The Details

I don’t even know where to begin with all of this. 

A note to all of you that are close to me: I really would love to call and tell you this news, but you see I am in Austria, and I don’t really have a phone.  There also is an 8 hour time difference that makes it very inconvenient for me to get a hold of you.  Please just know that my whole life I have had every intention of telling you these stories in person, but some things just don’t work out as planned.  I get back to the States on July 29 and I would love to talk then.  And I am not just saying that.

Ok.

I went to Italy.  For 10 days.  I’m in the process of getting photos up.  I have a lot.  They are all amazing pictures.  They will make you jealous.  I have the funniest and most beautiful friends.  But, you are going to have to wait…

The day after we returned from our 10 day vacation Jana told me we would be going to the Opera.  We had been discussing going an Opera at the Opera house for weeks, so I was prepped to go endure some German vibrato.  We weren’t going to standing room, we were going to actual seats, so we decided to get all dressed up.  The Opera didn’t start until 8, and we got out of class at 5, so we decided we would have cute dressed up photos together in the park before we went.  Everything sounded normal to me.  We take photos of EVERYTHING, so why not have a photo shoot in the park?

I was in a flighty mood, just enjoying the nice weather and strolling around Stadtpark.  We took a few group photos, a few single shots- just the normal things a group of photography students in a foreign city do.

“Jenny it’s your turn.” Krystle said to me after Kayla had taken photos by an aesthetic arch.

“Let me put on my lip gloss!” I said while rummaging through my backback.  Like I said, I was being rather flighty.  I started fixing my hair and adjusting my dress.  Then this happened:

Best surprise ever.  Seriously.  It was amazing.  There were several reasons I was BEYOND shocked to see Kyle in Stadtpark that day.

1. Kyle had mentioned coming to Vienna, but I told him to just save money and we would come back together later.  BUT all during the Italy trip I had been complaining to the girls that I just wanted Kyle to just get the guts to fly out and visit me.  You know, the entire no means yes thing.  So glad he got the message.

2. I had been receiving e-mails all day from Kyle: him talking about what a terrible day he had at work, how tired he was, etc.  I have made the flight from the States to Vienna and it is TERRIBLE.  How did he make it around the world without me knowing?!?!

3. EVERYONE in my study abroad group had known about the surprise for weeks.  Breanna, my roommate, had known for even longer.  No one let on AT ALL.  There is no way I could have held in a secret like that.  These people are AMAZING!  (thanks guys)

4. I was CONVINCED we were going to an Opera that night.  Genius cover.  I was really set pretending to enjoy myself at that thing.  SOOO glad I got to go on a date with Mr. Smith instead.  So glad.  

I told you my life is awesome.

If you are wondering if we are getting married, we are.  I’ll tell about the proposal later.

To my family: I’m sorry that I haven’t given you details until now.  It was just hard to sit down at a computer to write all this down when I had to show Kyle the city in just a few days.  You can ask questions now.

Crazy Life

I have news and I have stories that I can't wait to tell.

I just don't know where to start.

I'm excited.

Read This

My dear friend Jana (she's in MOST of my photos) wrote about our mountain biking experience in Innsbruck.  I laughed out loud when I read it, but maybe it is just because I was there.  If you want to read it, go here, and then look at this.

84. Photoshoot

Before I left to Italy, I got to play dress-up with my roommates.  It was the Vienna Stake's 30th anniversary so they were hosting a Viennese Ball.  I felt like I was going to Prom, it was so fun!  We had a photo shoot before we went and danced the night away.

Our Studio:

I don't think I have ever introduced my roommate Esther.  She lives with the same family Breanna and I live with, but she isn't doing a study abroad.  She is in Medical School here in Vienna.  She is orginally from Alaska but moved here to Austria to go to school.  I think Medical School would be murder by itself, but Medical School in GERMAN!  Wow.  Oh, and on top of that she is super funny and so nice.  I would not have had anything to wear to the ball if she hadn't come to the rescue.

Oh, and she is gorgeous.

Isn't her outfit great?  She got the Audrey thing spot on (with the help of a few YouTube tutorials).

I've mentioned Breanna before, we're room roommates, both on Study Abroad with BYU.  I don't even know to start with some of the adventures and situations we have faced together.  Every day I'm happy that we room together.  She looked great in her ball attire.

Like I said, it was so fun to dress up with the girls.  It was the first time I haven't felt completely homeless looking in quite a while.

83. Bratislava

This one time we went to Bratislava to go to an Opera.  We all had a hard time getting into the trip for some reason.  It was warm outside, our tour guide had a really thick accent, and the other people on the tour with us were REALLY old.  Oh, and the Opera.  It was in Italian with Slovakian subtitles: yeah, not helpful.  I did read the synopsis before so I kind of understood what was going on, but I was still confused by a lot of it.  Anyway, some photos:

82. Gutsy

We found a Kebab place in Ottakring and decided to check it out (I'll probably dedicate a whole post to Kebabs soon).  We had talked about asking people if we could photograph them, so I asked the young girl that worked there.  I didn't really want her to look at the camera, but I had to ask her before, so then she posed.

Kebab stands are always little family joints, usually run by Turkish families.  In this family, the mom and daughter ran everything while the brothers watched the World Cup outside.

Sorry this is kind of a lame post, but it was a big day for me, asking for a picture and everything.  

Later in the day I made the biggest photography mistake of my life.  We were walking down the the U-Bahn and we passed an ice cream shop.  On the front step, four little tiny kids sat stripped down to there underwear eating gelatos of all different flavors.  It was PICTURE PERFECT, and I just kept walking instead of asking the parents if I could take a couple pictures.  I'm still so mad about it.  I'm new at this whole travel photography thing I guess...

81. Donau

We went swimming in the Danube.

The water isn't the most beautiful color I've ever seen, so I decided to play with black and white editing for this one.  I think that might be considered cheating, but whatever.

80. Philharmonic

Want to know how to get your city the title of, "The Culture Capital of the World"?  Have your philharmonic orchestra give free concerts in front of a palace complete with a light show and fireworks.  It's that easy.  I promise everyone will go.  All of Vienna went to this one, including me.  I loved it.

We sat up on the lawn so we could picnic and sit on blankets.  It made me feel like it was finally summertime.  Wonderful weather, lots of people, and A LOT of food.

We couldn't hear the music THAT well, but it was still really fun.  One of the biggest reasons I love Vienna is that there is free stuff like this all the time.  There is another free concert this weekend (except it is Billy Idol and not the Vienna Philharmonic) and we will definitely be attending.

An Explanation

I'm sorry I haven't uploaded recently.  You see I was in Italy for 10 days having one of the best adventures of my life.  I will do my best to get caught up ASAP.  I can't write a lot now because this keyboard is killing me.  If I were to just type like I would on my laptop, this post would go like this:

Hez I just got back from an amyaing adventure in italz.  It was seriouslz so amaying!  I am the luckiest person, I canät believe mz life is this awesome!  Aren#t zou jealous_

Can you see how that would get annoying?

Love and miss you all (the usual + Betsy + Megs)!

79. Tirol

78. Wandern

77. Salzburg

It rained in Salzburg.  It rained a lot.  All day.  I saw a lot of umbrella, and not so many sights.  But here are a few photos I did get.

This photo was taken up in the Salzburg Fortress.  The fortress is a legitimate medieval castle, like the type a whole village could live in.  It was pretty neat-except for the wind and rain that almost carried us away.

I don't like this photo.  I don't even know what this building is.  But I just wanted to point out the gold ball down at the bottom.  Yeah, that's right, the giant snitch thing.  That was a gift from the Germans just a couple decades ago.  It has this weird man on top of it.  It looks very out of place on the streets of Salzburg.

This is a portion of what used to be a mondo-huge music box.  The scroll at the bottom made the organ play over the whole fortress.  I wish we could have seen it in action.

After Salzburg we went to the tiny ski town of Dorfgastein.  I loved that place, even more than Innsbruck.  Our first morning we went to the town church to attend the holiday mass-Corpus Christi holiday.  It felt like Christmas in there.  Everyone was dressed in traditional Austrian garb and it smelled so good!  The kids that helped with the service were adorable and the choir was beautiful.  Afterwards there was a "procession" through the town-which was just the town band and battalion.  It was interesting to see girls in their green cloaks and blue knee high socks playing the piccolo with a pierced nose and lip.  I think it's cool that the teenagers participate in all the traditional stuff.  I was so glad we were there on the holiday.  

That night the locals were still celebrating the holiday by drinking, dancing, and singing all while this guy played the accordion.  SO FUN.  One of the guys came over to talk to us, and knew that we were the Americans and where we were staying.  The town is that small.

76. Profiles

On Monday in photo class we practiced taking portraits.  This meant sixty minutes of getting in one another's faces.  I learned that I have some fabulous looking friends here in Vienna.  Here are are five of the best photos I took.

This is Ambree.  I want all her clothes.  She used to work at Anthropologie.  She lost her passport somewhere in the flight here: luckily the Austrians let her still enter the country.

Here is Cassie.  She is originally from China and she had a bit of a nightmare getting her Visa worked out so she could come here, but she made it.  She's willing to try anything, she shocks us all with her daring.

And there is Ale.  Everyone loves her and gets lost in her eyes, but the Hungarians ESPECIALLY adore her.  She has a standing offer to meet a young man in Iceland.  Romantic!

And then there is Kayla who looks amazing in every photo ever taken of her.  Not joking.  I couldn't decide which of these two looked best, so you get both.  Kayla is from a small town and it is fun to see her open up and have crazy adventures (and hear about them in writing class).

 

And for an extra photo: JP.  It is a lot harder to take narcissistic photos of yourself with a DSLR, but I successfully did not drop the camera on this one. 

75. Biking

On our second day in Innsbruck we went mountain biking in the Austrian Alps.  One of the most amazing adventure of my life.  Maybe I'll tell you more about it (and my accident) in a later post.  Anyway, in celebration of that my photos for the day are of mountains...and bikes...but not together..in Innsbruck, Austria.

Everyone in Innsbruck rides bikes everywhere, and I was really jealous.  I saw these two bikes in the river and I wanted to go fetch them so I ride around town.  I just ended up renting instead.

Like I said, everyone in this town rides bikes.  They are lined up all along the streets like this.  People just lock their back tire to the frame of the bike and call it good.  It is quite charming.

This was my bike seat of the mountain bike I rented.  Ask me if me my butt still hurts one week later.  Come on, ask me.  OF COURSE IT DOES!!  That was like riding a PENCIL!  Oh well, it was totally worth it.

74. Painted

Last week a few of us went to Innsbruck, Austria.  I want to live there.  Every house and building is picture perfect.  The residents are not afraid to use color.  

This building was right by our hotel.  I fell in love with it.

Notice how no two buildings have the same color on this street.

They also aren't afraid of window boxes.  In fact, they love them.  I want one.

This is the main street in Innsbruck, doesn't it have personality??

Looking down the River Inn (the other direction than the photo above).  Everything in this town is set against the most amazing mountain backdrops (in every direction).  Like I said, I want to live here.