Hallo!

Hallo Familia! It is sunday night and I am finally enjoying a quiet moment to myself! We have been on the go, go, go! I got to straighten up my room a bit, and am now going to inform you of my most recent happenings :) I think I will mostly post picutures, with little comments below and if one really triggers a story or something cooler I'll write about it. If not I can give the more in depth info when we skype. I will probably not write and describe enough, because I feel like I have been here forever and that you should know whats going on by now! haha so Entschunldigen (sorry) in advance!

Before I do some pictures I will write all my random thoughts. I love my house and my Frau, Esther. I love all the kids on the study abroad, we are best friends already. Austrians are very, very patient and most know English. Much more english than I know of deutsch. I need to know german, I want to know german! It is only the third day but already I feel such a need to know how to speak this language! I can't wait for class to start tomorrow, especially deutsch. The Minerts are amazing. I know that they are a big part of the reason I chose to be here in Vienna. The institut (school) looks so old and I love it! Church today at the Center (church institut building) was interesting. Yes it was german, and no I didn't understand a lot but I liked it. It will be a good place to go and be able to practice german, because they are patient enough to try and talk to us. I have seen much of the city now and I love it! There is so much history here, so much so that you can walk right by it without noticing! Now for some pics!

The airport! All ready for my first international flight!

My first glimpses of Austria!! I didn't know there was so much farming here.

Oh and its a good thing I even got a glimpse of austria... I had to run my freaking butt of in the Amsterdam airport. We had a nice long layover in Minieapolis, only 7 hours, but here we had 1 hour. NOT LONG ENOUGH! Because we had to go through customs, and show our passports, there was a huge line, the guys was asking all these questions I could barely understand, but I eventually got my stamp :) Then we had to have our carryons checked again. And again, like in slc, they thought there was some mysterious liquid hiding in my bag so had to take a second, more closer, and time comsuming look. and of course there was nothing but hey, safety is key. So after I finally got out of there we had to run from gate F to gate B- on the clear other side of the airport. When we arrived they attendants were giving the last call to Vienna. !!! We barely made it!

This is what me and Becca looked like after that 15 minute run. I was soooooooooo hot and sweaty, but hey we made it!

This is the Pension Barroness, a super nice hotel we stayed in our first night.

The view out our sweet austrian style windows, I'll have to post some pics of how cool they are

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in the room

This is the Rathaus, I love the flower in the window boxes.

The Stephansdom Catherdral through the arch.

This is a circus tent set up behind the Rathaus, shows start in like a week! In the distance behind is the Hofburgs opera house, rarely used now for anything other than suuuuper special occasions. Kind of ironic, cirucus and roalty opera house :)

Inside the Stephansdom, I'm sure I'll go there again and write about it in more detail.

Pizza for dinner!! But don't worry, it didn't taste American. It was called Spinaci and had tomatoe, kase (cheese), speck (bacon), onion and spinach. The spinach didn't really taste spinachie though, it was super strong. Markus- the man from the school taking us to dinner- thought it was because of nutmeg. It was good though! Oh and that is my glass of water and bottle of water. The serve wasser (water) in a bottle, not from the tap. So ya it costs :P

Breakfast at the Pension. Delicious!! Dark bread with raspberry jam-so good- fruit that was delicious, orange juice, you could have yogurt, cereal, hot chocolate, rolls with ham and cheese.

Lunch at the Naschmarkt after a full morning of information at the Institut (school). It was called a Kebab and was a falaful (spelling??) sandwich! Who knew I'd eat what Kerri ate! OH and I also got to eat what Paula ate! what I said just before leaving that I thought we would not have to eat in Vienna. Chicken off the bone. It was good though! My host cooked it for dinner, along with vegtables- orange peppers, zuccini, and maybe green onions? and lots of spices and stuff it was really good! and bread, i love the bread here

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My backyard!! Yes there is a pool, and yes I already swam in it! It is so hot here, and very humid. I am always super sweaty when I wake up. Gross i know.

Kiersten

Its so green and beautiful out here, away from the city. I think it will be wonderful to live out here, a nice change from the hustle and bustle of the city. We walk for 3 minutes to the bus stop, ride for 15 mins to Hutteldorf, the last/first U4 station, and take the U4 (underground train) to wherever we want to go. To school that will be about 30 minutes and to the Minerts apt about 1 hr. Its not so bad though, now that we know how to do it!
Saturday night we went to town with Esther, to her sisters art exposition, after a big me and kiersten left to see the city, and make our way home on our own... we did.... eventually :)

Huge Ferris Wheel in the background that I am going to ride on Wednesday!!

We realized where we were soon enough to catch the last few minutes of the opera we had been wanting to see. OH but it was outside so thats ok! haha -In september the opera house puts a huge screen up outside so tons of people can watch the shows. sweet! free opera!
We were a bit scared waiting for our bus, and trying to get off at the right station. We thought we missed our stop so we got off at the mall, about a 1/2 mile away from our house and walked home. This was our funny "we are scared picture", but really I felt safe and okay the whole time. Come to find out we really didn't ride far enough, cause the bus kinda does a circle and then comes back around to our stop. Its all good though cause we found everything alright tonight.

Home safe :)

It has been a crazy few days but like Brother Minert said tonight, we are having many experiences, some good and some bad, but we are learning from all of them. And most importantly we are to Ruhig wieter traumen! Keep on dreaming!