Rain Rain Go Away!

Ok so the last three days it has been raining here all the time. Seriously, I thought I left Michigan behind.
Sunday, it poured all day and turned the what I would call a small river that is near our house into a huge raging one. Yesterday and thus far today it has been raining/sprinkling on and off, and SLOWLY its getting warmer...its normally 80 degrees in Vienna during this time of year and its been between 45 and 55 the whole time we have been in Vienna thus far. But seriously that is my only complaint. I am loving everything about the city and the experience. The last couple days we have gone exploring around the city and have found some yummy places to eat. On Sunday in the rain, Molly and I went out to find a restaurant a few stops away from ours on the Subway. Well instead we found some really cool shops and no where we wanted to eat. If you ask Molly though I apparently led her on a wild goose chase... whoops! :) But after that we just went into downtown Vienna where we found a restaurant on one of the side streets that was delicious then started to explore some more. We found a ton of shops and a LOT of places that sold chocolates and pastries. Eventually we made it to a main road and found Zanoni & Zanoni - which has the most delicious gelato ever! They also give you a ton for your money. Let me remind you that this whole time it was raining - a lot - but seriously once I got some food into Molly she was all for it (she was a TID bit crabby before that because we all know how Molly gets when she fails to eat hahaha).
Monday we had our first day of classes at the institute, we had started them previously in Morbisch. The history class is still good - we went to these things called the Catacombs where the Austrian Royal family, the Habsburgs, are all laid to rest in . It was interesting and creepy all at the same time becuase for a lot of them, you can get really close and some of them you can actually touch.
Monday night we went into the city and saw the Ballet "Coppélia." We had standing room only seats which weren't ideal but we did have a fairly good view and they were only 3 euros. Also the Opera house itself is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. I have never seen anything like it and there was no way I could get a picture to capture how gorgeous it was. Here are a few to get the idea...



Everything here in Vienna is beautiful and I am finding surprises around every corner. We go into Salzburg this weekend from Friday until Sunday, so I am hoping that the weather warms up and the rain goes away :)

Until one of us finds more time...
Amanda

Vienna!! - We are finally here!

So now we are in Vienna and it is basically the coolest city I have ever seen. The last two days we had spent in Morbisch doing orientation and starting classes. The class I am in called Modern Austrian History and my professor (named Herbert) is really cool. He knows so much about not only Vienna but the world as a whole and how things all interact with one another. I actually think I might like a history class for once. But anyway - the more interesting things.
Last night (Friday) we went on a boat dinner/barbeque that was on a lake on the border of Morbisch and Hungary. The boat itself (and some of the crew) reminded me and mols of the episode of The Office when they go on the booze cruise (for all you office fans). Seriously though there was even a man running around playing the accordion knowing only a few phrases and english but it was very funny. (see picture)


Also I have had my first DELICIOUS gelato :) It was soo good - molly and I were wandering around and found this italian pizza place that served gelato and it was great! We also have gone running the past two mornings into Hungary - which is only about an 8 minute run - so that was pretty nifty. Jet lag hasn't been super awful - I have adjusted better than I expect but i did manage to catch a little bit of a cold on the way over here (lucky me.. not) so thats slowly been getting better. Today, we came back into Vienna to meet our host family and be introduced to the institute where we are having our classes... but i feel that though i REALLY want to just tell everything mols will get mad at me... so i guess its her turn now... :)
Like Amanda said, we got into Vienna today. On the drive in, the views of the countryside were absolutely gorgeous. Vienna is surrounded by hills/mountains, and there were some fantastic scenes as we drove into the city. Once we arrived, we got about an hour to explore before our host family came to pick us up. We walked down the main shopping drag for a bit (the name escapes me at the moment) and, let me tell you, Vienna is a beautiful city. Around every corner there were gorgeous buildings. We stumbled upon the national library, which is a large, beautiful white building that has a large kind-of square in front of it. There are also two large gold balls on the top of the building, which were my favorite part. Also amusing to me is the number of foreign cars that are everywhere. There are Volkswagons and Audi's like we have Chevy and Ford! In fact, many taxi's in the city that I've seen are Audi's. I'm pretty sure these are nicer than many of the taxi's back in the States.
After going back to the Institute, we received our weekly food money from Doc (Yes!) and got picked up by our host dad - Michl. He drove us back to the house, which is located in the 14th district, and made sure to point out important things (like the subways station, grocery store, Schonbrunn Palace, etc.) along the way. Once we got to the house we met our host mom Gerda, and host sister Fanni. They were very amused with my name, because they had never heard the name Molly before. I guess it's not a common dog name here like it is back home. They all know English fairly well, which makes our lives a little easier. We are also living with another student from a college in Minnesota, who has been here since March studying at the Institute. Shortly after we arrived, Gerda and Michl left for a trip to visit his family, so only Fanni will be here this weekend. Talking with her helped us figure out that both sides were given wrong information about eachother. For example, they thought we were Mormons. (Hmmm...nope.) We also learned that Michl studied law, and worked with a muliple sclerosis society until he retired, and Gerda had been a Sports and Russian teacher. Therefore they were not a musician in the Philharmonic and an art teacher like we were told. I've decided that they remind me of the Austrian version of my parents (especially after looking at their wine collection).Also, they have 4 children (not 3 like we were told) and the 3 oldest boys have since moved out of the house. It was very amusing. Fanni was extremely helpful, gave us a tour of the house, and helped us find a place to eat, complete with giving us directions and german phrases and words to use. The italian restaurant Amanda and I went to for dinner was fabulous, and not very expensive. It took us some time, but we figured out the menu, and ended up splitting a delicious pizza and had a glass of beer with dinner. The total was about 16 euros with tip, and we definitely plan on going back there. We walked back home, and saw some more beautiful buildings. I've decided that Vienna is filled with picturesque buildings at random.
I am very excited for our day tomorrow. We plan on going to the flea market early in the morning, then we have a walking tour with the group, followed by a tour of the Schonbrunn Palace, and an Operetta that night. I can't wait to see what other things Vienna has in store for us! Also, check out facebook for some pictures from the last few days - Amanda just posted some. I hope you all enjoyed this 2nd blog post of the trip. Until the next one...

Molly and Amanda

And We Made It!

Hello from Austria!

Amanda and I arrived today in Vienna around 9:30am (3:30am EST). Our flights were, well, interesting. Our first was a connection from Detroit to Washington D.C. on a cute, little puddle jumper of a plane. Note little. There were some interesting moments of turbulence during this trip that made most of us nervous at some point. At one point I closed my eyes and just told myself “pretend you’re on I-94.” The flight from Washington D.C. to Vienna had some turbulence as well, but that plane took it much better, considering it was about 50x the size of the previous plane. Between the two, I said a half dozen prayers, just to be safe. There were also better distractions on the overseas flight. Mainly, this consisted of personal TVs for everyone. I watched about 5 different things so it was pretty fantastic. We also 2 meals on board (dinner and breakfast), which were surprisingly good, and introduced me to the Austrian form of ginger ale. Between eating and watching movies, I attempted sleep. This was difficult, considering I’m not a good napper, and our seats only reclined to about 120 degrees. I briefly considered using Amanda’s shoulder as a pillow, but when I asked her if I could in “what if form”, she told me she’d punch me, which eliminated that option. I probably got about 2-3 hours of sleep, but am surprisingly not tired right now.
Upon landing in the Vienna airport, we got all of our bags from the baggage claim (yes! No lost luggage!) and proceeded with the group to Morbisch, a town about an hour and a half south of Vienna, for our orientation. We checked into the hotel, where Amanda and I are sharing a double room. The hotel also provided lunch to us, which was the largest lunch I’d had in awhile; 3 courses including dessert (sorry no ice cream yet). After that, Amanda and I got a much needed shower, and then decided to walk around the town with some people.
Ok now its my turn – so just to add a few notes to Molly’s part above… the plane was not considered “cute” – I think an extremely small theme park attraction might a better description. Also, we are waiting at the hotel for the other half of our group that few out of GR because of the volcanic ash cloud causing problems. The planes have to go around it so this made their flight late and then they missed their connecting flight from Amsterdam to Vienna– but I mean they should be here by 6pm as long as everything goes as planned.
Anyway, on our walk with some other people on the trip, we took a little self- tour around this town with the goal of finding a coffee shop. It took us about 20 minutes and a trip to the bank, where the tellers giggled at us when one of the girls asked where a “coffee shop” was (apparently they refer to it as a coffee HOUSE). Well the pointed us in the right direction and we finally located one. The employees at the coffee house were very friendly, even though we spoke no German at all and they spoke very little English. We did find a common language of Spanish that worked well enough to order some delicious coffee. I ordered something I had no idea what it was but I mean it was good! – it was like a strong latte but the name totally is gone minus it started with an “M.” After the coffee, we walked around to explore the town a little more and found the town bar is located right next to a elementary school (obviously not something we are used to…) and then proceeded to go up the hill and find grape fields that went on forever.
As for being in Europe, it still seems unreal to actually be here! I (sorry WE) are beyond excited for the next 3 weeks, and the experience we will have. We meet our host family on Friday and from what little information we know about them, I am excited to get to know them. Also, I cannot wait to experience the food in Vienna (in particular the Gelato). But I mean, none of that starts till Friday when we go back into the city.

So until then -
Amanda and Molly