Blamo!! from all over Wien

Guten Tag! I have finished my first full week in Vienna and it was AWESOME! We'll start on Tuesday, since my last update had last monday on it.

Tuesday 8/25

We started intensive German on monday, which means 3 hours of German Mon-Fri. It is super intense! I can say a couple things in German and a lot of random words, mostly just how to say where I'm from and stuff.

Carly and Erica studying hard before class.

Our German classroom

My German teacher is really nice and very patient since none of us can speak very well and we have all previously learned french or spanish, which are both very different from German. Here are some other pictures of the area around the IES center.

A Wurstel Stand (sausage stand) near the center. I had a sausage filled with cheese, it was intense.The Kartnerstrasse - The pedestrian walkway in the center of the city where all the shopping is.
Wendnesday 8/26

On wednesday we had a tour of the Kunthistorisches Museum, the super awesome famous art museum, with the modern art professor. It was the coolest tour ever! She spent the first part explaining about how the building itself is a work of art and it explains things about the museum. All arond the art museum are Greek Gods of art and beauty to tell you it's the art museum because opposite of the art museum is the Natural History Museum which has statues of Greek Gods of wisdom and nature. It was just a quick tour, but good to know what we should see when we go back.

The Natural History Museum

The Kunthistorisches Museum

The Inner Stadt (the inner city) of Vienna was originally surrounded by a huge wall that wasn't torn down until the 1800s. This wall then became a road, the Ring, that forms are circle around the inner city. Most of the cool stuff is located on the Ring. Here is an original gate into the city.

We also went to the Rathaus because for the whole month of August they play operas every night of the week on a huge screen in front of the building. It was awesome!! There were like 400 people just sitting and watching Mozart's Don Giovanni. I didn't really know what was going on in the story since it was in Italien, subtitled in German, but it was a cool experience. There were also stands of food and drinks there too.

Thursday 8/27

My rommate Erica and I wandered around Stephsdom, the most giant Gothic Cathedral in Vienna. We went on the Catacombs tour and saw a ton of bones!

Inside Stephensdom!

More inside Stephensdom
Me in front of the exit of the Catacombs tour

For music students we had auditions for ensembles wednesday, thursday, and friday. I went on wednesday and played great! Everyone sounds so fantastic!! There are about 50 music students in the program. The auditions went from 5:30 until 8:30pm, so I didn't get to do very much in the evening, but thursday I did get ice cream with some of my friends at one of the famous ice cream places in Vienna. They are open from 7am to midnight, which is suprising because nearly every business in Vienna is open from 8-5pm. I don't have any pictures of this night though, sorry!

Friday 8/28

Ok so Friday we didn't really have anything to do, so my friends and I went to the Naschtmarkt. It's a big outdoor market that has lots of fresh produce and other things. On saturdays they have a flea market. I haven't gone to that yet, but I definitely plan to.

We also saw apartments designed by famous arcitchet Otto Wagner.
Friday night my girlfriends and I went to a place called Sand in the City. It's a big area near the center of the city that has sand and a boardwalk and little stands with lots of international foods and drinks. It was a lot of fun!

Ok well I'm going to update Saturday and Sunday later because I have a ton of pictures and things to say, but I have German real soon.

Auf Weidersehn!