The week so far...

I am warning you all that I will not be updating my blog this weekend, because the trains to Hungary decided not to go on strike, so I'm headed back to Budapest! I leave tomorrow afternoon! This week has been nice so far...lunches out, wandering. the usual.

The Past Week

For all of those who apparently follow my blog closely, I am very sorry it has taken so long to write!! The past week has been very eventful! Last weekend, I went to the Art History Museum which was great! It was a bit smaller than I was expecting, but their primary exhibits were Dutch and Italian Renaissance art which was wonderful! They also had a Ancient Greece and Egypt section which was really great. But I was happy because they had Raphael, Titian, and Albrecht Durer. I spent several hours in there. It was very wonderful. I love museums a lot! I will have to go to more while I am here (of course!)

The evening I went to the museum, I also went to Hyojeong's and we watched a movie and had dinner which was very nice. This week passed rather uneventfully. I had classes (German grammar is getting very complicated) and usually went to lunch afterwards with friends (Usually Liviu, Nayeem and Jasmit depending on the day). I also went to Hyojeong's a couple times. It was a nice week though. 

Yesterday, a group from IKI (The School I attend) went on a trip into Wachau! It was SOO much fun!! We went specifically to the monastery Stift Gottweig, Melk, Willendorf and Durnstein. It was great! Just Liviu, Nayeem and I came from our class, along with Liviu's wife, Alina, and Nayeem's fiance Jeremy. Luckily I did not feel like the 5th wheel in the group. Our first stop was Stift Gottweig which is a monastery up in some hills with a very nice view, very traditional Austrian buildings surrounding the church, an AMAZING church and this great valley that it overlooks. We stopped there for about 45 minutes but it was definitely very cool! We then went to a church in Durnstein. It was also quite beautiful. Much smaller and in the middle of the town but it was very intricate inside. 

I overheard a guy say though, (I will not say where from *cough* UW *cough* University of Washington *cough*) "I don't understand why this church is so decorated. I mean I can understand why the monastery in the hills was so decorated, but not this one. It's so small." It reminded me of the lady we talked to on our tour to Cape Sounion in Greece last summer who said "I hate ruins. If I see one more ruin..." Good heavens appreciate the beauty of what you are seeing!

I also saw my first Austrian fire station. 

Anyway, after that we drove to Melk. I must say that driving through Austrian countryside is very beautiful! Melk is a monastery up on a hill overlooking the Donau. Ohh it was beautiful! It's HUGE and is in a great location (though I also loved the location of Stift Gottweig). It had a little museum there. I was not completely sure what the first room in museum was. And even Alina, who's been taking German for a long time, wasn't completely sure. But the other rooms had very nice paintings, some very intricate chalices and plates, statues etc. In one room, there was the coffin of Joseph II (I think). Apparently, he was very frugal so he built it so that when they lowered him in, they didn't actually lower the coffin down into the grave. Instead, the coffin split open at the bottom, dropped his body in the grave and then they could re-use the coffin. Yuck. 

After the museum there was a little walkway so that you're looking at the church in one direction in the center of the monastery from higher up, which was quite beautiful. In the other direction, you're looking at the town of Melk, the Donau and a valley. It was really beautiful. Then you walk through some doors and go into the library which is quite great! It was not gigantic but there were a ton of old books, amazing paintings on the ceiling etc. There was also a room where, when you looked at the ceiling from the center of the room, the actual columns continued upward in a straight line in the painting of the ceiling. However, when not standing in the middle they were tilted. They were only straight from the center which was kind of cool. Then after the library you go down these stairs, which were spiral, painted and quite cool. When you looked down the center there was a mirror that reflected the stairs above and it gave the illusion that the stairs went down for much longer than they actually did (About one floor). But the mirror made it look like you were extremely high up. After the stairs we headed into the church which again was BEAUTIFUL! There was soooo much gold used inside and the paintings and statues again were amazing. I love churches in Europe!! 

After exploring the church, we headed back to the bus. While talking to my teacher in German, I accidentally kept calling my mom "he" which was an issue. Apparently after talking about my dad, my brain couldn't change from "he' to "she" in another language. We then headed to this little park along the Donau and had a picnic. It was quite nice. It was very warm yesterday. My left arm got sunburned during the picnic. Yes, just my left arm. Oh well. By the end of my time here, I will have a wonderfully tanned left arm. 

After that, we headed to Willendorf where the Venus of Willendorf was found. The original is in the natural history museum in Vienna but we went to see the fake gigantic one. Basically, it's this very very very small town (as in like 20 houses) with a wall leading to where they found the Venus and the fake one which is about 100 times bigger than the original.

After that, we continued on to Durnstein. In Durnstein, this quaint little town, we hiked up to the castle (after Alina, Jeremy and I touched the Donau). When they said "a small hike" I figured it would be relatively easy. Luckily I brought my water because good heavens that hike was steep. It was on "stairs" aka slippery and uneven rocks. But the hike was TOTALLY worth it. First of all the castle was really cool. It was built, I believe, in the 1100's and is in ruins but you can still walk around it a bit. Secondly, the view was INCREDIBLE. You can see the valley, the river, with the rocky hills and everything. It's great!! We stayed up there for quite a bit. The last bit to get to the very top was rather intense and made me nervous but I did it and I did not die. The way back down was a bit scarier because at least when going up you're leaning in to the mountain but on the way down you're trying to resist gravity. Nayeem and I saw two very cool lizards. They were black and bright green (which I later learned are imaginatively called "black and green lizards") and just scurrying along with us. I think at some point every single one of us slipped. But it was a lot of fun. 

After Durnstein we headed back to Vienna!! Today was a lot of fun too. Hyojeong and I bought out tickets to Salzburg for next month!! and I am headed to Budapest again this weekend!! I went into my first Libro (kind of like a Rite Aid) and was amused to see all the seasons of Charmed (in German of course) and ER along with the movie version of Angus Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging which has yet to be released in the US. I then met up with Kirstin from GHHS and her friend and went to this market that was just open for the weekend. We bought Indian food and there were Greek dancers dancing while we were eating which was kind of cool. Afterwards we wandered around the center of Vienna a bit. They bought gigantic pretzels and then I headed back to my apartment for about 5 minutes. After sitting in my room for just a bit, I headed to the Prater (an amusement park here) and met Liviu, Nayeem, Hyojeong, Alina, Jeremy and Martin for dinner at the Schweizerhaus. I had schnitzel which was quite good. I am not exactly sure what the specialty food there is called but it's basically the hind leg of the pig and is huge. It is apparently good but looks rather icky. Dinner was very nice. We all get along very well. After dinner we did the bumper cars which I have not done for a long time and it was very fun! The prater is very nice at night too. Lots of lights and music. On the way home, Martin and Hyojeong and I went to see Karlskirche lit up at night which was really pretty. I did my homework which I had completely forgotten about, talked to mom, dad, Adrienne and Kellie and then updated my blog!

Pictures from this week:

Art History Museum: http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/LaurenHillard/Vienna%20Museums/

Wachau (Melk, Stift Gottweig etc)http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/LaurenHillard/Wachau/


Prater: http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/LaurenHillard/Prater/

Searching for flowers

Welll today I went in search of the Hofburg Rose Gardens. I found them but the roses hadn't bloomed yet. But the garden was still pretty and I wandered and found lots of tulips! My miracle anti-blister pad removed itself from my shoe today so I have another blister which is dumb. It's not as bad this time around though. I just wandered today seeing if there was anything new to find where I live. I found the art history museum so I must go see that soon! Other than that, I slept in which was nice, went to Hyojeong's and had dinner (curry and rice yumm) with her boyfriend and then we all watched "Definitely, Maybe" which was pretty good. She also showed me the winner of the world championship in ice skating this year which was great! I love ice skating. It was quite the performance. We also watched Tara Lipinski's from all those years ago. It was a nice weekend day! The weather is definitely cooler than it has been but still pretty nice. Also, I saw an abnormally large pigeon. So I of course said to myself, "I must take a picture of this pigeon" which seemed like a good plan until it flew at my head. Also I fell down some stairs and injured my wrist and ankle. And someone is playing Ricky Martin VERY loudly in the adjoining apartment. But overall it was still a good day!

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/LaurenHillard/Flowers%20in%20Vienna/

Here are the pictures of today!

German is hard.

So I have learned that German is rather difficult! There are far too many ways to say "the" with akkusativ, dativ and nominativ cases. Throw in masculine, feminine, neutral and plural and many issues begin happening for native English speakers who just use "the." The possible "the" words are "der, die, das, dem, den, other der, other den etc" Just saying "the" is so much easier! Also, there are too many ways to say "your, yours, mine, theirs, ours. And all of these make it very easy to say things like "She buys shes lamp." Also, I knew this but you definitely can't translate German directly. For example "Anton will heute nicht ins Kino gehen" means "Anton doesn't want to go to the movies today," but directly translated it says "Anton wants today not to the movies go." And just for simple things it's very different to us English speakers For English the subject always comes first. But in German, if they say "today" or "yesterday" then you have to say (in German obviously) "Today went I to the store." I'm sure I'll get it into to my head one of these days but at the moment it's rather difficult!!


Video number one of the day: Why can't this happen in real life?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UE3CNu_rtY

This is how I feel when I speak German...

Except I am aware that I am not speaking well...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yJ_HrZImWQ

Budapest!

Here is my latest blog post everyone! Sorry it's been so long!

I arrived in Budapest on Friday evening. The people in my train cabin spoke English because they studied in Indianapolis and they were very nice. They were from Sweden and Romania, but they just graduated from grad school, so they were going on a month long trip before searching for jobs. I watched Arrested Development on the train which is quite hilarious. I bought the first season right before I left and am almost done already! I hadn't seen the episodes before. My favorite part was when the character Lindsay took a "two hour angry nap" because she was called a sleep-at-home mom.

Nora and her dad picked me up and we headed to their house! I could tell immediately that the buildings in Budapest were a bit older/less taken care of. But in a good way. They were older but still beautiful! I got to their house and they showed me around. It was originally pink but they just painted it. The house was very nice and has a very pretty garden! Then we ate dinner. We had borscht which was delicious with garlic and sour cream! I would never have said I would have tried and liked beet soup but it was great! They also had this spinach dish with eggs that reminded me of quiche. Afterwards, we chatted for a bit and then about 11 we went to bed. Saturday morning, I was able to sleep in. 

At breakfast, I learned that the Hungarian word for apricot is "Barack." Then Nora, her mom and I headed into the town. Lily wanted to join but she has to school leaving exams in 3 weeks and needed to study for them. They sound rather horrendous. We first stopped at the baths because they wanted to show me the outside of the building. Then, we went to Hero's square which has a cool monument to all the heroes in Hungarian history. Behind it is a fake castle based on one in Transylvania which we looked at. It also has a museum and a cool fake church based on an Hungarian church in the country side. We wandered around the Villas that are nearby which were gigantic and currently house embassies. Then, we headed to this hill that has a great view and a socialist monument. You could see everything from that hill! It definitely gave a great overview of the city. Nora's mom dropped us off at a bus stop and we took it up to "the castle" which isn't a castle but is really the national art museum, a shopping area, the national archives and this very cool building called "fisherman's bjsdbjskadka" (AKA I'm not sure what the name of it is) which is beautiful. We headed back to their house after wandering around the castle for a while. 

On the bus there was a dog that looked like a Wookie. 

Apparently, it was a Hungarian sheep dog/shepherd but it looked like a wookie. And you couldn't see its eyes. We also took the subway. The subway stops were beautiful! When we got back we had dinner, more borscht and something else which I can't remember. Then, we all talked in the garden for a while and Nora, Lily and I watched Under the Tuscan Sun. I'd never seen it all the way through and it's quite good. 

Sunday, we got up late again and ate Easter breakfast (ham, eggs and leftovers) and headed into town. Nora, her mom, dad and I went to the main basilica and wandered around inside which was BEAUTIFUL! And it has a relic. There was also an egg outside the church that was given by Croatia and decorated and was signed "D. Kovacis" which I thought was funny. For those of you who do not get why it was funny, there is a doctor on ER called Dr Kovac and he's from Croatia. We walked to the Parliament building and then to the square where Evita was filmed that also has the american embassy. Nearby is nora's school. We ate cake (which was delicious) and headed back to their house about 730 ish. We then had dinner (more borscht) and this good chicken thingy. Then, we talked for a while and watched "A Good Year." 

Monday morning we had breakfast. Nora's mom's mother and brother and sister in law came over and we chatted, ate more food, and then they took me to the train. The train trip was nice again. I watched more Arrested Development. I wasn't in a compartments this time and I wasn't sitting next to anyone. The view from the train was beautiful with occasional graffiti. I had a wonderful time in Budapest!! Nora's family was very warm and welcoming and we got along very nicely!! Lily invited me to her graduation in 2 or 3 weekends which I will probably go to. I love Budapest!

Today I tried out the level of German above mine but I think I'm behind in that level, since I have no idea how to do the homework. I think it would have been the class I should have been put into at the beginning. But since I missed 2 weeks it's a bit higher than where I am at. But that's ok I still have 3 more months of class after this one!

Here are the pictures from Budapest!! There are a lot!
http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/LaurenHillard/Budapest/

Wiener Schnitzel

I ate Wiener Schnitzel for the first time today. It was very good.

Random Adventures!

Well I haven't blogged for a couple days, so I shall update you all on my life since Saturday! On Sunday I went to a BBQ with Hyojeong from my class which was fun. The weather was wonderful and the food was great! It was nice talking to everyone there (5 total) too. It was kind of funny because we all spoke different languages but some spoke the same so at any given point 3 languages were being spoken. Also, Barbecue's here are very small compared to ours in the US. I was there for a few hours and we just talked and ate far too much food.

Yesterday, I had a lazy day. For some reason I could not for the life of me stay asleep. I woke up basically every hour on Sunday night so Monday morning I was not happy. So I didn't really go out yesterday I did my homework, took a nap and that was about it!

Today Hyojeong, Liviu and I all went to lunch at the pizza place again...yumm. Then Hyojeong and I went to Stephansdom and went to the top which has a wonderful view of the city!! However, when you first exit the elevator, you walk onto metal grating which you can see through, straight down to the ground. I was not particularly happy about that. And of course I continued to look down. Once you go up some stairs the ground beneath you is more solid, so once I got to that I was fine. After that, we looked around the cathedral a bit (which is quite amazing!) and then walked to a park. I think it was called Stadtpark. It was such a nice park! It had a little pond, lots of flowers, and statues of many famous musicians! It was really nice and the weather is beautiful! I even got a bit tan. We headed home after that, saw a guy on a segway which I think are rather funny. The other day I saw a tour group on segways. Overall, the last couple days have been really nice!! I leave for Budapest in 3 days and am not sure what I'll be doing until then!

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/LaurenHillard/Adventures%20in%20Vienna/
Here are pictures from today!

Schonbrunn Palace!

So today was very nice! I slept in a bit and then I headed to Schonbrunn Palace!! Which I must say is quite amazing AND only takes about 20 minutes to get there total. It's gigantic! And the gardens are great! I can tell the gardens will be better once the flowers bloom, so I'll probably go back again. I got there and the Easter Market was going on so I looked a bit at that. There were giant eggs. I then wandered around the gardens for a good hour and a half. They are really pretty and extremely huge! I climbed up a hill to this thing (haha I know so helpful) that overlooks the palace and there's a great view of the city from up there! I then paid an entrance fee and toured the inside of the Palace. Unfortunately, you can't take pictures inside otherwise I would have some! But it was beautiful! So intricate and I loved the paintings and the chandeliers! Basically, Schonnbrunn Palace is rather amazing. Other than that, I saw some more ducks, these weird chipmunks whose legs looked like frogs, and discovered that I had seen the Hofburg Palace without realizing it, thinking it was the National Library! oops. The weather is wonderful and beautiful! Tomorrow I'm going to go to a BBQ. I'm hoping Monday I'll be able to find the Hundertwasserhaus. Third times the charm? I hope so...

These are the pictures i took yesterday when wandering around looking from Hundertwasser (along with a view from my classroom window)

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/LaurenHillard/April%203rd/

And These are Schonnbrunn Palace!

http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/LaurenHillard/Schonbrunn%20Palace/

Oh, I'm also getting incredibly excited for August. Yes, I know I have a lot of other travelling to do before then, but my friend from high school (Ashley who went on the Europe trip when I was in HS) and I are planning a trip from the time she's done with classes to about the 22nd of August. We're planning on going to Prague, Croatia, Bosnia and Montenegro. Email me if you want to know exactly where we plan on going in those countries, because they look awesome.

Another pretty spring day...

First of all, my feet are attempting to detatch themselves from my ankles in the form of blisters. And all the bandaids and tape in the world are not helping. This is ridiculous

Secondly, I am enjoying class. It's really fun and everyone in the class is great. I went to pizza with a couple of them after class (Liviu and Hyojeong) which was fun. The pizza was really good, especially after my dinner last night.

I then wandered back to my apartment to change my shoes and put my books down. I once again went in search of Hundertwasser house without success. I'll try again tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I've got it figured out now and will be able to find it tomorrow. I'm also thinking of going to Schonnbrunn Palace. I hope it's a nice day again! It was about 65 degrees again which is quite wonderful! 

I learned today (and after the walking the wrong direction on Mariahilfstrasse) that as soon as I enter a Ubahn, when I exit I will have lost all sense of direction. Again, I wandered the wrong way when exiting the Ubahn in an attempt to get home. At least this time I figured it out earlier! I tried my icky pasta from last night again today just to see if my tastebuds were being weird last night. They were definitely not. It was still gross...oh well. I made some Pesto which was quite good. And Elice, I had some yogurt. I have discovered the yogurt is quite amazing! Other than that my day was uneventful! Well, I did see an add on facebook that read, "Insemination? Go to storklink.com!" But it was a nice day!

From class to icky spaghetti...

So yesterday if you couldn't tell from my post I was feeling a bit apprehensive about my classes and not being able to meet people. But I'm ok now. Class was fun! I got there on time today! I sat next to two guys, a guy from Korea named JK and Liviu from Romania. First off, during break I'd like to point out that JK said to me "You're from Seattle, do you go to U-Dub?" Yes and he said it like "U-dub" and I was very confused as to how he knew we called it that. His girlfriend goes to UW and she calls it that. Liviu asked me where you had to live in Washington to get to Seattle by boat. He watches Grey's Anatomy, along with a few other American shows. Class was relatively uneventful...still primarily review.

I couldn't find a notebook yesterday so Liviu offered to show me the store where you get them, which would have been great except the store isn't there anymore. He's going to get me one near his house and I'll pay him back tomorrow. I still can't believe I didn't think to bring a spiral notebook. I then returned to my apartment after class to change my coat since it was getting rather warm. I put a light jacket on and went in search of Hundertwasserhaus. However, after writing extensive directions on how to get there I still got lost. So I of course just wandered for a while. It was 65 degrees and I was very hot in my jacket but I stayed out for a few hours. In my wanderings, I passed a store that only sold toilets. There were about 10 in the store and were mounted about 5 feet in the air. I bought some ice cream and understood the lady when she talked to me...kind of. And I swallowed a bug.

Also, for dinner I made what I thought would be good spaghetti. But good heavens that sauce was gross. The weather report shows warm weather here and very warm in Budapest! I'm excited!

Pictures from today!
http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a353/LaurenHillard/Vienna%20Day%208/?start=80

First Day of Class

Well today was interesting. I discovered when my housemother knocked on my door this morning that for the last 2 days I had been oblivious that I was living in the wrong time! Some may say, "Well, yes this is true. You talk like you're in the 1800's sometimes" but that is not what I mean. Austria had Daylight Savings Time on Sunday and I had no idea! Apparently cell phones here (Unlike mine in the US) do not automatically change time and I was uninformed about this information. So I was about 30 minutes late to class since I was woken up at 9 which is when classes start and I had to walk there. Oops! They were understanding though.

Class was good. A lot was review but some of it was new so I think I'm in the right class if it progresses steadily over the next few weeks. I am the only American in my class. There are a few girls who are 15 and then some people older than me (in their late thirties and forties). and a Priest. Apparently class is not where I will be meeting people! Well I will try and we shall see. I then went in search of a notebook since I did not think to bring one to Europe for some reason. I asked my teacher where I could find one but I could not find the store she directed me to. I went into several bookstores and a couple supermarkets but did not find one. So I will ask again tomorrow I guess! Also, on facebook I saw an add that said "Millionaire men who want to date Austrian women. Click here" Oh dear...first the green cards now the millionaires! 

Lastly, my feet are going to fall off. That's all.