More Vienna!

So here is my attempt to summarize everything up to this point!  Hopefully I'll have something exciting to say for my birthday tomorrow and I won't want to catch up then!

Classes began the day after we got back from our trip. Here's an overview of what I'm taking:

Arts and Cultural Management:  My first entry into a business course!  The professor has been working for Cirque du Soleil for quite some time, so he has some awesome experience to share.  Although the work has been very interesting, it helped me learn that I never really want to do this unless I was only doing educational outreach :-/

Cross-Cultural Psychology: This was my unexpected class of the semester.  I was planning to take The Classical Symphony instead, but something about this course really grabbed my attention.  Not only will it be helpful for my teaching in the future, but it is really interesting to study the interactions I experience every day.

German:  Ja voll!  It's crazy to think how much I've learned in 2 months but how much I still have yet to learn.  It looks like I'll have about the same level as most High Schoolers get by the time I'm done though.  Das macht mir glucklich.

Teaching Internship:  I teach 15-17 year olds English!  Surprise right!  It's really interesting to notice the differences between Austrian and American school systems and teaching English is actually a lot of fun!  I also tutor two 9 year-old girls in English once a week.  Their English is much more limited but they seem to enjoy our time together.

Piano Lessons:  Pretty much same ol', same ol'.  But she's great and definitely helping my playing

Museums and Operas!
I've now been to: Madama Butterfly, Don Giovanni (at the Staatsoper), a ballet at the Staatsoper, and Die Fledermaus at the Volksoper.  Many more to come!

I've also seen the Imperial Crypt of the Habsburgs, and began to Explore the Kunsthistoriches Museum (Art History).

Wachau:

Last weekend I went to the Wachau for the day!  I saw the Melk Monastery (with a beautiful garden) went hiking to castle ruins for lunch, visited a cute town known for Apricots, explored the town of Krems and ended the evening at a Heurigen (wine seller...essentially) for a nice dinner and wine tasting.

Styria:
This past weekend we had an overnight, and I have to say this was one of my favorite places so far.  We first began with an open-air museum (it was COLD) displaying buildings and equipment from farmers all over Austria.  For dinner I had the official Weiner Schnitzel.  It was huge but somehow I managed to finish it.  YUM.  After this we toured the city of Graz, which is pretty cute.  We just barely missed Arnold, apparently he was there the day before for the opening of his museum...?  Dinner was slightly uneventful at the hostel but we ended up finding an Austrian Bachelor Party at an Irish pub later...so that was interesting!

The next day was all about Wine!  Ja voll!  We stopped by our first Heurigen which had a huge vineyard and roasted chestnuts!  I had my first taste and they were quite good.  We then went to a wine festival where I had AMAZING food (fried chicken and potato salad) and the best drink I have ever consumed...Mulled white wine.  AMAZING!!!!  I also had never seen so many people in lederhosen and dirndls!  PS Austrian parades are cute...especially when they march with Wagner tubas.

Well...hopefully this abbreviated blog is satisfactory!  More updates coming soon for the birthday celebration!

Tchuss!