85. Roma

After a rather lengthly blogging break, I am back to posting photos (I'm still shooting for five a day).  However, before that, I have some catching up to do.  Like I said, I went to Italy for 10 days with some of the most wonderful people at BYU.  IT WAS FABULOUS.  Seriously, best summer vacation ever.

Our first stop was Rome.  We took a night train from Vienna to Rome on a Sunday evening.  Let me tell you--a night train does not mean a sleeping train.  We tried all laying down in our compartment, but there were just WAY too many feet in my face, so I went and slept with some strangers.  Once I did that I was able to get some zzz's.

Once we arrived and took care of some logistics and planning stuff, we went to the Colosseum.  It was incredible!  Do you know it took them like seven years to build it?  It is crazy what slave labor accomplished back in those days.

The romans love the trees shown in the photograph below.  They call them pine trees....yeah, I was confused too.  They like them because they can plant a bunch of them together and make a big umbrella of shade.  Italy gets warm--not for us, of course because its just been a freak summer--but usually the shade is quite welcome.  I think they look neat.

We went on an actual tour of the Colosseum and Roman Forum, just so we could understand things a little better (and not be like, "Hey look...some old stuff!!").  It was super interesting.  Below is a church that is standing in the Roman forum.  The six lovely ladies were my travel companions: Krystle, Ambree, Maria, Jana, Kayla, Whitney.

Can you believe that people in Rome just drive past this on their way to work every day??  It is unbelievable to me!

That night we went to the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain (and ate gelato-naturally).  We all threw coins into the water at the same time.  I learned later that you are supposed to throw in TWO coins, one of which is to guarantee your return to Rome someday.  I think I'm just going to make that happen anyway.  I could have spent a lot more time in this city.

It was a perfect first day in Italy.

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)!