Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it just to reach you...

To be forward, today was a pretty crappy day for me. I hate how the way I sing directly correlates with my mood. Yesterday after Tom Enman's masterclass I felt great! He helped me like whoa and I just felt so great about my singing. Today I woke up feeling not so good, than went to German, practiced for an hour and felt really great, than went to my lesson and felt like shit. My teacher just gets really excited and when she does that she throws rep at me like crazy. Today we sang through 5 arias, I think? So A) I have no idea what to really work on for next week and B) there's this particular technique thing I need help on that I've been trying to master for about 3 years now that I didn't grasp today and than got really frustrated and just had a mental block for the rest of the lesson. I couldn't get over the fact that I still can't freaking do it and than stayed frustrated for the rest of the lesson.

ANYWAY

After grabbing a tiramusu ice cream in between opera scenes rehearsal I felt a little better. (Yes, food also directly effects my mood). Than I went to a great master class with Michael Schade (a part of the Festspiel). I got to see Michael Schade in the opera Thais with my parents in December so it was pretty great. The singers were all my age or slightly older (25 or so) and fabulous. In one way it made me think, "What the hell am I doing? Why am I not that advanced?" but in another way it just made me want to work harder. It was a great experience nonetheless. I also enjoyed that he didn't consistently talk in German. Yay for him being Canadian and slipping into English randomly!

After the masterclass I attended the mid term recital for the program. I didn't have to sing, but instead have to sing on a recital Tuesday...on my birthday. Weird? Cool? Awesome? I guess? Odd numbers really bother me so I'm not looking forward so much to this birthday. No really, I don't want to be an odd numbered age that isn't 21. So maybe I'll keep telling people I'm 22?? Decisions, decisions.

After the midterm recital Pam, Brett, Bryan, Lindsey and I wandered around for 30 minutes or so trying to find the Weiss Biergarten. With Brett's great German skills and his asking numerous people we finally found it and were quite happy. It was very regal and triumphant if you ask me. It was such a fabulous place! Lots of fun was had and traditional food was eaten (Bratwurst, potatoes and saurkraut).

Basically my crappy day turned into a pretty great one.

Prize for anyone who can guess what album the song lyrics from this post and my last post are from!

When you find yourself in the thick of it, help yourself to a bit of what is all around you.

• So far week 3 is just dandy. Amazing food for lunch everyday, still no repeats. Brigette is magical.
• My lessons with Dr. Astrup are going well, however, I feel that they are a bit more like coachings. Which is a great thing, but is my technique really at a point where it's good enough? Nein. She's giving me so much rep which is amazing and I'm finally confident and consistent with my high. I've been working on 4 Strauss Lied (and she keeps giving me more) and I'm in love with all of them. It also feels good to have a headstart on my Masters recital things.
• After a recital at the beautiful Schloss Mirabell by the first place competition winners Pam and I were complete Fat Kids and had another Käsekrainer AND ice cream.
• Speaking of Ice Cream (or Eis here) Haselnuss or Hazelnut is to DIE for...no really. What is wrong with you America?? Where are all the hazelnut flavored things??
• In an attempt to make up for my Fat Kidness I decided to go for a run. I've been consistently running since January again, but when I got here I guess the combination of being in a foreign land and just being so tired all the time I haven't been running. Which is DUMB (for a million reasons), but mostly because there is a gorgeous running/walking/biking trail behind my host family's home that wraps around the foot of the surrounding mountains. Needless to say I will definitely be consistently running for the rest of my stay here.
• Tomorrow I'm singing "Joy beyond measure, mother" for Tom Enman's masterclass. I still need a lot of help with presentation of this aria so I'm excited to sing for him.

I'll end this post with another random observation: There are dead slugs on the sidewalks everywhere. On my run tonight I saw at least 30, no really, and I'm pretty sure I accidentally squished one or two. Go ahead everyone, eeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Ponderings

Another real update will come soon, but until then, here are some ponderings for you, my sketchy ghost readers:

1. Why the hell are there Crocs in Austria??? Unfortunately this disaster of a fashion statement is quite prevalent here.

2. After having my first Käsekrainer Saturday that's all I can think about eating. No, really. I've already planned out what days this week I can have one. That's right...dayS.

3. The bugs here are of a monster size. Mosquito bites are killer.

4. For all my fellow readers who are worried about the endangerment of bees in America, have no fear. Bees are alive (and monster size) and well in Austria.

5. The next time someone makes fun of you for wearing socks with sandals (although I'm going to assume that all of my readers know FAR better than to do that) just tell them you're European.

That's all for now. Guten Nacht!

Vienna!

What a trip Vienna was! Lots of firsts for me. First train ride and first hostel. The train ride there was great! It was a very new train and an early one so we were really the only ones on our car. There were 10 of us from the program that traveled together.

The first thing we upon arriving was finding our hostel! It was very close to the train station, but a little hidden so hard to find at first, but thanks to the map my host gave me (even though it was in German) we found it in no time. The hostel really wasn't bad at all. There was 3 of us in the room and we had our own private bathroom. It was exactly like a dorm room, which I've certainly had plenty of experience with. For 22 Euros, I would definitely choose staying in a hostel again.

After checking into the hostel we got on the Metro (Vienna's subway) and got off at Stephensplatz, the center of Vienna. It let out right at St. Stephen's Cathedral which was absolutely gorgeous! There were so many people/tourists! I immediately appreciated the size and calmness of Salzburg almost immediately after arriving in Vienna.

After checking out St. Stephen's we decided to check out the Vienna Staatsoper via the highly touristy street Kärntner Street (yay for finally figuring out how to make umlauts on the English keyboard!). We were starving and wanted to not waste time eating at a restaurant (Austrians like to take their time eating at restaurants and with a group of 10 this takes about 2 and a half hours as we later found out for dinner) so where did we decide to eat? Burger King of course! However, I got a kids meal of grilled chicken and a diet coke, or coca cola light with no ice.

After lunch we made it to the Staatsoper and took a great tour of the entire, including the stage thanks to the opera house having July and August off (most probably because of the Salzburg festival). This is the opera house where Mozart's Don Giovanni premiered and many famous conductors directed like Gustav Mahler. The amount of history that has occurred in that building is just mindblowing. However, thanks to an American bomb during World War II (?) much of the opera house has been renovated. The Staatsoper performs 30 operas a year...30!! Unbelievable. After the opera house we went into the opera museum which held old programs, pictures, set pieces and costumes. I missed it, but apparently there was a Salome poster with Gwin Jones' name on it!

The group than headed to the Imperial Palace where the Haupsburg family ruled. We split up at this point and did different things, but about 6 of us toured the Imperial Apartments of the family, mainly Franz Josef and his wife, Elizabeth or Sisi as she was called. It was gorgeous, but unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures. For me I feel that I will sing somewhat differently after seeing things like this. Instead of thinking of Disney's Cinderella castle or something ridiculous while singing an aria like Mein Herr, I can actually visualize a palace that the composer most probably was actually thinking of.

We were all pretty pooped after this so thanks to the help of Reba's Rick Steve's guidebook of Vienna we found an authentic restaurant a bit off the beaten path. They had local Austrian wines and traditional dishes. I finally had Wiener Schnitzel! It was fried, fattening and delicious!

After dinner we headed back to the hostel and then headed out to a pub right by the hostel for drinks. I have had the most delicious beers since I've been here. I typically don't like fruity beers, but I had the most delicious fruit beer Friday night called Floris Ninkeberry. It was a mixture of pomegranete and mango flavors and was the most refreshing thing I've ever had. With a 3.8% alcohol content I'm sure it's probably one of the first things 16 year olds have when they first drink (legal drinking age in Austria), but everyone at the table agreed that it was amazing. I haven't been disappointed once with the beer here and it's great to have so many choices to perfectly compliment your meal. Seeing as it's only about 30 to 50 cents more to get a beer as opposed to water most usually go for the beer.

Pam, Carey and I came back to Salzburg via train yesterday. This train was much more crowded, but still a smooth, nice ride. Pam and I rested for about an hour and then headed to the Aldstadt to catch some of the opening festivities for the Salzburger Festpiele! We watched a smooth jazz concert of sorts for a bit and ate a delicious Käsekreiner hotdog (No really, I'm still thinking about how good that thing was! Amazing sausage with cheese inside of it and some sort of awesome dijon mustard. I want another one now.) We then ran into some other people from the program and what did we do?? We opted for more food of course! We had coffee and cake at Cafe Tomaselli, the oldest cafe in Salzburg and one that Mozart frequented.

After eating we went and watched festival highlights from years passed on a big screen set up in a square right outside of St. Peter's Cathedral. It was so great and very picturesque with the cool weather and the fortress lit up in the background. After watching all the opera highlights we went and watched the lighting ceremony. Lots of traditional Austrian clothing and dances and candles. There were tons of people so it was hard to see, but still neat.

Today was the first day I didn't have to set an alarm clock since I've been here and I still woke up at 8. I'm still so tired, but am enjoying having a day off of sorts. After lunch I plan on taking the bus to the college and practicing. To paraphrase a famous Pavoratti quote, 'If I don't sing one day, I notice. If I don't sing 2 days, others notice.'

Auf Wiedersehen!

Well, well, well...

So apparently I have some sketchy readers who never comment, (*cough*Ashley*cough*), but still demand more blogs. This one goes out to you, Ashley. (Don't let it go to far to your head.)

This week, although only 4 days long, has been very, very busy. Monday and Tuesday consisted of class, rehearsals, coachings and lessons galore. I'm pretty much back in my granny ways, going to bed anywhere between 10 and 11 and getting up at 6:30.

One very nice "Austria" thing I enjoy doing during any rare breaks I might have is sitting at a cafe. Coffee houses or cafes here aren't like American ones at all. They have coffee, espresso, lots of food, wine and beer. You must block of AT LEAST an hour to go to a cafe as they expect you to enjoy the experience and conversation you're having. No getting the check immediately after finishing your drink/food, you must ask for it.

Tuesday night the program had a sponsored trip to the St. Augustiner brewery. One 1/2 liter on the program! YAY! It's the same biergarten we went to last week, but the beer was equally delicious. I'm sure I'll be going back again...and again...

Wednesday night I got to sing at a recital at the Romanischer Saal der Erzabtei St. Peter as a part of being a competition winner. I sang 3 of my contemporary English pieces, 2 of which I did on my junior recital so talk about some revisitin

g things. The Romanischer Saal is a part of the monastary of St. Peter's, the oldest church in Vienna and where Mozart's Mass in C Minor was originally performed. The pla

ce where I sang was actually where the monks ate, but it's now primarily used for recitals and concerts. The acoustics were awesome and overall I was pleased with my performance, but I could go on and on about all the mistakes I made and things I should have done, but I'll spare you all. To the right is a picture of myself and the other participants in the recital.

Today after class and lunch I went to the Bahnoff (train station) with 2 of the coaches and Pam. We wanted to get sleeper car train tickets to Venice for tonight, but they didn't have anymore :( However, we went ahead and bought tickets to Venice for August 7th/8th. I'm super excited about that trip!

Soooo since we couldn't go to Venice this weekend we are instead going to Vienna! YAY! There are about 10 of us going from the program and we got a hostel for Friday night. Many of them are staying Saturday night as well, but Pam and I want to catch some of the Salzburger Festspiele opening. The international music festival begins Saturday and apparently the whole city turns into a stage. This will be my first hostel experience and train experience so it should be interesting! I'm excited to spend more time with the other people in the program as Pam and I really haven't branched out too terribly much.

Today we went to the Hellbrunn Palace and

Water Games.

I'm so terrible at remembering names, but some Prince built it in the early 1700s as a weekend house. He had a sense of humor. There were lots of hidden spouts and water squirting things hidden in statues, rocks, etc. to squirt his guests. Particularly one table he had outside that has water that squirts from the chair onto his guests. As seen in the picture below with some lovely volunteers from my program:

I'm off! Have to get up at an ungodly hour to catch the bus to the train station in the morning. Hopefully I'll have lots of pictures and great updates come Sunday!

Disneyschmisney

I'm absolutely exhausted so I apologize in advance for any ridiculous errors or sentence structure(or lack thereof) in this post.

• Last night was rockin! After dinner Pam and I went back to the Aldstadt or the Old City and met up with 10 or more people from our program. We went to 2 different Irish Pubs and had a blast. There was a big group of law students from Loyola at one of the pubs. Small world. Also found an LSU and Baton Rouge Rugby shirt at Murphy's Law Pub. More craziness.
• Today began with my alarm clock going off at 7:30, rolling out of bed, grabbing my clothes, walking downstairs and running into our new guest at my host house, their son's girlfriend. I don't even want to think about what I looked like. It made me have flashbacks to when I met my freshman roommate's ENTIRE family (or so it seemed) when coming back from the shower in nothing buy my shower shoes and towel.
• The group spent the day in the Salzkammergut, the lake district in Salzburg. Salt was their main source of income until the mid 19th century and this is where most of it came from. It was absolutely gorgeous! We went to Mondsee, St. Gilgen, St. Wolfgang and Halstatt. I took loads of pics and put them on facebook. Basically I no longer think that Walt Disney was creative. I'm pretty sure he just came over to Austria and copied the architecture and scenery here. It's bangin'
• Apparently I am one of the 2nd place winners of the competition! I haven't seen the list, but have been told by many people. I almost peed my pants when I found out! I'm going to get to sing at some absolutely amazing places in Salzburg. I'll keep you guys updated. What amazing opportunities I'm having here!
• Ich bin mude (no idea how to do the umlauts on my keyboard...anyone?) Basically, I'm really tired and am also learning some German. Ok, so barely any German, but it's more than I knew before I came here!

Homesick

Me, homesick? WEIRD. No really, I mean I miss home sometimes while at school, but never actually get sad about it or anything. I have reasons though:

1. Ingram is flying into New Orleans today. Ok, granted I drove to Charleston to see her in May, but still, I want to be riding with my mom and her mom right now going to pick her up from the airport and hang out with her watching movies and other worthless things all week.

2. RYLA starts today. I went every summer for 6 years and this is the first time I'm not there. Me no likie. Granted, I wouldn't exchange this experience for anything in the world, but it's RYLA. For the past 6 years it has been the highlight of every year. It just hit me about an hour ago that the counselors are just arriving and goofing of, I mean getting to work and I want to be there more than anything. Not cool. Not cool at all. Actually now that I think about it, I guess I'm more RYLAsick than homesick. Bleh.

ANYWAY! Debbie Downer moment over. I found out today that I got cast in the opera scenes! I'll be singing Susanna in the Act I Trio from Le Nozze di Figaro, but we'll be singing it in English. Although I wish we were singing it in Italian, I'm beyond excited! It's such a fun trio and I'm going to see Le Nozze di Figaro at the Salzburg Opera Festival August 12th. Sehr gut.

Also talked to a girl about going to Venice Thursday night and sightseeing there Friday and either returning to Salzburg Friday night or Saturday morning. We have Friday off of class, but the opening of the opera festival is Saturday in Salzburg so we definitely don't want to miss that. I hope it works out!

Y'all this program is so amazing. 2 lessons a week plus one or two coachings plus opera scenes plus a masterclass or recital everyday plus a fanfreakingtastic faculty equals complete and utter awesomeness. It really is like a semesters worth of learning packed into 5 weeks.

Tomorrow is the competition! Winners get to sing at neato places in Salzburg. There are 25 people competing though so I'm definitely not expecting anything. It has just been exciting to put together a 30 minute program. I've learned so much just from doing that!

Great things! Happy thoughts! I'm pretty sure I'll be RYLAsick all week though. At least I brought some of my wide variety of RYLA wardrobe to rock out in Austria which I most definitely plan to do.

Day 4

Guten Tag!

I'm still not used to this whole homework thing in the summer. It's also a little distracting because someone is playing/blowing some sort of bugle horn outside my room. Interesting neighbors here in Salzburg.

Tonight we had mushroom and spinach omelets for dinner. Maybe not so Austrian, but still good. And of course...dessert. Pretty sure I already have a cavity.

I had a coaching today with Prof. Motsuma (sp?) Moteki. She teaches at Colorado Bolder and is fanfreakingtastic. So energetic and encouraging and so many helpful things to say! I wish I could coach with her some more, but I'm sure I'll have many other great coaches before I leave here.

I also had a rehearsal with my accompanist for the competition on Saturday. I of course just made myself more nervous. If only I had some PON fairy dust right now! Maybe I can beam her up to Salzburg? An Alexander tune up would be pretty nifty too. My accompanist is Tom Enman from the Longy School of Music. He taught my close friend from the Harrower program I did 2 years ago. What a small world the music is. (Cue everyone's favorite annoying song...)

We all heard an AMAZING recital this afternoon by Sylvia Greenberg with accompanist and husband Tom Arsonon (sp?). The program was called Hausmusik and they performed music by composers that had either lived or visited the current house they live in (in Vienna). Korngold, Mahler, even Puccini and some other kiddos I can't remember now, but Pam and I bought a CD so there will be many happy listenings. Apparently I'm singing for Ms. Greenberg tomorrow in her masterclass. So says my voice teacher who can't remember my name. Whatevs. She wants me to sing Deh vieni which is no big, but masterclasses are so nerveracking for me (ok, so what isn't?), but especially the very first masterclass of the program. People can't help but judge/compare/contrast, you know? End worrying/stressing.

On a super cool note, Pam, myself and our new friend Brett from Iowa are going to go see Harry Potter tomorrow night! It's playing in English here. A lot of people are going tonight, but we opted out. We got a beer at an Irish Pub by the school instead. Well worth it. Hey! Jarred, are you out there reading? The Bohemian Futbol Club out of Dublin, Ireland was at the bar while we were there and one guy sat and talked to us for a while and tried to get us to go to the game. I really wanted to, but opted out since I have to sing tomorrow. Afraid I'd get too excited and yell/scream too much. I also don't know quite how well they'll play seeing as that they were at the Pub BEFORE the game.

Homework and music time! I've also been reading a lot, that happens when you don't have a television, which has actually been nice. After reading a semester of nothing but vampire books I decided I needed to start reading something that I'd actually learn a vocabulary word from. Right now I'm almost finished with The Catcher in the Rye. It's bangin'

Day 3

Biergarten ist gut.

Ok, so my German still sucks/is basically nonexistent. Anyway, outdoor beer place where you buy a mug (either 1/2 liter or liter) and get it filled up with beer from a wooden cask? Rockin' Definitely meeting some fun people here too.

The cool weather only lasted for a day. It's really warm here now. My cardigans are upset. They're just waiting to be worn.

Curry hotdogs for dinner. Or maybe more correctly sausages with curry mustard and powder with red onions on a bun and a great salad. Some sort of Swiss dessert with strawberry ice cream, peaches and some sauce made out of butter, sugar and an orange liqueur. It's was all rocking. Every single bite. Bring on the pounds!

I had my first lesson today with Dr. Astrup. I'm going to be so on top of my recital when I return to Baton Rouge. Well, at least my German set.

Guten Abend!

New Blog Name?

Day 2 in Salzburg!

So I might be in search for a new blog name. Since Wiener Schnitzel is fried and Austria is now very fresh/health conscious/energy efficient/environmentally friendly it's not served so much.

• Dinner tonight consisted of 2 pieces of baked chicken with some sort of rosemary seasoning (fresh from their garden), some sort of aromatic white rice, salad with red onions and tomatoes and a vinigarette...their vinegar here is a million times better than in the States. It's some sort of white balsamic. Bangin., and the most amazing zucchini I have ever had. It was stewed with tomatoes, onions, basil, and some herb I couldn't place. For dessert we had homemade chocolate cake with once again REAL whipped cream, but this time strawberry flavored whipped cream. Y'all I'm not going to be able to fit in my jeans when it's time to go back to the States. However, they cook organically so at least I'll be getting fat off of nonprocessed, fresh foods.
• So all the windows and many of the doors here are engineered by some genius German. Americans need to get on it. Not only do they open completely, but you can also turn this handle and leave them cracked open from the top! Perfect for letting in the nice air!
• Everything here is just gorgeous. No really, it's all breathtaking! There are flowers and gardens and green things everywhere! 15th century architecture! Salzburg College where I am studying was built in 1556. Beautiful river that runs through the city that is actually a gorgeous blue/green color. Definitely not used to that! Everything is quaint and beautiful. I can't believe how lucky I am to be studying here for 5 weeks.
• There are students in my program from college all over the US. There are 54 of us and they come from places like New York, Colorado, Indiana, Florida, Texas, California, Oklahoma, Alabama, Massachusetts and even one girl from Canada!
• Tomorrow we start German classes and audition for the music faculty. We'll than be placed with a voice teacher.
• So far so great! Just still dizzy and lightheaded, but I think it's from the high altitude here. Heck there's a small mountain range I can see for my window in my room.

Wilkommen from Salzburg!

2 days in London? Check. Flight into Munich? Check. Arrival at host family's house in Salzburg? Check.

I'm a fan of lists, so here's a list of some things that have been happening in my life the past 4 days:

• Waiting in New Orleans Pam and I befriended a British lady named Korin. When we arrived in London she talked us into taking the Underground to our hotel. It was easy enough to use/navigate, but carrying about 80 pounds worth of items up and down stairs was not fun. Needless to say our exhaustion tripled after that experience. British people are rocking though. We had 2 people voluntarily help us out with our luggage while on the Underground
• Our hotel was great! As promised...toilet pics and a picture of the gold plaque on the step up in our room that said, "Mind the gap." Using the word mind instead of watch never got old for me.

• Thursday night we went to see "A Little Night Music" at the Garrick Theatre in the West End and had dinner at a little Italian place by the theatre. The show was wonderful and super exciting/special since both Pam and I will be in LSU's production in November.
• Friday was a busy sightseeing day! Big Ben, Parliment, London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Westminister Abbey (didn't go in because it cost 17 pounds. Ridiculous! Somehow I have a feeling only the Catholic Church would charge any money to go inside and see a church.) and the Tower of London. Lunch was at a Pub and we got an order of Fish and Chips and Bangers and Mash. Both were good, but I enjoyed the sausage more. I got an apple soda that was mainly fruit juice and it was amazing! Apparently there's apple soda in most of Europe. My petitions to get in the States have already begun. Who's with me?
• We rode a boat down the Thames to get to the Tower of London. I think this might have been my favorite part. We saw so much!
• My favorite thing we saw was a taxi in London with an advertisement for Mississippi! I don't know if you can see in the pic very well, but the top of the taxi says visitmississippi.org and it says Memphis/Mississippi on it with cotton, an antebelum home and an Elvis record. Crazy, right???

More pics of London on Facebook and hopefully I'll have some Salzburg pics soon!

Our host couple is great! They're a retired couple and are very friendly and speak good English! :) We had veal burgers (no buns), skillet potatoes, a salad with radish, cucumber and tomato, and an Austrian pastry (homemade) for dessert...with REAL WHIPPED CREAM. I'm going to say that again, real whipped cream. Bangin'

Countdown to Take Off!

Willkommen!

Pam and I leave Wednesday night and I'm pumped. We're spending 2 nights in London before heading to Salzburg via Munich on Saturday.

Some of my goals for this blog include:

1. Documenting toilets/bathrooms

2. Documenting food experiences

3. Documenting drinking experiences (Warm beer? I'm so intrigued.)

4. Hilariousness

5. Maybe music and other sights, MAYBE.

Next time I'll be coming at you from across the Atlantic!