Monday, October 20, 2008

Austrian vs. American Culture Week

Sorry that it's been awhile since I've updated. Nothing too exciting has happened, but I will tell you what has. This week has been an interesting mix of Austria and America.

On Monday, I went and saw Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute). This is an opera that was written by Mozart and premiered right here in Austria with Mozart as the conductor. I went to the Volksoper to see it. At this particular opera house, if you are a student they will sell you the best seats in the house that are left over for 10 Euros. So Polly, Natalie, and I got box seats right by the stage for 10 Euros! It was very cool.

Tuesday, we went to a TGI Friday's that we found a few blocks from school. I had a huge cheeseburger and fries and an order of fried mac & cheese. SO good! It was funny though. I was in an American restaurant with American food, so I felt like I should have a huge refillable Coke in front of me. But apparently that's not how it works in Austrian TGIF's. Anyway, I was actually sick to my stomach for the next two days. I think it's because my European-ized stomach can't handle all the fried food anymore. I will need to remedy this.

On Thursday, we found the Austrian version of a Chipolte. I know, I know. Incredible!

This weekend was pretty uneventful. I pretty much just bummed. I spent a few hours in a cafe on Friday, did absolutely nothing on Saturday, and studied all day Sunday. Again, pretty uneventful.

This coming up week, I have a bunch of tests, papers and presentations, thought the week after this is technically midterm week. During that week, I have no normal classes and only one exam, so I will get to do a lot of Vienna exploration. Stephen is coming this weekend, which I am way excited about. We are going to see the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna Boy's Choir, which will be awesome.

Also, I just discovered that I will get to go to a ball in November! Vienna is one of the last places in the world to still have balls. I'll be going to one on November 15th in the Hofburg palace, which is the palace where the Hapsburg royal family lived. I even get to wear a ball gown! I am super excited. If you click here and then click on the ballfotos '07 link, you can see pictures of it from last year.

Note to fellow travel bloggers: Update! On my list of people's blogs I read, the last person who updated did so 7 days ago. I want to know what's going on!

4 comments:

Gary said...

Mozart makes for great listening, but baffles and befuddles amateur violinists such as me. While still in college, I was in the pit orchestra for a production of The Marriage of Figaro. I would say that it almost killed me, but the truth is that I pretty much just sat there most of the time trying to look like I was playing. I was sad.

By all means, don't lose your fried-food tolerance. It's all that separates us Americans from the Europeans and other savages!

Enjoy those "uneventful" days. We just finished hosting our tournament this weekend - I like uneventful. (FYI, it went well).

Tschuess, kleine Baer!

Kate said...

i'm kind of a failure of a flautist because i never tried to play the magic flute. i remember seeing it everywhere on other people's stands during high school...

Anonymous said...

That's crazy, I wish they had student discounts for the musical and ballet houses in KC... We will get you some fattening food as soon as you get home, don't worry, we are amazing at that here in the good ol' US of A

Anonymous said...

Dear Bethany. Thank you for another very good and interesting update about all that you and friends see and do there in that great country on the other side of the "Big Pond" from where we are. Hoping you have completely recovered from that virus, and hope you find a friday's where you can get a giant refillable coke! As always, looking forward to your next posting. Love from G and G O.