Skating

My post is because today I skated, and then watched our mens hockey team skate to kick the United States BUTT in Olympic hockey. Which was awesome.

So at the Rathaus (the parliament type building) every winter they put in a skating rink. It's open all the time so it isn't really well kept (read, its super lumpy and awful to skate on) and it's super busy (read, I was petrified of killing or being killed in a speed skating incident), but it was so fun! My roommtes and I went after my class today and it was so lovely! Because it's right at the Rathaus it's got a great view and is beautiful to look up at!

The skating rink at Rathaus

Skating with the roommates
From Left: Gio, me, Cris and Pau

Love them

After that I went to Charlie P's (an Irish pub) to watch the game. Of course it was filled with Canadians (strolled up to the bar and met a girl from Waterloo who, it turns out, is living in my building). And eventually the Canadians I knew showed up and we watched and cheered and had a great ole time at the good ole hockey game. 

Red eye like crazy
From Left: Me, Jilly Bean, Devan, Sam

Other than these two things, I've been in school. So..yeah. Nothing of interest. But I still love this city.

Oh and my shoes are like all falling apart so that's so sweet and great timing because I have so much extra money to spend on shoes and boots right now! 

Loving you all very much!

xx

T

not to go anywhere, but to go.

So basically every Sunday since I've gotten here has rained which is good and bad because it's like, oh, relaxing Sunday at home! But then it gets out of hand and I don't change out of my pajamas and you feel pathetic...

But I got dressed today and had breakfast in bed and watched a movie and then (!!!) me and the Canadian girls from Capilano booked our B&B for VERONA! I am so excited. We booked it off of Air BnB and it's this lady's house which is right in the old town part of Verona, and instead of paying €20-40 a night for a hostel, we're paying €11 for a five person flat. So we'll be going at the end of May when we all have time off. 

My course schedule is pretty good, but so, so weird. I have a full course load for the next 2-3 weeks and then maybe 1-3 courses a week after that. My April, May and June is pretty much completely free so I am so so so excited! 

On Sundays as I believe I have previously mentioned it is Roomie Sunday Dinner so we all plan dinner together and tonight we were going to do fondue but the store didn't have any of the proper cheese...so we got fried camembert. It was delicious, and yes, I feel awful about myself. But in the best way possible. 

our lovely fried cheese patties (with vegetables. very health conscious)

From left: Moi, Giovanna, Pauline, Cristina.

xx

T

you can afford to lose a day or two

I went on a walking tour of Vienna today, and while I don't feel like I now know the city any better (I think I had a pretty solid grasp on it before), I had fun and took pictures!

The ceiling at the University of Vienna (not my school, unfortunately)

Parliament building

So my jacket bunched up and I seriously promise I have not gained 30 pounds

Vienna State Opera

This was the sunset as I walked from the UBahn to my dorm. 

Feeling so blessed today.

xx

T

Sunny Days

It;s been sunny and gorgeous here the past couple of days! Unfortunately this morning I was stuck in class until 12 and then had an appointment with an advisor until 1, but I was able to enjoy a lovely walk in the sun yesterday! Don't have much to say, just hope you enjoy the pictures!

Happy Valentine's, everyone!

XX

T

So on our walk we found a place called Fabienne.
It was a Belgian chocolatier. 

This was the chocolatier. I forgot to get her name. But don't worry, I'll be back.
Probably sooner than I would like to admit. 

We also found this giant disco ball of Mozart's face.
We later came to discover there are chocoltes with the fake gold wrapper,
that look exactly like this but miniature. 

Sunday Jam

So something I had left out of my last post was that on Sunday evening my roommates, Pauline's friend Marie, and Mark from Kelowna and I went to this jam session in this little hole in the wall almost underground bar/living room type area. I'm fairly certain it was part of someone's house, becaus it looked too cute to just be used as a bar. 

Anyways, I guess at this one they were debuting this bands album (Coffee Shock) which was this German-reggae-pop-rock band (that's the only way I can describe it). They were pretty good, and funny, and it was sweet and all. But then afterwards was the 'jam session' part. 

So here's the setup: they had drums, a piano, a guitar, a bass, and two mics. And they just said to the crowd 'hey, anyone wanna play bass?' And someone who played bass would come up. And go through all the instruments so on and so forth and what have you. Then, without knowing each other or playing together or looking at music, they'd just all play. 

Now. I do not play an instrument, so I don't know how normal this sounds to you. But it absolutely blows my mind that five strangers can just make pretty good music together without ever talking about what they were going to play. Just mindblowing. 

They then did a 'challenge jam,' where they got strangers up again but them themes and lyrics and a couple challenges during the song. And the audience didn't know what the challenges were. So the one I saw, they got 'funk,' 'get the whole band to say hey! In unison,' 'fade out,' 'start with te we will rock you chant,' and the lyrics were 'moves like jagger.' It was done so well!! It was an amazing night.

So it's the second Sunday of every month and I think we might make it a regular occurance. The only downside was that it was a smoking bar, and afterwards (and the next morning) I was left feelin  as if I had developed the worst chest cold in the history of chest colds.

XX

T

orientation

Hey all!

So Sunday's in Vienna are extremely low-key. All the clothing shops are closed as well as most grocery stores, but coffee shops and restaurants are usually open. So what I'm saying is I did nothing on Sunday.

Yesterday was our first day of orientation, so we went to that at the school and got to meet a lot more of the people on exchange from everywhere. There's around 70 or 80 of us, and 15 from Canada. There's nobody who is from the US (there are a couple people studying in the US but are actually from Mexico). So that seems pretty strange.

So yeah, we did some welcome games, started our Austrian Culture class, and that's about it. Today we got an actual tour of the whole campus. It's bigger than OC but still not very big.

Nothing of note has really happened. I made some pretty good Brie and penne because Brie is so darn cheap here... but that's all.

Missing you all!

xx

T

Cafe Central

Tonight Megan, Taylor, Katy and their new roommate Sam and I went to Cafe Central. It's one of the more famous cafe's in Vienna. So we walk in, and it is absolutely gorgeous. I couldn't have taken pictures because they wouldn't have turned out poorly and it was so pretty I didn't want to ruin it for anyone.
But you walk in and there's this gorgeous glass counter filled with amazing looking pastries and desserts, and then it's this massive massive room with a pianist and columns and marble and gah.

I got a trufflekuchen (chocolate cake and truffle and amazingness) and it was seriously...like...I can't even describe it's deliciousness in my mouth. Because this is how I'm describing it, I will upload pictures below.

The Entrance

My trufflekuchen and cappucino!

So that's what was happening tonight. Missing you all!

xx

T

tips for travelling

While in transit or walking to your destination, look incredibly bored. People will think you've seen it a million times before.

Don't. Look. Lost.

xx

T

slow down, you're doing fine

Hey hey! So I made it here safe and sound (obviously), and I've almost been here for a week now. I'm moved into my dorm, which I share with three other wonderful girls.
Cristina, from Madrid. Giovanna, from Italy. And Pauline, from Belgium.
We're all getting along quite well, which is excellent! We've made plans that Sunday will be our roommates night and we'll always have dinner together on Sundays, so that will be lovely.

I've been able to see quite a bit so far, all the main areas. Everything is so close and easy to get to by transit so it's been pretty simple making my way around. I've seen the school I'll be attending and it seems a bit of a nuisance to get to, but it's really not bad. It's like two transfers. So I'll stop complaining. I have most of my stuff done, including registering in the city, getting my transit pass, my SIM card, all that. I just have to get a bank account now and I'm not going to deal with that until Monday when our orientation starts and the student network helps us do it.

There's a few trips scheduled already, and I think I'll probably going on the one to the Alps and the one to Budapest. I might go to Cracow but that's later n the semester and I'll have to wait and see my budget. Also as a side note, the student network is putting on a 'Vienna Culture week' which includes Lasertag. You know, to really get the feel for the country...

Our orientation starts on Monday and goes pretty much all next week, which will be nice because we're split into four groups and can meet other people from other countries. I don't think school starts until the 24th but I guess I'll find that out next week!

I'll keep this updated with photos and stuff. Like the one I'm about to post. It's St Stephans Cathedral.

xx 

T