Day trips galore!

This week has been BUSY. Coming back from Budapest, I was exhausted, but had to still get up and do class the next day! On Monday in class we heard from Louise Hodgin-Pickart and her husband. Louise is an American who moved to Vienna in the 70s and has lived here ever since. She and her husband started a charity called Project Centipede after huge disasters happened in Romania. They found out about the terrible conditions that many of the orphanages in Romania were in, so they started collecting supplies to bring to these orphanages. They have now been doing this for over 25 years and supply many schools and orphanages with food and stuffed animals for the kids. It was great to hear their story and what they are doing for all of these kids. they seem to feel that it is more out a sense of duty that they are doing these things than any passion, but I appreciate the fact that they are just doing it. After the speaker we went to a new restaurant, Vapianos, and it was SO GOOD. New favorite restaurant. It has Italian food and has a really interesting system that they use, sort of like a cafeteria, but with food quality that is a billion times better than a cafeteria. It was amazing.
On Tuesday our class got to talk to Elizabeth Mattfeld who works for the United Nations here in Vienna. Originally from the U.S., she's only been here two years, but from her story she really seems to enjoy trying new things and going on new adventures, and this is just another one of her adventures in her life. She has worked in so many different fields but it was very obvious that she is quite passionate about helping people which is her main goal. For a while now she has worked in drug prevention and treatment but that has taken her many different places. Currently she is working for the treatment and prevention of drugs among children, and this has taken her all over the world but especially in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It was very refreshing to hear from someone who describes herself as someone who is "still trying to find my path", because it let me know that it's okay to not have everything figured out right now.
That night, all of us were invited to an opening at an art gallery! The Austro-American Institute where we take classes is also an art gallery, and Tuesday was the opening for an exhibit. I felt so classy going there, everyone was dressed up and there was free food and drinks and we got to meet the artists of the work that was being showcased. It also wasn't just students who were there, there were many many people there because this opening was a big deal. I absolutely loved it and I wish I could have gone to more events like this. I felt so European! Afterwards a few of us went out to go to some bars. We started at Flanagans, where the girls convinced me to try Strongbow, which is a hard cider, and I actually enjoyed it! After Flanagans we wanted to go to Blue Bar but had a lot of trouble finding it until some very nice passerbys pointed us in the right direction. At Blue Bar we ended up talking to some Austrian guys who were very nice and we ended up having some very intellectual conversations with them. It turned out to be a really fun night!
On Wednesday, we finished our unit on the book This I Believed and turned in our own This I Believe essays, and now are moving on to a book of letters and essays by Dietrich Bonhoeffer that he wrote while he was in prison. Bonhoeffer was a German theologian who worked actively against the Nazi regime and was imprisoned and eventually killed because of his protests. We spent the class period being introduced to his life and watching a documentary about him. We didn't have much free time after class though because we were going straight to Bratislava for the day! Bratislava is less than 45 minutes away from Vienna, so it didn't take long to get there. We started out doing a tour of different parts of the city first by bus and then walking. We went up to the Bratislava castle and the Parliament which had great views of the city.

 Bratislava castle and the flags of the Parliament

After that we walked around the Old Town and the main shopping area and had about 45 minutes for free time. Jessie and I got gelato and got some souvenoirs, and then we had to leave right away to go to dinner. We had dinner at the Sheraton hotel which was delicious.

 Mozart played here!

 Liszt lived here!

 Town Hall

We had to have dinner early because we were going to the ballet at the State Opera that night, so we had dinner at 5 and then at 6:15 we had to leave for the ballet. We saw La Sylphide, which is a ballet that takes places in Scotland and is pretty complicated so look it up if you want to know what it is about. It was a very short ballet however, so even with a 25 minute intermission it was over at 8:30. We headed back home after that, but I was sad we couldn't have more time there because Bratislava really is such a cool city.

Jessie and I at the ballet

Thursday was another busy day because we didn't have class in Vienna, but in Baden which is about 50 minutes south of Vienna. We went there to meet with Colonel Roland Werba who is a big friend of Doc's and of the Institute. I've talked to him before at the Institute but didn't know who he was, and it was very fun to get to meet with him in his hometown. He was more focused on showing us Baden and the beautiful parts of the town, but we also heard about his life as well. He is a native of Baden but lived in the U.S. for several years during the Vietnam war to train pilots in the Air Force and he absolutely loves Americans and the States. Baden was also such a beautiful place and it was really nice to be in a small town after being in big cities for such a long time. The buildings were beautiful and Roland took us to many parks and gardens that were just amazing.

 Beethoven lived in Baden while composing his 9th and final symphony

 A clock made out of flowers!

 Statue of Johann Strauss and Josef Lanner

 View from hill in a park of Baden

Building in the Rose Garden

After Roland showed us around, many of my classmates wanted to go to the public baths to swim since it was such a nice day. I wasn't really in the mood however, so myself and new friend Becca went to sit at a cafe while the rest went to the baths. We planned to meet up in 2 hours to take the train back to Vienna, and we just sat at the cafe and talked for those two hours. Becca got an "Eiskaffe" which is cold coffee with scoops of ice cream in it and whipped cream on top and is a very famous drink/dessert around Vienna (I'm actually drinking one right now!). I got a "Flipper" which is orange juice with scoops of ice cream in it, whipped cream on top, and cherry sauce on top of that. It was so so good and such a good way to spend the afternoon just talking and having some great desserts.

We didn't get back to Vienna until dinnertime, so a bunch of us went to Kolar for dinner. Kolar serves pita sandwiches and I got one with cheese, tomato, and garlic curd. DELICIOUS. It was also Vienna Fashion Night, so everywhere you went you saw very fashionable people drinking fancy drinks and parades and everything and we definitely did not feel like we fit in. But after dinner myself, Jessie, Becca, Andrew, and Kelsey M went to a hookah bar that Jessie suggested. At first we weren't allowed in because Kelsey was wearing basketball shorts and a t-shirt, so we went around a corner and Kelsey changed in doorway while the rest of us stood guard in front of her. It was so sketchy but kind of funny too. We went back to the bar, and I hadn't really had hookah before and don't plan on doing it again, but it was an interesting experience and I didn't hate it! It was actually pretty fun to hang out with these people and get to know them even better.

On Friday in class we had one of the most interesting speakers we've had so far. Michael Busboom is an American citizen who has lived in Austria since the 80s and is completely blind. He was only partially blind until a few years ago, but has been struggling with sight all his life. He has had difficult experiences with people treating him badly in both the States and in Austria, but absolutely loves Austria and is now married to an Austrian woman and has three kids. He also has a very deep faith and love for God, which is amazing with all he has been through and experienced. It was so inspiring to listen to him speak and I am so thankful that I could. We had a free afternoon since we weren't leaving for our weekend trip until Saturday morning, so Jessie and I had a relaxing afternoon and then went to the English movie theater to see the Great Gatsby. We were worried at first that it actually wouldn't be in English because the previews before the movie started were in German. We thought we had brought the wrong ticket, but the woman next to us said that the previews are always in German first but the movies are in English. She was right and I ended up really liking the movie. I haven't read the book in a while though, so there were many things that I had forgotten that surprised me.

If you've managed to read this whole blog entry, CONGRATULATIONS. This was a long one. I've gotten worse and worse at updating regularly, but there's only about a week left, so not many more entries to go! Next up, blog about my hiking trip to the Alps. Until then, tschuss!