And so it begins..

Our first week of classes has officially begun. But first, the last week and a half in review...

German intensive is done! woo! So we had a week off (Over here the schools have their semester until now, and take a week off, then start the summer semester this week, like we're doing..kind of)  and I went on a tour of Germany with IES.
The first day we were in three countries in one day-Austria, Czech Republic, and Germany. We stopped in Prague for a lunch -I am in love with that city. It feels like a small town but it's huge, and the architecture is awesome. I will definitely be going back there in the spring.
At the end of the first day we arrived at our hostel in Dresden. We lucked out, the hostel was more like a hotel and it was fantastic. (Our beds were like treehouses) We spent some time wandering around town, and the next day went on a city walk tour that was cool too.
After that we traveled to Leipzig for a day. We went on a tour around the city and saw a lot of musically historic things-i.e. Bach's church :) We also got lost in the city, go figure. But we made it back to the bus just in time to be on our way to Berlin.

Berlin is almost like the the NYC of Germany, but not. It's a lot cleaner and a little more spread out, plus..it's Europe. Okay, so maybe it's not like NYC. But our hostel was ...mmm....well it reminded me of a place in the movie Across the Universe. But it was really chill inside and we got used to it. I can't possibly write about everything we did while we were there, it would take forever. But SparkNotes version: We went to tons of museums, bus tours, walking tours, got lost, overdosed on Milka bars (the best chocolate in the world), went out dancing, found some of the sketchiest places I've ever seen, explored castles, went to neighboring towns, ate all kinds of crazy ethnic food (they got me to try sushi....not a fan though) etc.   But anyways, it was a great trip and a really good way to unwind after all of those German classes. It was great to come back to Wien and my apartment though. I appreciate our clean bathroom and my bed so much.

So here I am, back in Wien on the second day of classes. My schedule is kind of awesome-Mondays I don't even have class until 3pm. Today I went out searching for a gym to go to. I found one that's a pretty far trek away but is three stories and pretty much the greatest thing ever, so I'll be there tomorrow bright and early.

Here are some pictures, they are not in order at all. hah.

 Museum in Berlin! We had a museum day where we could go to whatever museum and get reimbursed for the ticket. There's a place called museum island...heres one of them.

Berlin Symphony Orchestra! They played Beethoven's 6th and it was SOOOO good.

 Prague!!! View from across the bridge

 Me on the bridge in Prague...loved this city

 In Old Town Square in Prague, lookin for some food.

 My roommates and I in our Dresden hostel...so cool

 Dresden! The wall on the left is the processional of princes in Dresden.

 Our group lunch in Dresden...coolest place ever. In the very back is a round carousel swing...where you can eat if you want, and you sit on swings and the table/chairs rotate as you eat.

 Sideways...Bach's church in Leipzig.

 Part of the Berlin wall.

 Holocaust monument in Berlin. Underneath this is the Holocaust museum.

 Mesopotamian gate in the Pergamonmuseum in Berlin

Our hostel was literally one block away from the Berlin Film Festival...check it outtt

Downtown Berlin at night

-Alyssa

Done with German!!!!!

Okay, so I'm not totally done with German...but I'm done going to German class EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. for THREE. HOURS. :) woooot. Yesterday we had our oral final (interviews with other students in the class), and then a bunch of us went to visit Mozart's house. He lived in the apartment in Vienna for three years. We were in the exact room where he wrote The Marriage of Figaro (which I will hopefully see at the Opera later in February). It was really cool, and we got a free guided audio tour with the admission price. On our way back to IES we saw a huge crowd gathered near Stephansplatz, watching four guys breakdance in the middle of the street. I would've joined (because we all know I'm a fantastic break dancer) but I didn't want to embarrass anyone. So we watched, and then turned around to go home only to see we were facing the bakery display from Aida, a cafe nearby. Naturally we all went inside to "look", and we ended up coming home with pastries. Most people got Sachertorte, I got some fruit/cheese torte thing, I don't really know what it was though, besides delicious.

Today we had our German final!! It wasn't too bad, and now I'm done. The sun in shining (it's almost always cloudy here) and I'm ready for break. Tonight I'm making crepes for everyone. I also just contacted my soon-to-be flute teacher and hopefully will get a lesson when I'm back. She teaches at the University of Wien and seems like she's pretty awesome.


Oh! The day before yesterday...I guess that would be Wednesday, we went to see Stephansdome...aka St. Stephans Cathedral...aka the center of Vienna...aka AWESOME. pictures below.
I also went to the Opera to see The Magic Flute on Sunday night. Every venue here is soooo beautiful.

This is the opera house from where I was:

 Stephansdome with Hanna and Rachel:

 Inside the cathedral:

In the city on a beautiful day:

 Part of the street on the walk home:

The weather hasn't been terrible here (I guess I can't complain...it only snowed once) but I would mind an early spring:)...cough Groundhog Phil cough
Here's to hoping for more sun,
Alyssa

Post Hofburg Palace Adventures

We've done such much this past week this may be a really long update, you've been warned. We're on week two of German..it's going well and I'm getting more comfortable using it in public, ha. The other day some guy on the street asked me directions, so I felt pretty good that he thought I knew what I was doing (although I did successfully give him correct directions). But anyways, the ball was last night! I spent the beginning of this week searching for a dress. I ended up getting a teal one from Peek & Cloppensburg, so it worked out. I did get lost in the city, but the Ubahn system makes it so easy to get found again so that worked out okay. But anyways, the dress I got was about an inch too long so I searched the city for safety pins, only to find out Tobi had about 100 in his office at IES, ha. So we pinned my dress, then hemmed it literally five minutes before we left for the ball.
But before I update you on the ball, I need to talk about Wednesday night.
I found out the Glenn Miller Orchestra was playing at the Vienna Konzerthaus, which made me pretty excited. (Side note: I once had a fish named Glenn, that is how much I love Glenn Miller.) So Megan, Nick and I went ot the Konzerthaus, and got soup in the fancy restaurant there, then got some student rush tickets. We were kind of in the nosebleed section, but it wasn't bad for the price, plus that Konzerthaus is gorgeous. So many chandeliers and everything, it was beautiful. The band was great, I loved every minute of it.
The next night was the Technical University Ball. We had a teaching internship meeting at 5pm that night, and the ball started at 830, so we were all in a bit of a rush. I went over to Hannah and Rachel's to get ready, and we ended up leaving around 9:30. We missed the opening ceremonies, but no big...the ball was AMAZING. Number one, it was in a palace. Number two, there were about five rooms with different styles of dancing, all with live music.  A grand ballroom for waltz and jazz, another for slow waltz, one for world music, one for salsa, and one for swing with a combo playing. Everyone there looked amazing, and could actually dance.
     I went walking through all the rooms with Kristen, and got asked to dance by an Austrian in the jazz room, so that was fun. I don't think I learned his name but he plays trombone and piano, so that was cool.

We stayed until around 2am, then took a taxi home...er, to HAnnah and Rachels. We all slept there and got up at 8ish to get the Ubahn to some Kaffeehaus for German class. We got lost, but asked for directions and found it okay. We ordered in German and all that jazz, and had a fantastic breakfast. Now I'm back in my apartment, trying to upload photos to facebook, because I should've done that a while ago.

Wiener Konzerthaus

 Glenn Miller Orchestra

 Hofburg Palace...where the TU Ball was

 Friends in the lobby of the palace

 Grand Ballroom

 The other waltz room

 Grand ballroom during an Austrian line dance...people made tunnels with their hands and other couples danced underneath through the whole room

 German class at the Kaffeehaus the next morning

 I don't know how to flip this, but some of us at the ball.

In other news I really want to go to Porgy and Bess, a jazz club downtown. It's expensive but sounds fun...I'm thinking birthday outing there.


I think that's enough for now...I really need to catch up on some sleep;)
-Alyssa

1 week down..

We just finished week 1 of intensive German classes...two more to go before real classes finally start! Everyday we have German class for 2.75 hours, and then the rest of the day is for orientation meetings or exploring the city if you don't have a meeting. Wednesday and Thursday were music program auditions..I was accepted into the program! Everyone else here is amazing-It's unbelievable the talent I've seen so far. But anyways, every Friday we have a German test and there is also a quiz sometime during the week. It sounds awful but it's really not that bad, especially because we can use it outside of the classroom. Soon, we're going on a trip to a coffee house to order in German, etc.

I have a ton of photos on my camera, unfortunately it really likes to die at the most opportune moments... But I'll post a few here for now.

We all went out to a club on Wednesday night (it was karaoke night..) It was insane, and that's all I have to say about that.

Oh, and the ball is this Thursday night-It starts at 8:30pm and goes until 5am.... :)

I have yet to find a gown that isn't 300 euro, so I'm really hoping for a miracle to happen...There's no way I'm paying that much for a gown I'll wear one night.

Yesterday, we went on a three hour bus tour--It was amazing. We went to the Belvedere, which is awesome from the front, but in the back there are ridiculous royal gardens and an insane view of Vienna. We took tons of picture but unfortunately my camera didn't feel like working that day. But here are some pics from various places:

So I go to school in a palace, here's part of the stairway:

 This is my favorite room, it's our study room:

The music performance room, where I auditioned:

Stairway again:

Just some of the city..

 View out the window in our apartment:

 Kitchen:

Living room:

 Messy bedroom:

Rachel, Hanna, Megan and I during pizza night, hahah

Dad visited on business...this is my favorite street. It has chandeliers up for ball season.

 The Belvedere

 A view from part of the tour, the last picture my camera took before it decided to die. This picture doesn't do the real view justice at all.

That's all I've got for now.
Until next time,
Alyssa

Quick update

Day three of Deutsch and I just got my first kebab. A Kebab is basically one beast of a sandwich you can get at street vender places with tomatoes and lettuce and meat and sauce... it's massive. I can personally attest that they are delicious. AND I ordered mine auf deutsch...a small victory for me.


Oh and by the way, the city is GORGEOUS. They have chandeliers above the streets....chandeliers! outside!! It's crazy awesome, they light up at night and everything. The walk to school is about a mile and a half but it's fun to walk by all the shops and things so I don't mind it at all. Eventually I'll get around to taking pictures and putting them here.
Oh and we found out that although our landlady does not speak English, she does speak a little French..so I've been communicating to her that way when she's around.

In other news, I desperately need to go buy groceries...I accidentally bought a giant loaf of bread, but it's rye or something and tastes a bit weird. Living off of that and a knock off brand of (not-as-good) nutella isn't really working out for me right now. I'll be off to the store soon to buy some actual food. Then practice and auditions tonight! Wish me luck:)

Finally in Wien!

So today we finally got to Vienna.:)
Orientation was in a realllllly nice hostel two hours south of Vienna - there was a huge spa for free in it and that was quite awesome. We also explored a castle, drank some wine that was grown in the vineyard about ten feet away from the hostel, explored the town, learned some Austrian dancing, and watched Radball. It was pretty fun all in all, but I'm super glad we're finally in the city. I literally JUST arrived-we got off the bus, got our things, and were supposed to take taxis to our apartments. However, we decided to be adventurous and go on the Ubahn, then walked the rest of the way.
(I officially want to start a petition for a nice subway system like this in the US. It is fantastic.)
But anyways, dragging around our giant suitcases was interesting, and then we finally got to our building. We have a great apartment, and the beds are surprisingly comfy:) New pots and pans, a balcony, it's lovely.
Tomorrow we start three weeks of nothing but intensive german every morning (101 ..oh yeah), and then orientation meeting and tours the rest of the days. Oh, and some practicing for the music program auditions on Wednesday and Thursday. eep.

Here are some pictures from orientation:

Our hostel room 

view from the top of the castle!

friends at the top of the castle

traditional Austrian dancers, haha.

Deutschlandsburg!

Radball! Kind of awesome. Google it.

-Alyssa

My bags are packed and I'm ready to go...

Just kidding. I have nothing packed, and three days to fit all of my clothes and shoe collection in a suitcase weighing under 50 pounds. Should be fun.
I've got a list of about a hundred things that I need to bring, and another list of items I have yet to buy. These next few days are going to go by so fast, I'm going to be running around everywhere. Tuesday night I will probably be in my bedroom freaking out because I can't fit everything in my suitcase. Hopefully I'll be able to remind myself that it's okay to not bring every single piece of clothing I own (Vienna has multiple H&M's....).

Besides the packing thing I am fully excited. I've got my housing assignment, roommates, orientation information, and everything should be great. I'm currently searching for good music to add to my Ipod for the long trip there.

I checked my e-mail today to find an invite to the TU Ball at the end of January-yeah, I said ball. We're talkin' floor length gowns and European men in tuxes. Needless to say I will be attending.

Also, to anyone out there who wants to send mail (hint hint), this is my mailing address when I'm there:

Alyssa Clark
c/o IES Abroad Vienna Center
Palais Corbelli
Johannesgasse 7
A-1010 Vienna
AUSTRIA

The mail goes to the IES Center, not my apartment-which I hear is awesome, by the way. Apparently it is near the biggest shopping street and a huge outdoor market. :)


That's all of the news I've got for now. This blog will finally get going once I'm there and have actual things to talk about.

Until next time,
Alyssa