Sweet Road: One stressed out apartment, Schoko muffins, Allison visits!!!!, So.Many.Taxidermy-ed.Animals, CARDILLAC!!!, St. Michaelerkirche, Die Elefanten haben viele caca! and a Bat shit on my head

Montag 18 Oktober: Not a lot going on today. I've been doing a lot of reading and studying so that when Allison comes I won't have to spend a ton of time doing that when she gets here. Midterms start on Saturday and I think everyone is starting to feel the heat!

Dienstag 19 Oktober: Everyone is stressed. Hostile, angry, fighting, stressed. Can't wait for a break.

Mittwoch 20 Oktober: Today I decided that it would be a good idea to bake something to diffuse the stress that is currently our apartment. I went to Spar on the way home from class this morning and picked up some chocolate muffin mix. I made the chocolate muffins, same deal as the Sacher torte, I wasn't quite sure if I got the instructions correct or if the portioning was right, but they turned out great! Then I made little name tags for everyone and put them on a plate next to a muffin. We can all eat them together tonight and get along again! Yay! Tonight at performance workshop was our dress rehearsal for the concert tomorrow. This is frustrating because that means we all have to sit through the concert essentially twice within two days, right before midterm exams and the concert is just under three hours. It's just a little frustrating, but tomorrow Allison comes! She left this morning! I can't believe it!!!

Donnerstag 21 Oktober: Today after German (in which our teacher handed back our oral presentation scripts which we have to memorize tonight and perform tomorrow... yikes) I ran down the stairs to the lobby of the IES center to meet Allison!!! I was so excited! Unfortunately today is a very busy day, so I had to send her to the apartment with one of the guys that lives downstairs and gave her my key. After that I had to go to a piano coaching, then we had a "mandatory check-in meeting", then I had class, then I had a break and went to get a kebap in the Naschmarkt with Allison, got changed for the concert, went to another piano coaching and then it was time for the concert. (Sigh, what a busy day!) The concert went pretty well. I played the second movement of the Francaix string trio, the second movement of the Tchaikovsky no 3 string quartet and then the quartet part of the Mozart Sub tuum with two sopranos. After the concert we went out and got sushi!! Then it was back to work and I worked with Jennie and Claire for two hours trying to memorize our 15 minute German skit. What.a.day.

Freitag 22 Oktober: We spent another hour before class going over the script. The skit went pretty well! I was super proud of us for getting it together so well with such little time! After class I went home and Allison and I made lunch. Emiy and Jennie and I had to buy our train tickets to Krakow (I'll be leaving after my last midterm on Thursday and coming home that Sunday) so Allison came along too. Jennie had to buy a Vorteils card (mine came in the mail last week by the way. Oh man, that picture... I look like an evil villain from some weird anime...) so she had to get pictures of herself somewhere. We asked so many people for directions and wandered around forever! Finally we found a camera store that did it! Then we bought our tickets and it all worked out. After that adventure, Allison and I went to the Natural History Museum. It was super cool.

The Natural History Museum, located right across from the Kunstistorisches.

There were so many rocks! They were all so beautiful!

Dinosaur bones.

That little one is the real Lucy!!! (Allison is on the right)

There were tons of taxidermy-ed animals. It gave me the creeps, I seriously had goosebumps and was terrified the whole time. This is what brings babies to the earth.

This is what takes dead people away to hell.

This is the bird form of Prince. Obviously.

We also saw the Venus of Willendorf! It's a tiny little fertility statue dated to 20,000 BC! We learned about it in my Art and Architecture class. I didn't take any pictures though, I felt weird about it since it was in this intense glass case in this dark little house made specially for it. After the museum we went to Dremels which is where the marzipan museum is and we got a piece of Sachertorte to split. We went back to Museumsquartier and at it on these funny colorful bench things that they have there. Then we went to Zielpunkt and Spar so we could get groceries and Allison could experience all the different grocery stores. We made dinner then were off to Phil for some German studying.

Samstag 23 Oktober: This morning was the German midterm. For about half of it I was doing pretty well, then after that I started fading. I was really tired and just couldn't focus. Which is unfortunate while you're taking a test... Then when I turned it in, our teacher told me I did an entire page wrong so I had to redo that, but I was so tired. Basically, I'm not so sure about how well that one went. Oh well I guess we'll see. After my test Allison and I made lunch, then we were off to the Flohmarkt with Emily. We all made some pretty good purchases and it was really fun, as always. After that we went to get in line to see the opera. The opera tonight is Cardillac by Hindemith! Did you know Hindemith wrote an opera? Ya, me neither. We got in line at 4:45. The show was at 8:00. We played card games for two hours then we bought our tickets at 6:45. Then of course, more waiting. Then we finally got to go get our places to stand and tied our scarves to the railing to mark our spot. After that was all settled at about 7:15 we left and got some food. Allison, Ben and I got käsekraner, which is a sausage with cheese in it placed in a hollowed out bagette with mustard and ketchup in it. It's pretty good, but I can only ever eat half without feeling like I'm going to die, so Allison and I split one. Emily, Marisa and Kelsey got schnitzel boxes. A schnitzel box is essentially a box with fries and cut up schnitzel (a cutlet of turkey that's breaded and fried) After that it was back to the opera! One of my favorite feelings is after the overture and the curtain is about to go up. You're waiting in anticipation and when it finally goes up you see the set for the first time and it's just incredible! The set for Cardillac was very monochromatic and it was just so cool! All the music was very Hindemith, I loved it. The costumes were all black or grey. There was this one scene that used a screen and shodowy silhouettes. It was just so cool! All the movements were very robotic and in scenes with groups everything was in unison. It was just so amazing! I loved it so so so much! The story goes that this really renowned jewelry maker, Cardillac is a murderer. His daughter is in love with this one guy, but she also feels she belongs to Cardillac as his daughter. In the end the town attacks Cardillac and he turns to gold. It was just awesome! Although this one lady two rows in front of me fainted! (I'm surprised that doesn't happen more often to be honest) After the opera it was roommate bonding time. Then Allison and I watched this documentary called Catfish about this guys online relationship with a family and how online relationships can be deceiving, it was very interesting.

Waiting for the opera to start.

This is the fire screen this year. They change it every year, I really like this one.

Me and Allison at the opera!


The final bow! Just an idea of what the sets were like.

Sonntag 24 Oktober: So today is Sunday. You know what that means. Yep. Church. Marisa, Emily, Allison and I headed out this morning and went to St. Michaelrkirche. (St. Michael's church). It was really amazing going in. It looks rather plain on the outside, but on the inside, there is this elaborate baroque altar that is just incredible! There were frescoes in this church, mainly on the tympanum (the decoration above a door or arch) which I haven't seen a whole lot of since a lot have been painted over in various renovations. The church was basilica style and had three aisles. (Can you tell I've been studying for my Art and Architecture midterm?) There wasn't any stained glass though. There were windows, but they just had regular glass. It was all very pretty though. Afterwards we of course went to McDonalds, haha.

This is the altar of St. Michael's

Close up of the altar.

Frscoes on the Tympanum of the arches.

One of the, I think they call these chapels. So elaborate.

Then Allison and I went to the Zoo at the Tiergarten of Schönbrunn! It was so so awesome!!! The zoo itself is so amazing and beautiful. We saw a koala, (the first time I've seen a live koala) pandas, (there's a baby panda that was just born in August and we watched the camera that watches its mom and the baby, they're not on display for the public), we saw a baby elephant (7 months old. When we were there a little girl said "Mama, die Elefante hat viele caca" that would translate to "Mom, the elephant has a lot of poop" haha), then we got some chestnuts roasted on an open fire for a snack (they were really yummy and kind of tasted like a sweet potato!) and we went in this crazy room where bats were just flying around and would run into you. One pooped in my hair... We didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. There were these doors of plastic fringe and the downstairs is a circle that is one way, you have to go this way. You go through the doors and go into this tiny room that is dark and has hundreds of mouse-sized bats flying around, hitting you and freaking out. It was terrifying! If I was a child I would be traumatized for years, no joke. The exit was blocked by these people taking pictures so we had to just stand there for a few minutes with the bats hitting us! When we finally got out Allison and I were terrified then she told me I had bat poop in my hair. Great. "Der Flughund hat viele caca." "The bat has a lot of poop." Ew, what an experience.