Snowy Days, Settling In, and the Plague

I have been waiting for years to finally be here on my study abroad trip, and all I want to do is go out and explore the entire city.  Unfortunately, the mixture of jetlag, cold weather, and new climate  landed me with a nasty cold so I have actually seen quite a bit of the inside of my room instead. : (  Oh well.

I have been trying to go out during the day and see things, and rest in the afternoon and evenings.  We have fully settled into Haus Erasmus now, have checked in with the International Office, and signed up for 3 trips with the school.  We are going to Venice Carnival, night sledding, and to Krakow, Poland and Auschwitz.  I'm so excited!

We also met up with our buddies who showed us around.  My buddy, Matt, toured around the city center with us and took us to the outskirts of the city up in the mountain so we could see the cute, residential areas.  It was so fun.  That day was also my favorite because... it SNOWED!!!  I'm in love! I just wanted to dance around in it all day, but I don't think Alyssa or Matt could relate to my feeling.  Matt has seen it his whole life in Italy, and Alyssa just said it was cold.  To me, it was magical. :)

We walked around the historic city center taking pictures and popping into shops to warm up. Most shops were closed because it was Sunday, but we did find a cafe and I enjoyed an amazing cappuccino and a bite of Matt's sachertorte (a famous Viennese desert), which I will have to order for myself soon because it was delicious!

Stephansdom

St. Peterskirche

We toured the inside of 2 Cathedrals, Stephansdom and St. Peterskirche.  They were absolutely amazing!  I could sit in these churches forever and still find them interesting.   The Stephansdom is the largest and oldest cathedral in Vienna, with its foundations dating back almost a millennium! It was originally a Romanesque style church, but over time it was expanded upon in the Gothic style.  The roof of the Cathedral was destroyed during WWII, but the roof was repaired soon after with  a decorative mosaic depicting the symbol of the Hapsburg monarchy.  

Our U6 stop: Burggasse Stadthalle

We have also started getting used to the metro system here already (the underground is called Ubahn).  It is so easy to get anywhere in the city!  We live right off the U6, which also goes right by the WU campus!  To get from our place to the city center, we just take the U6 up one stop, and take the U3 into the center. I think it's crazy that in a city of 2 million people, it is quicker to get to campus than it was at UF...go figure.




I went to the doctor here a few days ago, and found out I had bronchitis, acute sinusitis, and laryngitis! I have been taking 3 different prescriptions since then and am feeling a lot better.  Now it is only a cough.

It's been getting progressively colder here, with highs under 30 degrees F!  It makes it very hard to leave the room, as beautiful as the city is.  Nonetheless, we are still determined to sight see as much as possible.  I've gotten to know a good number of the students here since we all go out at night together in giant herds of 15-30 people! We saw Stephansdom again the other day and went to see a Female Pop Art exhibit.  It was  very cool, and I am very much conditioned now to seeing the male and female genitalia displayed in many different forms. haha.

Alyssa, me, Judith

I also finally got to go out with my Austrian friend Judith.  We went to Ride Club and had fancy cocktails!  I will not even mention the price here... lol.

Today we are going to Schonbrunn Palace (even though it is almost noon here and only 21 degrees...), I'm so excited!!  ANDDDD tomorrow my very good friend Sara (who I've known since middle school and is studying for a year in Paris) is coming to visit me in Vienna!!!!  We are going to a welcome party on a boat tomorrow night, and then leaving for Budapest in the morning!!!  I can't wait.

We have to come back Sunday because we have our first German class on Monday.  I can't say I'm excited for my life with no responsibilities to end, but it will be nice to have SOME structure to my weeks once classes start.  And I am very excited to finally we able to speak some German correctly so that I am not constantly making waiters switch to English for me, not cool.

Happy in our room!