Beethoven lives upstairs, I turned 21-which in Austria means you've been able to drink for five years, Tosca and Night at the Museum!

Franziskanerkirche

Marisa doing some listening at Beethoven's apartment.

Beethoven's actual writing!!!

My feet in Beethoven's apartment, no big deal...

Sonntag 26 September: Today started with our Sunday tradition- Emily, Marisa and I go to church, then lunch at McDonalds! Today's church was Franziskanerkirche. It was so pretty, and there weren't a lot of people there since it's not a real touristy church. I really enjoy going to church in another language. It's nice because you can enjoy the music and you don't really get bogged down by what is being said and I really love observing people at church. (I guess that's kind of weird, but I really like seeing people so dedicated to their beliefs.) Plus all the churches here are just so beautiful! In the afternoon we went to Beethoven's apartment. (Ok, well apparently the museum is actually in the apartment across the hall from where Beethoven actually lived, but you know, close enough.) Beethoven actually did live upstairs. It was really cool. There were actual scores that Beethoven himself had written. The museum was designed really nicely and there were these cool little listening stations where you could listen to different music Beethoven wrote. It's pretty crazy that you can just walk across town and go to a place where Beethoven lived! After going to Beethoven's we went to Cafe Central, which is a well known cafe in Vienna. It was really good. I got hot chocolate, yummy!

The view from Beethoven's

Cafe Central

Ya, this place was pretty fancy...

Montag 27 September: Mondays are these magical days where I don't have class until 1:15, which means I can sleep in and then get some errands done before I go to class. That's basically Mondays. Normally we have a trio coaching from 6-8, but we didn't tonight so that was nice. I also got a package from my parents today, which really made me happy. The package included a crossword puzzle book and knitting supplies, ahh!

Cute gargoyle at the Wien Museum

Dienstag 28 September: Today was pretty much just like any other Tuesday. The one thing that I learned today is that if you want a kebap before your night class and the kebap place near school is all out of everything, don’t get a kebap from the place off Kertner Straße where you can get pizza and hot dogs. Their kebaps are way too salty and they don’t have the spicy sauce that the other place has. Tonight was the night before my 21 birthday, which in the states means that you go out and celebrate the fact that at midnight you can go to a bar and buy alcohol. Well in Austria you can do that when you’re 16, but at midnight Marisa gave me a pack of my favorite pens and Elizabeth made me a vodka tonic (which I proceeded to knock over a few minutes later, haha). Thank you Marisa and Elizabeth!

Birthday celebration!

Me with the brownie Katie made!

Stained glass from Stephansdom

At the Wien Museum

Mittwoch 29 September: Today is my 21 birthday. The day was really busy and really stressful. Full of classes, rehearsals, my first chamber coaching and then I had to perform in performance workshop (which got out late, so we didn’t get home until 8:30). My art and architecture class went to the Wien Museum, which was pretty interesting, a non-stressful part of the day. We saw artifacts from Roman control of Vienna up to the dark ages. But for dinner our RA’s Alex and Anna made Tirolerknüdeln. Which is this ball of ham, sausage, breadcrumbs, onions, celery and who knows what else. After you roll it into a ball you boil it, then there’s a broth and you put the ball in the broth. It was really good! It was also fun to hang out with all the Dürergasse kids. After that we went to our favorite sushi place for just a little more to eat, haha! When I got home all my roommates met in the living room and Katie gave me a big brownie that she made me! (Complete with sprinkles and butterfly candies!) It was so good! Thank you Katie! Then Emily gave me another pack of pens! (I have a LOT of pens now.) Thanks Emily! Meg got kinder eggs for everyone (my toy was a dinosaur!) and Lauren got cookies for everyone! Thanks Meg and Lauren! So even though the day was kind of awful, my roommates made my birthday totally awesome! I’m pretty sure it was the most low key 21 birthday any American has had, but I liked it that way and it was perfect!

Donnerstag 30 September: Today was another class, rehearsal and then sushi filled day, haha, yes I got sushi for dinner again today… We went to a new café tonight, Café Sperl. The hot chocolate was… not satisfactory. I had to add sugar cubes.

My birthday gift from Allison!

Freitag 1 Oktober:  So this morning totally sucked. I had a German quiz and didn’t fill half of it out, despite the hour of studying I did in the morning… Later we sat through a lecture about the Vienna Phil which I feel like could have been really interesting, but it was presented in a boring and kind of confusing way and most people fell asleep (myself included). Then we had a coaching, which was tiring, but our coach Barbera brought chocolate for us, so that was good. I got the most amazing package today from Allison, it had a ceramic hippo, and there were a bunch of little gifts wrapped up and stuffed in its mouth! Each package had a charm for a necklace! It was so amazing and I love it so much!!! Right after that Emily and I came home, changed and left for the opera with Ben. Yep, we went to the opera at 5:00 for an 8:00 show. We waited, then waited, then waited in another room, then bought our standing room ticket, then waited and then ran to get a standing spot! We got to stand in the second row. The opera was Tosca and it was totally amazing!!! It was just another one of those experiences I hardly have words for because it was just so incredible! Unfortunately I don’t have pictures, because I didn’t know if cameras were allowed. They are, but not during the performance, so next time I go, I will have pictures! Afterward we met up with Kaitlyn and Jay and went to 1516 and split a pitcher of their house radler. It was an awesome amazing night!

Jenny and me at the Schönberg museum.

Kaitlyn, David, Katie, Emily and Jay at the Belvedere.

On our way to the Rodin exhibit.

The rosary from the Flohmarkt

Samstag 2 Oktober: This morning Katie and Emily and I went to breakfast at the Naschmarkt then Emily and I did some shopping at the Naschmarkt and Flohmarkt! I got so much awesome stuff! I found sweet potatoes! So of course, I had to buy some. (Plus I’m cooking dinner tonight for people and I’m thinking sweet potatoes sound pretty… sweet.) At the Flohmarkt I got some really awesome stuff! I got a necklace with Elvis on it, a necklace with Mary Magdalene, an old cigarette box, a new bag for school and a really beautiful rosary. It was so much fun going through all the stuff there, but next time I’m bringing smaller bills and more coins. It’s impossible to haggle if you only have bigger bills… Tonight is the night of museums in Vienna, which is where you buy a ticket and then you can go to any museum until one in the morning! I started making dinner around 5 and people were coming over at 6. I had to go to the grocery store to get an onion and I went to Zielpunkt (their produce was rotting, they didn’t have onions anyway) then Spar (had barely any produce) then finally broke down and walked back to the Naschmarkt. I spent all afternoon looking up recipes for sweet potato dishes, but everything needed too many spices and ingredients, so I decided to make something up. It turned out amazing! Here’s the recipe:

This hand is a sculpture and the painting is the ceiling

Recipe for Emily’s Viennese Sweet Potato Caserole

Three sweet potatoes-diced

Two eggs-beaten

¾ cup milk

Two cups bread crumbs

¾ cup apple sauce

Cut up sausage

One onion-diced

Set the oven to around 200 C, then bake for about 45 minutes

Eating sacher torte!!!

Yummy!

Museum Quartier, it was hoppin', but we were not..

It was so good! Katie and Emily and I hosted dinner (Marisa was in Styria this weekend, and Elizabeth was sick again. Frowny face) and Ben, David, Jenny, Kaitlyn and Jay came over. (Everyone also brought one or two bottles of wine) We ate our meal followed by chocolate ice cream and then we were off to the museums. We started at the Secession (since it’s just down the street from where I live, no big deal or anything.) and saw Klimt’s Beethoven, which was just amazing! We decided this was a night for sampling of different museums, it’s not enough time to fully take in everything, that’s just too much for one night! Then we went to the Arnold Schönberg museum, which was really interesting and I liked it. After that we went to the lower and upper Belvedere. We saw so many amazing works of art. We saw the Sleeping Beauty painting, there was a Rodin exhibit going on at the Lower Belvedere, then we saw Klimt’s Kiss and that painting of Napoleon that you see in every history textbook ever! (I was going to upload pictures of the art we saw on the blog, but uploading is taking so long tonight, that I’ll just let you look those up on your own) We decided after that that we needed a bit of an art break so we decided to either go to the chocolate museum, schnapps or marzipan museum. The marzipan museum was closest and most convenient so we went there. There was a huge line, but we figured it was worth it, I mean there must be marzipan samples at a marzipan museum right? Outside they were making and selling these tiny little sacher tortes so everyone got one to split with someone else. Jay and I shared one and it was hands down the most amazing sacher torte I’ve had yet! Everyone is always raving about sacher torte, but up until now, I have not been that impressed, but now I get it! This cake was amazing! I will be back for more, definitely! Once we were in the museum, it was just so hilarious, it was this awkward museum of sculptures made out of marzipan and you could just tell that everyone there was thinking “ok, so when do we eat samples” but that’s literally all it was-looking at marzipan sculptures… so awkward! We went to Museum Quartier to finish up, but so many of us were tired by then we decided to call it a night, plus it was getting close to 1 am anyway. We got some pizza on the way home and called it a day. A really great day!

We have a lot of fun at Dürergasse 1812

Sonntag 3 Oktober: So with great meals comes a great need to clean… I spent a long time cleaning dishes and the kitchen this morning… oh well. Sundays are good to get work done, so that’s pretty much what I did. I did homework and then I went to my viola lesson. They’re really long and difficult, but I feel like I’m learning a lot and we talked today about focusing on me learning how to practice, so I’m pretty excited about it all. Then tonight since it is October 3 and all, Katie and Elizabeth and I watched Mean Girls. It was nice.