Now the second half of my insane year of travel has started and wow is it already going by quickly! I arrived at the airport in Vienna and was whisked off right away for a weekend of orientation in the town of Mariatzell. I was again over loaded with study abroad information but the most overwhelming aspect for me was the amount of Americans that I was with! In total there are 107 people in the IES spring program in Vienna. I quickly gave up the idea of meeting and getting to know everyone in the program and focused instead on learning how to "squeeze the juice" in Vienna.
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| Patty and I freezing in front of the summer palace |
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| Ice skating in front of the Rathause |
This is a phrase that one of our program directors uses about every other sentence, but he does have a point. While we are here we should take every opportunity to get up and do something, I mean, we only live once, right? It is a motto I am going to try to live every day by, which so far is just making me so exhausted that I am asleep on my way to hitting the pillow every night. The IES program is set up very differently from the SIT Senegal program, so I would first like to give a little explanation as to how my semester is planned out. We have three weeks where we only take one class (German intensive!) every day in the morning. This way beginners like myself can feel that we may be able to walk into a store and order something in German and MAYBE have the confidence to continue the conversation in German even when the Austrian has already taken pity on us and started speaking in English. Although I feel like I cannot cram much more German into my head, I love the fact that I already feel like I have a handle on the language and may actually enjoy learning more German (I may even take a German class next year...I know my Ege family will be happy to hear this). This period ends February 3rd (this Friday) and then we have a week long break before our actual semester classes start.
Once classes start it is similar to classes at a our home schools, however we are in Vienna so it is far more entertaining. For example, in German class we went to one of the famous Viennese coffee houses and had breakfast the day after a big ball that we all went to (please see the next blog post for full and complete details on this most elegant affair). Our classes take place in a Palace in the heart of the first district of Vienna. For those of you who have never been to Vienna, it is organized in districts which are arranged in a circle around the center.
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| Heurigen night |
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| Mozart is everywhere |
It is very easy to travel in between the districts, I live in the fifth district and all I have to do is take a street car (Strassenbahn for those of you who sprechen Deutsche) and I am in the middle of Vienna! For now I am trying to take advantage of everything I can in Vienna, get a grip on what the city has to offer and gear up for a semester of fun, travel and incredible experiences! Already I have been to Bratislava,
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| Happy Birthday Oma! |
next week I am going on an IES trip to Germany (Dresden and Berlin here I come! Oh and Prague for lunch) and I have trips booked to London and Brussells. My mind is reeling by how much my has changed this year, but I am just grateful that it is all working out and I will just deal with my shock of way too many cultures later! Right now it is time to "Squeeze the Juice" and enjoy what I have here! Next stop, Berlin!
This is a phrase that one of our program directors uses about every other sentence, but he does have a point. While we are here we should take every opportunity to get up and do something, I mean, we only live once, right? It is a motto I am going to try to live every day by, which so far is just making me so exhausted that I am asleep on my way to hitting the pillow every night. The IES program is set up very differently from the SIT Senegal program, so I would first like to give a little explanation as to how my semester is planned out. We have three weeks where we only take one class (German intensive!) every day in the morning. This way beginners like myself can feel that we may be able to walk into a store and order something in German and MAYBE have the confidence to continue the conversation in German even when the Austrian has already taken pity on us and started speaking in English. Although I feel like I cannot cram much more German into my head, I love the fact that I already feel like I have a handle on the language and may actually enjoy learning more German (I may even take a German class next year...I know my Ege family will be happy to hear this). This period ends February 3rd (this Friday) and then we have a week long break before our actual semester classes start.
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