Study, study, study...

What a busy week with school! There are always journals to be done...the first CVA test, and the first German quiz! Yikes. Studying didn't leave too much room for fun things this week. Monday was my first attempt at trying to study. I went to Oberlaa, which is officially my favorite park in Vienna so far. It is very secluded away from all the busy roads and stores and is completely surrounded by trees. It is the only park I have been to so far where you can find a quiet place and not even see another person for hours. It looks more like the parks at home than any other and is full of mostly older couples strolling through (so cute!).

Tuesday night for dinner, a group of us went to Vapiano, this make your own pasta place. It was the best meal I have had here to date. After that, more studying...Like I said, not too much time for fun when there is a lot to be done for class.

Today we had Humantities class at the KHM. We looked at several works from the Renaissance including a whole room full of Titian and a couple Raphael's. I am so lucky to get to see what it is I'm studying in person instead of just images in a book. After that, a group of us when to Pickwick's for lunch and to "study." We got a few things done in between our outbursts of completely random conversation.

More studying is in my future for the next couple of days but after that....ITALY!! 3 days!

Relaxing weekend in Vienna.

Well my first weekend free in Vienna is officially over. Every other weekend I will be out touring Europe until the weekend before I come home! Saturday I got to SLEEP IN! It was wonderful and much needed. When I woke up, I went with some of the girls to Pickwick's, the English Cafe we found the other day. There they have "normal" food, and the music selection is awesome! It's good to have a little taste of home every now and then. After spending a few hours there journaling, we went back to the hotel to get ready for the opera. We went to the Volksopera and saw Mozart's "Magic Flute." Not my favorite I must say...I don't even know if I would have liked it in English. The plot was not very intersting, and the set and costuming wasn't fun to look at, but of course the music was good.

This morning we went to high mass at Augustinekirche, where many of the Hapsburgs were married. This church is known for its music because they do their whole service by composers like Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven with a full orchestra and chorus. Our service this morning was done in Puccini's "Messi di Gloria." It felt more like a concert to me than worship, but at least the music kept my attention. After church it was off to the washeteria for some much needed landry. Figuring out how to work the machines was an adventure in itself, but it eventually got done. This evening, we had a devotional to take Communion. It's always great to get to get together after a weekend of not seeing everyone. ITALY IN 5 DAYS!

It's the weekend already!?

Wow this week FLEW by! I feel like I was just in Prague...I have a feeling this entire trip is going to feel that way...Well let's see what did I do this week...Wednesday was a very relaxed day. After class I had a wonderful afternoon of shopping with the girls and Mexican for dinner. We have this great place right by the hotel that we go to often.
Thursday was a little more productive. We had Christiany in the Visual Arts class at the Schatzkammer Museum. That is always a good day. We saw some very intersting things related to the class including one of the three veils of Veronica, the Imperial Crown, Imperial Cross, and Imperial Lance. They are much cooler to see once you know what they actually are. There was also a tooth from John on display and a piece of the real cross! Gasp! Those Catholics...crazy fellows. After class I spent the afternoon at the Augarten. It used to be a palace and is now home to the famous Vienna Boys' Choir and has the oldest Baroque garden in Vienna. Pretty sweet. The park would be nearly perfect if it weren't for two distracting obtrusions that dominate the landscape there. Two huge and ugly Nazi flakturms or watch towers still stand in the park. The Viennese can't tear them down without destroying everything around them, so there they sit. Looking at them honestly put a knot in my stomach.

Today's outing was ridiculous! We have a list of "Vienna Visits" we have to do every week in order to get out and see the city. Well, Jordan, Macy, and I decided to get as many done as possible. Three and a half hours later we had been to six Gothic churches around the city and the Parliament building. What an exhausting afternoon...it really was fun though! Wandering through the streets of Vienna has been one of my favorite things to do here. You never know what you're going to run into! Today we found a British Cafe that has an English movie rental store in the basement. Very useful...tonight we went to dinner at a local cafe as a group to catch up with the adults on the trip. After that we had a devo...that lasted almost three hours...Like I said I am with an amazing group of people who are full of awesome advice and who just love to talk about God. I am very lucky. This weekend will just be a relaxing one in Vienna before all the crazy travelling starts.


"I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
-Matthew 17:20

What a great weekend!

I had such a great weekend! On Friday after class I went to the Vienna Roman Museum. The museum is built on top of these ancient Roman ruins that were found underneath the city. The ruins are of two tribunal houses from an ancient military camp. Everytime I see things like this up close and personal I can't help but think about who had walked and lived on the very floors I was looking at and what was their life like? The most intersting part of the houses still in tact was the heating structure. Underneath the floors there would be a hollow chamber that was filled with heat from at fire at the entrance. This would heat every room of the house. Hundreds of ancient artifacts that were found are also on display. I continue to be reminded every day just how smart and productive these ancient civilizations were.

Saturday and Sunday I was in Prague! That city is so beautiful! It is definitely the essence of European architecture. After a four hour bus ride, we were free to explore! I ate lunch at a cute little cafe right on the streets and paid twenty dollars for a cheeseburger! Trying to keep Czech rounds, Euros, and American dollars separate in my head apparently comes as a challenge to me. I learned my lesson though. While walking back to the bus to leave, we walked throught this ridiculoulsy loud "Anarchy Rave" in the square. Young people dressed up in crazy costumes and rocked out to techno music playing from dozens of vans. It was the shadiest thing I have ever seen in my life but was still interesting to get to see. After hours of eating and shopping it was off to the hotel. The hotel we stayed in had a bowling alley and casino in the basement. I had never heard of such a thing! You have to pay for everything in Europe (even the bathroom) so I spent the night playing cards in the room instead.

Sunday morning we got up early for our official tour of Prague. Our tour guide showed us around Prague Palace, Charles Bridge, and the Old Town Square. Prague was a beautiful and wonderful experience! On the way home we took a "bathroom break" at Excaliber City. It was probably one of the most unusual things I have done on this trip to date. Excaliber City is right on the border of the Czech Republic and Austria and was kind of like a state fair...but dragon themed. It was awesome. We had time for a few rides and games until we had to be back on the bus.

Monday night after a very long nap, I went to the New World Ballet at the Vienna Opera House. I payed 4 euro to see a ballet! Even though I had to stand, it was fabulous. I discovered that dance is probably my favorite form of art. I just love the movement in it instead of static and lifeless paintings and statues even if they are beautiful. One very intersting thing about the show was the last piece of choreography. It was humorous and slightly ridiculous. I have never seen a ballet that wasn't technical and classical, so that was refreshing.

Today nothing exciting happened, besides the fact that I woke up in Vienna. It is Cari's birthday, so we are going out to dinner to celebrate! We will see what this week has to offer!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BECCA!! I LOVE YOU!

Museums, Cafes, and Pizza Parties...

Wednesday We had Humanities class in two different museums. The first, The Museum of Natural Hisory houses the Venus of Williandorf, the oldest known artwork in existence. It is 25,000 years old and is a carving of a rather large woman. She was so cute in person! She only stands a few inches tall because of the nomadic lifestyle of the people who created her. After taking a few minutes looking at her, we went to the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Here, we looked at ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman artifacts. The Egyptian section was unbelievable. On display were actual mummies, coffins, and carved sculptures. It is fascinating if you imagine where these things have been, who has touched them, and what their purpose was for. The Greek and Roman statues were the same way. Who knew you could tell so much about a culture by the way they positioned the bodies of their human sculptures.

After "class" I had lunch at Cafe Central, Vienna's oldest cafe. It was built in 1868 and became a watering hole for intellectuals and still is today. Some of the cities most prominent writers and artists frequented the place. It is BEAUTIFUL. Forget whatever "cafe" you are thinking about right now and imagine having lunch in more of a museum setting. I had a warm ham and cheese sandwich, lame I know, and tried the famous apfelstreudel for dessert. Let's just say I was imagining American apple pie, and it was not. Almost all of their desserts are not nearly as sweet as ours, but we have found some good chocolate!

For dinner I had a good 'ole peanut butter sandwich with bread from the local bakery down the street, Anker. Later, most of us met down in the courtyard to have a devo. All I can say is I am on this trip with some amazing people who continue to lift me up daily.

Today was not as productive as the rest of the week has been. We got out of class at 10 so the other half of the class could go to the museums. We were supposed to take the time to work on out thesis, but I took a nap instead. It was ffor the first time the whole trip which is extremely unusual, so I think I deserved it :) When I woke up I fully intended on doing some journaling for class, but a group of us was called up to the Hortons' room to discuss fall break. There was some confusion as to when fall break was, and a group of us booked flights for the whole week. What a bummer. A short meeting turned into 5 hours of grilling our two femal faculty on love, marriage and everything in between. Then that turned into a pizza party for the whole group! It has been a fun night!

School has started...

Well, Monday school started and man was it early! My new schedule is waking up at 6:30, breakfast at 7:10, and starting the journey to the institute at 7:30. We start off every day with a short devo, then German class is first. Our teacher is hilarious! He keeps us on our toes though because he will call on us randomly to repeat or read things. I am on the front row! Bad idea...but at least it keeps me awake. After that, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for these first few weeks we have Humanities, and Tuesdays and Thursdays we have Christianity in the Visual Arts. Class gets out at 12 then its off to lunch!

Monday after class we went and visited a few parks around town. Stadtpark has a pond surrounded by running trails. These trails are dotted with statues of some of Vienna's most beloved artists and musicians. We sketched for a little bit then headed to Volksgarten. Volksgarten is the park surrounding the National Library and the Museum of Natural History. My favorite part was the statue of Queen Elizabeth surrounded by roses. She is the topic of my research paper, so we will be getting very close.

Today I went to class as usual then went to the Nashmarkt for lunch where I have a chicken kebob sandwich. It was tasty! The guy at the counter even showed us a magic trick! He had two euros in one hand and one in the other...he clapped his hand face down on the counter, and when he brought them back up, all three euros were in the other hand. I still don't know how he did it. For dinner we went to Cafe Chatanooga to have a little taste of home then chocolate gelato for dessert. The gelato here will be the death of me.

Tomorrow for class we are going to the Museum of Natural History to see the Venus of Williandorf, the oldest piece of art know to man...then the Kunshistorsches. It' going to be great!

Another amazing two days!

Well I have had yet another two amazing days here in Wien! Saturday I went with a group to Millenium City to check out the malls here. It was pretty much your typical American mall except the German everywhere. That afternoon we saw another beautiful palace. This one was called the Belvedere and was given to a general as a gift from the king! Can you imagine getting a palace as a gift? It was amazing. That night we went to an amusement park. It was just like an American fair, sketchy pop-up rides included. Apparently, Austria doesn't have very strict safety regulations, so riding rides was out for me. I still had a great time though! It was very funny listening to American pop and rock music at a foreign country's park. They sure do love our music!

Sunday was also a very productive day. We woke up and went to high mass at Stephansdome. It was quite and experience! It lasted two hours,was completely in German, and there was a lot of up down up down. The choir was one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard in my life though. Between the German lyrics, the aucostics of the church and their voices, it was unbelievable. Although the service was new and strange to me, it made me extremely curious about their customs and practices and why they do what they do at church. A very traditional high mass is something everyone should see once in their life. After lunch we headed by bus up a mountain that overlooks the entire city. It was breathtaking! After that, we hiked down the mountain past fields of vineyards! At the bottom of the hill was this little neighborhood that was definitely the epitome of what I thought Europe looked like. The cobblestone roads, cute little houses, and beautiful flowers everywhere were a perfect picture. Dinner at our local Mexican restaurant topped off the night. I'm off to bed early because we start school at a ridiculous hour in the morning. Yikes. I'm a little nervous.

Sweet dreams!

I'm here!

Hallo everyone! Well, I finally made it. After three flights, countless hours of travelling, and a six hour time difference, I was to say the least tired my first day here. The plane ride on the way over was an adventure in itself. Lufthansa is definitely the way to go. Free movies, television, dinner, breakfast, drinks, and even a hot towel (which I wasn't sure what to do with). The plane was so huge I didn't even feel like I was flying and had to go down a flilght of stairs to get to the bathroom. A two-story plane?! It was awesome. When we arrived in Munich this first thing I noticed was that it looked a lot like home. I still felt like I was in the states. We took a bus straight to our plane and walked on right from the tarmac. That was a first. As soon as we arrived in Vienna, we hit the ground running. After dropping our luggage off at the hotel, we walked to the school. It is right beside the world famous opera house! We can see it right out our window during class! That won't be distracting...We had our first real stab at German during lunch at Rosenbergers and dinner at Cafe Wortner. I have "danke" (thank you) down, but thats about it...I'm working on it. During my first meal in Vienna I managed to dump my plate of spaghetti and cream sauce into my lap. I dont' even know how it happened, but it wasn't pretty. I needed sleep.

Today we woke up and went straight to the university for a few presentations then headed to the Nashmarkt for lunch. The Nashmarkt is the farmer's market on steriods. It is a mile long, and has any fruit, vegetable, meat, cheese....pretty much any fresh food you can think of will be there. I ate Chinese for lunch. I know right Chinese...I'm finding that I am definitely not on the adventurous side when it comes to food.

After lunch we went to the Shonbrunn Palace. IT WAS AMAZING. I fell in love. The Hapsburgs used it as their summer house. Their summer house? I can't imagine what their normal palace looks like. Oh wait I can go see it anytime I want :) It is so hard to describe you will just have to look at pictures, but even that doesn't give it justice. There is even an imperial zoo on the grounds. They owned their own zoo right in their back yard. Unbelievable. Jordan, Sarah, Brynn, and I had to find our way back to the hotel after the palace to meet up with the group. No problem right? Well, that's what we thought. We left in plenty of time and were doing great until we got off the u-bahn...at the wrong stop. After thirty minutes of wandering around we finally decided to make a call. So, our first attempt alone was a major fail, but now we know.

Dinner was at Venetizia, and Italian place. I ordere "pizze mit pfefferoni" which turned out to be cheese pizza with peppers...but it was all good. Our waiter was very energetic and helpful. He was one of the few Viennese I have met that doesn't mind Americans. We're not too popular here.

The night ended with coffee at Cafe Sprel. I had Vienna iced coffee, which is espresso with a scoop of vanilla gelato. The gelato was fabulous, but I'm not a fan of coffee yet.

We will see what tomorrow holds!

Guten nacht!

Thanks.

Thanks to everyone who came today to send me off! I appreciate all the love and support and will continue to ask that you keep me in your prayers. I love you all! 2 days!