There are not yet words. There are simply no words to describe last night. I got home at 6:40 am, slept for 5 hours and went to class. I will attempt tomorrow when I have enough of a brain to encompass the surrealness of last night.

Happy Dancing!

The requested apartment pictures...

This is our living room. It is actually huge. It extends to the left with a whole other couch so we have lots of space for hosting friends and family. Our landlady is so sweet she told us we don't have to pay to have guest stay over. Off to the left next to the window is the door to the balcony. I have already posted views from there.
This my room. I am on the left (your left) side with the strange animal blankets. When we arrived all of our beds had these slightly hideous large blankets. I like being warm--I will put up with mine. Behind the door are shelves where we store our folded clothes and to the left we have a nice little wardrobe for hanging things.
Through here is our storage/where we put our laundry to dry. The door to the right leads into Marissa and Eloise's room.
Our lovely shower/laundry room.
Austrian toilets are a little strange but it's nice that the toilet is separate from the shower in the morning.
And last but not least is our itty-bitty kitchen. It's not too bad except for when all four of us get the cooking bug at once. We had this problem last night--it's kind of fun though. Things are loud and tight but we reach around each other and share what we can and it ends up being very fun.

My roommates and I are horrible about taking pictures so we still don't have very many of each other. I will try to remedy that soon!

Happy living!

Becca goes to her first Sunday mass...

I would like to first clarify that I did NOT burst into flames. Instead, I froze. Quite literally.

Last night after a wonderful (but tiring) night at the Opera, I thought I would once again "squeeze the juice" (as Kent likes to say) and head to Augustinekirche for my first mass ever--in German. Why would I bother to drag my tired, sore-throated body out of bed any earlier than absolutely necessary on a Sunday? Because every week at 11am, Augustinekirche performs a fully composed mass. Today's was Hadyn's Große Orgelsolomesse or "Large Organ Solo Mass." You can guess why I went!

Figuring that I was in Europe, and in a Catholic country no less, I figure being well dressed would be a necessity. Well, here's the thing I didn't know: Sunday morning mass is NOT heated--even in 10 degree weather. Everyone was wearing the warmest clothing they owned and no one even took off their coats. I cannot imagine that type of cold is very good for the poor instruments that play every Sunday.

Despite the cold, the music was glorious. All of that stone was incredibly live allowing all of the sounds to mix and mingle beautifully. It was entirely surreal. The soloists were also wonderful. I especially liked the bass soloist and the tenor soloist. The gospel Processional was perhaps the most heartbreakingly beautiful thing I have ever heard on a Sunday and we had a lovely Alleluia refrain to sing back. For the first hour, I LOVED the music and got totally lost in it.

Of course, during all this the cold was slowly creeping into my hands and feet. And, speaking no German, and having never been to a mass in my life, I was completely lost during most of it. By the time the first hour was over, I had lost all attention to the service except my aching feet. Of course, being mass, I had another forty minutes to go. About the only thing I remember of the service from that point was when I started a conversation with the man sitting next to me. He spoke no English, and I speak horrible German but I did tell him I am a student and I learned that he does live in Vienna. I tried to ask if Augustinkirche was his home parish but I didn't understand his answer. I love how friendly people are once you approach them here. It's amazing to see the change from stand-offish to friendly, especially if you tell that you are a student and not just a tourist.

After that quick conversation, I only have memory of cold as I scurried through the wind back to the U-bahn and then scurried from the U-bahn to my apartment. My toes are still aching this evening from the cold. It took me thirty minutes of hot water to get them un-thawed. I then proceeded to take a two and a half hour doze since I ached everywhere. My throat hurts and I have a painful/stiff neck but it has finally started to feel better after a day spent in the house. Hopefully, with some good sleep I will be better by tomorrow. I certainly hope so since I have another German quiz.

In good news, Alpine Club Vienna finally put up a time for their meeting next week. I am really excited to go. Also, two weeks from now we have German finals and then a week long break. Adrienne and I have decided to go to Barcelona where it is a balmy 50 degrees compared to our frigidness here. After we get back from break, the students should be back at the University which means language buddies will be starting up soon! Wunderbar!

Oh so many exciting things in such a short time. I cannot wait!

Happy experiencing!

Hello Saturday...

It's been a busy couple of days...

Yesterday I had my first German test. I am pretty sure I rocked it. I was very excited until today when I woke up and had my most epic fail day of German ever. Mind you, I was hanging out with Americans all day which meant I was thinking in English all day but still. What's a girl to do?

We had our first meeting with our main coaches for the Performance Workshop. Our professor, Dr. Fieldman seems totally awesome. She sent us our voice teacher assignments as well which makes me SUPER happy. I am desperate for some new repertoire and to start taking lessons again. It wasn't too surprising that Noelle and I ended up with the same teacher recommendation. This will be exciting! I am also really excited for the workshop--we'll be doing some opera scenes, a few duets, and some things with instruments. I am super stoked to be doing chamber music--singing alone gets so boring so quickly!

Today I woke up early and went to look around the Fleamarket in the Naschmarkt that happens every Saturday. I met Denise and we proceeded to freeze our buns off. It is SO cold here. At least I am super European cute in my brand new Second-hand jacket. It's red and black plaid--it's a good thing it has cute structure or I would look like a lumberjack. Best find ever. I got it at the Humana which is kind of like Goodwill but money goes to other countries. It is pretty darn sweet.

After the failure of the freezing cold fleamarket, Denise and I picked up Noelle (they live together) and went dress shopping. I officially have a dress for the ball and I am pretty much in love with it. It will travel well AND I look amazing in it. I am so excited for this Thursday! The best part of dress shopping was that the sun (SUN!) finally came out. What a lovely day.

To cap this beautiful day, I had my first introduction to standing room at the Wiener Staatsoper! Adrienne and I (as well as quite a few other IES students) stood for all four hours of The Marriage of Figaro. It was AMAZING! For four Euros and two hours of early arrival time, I just saw a whole professional opera. Can life get any better?

Down side to all the fun I've been having is that I am wee bit sick now. >.< Wish me luck in recovering!

Happy Opera-ing!

Pictures and things

Here are some pictures of the sixth district. More to follow later, when I am not in German class.
This is the view during the day from my apartment down Linkewienzweile.

The nighttime view (with snow!).

Water, Zwickl, and other delicious things...

A quick blog about three of my favorite things here:

Act 1: Water

Das Wasser in Wien ist gut! I have no idea if that is a grammatically correct sentence or not but I will repeat it again and again. The water in Vienna is good. Very good. For those of you fact nerds out there, here's one for your next party: Vienna has the best big city water in the world. It comes directly down from the mountains along various pipelines some of which were built back in the 19th century. That's right folks: I wash my dishes and flush my toilet in fresh, mountain spring water. How cool is that?

One of the coolest (yet slightly inconvenient) things that stems from this is the absence of water fountains. There are no water fountains anywhere. Why bother? You can just drink directly from the tap of any WC (bathroom) and since there are no chemicals in the water, there is nothing to corrode the pipes. As a singer, and water drinker extraordinaire, I must admit, I am getting S-P-O-I-L-E-D. Compared to the chlorinated mess that is Tacoma water and arsenic mess in Urbana, this aspect of life is pretty sweet.

Act II: Zwickl

"Ich möchte klein Zwickl," was the first phrase I successfully used auf Deutsch. Zwickl is an unfiltered beer which means there is still some of the grain and yeast left. Most Austrian brewers will have both a filtered and an unfiltered version. Best. Thing. Ever. It tastes like beer should taste--rich and the beer flavors suddenly make sense. I did not really like beer before coming to Austria. My second night here we went out to a place near our orientation spot and grabbed a beer with some of the Student Services staff. I was sitting there drinking my first glass and thinking "Hey, this is a lot better than American beer but it's not that great." Then Kyle let me try his zwickl and it was love at first taste. The bitter flavors that are usually too sharp suddenly had depth to them and the acidic watery taste was completely gone. Plus, it's healthier--right?

Needless to say, if you are going to come out to the real beer-making lands. Get a zwickl. It's SO worth it.

Act III: Cafe Culture

There is no such thing as bad food here. Okay, yes, almost everything that can be fried, is fried but other foods are amazing. This evening my roommates and I went out to grab desserts at a coffee house. We wandered down Linke Wienzweile for a while and ended up going to the Naschmarkt and sitting at one of the little cafe's there. We ordered the best desserts ever.

Anyway, the point of the entry: cafe culture. I love how much time the Viennese take with things. If you want your check you have to literally hunt down a waiter, not because they want you to buy more but because it is expected that you will sit and talk for hours and hours. Here, bringing the check right away would be rude. It would imply trying to hurry someone out which is not at all the culture. I love that. It can be tad inconvenient when you are in a rush but still so nice and wonderful. Noelle and I experiences this a little bit our first morning in Vienna when we sat down in a cafe to waste the morning away before it was time to meet our orientation. I intend to go it alone tomorrow morning and do my German homework at a Cafe. I am so excited! Hopefully one of the free WiFi cafes will be open and serving breakfast.

Finale:

Time for bed. My bed is very strange. It has what feels a bit like box springs on the bottom but on top is very dense foam. It is a bit hard but I actually rather like it. What I don't like are how flat our pillows are. They don't offer much support. I might have to remedy that if my back keeps acting up. Oh well. The one thing I really like is a the shared disdain for top sheets. As a restless sleeper, I appreciate the lack of limb rending, bunching, twisting, top sheets. So much easier to sleep with and SO much less to make in the morning.

How beds relate to food/liquids--I don't know. But either way, speaking of my bed is making me crave it.

Happy Kaffee-ing!

That fear thing...

Fear of judgment:
I just realized my biggest weakness: I am afraid of making a fool of myself around Austrians. Like a real fool. Like enough of a fool to actually meet some Austrians and become their quirky American friend. I need to get over this and go make friends with whatever horrible language skills I have. This is my goal: I will make an Austrian acquaintance within the next two weeks. I will.

Fear #2: meeting new people
February 1st in the next meeting of the Alpine Club Vienna--a group that operates in English. Hopefully, this will be a successful venture and I will meet some new people. My fellow IES student, Matt has said he is interested in coming with me to that meeting. Hopefully he will hold good to that.

Pretty Dress and Euro:
There is a ball in a week. I am trying to decide if I can afford to find a used dress and pay the 20 Euro entrance fee--it would be an incredible night but potentially like prom all over again especially if Fear #1 & 2 hold true. Plus, it will be pricey. So many decisions, so little time. Another fear: money. Always in my head. *Sigh*

The Illusion of Fear:
I went to find the practice rooms near my apartment this evening. Creepiest adventure ever. I was never in any danger but I did accidentally trespass on the wrong building. I found the street I needed--LOOONG walk and I had to keep reminding myself that this was not Chicago or Tacoma--but they gave us the wrong building number and the building I first went to was unlocked. I wandered up a staircase trying to find the practice rooms. The lights turned out on me half way up the stairs (they do this to save power) but when I tried to find the button to press for the light and accidentally hit someone's door bell. I felt so guilty. I apologized profusely but I got the impression I annoyed the crap out of them. I then wandered up the other stairs, and crossed the courtyard to wander up the other two staircases with no success. This building was old! And there were all these creepy unlocked doors (one which led to a brick wall). At the bottom of one of the staircases, it looked like the lock had been broken and their was this ancient set of steps down to what appeared to be a very spiderwebbed basement. I had to fight back the sound of ostinatto strings in my ears. CREEPY! This apartment building was straight out of the old haunted house movies. And here I was trespassing and wandering around.

When I finally got outside again--rather angry and pissed since I wanted to practice--I looked over a couple doorways and discovered a key pad on the building next door. I was so relieved when my code finally worked. Luckily these stairs were quite well lit however they were just as twisty. When I did finally reach the top, I discovered the coveted keypad again meaning that I had FINALLY found the practice rooms about an hour after setting out. Let's just say the rooms are not particularly nice and Martha would certainly not approve (especially w/ all the mismatching doors, broken lights, and water stains from obvious roof leaks) but they were quiet. And the best part, they are on the roof which means a really pretty view of the building next door.

I have auditions tomorrow for the Performance Workshop. Not supposed to be too big of a deal but I want to do well. Therefore it is sleep time.

Happy fear-busting!

Catching up and such...

Here is one of those potentially long posts that simply describes all the interesting things up to this point so that I will stop being behind.

On Saturday night my roommate Marissa and our friend Alicia and I decided to go out dancing. This was going to be a fabulous idea--we were meeting up with a few of the IES students who live a few blocks off and one of their full-year roommates. When we got to the train station we learned one thing: you can have liquor anywhere. Even on the train. Even just chilling in your pocket--as long as you are not belligerent, feel free to carry your beer around. The three of us met the guys at the U-bahn station only to discover that they were first going to IES apartments of 15 some girls in one building before going out and that we should be packing alcohol. Um... not so much! We ditched them and hung out over at Düregasse (the other apartments near by). At midnight we went to the Discothek.

Well, we learned a few things. For one thing, dance clubs have cover. >.< For another, Saturday at the U4 is American 90's night. Whoops. Not going to lie, it was exactly what I expected from a European Dance Club--dark, large, loud, and no one could really dance. Oh well. The lights were fabulous and the smoke machine was fun but the tobacco smoke was really eye drying.

Being hit on by Austrian is rather strange. Staring here is not something rude--it's how you flirt, I think. The idea is that you lock eyes with someone and then smile or nod to indicate interest aka come say hello. Yea--being hit on by old guys not so much fun. That and I am just really bad at the whole locking eyes thing. It feels against my nature here. However, the dancing was fun--really fun actually. And when we finally left at 3:30 we had out first night bus experience. There are buses running all night after the U-bahn (underground) shuts down. The S-bahn (streetcar), U-bahn, Autobus, and the Nachtbus are all on the same payment system so that if you get a weekly pass, you can ride all four all week. It's awesome.

Needless to say I was not so happy the next day when we had meeting starting at 9:30 (four hours of sleep--I will NEVER do this again). We had meetings about the center and meetings about the Music program and all sorts of crazy meetings before we took a walking tour of the city.

Now, I am used to cold. I can handle cold but this was COLD! The temperature said 32 but the windchill was 16. Since it had been warmer earlier in the day, I was walking and standing outside for two hours in just jeans, a sweater, and a fleece. BURRRRRRR!!!! I had even forgotten my hat. However, everything in the inner city is just so beautiful. We toured around the Hofburg (the winter residence of the Hapsburgs). This place is crazy. All the old architecture stemming from the middle ages onward through the Neo-Baroque.

We also went inside the Augustine Kirche and Stephansdom--Wow. There is no other word for it than Wow. The Augustine Kirche had these beautiful dark wood baroque benches and an organ to die for. The choir section was ugly as all get out--made of concrete and moderness but the alter was this monsterously tall neo-Gothic set of statues and gold. It was beautiful. The unfortunate thing about all this is that it was a) a quick tour just designed to familiarize us with how close things are and b) was too cold to allow us much time for wanting to stand still. I cannot wait until I have the chance to sit and look more closely at everything. Better descriptions will follow, I am sure.

This morning we had to get up again to go register. Every citizen in Vienna must register their residence and when they move. So the my three roommates (Marissa, Eloise, Adrienne) and I wandered through the sixth district up to the seventh district to find our local registration office. We proceeded to have the wrong address, then get pointed towards the police station, and then told which office to go to where we promptly misread the signs, walked up four flights of stairs, and then learned we were supposed to be on the first floor. Back down we went. I was first told that the computer system was down so they could not register us but then it kicked back in (thank goodness!). After that we hit one of the main (cheaper) shopping districts to pick up school supplies, adapters, and other necessities. Now I am sitting here and writing. Time to go start my first German class!!!

Happy walking!

On Orientations and Things

This past few days has been orientation. Yay orientation. Our lovely directors keep telling us we should go "squeeze the juice" and get out into the city and explore. They then proceed to shove us into housing on a Friday night, tell us we need to be at Mandatory meetings at 9 am Saturday and schedule us within an inch of our lives for the next two days. Oh yea. And we are supposed to go grocery shopping so we don't starve Sunday. All I wanted was a nice day just ONE day to maybe move in and settle down in my new apartment. Perhaps get some good sleep. Go to a disco. Ya know--BREATHE a little. But instead the insanity continues through our first weekend so we have basically nine days straight of things to do. Masochists--every single one of them!

Alright, enough with the whining. Now that I have gotten that out let's focus on the happy things. This city just rocks. There is no better way to say it than that. I am in love. I am in love with this city unlike any man I will ever meet. There is a thriving cafe life, a subsidized art scene, and a hopping night life. The U-bahn is clean and safe. The people are quiet unless they are out partying. Somehow the Viennese make the German language sound pretty. I am simply addicted. We start German classes tomorrow and I cannot wait. I want to be able to talk to people--even simple sentences--so I can stop explaining at every conversation that I don't speak German (even though when I say this my accent is good enough people stare at me funny). I cannot wait until my schedule is such that I am not walking around with a big group of Americans all the time--I like the quietness of Vienna and the people and I want to experience that in a big big way.

There are so many other things I could talk about but I went to the Discothek last night and only got four hours of sleep. More on that trip another time.

Happy living!

Where to start...

Traveling was, well, an adventure to say the least. I arrived at O'Hare Terminal 5 at 4:30 on Tuesday for my 8:35 flight just in time to take 15 minutes checking in and 20 minutes going through security. For those of you who have not been to Terminal 5, past security exists a whole lot of nothing. So I sat and enjoyed four hours of reading and phoning friends--my last chance to do so for a very long time.

At 8:35 I hopped on my plane and watched the Skybridge slowly detach. This process was followed by a not so happy clunking sound--not exactly the first thing you want to hear before take off. A few minutes later we learned that the air system had misfired when the auxiliary power was turned off causing a pressure back-up. Oh goody. But the engineers sent us on our merry, ocean-hopping way.

I shared a lovely row with an ex-pat heading back to Bordeaux and a nice guy going to visit his family in India. They were pleasant companions especially the woman. She had such an easy going nature which was nice. We hit some amusing turbulence in the middle of dinner. It was interesting to see everyone waving their elbows around as they attempted to eat with little plastic knives and forks. I was waiting for the grumpy, whining Brits behind me to stab an eye out. I suppose karma is not quite that instantly gratifying.

Things eventually calmed down. After my food I was completely exhausted. I had taken a Tylenol PM to knock me out right at the start of the flight and that coupled with the wine was taking it's toll about an hour in. Five beautiful hours of sleep later and we were only an hour away--so we thought.

Anyone familiar with Seattle knows that when it snows, people go crazy. It turns out, when it snows in London, Heathrow goes beserk. First of all, at least from the airport it did not appear to be that much snow. I know I am from Illinois and all so we fly unless it is ACTUALLY still snowing and white-out conditions, but this was ridiculous. First, we had to make a loop about an hundred miles out to give them time to clear off a runway for us to land. It was amusing to watch the flight path on the little television screen--it was this nice long arc with a little plane making a circle at the end before covering up London. This delayed us about an hour which was fine. Why worry when you have pleasant company and a team of pleasant flight attendants to bring you drinks? When we were finally allowed to land we were forced to sit and taxi for another 45 minutes before finally making it to a gate.

Remember that happy little noise at the beginning of the trip? Well, it turned out we blew our entire auxiliary power (makes you feel safe, neh?). So, after flying around in a circle for an hour and then taxiing for another hour, we were forced to wait another thirty minutes while we plugged our plane in. (This seems like a strange idea to me--hehe "I am sorry, hold on just a minute. I need to go plug in my airplane!")

So, after a somewhat eventful flight (for all I know more could have happened in the four hours that I slept but I was so dead to the world I never would have known) I finally arrived at Terminal 5, said farewell to my seatmates and caught a bus to Terminal 3. The next three hours were spent in line, talking to a number of people heading to Barcelona. Why? Well, if we remember the craziness about snow--every BA flight until 6:15pm was canceled.

Everything from there was kind of a blur. I met a nice man named Joe also stranded by the same canceled flight. We had a nice discussion about Vancouver where he was returning from and his job as a international game reviewer. That was a bit of fun. The stressful part of all of this was I had no idea where Noelle was. We were supposed to get in within a few hours of each other but with the canceled flights and all the chaos, I ended up being transferred airlines and we never found each other. When I finally made it to Vienna, five hours after I was supposed to have arrived, I was never so happy as when Noelle called my name at the baggage claim.

Some lost luggage paperwork later and we finally had a bus to take us to our hostel. We dropped our bags and ordered our first Austrian beer before crashing for the worst night of sleep of my life. How I can stay up for so many hours and then not sleep is beyond me. Completely beyond me. But I managed it.

I promise a more exciting update in the next few days. All I can say is this: I have a balcony view onto one of the main streets of Vienna. Life is so beautiful!

Happy layovers!

My bags are packed. I'm ready to go...

I am not quite so certain about the second statement in the title. My bags are indeed packed but the ready to go is another can of worms. Ready to be gone: yes. Ready to leave: no. Big difference those two things. Times of transition make me antsy and a bit grumpy. I always feel caught between what I would still like to do before I leave and what I feasibly have time to accomplish. I also have to remind myself to sit and smell the Central Illinois air once in a while. It's been so cold here that everything smells crisp--pretty darn good for calming down my rather busy brain.

Random things I have deemed necessary to take with me on this trip:
-Climbing gear (who ever would have guessed?)
-Edna St. Vicent Millay Sonnets and a small collection of T.S. Eliot (these come with me everywhere even though I only read them occasionally)
-Chaco's (there is nothing better for running around on warm-ish spring days)
-Fleece sleeping bag liner (I am making a guess that this will be the most useful thing I decided to pack)
-Bunny Bear (I decided to leave behind the baby blanket but the bear I have slept with since birth had to come along)

Luggage count: 3
-One external frame backpack
-One 22in. carry-on rolling suitcase
-One small carry-on duffle that connects to rolling suitcase

Hello world. Bring it on.

I will be flying to Heathrow where I will meet up with my friend Noelle. We then have the same flight to Vienna followed by a public transit adventure to find our hostel. I had a anal moment yesterday and typed up all the travel directions for the next 48 hours until we hit orientation and someone who knows what they are doing can take over for a while. Orientation will hopefully be fun--there will likely be another post later on why I hate orientations so much. However, for now I will work on keeping an open mind.

Next time I write I will be 6-9 hours ahead depending on your location.

Happy traveling!

Insomnia

I get really bad insomnia leading up to large trips or when I have a lot of things to do in a limited amount of time. It is especially bad when I do not have the structure of a schedule to help organize things. Hence the post at 2:10 am.

Happy Snoozing!

Summer Planning

I finally decided to act on my declaration that I will never spend another summer in CU by applying to internships in Seattle and Washington DC. This has added a level of stress as I am trying to complete this while maintaining four different addresses and five phone numbers. I finally understand why email is so valuable--when I am thousands of miles away and paying an arm and a leg for phone service it seems silly to give out contact information that is location dependent. But back to the subject at hand: three applications almost done and ready to ship. I feel accomplished today. Now about that packing thing...

Happy applying!

On Skiing in January

To start off a new year and a new decade, I learned how to ski. That's right. The daughter of a Wyoming native was never taught how to ski. Too late to learn at 21? I think not! To begin my epic quest towards black diamond domination, I, along with my mother, future step-father and brothers, sister, and sister's boyfriend headed to the mystical climes of Barboo, WI to take on the mighty Cascade Mountain.

Notice that I said Cascade singular not to be confused with the plural Cascades where I normally reside. And don't let the "Mountain" confuse you. For those that view the Midwest as flyover states, don't worry, you haven't read your maps wrong--this "mountain" is a baby foothill. Nothing more. Still, I cannot complain too much--I got to learn how to ski on the "hill" and it was sweet.

Rule number one about skiing in January in Wisconsin: IT IS COLD! It was 5 degrees. That's right 5! What were we thinking? Toe warmers are the most amazing thing ever invented. I also had to thank Santa profusely for the very warm long underwear that kept me from shivering right out of my bindings. Still. Skiing in January in Wisconsin? Not cool, COLD!!!! Thank goodness I had my excitement and shear blind panic to keep me warm.

I started out my epic adventure with a group lesson, starting small and taking on the bunny hill. I did not fall once on that bunny hill or getting out of the lift. Booyah! After that lesson, my mom took me up to do my first green run...here comes the first fall. I got off the lift just fine but I forgot that whole stopping thing. I proceed to shoot down the exit hill and into the out of bounds area. Whoever had the genius idea of putting a nice dip there to catch us crazy beginners, thank you. That dip proceeded to send me flying out of my skis to land happily on one of the few sections of snow that wasn't almost purely ice. (I meant to mention that Midwestern snow is not powder--it's packed hard and icy which meant immediate lessons in how useful steel edges can be.) From there I proceeded to get back onto the correct ski runs and take my first green run.

Have I mentioned I have a fear of falling? And that fear includes hurling myself down hills at high speeds? Needless to say, as with all things that involve facing my two main fears (falling and drowning) I had an absolute blast. From there I took the green runs three more times and called it a day. The next day after an hour long private lesson, I got to practice my turns (no more snow plowing for me, thank you!) on my very first blue run. It was AWESOME! The first one I took, I wanted to pass out every time I had to turn my skis downhill into my next turn. When I took it the second time I had a lot more fun. Well, then my lovely family decided to take me on another blue run which to me looked like a vertical drop. Erm... no please? I did manage to stay upright and I never really lost control but it was so icy my edges failed to catch a couple of times. I panicked after my down hill ski slipped a couple of times and had to all out stop but I made it down in one piece (and more to the point, I did not cause anyone else to get maimed either). The grand total for my first two days of skiing: 4 bunny hill runs, 7 green runs, 3 blue runs, and 1 half run dodging people in the play park trying to get to the warming lodge where lunch was being served after my future step siblings sent us up the wrong lift. Total fall count: 3 (maybe 4, it's all a bit hazy). Total Ibuprofen count: 20 over three days. Overall conclusion about skiing: AWESOME!!!!!!!!

Alright, so most of you are thinking "What does this have to do with leaving for Vienna?" The honest answer: absolutely nothing. I just thought I would share how I was not preparing for my trip over the past three days. Count down until departure: 9 days. Oh man.

Happy sloping!