Squeezing the Juice!

As we say here at IES, I have been squeezing the sweet juice of life!

Since the last blog I've...

 biked along the Danube. pretty awesome. some day I'll have to bike the rest of it or at least some more of it. It's quite large, as it runs through the entire country. Fun fact: The austrians chopped it in half so part of it is the natural Danube and the other part is filtered water so clean you can drink it! It did look refreshing. Along the canal there is a random man-made beach (apparently a nude beach as my roommate unfortunately discovered as she almost crashed into naked men on her bike tour) clubs and bars on the water, a beach themed club with a swimming pool on top of the river (unnecessary?), and a section of graffiti artwork.

went to a cafe and the Nashmarkt (the biggest supermarket in Vienna) with my German class to practice what we were learning. I love learning languages because any time you have hands-on learning, it usually involves food. After the market, we came back and ate everything we were instructed to buy. It was heavenly. Bread, prosciutto, fresh squeezed orange juice, french brie (which I tried and unfortunately discovered that brie is awful),  and LIPTAUER. Liptauer is a buttery spread you but on bread or crackers and amazing.

gone to two very different bars. The first was a bar called 'feelings'. We decided that was an appropriate place to go after auditions. It was something. We were the only ones there on a friday night and the workers (50 + year old women in neon tube tops and tanned to a lovely orange color) played darts all night and put on Beyonce after Beyonce video on the screen. And then around an hour after we were there a black light comes on all of sudden and a man comes in selling flowers?? I don't believe this is a typical Austrian bar but I will hopefully soon find out! The other bar was on the other end of the spectrum and very swanky. It's at the top of a really funky hotel called the 25 hours hotel and has a great view of the city. I would love to go back but it's quite expensive for this college kid that finds herself buying mostly the 'Budget' brand food items at the supermarket.

started classes! And I have to admit, I have never been so excited about classes in my life! I'm taking a class on my favorite composer Gustav Mahler and we're studying his 3rd symphony. Go check it out if you don't know it. It's an incredible class and the director of IES Vienna is teaching it. He's a Mahler expert and the class is absolutely fascinating! We're learning all about philosophy and Viennese history so that we can understand Mahler's thinking which is so interesting. I'm also taking Austrian Art and Architecture, Arts Criticism, Deutsch, Music Performance Workshop (music ensembles), Private Lessons, and that's it! Hopefully the workload won't be anything straining but I really don't mind doing the work at all. (Did I really just say that??)

taken my first lesson with a trumpet legend. this woman is probably getting close to 70 years old and one of the first female trumpet players to have a solo career and be a principal trumpet player in an orchestra. Pretty awesome. She's plays like a beast, and I can't wait to learn from her!

Spent hours and hours finally booking a flight Paris. I was definitely scammed and didn't realize until the very end so friends, don't ever use Govolo!!