Bridget Jones goes to the Ball

So my Ball experiance. Was interesting.
I loved the gown shopping. The crash course in Viennese Waltz given by IES for the last few days was so fun. Ever since I went to the CISLA Ball last spring, I have loved ballroom dance, even though I barely know how. I was super excited to be with 3000 other people, in the Hofburg palace, with multiple dances going on at one time. Amazing. I felt like I was going ot be Cinderella going to the ball in my gold heels. I hemmed the front of my gown, my roommates helped with my hair and makeup, we splurged on a taxi to get to the Palace. Only it wasn't really a splurge it was less than 10 euros.
The ball was amazing, the Palace was amazing, seeing the people whirling around the dance floor was amazing. But I wasn't there to enjoy it. I was there, but I wasn't there. People stepped on the back of my dress every 5 seconds. I could barely walk after one hour and 2 dances. Also dancing was nearly impossible in my dress. My lovely dress that I love so much. It was too long and if I wasn't stepping on it, someone else was. My dress was strapless and falling down even though it was too tight. Not only was I annoyed with my experience, but I was even more annoyed that I was annoyed. I spent far too much time sitting, watching other people dance.
I felt less like Cinderella and more like Bridget Jones. While there are many times in my life when I feel like Bridget Jones, or I think to myself, " What would Bridget Jones do?" I was not expecting this to be one of them. I was hobbling around, shoes in hand, tripping, slipping down grand staircases. I was in freaking Hofburg Palace, and extremely disappointed in myself that I was not enjoying myself. I was certainly not disappointed in the Ball itself, I will take responsibility for my experience. But I will also try to look at it as an experience, not a bad experience. I suppose now I know to hem even the back of my gown and wear flats. Who knows, maybe I will be able to go to another ball, if tickets aren't too expensive. I want to dance dammit.

Pictures!

So these pictures are not rotated properly, but the picture below is what my bed looked like when I arrived. Actually all four of the beds were adorned with cat, dogs and horse blankets like this. It was terrifying. The picture above is the after shot. But when my landlady saw that we had vanquished all the animal blankets, she seemed genuinely disappointed.



This our cute little kitchen. You can't open the doors to the kitchen, refigerator, and the dish washer at the same time. But it is darling all the same.










This is our dining area. A fine example of my landlady's love of multiple patterns.












This is the other half of our living area, and one of my roommates. We have lots of comfy couch space!











This is the view from our lovely balcony, which we will use once its not 20 degrees everyday.



















If you can't tell, this is a corkscrew, which I broke in half wrestling with a bottle of wine. I am that strong. it took two of us to get the cork the rest of the way out.






This is Topfenstrudel, very similar to cheescake, very delicious.












Cappuccino!











All gone!










This is an odd picture of the cafe that my German class went to one day. Its one of the oldest cafes, where Mozart and Beethoven hung out.











This is the staircase in the IES building, where all my classes are.










Again, not rotated, but this is our study room.













This is a classroom.


Its a PALACE.










Looking up from standing room at the Staatsoper!












My roommate Becca, sitting with her scarf in standing room!












Blurry illegal shot of the curtain call at the "Marriage of Figaro"

Vienna continues to be awesome. Yes.
Today, being Sunday, is pretty quiet. Pretty much all the stores are closed. Cafes are open with limited hours. We made an attempt to be Viennese and sit in a Kaffeehaus for hours. We went to a cute place down the street with free wireless, ordered coffee to accompany our German homework. Then 30 minutes later, we were told the cafe was closing. So we had to leave. Sad. But on friday, my German class went to a very old cafe right around the corner from the IES center. I forget the nme, but Mozart and Beethoven hung out there, and its very traditional, and claims to be "the oldest coffeehouse in Vienna," along with a few others. We used our German skills to order food and drinks ( paid for by our program ) and we also had to complete a quiz about the menu, and the history of the cafe. Part of the quiz included asking the waiter ( der Kellner) his name and where he is from. Imagine 10 college kids asking a tuxedo-clad old man " Wie heissen Sie?" "Woher kommen Sie?" Anyhow, er heisst Heinz und er kommt aus Wien. So there you go.
This coming Thursday, I am going to a Ball, along with many other people in my program. IES swung a ticket discount to a Ball at the Hofburg Palace. 20 Euros. So Yesterday my roommate and several other friends went on a epic hunt for cheap (ish) ball gowns. We were mostly successful. Since its ball season, there is no shortage of stores selling ball gowns, but you have to hunt for ones that aren't super expensive. We went ot Mariahilfestrasse, a huge shopping street in our district, and found several stores that had reasonable dresses. It is actually cheaper to buy a dress that rent one. So I tried on a white dress in the first shop we went to, and it was perfect. I seriously may get married in that dress. I shopped around before I bought it, but found nothing that was cheaper, nothing that fit better. So at the end of the day, I ran back to the store and bought it. It was the last one, and had just been marked down. I feel like Cinderella going to the ball in the perfect dress.
Last night we went to the opera again to see "Marriage of Figaro." We lined up 2 hours ahead of time and camped out. We ended up getting great standing room spots, but it was packed. We could barely get back to our spots through the sea of people. No big names singing this time, but it was still good. I also realized they do their curtain calls very weirdly here. In Figaro, but not at Manon, they took a mini-curtain call after every act. I couldn't figure out why. And then at the end, they all come out twice and bow, then they come out one after the other and bow.
I have decided that dinner can easily be replaced by a peice of torte followed by an opera. After we mark our spot with our scarves, we run across the street to a cafe called Aida and get drinks and dessert to keep us going through the opera. That is my Vienna diet secret. You don't need dinner, just dessert. In other news, all the walking around, up and down stairs has increased my appetite immensly, yet all my pants are too big now. No wonder there are so many skinny people here.
Photos of apartment, opera, IES center, and delicious food to come soon!

Gruss Gott!

So I am starting to get used to navigating the city. It wierd becuase the streets are not perpendicular here. Actually I bet there aren't two perpendicular streets in this whole city. Its basically a series of rings with different districts. The first district is actually the old city from way back in Roman times. The Ringstrasse is basically where the old city walls were. The first district is where the IES center is, where all my classes are, and it is minutes from the Staatsoper, Stephansdome, the Hofburg, museums, and pretty much everything important in Vienna.
I am pretty good at navigating the U-Bahn, the subway system, which is extremely simple when compared to the New York subway. And the U-Bahn is basically on the honor system. They assume that you will buy a ticket before you get on the U-Bahn, but there are people that randomly check tickets on the U-Bahn once in a while, and if you don't have a valid ticket, they throw you off. I haven't witnessed this yet, but I just buy my ticket and be perfectly honorable. Also the doors to the train don't open automatically, you have to open them. This is among the many things that are different and interesting. Another interesting thing, the plastic bags at grocery stores like Billa cost money and they are reusable, and no one bags your groceries for you. Staring at people is not rude. Calendars of naked ladies are sold alongside the office supplies. Everyone smokes. People bring dogs everywhere, into stores, cafes. There are no clothes dryers. Our apartment has a little washer and then you let yous clothes air dry. Also, Austrians sort their trash and recyclables into about fifty categories. Its all very interesting.

Last night me and several other students went to the Staatsoper to see "Manon" (the Massenet one) which was high on my list of operas to see. Diana Damrau was Manon, and for those who don't know, is a superstar German soprano, famous the world over. And Ramon Vargas was Des Grieux. It seemed to be set in later flapper times, so it was quite modern.
It is quite hard to coordinate plans when we all don't have Austrian cellphones yet. But we all made it there in several fragmented groups and bought the best standing room tickets for 4. Euros. They were orchestra level and I could see pretty much everything. It was Sunday night and the house was completely full. Amazing! it was a lot of fun to go with people who are just as excited about opera, so we can be geeks together. It was just an amazing show. Beyond words. I can't beleive we got to see the best opera in the world for 4 euros. We want to go back later this week and see Marriage of Figaro. I don't think any huge names are singing, but later in the season Anna Netrebko, Rolando Villazon, and Elina Garanka will be there. There are several other opera houses here. One is in our district, the Theatre and der Wien, does early opera and theya re doing Poppea soon, so me and a few other early music freaks are going. There is also the Volksoper that does musicals, operetta, and other operas that are in German. Not to mention the Vienna Philaharmonic and countless other musical things going on. There is so much to do!
German classes starts today,and we will have two and a half hours of german a day for the next three weeks! I am excited to be able to communicate better. So far, all I say on a daily basis is "Gruss Gott!" " Danke" and " Entschuldigung!" We are getting a head start by watching some German television. They were covering the Golden Globes. And now we are watch some movie with Matthew McConaughey dubbed in German. But I should probably start my real German homework.

4 Mädchens!

It has been a crazy last few days. My journey to Vienna started out fine. I got on the train in New London at 3 in the afternoon on Tuesday. I hated myself a little for packing two suitcases. I could barely maneuver them on my own. I got to Newark in plenty of time, after going up and down many escalators with all my luggage. I finally got on to the plane at 9:25 that night I met my seatmate, another student in my program, who I had arranged to sit with. To our surprise, the guy sitting right next to us was also in our program. We enjoyed the free wine and beer and movies for the next seven hours, and we had no idea that we were about to embark on a slightly extended journey. When we got close to London the captain announced that there was heavy snow in London and there was only one runway that was usable. So we circled above London for the next hour and a half. Fun times. Then after landing, we sat on the tarmac for another hour. And saw that it had snowed about an inch, and it was no longer snowing. The captain dragged on and on about the runway and the roads being"slippy" for the "heavy snow." Clearly London doesn't know what heavy snow is. Anyway, our flight was cancelled, as were almost all the flights that day. So we got rebooked by a nice Irishman while standing in line, ( British Airways customer service is quite excellent) and got hotel vouchers. At this point we hadn't eaten anything and barely slept. The closest hotel was a half hour from the airport in Wembley so we hopped on a bus with about five thousand other people and off we went. To London. We went to bed at 5 pm London time, after we ate of course, and woke up at 3 am to catch our flight to Vienna. We were all very happy to be together instead of all alone. It was quite the bonding experiance. Our flight the next morning was fine, and we met a bunch of other poeple in our program who got their flights cancelled too. So we FINALLY made it to Vienna. Not everyones luggage made it, but mine did. We fit all 3 of us and luggage in a taxi.

The next two days at orientation in a hostel on the edge of the city, near the Vienna woods. People fell asleep during presentations, at the dinner table, sitting on the floor. I crashed at 9 that night, and slept for 11 hours. But tonight its 10:15 and I am still awake. Hopefully tomorrow I will be a real person and get to see more of the city, because I have barely seen any of it. Plus tomorrow night we are being taken to a wine place, to meet the faculty.

Oh shit. The power just went out in our apartment. We are having exciting times with power converters.

Anyway, we moved into our apartment today. Our land lady speaks very little English, and we speak hardly any German. But we communicated somehow. I turned out to be the one , out of my 3 roommates, with the most German knowledge. So I used my one semester of German to say a couple sentences and translate a few words. It was interesting. We have a pretty big apartment, with tons of storage, and a balcony with a great view. We still have to go food shopping tomorrow, because everything is closed on Sunday.

I'm so proud of myself for staying up until 10:30, but we have to continue to be orientated at 9 tomorrow, so I should probably sleeeep.

YIKES!

I leave TOMORROW. hard to believe. I am in the final stages of packing, and I am finding it hard to part with some of my clothes. Especially since I went shopping yesterday. So tomorrow I will hop on the train in New London at 3:30, which will bring me to Newark airport. And there better not be any security breaches. Or emergency landings. Luckily, through the magic of Facebook, I have met one other person on my flight to Heathrow, and then to Vienna. So I won't be totally alone. And together we can navigate getting through customs and immigration at Heathrow in the 90 minutes we have before our next flight. Yikes.
I only have a few more things to buy, and 2 more resumes to send out. Then its show time.

T-minus 11 days.

I have just finished the list-making phase, and have now entered a state of constantly spending money. I may have underestimated how much stuff going abroad requires. My departure date came up very suddenly. Yesterday, I was in school and I was 2 months away from leaving. I practically woke up today and realized I had less than 2 weeks. So now I'm getting phones, credit cards, luggage locks, hostel reservations, power converters, plug adapters, wool socks, backpacks, train tickets, and the list goes on and on for a couple pages. Also applying for as many internships for next summer as possible before leaving the country. Its a good thing I have no major plans until I leave. I don't think I have fully realized that I am going to actually be. there. so soon. I can't believe I am actually going. I got the address of my apartment in Vienna. The only word in the street name that I could understand was "links" which means left. Its a half hour walk from the IES center where my classes will be and its not far from the Danube. However, even stalking my address on google maps does make it feel real.