Towers and Bones...Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral)

It's finally getting sunny and warm in Vienna, and today, as a result of the sunniness and warmness, as well as me getting out of school three hours early, Ursula took me to thoroughly experience Stephansdom in downtown Vienna. Stephansdom was designed to symbolize three levels: the lowest level (underground) symbolizes the dead, and there are many, many dead people in the lowest level of Stephansdom. The middle or ground level, the church part, is for the living, and then the third level, for the saints and other holy creatures, is symbolized by a large amount of statues built slightly elevated off the ground.

Still above the third level is a bell tower. There are something like 600 steps up an ancient medieval stone spiral staircase to get to the top. It's completely worth it, however, because at the top is a wonderful, 360-degree view of pretty much all of Vienna (other than the suburbs).

After the bell tower we took part in a tour of the catacombs. I've been in a few castles and cathedrals already, but I've never been in the creepy, dark, tunnely parts. For those readers who don't get a picture in their heads with the mention of "medieval catacombs," I'll describe it for you.
First there's a small chapel with the preserved inner organs of high-standing members of Viennese society, mercifully shielded from viewing by metal urns. (Basically, they wanted to give the three major churches in Vienna the honor of keeping a part of the people, and so one church receives the heart, another church receives the body, and Stephansdom receives the organs... The tradition still carries on today, as far as I can tell...I'm sorry if this post is a little too grody, or a little too in-detail...I happen to find it terribly interesting.) The next part is the cemetery. The floor is dirt and the walls are stone, and it's extremely dark, and I could kind of picture someone with torch walking around, you know, like in all those movies set in the Middle Ages. This part of the church was built in the 14th century, but wasn't used as a mass cemetery until the 18th century, during an outbreak of the bubonic plague. As I mentioned earlier, there are more than 11,000 people buried in the catacombs. Again, I'm sorry about the gruesomeness of my post, but what I'm leading up to, is that as one walks through the catacombs of St. Stephen's, one can see the bones of more than 11,000 people, in little rooms lining the catacomb passageways. There are bones thrown around, in piles, or even built into stacks to conserve space. Just the sheer amount of bones is amazing. Basically after coming back up out of the catacombs, the only word on my mind was "bones." The tour itself was really interesting, and contrary to expectations, I didn't feel the least bit queasy throughout the whole experience ...I guess one could say that after a few centuries have gone by, bones stop being gross and just start being old.

Ok, back to March... Here I am!

So now I'm all caught up, and can post about March!

Firstly, something I'm proud of, I've been reading Imperium, a historical thriller by Richard Harris set in Roman times. It's about 460 pages total, and I never would have even tried to read the thing if my German teacher hadn't suggested it, but I did, I am, and it's working!! It's so much fun to read, like a fun challenge and I actually really enjoy the story. So, if you're looking for a book to read, read Imperium. In German.

Second, I went to Denmark!!!!!

Thursday, instead of gym class, Ursula drove me to the airport and I got on a plane to Copenhagen. My friend, Sarah picked me up and took me to her mom's home, where I stayed through Saturday night. Friday morning I woke up to the sound of seagulls, a sound I hadn't heard in a while!! Plus delicious fresh-squeezed orange juice, oatmeal, and a hot cup of coffee :) Sarah and I walked around the city, just to see what there is to see in downtown Copenhagen.
The best part was the harbor. I didn't realize how much I had really missed the ocean. I mean I guess it seems silly, like missing a tree or a hill, but it's just something I like having around, the sea air, the sea gulls, and just the ocean being there! Plus, the Copenhagen harbor is beautiful with its sailing ships and colorful buildings, and it was simply wonderful to see.
In the afternoon, Sarah took me along to her English class, which was really fun, and then after that, we went to Sarah's favorite museum, a sculpture museum, which was really cool, with lots of ancient Egytian, Greek, and Roman statues, as well as some Neo-Classical stuff. Finally we came home to delicious French crepes and then went to sleep.
Saturday was a day packed full of excitement! We started at the Round Tower, a tower built without stairs, rather with one continuous spiral, so that the King could drive his chariot to the top instead of having to walk. From the top of the tower we enjoyed a beautiful view over Copenhagen, and the OCEAN, naturally.
Next we watched the changing of the guards at the royal family's palace (Fact: Denmark has the oldest existing monarchy in the world!). It was fun to watch the marching band, and they all wore the same gigantic fuzzy hats as the English guards!
After that we took a canal tour. It was sunny and beautiful, and it was 360 degrees of water and ocean, and I loved it. Plus, I learned a whole lot about the various building of Copenhagen, mostly built in the 19th century and got to see a lot of the water front.
After that, we went to Sarah's father's house for a traditional Danish meal, smørrebrød, literally "smear-bread", and beer. They had done a heck of a lot of cooking just to show me the traditional Danish meal. The whole family did their best only to speak English at the table, so that I could understand, and Sarah's father took it upon himself to show the correct way to eat smørrebrød." (One must always eat the fish first, the meat second, and end with the cheese.) It was a great evening!
After dinner, Sarah, her boyfriend, and a friend of theirs took me out to a place for the young population of Denmark. It was a really cool place: the ground floor was more organized like a cafe, with tables and chairs, and then down in the cellar were some couches, random chairs, and pool tables, as well as loud music. It was pretty chill, just a place to drink and smoke and play pool. We stayed there until about midnight, and then went home.
Sunday we slept in a bit, and then Sarah's father drove Sarah and I up north about an hour to see the castle from Shakespeare's Hamlet. We drove up the coast so that I could see some of the old Danish fishing towns and a little more of that beautiful, beautiful ocean. It was a beautiful drive, and Sarah's father told me everything he knew about the fishing towns and Denmark's history, which was really interesting. It was extremely sunny until right around the castle, where it became extremely foggy, which I liked. The castle sits right on the coast, and with the castle, coastline, and fog, it was a perfect Shakespearean mood, I found. Unfortunately we couldn't tour the inside of the castle because it had already closed, but it was wonderful just to get to walk around the outside. We then drove home, just in time for me to pack up and take the subway with Sarah to the airport and for me to fly home.

February.

February was the half-way point of my year, scarily enough. Other than a lot of thinking and stressing about the time left, not much that I can remember happened in February either.

Wait!! Report Card:

4-History
4-Math
3-French
3-German
3-Geography & Economics
2-Music
1-Biology
1-Ethics.

The Austrian grading system is basically so: 5 is a failing grade, and 1 is the best possible. In history I got a 4 on the test, which was the only thing counting in the grade for the semester. In math, well...it's kinda tricky over here. French, German, Geography are satisfactory, nothing more, nothing less. Music...it seems we barely had the class, since we only had one hour a week, and class was canceled so many times. For the 1 in biology, I basically wrote a helluva long essay, which really impressed her I guess, because I didn't do much else in the rest of the class. In ethics, well I guess I earned that one, but that was another once a week subject, so it wasn't hard. And that's that! First Semester Report Card.

January...

The biggest January highlight was the Zauberflöte, Mozart's famous opera. I got to see it with school friends in the Vienna Opera House, which was a birthday present.

Otherwise...January was comparatively uneventful.

December!

December was, of course, Christmas-y. Firstly, it snowed like crazy, which had started in November, and carried on until December, if I remember correctly.

Christmas in Austria is amazing.
With the snow, Christmas markets, Advent, Christmas cookies, and just overall mood, it is a wonderful place to be. The Christmas markets are wonderful, with little stalls where you can buy artsy-craftsy things, sweets, meat, wine or punch, and other such things. Downtown Vienna is decorated with lights, and it's just cozy and wonderful. Agnes baked zillions of Christmas cookies in the Advent season, some to be saved for Christmas, and some to eat right away.

In Austria, as in many European countries, Christmas Eve is when everything happens, not Christmas Day. Everything starts in the evening, with a big dinner. We, for example, had meat fondue, and for desert a lemon sorbet, ice, and alcohol drink. Next we opened presents, which the "Christkind" (Christ Child, literally translated) had left for us. Finally, we went to church for a midnight service.
Christmas Day is then spent eating and visiting family.
A few days later, we left to go skiing in Bad Gastein, a ski resort somewhere in the middle of Austria. We split two apartments with another family, one apartment for kids and one for grown ups. On New Years Eve, we partied the Austrian way: first a countdown, then Viennese Waltz, shooting of fireworks in a field, and then back to the apartment. Inside, everyone got to choose a lead figurine of a luck symbol, for example a crown, a pig, or a mushroom. Then everyone took turns melting his or her figurine in a spoon over a candle, and then dropping the figurine in a pot of cold water, where the lead hardened. Whatever shape the hardened lead became predicted the future for the new year. Mine, I believe was a fish, meaning I would have luck in games. Finally, we all ate lentils for good luck and went to bed.

November...

So! November... was my birthday!!

But that was at the end of the month... At the beginning of the month we discovered Bobby's, a store that carried American, Britisch, and Australian food (and Naan, of all things), and practically lived there for the first few weeks. I mean they have everything there!! Poptarts, Rootbeer, Reese's Cups, Oreos... it was like a mini-American culture embassy, and I got kind of a warm fuzzy feeling every time I went inside.

On the 27th was the school ball, which was really a great experience!! I mean, I got to wear a gown and chill in a palace--not really an everyday experience!! School balls are basically the big social function of the year for the school; all students, parents, alumni, and teachers, as well as anyone else interested is invited. For the Kundmanngasse Ball there were two rooms with music, one with classical ballroom dancing music for the adults (and very, very drunk teenagers who wanted to try waltzing), and a disco for those young whippersnappers like myself. It started with an opening show, which included teachers dressed as vampires, and then people separated off into groups, drank champagne and wandered through the various rooms. At 12 there was a show conducted by the "best dance school in Vienna," which didn't last very long, and then everybody split off again, and Agnes and I went home around 1 or 2 in the morning.

Since both Agnes and I had been out partying hard on Thanksgiving, we celebrated a day or two afterward. Although celebrating Thanksgiving has basically nix to do with Austrian traditions, we cooked up the full meal: turkey, mashed potatoes, cornbread, stuffing, vegetables, and a pumpkin pie to top it off. We decorated the dining room crazy red white and blue and ate with the cousins.

On the 30th was my sweet sixteen. When I came to school and walked up the stairs, people yelled at me to run into the classroom. When I got there, there was a birthday cake for me with a sparkler-firecracker-type thing in it, and they had decorated the blackboards with streamers and such, which basically made my day :) In the afternoon, I got enough courage to invite people from my class to go ice skating with me, which was really fun, and then we came back to the appartment to chat and drink punch. All in all, a really, really, really good birthday, and a great close to November!

Time goes by...October.

So here I am, it's the 21 of March, and that means a little more than 3 months left...which is crazy!! I mean that's all I can really say, I guess. Outside of the highlights, the last 6 or so months...well I can barely remember them! I guess I'll do a post for every month since September, although I can't remember much, to be honest, but here we go!!

After September, in most orders outside of alphabetical comes October, so let's begin there:
I think October was kind of a settling-in month. As exchange students we quickly found the cheapest ways to get ice cream and sweets at once. Our route was basically, in a direct line from the subway station, Manner for chocolate, Zanoni & Zanoni for ice cream, and then finish at McCafe for a final goodie. Luckily this habit didn't last much longer than October...

So October was nice, if rather uneventful.

Things that are happening...

So. This is probably going to be kind of scattered, sorry. Hello hello!!!

To be honest, I'm doing quite swimmingly!! So music: Bob Dylan as of late, as well as !!! and No-Fi Soul Rebellion, for those of you that care..:) Plus I got to play drums in music class yesterday!!! So much fun :D I've been practicing guitar too :)

I've been spending a lot of time with my awesome AFS pals :) we're pretty tight, and we have a lot of fun together!! We do a lot of shopping too..hmm.

School is a lot of fun, I think. Sometimes it's kind of boring, especially Latin, because I don't understand a lot, but it gets better every day. I really like learning French again too, so yay!!
The important thing is, I come back everyday feeling so, so happy!!! Just wonderful!!!

Today I made cookies with Agnes!! We used my American chocolate chip cookie recipe, but they turned out crunchy with big air bubbles in the middle...surprise!! Still delicious though :)

My life is good. My friends are good. Even things that seem bad at the beginning are always good. And things that seem good at the start are good. Life is GOOD!!!

First week of school = vorbei

So. First week of school is done, but I'll start on Tuesday, because that was my first day :)

Tuesday: My host sister, Agnes, very kindly walked me to school, although it's like a 12 minute walk. I was a couple minutes late because I had to go to my head teacher first thing, so when I entered the classroom everyone was already there, and of course he had to introduce me to the whole class. Scary!! The funny thing is, everybody warned me that the Austrian students might come off as cold because they wouldn't approach me or talk to me at all. It was exactly the opposite! EVERYONE came over and asked me how I was, how I liked Vienna, have I seen Grey's Anatomy, what's the weather like in Seattle, etc. Everyone is super helpful.

Wednesday: school was good, fun, awesome. Do I understand anything anybody says? No. Does it matter? No! Everyone's just nice. And willing to repeat everything at least four times, so. Es geht. And after school I got to meet Oma, and I tell you this lady is awesome!! She can bake delicious cookies, ride the subway, and text!! We took a tour bus around the city and she cooked me yummy Austrian lunch.

Thursday: not a bad day, but it was kind of flustered from my end. not bad though. I hung out with Oma again, and we played a memory game. Plus, some people invited me to lunch! Probably out of sympathy, but yay!! I couldn't go though, because of my AFS Germany class. 'Twas quite a fun class though.

Friday: everybody got their books yesterday, except me because they order the books, and there weren't any extra. I guess I just share with people until they figure out what to do with me, which isn't bad at all. I also had a rather intelligent conversation about different types of Oreos with a classmate. My Deutsch is progressing. Plus I finally went running today!! It was only for like 25 minutes, but it felt kind of good.

So differences between Autria and the U.S.
Austrian culture so far=food. Like all I've done since I got here other than go to school is eat. And it's good food! Eat braekfast, go to school, come back and eat lunch, do something productive, have coffee and something sugary and delicious, chill for a bit, eat dinner, watch TV and eat more food. :D

Something else I noticed: at first everyone seems unhappy when you walk by them on the street because when you smile at them they just avoid eye contact, but I guess it's just not what they do.

Plus did you know you could double lock a door? Maybe I already mentioned that, but weirrrrd!!! In a good way though. Weird in a good way.

This doesn't really count as a cultural difference, but, I love it here!!!! So much!!!!!!! Happy!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!! Austria!!!!!!!!

The Saga Begins...

Salzburg!!!!
Passports from everywhere :)
Homies :):)

So, here I am, first day with my awesome host family in the middle of VIENNA!!!! And it's GREAT!! But I'll start at the beginning.

1. Sometime last week (this parts going to be kind of vague because of the time zone-hopping) my parents and I drove to SeaTac airport at around 2:45 am to start the adventure.
2. I had a 4 1/2 hour flight to NYC and then had an orientation for several days (I think two?), where we pretty much ate, slept, and talked about being an exchange student.
3. Next we flew 6 hours to Heathrow, and then 3ish (?) hours to Vienna, then a 3 hour bus ride to Salzburg.
4. I had my first multicultural experience trying to explain the Star-Spangled banner to another exchange student :)
5. We arrived in Salzburg and played a lot of fun games and learned a lot about Austria, specifically Vienna.
6. After a couple days of orientation, most of the Vienna-dwelling students had a 3 hour train ride to the Vienna station, where we were picked up by our host families.

That pretty much sums everything up, schedule-wise. So now I'll say, I really, really love Vienna and my host family!!! I know I've barely seen any of the city, but I love it already!! So much!!! It's great!! Everyone should live here!!!!

I guess that concludes this post, so I'll add some pictures and that's that! :):):)