The Alps are alive with the sound of music

This weekend in the Alps was one of the best I have ever had. The weather was amazing, the views were spectacular, and the people and conversation was enlightening. Before we got to the Alps though, we had to leave really early in order to get to the mountain with enough time to climb in the daylight. We left from the institute at 8:30 am, and drove about two hours to the Raxbahn, the cable car that went straight up the mountain to the hotel that we would be staying at that night. A couple people got off there and took the cable car up, and the rest of us drove to the other side of the mountain to hike up. We got started around 10:30, and immediately it was hard-going. It was so steep at the beginning and it was a lot hotter than I thought it would be, so immediately I was just panting all the way up. However, I started talking to Brian Gibbs on the way up, who is a Hope alumni from the class of 1984 and lives in Germany with his family. His wife is Austrian and his kids have dual citizenship. He said I should talk to his daughters who were on the hike as well since I could relate to them when it comes to having two nationalities. I got to spend a lot of time talking to Anna and Emily, his daughters, and they are just such cool girls. They are 16 and 14, but are very worldly and interesting people and I'm so glad I got to talk to them. Anna might hopefully be coming to Holland next year to be an exchange student at Black River, so hopefully I will get to see her more next year!

The hike up was simply beautiful. I have never seen views like the ones I saw on the hike, and my breath was really taken away by the sheer awe of the creation around us. I posted the pictures that I took on my Facebook, so go check them out if you want to see them. We stopped three times on the way up. The first hut was a small one with a restaurant, but we decided quickly that we just wanted to keep moving. The second one we got to around lunchtime, so I ate a frankfurter with mustard and sat and drank water and juice. I talked with the Bocks who were on the hike with us at lunch. Patrick has known Doc since basically before he was born and he was born and raised in Vienna. His dad is Austrian and his mom was American, and she also taught German for VSS, so that's how Doc knows her. Patrick has been coming on this hike since he was a baby, and this was his wife's second time. They are lawyers who had been working in the U.S., but had also spent several years in Brussels and are now moving to Cologne, Germany. It was really fun to talk to them and get to know them as well.

After lunch, we had a choice on whether to take the cliff route or the meadow route. The cliff route was a bit longer, but apparently the views were supposed to be amazing, so most of us took that way. And man, was it beautiful. You really felt like you were on top of the world. We were right in the clouds and there are a couple crosses up there that say how high you are.It really was amazing being up there, but more clouds were moving in and it started to rain. We could also hear some thunder in the distance so our guide, Marcus, told us to move faster and not to stop. The rain was pretty light however and the storm never seemed to get to us, so we were doing pretty well. Our third stop was at the Otto Hutte, which is a place that Sigmund Freud spent a lot of time at. We stopped for the bathroom and some ice cream, and started the last leg of the hike. We got to the hotel around 4:30, which was enough time for a rest and a shower before dinner. I was surprised with how good I felt after that huge hike though and it really didn't feel that difficult even though there were lots of steep parts and crazy rocks all over the place.

Dinner was a huge buffet with all sorts of food, and we all stuffed ourselves to replenish after the huge hike. After dinner, the senior seminar class and anyone else who wanted to heard a presentation from Brian Gibbs. He has talked to the class every year for a very long time during the mountain trip, and every year I guess it's a little bit different. He spent a lot of his presentation trying to give us ideas of what to write our Philosophy of Life papers about, by giving us examples from his life. He's lived a very interesting life and I was definitely inspired from his presentation. After he presented he talked a bit more with a few of us over drinks, and talked more about his personal views. I was impressed with how secure he feels in his views and how he's willing to be challenged on them. After that it was time for bed for the start of another early day.

We got breakfast at 8 the next morning, and thne it was time for another presentation for our clss. This time, the Bocks presented and they were probably one of my favorite presentations. They are younger so I felt like I could really relate to them, and they gave us a lot of practical advice. They are also really passionate about working hard in relationships and always being open to new adventures, which is exactly how I want to be as well. They were really great speakers and I'm glad I got to hear them. After that presentation, it was time to head down the mountain! The weather was really nice again but a bit more cloudy and cool, so it was much more comfortable. Instead of taking the cliff route, most of us took the meadow route back down and we could even see some mountain goats in the distance. At the lunch restaurant, I got goulash soup which is probably one of my favorite dishes that I've had here. We continued down the mountain and stopped at the last hut before the bottom. We were really ahead of schedule so many of us stopped there for a while to just chill and relax. However, the bugs were awful there, so a couple of us kept moving. We got to the bottom of the mountain and there was another restaurant there, so we got some Eiskaffes and chilled there until the bus came.

Overall, this was probably one of my favorite experiences I've ever had, and definitely one of the best since I've been here. I hope I get to come back someday because it was that awesome. Only one week left in Austria!

Day trips galore!

This week has been BUSY. Coming back from Budapest, I was exhausted, but had to still get up and do class the next day! On Monday in class we heard from Louise Hodgin-Pickart and her husband. Louise is an American who moved to Vienna in the 70s and has lived here ever since. She and her husband started a charity called Project Centipede after huge disasters happened in Romania. They found out about the terrible conditions that many of the orphanages in Romania were in, so they started collecting supplies to bring to these orphanages. They have now been doing this for over 25 years and supply many schools and orphanages with food and stuffed animals for the kids. It was great to hear their story and what they are doing for all of these kids. they seem to feel that it is more out a sense of duty that they are doing these things than any passion, but I appreciate the fact that they are just doing it. After the speaker we went to a new restaurant, Vapianos, and it was SO GOOD. New favorite restaurant. It has Italian food and has a really interesting system that they use, sort of like a cafeteria, but with food quality that is a billion times better than a cafeteria. It was amazing.
On Tuesday our class got to talk to Elizabeth Mattfeld who works for the United Nations here in Vienna. Originally from the U.S., she's only been here two years, but from her story she really seems to enjoy trying new things and going on new adventures, and this is just another one of her adventures in her life. She has worked in so many different fields but it was very obvious that she is quite passionate about helping people which is her main goal. For a while now she has worked in drug prevention and treatment but that has taken her many different places. Currently she is working for the treatment and prevention of drugs among children, and this has taken her all over the world but especially in Pakistan and Afghanistan. It was very refreshing to hear from someone who describes herself as someone who is "still trying to find my path", because it let me know that it's okay to not have everything figured out right now.
That night, all of us were invited to an opening at an art gallery! The Austro-American Institute where we take classes is also an art gallery, and Tuesday was the opening for an exhibit. I felt so classy going there, everyone was dressed up and there was free food and drinks and we got to meet the artists of the work that was being showcased. It also wasn't just students who were there, there were many many people there because this opening was a big deal. I absolutely loved it and I wish I could have gone to more events like this. I felt so European! Afterwards a few of us went out to go to some bars. We started at Flanagans, where the girls convinced me to try Strongbow, which is a hard cider, and I actually enjoyed it! After Flanagans we wanted to go to Blue Bar but had a lot of trouble finding it until some very nice passerbys pointed us in the right direction. At Blue Bar we ended up talking to some Austrian guys who were very nice and we ended up having some very intellectual conversations with them. It turned out to be a really fun night!
On Wednesday, we finished our unit on the book This I Believed and turned in our own This I Believe essays, and now are moving on to a book of letters and essays by Dietrich Bonhoeffer that he wrote while he was in prison. Bonhoeffer was a German theologian who worked actively against the Nazi regime and was imprisoned and eventually killed because of his protests. We spent the class period being introduced to his life and watching a documentary about him. We didn't have much free time after class though because we were going straight to Bratislava for the day! Bratislava is less than 45 minutes away from Vienna, so it didn't take long to get there. We started out doing a tour of different parts of the city first by bus and then walking. We went up to the Bratislava castle and the Parliament which had great views of the city.

 Bratislava castle and the flags of the Parliament

After that we walked around the Old Town and the main shopping area and had about 45 minutes for free time. Jessie and I got gelato and got some souvenoirs, and then we had to leave right away to go to dinner. We had dinner at the Sheraton hotel which was delicious.

 Mozart played here!

 Liszt lived here!

 Town Hall

We had to have dinner early because we were going to the ballet at the State Opera that night, so we had dinner at 5 and then at 6:15 we had to leave for the ballet. We saw La Sylphide, which is a ballet that takes places in Scotland and is pretty complicated so look it up if you want to know what it is about. It was a very short ballet however, so even with a 25 minute intermission it was over at 8:30. We headed back home after that, but I was sad we couldn't have more time there because Bratislava really is such a cool city.

Jessie and I at the ballet

Thursday was another busy day because we didn't have class in Vienna, but in Baden which is about 50 minutes south of Vienna. We went there to meet with Colonel Roland Werba who is a big friend of Doc's and of the Institute. I've talked to him before at the Institute but didn't know who he was, and it was very fun to get to meet with him in his hometown. He was more focused on showing us Baden and the beautiful parts of the town, but we also heard about his life as well. He is a native of Baden but lived in the U.S. for several years during the Vietnam war to train pilots in the Air Force and he absolutely loves Americans and the States. Baden was also such a beautiful place and it was really nice to be in a small town after being in big cities for such a long time. The buildings were beautiful and Roland took us to many parks and gardens that were just amazing.

 Beethoven lived in Baden while composing his 9th and final symphony

 A clock made out of flowers!

 Statue of Johann Strauss and Josef Lanner

 View from hill in a park of Baden

Building in the Rose Garden

After Roland showed us around, many of my classmates wanted to go to the public baths to swim since it was such a nice day. I wasn't really in the mood however, so myself and new friend Becca went to sit at a cafe while the rest went to the baths. We planned to meet up in 2 hours to take the train back to Vienna, and we just sat at the cafe and talked for those two hours. Becca got an "Eiskaffe" which is cold coffee with scoops of ice cream in it and whipped cream on top and is a very famous drink/dessert around Vienna (I'm actually drinking one right now!). I got a "Flipper" which is orange juice with scoops of ice cream in it, whipped cream on top, and cherry sauce on top of that. It was so so good and such a good way to spend the afternoon just talking and having some great desserts.

We didn't get back to Vienna until dinnertime, so a bunch of us went to Kolar for dinner. Kolar serves pita sandwiches and I got one with cheese, tomato, and garlic curd. DELICIOUS. It was also Vienna Fashion Night, so everywhere you went you saw very fashionable people drinking fancy drinks and parades and everything and we definitely did not feel like we fit in. But after dinner myself, Jessie, Becca, Andrew, and Kelsey M went to a hookah bar that Jessie suggested. At first we weren't allowed in because Kelsey was wearing basketball shorts and a t-shirt, so we went around a corner and Kelsey changed in doorway while the rest of us stood guard in front of her. It was so sketchy but kind of funny too. We went back to the bar, and I hadn't really had hookah before and don't plan on doing it again, but it was an interesting experience and I didn't hate it! It was actually pretty fun to hang out with these people and get to know them even better.

On Friday in class we had one of the most interesting speakers we've had so far. Michael Busboom is an American citizen who has lived in Austria since the 80s and is completely blind. He was only partially blind until a few years ago, but has been struggling with sight all his life. He has had difficult experiences with people treating him badly in both the States and in Austria, but absolutely loves Austria and is now married to an Austrian woman and has three kids. He also has a very deep faith and love for God, which is amazing with all he has been through and experienced. It was so inspiring to listen to him speak and I am so thankful that I could. We had a free afternoon since we weren't leaving for our weekend trip until Saturday morning, so Jessie and I had a relaxing afternoon and then went to the English movie theater to see the Great Gatsby. We were worried at first that it actually wouldn't be in English because the previews before the movie started were in German. We thought we had brought the wrong ticket, but the woman next to us said that the previews are always in German first but the movies are in English. She was right and I ended up really liking the movie. I haven't read the book in a while though, so there were many things that I had forgotten that surprised me.

If you've managed to read this whole blog entry, CONGRATULATIONS. This was a long one. I've gotten worse and worse at updating regularly, but there's only about a week left, so not many more entries to go! Next up, blog about my hiking trip to the Alps. Until then, tschuss!

Budapest

This past weekend we got to go to Budapest, Hungary, and man, what a cool city! We got there Friday evening and had dinner at our hotel, which was Hotel Hungaria. The dinner was very interesting with lots of foods I couldn't recognize, but it was delicious. After dinner we went to the Buda side of Budapest and walked around the Buda Castle and went to the highest point of the city, which is the Citadella. A long time ago, Budapest used to be two cities, Buda and Pest, that were separated by the Danube. The two parts of the cities are very different, but both are beautiful and really amazing.

View from the walk up to the Citadella

Liberation Statue

Buda Castle

Matthias Church next to the castle

Illumination of the city!

View of Parliament from the castle

Also, you can't really tell from those pictures, but the past few weeks it has been raining like crazy, and this has caused the Danube river to rise really dramatically. Streets that are right next to the river have just disappeared under the water here in Budapest and we had to cancel a dinner boat ride because of the river conditions. 

After our tour of the Citadella and the castle, we headed back to the hotel. I went straight to bed since it had been an exhausting day and we needed to be up early the next morning. On Saturday, we had breakfast (best one I've had so far! So many choices!) and headed out for a tour of the Pest side of town. We walked around Hero's Square and the City Park just behind it. These parts of town are beautiful, and in the City Park we walked by the bath spa as well. Budapest is famous for it's bathhouses, and a couple people went to them during the free time and said they had a great time there. After that tour we went back over to the Buda side to walk around a little more. We went by all the old buildings there and saw the changing of the guard in front of the President's house.

Building on Buda side

Also on Buda side

View of Pest side from Buda

Changing of the guard

Also, there was one time that Beethoven came to play a concert in Budapest, and now people from there are obsessed with him. They think it's the town of Beethoven, which is really funny to me.

After the tour, we had several hours of free time, so Jessie and I went downtown to shop and sight-see. The shopping area is very close to the river, so we went down to take a look. These streets are on a lower level than the streets that we were on, but it was a little scary to see the water so close, especially when it started thunder-storming a few minutes later!

After looking at the water we went to the famous St. Stephan's Basilica, which is HUGE. It's a pretty famous church, but we couldn't go very far into the church because there was a wedding going on there! It was just finishing as we got there, but it was cool to see that going on. We also paid a couple euros to go up to the top of the church, and we got some amazing views up there.

St. Stephan's Basilica

Inside and the wedding!

The dome ceiling

Tower at the top of the church

View from the top!

After that it started raining pretty hard so we headed back to the hotel to rest and get ready for dinner. We soon got back on the bus and headed to Hotel Szeged for dinner. We had some really great food there, but the most fun part was the traditional Hungarian band that was playing there with traditional dancers! They were really amazing and I've never seen anything like that before. After dinner some people went out but we were pretty exhausted so we just relaxed at the hotel.
The next day was another early day with a great breakfast but we headed out early for a tour of the Parliament building. This Parliament building is one of the biggest in Europe even though Hungary isn't a very large country, but it was necessary back in the days of the Austo-Hungarian Empire. Our tour was short, only about 20-30 minutes, but the building was so impressive and beautiful that I think it was worth it.

The grand staicase

Inner chambers

Ceiling of inner chambers

After the tour of Parliament the plan was to go to a small town called Szentendre for lunch and free time. Doc described Szentendre as "the Saugatuck of Hungary" because it's very artsy and cool and we were excited to go. On the way there Doc pointed out to us huge Roman ruins that are preserved here. Apparently these are the best preserved ruins outside of Rome, and they were huge. There was an amphitheater and basically a whole city of ruins.

Once we got past the ruins and drove a little more, we realized that we were not going to make it to Szentendre! The Hungarian army was blocking the road and turning everyone away because the flooding was getting so bad in town. We were really sad that we couldn't go, and Doc had to quickly make another plan for the rest of the day. He wanted to take us to a  park where they have kept a lot of statues from the Communism era, and first we thought that was Millinery Park. That turned out to be the wrong park, so we sat around in this park while the professors tried to figure out where we were going. Finally they figured out it was Momento Park that we wanted so we got back on the bus and started driving there. After a couple of wrong turns and wrong directions, we finally made it to the park.
Instead of destroying everything from the Communism days, the government decided to preserve the statues as a remembrance. There were big and small statues, but it was pretty interesting to see something like that.

We still had extra time after the park, and our bus driver recommended that we go to this castle which was just 7 km off the highway. Doc was obviously a little worried because he'd never been there before, but the castle turned out to be one of the coolest parts of the whole trip. It was built in the 1200s as a monastery and has been through a lot of fires and war, and it is such a cool building. This is what you think of when you think of a castle!

The castle

The inside

View from the castle

After the time at the castle, we finally headed home. This was one of my favorite trips so far and I am so thankful that we were able to do it. Someday I am planning on coming back to visit Budapest again and finally see Szentendre. I loved Hungary and can't wait to return someday!

Some exciting events happened over the next week, I will write about them soon (hopefully!). Until then, auf wiedersehn!

The Dynamic Duo

I forgot to mention that on Wednesday I went to the Albertina, an old palace that has been turned into an art museum. And yes, I went there by myself. Lame, I know, but it was actually pretty fun that way. I am a very slow mover through museums, so it was nice that I could go at my own pace and see the things I really wanted to see. In the museum there were three main exhibits: a Dutch painters exhibit, an exhibition called Monet to Picasso, and an exhibit of paintings and photographs by an artist named Gottfried Helmwien. My favorite exhibit was the Monet to Picasso because I love impressionist painters and there were some really beautiful impressionist paintings as part of the exhibit. The Helmwien exhibit was interesting but disturbing as well because he uses children who are hurt as his main focus, so it was really hard to spend a lot of time looking at them. However, he makes some really great statements with his work that I could definitely appreciate.
On Thursday, we had two sets of presentations. In the morning, we heard from Vladimir Rimac, a native of Sarajevo in the former Yugoslovakia. He told us a lot about the history of Yugoslavia and all the wars that it went through, especially in the 20th century. He also told us about his own history, and he has traveled all over the world and managed to escape when there was a war happening in Sarajevo. He also told us about his family life, and he has two sons, one of whom is autistic. In order to take care of his son he had to give up studying at the university and it's been a lot of work taking care of him. But he said that he wouldn't give it up for anything, which was very inspiring.
In the afternoon, we heard from two very amazing and cool women named Judann Weichselbraun and Lilly Warenits who are both American and married Austrian men. Doc likes to joke and call them the "dynamic duo" because they are best friends and always do their presentation together. Their presentation was probably my favorite one so far because they are just such cool women. They have so many insights about what it is like to live in Vienna for a long period of time and their stories about how they ended up in Vienna are so funny and interesting. I especially loved Judann, who is a singer, performer, and teacher who is currently running a program in primary schools all around Vienna where she gets students excited to learn English by using songs and dances. Basically she's doing what I would love to do! We might get to go visit her classroom next week and I am so excited to observe her.
On Friday we got to get out of the classroom and go to a Protestant German-English church to hear Reverend Ines Knoll talk to us. She described her life to us and that she wanted to become a Reverend at age 10. Austria is more conservative than some other countries so she found it a little more difficult to be a female Reverend, but she has convinced every single person who doubted her that she really is good enough. She was such a cool woman to hear from since she is working in a profession that is very male-dominated. She also talked to us about how important it is to do what you love but not to get overwhelmed by stuff you're trying to do. She gave some really good advice that all of us could really take to heart.
All of these speakers so far have been so inspiring and I am so excited to hear more. This weekend we went to Budapest, so I will write about that later!

Discovering my inner child

The beginning of session two has been an interesting experience. It is very different having a lot less people here in the program, let alone brand new people! However, it's a new experience and I have definitely enjoyed it so far. On Monday, we started the first day of classes of this session, so I had my first Senior Seminar class. I am really excited for what I am going to learn about myself and the other people in my class, but it definitely will be a lot of work for just a couple weeks. We will also have a guest speaker almost every day from people who live in Vienna but have had very different experiences throughout their lifetimes. In class on Monday we talked about our backgrounds and about what we're going to be doing in the next few weeks. After class Jessie and I got lunch and I was pretty exhausted after the seriously crazy weekend, so I spent the rest of the day at home just relaxing, doing homework, and skyping with the family.
Tuesday in class we had a discussion on readings from a book that we are working through called This I Believe which is a book of essays written by all sorts of people, from famous to unknown, that finish the sentence "This I Believe". It's a really great book so far and I am excited to read more. After our discussion we heard from Herbert Czermak, who was actually the professor for the history class from last session. He has lived such an interesting life, being born right next to the Czech border and studying in a small town, and then going to the United States to study for several years. He's also traveled all over the world and spent time in so many different countries and has so many great insights on living a life that is focused on the global community. After his presentation we had about an hour for lunch and then went back to class for another speaker. We got to hear from Maria Verber, so one of the coolest ladies I have ever met. She is 90 years old and has such an amazing story. Her family is Jewish so she saw the discrimination against her family during WWII. She managed to make it out of the country over to England and then to the US. She got married in the US but ended up coming back to Vienna and has lived here for the rest of her life. She has so much energy even though she has seen some terrible things. She asked us questions too and made us think about our own families too. After she finished talking to us Jessie and I decided to go shopping but spent another pretty relaxing night at home.
On Wednesday we had another speaker in class named Mickela Moore. She is a lawyer who grew up in the United States but always had a desire to live abroad, so in college she spent a year in Spain and since then has lived in England, Hungary, and Germany, but her base has been Vienna for a long time. She has had such an interesting life but right now she is doing what is called "art law". I didn't really understand what it means, but I think they recover paintings and make sure that the right person owns the painting. She really loves art, so as part of her presentation she had us paint! There weren't enough paint brushes so a lot of people had to finger paint. I don't really have any artisitic talent, but she gave us some topics and told us to paint symbols that go along with those topics and they could mean anything we wanted. It was so cool to have that freedom to paint whatever we wanted and it didn't have to be good as long as it meant something to us. It was such a fun day and it was really fun to see all of these seniors in college having a blast finger painting.
What a great start to this new session, can't wait to see what the next few weeks bring! Tschuss!

Italia

Between the two sessions the ones of us who stayed got a free weekend. So... Jessica and I decided to go to Venice! Here is a summary of what we experienced:

1. We stayed in a tent. Yes, a tent. No heating, no air conditioning, no bathroom except for one that we had to share with about 50 million other people and about 100 million bugs. There were mattresses and blankets, but I was not prepared to rough it in Italy.

2. We visited the San Marco Basilica, the Doge's Palace, and the Campanile, all beautiful and amazing parts of Venice.

3. Venice is not as pretty as I expected- the canals are awesome, but the buildings are pretty run down and it kind of smells.

4. I didn't feel like I got real Italian food. I felt like the restaurants were catering to tourists and giving us what they thought we wanted. Not as good as I was expecting.

5. GONDOLAS ARE SO MUCH FUN. WE SAW MARCO POLO'S BIRTH PLACE FROM A GONDOLA.

6. So. Much. Shopping. Bought some awesome earrings made from Murano glass, which is glass from an island part of Venice.

It was a weird trip. Not having a set itinerary was kind of hard for me and made the trip kind of stressful, especially when things I didn't expect happen, like the whole tent thing. We also had more people with us than we thought, so that was difficult for me to try to make everyone happy with what we were doing. Lots of good things and some not-so-good things. Learned a lot, but happy to be back in Venice.
Time to start session 2! Ciao!

End of Session 1

This week marks the end of the first session of the Vienna Summer School, which meant a lot of hard work but a lot of fun times too. I spent a lot of Monday and Tuesday working on papers and homework, but still had time for going out for Audrey's birthday dinner and spending time at the Belevedere gardens with some lovely ladies. On Wednesday our class got to go to the House of Music Museum, which is probably the coolest museum I've visited so far. We spent the majority of our time on the 3rd floor, which was supposed to serve as a review for our final, which was happening the next day. Each room on this floor is dedicated to a different composer who was lived in or was strongly influenced by Vienna, and we had talked about each of them throughout our class. Each room was designed differently to reflect the composer's personality or music and it was a really great capstone to our class. After we finished that floor we were free to explore more or leave. Many of us went down to the second floor, which was so interesting and very modern. It was all about how sound is created and you could create your own sound as well, but it is definitely very influenced by 20th/21st century music.I geeked out like crazy and wish I could have spent more time there. That night, Kelsey and I did standing room at the opera to see the ballet Don Quixote.Kelsey hadn't been to the opera yet, so we needed to get her to the opera! While standing in line for tickets we met a really cool couple from Australia who has been traveling for more than 3 months now and will just keep traveling until they run out of money. We had some really great conversations, and I am so jealous of their freedom to just go where they want! The ballet was absolutely amazing, I had never really seen a ballet before and it was even better than I expected. The music combined with the dancing was so spectacular and I absolutely loved it.
Thursday was a national holiday for Austrians, so our class got to go see our professor play organ for a mass and hear the baritone that come into our class earlier sing. The music was beautiful and I was really fun to see Wolfgang in his element playing the organ. After the mass we only had an hour and a half to take our final, which probably wasn't enough time but I barely made it. After the final was over we had a farewell dinner for the end of session one, since almost 40 people are leaving after this session. The lunch was full of nice words said about all the professors and full of goodbyes, and it was a great way to end the session. We made plans with Meredith, Allison, Kelsey, and Audrey at 8 pm at Schönbrunn palace, because that night was the annual summer concert put on by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by guest conductor Lorin Maazel, who Kelsey and I saw earlier with the Munich Philharmonic. This concert usually has 150,000-200,000 people attend it every year, so we were pretty excited to go down there and see what it's all about. Jessie and I got to the subway station first, which was surprising for us, but soon Meredith and Allison plus Rebekah arrived too. We were just waiting on Kelsey and Audrey, and I had thought that they would have been the first to get there, so I started getting worried that something had happened to them! We waited 15 more minutes and finally we saw them getting off the subway. I was just so relieved that nothing had happened to them that we screamed and ran to them and gave them huge hugs like we hadn't seen them for years. It was a pretty adorable moment.
But after that, we went up to the palace. We weren't sure how long we were going to stay since it had been raining on and off all day, but we pushed into the crowd and tried to get a good spot. We saw the first piece, and then the rain started coming down hard so we decided to leave. The music was wonderful, of course! We left and went back to Schwedenplatz, where I had read about a karaoke bar being near there. We weren't able to find it though, so we went back to one of our favorite bars, Cafe Bloom, and had a few drinks and some really nice conversations. That ended up being the place where I had to say goodbye to Meredith, Allison, Kelsey, and Audrey, and it was not the easiest moment. I am so glad I got close to these girl over the past few weeks and Vienna will definitely not be the same without them. Meredith, Kelsey, and Audrey had to leave first, and after they left Jessie, Allison, and I went over to the Zanoni and Zanoni gelato shop and had another drink with some dessert as well. After that we said goodbye to Allison and headed home.
What an amazing three weeks it has been so far in this beautiful city. Here's to three more being just as amazing!