"I found my smattering of German very useful here; indeed, I don't know how I should be able to get on without it." -Bram Stoker, Dracula.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

More happenings

            Before class one day Naomi, Becca, and I wandered around the Lainzer Tiergarten. It was nice being able to walk around and look at the trees and an old hunting palace. It was rainy so the trees had fog around them so they look cool. We got to see deer and other animals.
We had Austrian history class later that afternoon and went to the Imperial Crypt. It made me feel uncomfortable thinking that I was in a room full of bodies in boxes (sarcophagi). We saw the sarcophagi of many important people including Maria Theresia, Franz Joseph, and Sisi.
We worked on more family history research projects. We found a website that has Czech records available online! It only had records for one part of the country, but it’s a start. Now we can do research whenever we want and are not tied to when the church offices are open!
I went to a soccer game in the Gerhard Hanappi stadium! We rooted for Rapid—a team from Vienna. They ended up losing the game, but it was fun to cheer anyway. By the end of the game I had figured out one of the chants. It was really hard because it was said in German and it was being said by a group of people so it was fuzzy sounding. “Schieß ein Tor, Schieß ein Tor, Schieß ein Tor!” It basically means: Shoot a goal, Shoot a goal, Shoot a goal! After the game we went to the outreach center for institute and dinner.
I went on a shopping excursion with Becca, Maddie, Shelly, Lindsay, Naomi, and Mary. We went to a few secondhand stores. I bought a hardcover copy of Harry Potter #4 and the first book in the Series of Unfortunate Events by: Lemony Snicket. I also bought two videocassettes--The Fox and The Hound and Toy Story. The books and movies are all in German.
We went to the outreach center to eat waffles. Afterwards we played ping pong and learned how to do a dance from the movie “Emma”. I am a bad dancer so I wasn’t super good at it, but it was still really fun. We all had a good laugh.
We went to Schönbrunn and walked around the gardens for a bit before going to the Apple Strudel making demonstration. The guy made it look so effortless. After the demonstration we were given the recipe! I will have to try it out over Christmas break.
Becca and I had dinner with our host Frau and two of our roommates. We had pumpkin soup, salad, vegetable, and schnitzel with rice. Frau Papis taught us how to make Schnitzel! We even got a Sacher torte for dessert. It was quite fancy. She said it was a very Viennese meal. It was more of an event than just a meal because it lasted several hours. Becca and I learned that it is rude to put your hand(s) under the table while at dinner. This was shocking for us because that is the polite thing to do in the States!
On Halloween we had a party to celebrate. We played games (4 on a couch and in the manner of the adjective), ate pizza and candy, and danced. It was great! It was fun to see everyone dressed up in different costumes.
We visited the Central Cemetery as a group. It is huge! We saw the graves of the composers: Beethoven, Brahms, and Schubert. All the graves have huge headstones. We walked around looking at the graves for nearly two hours. We saw a few grave stones that said very sweet things on them.
Beethoven's grave

Johannes Brahms' grave
           We (Becca, Prof. Minert, and I) went to a church office in Bisamberg to do research. We worked for several hours and were busy the whole time. It was so fun being able to find and read the old records. We did a great job! We found quite a few birth and marriage entries in the church records.
We went to the Volksmuseum for our Austrian History class. It was one of my favorite museums because it showed normal people and not the rich.
Ten of us girls went to Schnitzelwirt for dinner to celebrate Kiersten’s birthday. We each ate a giant schnitzel. It was so good! I’m glad I know how to make Schnitzel so I can practice while I’m home over Christmas break.

No comments:

Post a Comment