Doc Abroad

Well Moose and I performed our debut performance last night at a baptist church in Salzburg. The school planned this performance as a sort of dress rehearsal to our final concert. We were playing to raise money for Austrians to go to America and raise money for homeless people there... go figure. Americans helping Austrians help Americans. Moose and I were pretty nervous but when we walked out and saw the crowd we were very confident. The duet we played went pretty well but then we performed our solo and couldn't be more happy about it. I asked my friend Kathy to record it so I can show all of you when I get back! I will record Thursdays concert as well.

I can't believe it's almost time to go home. I am going to miss my host family and Chrissy so much I can't stand to think about it. It was hard leaving Utah but I knew I was going to see everyone again, I don't know if I'll ever see these people again and they've meant so much to me it's going to be so hard! Chrissy and I can't think about it. We keep just ignoring it and hope the problem will go away. My host parents aren't helping either, in the last few weeks we've been getting more and more close as we're finally starting to merge in language and in personality I love it here! I am definitely ready to see all of you and live on my own again :) but I don't want to think about not ever seeing these great people again! They have been kind enough to offer Chrissy and I back whenever we can make it. I think we'll both eventually take them up on that offer!

My tests are over and school is wrapping up. Friday is the last day the building will be open for the students and after that we have to give back our key and kiss salzburg college goodbye! Where has the time gone? Munich, Vienna, Prague, Salzburg, concerts and lessons, tests, papers and classes, The stiegel , cafe republic, the Augustiener, shopping streets, countless cones of Eis... Oh yeah... that's where it went!

So sad but so worth it

Love you all
E

Real quick- I just realized I had only allowed comments from people with an I.D.... this is no longer the case. Now everyone can comment, if you wish, on my blog.

My dad requested I blog more about my day to day activities as well as other things... enjoy!

A typical day in Austria, or at least for me, is as follows...


I wake up usually around 8:00 a.m. sometimes later. I stumble down the stairs and take my seat at the kitchen table (in the mornings I prefer the bench and in the evenings for dinner I sit on the chair). There is a lovely yellow thermos of tea waiting for me along with a toaster set out with bread next to it i always have the option of either brown bread that is thick and has nuts and looks and tastes and is healthy or white, so I am forced to make the daily decision to eat well or poorly... I take the white. The amazing thermos of tea is poured and after 1 dainty teaspoon of sugar (x's 4) is disolved into my cup, I begin my morning ritual of staring blankly at things... I'm not picky... Chrissys hair is a fun thing to stare at in the morning, it's always well brushed and shiny and it's so long... Enzo the cat is another thing to stare at however this isn't usually my prefered target considering he has the nasty tendency to get nervous around me and attempts to harm me...


After I am finished with this and have attempted to read the paper or at least pick out the words I know in it, I look up and realize that ONCE AGAIN I am running about 10 minutes behind schedule. This happens every morning. The clock opposite and just down from the table is broken yet every morning I depend on it's time, I believe it is currently frozen at 1 a.m., until I realize that this can't possibly be correct and I ask for the time... such a cruel shock every morning.

I rapidly get ready and, generally forgetting several things, run out the door. Now this would sound like a normal routine to those who have about an hour to get ready in the mornings... I however have approximately 3 hours to get ready in the morning yet I always manage to waste it. I believe this time is lost somewhere during the staring routine. I could be wrong.


I run to the bus stop to catch the 4 at 11:32. Every ten minutes on two.

After several sorry I don't speak Germans and after I participate in and watch several body slams and gasps when the bus driver accelerated and decelerates quickly, and generally after some very bad smells, I get off the bus and arrive at Moenchesburgaufzug. My bus stop.

I run to school, get out my key chain with the stuffed dog on it (courtesy of my host dad), unlock the college door and take my place at the lunch table. I have now successfully eaten twice and literally done nothing in between those times.

From 12:30-2:30 I always have a free period. This time is spent in a very resonant practice room where I entertain not only myself but also those within a mile radius of the school.

At 2:30 I generally have European Union with Stefan Wally. I absolutely love this class. The professor makes everything so easy to understand and has a talent for making us laugh even when discussing the treaty of Maastricht. Do not attempt at home. So far I have had 1 midterm and 1 10 page paper due in this class and though it was stressful,l I have enjoyed studying and writing for this class because it is so different than classes I've taken at home.

My schedule from here is often ambiguous, so ambiguous in fact that generally i don't know where I'm supposed to be until I see the stampede of students coming down the stairs and one of them is kind enough to inform me of our plans.

European Union happens either at 2:30 (as written above) or 5:30. It can be an hour class, a two hour class, or, more frequently, a 3 hour class. It is generally 2-3 times a week. My lessons are generally every other morning (yeah, try learning an entire Bach movement every other day and perform it the next... nein danke) and take place from 10:00-11:00 or from 11:00-12:00.

So great news. I got the solo thing. Which is good and bad. Good because... I'm soloing in Salzburg in 2 concerts. Bad because i may or may not have friends after it.

Glad I have all of you!

E

Okay okay I'm still alive and well and hope you all are as well!

While you read... Please enjoy the work of Dvorak. I would actually advise you to click pause, read my blog and then hit play and just sit back and enjoy the amazing music... And even if you don't enjoy it perhaps just tolerate it. This is one of my very favorite composers and he was born where I was traveling this weekend. This is "the song to the moon" from the opera I saw this weekend that was composed by Dvorak. This is Rusalka, the main character, a water nymph who is in love with a human prince asking the moon to let the prince know of her love...


This week I've accomplished a lot! I've managed to get myself to and from the Czech Republic... without damaging myself or others!

I was a late comer in the plans of this trip because I originally wasn't going anywhere. But then Charles said "are you going to Prague" and I thought "why wouldn't I?!" So i went. We boarded the train at 2:00 p.m. and found our compartment (even more hogwartsesque than the first due the the private compartments lining the corridors...) and took our seats. We had about 6 hours and then we would be in Prague! We sat still for a while, and then discovered that the seats moved down to form a bed. We decided to make the compartment one gigantic bed so we all slid our chairs together and smashed our legs into a heap in the middle. It was SO HOT in that tiny compartment after smashing and moving and piling... but it was fun! So we all layed in a sleepy daze for pretty much the rest of the train ride untillll.... We heard a guitar in the corridor... and then a harmonica... and then a song! Vibha and I listened to this for a while but then when the guy started singing "barbara Ann" we knew we had to join in. We ran into the hall and sang along with the guy and his friends. The man was in his early 50s I'd say and him and his friends were just having a good time! It was awesome to see and hear! Just a bunch of people enjoying life and allowing us to enjoy it with them!! They started playing "Lollipop Lollipop" and I of course joined in in a very high soprano falsetto voice... it was fantastic! After the song was over I went and put my shoes on (a very important fact, it proves that i did not have them on when we were laying on the bed/seat... if i had, this would have been enough to get me arrested! Shoes on seats= no good) and wandered down the hall a little way. At the end of the hall, I saw a guy wearing a USC shirt! I stopped and asked him if he was from California but he said no, he was from Australia but just really liked American football! So we started to talk and I sat with them (he and another friend from Australia) for a while until I heard our stop coming.

We got off the train and walked around until we found our hostel. It was really nice as far as hostels go and since there were 9 of us we had a 10 person room all to ourselves. We found a pizza place for dinner in the middle of the city and since it was Kathy's birthday we waited until midnight and had a birthday toast to her. Then we found our way back to the hostel and crashed.

At 7:45 in the morning there was an explosion of noise. Apparently everyone had set their seperate alarms for the same time, they must have, because I heard at least 5 different ringtones. We got up, showered and dressed and walked to St. Charles' bridge. There were tons of street vendors and tourists and bands playing on the bridge. It was such a great atmosphere and I was really happy to just wander around on this bridge looking at everything and watching people and listening to the different bands play. After about an hour on the bridge we finally got to the other side and walked around the city. We went to an extremely old church and to a castle and explored and just took in the city. Then of course, the rain caught up to us so we walked back to the hostel and got ready for the opera that night.

THE OPERA WAS AMAZING. It was Dvorak's "Rusalka" which is essentially the Hans Christian Anderson take on The Little Mermaid. I ended up having to get a standing room ticket so I was bummed because standing for 3 hours is hard to do, especially when you don't have a great view in the first place and you've been walking around all day. But I was excited anyway. BUUUUT when I got up to the "gallery" which is the standing room, I discovered that they actually had seats and that mine wasn't bad at all! I could see the whole stage (rare even for an expensive ticket) and I could see the violas and hear everything and see the subtitles. All great things. The music was done SO well and the choreography was so organic... and I was in PRAGUE where Dvorak is from!! It was all just amazing!!

The next day we got up and had breakfast at a local cafe and then just walked around town. I figured out that when you're working with limited time while traveling it is better to let things simply happen while walking around the town rather than running around like crazy trying to cram in a lot of things which half of them you end up forgetting and the other half turn out to be closed when you get there. I like it much more to just walk around and experience the city like a local. With an ice cream in hand preferably...

On the train home I started off in the compartment but got bored again so I left and wandered through the train. I spotted Charles in a compartment all to himself (we tend to spread out in trains...) so i walked in. He was sticking his head out the window and when I did as well I was overwhelmed. The countryside here will never cease to amaze me! It is farmed clearings with beautiful little houses on them surrounded by some woods but in the distance you can see these clearings spotting along the hills. It is AMAZING. It was about to rain (surprise surprise) and it was also sunset so the landscape was glowing golden and misty. I have yet to see a more beautiful and inspiring sight than that one! Just riding on a train completely at peace and I look out and see such an amazing landscape.

I met some funny people on this ride too and ended up spending the rest of the time with Vibha, Charles and these two funny guys ....who I had actually seen the night before at the cafe we ate at for dinner, I pegged them at first glance as Americans and was going to say something but thought better of it! They must have been debating the same thing because they kept looking over at me. But then, when I was sticking my head out the train window with Charles the guys a few compartments down stuck there heads out too and they recognized me as the girl they had seen last night (as they told me later they had called me "the girl in the red jacket") and after we had started talking they said "did you by any chance eat in the square in Prague last night?" and I recognized them as the same guys! Small world!

One of the best things I have so far learned from this trip is how alike we all really are. I know this sounds so cliche, but more and more as I learn about different cultures and I meet different people here and in Germany and in Prague, I realize that all people no matter where we are, are all the same! The thought is quite comforting.


A little side story: Last night Chrissy asked me to get her a mug from the kitchen for her and my tea. I went to the kitchen to where our host mom was and asked her for a mug. She said "mug?" because she had never heard it. I, being the idiot I am, didn't understand she didn't know what it meant and thought she was just saying it so I decided to say it again "mug mug" I said... this really confused her but at this point I thought we were just playing a game and saying the word a lot so I just went off and said "mug mug mug mug" a lot... finally she got really confused and tried to get out of the kitchen in order to get an object to aid her question no doubt... but I thought she was just walking towards me really close so I just kept saying "Mug" a lot and standing still in the doorway, blocking her way out. Finally she pushed passed and went to the cabinet and pulled out a mug and said "mug?"... and I realized my terrible error....It literally was the most retarded thing I've ever done. I don't understand why my brain just froze and I kept saying mug a lot... Chrissy was dying laughing and then of course I had a laughing attack and the little sanity I had stored away was lost...


I love you all!

E

Love you Grampy! I heard that you're looking at my blog. I love you and hope you're doing well. Can't wait to visit you sometime very soon!!

Fellow technologically savvy individuals-

My teacher decided it would be a great idea to ask Salzburg College if I could preform a solo at the concert. I was honored that he trusted me enough to represent him after just a few lessons to the public, but told him time was limited for the final concert and all the students were put in ensembles in order to fit us all into one concert, so this idea probably wouldn't work. The next day the guy who is in charge of the final concert came up to me and said "sorry we couldn't fit your solo in the schedule". I was embarrassed because obviously my teacher still called the school and asked for me to play a solo even though we had both known the answer. So I said "hey no problem" and walked away, embarrassed that this guy probably thought it was me asking my teacher to do this. I thought this would be the end.

Today I went to lessons and said "so now that I don't have to perform my solo at the concert, may we start working on the 6th suite again?" and he said "wait just a minute! I don't give up that easily!"... So apparently he now is going to call the teacher of the flute player that I'm supposed to play my duet with (apparently they're good friends) and he is going to ask him if we can cut some of the 2nd movement in order to save me time to play my solo...

This is getting crazy! Now they are all going to think it is me behind this and me who is asking my teacher for the solo time when really I'd prefer to just have a stress free performance and play the darn peice with the flute player!

On the upside, the Vienna Philharmonic is playing (under the AMAZING direction of Daniel Barenboim) tonight at 9:15. I just ate an incredible dinner, AND my midterms are over!

Hello my favourite Cyber stalkers!

Bus rides have quickly become a point in my day I look forward to the most. I have obviously started to look European or at least not like a tourist... the latter is good news... because I have had an astonishing amount of people come up to me und start to speak rapidly about things in German. I usually can understand basically what they're saying by following their eyes to see what they're looking at. I've become very good at pantomiming conversations, as well as matching peoples emotions like laughing when they laugh, smiling when they smile... etc. and praying that they're not laughing at me or asking me a question. These newly formed skills are usually necessary because even after I tell them I only speak English they generally begin to speak in a combination language between mine and theirs and it ends in confusion and laughter. I always have to congratulate these people for knowing even the little English that they do because here I am in their country trying my hardest and they simply switch languages... or get caught in between the two... to accommodate me.

Yesterday morning on the bus, a very loud couple and there child came on. They were loud and pushy and took up a lot of room in the aisle and their child was doing her best to join the conversation with squeaky baby noises. It would be cute if the whole things wasn't deafening. Well, their stop came and they got off the bus. The woman somehow made the man mad because all of a sudden he EXPLODED and started yelling at her at the top of his lungs! I have never heard such a loud argument let alone in public! I mean I've definitely screamed that loudly before... when I was 3... So the bus was watching as this guy just screamed at his wife and everyone felt really awkward... they could understand the conversation and I could see it on everyones faces that it was a private matter because everyone looked away and pretended not to be listening but they were all staring with glazed faces and obviously still listening. The couple got off the bus and walked down the street and as the bus passed (and everyone shifted to see out the west facing windows) we saw the man gesturing furiously and obviously still shouting at the woman. So that was awkward and I would feel bad sharing it with you if it didn't happen again later that day...

I was waiting at the bus stop for the return journey and unknowingly part II of this story...

I heard a crash and then saw an elderly woman come running out of a shop holding something in her hand and YELLING very loudly at who knows what. She was walking towards the road brandishing what looked like a wooden spoon in her hand and screaming at a target that had not yet shown himself. When she got to the road, with oncoming traffic moving quite rapidly, she didn't stop, but stormed across the street still yelling really loudly. The cars on the road screeched to a halt and honked but the lady just kept going across 4 lanes of traffic. She got to the other side and we saw and old man standing on the other side. When she got there he started walking away and she continued to follow him and yell at him... everyone at the bus stop was confused again und Chrissy and I just started laughing! Yesterday was obviously the day for marital feuds, so if you get in one after reading this and it happens to be in public, don't be shy, it will turn into a funny memory for those people around you...

On anthems...

I have started to burst into Americas patriotic songs at random points of the day. For example, I saw the amazing castle of Shonbrunn and as I sat on a bench to take in this glorious sight I began to instantly hum "God bless America" quite loudly. Later that day I started singing "My country 'tis of thee" after seeing the breathtaking national library of Austria. Later at a monastery it was our national anthem that blessed the ears around me. I am honestly not sure what is going on but it has begun to annoy Chrissy who usually gets an earful of patriotism every time I'm impressed by something.

On the Chrissy note. Last night I realized her hatred of memorizing material. I asked her if there was anything I could do to help her study for her German vocabulary test. She said "yes!" and I was happy because usually offering to help is declined and I was looking forward to something other than locking myself in my bedroom until sleep claimed me. She said that she was going to review the words and then come up and I could quiz her. I agreed and went to my bedroom to wait. She came up around 9:30 and said she was ready. I opened the book and asked her a word and she said she forgot (schon). So I went to the next word on the list Hasslich, then habsch...lang, kurz, komish, auge, nase... she said she didn't know. I looked at her strangely and asked her if she wanted me to keep asking her and she said "well I haven't really looked at them yet"!! AH! So I decided she needed an intervention and told her that I would ask her the words again and mark the ones she didn't know (there were 4 pages of words...). So we went through them and marked the ones she needed help with. Then I began systematically teaching her the words... Hasslich?- ugly... good... Habsch?- pretty... good... lang?- Long... good...hasslich? Etc. We went in this way through 2 pages of words. This is the way I study, it's tedious but take it from a procrastinator, it's the only way to learn and retain! I began spouting them out from memory and asking her what certain words meant. Arm, bein, korpe, lippe... she realized I was no longer looking at the paper and became discouraged. We continued doing this until 11:00 when she said that she was going to email her boyfriend! We hadn't learned even a quarter of the words! I asked her how she was going to get through the test with only 1/5 of the words learned and she said "pray" and walked out of the room! So the upside is I now have about 45 German words under my belt...and have retained them through the night!... the bad news is I don't think Chrissy is even wearing a belt. Let us bow our heads.

Love you all

"and I'm proud to be an american... where at least I know I'm free..."