Sunday, August 28, 2016

I actually went outside today

Sorry for the misleading title today. I've actually been outside the majority of the time here since I've been in Vienna. But now that it's my first actual weekend here (it's currently 6pm here Sunday evening) I wanted to give the people another post.

Friday I had my first german test that went pretty well. I did a good amount of studying for it, but am just thankful that it's all over with. My classmates and I were fortunate enough to have an awesome professor, because after our test (our class lasts three hours) we went to the Naschmarkt. I bought some tasty noodles for about 4 euros and then she treated us to drinks (I got a beer).

Saturday, Charlie, John and I went to the Kunsthistoriche Museum (Art History). There were some killer pictures and pieces of artwork in there. Here are some examples:





That last one is a picture of the roof in one of the halls. It was opened by the Emperor Franz Joseph I around 1891 so as to show off the Hapsburg's impressive (I think the proper term for this is actually gigantic) art collection. Here's one more: 

This is a panoramic of one of the main halls. I can't remember which one, but look at it! It's huge!! The first and second panos are taking from different views from the same hall. 

After the museum, we went to our go to cafe (Coffee Day off of the Innerstadt in the first district). It's very quaint and simple there, and you don't feel the urge to dress up as if you're going to the opera, much like you feel at almost every other cafe. After that, three off us (plus John's friend from home) went out to get some drinks and ended up walking a lot more than not (I am partly to blame for this; took a wrong turn somewhere going to a bar that I recommended). 

Today the three of us and my friend Kaira went to the Cafe Central (you know, that popular cafe where all the intellectuals of the 20th century would hangout and get mad at eachother) to do our homework and get some coffee. Well, my suspicions were true and it was very busy inside. Also,  it didn't look like the kind of place where we were allowed to do homework or things like that. We decided to go back to Coffee Day to do our homework and help eachother out with the German. Anyway, that's enough for today. Tomorrow starts week two of the German Intensive program, and the end cannot come soon enough. I have to work on my strong and weak verbs as well as different prefixes and stuff like that. 

Greg 

bonus picture of a cup of Arabian Coffee I got at a cafe yesterday. It was really tasty. 





Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Erste Woche in Wien

Today is the first Wednesday of our German Intensive program, as well as the first day of auditions for the Performance Workshop that I have to take for my performance credit. The past couple of days have been pretty busy, with a smorgasbord of meetings and things to sign up for. It's funny to think about how I've been spending my days. I have my German Intensive from 12:30 till around 3 or 4 (I don't actually remember exactly). After that however I've been setting off on excursions around Vienna so I ca
n get a grip on the UBahn subway system here. It's pretty similar, but practice makes perfect. Charlie and John-- two of my roommates-- and I spent basically all of Monday after our class looking for a place to buy school supplies and more importantly, towels (both Charlie and I forgot to pack them). It was a good time walking around another pedestrian walkway with a crap ton of stores. I didn't get any pictures of that, mainly because we just wanted to finish as soon as possible. After we got back to Margaretenstrasse 149, I went to the practice rooms right next door to our apartment and did some work on my audition piece (Weber Bassoon Concerto, mvmt 1). Yesterday I walked to Honer (I think? I forget it's name) to buy a card so I can put some credits on my Austrian SIM card. Here is a dope pictures that I got while I was heading back to the UBahn station to go back home:
  So far then it's been nice. I plan on going to the Danau Canal this weekend. The Canal is a part of the River that runs through Vienna. They made the canal so the ships can come up the river, but a section of it is set up so that pedestrians can go swimming in the river and do other stuff. It looks pretty fun, and hopefully the weather this weekend will be good. 

That's all for today. I have to go practice some German and check to make sure I signed up for an audition time (My head is still absorbing the fact that I'm in Europe, so time management stuff has been sorta on the back burner). 

Greg 


p.s. Bonus picture of a cute dog I saw on Monday. 

Saturday, August 20, 2016

The Plane Ride

Blog entry #2 - With Great Altitude.


It's about 3am in Vienna time and about 9pm in NY time. I got on the plane around 5ish and we took off at 6ish. The take off was rather exhilarating, but first let's talk about what I got do in preparation for the trip.

I've been up since about 8am yesterday (Monday the 15th). My roommate from U of H, Liam, came to visit me and join my family and I at our house to have our going away party. It was a lot of fun to do, and my girlfriend
    Annie had a big hand in helping out with setting it up and stuff (myself included). Saying goodbye was probably the hardest thing I've ever done. Annie and I have always dealt with long distance relationships; she goes to
  school in Boston and I went to school in NY and now Connecticut. It's one of the few relationships I've had where the distance thing wasn't an issue. Our relationship is also one of the few where her parents actually
  like me. Who woulda thought? Anyways, after Liam left to go back home to New Jersey I started finally packing up all of the stuff I had to bring. My roommate Taylor and his girlfriend Nadia had some godd advice for
  the packing aspect: pack everything you think you need, and then cut it in half. After that, cut it in half one more time. (I sorta skipped that second bit). I also had to write a couple of thank you notes for people who gave me
  money for my journey to Vienna. Then I had to stay up all night (i took two hour-long naps) so that I could sleep on the way to Newark International and then while on the plane. Clearly, this plan failed. I think I had too much coffee.
  I actually only had one cup of coffee on this flight so far. It was so good. The beer was delicious too. It was served not to cool, but not too warm, and sipping on it while watching Deadpool was lovely.

So this morning at around 11 my parents and I got in the car and drove down to Newark. It was around a 2.5-3 hour long drive, so not too bad. Traffic only got kinda bad once we were actually outside of NYC. Thank god we didn't
  didn't have to go to JFK. Getting into the airport and checking in my luggage was fairly easy too. There was no line at the Austrian Airline line, so that was nice. After that my parents went to the "restaurant" and got some food.
  I got a tasty mushroom swiss burger. I decided to get a Shock Top with it, but felt quite silly because my parents got an imperial pint (20 oz.) of Goose Island. I think it was their/the lager. I don't know much about that brewery,
  but that was a damn good beer. Shock Top sucks. I don't know what I was doing. I sorta panicked when the waitress asked what I wanted.

And that's about it. Going through security/TSA was annoying, but who really enjoys having to take all of your stuff and put it into bins and then get scanned? I think it's just the lines that are annoying. I digress. Getting onto the
  plane was easy. The stewardess' are very nice and I have a dope-ass window seat with a clear view of the turbine (well, one of. I think there are four of them. I would certainly hope so on an plane this size.)

We're right now sailing at about 30,000 feet (Maybe? Not really sure, but I remember reading it somewhere that 30k feet is the standard height of planes when traveling). We're over the Atlantic ocean and it's so dang cool to see
  the moon (which is directly to the right of my window) reflect on the ocean. Plan on reading a new blog once I land in Vienna (in 5 hours). I'll upload this once there is working WiFi and will attempt to start the third entry.


Greg

Monday, August 15, 2016

#1

I should probably start packing.


Well, tonight is the last night that I get to spend in my room eating popcorn and drinking beer before a youtube video at 1:30am. 


The title of this page it sort of misleading -- I started packing probably three or four days ago. It was starting to get close to my day of departure (tomorrow, August 16th to be exact) but the sense of urgency didn't strike me just yet. I find this is a feeling I often encounter with most big events in my daily life. The feeling of caterpillars turning into butterflies in my stomach doesn't really occur until about 1 hour before it actually happens. I don't actually become seriously intoxicated by the feeling until I'm about to step onto the stage to perform, or in front of the classroom to present a topic. These things are pretty small compared to what's happening tomorrow, but the feeling is the same. 


Tomorrow I leave for four months to study abroad in Vienna (if you weren't aware, that is.) I'm a music history major at The Hartt School at the University of Hartford, and was turned on to studying abroad by my friends and my aunt who had studied in London when she was in college. "If they have a study abroad program available at the school Greg, do it." I guess that dream I had was becoming a reality. The last 2 months have probably been the busiest summer I've had even though I had no actual job. Getting a visa was so goddamn difficult, but the journey my mom and I took to  NYC was a lot of fun. 
This is that museum I was referring too. Sorry about the crappy photo sphere.

Seeing the Guggenheim museum was awesome. 

I forget where I was going with this post. I probably had too much to drink. Coffee is pretty potent stuff (it really isn't but I don't care.) 


If you made it this far through the post, thank you for taking the time to read my paragraphs about items and subjects after two cans of beer and some lemonade. You can check back at his website for further updates regarding my studying abroad in Vienna. I return December 22nd. 

Best,
Greg Eckhardt