Okay, so I actually feel like I could fill an entire blog entry every single day. I have done so much in the short time I've been here and I am trying to keep track of everything so I can put it down here. But it's hard! Hopefully after this entry I will be all caught up to now.
Monday we were back to our normal class schedule. In class we got to hear an absolutely great talk from Dr. Paul Crabb, director of choral activities at University of Missouri. The reason Wolfgang had him come to our class was to give us a little more insight into what we have been learning about Vienna's influence on music, but he gave us so much more than just that. We got to talk to him about his musical experiences in Vienna and around the world, and he also echoed my feelings on how amazing it is to be in a city that has contributed so much to music in general. I loved hearing from him and just wanted him to keep talking because we learned so much. After class, our class put on a special event! Wolfgang told us at the very beginning of our session when we first got to Vienna that for a couple years now the music class has put on this special even where an Austrian stylist will come and give consultations and haircuts to people who want them in order to make them look more European. Today was the day of our event and it turns out that our stylist was... Wolfgang. Our professor. A 40-year old man who is a professional organist, and it turns out he also loves to cut hair. But that didn't stop a bunch of people getting some good haircuts! Wolfgang loves to make hair short,and I ended up getting one too. Wolfgang advised me that I should cut my hair pretty short, but longer in the front and shorter in the back. So it took a lot of convincing for me but I finally made the decision to cut my hair. Still deciding how I feel about it, and it definitely sounds weird when I say that I got my hair cut by my professor, but it's definitely a good story at least. After the event a group of us went to a park in the Museumquartier and some did homework and others just took a nap in the sun, but it was great to take a break from a busy day. Later, Wolfgang had invited us all over for dinner at his house, because not only is he professional musician and apparently a quality hairstylist, but he's also built a barbeque hut in his backyard. What. But we went over to his house and got to talk to him and his wife and Dr. Crabb as well and it was such a fun dinner and I am glad we got to go. The day wasn't over yet! It was also my friend Meredith's 21st birthday, so we met her and a couple other friends at a bar near Schwedenplatz which was very classy and was really fun. I really like the girls that came out with us and I am so glad I am getting to know them better.
On Tuesday we started out with class, and then for lunch we went to the Austrian version of a Spanish restaurant with an AMAZING salad bar. That a weird thing to be really excited about, but it was so good. Blew me away. After lunch my friends Kelsey, Meredith, and I went to visit a church in the first district because Meredith has to do a write-up on the architecture of a church for her class. I don't know what the church was called, but man was it beautiful. It was originally built along the Danube River so the building is built a little crooked to go along the river. The river doesn't run there anymore but it makes for a really interesting looking church. The artwork inside is also amazing and it really is a spiritual experience to be inside these amazing churches that have existed for hundreds of years that people have worshipped in for so long. After the church, Kelsey, Jessie, and I went to an English movie theater and saw The Third Man, a movie made in the 40s filmed in Vienna. It is in English and about an American man in Vienna, but it was so cool to watch it and be able to recognize places that I have been and experienced for myself. The theater itself also felt like an authentic movie theater from the 40s so it was a really fun movie to see in that environment. After the movie we met back up with some more people and went to a restaurant called Melker Stiftkeller. It is in a cellar that is based on the one at the Melk Abbey in Salzburg (that we're going to see this weekend!) and it was such a cool and cozy place to get dinner. Also, the food was so good! I got roasted pork with a bread cumpling and cabbage salad, and the meat just fell off the bone it was so tender. The bread dumpling was a little weird but tasted really good, and the cabbage was... interesting. But I ate some anyway. during dinner it started raining really hard so we decided to call it a night.
Today our class got to take a trip to Schubert's childhood home. It was especially exciting for me to go there because I had just given a presentation on Schubert's life and music just the day before, so everything was very fresh in my mind. I was seriously losing my mind while we were there because it was mind-boggling to think that he had walked on those floors and lived in these rooms, and they had the original manuscript of several of his works, including his eighth symphony "Unfinished". Unreal. They also had a piano that belonged to his brother that Schubert probably played on, and that was when it got real for me. I was touching the piano that Schubert played and composed on. It is so insane to go to these places, because we don't really have anything like that in the U.S. We also went to the church that he learned organ in and premiered and conducted his first major work, Mass in F. It was such a crazy experience, it's really hard to put into words.
Later on in the afternoon, a group of us went to see the opera. But it wasn't the regular opera. At the Staatsoper (State Opera House) they have a giant screen on the front of the building that broadcasts the operas that are going on inside live. So we got some snacks and drinks and watched the last part of the Ring Cycle by Wagner. It was really fun to be able to watch the opera, but not have the pressure of having to be really careful with what you are doing and you can talk to other people while it's going on. For dinner tonight Jessie and I got to do something that we haven't been able to do before, and that is have dinner with our host family! Barbara and Manfred made us a layered casserole type thing with asparagus, spinach, pasta, salmos, and cheese. I was a little hesitant at first but it ended up being really good. For dessert we had a baked dessert with apples, blueberries, and meringue. It was delicious.
I am exhausted from these past few days, so it is definitely time for bed. Gute nacht!
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