Venice, Italy

This past weekend, I took a trip with some friends out to Venice! Last week we had midterms, so everyone was finished with classes and tests on Wednesday, giving us a long weekend!  On Wednesday night, 5 of us took a overnight train from Vienna to Venice.   The train was about 12 hours long and was quite interesting.  The night before, a few of our friends had their phones stolen while they were sleeping in the same situation, so we were all a bit paranoid about our belongings.

{Sleeping arrangements on the train}

Everything worked out just fine, and we arrived in Venice on Thursday morning.  It was a beautiful day, and we spent most of the morning wandering around, crossing bridges, and taking in the beautiful city.

Around lunchtime, we met up with friends who had been traveling in Bologna, and we continued to explore the city.  On Friday, the weather took a turn for the worse and was not quite as nice.  My friend Grace and I spent a good portion of the morning ducking into shops and admiring the Italian leather goods! We were forced to split off from the boys after our numerous stops to look in windows. . .

After shopping, we all met up again in the San Marco Piazza and did a bit of sight-seeing.  We looked at some interesting modern art, and walked through Saint Mark's Basilica.  It only continued to rain harder throughout the day, so we took cover at a small restaurant before dinner to have traditional Italian Spritz drinks.  For dinner, we had a recommendation to go to a restaurant off of the beaten path that was absolutely delicious! 

The next morning, much to our surprise, most of Venice had flooded! We couldn't even walk out of our hotel without being knee deep in water.  

{Looking out from our Hotel}

Since we forgot to bring our wading boots, most of us ended up walking barefoot to the train station to store our luggage until our train left.  Quite the experience, needless to say. . .

Because or train wasn't until later that night, we had the day to explore more of Venice.  We took a boat out to San Murano where the glass blowing factories are.  We saw some amazing pieces and got a glimpse of the glass being blown!  That night we took yet another overnight train back to Vienna, arriving on Sunday morning.  I think it's safe to say we all had our fair share of gelato, pizza, pasta, and LOTS of walking-- overall, it was a wonderful weekend trip to Venice!

Classes, Salzburg, & Munich

Since my last post, I have managed to keep quite busy! After returning from my 10 day trip, I immediately started up with my semester classes.  In total I have 5 courses: German, Music in Performance, Central European Literature, Nations and Religions, and a Teaching Internship.  So far I am really enjoying all of the classes and my professors are all very knowledgable about the subjects they teach.

For my teaching internship, I have been assigned to a fourth grade classroom at a school that takes me about a half hour to get to.  I have been twice so far and have loved it! The kids don't speak as much English as I had expected, so communicating is at times a bit difficult.  The first day I showed pictures of my family and friends, while teaching them English words for people -- Grandma, cousin, etc.  This past Monday I taught the kids about California, showing them the state flower, bird, places I like to go, etc.  As I teach them the English words, they help me with my pronunciation of the German words! . . . as they try not to laugh. . .

Salzburg--
About two weeks ago my friend Chris Clark arrived in Vienna from his Summer program in Ireland.  Chris stayed with me for a few days, and then a group of us took the train to Salzburg for the weekend. We had made arrangements to take a tour of the salt mines and to take the Sound of Music Tour.

We stayed in a hostel (which was more like a hotel) and kept busy all weekend exploring and taking tours.  When we arrived on Friday we immediately went for hike in the mountains behind our hostel.  On our way down, we crossed passed with an older couple who were also out for a hike.  We had so many questions for them that they invited us to their outside patio (overlooking all of Salzburg) for a drink and cookie!

{With our new friends Isabelle & Franz}

{Before heading into the Salt Mine}

{Top of a mountain with Chris!}

Oktoberfest--

This past weekend a group of us took the train to Munich to celebrate Oktoberfest with the Germans! We left on Friday after our German class and spent the weekend in the tents in Munich.  We stayed mostly in the Hoffbrau tent which is well known for Americans.  I was able to meet up with many of my friends from Santa Clara who were also visiting!  It was all around a really fun trip and definitely an interesting experience!

{Bri (friend from SCU), Me, and Meg}