What Language Do We Use? - La Suisse/Der Schweiz/Switzlerand

After getting a phone and contacting my parents' friends living in Zurich, Switzerland (Bob and Rebecca Sloan), Bob immediately responds with an invitation to visit them that weekend. As I have taken to heart Emily Price's advice of "Don't say no!" I set out to find out which of my roommates wanted to accompany me (as fun as it for sure would have been to try to figure out the trains and everything else all by myself the first time...insert sarcasm here). My fellow curly-haired, upstairs residing, crazily singing and dancing, adventure buddy roommate Sue jumped at the idea of an excursion so soon! As we had already gotten our vorteils cards (aka the best idea ever as it gives us really good discounts on train tickets within Austria and to bordering countries) we were able to go up to the oebb office and book the train for 3 days later for fairly cheap, with the help of a nice lady working there (who luckily spoke pretty good English. Whew.)

Friday night we head out on the night train leaving Vienna and getting into Zurich at 630am (EEE!). After minimal confusion we found our car in the train, which we ended up having all to ourselves (this may be in part due to the fact that we turned the lights off about half an hour into the trip and stretched across the seats and slept until our alarms went off at 6 (we figured we would otherwise completely sleep through Zurich, which would be no bueno!).

The weekend was fairly low-key but very fun! Rebecca took us out to breakfast. After, Sue and I mostly walked around the city and decided to make our own 'tour' of the city, which ended up including going to 4 churches (all beautiful, of course), walking to the top of a tower in Grossmunster, going into a crypt in Wasserkirche, seeing the Chegall windows at the Fraumunster, eating pretzels from a street vendor, eating some of the best chocolate EVER at Sprungli, apparently walking to the complete other side of the city without realizing it, and getting lost when trying to take the train back to the Sloans' house. We got on the right train...just going the wrong direction. We actually realized this within the first 2 stops, but we just kept thinking we were bound to turn around soon, right? Wrong. Note: in Zurich if you all of a sudden have grassy hills on both sides, you MIGHT be going the wrong direction. We finally (after about 30 minutes of 'oh it'll turn around') we got off the train and onto the right one. Had yummy food the whole weekend, along with some legit wine as opposed to the 2 Euro bottles we'd been becoming accustomed to drinking - all courtesy of the Sloans. :D Yum! Needless to say, we very much appreciated it all. It was a wonderful weekend.

Just one look at Zurich. Pictoral evidence that it's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. Forrealz.

This is the view inside Sprungli. We like Sprungli. Ridiculously decadent and perfect at all times. Case in point: Bob bought that red one and we had it at breakfast on Sunday. :D

On the left side, Sue points to where we ended up. Her right hand points to where we were SUPPOSED to be...whoops! Haha. It's all good. Actually, the IES staff had told us to 'get lost' in order to see more of the city and get more comfortable in it and such. Obviously, we took this idea to heart.

Meet the Sloans. Bob is 6'7", drives a Porche, and likes Beyonce. Rebecca is a good cook, told us to go find cute guys when we were leaving to go on our adventure (which we definitely did - we saw at least 5000% more attractive Swiss men in that one day than we had seen our 3 weeks in Vienna thus far. They were also closer to our age.), and is giving Bob bunny ears in this picture. Obviously, they are awesome. Sue and I approve.

The Dream That You Wish Will Come True

"A dream is a wish your heart makes

When it's fast asleep

In dreams you lose your heartaches

Whatever you wish for, you keep.

Have faith in your dreams and someday

Your rainbow will come smiling through

No matter how your heart is grieving

If you keep on believing

The dream that you wish will come true"

-Cinderella

I have recently learned that dreams come true in Vienna. Case in point: have you ever watched the elegant, elaborate dance scenes in movies such as Pride and Prejudice or Cinderella and wish that experiences like that still existed and that, furthermore, you could partake in such an event? I have always loved those scenes and of course wished I could dance with Mr. Darcy at a ball. When I picked up a guide book of Vienna back in November and noticing that January and February were the heart of Ball Season in Vienna, I knew I had picked the right place. When and where else would I ever again get the chance to experience something such as that? Naturally, I accepted the fact that I might spend a greater part of my pocket change in order to attend some of the balls open to the public. The first week we were there, Sue and I talked to a girl working with our program and found out about the Ball der Wiener Philharmoniker (Vienna Philharmonic Ball), which promised to be one of the most anticipated balls. Full length dresses required for women while tails, tux, or uniform were required for the men. There was to be a dance floor for waltzing, and in addition - a diskotethque with more modern music. We were obviously sold right from the start. Many adventures led up to this wonderful night, including (but not limited to): the search for an affordable 'perfect' ball gown and shoes, the search for WHERE we actually buy the tickets to the ball, how to affordably 'hem' said perfect ball gown in time, and of course deciding on how best to wear our make-up and hair. While one of these is never the easiest of tasks for an important event, accomplishing all 3 almost flawlessly in the course of a week seemed near impossible. And yet.

Thursday rolls around and we're all giggles, wide grins, anticipation and hope etched into every inch of our faces. Will we be asked to dance? By per chance our 'Prince Charming?' How could we not believe this fairy tale could come true when we were to go to a BALL? And then it was time to finish getting ready and head to the ball.

Sue, Me, Whitney, Ellen, and Emily:

Floor length ball gown - CHECK!

Smiles for the night - CHECK!

Naturally, we fit in just perfectly taking the U-Bahn (underground subway) in our ball gowns. And by that, I mean we're fairly certain we were a part of the maybe .01% who took the subway. What awaits us but the most beautiful room in the entire world, filled with hundreds of bouquets of real flowers, the Wiener Philharmonik, a jazz band, and hundreds of the finest dancing Austrians you could find.

We spent the first hour or so just watching from above. Apparently, every single Austrian above the age of 16 can waltz flawlessly. No joke. You can see evidence on Whit's blog if you don't believe me. Note for if you ever go to a fancy ball in Vienna: while in everyday life you stick to just your usual neutral colors and fur coats, here anything goes: the brightest colors you've ever seen, feathers, sequins, as much cleavage as you care to show - anything. It's all there. However, also note: they also are all perfect dancers. Not just the waltz - also the polka, tango, and many I've never seen before. This includes one of those dances like in Pride and Prejudice where you wonder how everyone knows the dance and whether they are in fact all professional dancers. At the announcer's call, everyone grabbed a partner and proceeded in an incomprehensible well-known (apparently) dance that turned into everyone at the same time waltzing as fast as they could around in a circle:

After, they all formed a huge form of a tunnel comparable to those in the US after a sports game, except that everyone was dressed to the 9's and waltzed when they got out of the tunnel...obviously, right?

I will keep you in suspense no longer - I did not find a Prince Charming, as most of the men not already attached who were actually in attendance were well over Charming's age. I did however waltz. In Vienna. At a ball. What more could a girl ask for? Please understand why we believe we are OBVIOUSLY princesses. These things don't happen to anyone else, right? Right.

While Charming was MIA, I did get to dance with one of the taller men around...in case you're wondering, yes. It's very odd to try to waltz with someone almost twice your size. Especially a fast waltz, which that song naturally was. I also got the chance to dance with this nice older man who thought I looked French and who liked to spin and sang along with the classical music being played by the Philharmonic. Naturally, had he been a little bit younger, I might have found my Viennese man! :D In the middle of the song, all of a sudden he says, "And now we spin! I do LOVE to spin!" All I could say was "Well that works! I love to spin, too!" It was lovely. I'll leave you with a picture of the two TU princesses in attendance that evening (AHEM: night/morning, as it lasted until 5am and NATURALLY we stayed until the end!):

I Wonder How They Celebrate the Inauguration Abroad?

What would you do if you were abroad when the new President was about to have his inauguration ceremony? Especially if said new President happened to be the result of your very first Presidential election? Well, let me just tell you how mine went down, and you can decide how this compares to what you would have imagined.

First of all, Sue and I started the evening off right by going to Mario's. Have I talked about Mario yet? 

Let me just bunny trail for a bit. Mario is this (I think) Turkish man who changed his name to Mario because he's obsessed with Italy and also, obviously, he wanted to own a pizzeria. What else would you do if you were obsessed with Italy? His little pizzeria, with walls covered with things 'Italian' - aka: pictures of Italian scenery, plastic lobsters, nets, etc. Obviously, we love this place. Also, cheap, good pizza, and Mario is quite the character. He refers to us as 'his friends' and gives us shots of shnaaps whenever we come in.

Okay. Bunny trail over. So Sue and I went and got a new kind of pizza and what should Mario have on tv but the inauguration...dubbed in German, of course. (BTW: Mario is really excited about Obama). We watched part of it, but then decided we should go because we most certainly could NOT understand the German dubbing.

We get back to the apartment, and everyone is upstairs watching the inauguration in English (apparently, we have CNN. Sweet, yo). Naturally, we joined in.

Then a few of us (Whit, Ellen, Emily, and I) went to a party on a ship on the Danube put on by Democrats Abroad. Way fun. I was going to get an Obama stamp, but I didn't have any change so I went and bought a beer but when I finally made it back up with some change, I couldn't find the guy with the Obama stamp. Sad day. Ah well. Still fun - full of expensive beer, drunk Americans, lots of dancing, live music. Aka: wonderful, minus how expensive the drinks were. Well, they weren't really that bad except that I've been buying beers for under a Euro from the PennyMart, so everything seems expensive in comparison. Haha.

The Pictures for Last Post

With some of my roommates before heading out one night -

Me, Whit, Emily, Sue, and Ellen. All of us (minus Emily) have curly hair and occupy the two rooms upstairs. Sweet, eh?

Inside the Kunsthistoriches Museem Kunsthistorisches Museem

Just one of the beautiful views I've seen whilst walking around Vienna.

Always Wear a Helmut

Okay. I've finally updated all of the things I 'had' to update. AKA: I can now be up to speed and normal and not trying to tell of absolutely everything that happened over a week ago. Haha. It just took a laid back Sunday to get it all accomplished, but who's really surprised? So a few highlights from my life:

-A former model works with us. His name is Helmut. We like him. He can waltz.

-Vienna is THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CITY EVER.

-I'm getting increasingly better at pointing at what food I want to order. Also, saying "Bitte" always helps. A lot.

-You are not supposed to smile at people, especially men. This is a hard thing for me to accomplish, as I'm used to smiling at pretty much every person I see, even if it's just a timid little smile. Apparently it translates into much more across cultures. Good information to know, eh?

-Don't worry - I'm assimilating well with my black pea coat, skinny jeans, and newly purchased black boots. Went to an apartment party. Legit, eh? Not an IES apartment - an apartment party with Germans and Austrians. Boo ya. Luckily, everyone here speaks English so I could have more of a conversation than "Ich heisse Nikki. Ich komme aus den USA, aus Texas. Ich wohne jetzt in Wien. Ich spreche Englisch, Franzosisch, und ein bisschen Deutsch." Woo. Oh, and I did the worm. I have now done the worm in multiple countries. Sweet, yo. They were really excited when I said I could do it, so obviously I had to do it. :D

-We have gone through 3 bottles of knock-off nutella and 5 bottles of 1-3 Euro wine. Please still talk to me when Whit and I come back and we have gained 10,000 pounds. Thanks.

-Went to mass today in a cathedral. Granted, it was in German so I didn't really understand much. It was fun. But freezing. But awesome.

-Pretty much everyday after class, one of my roommates Sue and I go walking around the city - sometimes with something in mind, other times just to explore. Sometimes people give us incorrect directions so we just walk around and then come across some of the most beautiful buildings EVER because they are just randomly in between all of these way newer buildings. Makes for absolutely BEAUTIFUL walks!

-I live in a penthouse apartment with 12 other girls. I'm in the upstairs part with Whitney (from TU) and Sue and Ellen (both from Penn State!). Upstairs, we also have a gigantic bathroom, a kitchen, and a terrace. I can NOT wait for it to be warm outside so I can be out on the terrace everyday without the fear of frostbite. Minor details, eh?

-I go to school in a palace. Yeah.

-Our chairs are like from Ikea and are thus very poorly made and you just push them in together, which means that they have a tendency to come undone when you lean back. This had already happened to Whit earlier in the week, and just happened to me as I was typing this. I'm putting myself in danger just to update you on my life. Feel important.

Deutschlandsberg

Orientation time, baby!

Where shall we go? How about a tiny little town called Deutschlandsberg in the Lower Alps, in an area called Styria. Cute town, surrounded by small mountains/big hills covered in snow, and up the hill a little bit what would you expect to find but a castle? Obviously. The orientation was a bit of a blur, spurred on by my jet lag and the fact that I was sick the first couple of days. That obviously made it much easier to meet people and make lots of friends and figure out the roommate situation right off the back...wait. No. All I did the first 2 days was sleep or think about sleeping. No worries, though. It all got better.

THURSDAY - Met at Westbahnhof (west train station) - just look for the Americans in bright colors with lots of luggage and looking lost/overwhelmed. Note: know where you are going when you have lots of heavy luggage, as walking around with suitcases in tow leaves your arms achy. Fell asleep while the cute old man tried telling us all about the history of IES Vienna. Whoops!

FRIDAY - More speeches on IES, Vienna, Austrian culture, IES Vienna, etc. Had a "German Survival Session" for those of us who hadn't ever had any German. So, no worries - we learned how to count, say hello, and that we speak German (which was obviously a lie). Score. After lunch, went on a tour of the Castle - Castlemuseum Deutschlandsberg. Very cool, but WAY longer than necessary, especially since obviously there is NO CENTRAL HEAT and thus we stood there for the 3 hour tour shivering violently. Running downhill from the Castle back to the hostel when you can't feel your toes = a little bit dangerous and frightening. Just fyi for next time you plan on doing something silly like that. I finally started feeling a little better by that evening, which was good because we had a 'traditional Austrian evening' which ended up meaning some German/Austrian dancing. SO much fun. And hilarious.

SATURDAY - Wake up and TA DA! Feel like a normal person. Got our housing done - 12 girls in one apartment, only know 4 others. Hmmm should be interesting. After lunch, Whit and I walked into town. Night's activities - waltzing, bowling, then a dance party...aka: pretty much the best night one could ever plan for me to be a part of. WOO! Soooo much fun. I got complimented on my waltzing by Grete, one of the older women who work with IES. I was pretty stoked.

SUNDAY - Wrap up with what I came to refer to as the Helmut and Tobi show. They're our 2 resident Austrians on staff. We love them. Then it was back to Vienna to the craziness of Westbahnhof and the taxi frenzy to our apartment, where we meet our German RA, Nina, who is so completely awesome.

A few pictures of Deutschlandsberg:

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The First Night

After we found our hostel, Hugh and I trekked back to Mariahilferstrasse, where we were meeting up with the others we had met to find somewhere to eat. Interestingly, I think the person who had had the most German had only had a semester of it. So, we were very much like American tourists, with no real idea of what was going on. Perfect, eh? Haha. After walking around Mariahilferstrasse for a bit, we finally stopped at this little hole-in-the-wall, Turkis, where I looked at a picture menu to decide what I wanted. Worked out pretty well. I think I got a turkey thing....I'm not sure, but it was good whatever it was. Also got my first beer in Austria - Wieselburger Bier.

Whitney and Joe weren't supposed to get into Vienna until sometime around 6ish, so Hugh and I had left them a note in the hostel telling them where we went and about when we would be back and asked that they STAY THERE as we had no way of getting a hold of them otherwise. So we headed back to the hostel after dinner, hoping they were in Vienna. We open the door...to find that BOTH ARE THERE!!! We were ever so happy. Turns out they had the last flight (London to Vienna) of their trips together! Apparently they pretty much literally ran into each other at the London airport. I love things like that.

We had received free drink coupons upon check-in, so we all went down to the bar (the bar in The Wombat is called The Wombar - clever, eh?). While the boys got these tiny beers, us girls opted for a glass of red wine. We're obviously more classy than they are. Whilst the boys decided to play pool against everyone in the room, we ventured out to a Kebap stand, where Whit got a chicken kebap...one of the best tasting things I think I've ever had in my whole life. Then it was off to the other WomBar, where the other IES kids we had met were planning on being that night. The WomBar had some really fun things...

the best tip jar

and a nut-dispenser (to officially solve the American problem of the grossness of bar nuts.

Those Euros are just so smart.

Visual Aids

Thought I'd provide my flickr link so people who wanted to could look at pictures as I upload them.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikkimckinnon/

The Trip Over

I don't know if you know this about me, but I'm not always the best sleeper on flights. That being said, I slept maybe an hour on the flight from Houston to Paris...out of the abour 9 hours available. Smooth, eh? Ya. I did however read Tuesdays with Morrie, watch The Duchess and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, and eat - all things I wanted to do anyways. So, just had some priorities. Haha. Brilliant. Unfortunately, these decisions meant that a walk all the way through the Paris airport (because of course I landed in the opposite part of the airport that I was to depart from), remembering dusty French to figure things out, and an espresso did not keep me from falling asleep almost as soon as I sat down on the plane. I woke up once - right in time to get the food and a coffee...and promptly fell right back asleep until when I was jerked awake when the tires hit the ground as we landed in Vienna. Beautiful. Haha. Met up with Hugh and some IES people he had met and we set off to try to find our way around Vienna and to find our hostels. 

Who Updates From the Airport?

Umm apparently I do. So after getting to IAH at 2 for my flight that was scheduled for 4:30 but had been postponed, we discovered the final time for the flight: 6:20. Oh joy! After an hour and a half of standing in lines and such, I finally got through check-in and security. Well, at least I wouldn't have QUITE so much time to kill once getting inside. I next set on a mission to find the Continental Club, as my mom had given me a pass. This did not warrant any success. All of a sudden, I tuned into the loudspeaker...you know how you always pay more attention when you think you hear your name? "Nikki McKinnon..." 

Oh no. 

"...please come to the security checkpoint in terminal D to retrieve a lost item..." 

Oh my gosh! My laptop!

"...Nikki McKinnon"

I race across the terminal, down the escalator, and to the security checkpoint. The first worker I found didn't know what I was talking about, but she took me to someone who did. So, after presently identification, I have my beautiful laptop. Happy, I went back up the escalator and to Lefty's To-Go Grille. After all, I was hungry, had been given a $5 voucher from the airlines for the delayed flight, and was in need of a way to relax after that minute of intensity. The reward was a diet coke and a Lefty's Sampler - potato skins, buffalo wings, and onion rings. Yum. Thus ends the US portion of my trip...or so I hope, as long as this flight doesn't get cancelled, which would just be sad!

All My Bags Are Packed

I'm ready to go!

The day is finally almost here. I leave tomorrow afternoon. After a stop in Paris, I arrive in VIENNA to begin my adventures whilst abroad! Explanation about the title of the blog - it means listen in German. I've come to terms with the fact that I say 'listen' quite often.

Auf Wiedersehen! Osterreich, here I come!