Mariazell, Dürergasse 1812, German intensive, Audition marathons, Lazy Sunday and the Gaysian district

Alright, get ready cause this is gonna be a long entry. I haven't updated in a week, things have just been out of control busy so I'll start where I left off.


Donnerstag 19 August: Today the program started and we all met each other and got on a bus to the Alps to this little town called Mariazell. We didn't do a whole lot today except for have a bunch of meetings, but the Alps are absolutely gorgeous and apparently we are just in the foothills! My roommates at the hostel are Claire, Emily, Claire and we're waiting on one more girl. Her name is Caire. hahaha.

On the bus ride to Mariazell. It kind of looks like driving through parts of Colorado that have plains, but you can still see the mountains!

The view from my hostel window.

The Basilica in Mariazell.

Freitag 20 August: Today was kind of the same in the morning, more meetings and then we had to take a German placement test. In the afternoon we went into the town of Mariazell. We went to see the Basilica, but we didn't get to see a lot of the inside because there was a funeral going on. But here's the website of the basilica, I think you can look up what it looks like on the inside on the site. http://www.basilika-mariazell.at/content/site/index.html

The creepy skeleton room, you can't see very well, but you can kind of see the skulls behind the bars.

The candle room, a photo could not capture this room.

We had a lady with us who was telling us all about the basilica and everything around it. We went to this one building and I'm so mad I can't remember what it's called, but its purpose is that when a family dies out in a cemetery, they will dig up the bodies and put the remains in this underground room to make more room in the cemetery for others. Then we went into this room where you light candles for loved ones deceased. I really wanted to light a candle for aunt Toots since she liked to travel so much, but we were kind of in and out of there so fast I didn't have time. That room was so hot, you could feel the heat in the doorway and once you went in you were just sweating from all the candles! Mariazell is known for gingerbread and herbals schnapps. Needless to say we felt that we had to try both. One of the program coordinators took Emily and Marisa and me to get schnapps and bought us a round. Then we went and got some gingerbread. The whole town looks like Disneyland and smells like gingerbread!

Disneyland right?

The shot of schnapps. Yes it's very green.

Gingerbread. Für Dich! (For you)

Yes, they're everywhere! I found more.

The door of the church we hiked to.

Samstag 21 August: Last night my roommates were all screaming and drunk and slamming doors and fighting. At four in the morning. So I'm pretty tired today... We had our german interviews for placement and I think mine went pretty well. Emily and I went on a little hike up to a church near the hostel.

Just some flowers that were pretty.

The church and Emily.

A giant slug we saw, yikes...

The cute town of Mariazell.

A little farm near the lake.

The lake.

Meg and Emily on the walk around the lake.

After that we had more meetings and stuff, then we went to the lake. We went on this really long walk around the lake and then we sat at the beach and had a cola and Sacher Torte, which is a chocolate cake with apricot marmelade and chocolate ganache on the top. It took forever for us to order because people in Austria do not believe in lines and just kind of shove until they are at the front. It's very weird, but I guess I'll just be very rude by the time I get home, haha.





































































Sonntag 22 August: Today we left Marizell and are finally going into Vienna to get to our apartment! YES! It was a long day of traveling on the bus, then trying to hail down a cab, explain in German where we were trying to get to and then hauling our stuff upstairs. Our apartment is amazing! We have to climb 95 steps to get to our apartment, but it's ok. We live in the sixth district and some people live in the 19 district, so we're pretty lucky. We can walk to school in 25 minutes or take the Ubahn one stop and walk about ten minutes. I will take more pictures of the apartment later, we've all been doing major laundry lately so the apartment is covered in clothes and not very good to take pictures of.

Our apartment is the building that is grey and pink!

The stairs... agh.

Montag 23 August: Today German intensive starts, I'm in Intermediate 1 a. So I have class from 9-11:45. It's long... Everyone from our building went together to the police station to deliver our residency forms and then we walked around the town together. We saw a lot and then we had to go to school and go to a few more meetings. At night everyone from our building went out together to get a drink. At the bar there was a girl having a birthday party and the "theme" was a fake wedding... She was dressed like a bride and she threw a bouquet and everything, it was kind of funny.

Dienstag 24 August: Pretty much the same story, German class, practice, homework. That's it. I finally made it to the grocery store so now I have food, so that's good.

Mittwoch 25 August: Today auditions for the performance workshop started. It's really weird because we have to watch everyone audition... The auditions last two and a half hours... I was pretty impressed by everyone though. I audition Friday. After the auditions a bunch of us got dinner and went to the Rathaus. At night they have a giant screen and play recordings of operas. Tonight was Hansel and Gretel. The production itself was pretty weird, but the music is really cool, I liked it a lot.

Donnerstag 26 August: More German, more practicing, more auditions. We have a quiz everyday in my German class and tomorrow we have to present a dialogue to the class and memorize it... One class is like what a week of class was like at DU. We went to the Rathaus again and saw a recording of the Vienna Phil, the program was awesome, it was Beethoven 7, Ravel Daphnis and Chloe and then Debussy Nocturnes.

Freitag 27 August: Today my German class went to the Palmenhaus, which is this cafe that's in a giant greenhouse. It was so great. The institute bought us each a drink (I got Heiße Schokolade mit Schlagobers-hot chocolate with whipped cream, I didn't want to have caffeine before my audition. And eine Palmenhaus Torte, their house cake, which was white cake and some sort of white chocolate mouse with raspberry marmelade and marzipan coating) It was so good!

Me at the Palmenhaus eating my Torte!

Then I basically just got ready for my audition. The rehearsal with the pianist went so well, but at the actual audition she went so fast!!! I kept up, but it was scary. The violin lady on the panel kept asking everyone for pieces that weren't on the requirements so that was a little unnerving and annoying, but I think we all made it through unscathed. At  night we went to the Museum Quarter to try to see what was going on there, then we spent forever trying to find our friend Zan, it is so hard to try to find people if you don't really know where you are! We then went to meet our roommates and the gay bar near our apartment (apparently we live in the gay district) and when we went inside, everyone had their shirts off! It was really overwhelming, so we left after a minute. We tried other bars, one had only men in it... strange... then one was a dance club and had a bouncer. We finally ended up at this funny greek restaurant so we just got a drink there and went home. Kind of a fail of an evening.

The inside of the used music store. It was pretty cool, they had lutes...

People shopping at the flea market.

That's us at the Swiss restaurant.

We finished our beer and pretzels.

Here's the Amelie ride, just like the movie right?

The inside of the ride, hahaha scary!!!

The ring toss game... creepy...

Samstag 28 August: Today we all took it kind of easy in the morning, Emily and Zan and I went out to look for a used guitar for Emily and found this used music store. She found one, then we went to an Asian market so we could get some asian food! (Apparently we also live in the asian district, I like to call it the Gaysian district) Saturday is the flea market at the Naschmarkt so we walked around there for a bit and got turkey kebap sandwhiches for lunch, which were awesome! Then I took a nap. We've just been going and going this whole week! Oh ya, I forgot to mention that I got an acceptance email into the music workshop so that was good. After my nap I went to buy an umbrella (which I proceeded to lose later in the day) and get my viola from the IES center, since it's closed on Sundays. When I got back some people from our building went to this amusement park, which was so much fun! You have to pay for each ride individually, so I only went on two rides. We all went at one point to get a beer at this Swiss restaurant. We drank Budweiser, which is actually very good in Austria. After that we went on this crazy ride that was called "Extasy" hahaha, yes spelled like that. I wish I had a video of this ride because it was absolutely nuts! You were spinning upside down and side to side and the whole time there was really loud techno music and smoke everywhere! Crazy... Then Emily and I went on a ride just like the one on Amelie where Nino works, it's like a haunted house kind of. It was really funny, but well worth going, just for the memory and tie to Amelie, haha. We also played a game there, you can't go to a carnival and not play a game. Emily and David, who also lives in our building and me played this ring toss game where we had to throw rings around these aliens, it was so funny and we were so bad at it! But we won a prize, a little stuffed animal airplane, so we gave it to our RA Alex, hahaha. At night we went to this festival thing where a bunch of bands were playing at different bars, but it was so crowded. We ended up meeting with some other IES kids that are in the music program and we went to this underground show. You have to be really quiet because there is a noise ordinance at 10 pm but once you got underground it was loud and smokey and awesome! There was a band playing and we all danced. Then we went home, but before going to the apartment we went into the gay bar (the closest bar to where we live) to finish off the night and we got a drink. We all decided that we really like it there because everyone is really nice. We talked to the bar tender for a long time and he kept telling us we have to come back, hahaha. So I think we will.