I love meeting new people

When I spent a weekend in Prague, I stayed at one of the coolest hostels ever: The Art Hole Hostel. It was a really homey environment and I met some awesome people there. One of them ended up spending the entire day on Sunday with me and Rachael as we explore more of Prague, including the Prague Castle and the John Lennon Wall (Yes, I realize I still have not written my complete adventure in Prague OR Venice...sorry, I'm sucking at doing all those long posts right meow). At the end of the day, we had to catch our bus back to Vienna and say bye to our new friend. However, we exchanged information and added each other on facebook.
This week, that friend was in Vienna! She was only here for two days, so we didn't have much time together. But we were able to hang out today in between my classes and I really enjoyed being able to show someone around Vienna - even though it was only for such a short time!
I think it's amazing how we can keep in contact with so many people via the internet, it really is an amazing thing. I love meeting fellow travelers and hearing their experiences and stories and how they ended up where they currently are. Talking to all of these people is helping me to form my own plan for my post-college travels. It's also really cool to think that I can have someone to hang out with when going to random cities throughout the world.
My next trip is to Krakow in December and I am determined to meet more people and make friends. This is what I've wanted to do while traveling: meet people from all over the world. I've had conversations with plenty of people, but I should actually exchange information with more of them!

Anyway, end random post here.
Bye!

Study Abroad Classes

I don't know if I ever told you all what classes I'm taking with my study abroad program, but I guess I should now that I'm about to write a post about what I've been doing in these classes over the past 3 months - particularly this past week...even though it's only Wednesday.

So, the semester started with a 3-week period of "Intensive German" classes and, let me tell you, they were definitely intense. Three hours of German, five days a week, for three weeks...yea. Intense. But, apparently that was like learning an entire semester of German in three weeks. It paid off pretty well. I mean, I went into this program knowing probably 5 words of German and now I can understand a decent amount!

After Intensive, we had a 10-day break during which I went to Greece. Then, we started the regular semester. My class schedule consists of the following:
Arts, Culture, and Entertainment Management
International Organizations: Case Studies
Music Survey: Classical to the 20th Century
Transition to a Market Economy
Elementary German

Now, studying abroad has allowed me to experience a different classroom setting. Not only are the classes themselves pretty different from the ones I take at Puget Sound, but our professors also give us opportunities to participate in excursions to different places throughout Vienna. Not to mention the fact that the Institute pays for all of these excursions.
During intensive, my German class spent one day at the Palmenhaus Café. Here, we had to order our food and drink in German and interact with the Herr Ober only speaking in German. It was fun and the food was delicious!
Our next German assignment was to go to the Naschmarkt and order food for our class picnic (my partner and I had to get falafels) in German!
Since then, we haven't done anymore German class excursions (oh, well there was one to the Naturhistorisches Museum that I missed to go to Budapest) BUT we are planning a visit to my professor's house to eat foooodd! I'm so excited.

My other classes have finally started to have excursions, too. Actually, one of them had one a few weeks ago...or maybe a month ago? Well, it was my Arts Management class and it was about coffee culture in Vienna. We started out at the McCafé right by the Institute. Now, I know you may be thinking "Really? McDonald's? That's where you started an excursion?" Well, first let me tell you why this was cool: I got a free cappuccino...Okay, but really, I kind of understand why my professor decided to start here. Vienna has such a strong coffee culture and it's something that they're proud of. Going into any café in Vienna is a pretty different experience from going into a café in the United States and it's interesting to see how McDonald's was able to successfully enter the coffee market in a competitive way. Also, the McDonald's here are a million times nicer than the ones in the United States. Leather seats? Okay, maybe it's fake leather, but still! It is so much cleaner and everything just seems to be of a higher standard. Anyway, back to the excursion...after McCafé, we headed to the Nespresso store in the first district and met with the manager and talked about their success in the Austrian market. It was pretty interesting and I got to taste some coffee FOR FREE. Yes, this was a very happy day for me. Two free coffees in one day? Yes puhhhlease.
This same class has also been on two other excursions within the past 3 days. Monday morning, we met at the Dorotheum. Two representatives gave us a quick tour and an overview of what the Dorotheum is and how they operate. It was pretty cool to be able to see their amazing collections or art, design, jewelry, etc. and now I know that the auctions are public! I might try to go to one next week, which is there auction week. They have a painting that's estimated to sell at anywhere from €600,000 to €800,000. Yea, insane.

Today, we met at the Albertina and were given a private tour before the museum opened! We learned a lot about the logistics behind running the museum and it's general operations. Who would have known that anyone can hold a private event in one of those beautiful rooms? Birthdays? Weddings? Parties? Yes. It'll just cost you about €2,000 (depending on the size) and then a few more Euro for the catering...no big deal. Then, we were all given the option to go through the entire museum for free! Unfortunately, I had another class excursion to attend, so I couldn't take advantage of that perk. However, I have been to the Albertina before on the Lange Nacht der Museen, so I'm not too upset about not seeing more of it today.

What was this other excursion, you ask? It was with my International Organizations class to the United Nations Regional Headquarters! Vienna is one of four cities in the world that is home to UN Regional Headquarters. The other three are New York, Geneva, and Nairobi. Here, we got a free tour of the UN, including seeing a conference room in which a conference was actually taking place at the time, and learned a lot of interesting information about the UN (most of it had already been covered in my class, but it was still cool!). I think the UN is amazing. I'm so glad I'm in this class, because I feel like I'm learning so much about all these IGOs and NGOs that I literally knew nothing about beforehand. I'm starting to realize how interconnected and complicated everything is in this world and it blows my mind. The history of the UN is so interesting and learning about all these other international organizations (IAEA, UNESCO, WHO, ECOSOC, etc.) is very cool. This class makes me want to know more about what's going on in our world. It makes me want to stay up to date on as many things I possibly can and it has made me truly realize how everchanging the world really is. I mean, of course it is, right? I just never stay up to date on all of it. I feel like it's really easy to get stuck in a bubble when I'm at Puget Sound. It's a tiny little university in the suburbs of Tacoma, WA and I run around like a crazy person so much that I rarely take the time to update myself on international events, let alone domestic ones...Bottom line: the UN is awesome and I'd love to learn more about it. I even looked into volunteering abroad with them recently. Too bad you have to be 25 and a college graduate! UGH. Why can't I just do it now? Or right after I graduate? Why do I have to wait until I'm 25? Lamesauce. Oh well, I guess if I don't have my life figured out by 25 (which I most likely will not), I will definitely apply to be a UN Volunteer.

Today, I finished my day with my normal 3-hour long class - Transition to Market Economies - and it was the first time I stepped foot inside the Institute all day, despite having spent my entire morning in "class." Oh, and after class, a few of us went to a Christkindlmarkt in the first district! It was my first one and it was a pretty small one. This weekend, the Schönbrunn one opens and I am SO EXCITED. Next week, my music class is going to the Haydnhaus and I have a few more excurions coming up with my Arts Management class. Yea, I think I'm diggin this whole study abroad experience.

Also, this is what the streets in the first district currently look like:

 Be jealous.

Bitte, nein. Ich möchte nicht krank sein, danke.

I woke up this morning with a bit of a scratchy throat and it hasn’t been getting any better. Damn it, and here I thought I was about to get through an entire semester without getting a cold. Nope, my body has once again decided to be stupid and my immune system has failed me. Considering the Austrians are so strict about what kind of medicines you can buy at the stores (you even need a prescription for ibuprofen), I don’t know what I’ll end up taking…although, a friend of mine did tell me about a homemade concoction that her mom used to make for her when she was little and sick:
Hot white wine with sugar
I wonder if that actually works…I guess I’ll have to go buy some wine tomorrow and find out! Send me good vibes, please. Getting sick is that last thing I need right meow.
Also, sorry I've been so horrible at updating this thing with my past few trips...Venice and Prague updates should be coming soon! Maybe that's what I'll do if I end up getting sick and spending my days in bed...

Oh, and tomorrow I am going to my very first CHRISTMAS MARKET! Get excited for some pictures.

I just have one more thing to say

I'm going to Prague tomorrow and I am SO EXCITED.
I have friends who studied abroad there two years ago and they've told me about a million things to do and see. This weekend will be exhaustingly epic.

Food blogs will save my life

Learning to live on your own can be a rocky process. When we move away for college, we're still ridiculously spoiled by our schools: we don't need to clean bathrooms, we don't need to cook due to the dining halls(s), we don't need to make our own coffee (unless you work at the school's café *ahem*), and we're conveniently located within a 5-10 minute walk to any and all of our classes, meetings, shifts at work, etc. Now that I'm living in Vienna, most of these amenities are no longer available...actually, none of them are. Yea, I lived in my own house this summer, but I still worked on campus and ate at least one, if not two, meal on campus (although, I did have to make my own coffee...but I love doing that, so it's okay) everyday. So, I was still a little spoiled. One of the biggest challenges of living on my own has been food. What the hell am I supposed to eat? Especially when I am on a very very tight budget. I fell into a meal routine very early on in the semester, which included the following:

Breakfast: Yogurt with Müsli, fruit (a banana or apple), and honey and a cup of coffee.

Lunch: a sandwich with salami, spinach, tomato, cheese, mustard, cucumber, and sometimes onion and/or mushrooms. Usually I also had some sort of small snack with lunch - pretzel sticks, chips, a piece of fruit, a fruit bar, or Manner.

Dinner: Pasta, sometimes with chicken, and a salad.

Yea, it's not that exciting. I mean, the breakfast is fine. I'm not a huge breakfast person to begin with and I actually really like having that everyday. The lunch is whatever, I'm definitely getting bored with it, but I just don't know what else to make that's easy enough to pack up with me and take to school. But now, dinner. Dinner got old pretty fast. Pasta. Everyday. Pasta. Sure, I made roasted chicken breast with potatoes once, and then I made some chicken broth with those leftovers, which then led to a soup. I guess the one good thing about the pasta was that I always made my own sauces, so it tasted a little different each time and I've definitely saved money that way. But uhh I'm still bored with the staples of pasta, chicken, and salad. So, it has finally come to the point where I'm seriously ready to change it up.
This is where the food blogs come in. I've followed a few of these blogs for a while, but always just made bookmarks of the recipes I liked and never really made them...except for a couple this summer. But now I want to change that. For example, tonight I just made this little number.

Granted, I didn't have all of the ingredients, but I just made substitutions and altered it a little bit and it came out tasting completely DELICIOUS. It's a nice change from the same old pasta, that's for sure. Also, last night I made fajitas! That recipe wasn't from a food blog, but was one that my father had sent me. They turned out great and now i have dinner for 2 more nights! This idea emerged from the fact that I had found that Mexican market in Vienna last week. I went back yesterday afternoon to buy tortillas and salsa and then came home, made the fajitas, and went to bed with a very happy and full stomach :]. Up next, I'm ready to make a quesadilla for lunch tomorrow! I'm ready to try some of these other delicious-looking recipes that keep popping up on my blog homepage very soon. Yea, I'm finally (albeit, slowly) climbing out of this boring food routine.




YAY FOOD!

Music, Music, and Music

Coming to Vienna, I knew I was entering a city completely enveloped in a passion for music. Everyone, everyone told me that seeing an opera is an absolute must. So, I came here and had one mission: see operas. Now, almost 3 months into my program (eek!), I have seen 5 operas. What I realized from all of this: I really did not know that much about opera at all. Like...nothing. I knew a few of the big ones, but didn't exactly know all of the storylines. I felt especially foolish when I went to an opera and realized that I had sung an aria from it...once the performer was a few lines in. My reaction: "Wait, what? That song was from this opera?! Now I feel dumb for not even knowing the context behind it...I probably could have performed it better had I known this opera."
So what operas have I seen?
Don Giovanni - the sets were too simplistic for my taste, but who couldn't enjoy Don Giovanni?
Alcina - absolutely amazing, I loved everything about it. The staging was beautiful and the costumes were fantastic. (This is also the opera from which said aria is)
Madame Butterfly - meh. I really wanted to like it, but the performance was horrible. Although the staging and costuming were very very engaging.
Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute; I always want to say it in German for some reason) - Holy crap, I LOVED this. Absolutely amazing in every way it could possibly be. The costumes were gorgeous and elaborate, the performers had strong voices and perfect execution, the set was breathtaking. I just don't have anything else to say other than how righteous it was.
Carmen - My first opera at die Volksoper (everything else was at die Staatsoper). It was a different experience in a very good way. I loved the sets; the costumes (especially for Carmen, herself) were beautiful. I am very glad that I had the opportunity to see an opera here.

But don't worry, if opera isn't really your cup of tea (because it definitely isn't everyone's favorite thing to listen to), there is more to the Viennese music scene than opera and orchestras. Since I've been here, I have been able to see three other musical performances. The first, an open-mic night at a small club in the first district. A student on my program signed up for the open-mic and a bunch of us showed up to support. It wasn't anything fancy, but it was a cool way to experience a different genre of music in Vienna. Then, another small club that hosted IES for a "party" at which a student band performed. To say the least, they were great. They are all extremely talented and I loved being able to see my peers perform at a club in Vienna. And the third one, a soul/funk/jazz show at the same small club. All the performers were originally from the United States and have been living in Vienna for who knows how long, playing gigs whenever they can. This was a great night. We met the musicians, talked to them about studying and living in Vienna, living in the United States, and plans for the future. They played some very danceable music and we all had an amazing time. I got to meet some other really cool people and talk to them about their traveling experiences. This is the kind of scene that I really love. Yes, I love the opera and going to symphonies. But what I truly love are these small venues/clubs that cater to the locals, the common people, the people who love all kinds of music. I love being in social environments that allow me to meet new people and experience new things and talk to people about their crazy experiences.
My next goal: go to a few jazz performances. There's a jazz and blues festival-type thing going on this month in Wien and I definitely want to hit up some of the (free!) shows.
This is what I miss when I'm at school - the events that large cities offer. There is actually something cool going on all the time here and I feel like I'm missing out on so many of them! Oh well, I'll be happy as long as I make it to at least a few along the way.

In other news, Gustavo Dudamel is coming to the Musikverein to conduct the Wiener Philharmoniker (Vienna Philharmonic) and I AM going. I love him. I need to figure out this ticket situation pronto.

Now, I'm off to do that unwanted homework...goodnight!

Día de los Muertos pictures

Pan dulce conchas!

Their WALL of tequila

Papel Picado and piñatas

Salsa verde y pollo tamal

Tequila glasses

Día de los Muertos in Wien - who would have thunk?

Although it was nowhere close to being as awesome as the celebrations back home (in Los Angeles), celebrating Día de los Muertos in Vienna was still fun. I got to discover the Hispanic part of Vienna, found an awesome store that sells Mexican products (jewelry, calaveras, tiles, decorations, etc.), and found a Mexican market that sells EVERYTHING I could ever want to make some awesome Mexican food - tortillas and salsa verde and everything!! I’m super stoked and I may have to go back and splurge on some groceries there. This is also the place in which the celebrations ensued.

I had two tamales: one salsa verde con pollo and one mole con pollo. I had a cup of champurrado that was DELICIOUS. I ate pan dulce: a chocolate concha, one of my faves. I drank a dos equis and I got to enjoy 4 free shots of some ridiculously good tequila. I was able to introduce some of my friends to this awesome celebration and they loved it. They were so stoked for the food and asked me questions about all of it and about the holiday, itself. I got to hang out with some cool people, eat amazing food, and drink some great drinks. It was also nice to spend an evening surrounded by people speaking Spanish. I got to use some of my Spanish-speaking skills, too, but found that I kept mixing it with German! Therefore, I’ve created a new language: Deutisch (Deutsch plus Spanisch). Yea, I’m just mixing up all sorts of languages now.

One thing that blew my mind was how many languages the owner of the market spoke. German, Spanish, English, and I definitely heard a few French phrases come out of this mouth. It was amazing - especially how quickly he could switch between all of them!

I’d say I’ve had my fix of Mexican culture for the time being. But, who knows, maybe I’ll partake in more celebrations tomorrow! There is at least one thing going on tomorrow evening that I know of. I guess it pays off to email the Mexican Embassy in Vienna after not being able to find any Día de los Muertos events myself. I’m loving how my day turned out. I'll post pictures of tonight soon! :]

Felíz el Día de los Muertos <3

I can't believe it's November

How is that possible? I've been gone for 11 weeks and have 8 more weeks to spend abroad. This is insanity...in approximately 7 months I will be done with my junior year and will be preparing for my last year as a student. I can't believe it. How is this possible?

Mostly Pest, but some Buda, too.

This post is a little overdue - but aren't all of my entries? On October 14th, three friends of mine and I went to Budapest, Hungary (after all that drama that I wrote about in a previous post). Our train left at 8:04 am and we were there by noon. We headed straight for our hostel and found it fairly easily. Walking down the street, all the buildings looked really cute, except for one. Belle even commented on how ghetto it looked. Well, it turns out that was the building that our hostel was in. Swell. We walked into this apartment building and walked to the top floor, where the actual hostel was. The building was actually kind of pretty, once you got past how run-down it looked, and the ground floor was definitely the worst part of the building. Once we got to the 3rd floor (European), it was kind of pretty, especially with the sun coming into the courtyard. It's a hostel run by a father and his son and it was actually really cute. Everything was from Ikea...but actually. The sheets, the shower curtains, the window curtains, and I'm pretty sure even the beds were. It was great. The father and son helped us to get a little more situated in the city and gave us all maps and pointed out a few places for us.

After dropping off all our bags and having a few minutes of relaxation, we leave to find the House of Terror - a museum about the communist (Soviet) and fascist (Nazi) regimes in Hungary. The museum was put together really nicely and was just beautiful. I only wish I could have understood more of it, since most of it was in Hungarian. But they did have English information sheets in each room explaining some of the historical context and meaning behind part of the exhibit. I still have a stack of those to read through - I'm just very interested in their history. I feel like Hungary has had an insane history and is a country that has been constantly rocked with political and social turmoil. Even without having understood everything, this museum was able to evoke a sympathetic response from me. You can still tell that Hungary hasn't completely recovered from the Soviet regime. The city looks run down and definitely has a more impoverished feeling than other European cities (such as Vienna).
After spending a little over an hour in the museum, we started to walk to the City Park. On our way to the park, we walked by a bakery that had cupcakes in the window! If you know me, you know about my love for cupcakes. So, naturally I got super excited because I haven't had a cupcake since I've been in Europe! However, this turned out to be false advertisement and they didn't actually have cupcakes there :[ But some of us did end up getting something sweet to eat. I had a massive cream puff while Rachael and Kelly ate some sort of Hungarian pudding thing...I forget what was in it, exactly.

At the entrance to City Park is a huge monument called Heroes' Square. To each side of the monument is the Museum of Fine Arts and the Palace of Art. This monument was beautiful, along with the rest of the park. We walked around and explored the grounds of Vajdahunyad Castle, which included a church and an agriculture museum. We then walked further into the park and stumbled upon a very large building that kind of reminded me of Schönbrunn because of its bright yellow color. It turns out this building houses one of the many Hungarian baths and spas! We looked at prices and decided that was the one we would go to on Sunday afternoon, Széchenyi Bath and Spa.

We left the park and walked to a restaurant that our hostel recommended. Unfortunately, it was closed when we got there at 5pm. We guessed that it might reopen at 6pm for dinner, but since we had a ballet to go to at 7pm, we had to find somewhere else to eat - soon. We walked toward the opera house, found a street lined with restaurants and cafés and decided on a place to eat. I ordered a soup that was not what I was expecting, but oh well. Everyone else had some great food. Also, just in case you ever go to Budapest: they DO have a service charge. Vienna doesn't have tax or anything like that, but Budapest does. So that was a fun discovery...After eating, we went to the opera house and found our seats...or so we thought. For some reason, there are two rows that are called "row 2" in the balcony and BOTH of them had the seat numbers that were on our tickets. So we were confused and just chose the ones that had a better view. It seemed that we were in the clear, until the lights started to dim and we actually got kicked out of our seats by some people who apparently had tickets for those seats...after an awkward first act of the ballet, we found empty seats during intermission that had better views and sat there for the remainder of the ballet. The opera house was beautiful and the dancers were amazing. None of us completely understood the storyline for the ballet, but it was still cool! We all headed back to the hostel after a long day of traveling and walking around Pest.

The next morning, we all got to sleep in a little bit and ate some food provided by our hostel's kitchen...aka a couple of eggs and some bread. Whatevs, FREE FOOD. While walking around the city, we found some Hungarian markets that were filled with booths selling bread, cheese, yogurt, sweets, toys, clothes, etc etc. I bought this bread roll thing that was quite delicious and snacked on it for the rest of the afternoon. We made it to St. Stephen's Basilica and went inside. It was so elaborately decorated with gold leaf everywhere, an amazing organ, and a smaller chapel attached on the side.

Our next stop: Parliament. Parliament is located right on the Danube and looks beautiful from across the river, especially when it is lit up at night.

Then, we walked along the Danube, past Parliament and across Margaret Bridge. Half way across the bridge, it splits off and connects to Margaret Island. We took that detour and walked around the island for a little bit. The island is basically just a huge park in the middle of the Danube. There were a bunch of sports activities going on when we were there and we saw several soccer fields set up in the outdoor sports center. There was also a huge fountain that shot up water so high that we could see it from the bridge, before we even got to the island. We stopped to eat some food at a booth on the island - including the first hamburger I've had since high school..yea, weird. The man also seemed very surprised that I wanted onions on my burger. He didn't speak English, but it seemed like he was trying to tell me that they'll make my breath smell bad. When I said I still wanted them, he just kind of smiled and said "okay.." Awkward.

Finally, we walked across the bridge to Buda and were on our way to Castle Hill. Here, we saw the Mary Magdalene Tower, Matthais Church, found some more markets and touristy booths, and saw some awesome views from a lookout terrace in Castle Hill. Then, we walked to Buda Castle, ate a delicious Hungarian desert that's basically fried dough covered in cinnamon sugar. DELICIOUS. Here, we also went to a wine museum followed by a wine tasting. It was my first official wine tasting and I absolutely loved it. Hungary has some delicious-tasting wine and it was a perfect way to spend our evening.

Afterward, we got to walk around the castle at night and it was completely gorgeous. We walked down the hill, took tons of pictures, and crossed Chain Bridge back into Pest. We also stopped at the Four Seasons, which was right at the end of Chain Bridge, and used their fancy bathroom. That hotel was definitely the nicest hotel I've ever seen. The city actually looks really nice at night. On our way back to our hostel, we grabbed some cheap dinner and stopped in a bar to sit and hang out for a while after our long day of walking around everywhere.
The next morning, we packed all our backpacks and saw a few last minute things, including a synagogue in the Jewish district. We passed the same markets we had found on Friday and walked further to find a square. Here, we walked around a little bit and then sat down and drank cappuccinos and ate sandwiches at a great café that I never wanted to leave. All I want in life is to sit with friends in a café, drinking good coffee, eating good food, and having great conversations that make me laugh and love life. Is that too much to ask for? Apparently it is.
Then, it was time for the baths and spa. We spent several hours just hanging out in all the pools and steam rooms. The best part was outside. The pools were gorgeous and filled with people from all over the world - locals and tourists. We also had perfect weather. It was sunny, but still cool outside; cool enough for the pools to be a great blanket of warmth, but still sunny enough so that our heads weren't cold. After getting adequately pruney, it was time to leave so we could catch our train.
We thought we had given ourselves plenty of time, but the walk ended up being more of a trek than we had expected and we had to rush around quite a bit. But we were able to grab some food before boarding the train, found seats, and relaxed on our way back to Vienna. Budapest: check.
Here are some more pictures for you to look at, just in case you haven't seen them already:

Széchenyi Baths and Spa

Smoked Mozarella at the markets!

The delicious desert that I don't know the name of

Parliament from the Buda side

Parliament and Chain Bridge at night

Chain Bridge

Forint!

I spent this past weekend in Venice and LOVED it! Hopefully I'll write make that post fairly soon...but you know me.