Vienna. This could be special.

Cairo was unbelievable.  We had a blast there, and it was so amazing to see things that old and special.

And as cool as Cairo was, Vienna has been every bit as good.

You'll see from some of the pictures below - what hit me first were the colors.  Egypt was pretty much the blue sky up against the orange/brown desert.  In Austria, it starts with the mountains, which are covered in green trees.  But it goes much, much farther.

View of the mountains and the basilica from our hostel in Mariazell

We started our trip with an orientation trip to Mariazell.  Mariazell is a very small town up in the Austrian Alps, particularly famous for its grand basilica.  All 144 of us stayed in a hostel with all of the IES staff.  It was kind of like doing freshman year all over again as people tried to find people they liked and wanted to hang out with.  Pretty much what happened was Patrick and I ended up being friends with a few people who also wanted to people-watch, so we just sat around and watched other people navigate the new social scene.

The church in Mariazell

One day we went into town, and it was really pretty.  Every building was a different color, and the church was majestic.  The other afternoon we went to a lake that was also really pretty, not to mention really clean.  There we spent some time on a paddleboat, I may or may not have taken a nap in the shade, and we got some ice cream. 

In the mornings and evenings we always had meetings.  Their themes always varied a little – who you were living with, where you were living, how to get around Vienna, what classes you were in, etc etc etc.  There was still plenty of free time plus meals to hang out, and the nights were generally really fun because we all got to hang out and do the same thing.  It’s an interesting group of kids – about 35-40 percent are music students, and the rest are “society and culture” – a.k.a. everything else.

Sunday afternoon we took our buses back to Vienna where we picked up the luggage we had left and split to all of our various apartments around the city.  Patrick and I are living in the 6^th district on a street named Durergasse.  We have five other suitemates, and the seven of us are divided into rooms of 2,3, and 2, and we all share one bathroom – the toilet is in a separate room.  Still, the apartment is pretty spacious, and incredibly conveniently located.

The colors were absolutely amazing.

It is going to be fantastic here.  I’m so excited.  Today we start our German intensive and do a variety of other things at the IES center.  It’s going to be great.