Saturday, part 1

Guten Tag! Today happens to be my 21st birthday! I woke up to some very sweet cards from my parents so even though I'm far away, I felt some love. The group is going for a hike today [I'm conflicted about this. A) I dislike strenuous activity because I'm kinda lazy but B) we're hiking to a vineyard to have dinner surrounded by mountains and the sunset. So can I really complain? No, I can't. And it's begrudgingly I admit that]. Yesterday was quite a day! It was also a vast improvement from the day before.

The people that are staying in the two dorms close together, Gasometer and Ergdstrasse, met up with our faculty director, Herr Kube, who is teaching our Arts and Culture class. I mistakenly met him at the U-bahn instead of the dorm so we had a quick chat before meeting up with everyone. Just a little conversation from someone who was familiar with Vienna and is German himself was an enormous comfort. I know I keep saying that, but being in a wondrous city and experiencing wondrous things is scary and not to mention, exhausting. Sometimes you need ordinary, normal, and comforting in between the exciting and once-in-a-lifetime. Herr Kube also has this great laugh. I come from a family of people with distinct laughs. My mother? You could pick her laugh up from a mile away..not that it's annoying or grating, it's just distinct and special. I loved hearing the uproar as I recounted things that had stressed me out the day before and that morning: the dorm office ladies who said they didn't have a record of us living there, the light not working in my bathroom so I have to shower in the dark, and getting temporarily locked out of my room because I couldn't work the key. After meeting up with everyone, we took the U-bahn to Stephanplatz and walked through the 1st quarter to the IKI school for our German oral tests and a walking city tour.

Stephanplatz kinda begins the older part of the city, thus the touristy part. It features a very large gothic church. Hidden partly for cleaning, the outside is nevertheless magnificent. You walk up from the subway and the crowds, the excitement, and most of the all the church is pressed upon you. The inside was rather spooky. A boy choir was practicing, and it was rather a mournful, experimental piece. Having suffered damage from the bombing of the WW2, the windows have colored plastic over them casting this psychedelic light everywhere. Coupled with the music, I was sorta freaked out.

We walked past touristy shops, high-end designers and eventually the Opera house. Our tour guide mentioned that 90% of it was destroyed during the bombing, but using the same stone and exact plans it was rebuilt. The IKI office was cornered right near the Oper house, and also the Hofburg, Albertina, and other renowned buildings. I picture myself, after class, visiting this quarter, doing my homework near the fountains and parks.

Our German oral testing was rather thorough. We took a second written test which I did much better on than the last. We also did individual conversations with these adorable Austrian ladies. After the first couple of questions, I relaxed and could answer with the same enthusiasm and excitement I express in English. I performed better on the written test, and was placed higher than I expected: A2.2. She could easily switch from German to English, so if I couldn't understand something she could explain. One of the testers actually went on our walking tour with us, which I liked. I made an effort to start a conversation with her several times in German to practice; she was very obliging with that. She and Herr Kube would have these conversations, and I realized when someone wasn't talking to me, I could generally understand them. After our tests, strudel was kindly served to us, and we were sent off for lunch, after which we'd have the walking tour.

The view from the IKI class room was stunning. It's really the best whole view of the opera house we'd have been able to find. Unfortunately, my class is in another building close by. It would have been special, when I gazed about trying to think, to look at such a view.

More about the walking tour in the next post! Didn't want to make it too large..