Miscellaneous

There were a few things I did last week that I didn't have time, or pictures to upload. So since I have started classes now I have some free time in between classes to catch up.

Last Thursday as part of the orientation program, we went to see Simon Boccanegra at the Vienna Opera house. We stood in the nose bleed section and I'm surprised I didn't pass out, it was hott and I had nothing to lean on. But the singing was INCREDIBLE, Placido Domingo, was the lead, and I guess Placido is a BIG deal, but of course I didn't know this until it was over. Many people left at intermission that were standing so the second half I was able to see about half the stage, and a translator with english subtitles (it was an italian opera), this made it a lot more enjoyable. From my understanding the storyline was very similar to West Side Story, where 2 people fall in love and get married that are not suppose to and there is some fight scenes and a few people die. We were handed the store by or orientation leader while walking into the theater soI wasn't able to read it until after.

At the Opera!

Curtain
I leaned WAY over the rail to get this picture

Main Lobby at Intermission

Beautiful Ceilings 

Opera house at night

Friday we had the daytime off so Frances and I decided to do some sightseeing. Since we have both done most of the typical tourist attractions already we decided to check out the BIG university. The University of Vienna were over 90,000 students are enrolled. They have buildings all over the city, but we decided to explore the main campus. Here we found a lovely courtyard, we will have to go back once it is warmer, seems like the perfect place to grab a coffee and get some sun. The building was like a museum, so beautiful.

Courtyard

Sculptures EVERYWHERE

Frances and I crashing a university lecture.

Afterwards we walked around some city markets and just strolled through the Viennese streets, finding restaurants and cafe's we will have to revisit. 

Cool basket tractor
I thought Grandpa might like this :)

And on wednesday night I went skating with Canadian infront of Rathaus, (Vienna's City Hall). I say it like that because I was the only one from U.S. in the group of people I went with. I figured they would all be pro, but turns out most of them had only gone once or twice before. I had to help 3 of them put there skates on! haha 

They all asked to see me do tricks on the ice, but it was too crowded and I didn't feel like embarrassing myself by falling.

Amazing panorama, Thanks Kyla

It was absolutely beautiful, there are 2 rinks connected by paths, with roundabouts that are really fun to skate around, you could almost get lost in the mazes. We skated for about 2-3 hours and were exhausted, some even had blistering feet, and one fell and hurt her elbow, she is ok, just in some pain. But all in all a fantastic night with great friends, and delicious Bailey's roasted nuts, crepes  and hot chocolate to top it off. The rink will close on the 10th. So maybe I will go one last time :)

Heather and I

Rathaus at night!

The Group! 

First day of class

After a month of fun traveling around and meeting some amazing people, it is time to start the "study" part of "study abroad". Monday I was off to my first class at 2 pm, and it was my intro to german language class. There were several people I recognized from the orientation program so that was comforting. Obviously since I have been here for a month now, I know a tiny bit of german already. And when I say tiny I mean about 5 words. This class moved fast, and I am excited to learn more. Although I wish it met twice a week for shorter periods (like classes at UVM), 3 hours felt like a marathon, and meeting once a week, I feel like I will forget what I learned before next class.

I learned...

Ich HeiBen Rachel
My name is Rachel

Ich komme aus America
I am from America

Ich speche englisch
I speak English

Mene Hobbys sind
My hobbies are..

First day of class
Time to catch the Ubahn (instead of bus)

Breakfast

Today I had 2 classes, Global Consumer Behavior from 9-12, and my teacher was great! She's so friendly, and has done so much traveling, and just seems really easy to talk to. We formed groups for a group project, and our group volunteered to present an article next week (hopefully we will get brownie points for being the first to present).
Then I had a break until 2 and I found a neat spot on the 5th floor that overlooked Vienna, and proceeded to eat my PB&J. Then I had Marketing Research which seems like a really interesting class because we will focus on markets not only in the US but in Europe too. We also formed groups, that will work together on a final project, we need to think of a topic of interest before next week.

Tomorrow I have a day off, and I plan to work on my easter break itinerary, then Thursday I will start international marketing.

Its been sunny the past week, which makes waking up a lot easier, and I love not having to drive to class, worry about parking, or getting stuck in traffic. This public transportation thing is great!

Skiing in the Alps

Today I went skiing in the alpes and it was AMAZING! I could not have asked for better weather, it was like spring skiing, and the conditions were fantastic.

Pictures are the only way to describe this day.
We hoped on a bus at 7 a.m. with all our ski stuff, for what we thought was going to be a 2 hour bus ride that then turned into 3.
Upon arrival 3 of us waited to get rental (the others had brought gear from home), and this took about another hour, so by the time we were able to get on the first lift it was almost 11:30. But it was totally worth every euro, I would have paid just to see the views.

Gorgeous!

My friend Hilla
We ski at the same level, and speed.

Nat from Australia!
Chairlift picture

Beautiful day!

Lunch time anyone?
Yummy Mac & Cheese

We ate up at the top!

Amazing!

Here I am on top of the world. (or so it felt like it)

The group!
Noah who is on the very right is also from VT.

And so after lunch we had about two hours left of skiing and to figure out how to get back to the bus, which none of us realllyy knew how to do.

What we thought was going to be our last run.
Paraglider in the distance!

And so at about 3:30 we decided we should start to head back across the mountain back to the bus. We had to take 2 different lifts to get back and then find the path in hidden in the trees, and unfortunately Hilla, Nat, and I somehow missed the turn and we ended up on the opposite side of the mountain  having to take the same 2 chairs again to get back, at this point it was 3:40 and the lifts stop running at 4... So we hoped on the first lift, confident that we had enough time... THEN it stopped, for 5-10 minutes, and thenn they said something on an intercom (all in german) then we heard snow mobiles, so at this point we were all pretty much freaking out and not having such a good time anymore. Finally the lift starting moving again, at a painfully slow paste. We were able to make it to the next lift intime and we found the rest of the group waiting at the base (some with beers in hand already).

And so I grabbed one of my favorites, and Ottakringer Radler, and hoped on the bus, back to Vienna. After a day of skiing then 3 hours of sitting it is now time to stretch, take a shower, eat some more food, and get ready for school to start tomorrow!

Is anyone tired yet?

Made it to the bus intime! 

Day trip to Bratislava

Today a large group of WU students decided to go to Bratislava today. It was 15 Euro train ticket and you could hop on any train each hour, so why not!

We left at 9:30 and got there at 10:30, and our first stop was a small Cafe for coffee, and cake. (Yes cake for breakfast!)

Cake!

Souvenir? 

Cafe Latte 

After we got some energy, and sugar, we were ready to explore. Frances was a great tour guide for the day (she has already been to Bratislava once). We lost the crowd of people we came with (it is so much easier to travel with fewer people), and we were ready to start the sightseeing.

We just walked around for most of the day, and the weather was absolutely gorgeous sunny and 45 degrees, I actually got to wear my sunglasses for once.

 

Slovakia's "White House"

Just having fun :)

Bratislava has numerous random statues around the City Center, and I loved them all, I tried to get a picture with most of them.

Me and my new boy ;)

Marcus

Me

We found a really cute bear and all wanted a picture of course!

Frances

 We made it to a museum, and took the scary spiral stairs all the way to the top of the tower, the view was breathtaking, and I enjoyed soaking up some Vitamin D. In the distance is the castle the Nazies built, later we walked there. Walking is your form of exercise while studying abroad, and stairs! No need for stair master here.

View from the top of the tower! GORGEOUS! 

 Fast forward in time and here is Frances and I at the castle :)

Frances and I at the Castle

After the castle, we figured it was about lunch time. So we found a traditional Slovenian restaurant on the way down hill from the mountain. We all orded the duck, with cabbage, and potato pancakes, it was by far the best meal I have had while abroad so far! Worth every Euro, and somehow we all managed to finish each and every bite.

The girls and our ducks
This is what happend's when the waiter doesn't speak english,
has no clue how to use your camera, and leaves Marcus
out of the picture... haha sorry

Slovenian Duck, was delicious!

And after late lunch we had more energy and found more statues!

Where we going?

Man hole

It was love at first sight.
We had coffee at the cafe right behind this.

Natalia, and Nat having fun :)

The BLUE Church!

While on the way back to the train station we found the last tourist attraction that we wanted to see which was this one of a kind blue church. The paint on the side was such a unique style and design, and the sun was setting so the church almost blended into the background.

We made it back to the train station with plenty of time to spare, and were even able to grab some Milka bars (which are the best and cheapest chocolate bars from Germany). 

Couldn't have asked for a better day with friends, my feet are a little sollen, and I won't eat again today, the duck was quite filling. 

Tomorrow I go skiing, bus leaves at 7 soo... off to bed! Night

Scavenger Hunt

Yesterday, the orientation program set up a scavenger hunt around vienna for us. We formed our own groups of max 7 people, and wondered around the city, looking for strangers to ask questions to and take our picture. Some random takes including finding the most expensive sacher torte, find out what the cheapest room for the night is at the famous sacher hotel, and don't get lost!

The first task was a Manner eating contest, you had to finish two packages... Ashley volunteered to do this for our group and of course she was up again some hard competition. We unfortunately lost this activity but we had fun doing it.

We had to come up with a creative team name, we had a group of 6 girls and 1 boy. So naturally we focused on that fact. We called ourselves Simon the 8th and his 6 wives. The reference being that Henry the 8th had 6 wives. And so we dressed in traditional Viennese clothing and waltz (sorry don't have those pictures yet).






Then we were off to the streets! We had to hold our team name in EACH picture, and we ALL had to be in the picture, or find a substitute for ourselves. We were given a quiz we worked on while on the Ubahn heading to places, and were able to ask Viennese for help if needed. The more unique, funny, and outrageous the picture the more points we would reserve so we tried to think of original posses at each destination.

How many Schnitzel are eaten to date?
35087... can't read the rest
MIRROR PICTURE!

What is the oldest form of transportation?

Make a picture that best describes your team name
Simon on his thrown

Along the way we had to ask strangers to take our picture, we also had to ask what traditional Viennese expressions, we asked  a really nice women in a park, and learned some funny phrases!

The funniest part of taking these pictures were watching everyone else look at us funny, confused, and most laughed with us.

WU
For those of you who don't know that is the abbreviation for our school here.

Take a picture infront of a traditional cafe.
A for effort?

Take a picture with Mozart.
Kristi was a great conductor :)

Tonight at the awards, and closing presentation we will find out who won, and what the prizes are. Win or Loss it was a great time had by all!