In my opinion, today was the busiest day we have had in Vienna with classes, museums, tours, and symphonies; it’s obvious now that I did not mean busy in a negative way although it is a struggle to get up at 8:30 am for statistics. With the morning starting bright and early at 8am, we went from sitting at a desk learning how to create a frequency table to traveling back to Vienna during the 1400s. We spent the morning at an art history museum learning about the history of the Theresianum and the changes the city of Vienna went through from the 1400s to present time. It was amazing seeing replicas of homes during this ancient period, tomb stones, paintings. It was also incredible some of the artifacts that were not so different from what we used today, such as keys during that time as well as safety pins for clothing. We spend about two hours in the museum. Even though I am sure all of us would have been happy to spend all day there we had to get to lunch. The dining hall here is something we are all still getting used to, but I would say we are all making progress. Today they had potato pancakes for lunch and egg salad and cold cuts for dinner, one vegetarian food selection and one regular selection; being a vegetarian unable to speak the German language well is a struggle. I do have a story to contribute that involves tears being shed over pizza. Today Mae and I went to get some more excellent vegetarian pizza that we discovered days before; there was only one clearly vegetarian slice left and another that looked like just cheese. After I failed at attempting to ask if there was any meat under the cheese I just bought it and hoped for the best. I then sat down with my fork and knife, mouth watering over this delicious slice of Austrian pizza I was about to eat until I discovered ham under the cheese. I sat there with my fork in one hand, knife in the other staring at the meat as my eyes filled with tears thinking of how hard I tried to ask if there was meat. I did not want to give the slice back so I went with trying to surgically remove this meat. As I was failing, and crying, the wonderful Austrian employee noticed, called me over, and gave me two free pastries…so not all was lost.
After dinner we all went to the Mozart Ensemble, “Konzerte im Mozarthaus” in the city. It was nice to see everyone dressed up and to hear these musicians play Mozart’s pieces of music. This ensemble was in the tradition of the Viennese classical period and included works of Haydn, Schubert, and, of course, Mozart. I enjoyed that the small audience made the ensemble seem more personal. There was wine to drink during intermission, but they were 5 Euro glasses of wine, so I decided to use the restroom instead which I had to go literally outside across a courtyard to get to. After the ensemble I, as well as the rest of the group, was exhausted from the day’s activities and decided to have a quiet Friday evening doing homework and studying; that is in fact why we are here right? It has only been days since our journey across seas to Vienna, and the anticipation for the rest of the journey grows tremendously each day.
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