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!
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