with senioritis in our hearts.

Here are just a couple pictures (ok, maybe 8) of my favorite moments from this semester:

The first week of school: classic picture of the roommates in action.

Out at the Curragh with the music kids!

Our first Toga party.

Our first rager (just kidding, only a small *cough* house party).

Homecoming with the couples!

Mmm...coffee at the Intelligentsia roasting tour.

Mom and Dad at Cosley Animal Farm.

Michael, Hank, Brent, Lama and I at Fall Crawl!

24/7 as "Japanimazing"!

This is our great attempt at dressing like Japanese anime characters. Costumes courtesy of the Hope College costume sale.

Michael and I enjoying breakfast and a morning stroll through Saugatuck.

Conducting the Hope College Collegium Musicum at our fall concert.

Woohoo! Gotta love those robes.

Singing with the choir at Vespers (note my solo stance, front left).

Everyone up front.

The music education majors at our professor's house (also notice the tshirt I'm wearing, designed by myself and Mari Jo...we're pretty proud).

More music students at Professor Randel's.

Set up in the music library. Did you laugh? I bet you didn't. It's ok, I only laughed because I'm a music dork and we love that kind of crap.

Hoping that next semester brings just as much fun as this semester did!

DIY Blogs: My New Hobby

2008-12-17T22:00:00.001-08:00

Thanks to Mrs. Leman, I am now obsessed with DIY blogs. Seriously, check some of them out (links on the right). I have found myself dreaming of color schemes, wall-paper and resale treasures in the last few days, and my creative side is bursting to try something neat.

Take "make something", for example (the first picture). I recently came across Nicole Hill's blog and fell in love with her photography. Cool, right? I'd love to try something like this, though I'm sure it's more complicated than it looks.

Thanks to Black*Eiffel, I've also fell in love with some amazing clothes. Not to mention this beautiful table and chairs.

How much do you adore the different chair styles all around one table? Gah. I'm drooling.

Crush

2008-11-21T23:24:00.000-08:00

Is it a problem that I have a crush on a seventeen-year-old?

Check it out! Love it.

While you're at it, you should probably check out this and this. Both hilarious and ridiculously entertaining.

The season begins...

2008-11-21T23:11:00.000-08:00

ESPN's GREATEST COLLEGE RIVALRIES:
#1 - Duke vs. North Carolina
#2 - Connecticut vs. Tennessee (women)
#3 - Louisville vs. Kentucky
#4 - HOPE vs. CALVIN
#5 - Xavier vs. Cincinnati
#6 - Indiana vs. Purdue
#7 - Philadelphia's "Big 5"
#8 - Illinois vs. Missouri
#9 - Penn vs. Princeton
#10 - Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State

NORO

2008-11-07T11:55:00.000-08:00

ATTENTION TO ALL:

Hope College has been infected with the norovirus! Sadly (...), all classes and events are cancelled through Tuesday morning. According to the email we received from Hope, "The Holland Police Department or campus safety will immediately disperse any large gatherings of students."

Therefore, 24/7 will be holding a norovirus theme party! Please come dressed as your favorite biohazard material.

Norovirus: 1, Hope College: 0.

Wisdom Teeth

2008-09-23T19:39:00.001-07:00

This summer, the time finally came for me to get my wisdom teeth out. I had been putting it off for far too long, and unfortunately I realized that this summer might be the only logical time for me to get it done. Thankfully I was able to twist my friend Megan's arm into doing it with me!

The procedure went very well, thanks to my beautiful new best friend Valium. I took two pills a few hours before the surgery for my nerves and was happy as ever when they stuck the IV in my arm. Megan and I decided to wear matching tshirts to the doctor's office too, just to give the Doc a laugh (it worked). Sadly I was not very funny when I woke up, but Megan definitely made up for it. Here is a video she made documenting our morning at the dentist:

Wisdom Teeth

Ahh, good times.

Right after the surgery

Megan with the doc.

p.s. The shirts are our sisters', we promise (long story....ask them). :)

2008-08-31T20:47:00.000-07:00

I guess I should probably finish up my Eurotrip blogging so that I can get onto other things...

I know it's been awhile, but here are some pictures from my after-travel to Italy!

Famous bridge in Florence

Standing in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa!

Eating gelato :)

Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre

The four friends eating an amazing Italian meal!

We love Rome.

Three suggestions for travel in Italy:

1. Go to Cinque Terre,

2. Eat lots and lots of gelato,

3. Never, ever, ever go to Rome in July.

Ciao!

2008-07-08T12:52:00.001-07:00

Wow, it's been awhile! It's about time I update with pictures from the end of my wonderful trip to Vienna. First things first--hiking the Rax Alps in Austria!

Beautiful, isn't it?

The little house in the distance is where we ate lunch!

Hiking in the Alps was probably one of my favorite weekend trips while in Europe. Although I wasn't excited about the 5-hour trek beforehand, it ended up being a lot of fun. Michael really helped keep my spirits up too, which was very kind of him. :) The only downside of the trip--the thunderstorm we hit for 2 hours on the way down.

Yodel-eh-hee-hooooooo!

Free Weekend

2008-06-15T05:59:00.000-07:00

This weekend, our group had the opportunity to decide for ourselves what we wanted to do. Instead of going away to different countries like many of our fellow friends did, the four of us (Mike, Brent, Lama and I) decided to stick around Vienna.

On Saturday, we took Edith's advice and went to Baden, a small town right outside the Vienna city limits. We had a picnic lunch by the train station, and then wandered into town. The town area was decorated to look like Wien's Graben, with Eurocup flags and soccer statues. It was so cute!

The decorated "Graben".

Green streets!

We then found these great hiking paths, and walked up the mountain until we found a gazebo with a great overlook of the city. We spent about an hour there taking pictures of ourselves jumping off the railings. :)

Michael

Brent

Baden!

For dinner, we ate at another heuligen and had some great new wine. Our dinner was excellent and also very cheap! We Euchre for awhile, too, which was interesting since I'm not too familiar with the game.

Our dinner: pork, corn salad, mediterranean salad, bread, and wine!

The heuligen sign from the outside.

We decided to head back into Vienna around 8pm so we could go out for Sarah Fetter's birthday. Unfortunately, I was very tired, so we actually ended up just sitting around. No big deal though, it was a perfect day--very relaxing and lots of fun with our friends!

Today (Sunday), Michael and I decided to just sit around downtown Vienna and do some homework. Right now we are sitting at Coffee Day, sipping on a melange and writing our mini papers. We're both taking the class "Senior Seminar--Values in Transit", which is a seminar course about people's values and their philosophies about life. We're reading a book called "This I Believe"--a collection of personal philosophies and things people believe in. It's a very eye-opening and intruiging read; I would definitely suggest it! Check out the website if you're interested in learning more or reading this week's featured essay. It's a great one.

Well, back to our homework. I hope everyone is doing well at home! I'm looking forward to coming back to American culture, but I'm also excited to live it up in Europe for the last 11 days we have here! Enjoy your Sunday, and Happy Father's Day! :)

Bratislava

2008-06-12T06:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (Wednesday), we took a day trip to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. Even though we only spent a little bit of time there, I enjoyed the city very much.

Of course, our first activity after arriving was a city tour. Woohoo. We got to see a couple of great overlooks of the city though, which were cool. When the tour was finished, we had about 30 minutes of free time before our dinner. We ate at a hotel restaurant, and had chicken...for the first time since May 13th!!! It was amazing.

Overlooking Bratislava!

Their new (and ugly) bridge.

The main square downtown.

It's Old Greg!

After dinner, our entire group went to the new State Opera House to see Tosca, an opera by Puccini. Sadly, the Italian was translated into Slovakian, so we had a hard time understanding what was going on. The singers, in my opinion, were decent, but I was expecting more. I shouldn't say that though, it really was great. :)

Waiting for the opera to begin.

Luckily, Bratislava is only one hour away from Vienna, so we arrived home just in time to take the last train back.

Budapest

2008-06-12T06:06:00.000-07:00

When I heard that our group would be traveling to Budapest, I honestly had no idea what to expect. I have never been to Hungary before...but I was pleasantly surprised! The city was very different from Salzburg and Prague, but beautiful nonetheless.

On Friday night when we arrived, we immediately met our tour guide Elizabeth and took a night tour of Buda (the old half of the city). We then went to one of the highest lookout points in Buda, and were able to take pictures of the night view. It was beautiful!

The next morning, we had another tour. Incase you haven't figured it out yet, I'm not a huge fan of the city tours. We've had so many of them already, and they are honestly very tiring. It's hard to be in a huge group, too--I sort of feel like they're herding a group of sheep around. But anyway, after the tour, we had seven hours of free time (too much...). A couple of us decided to look around the festival that was going on, rather than spending our afternoon and the Buda spa. I was starting to feel stressed out at this point--a lot of the girls had gone to get massages (which sounded nice), but I thought they were too expensive. I was nervous about being separated from them, even though I was hungry and needed lunch. *Side note: new word for being angry while hungry: hangry.* Needless to say, we soon found Doc and Dr. Gibbs, who were sitting at a table in the middle of the festival eating amazingly appealing food. My stress was lifted, and I went over to the stand to get a huge heaping pile of roasted vegetables and potatoes. It was by far the best meal I've had on this trip!

View of the city during the day.

Heroes Square

Our group eating lunch with Doc and Gibbs!

After lunch, we weren't sure what to do with our remaining six hours. Doc and Dr. Gibbs had left us, and so we were on our own. After wandering around the festival for awhile, we ran into Gibbs and Doc again, this time holding wine! They explained to us that you could buy a wine glass and a row of tickets for 5 Euro, and then go to all of the stands at the festival to taste-test their wine. We took their advice, and spent the next couple of hours walking around with our glasses. It was a lot of fun!

With our wine glasses at the festival.

For dinner on Saturday, we went on a boat cruise on the Danube. The view of Budapest was really cool, and the food was wonderful! We had goulash soup--very good. Later in the night it started raining, so after dinner we stuck around for ice cream and then went back to our hotel in Pest. On Sunday, we left the city and headed for a small town called Szendendre. It reminded me a lot of Saugatuck--small, with a lot of cute art shops. The weather was great, so we really enjoyed ourselves. We made it home just in time for dinner downtown Vienna, and then headed home for some needed sleep.

All in all, Budapest was great! I would recommend it for any traveler...but beware, you won't be able to understand a thing! :)

Saying Goodbye to Session One

2008-06-05T14:14:00.000-07:00

This week has been incredibly hectic. Yesterday (Wednesday), twenty-six new students arrived for second session, while thirty-two from first session left today (Thursday). Unfortunately, that overlap was completely nuts. We all went out to dinner on Wednesday night, and it was honestly a disaster. There were almost 60 people in this small upstairs room--let me remind you, no air conditioning. One open window. Ahhhh!

Some 1st session people, some 2nd session, some both!

I will really miss some of our new friends from first session! We all bonded really well, and we didn't have any problems! I'm very proud of our entire group, and I wish so many people were staying! The new people from second session have a lot to live up to now!

Besides all the switching craziness, not much has happened this week. I went out to a heuliger with Caitlin, Brent and Mike one night, which was a lot of fun. We enjoyed our time just the four of us--we don't get that much here. A bunch of us also went to go see this huge outdoor summer concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at Schonbrunn castle on Tuesday night, which was wonderful. Over 100,000 people attended! We had great seats near the front, too, but unfortunately it rained! :( We got free ponchos though, which at least kept me try. All in all--great cultural and musical experience!

Brent and Lama

Me and Michael

Wearing our rain jackets before the concert!

View from our seats.

Tomorrow (I can't believe it), we head to Budapest! I'm not sure what to think about Budapest, mostly because I honestly have never heard anyone talk about it. I'll fill you in on Monday though! Enjoy the wonderful weekend!

Prague

2008-06-03T03:04:00.001-07:00

I can't believe I'm finally getting to this post the day before we leave for another weekend trip. This week has been crazy! I'll tell you about that after all of the Prague stuff, though. First things first.

So Prague...was great! We did so many fun things--we had a couple of walking tours of the city, a great boat ride which included a lunch buffet, and a tour of the Jewish ghetto. We also had a fair amount of free time for shopping and wandering around the city.

Standing by the bridge during our free time.

Boys on the boat cruise!

Wearing yarmulkes at the Jewish museum.

Having a beer with Hillary on our night out!

I really enjoyed Prague a lot. It's so different from any city I've seen before. The colors of the buildings are different, the smells are different, and the people are different. I was excited to hear the language, but when I got there I realized it was near impossible to even repeat a word in Czech once we heard it. Our tour guide, Donna, was hilariously trying to get us to repeat really complicated Czech words with a bunch of consonants in a row. She was wonderful and really cute.

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but this month the Eurocup Tournament (soccer) is being held in Vienna...meaning there are tourists everywhere. We ended up seeing a lot of tourists while we were in Prague, too, which I think was one of the only downsides to the weekend. The other bad thing--money. Our dollar is doing so badly that within one year it went from $1=25 Kc to $1=16 Kc. We were expecting to buy a lot of cheap stuff, but that didn't really happen.

Overall, Prague was wonderful! I don't know if I'll ever get back there, but if I do I would be very happy!

Great view of the city!

The main square where Michael and I ate lunch.

p.s. I almost completely forgot! On Saturday, temperatures in Prague reached the highest for May they've reached since 1870! It was ridiculous--almost 100 degrees!

Misc.

2008-05-29T13:54:00.000-07:00

I feel as though there have been a lot of little things I've wanted to talk about, but I can't figure out how to group them. So here they are in the Misc. group! A couple of random events:

1. The other afternoon, Brent, Lama, Koon, Mike, 2 other girls and I went to Prater park for lunch. It was a wonderful afternoon to be outdoors! Later after class, we decided to hang closer to the institute, so we bought a bottle of cheap wine and did our homework at the Mozart park behind our building. Lots of fun!

Prater Park.

Celebrating their engagement with a bottle of wine at the park!

2. Wednesday night, Dr. Reisinger had a concert to organize and needed help with publicity. Koon and I (among others) told him we would help him pass out flyers on the streets, and he offered to pay us each 15 Euro! Yay money! It was well worth it, even though lots of Austrians stared at us. :)

The concert that we passed out flyers for (St. Peter's Cathedral).

3. After Dr. Reisinger's concert, a bunch of people went to a place called the Sunken City. Basically, it's just a bunch of bars along the river. We brought the party though--everyone wanted to hang out by the American kids! It was definitely an adventure!

Some of our group dancing at the Sunken City.

4. Tonight (Thursday), we had our annual Vienna Summer School music concert. All of our host families were invited to listen to students play/sing, and then to a reception afterwards. Dr. Reisinger played a couple pieces on the organ, a girl named Emily played the violin, and three girls sang....including me! I got roped into it by both Dr. Reisinger and Doc. It was fine though, I sang "Du bist wie eine Blume", a piece from my Jr. Recital. It was a cool experience to be able to sing in a big church, I'm glad I did it.

What was really cool though was Dr. Reisinger's improvisation. Earlier in the day, he had asked us to sing him our alma mater. We did, and he notated it on the spot. Then at the concert, he did a 10 minute improvisation on our alma mater, adding in aaaallllll the bells and whistles. It was probably the most amazing thing I've ever seen. Wow. I have a video of it, I'll try to upload it.

After the concert, I saw Dr. Reisinger through a window, and I mouthed "thank you" to him for accompanying me. He put his hands together and bowed, as if I was the amazing one. Ha! What a joke. He asked me if he could give me a couple voice lessons to improve my vibrato while I'm here. At first I was skeptical, but then I realized that I should take it as a compliment that he wants to work with me. Woohoo! I'm kind of nervous, but also excited to see what he has to say.

The church where the concert was held.

The girls with Edith and Helmut!

5. Tonight, Lama, Liz and I went to a heuligen with Helmut and Edith. They bought us strawberry wine, which was really good! The Hartmanns are great, I'm glad we got to hang out with them tonight.

Our strawberry wine!

Beautiful view!

This weekend is Prague...I'll write about it on Monday!

Opera and Dead People

2008-05-29T13:13:00.000-07:00

As most people know, I am a Vocal Music Ed. major at Hope. Therefore, coming to Vienna has been a wonderful experience for me, to say the least. This week held a couple of really fun and interesting musical events.

On Monday, Dr. Reisinger (our music professor) took our class to the Central Cemetery, where many famous composers are buried. It is the second largest cemetery in Europe, and holds over 3 million people. We saw the tombstones of Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, J. Strauss, Schoenberg, Hugo Wolf, and a tribute to Mozart. The entire cemetery was incredibly beautiful, including the church at the end of the main road. All in all--fun field trip!

The tombstones of Beethoven, Mozart, and Schubert.

Front of the cemetery's church.

Tombstone of Arnold Schoenberg (known for 12-tone/modern music).

One of many streets through the cemetery.

On Tuesday night, a bunch of us decided to see the Verdi opera Falstaff at the Staatsoper. I can't say it was my favorite opera ever, but it was definitely fun! We waited in line for Standing Room tickets for about 90 minutes, which was a good idea since the tickets were only 2 Euro a piece (normal seats cost around 200 Euro...looks like we'll be standing at all of the shows we go to in Vienna!). The singers were all wonderful, of course, I just felt as though the plot was very slow-moving. At one point in Act 3, some nymphs come on stage to torment the character Falstaff. Mike, Brent, Lamade and I are standing in the lower balcony together watching this, when all of a sudden the "nymphs" come on stage in, no joke, KKK outfits. White coats with pointed hoods and masks. We all immediately looked at each other in utter shock! It was very confusing, yet also funny! Mike whispered to me, "only in Europe".

Waiting in line for tickets!

Salzburg

2008-05-27T14:11:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, we went our first weekend trip during our six weeks in Europe--Salzburg! The city of Salzburg is probably one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen. It's set in the mountains, and is exactly what I have always pictured Austria to look like.

We left for Salzburg on Friday afternoon after classes were over. Before arriving in Hallein (a small town outside Salzburg), we stopped by at Melk Abbey, a former monastery. It was truly amazing, especially the church.

Melk Abbey from a distance.

The front of Melk Abbey's church.

When we finally reached our hotel, we put down our stuff and headed out to find the town. Most of the group stayed together, since we were told about a great outdoor champagne bar. Luckily, we found it pretty quickly, and all sat down for a glass of wine. At first, the locals looked skeptical about the American kids, but after awhile of talking with us, they had a good time. One guy even bought our table a bottle of wine! It was a fun night.

Saturday was a lot of fun, too. We spent the morning touring the city and the fortress, and explored during the afternoon. Michael and I accidently got separated from our friends for lunch, so we decided to go find food on our own. We went to a nearby Billa (grocery store), got some sandwiches, and sat along the river bank. It was a great lunch with great company! On our way back to our hotel, we stopped by Hellbrunn, a water palace. The emperor (not sure if that's right) that once lived there had a quirky sense of humor, and put water traps all throughout his house. It was a perfect day to get soaked, since it was so hot outside. We had a lot of laughs, too!

The view from the fortress!

The river where Michael and I ate lunch.

The Sound of Music gazebo at Hellbrunn/Michael showing his love for the movie.

Sunday, we visited two extremes. First, we took a tour of the Salt Mines. We got to wear these white jumpsuits, and take a train down into the ground. We even got to go down a couple of slides to get closer to the salt. We all enjoyed doing something different, since we've been doing a lot of city tours recently. Then, on our way back to Vienna, we stopped at Mauthausen, one of the concentration camps during WWII. The entire area was surrounded by sadness--it was a truly sobering experience.

Sweet jumpsuits.

One of many pictures from Mauthausen.

One more important thing happened this weekend. As many of you may already know, two of my closest friends, Caitlin Lamade and Brent Boersma, got engaged!! Of course I am very happy for them, and I can't wait to attend their wedding in 2009. I would tell you the story of their engagement, but I think it would be better to just hear Caitlin's account of it.

About 10 seconds after everyone found out they got engaged.

Overall, Salzburg was wonderful! I'm really hoping I love the rest of my weekend trips as much as I loved this one. Next weekend--Prague! :)

First Full Week

2008-05-25T14:15:00.000-07:00

Whew! It's been a long weekend. I'm sitting on my bed right now at my host home, wondering if I should update or go to bed. I think if I wait any longer though, it just won't happen. There are so many things I haven't explained yet...I doubt I'll ever get to all of it.

I think I should start by just summing up last week. Beginning on Monday, we had our first classes at the Institute. I am taking "Viennese Musical Traditions" with Professor Wolfgang Reisinger, who is the overseer of church music in Vienna. In other words, he's the best organist in the music capital of the world. Whoa. Talk about being musically intimidating! He's pretty sweet though--he has an interesting personality, sometimes funny and sometimes just genius. I'll put up a picture of him the next time I take one. Anyways, on Mondays and Fridays, our music class meets from 9:30am-12:00pm. On Tuesdays-Thursdays, we meet from 2:30pm-5pm, but everyone else from the program still has class in the morning. Kind of a downside to the music class, but oh well. Only 10 more days....yikes!

Here is a picture of Dr. Reisinger playing the organ for our class.

So on Monday we had class at the Institute for the first time, like I was saying. I didn't realize quite how small the Institute was until I spent some time up there...it only has about 6 rooms and an office. Not bad though, just the right amount of space for us. When class was over, a group went to a nearby deli for lunch, and we learned first hand how difficult the English/German language barrier can be. Luckily, next time I will know how to order so that won't happen again. We spent most of Monday afternoon after lunch wandering around town, and ended up finding a great bar called Kolar later in the night where we had strawberry wine. It was great, and the atmosphere was exactly what we were looking for.

On Tuesday, our music class took a trip to go see Mozart's apartment downtown Vienna. We walked through the museum as a class instead of meeting at the Institute. I enjoyed listening to the audio guides and seeing some of Mozart's original manuscripts, but I also felt as though a lot of the museum didn't have to do with Mozart but with the history at the time. Nevertheless, good field trip.

Original "Dies Irae" from Mozart's "Requiem"

The outside of Mozart's apartment in Vienna.

Wednesday didn't hold much excitement besides a wonderful afternoon with Michael. We realized that we hadn't spent much time together, so we decided to get dinner just the two of us. We went to an Italian restaurant on the Kartnerstrasse (main shopping street), and then headed down to Julius Meinl for coffee. It was absolutely wonderful--Michael was in heaven. :) We had a lot of fun together, and enjoyed finding a spot for later drink dates.

Thursday was a very interesting day. Earlier in the week, a sign had gone up on our group bulletin board about a makeover session that was going to be held at the Institute. The stylist did not put down their name, but said that haircuts would be free and given by a professional. So at 4pm, most of our group showed up in room 5 for the makeovers, only to find the music professor, Dr. Reisinger, standing there with a mirror already set up. Surprise! Dr. Reisinger, professional organist and overseer of church music, is also a professional hair stylist! We all got a few laughs out of that! For the next couple hours, Reisinger gave haircuts and consultations. It was a ton of fun to watch and to see what girls looked like before and after. Lamade was one of the people that cut her hair, so that was especially exciting.

In the middle of Lamade's haircut!

Later in the night, about half of our group went to go see "The Sound of Music" at the Volksoper. Sadly, Michael and I didn't get tickets in time, so we were on our own again. Just as we were about to leave the Institute, a group of girls asked us if we wanted to join them for dinner. We decided to go with them so that we could spend time getting to know some other people on the trip. The six of us headed out to the 19th district, and we took a bus up to the highest point of the city. It was beautiful! When we had finished taking pictures, we headed back down to a wine cafe for dinner. I ordered a gold-medal winner Riesling, which was very tasty. We had a great time talking over good food and wine--it was definitely one of the better nights.

The view from the top!

And of course...Friday, we drove to Salzburg. I have soooo much to say about Salzburg. It was amazing. I think I'm going to get some sleep now though, and write more about that tomorrow. I will also put my pictures on my computer so that you can see what I'm talking about in this post. Salzburg info coming soon!

Sunday

2008-05-22T15:13:00.000-07:00

Sadly, this past Sunday was the only Sunday we will have in Vienna during our 6 weeks here. This Sunday made up for that nonetheless. My roommates and I woke up early to make High Mass at Augustinakirche, where the orchestra and church choir were performing Schubert's Mass in B Major. It was an amazing experience, even though everything was spoken in German.

Front of the church

Back of the church--balcony where the orchestra/choir/organist sat.

We went out to the 19th district after Mass today for our opening lunch with the entire group. We ate at a heuliger, which is sort of like a wine cafe, and the food was wonderful. It was nice to get away from the downtown area today and enjoy a more scenic part of town.

The dark yellow building is where we ate lunch.

When lunch ended, the rain began. Lamade, Koon and I decided the smartest thing would be for us to go home for the night. As soon as we walked in the door, Helmut and Edith wanted to know what we had done during the day. We told them about how we were tired and wanted to spend the night at home, and they asked us if we wanted to hang out with them! Of course we said yes, and so the five of us played card games all night. While we were playing, they made us deal the cards while counting the German numbers outloud--it was very helpful! When Liz came home a little bit later, they opened a bottle of champagne (made in Vienna--amazingly good) and we made a toast to the beginning of fun! :) It was a great night indoors.

Clearly, I am a little bit behind since I'm posting about Sunday on Thursday. Time is just very limited! Tomorrow I will be going to Salzburg...more updates beginning on Monday!

Saturday

2008-05-22T14:02:00.000-07:00

Saturday was our first full day in Vienna, and already Dr. Hemenway had a lot planned for us. Since we needed to be at the institute by 9:30am, we decided in order to make it to the flea market (a reccomendation by Doc) we would need to leave the house at 7am. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but the Hartmann's live in the 23rd district of Vienna--in other words, out a ways.

We were of course nervous about taking the U-bahn into the city by ourselves, but before we could even think about what we were going to do, Helmut offered to ride the trains with us. So Saturday morning at 6:30am, the four of us plus Helmut and Edith ate a wonderful breakfast of sweet bread, homemade jams, cheese, meat, granola, yogurt, cake, coffee, juice, and cornflakes together and we left for the bus station. Helmut helped us get into the city by 8am, and then he turned around to go back home. What a sweet man, it was a huge relief to have him with us since our commute can be confusing sometimes.

The flea market was cool, but nothing out of the ordinary. I bought a great scarf for 5 Euro so that I can blend in with the popular European trend. When we were finished looking around, we left for the instutite. At 9:30am, the Art and Architecture professor, Dr. O., led our group on a walking tour of the city. She knows so much about the city and was able to give us a ton of information--we all enjoyed it a lot. Then we went to see Schonbrunn Palace around 1pm, which was absolutely amazing. The gardens are open to the public daily, so I'm sure we will return there later in the summer.

The flea market where I bought my scarf. Take note of the decorative flowers on the building in the background!

Some of us at Schonbrunn

When both of these events were over, the girls and I decided to head home for a nap before our evening concert. Sadly, since we had never been back to the house alone before, we got lost on the busses. We accidently took the wrong path out of Schonbrunn, and then got on a bus going the opposite direction of our house. Almost 90 minutes later when we reached home, we realized naps were out of the question. We quickly changed clothes, and headed back for Vienna.

In the evening, we went to see Monteverdi's "Vespro della Beata Virgine" at St. Stephen's Cathedral. Even though we had bad seats, the music was amazing. It fit the scenario perfectly, and the sound beautifully filled each space in the open ceiling. Sadly, there was an older man sitting directly behind me and Michael who fell asleep and was having trouble holding in his gasses. Unfortunately for him, they would slip out at breaks in the music, causing all of the Hope students sitting around him to burst out in silent laughter. It was definitley a story to remember!

St. Stephan's Cathedral

After a long day's tour--in front of the Staatsoper.

Meeting the Hartmanns

2008-05-19T14:23:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure meeting our host family was one of the most exciting and nerve-wracking experiences I've ever had overseas. We arrived at the Austro-American Institute of Education in Vienna on Friday around 2pm, and had one hour to walk around and explore before our host families came to meet us.

After walking around the block a few times, Caitlin, Sarah, and I returned to the Institute to find a man there waiting for us. My first thought about Herr Hartmann (Helmut)--not what I had expected! I expected him to be big with reddish hair and a large mustache, dressed in suspenders and checkered pants. Instead, he was wearing a yellow polo shirt and jeans, sunglasses, and had buzzed gray hair (no mustache). The only thing that met my expectations was his size--he loves to eat chocolate, which I have learned by experience. :)

At first he was quieter with us, but he opened up quickly once we reached the car. He drove us all around the city on the way home, and told us about each monument he drove us by. His English is great, which helps us out a lot.

When we got to his house in the 23rd district, we met his wife Edith (ee-dit). She immediately spoke English to us, and invited us for drinks on their roof porch. There we had spritzers (half white wine, half sparkling water) and got to know each other. It was wonderful! We then moved into our rooms (we all have our own), and left to go on a driving tour of the city. Helmut and Edith took us to the Castle of Liechtenstein, which was very interesting, and then to a couple of gothic churches in the country. It was a lot of fun to drive around with them--they were wonderful tour guides and great hikers.

The Castle of Liechtenstein (Helmut in foreground).

A statue of one of the saints in a nearby town.

A great view of a couple disconnected buildings.

One of the gothic churches.

When we returned home from our excursion later that night, Edith fixed us wiener schnitzel and fried rice. She made it "Parisian" style, using turkey breast filets rather than the traditional veal. It was good, but very heavy. She then brought out homemade berry cake--delicious. We can all say after this afternoon & evening that it is clear Helmut and Edith are going to spoil us. :)

Morbisch

2008-05-18T14:51:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

It has taken me far too long to find and receive internet--now that I have it, let's not waste any time.

On Tuesday afternoon, four of my great friends and I (among 60 other students) took one Austrian Air flight to Vienna. Our flight was relatively smooth, and our excitement helped to keep the boredom down. The flight attendants (woman in red) were extremely nice, and gave us each a free glass of wine to drink with dinner--only in Europe!

As soon as we arrived, we took a bus to Morbisch, a small town about an hour east of Vienna. The reason for this weekend trip was for orientation purposes--we spent some time talking about what to expect from our host families, how to say simple German phrases, and we even had our first two classes in the hotel.

Though it was great to meet all the other students, the town itself was mostly empty. Since most of the residents of Morbisch commute to Vienna, the city becomes desolate during the day, and most of the shops and restaurants close down by 5pm. We kept ourselves busy with a night boat cruise, a walk down the road to the Hungarian border, and lots of eating.

Along the road towards Hungary--lots of vineyards!

Our hotel.
Morbisch is known for its cranes.
Michael and I on our boat cruise.

More tomorrow!

Namesake

2008-05-10T15:52:00.000-07:00

Long before there was this day

another day came. Maybe it rained

of there was a little sunlight. People

got up and did what they always do.

Birds sang and the cats wanted out,

or in. You and I weren't here,

but the world didn't know. Trees

grew and nobody noticed. Someone

was cruel. Someone else

tried not to be. Maybe the weather

shifted unexpectedly and plans

had to be changed. This morning

we watched our day begin. We

wondered if it would be good,

wondered if it would rain.

-Jack Ridl, Living in the 21st Century