Eine gute Woche

Oh, the things I have learned this week!  First, in my teaching internship, the children are learning their prepositions and the difference between do and do not.  To emphasize these commands, I played a game of Simon Says with them.  I said things like "Simon says stand besides your chair" and "Simon says do not sit on your chair"  I'm not sure who liked the game more, the teacher or the children.  She thought it was a great way to engage all the students in the lesson.  The children are about ten years old and so I'm trying to make most of my lessons active in some way.  The 15 year olds are trying to expand their adjectives and vocabulary in general.  So we picked an ordinary piece of furniture and brainstormed all the different words that could describe it.  I'm not sure who learned more...I think I picked up more German than they did English!

In my music class, we entered the mind of Bach.  What an amazing composer Bach was!  He wrote so many pieces and at one point was writing two to three concertos a week!  This is incredible!  He also had a bit of a playful side.  He had a student group that played in a Kaffeehaus once or twice a week and he composed for them silly songs like the "Kaffee Aria".  At those times, composers could not live off of composing alone.  There were no royalties or copy right laws.  Most worked for the nobility, the church or taught in schools.  Bach performed all of these jobs at some point in his life.  Because of this, composers did not always have the freedom to compose as they pleased but rather had to please their patrons.

This week in German, I learned some colloquialisms.  Some of these are really funny and translate well into English while others are just ridiculous.  For example, 'Du schaust aus wie ein Schwammerl' literally translates to 'you look like a mushroom'.  This means that the person appears to be not very bright, or dumb.  Another is 'Wir brauchen einen Tapetenwechsel' which translates to 'we need a wallpaper change'.  The colloquialism in English is we need a change of scenery.  My goal next week is to work these colloquialisms into my everyday conversations.

My psych class is really interesting.  I'm not sure how much I agree with all the theories seeing how it is a soft science.  I like research and facts, not case studies.  In my opinion, anyone with a certain theory in mind can find characteristics during a case study to fit their ideas.  It's all about perspective.  Everyone sees what they want to see.  The best part of this class is that the professor encourages my skepticism and always asks then what my "scientific opinion" is.  He knows I'm a biology major you see and he likes it when I add a biological reason for behavior and case studies.  I'm known as being the devil's advocate, which is a role I thoroughly enjoy, so no problems there.  Most of you know that I never turn down the opportunity for a good debate! 


Karlskirche

While here in Wien, I joined a chamber choir.  This Friday was my first rehearsal with them.  It is a small group that is singing all original pieces from composing majors from both the IES program and Universität Wien.  It was a lot of fun just singing with a group again.
 

On Thursday night, I went to Karlskirche (Charles Church) and saw a performance of Mozart's Requiem.  It was amazing.  The orchestra played on period instruments and the choir sounded beautiful.  Since it took place in a church, acoustically it was what was heard during Mozart's time.  

We told the realtor we'd take it lol

On Friday evening, I went out with some friends and a good time was had by all.  On Saturday, we spent the day exploring the Belvedere, a beautiful palace that is now used as an art museum.  The grounds around the palace were wonderful and we had the perfect weather.  I was amazed that there were beautiful gardens in bloom since it has been cold and rainy the past few weeks.  Unfortunately no photos were allowed inside the museum, but it was equally as stunning.  Afterwards, we went out to dinner at this Indian restaurant.  It was tasty.  It was a low key day but also fun just spending time with friends.

The Belvedere




gardens and fountains



On Sunday, I did some baking.  Living here has taught me how to improvise and guesstimate.  There is not access over here to all the ingredients I am use to and so I basically wing it.  While unnerving at first, it's actually pretty fun.  I made zucchini bread cupcakes.  I am taking these tomorrow morning for my class of 10 year olds.  I'm teaching them about harvest and I found out that they have never heard of zucchini bread.  They laughed at the idea of putting zucchini in the batter, but I assured them it was good.  So now I'm going to prove it to them.  Sunday night I had dinner at a friend's and I offered to make an apple crumble (more like I made it once and now everyone demands it for every dinner we have.)  Oh well, I don't mind.  It's a compliment really that they like it.  Elizabeth's boyfriend is visiting and he is from a large Italian family from New Jersey.  He reminds me a lot of my friend Jarret back in Denver.  They both say 'coffee' the same way :)  Anyway, he wanted to make a traditional Italian meal for everyone.  It was delicious!  What a great end to an excellent weekend.  

         

I was at the Night at the Museum - The movie? - No, my life!

No, we did not plan the matching.  It just happened.

Well, life in Vienna is constantly exciting.  This weekend was so much fun and full of culture!  I feel very sophisticated now (she says with her nose in the air while daintily sipping tea)  No, just kidding, though I am drinking tea :)  Anyway, Friday was a great day.  Some friends and I attended our first Opera at the Staatoper.  They way it works is that people start lining up for standing room tickets a few hours before the opera starts.  Standing room tickets cannot be bought in advance and only one ticket per person.  This though, is the cheapest way of seeing an opera with tickets ranging from 3-4 euros.  Once you have your ticket, you claim your spot by tying a scarf or some small piece of clothing on the railing in front of you.  Then you can leave (since it is still over an hour before the show starts) and grab a cup of coffee or glass of wine and then come back before the curtain rises. 

Every girl needs a pair of Opera glasses!


This was our first time making our way through this system, but we were very successful.  We saw Tosca and it was absolutely amazing.  There is a little screen on the railing in front of you that scrolls the translation of the songs.  At times I didn't even need it because the music told me exactly what was happening.  This was my first live opera and I already have plans to attend another next week.  I love it!  Afterwards we were all on an opera high and so we went to a nearby cafe for a recap.  Some in the group are music majors and are here in Vienna pursuing music.  Now, I am familiar with music after playing several instruments and singing with choirs forever, but I have never studied music the way some of my friends have.  It was very interesting to listen to them comparing the shift from the major chord to the minor in the first aria and how that signaled the upcoming tragedy.  I was thoroughly amused and just sat back and listened.  Overall, a fabulous night!

We're not in Wien anymore

 Saturday, we got out of the city and went for a hike in the Wiener Wald (Vienna Forest).  It was beautiful and so much fun to just wander about.  We actually wandered so far that we left Vienna and entered Niederosterreich, the next county over.  Not really a county, but the closest thing in translation.  More like a state.  Austria is divided into seven different "states" and the city of Vienna is one.  We randomly picked trails and one lead right to an open meadow on the edge of a vineyard.  From here we could look down upon all of Vienna.  We strolled through the grapevines and sampled a few.  There was no fence and we were on public trails so it didn't feel like trespassing (but we probably were...oh well).  I may or may not have recreated a scene from The Sound of Music.  Anyway, fun was had on our little adventure!  

meadow with grapes and distant city

Hannah, Elizabeth, and Me


That night we all went to Die Lange Nacht der Museen, which means the long night of museums.  This is a city wide event that happens every year.  One ticket will get you into over 100 different museums throughout Vienna from 6 pm to 1 am.  It was crazy and a little overwhelming.  We started with a Picasso exhibit.  I learned a lot about Picasso and was actually surprised that I liked several of his pieces.  I am not a huge fan of modern art or cubism.  I prefer Impressionist and landscapes, but many of Picasso's paintings were very interesting to look at.  Our next stop was another museum called Dialogue in the Dark.  This is a museum where visually impaired people lead you around in the dark and basically you experience a day in the life of a person who is blind.  A very neat experience and a little scary.  I'm not embarrassed to admit that I am still slightly afraid of the dark.  After that we saw the work of Klimt, a very famous Austrian artist.  He painted the Kiss or as they call it here, die Kuss.  Next came the Belvedere, an art museum.  There was also the Schnapps Museum (unfortunately the tour did not include samples) and the Chocolate Museum.  The Museum of Torture was fun and I ended on a high note of Mozart's apartment.  Overall, not too shabby for a night of museum roaming.  Sunday was then a day of rest and homework.  I am now ready to start my week!