56. Strassenbahn

So, public transport. It's a complicated thing sometimes.  Our commute to school isn't too bad.  We walk about 15 minutes to the street car.  Apparently we can take a bus instead of walking, but Breanna and I can't figure out where the bus stop is.  The first day we went and stood where we thought it was, but the bus just sped right past us.  So now we just walk every day.  The street car is OLD.  It creaks and has wooden chairs, but it has personality.  We only have to ride it for like 20 minutes, and we get dropped off basically at our school door (which is right by the Opera house--awesome).

There are 4 modes of transportation overall in Vienna: the train, the subway, the streetcar, and the bus.  Between those four things I can get anywhere, it just takes patience and some time looking at this CRAZY map of Vienna.  I'll have to take a picture of this map or something, it is ridiculous.  The street names are SO LONG here that any attempt to make a map is just ridiculous.  This map tries its hardest though.  It makes me cross-eyed every time I look at it.

Here are a few photos I took taking the street car home one night.

Since I don't have 5 photos for the day, here are a few bonus photos pertaining to public transport in Vienna:

Here: Jana and I after making it out to the 19th district to fetch my wallet from a nice guy that picked it up for me.  We had to take the subway and a bus (which we took the wrong way at first) to get out there.  The whole thing took about 2 hours.  I kinda wish the guy would have just met me downtown (especially since when I got to his house he asked me to come in).

Below, Breanna and I riding the street car on our first day.  Yeah, my hair is crazy.  I know.

And here is Jana, Amelia, me and Kayla being Superfly.  This is on an U-Bahn station downtown.  Apparently it is a radio station advertisement.  There is American music playing ALL THE TIME here.  I guess I was hoping I could get away from Lady Gag-Gag.  Oh well.  Pervasive American culture, I guess.

55. Naschtmarkt

In the first district, where we have school, there is this amazing street market.  It is easily the largest in Vienna, and everything looks so interesting there.  In photo class we walked over and tried to see what we could capture on film.  This day I decided that I could never be a photographer, I just don't have what it takes.  However, it was a fun assignment anyway.  The colors were amazing, and I had such a hard time not buying every pastry I saw.  The good news was I handled a few conversations auf Deutsch rather well.  That was exciting.

At the nicer end of the market there are several cafes.  Cafes are a big deal around here.  Like a really big deal.  I'm a fan of them myself.  In this photo I can see at least five different cafes.

This photo below is probably my favorite of the whole day.  I just love how vibrant those peppers look.  I want to eat them right now.

Und heir ist frische Erdbeer.

Like I said in the last post, I LOVE orchids, and they are ALL OVER this town.  There are flower shops all over, and the Viennese always take flowers home for the weekends.  They are all GORGEOUS, and pretty cheap.  I wish this flower thing would catch on in the states.  I think Holland or Denmark is the largest flower exporter in the world, which might explain why they can sell flowers cheaper here.  Anyway, I'm a a big fan.  Unfortunately I couldn't come up with a photo of the Orchids I was really happy with, but this one will have to do.

This was probably my second favorite photo of the day.  This barrel smelled TERRIBLE, especially since it was right next to a barrel of sauerkraut.  I honestly don't know why I like this photo so much.  I promise most of the food here looks a lot better than this.

Whew!  Five photos a day is a lot!!

54. Familie

On Thursday Breanna and I traveled to meet our host family. We took a taxi (with a crazy angry but well dressed female cabbie) to our place in the 16th district. We picked up some flowers for our first meeting.

We got to our house and instantly loved it.  The garden, the front gate, the kids toys ALL over.  Es war sehr toll.  Our room is very Euro-Ikea, we love it.

Love orchids.  LOVE THEM.

And here is Jonathan, a little boy in our host family.  

This kid is the best German teacher I have ever had.  If I'm not close to fluent by the time this summer ends I will be very surprised.  He has so much energy and he answers all my questions all day.  So excited to be living with a family.  They are all so nice, and very patient with my German (they speak perfect English, of course).  Besides the two parents and Jonathan there is a year and a half year old boy, a old sweet dog, and a very cuddly cat.  They are all great (and mormon).  I have so many stories, and I've only slept here three nights.

53. Arrival

I took a two week hiatus to relax from all things that seemed remotely similar to homework. However classes in Vienna have begun, and I must now start posting photos for my photography class again. (Between you and me this is the best homework ever, but I'm the girl that works on 12 page Heat Transfer assignments). Because our class is more official now, we are posting 5 photos a day. That is a lot for me. I'm not really the girl with the camera always out, but I guess I will be now.  I'm sure I will be happy about this later.

May 3rd or 4th (I get confused because we never slept), we arrived in the city of Vienna. Es war ein langes tages. I think that says it was a long day. Ambree lost her passport and couldn't get through customs so we all camped out in the Airport for a while. With all of our luggage we all looked like little gophers popping our heads out of the ground.

As we waited we checked in with families and such, letting everyone know that while the 24 hour ordeal was uncomfortable and somewhat terrible, we made it alright.

We all forgot the uncomfortable flight when we got to our cute, classic Viennese hotel.  Breakfast at this place was fantastic, and the pillows were so soft.  It felt great to go to sleep...for a few hours.  My body really wasn't used to the time change.

As evidenced by Kayla at dinner, it was a long day, but we are all happy to be here and ready for adventures to begin.

Midnight Plight

I’m not one for long flights in the first place, but this one has been especially difficult.  You see, currently I am flying to Vienna, Austria, a 9 hour flight from Washington D.C.  As I write this, it is 9:00 pm Utah time.  I left my house at 4 a.m. this morning and I still have 4 hours on this plane.  Justifiably, I’m pretty tired and uncomfortable.  I’m ready for this travel day to be over.  Normally I would just try to sleep (maybe pop in a sleeping pill), but I’m in a bit of predicament.

I have to go to the bathroom, and the guy between the aisle and me won’t wake up.

I’m not on the verge of wetting my pants (yet), but I have to go just enough that I can't sleep.  I’m also nervous that if I don’t go soon, the seat belt light will come on for turbulence, and I will be stuck with a full bladder.  So, I’m on edge trying to figure out how to get out of here.  Here is what I have tried:

·           Tapping him on the shoulder

·           Turning on my reading light

·           Making my computer “accidentally” make noise

·           Tapping him on the shoulder

·           Standing up (so I am essentially ‘hovering’ over him—like a creeper)

·           Turning my computer up to a blinding brightness level

·           Talking to him

·           Tapping him on the shoulder

Obviously, none of my tactics have worked or I wouldn’t be writing this.  I’m SO tempted to just step over him, but there are a few problems with this: I am in a skirt, he has very long legs, I just don’t have the space to take a giant step over him. Also his hands are in his lap, and I am afraid that if I startle him they might go up my skirt or something, and that would be beyond awkward.  This guy is some Associate Dean at John Hopkins, and he’s read like 7 newspapers since the flight started, so he doesn’t seem like the guy that would be okay waking up with a college girl in his lap.  He also doesn’t seem like the type of guy that wakes up.  EVER.

So here I sit, waiting until I can no longer stand it and I have to shake him by the shoulders like there is a terrorist on the plane.  I seriously keep looking over at him every sentence to see if he is showing ANY sign of life.  I don’t know how much longer I can handle this.  I wish I hadn’t downed that water bottle with my disgusting airplane dinner (pasta carbonara—terrible idea).

Also, the woman in the seat in front of me stole my pillow.  Don’t worry, not like a pillow I brought from home or anything, but the little red pillow provided by Austrian Airlines.  She is using TWO as she’s lying against the oval window.  Surely she must know that the airlines only gave her one?  She had to reach down behind her chair to grab it, so I really don’t know why she thinks she can use it.  I just had it sitting there while I was trying to wake up Mr. Neck Pillow.

Oh gosh, I don’t think I can hold this much longer.  Maybe one of the stewardesses all in red can come help me.

OH, HE MOVED.  I’m OUTTA here!!

I’m back.  Crisis averted.  Airplane bathrooms are gross.

On a separate note:  while this blog was created to host photos for my photography class, I have decided it is just going to be my all things Vienna blog.  That way, when the summer ends, I can just print it all off into a neat little book, and not have to worry about keeping a journal or anything.  Plus, I have to keep my Mom updated so I can make it into the weekly family photo pages.

A few more items:  I flew on my first Boeing 777 today.  Those things are HUGE!!  And SUPER comfortable.  Unfortunately, we only were on that plane from Chicago to D.C. so I didn’t get to enjoy it for very long, but I did sleep that entire flight.  Also, the pilot says everything in German, and then again in English.  I can’t understand a word when he speaks German.  That is making me a little nervous.

Bis nächsten Mal!

50. Adventure

My goal is to fix this $3.00 suitcase up so it can accompany me to Europe.  Doesn't it have personality?

42. Professor

This is Tom, our study abroad professor, rocking his Nikon.

I cannot wait for this summer adventure to begin!

35. Classmate

Ale in Vienna class.  We are all beyond excited/scared/nervous/thrilled/everything.

1. Mail

I nearly wet my pants when this arrived:

Don't ask me how many pictures I took of that stack of mail.