"If it's not Baroque, don't fix it!"

This past week has been a blast. On Monday we went to Schönbrunn Palace which was so beautiful! We had lunch in a charming park before having our tour. The palace is a former imperial summer residence which was property of the Habsburgs. It has 1,441 rooms which are largely in original condition. The Baroque palace has so much architectural, cultural and historical aspects to it and the tour was so interesting. After our tour was over we headed over to the maze and labyrinth and spent time playing at the park at Schönbrunn. We then had a group dinner at the Gloriette which was just up the hill from the palace.

On Tuesday, our art and architecture class went to the Jesuitsenkirche where I have my organ lessons. I was able to play a concert for them which was so fun. I played a few Baroque pieces and then afterwards we learned about the Baroque church. Let me tell you, Baroque art and architecture is both crazy and beautiful. Afterwards some of us went out for pizza before we had our German class. That evening while working in the library we celebrated James Horner's life and musical compositions. He wrote some amazing film scores for the Titanic, Star Trek, Avatar and many more.

Wednesday was when I had my Hungarian lesson last week which went really well. Reading is becoming easier and we are continuing with the lessons. Following Hungarian, I had German class so I had to quick switch languages and try not to get them confused. That evening I went to Institute where we had a great lesson taught. I also got the chance to meet a girl named Reneta who is from Hungary. She just moved to Austria earlier this year and she is the sweetest.

On Thursday I was able to catch up on some homework and get a lot done. Friday was a really fun day! We all took a bus to Melk where we went to an Abbey and had a tour. The Abbey is still in use for Monks today and we saw another beautiful Baroque church. The little book that I have a picture of is a Trevel Breviary for the monks. It
contains texts for the monks hourly prayers so that even on journeys they could carry out the prayers required in their practices. After that, we went on a 25 mile bike ride from Melk to Krems. The scenery was incredible and it was a blast. When we got back to Vienna, some of us went to Waffle Night, which is a YSA activity they have on Fridays. It was fun to socialize and play games with the members here.

I went to a wedding on Saturday! We have some family friends who live in Germany and Austria and they invited me to spend some time with them on Saturday. We went out to lunch at a cute garden restaurant beforehand where I had liver for the first time. The wedding afterwards was delightful and the bride and groom looked so happy. They had an awesome band that played as everyone walked out of the modern church. Saturday night some of us went to Donauinselfest which is a huge music festival right on the Danube River. It was really fun!

Sunday at church I was able to help out with the music a lot. I played piano in Relief Society and then played the organ for Sacrament meeting. It was really fun and I was so happy that I was able to share my talents with the ward. I have never been in a more diverse ward where there are people from all over the world but I love it so much. It is so interesting to hear the member's history of where they've come from.

Heiße Schokolade und Mozart Requiem

This past weekend was relaxing and we got into the Viennese lifestyle by sitting in a cafe for a long time. It was also pretty rainy and cold which is some of my favorite type of weather, I love it! On Friday we ate at a very Viennese restaurant where they had the best sauerkraut ever. Sauerkraut in America is just not the same, I don't know why they bother to try but here it is my favorite thing. On Saturday it was cold and rainy but that didn't stop us from going out and seeing Mozart's Requiem! I love his Requiem so so much, I first really learned about it when I sang in a choir a few summers ago and we sang a few movements from it. The Requiem was composed in Vienna in 1791 and Mozart actually died before he could finish it. It is a very emotional musical work with beautiful lyrics in Latin. The concert was incredible and the acoustics in the Karlskirche made the choir sound so angelic. It was performed by the choir and soloists of the Salzburg Concert Society and the Orchestra 1756, using period instruments. It was so beautifully performed and so far it is my favorite concert that I have been to. If you aren't familiar with Mozarts Requiem I strongly suggest you go take a listen. Today we are off to Schönbrunn palace to start the week off. 

Eine weitere Woche

I am still loving Vienna and pretending that this trip isn't ever going to end. Since getting back from Salzburg here's what I've been up to. Early last week we climbed up to the top of Stephansdom. 343 stairs. Small spiral staircase. And it was so worth it. The view from the top is breathtaking and you can see so much of Vienna. It was fun to learn about Stephansdom and the history behind it. On Friday we went to Gänsehäufel which is a park with a bunch of different pools to swim in, a water slide, a water playground, and of course a dock to jump in the Danube. It was a really fun day and super hot so it was the perfect day to go. That night some of us went to see Jurassic world. Side note: go see it!! On Saturday we went to see the Lippizaner stallions which are horses from a famous Spanish riding school here in Vienna. The show was really fun to watch, it was like the horse version of the Rockettes. Despite having the worst allergic reaction to horses I've ever had, it was definitely worth it to see these amazingly trained horses. On Sunday I was able to play piano during choir practice after church again and they were all excited to finally have a choir pianist. It's a really small choir but they sound great. Sunday night we went to see the Magic Flute. It is such an amazing opera and even though I didn't understand a lot it was really well done. The pit orchestra was really fun to see as well and they played so well. The next night we went to a relaxing cafe and got hot chocolate and apple strudel, we all brought something to read. I left the reading party a little early with another girl from our group and we went to La Sylphide, which is a Ballet. It was the first ballet I've seen and I really enjoyed it. It is incredible how gracefully they danced. On Tuesday night I went to an organ recital of another student who is taught at the university where the professor (that I have been taking lessons from) teaches at. He played so well and made the music sound effortless. It was a great recital and afterwards the professor arranged for me to play the organ for my Art and Architecture class next week. I've had two more Hungarian lessons and it is going really well. It is a doozy of a language but I'm so grateful to be getting a start on it before I go into the MTC. Yesterday after class we went to Institute which was really fun. Before it started I got to talk to András, who is from Hungary and recently moved to Vienna. He is learning German and English at the same time, props to him! He is still really learning though so we had the biggest struggle of a conversation, it was a mixture of German and English mostly but he kept throwing in some Hungarian and trying to teach me a few words. Because of his limited vocabulary we were able to talk about our favorite colors and then counted to 30 together in Hungarian! He made fun of the way I pronounced the "gy" sound in Hungarian and tried to help me with that, I don't even know what to compare that sound to because it's just something they don't have in English, or German but it's a hard one! He also told me a lot about Hungary and we talked about some different things as well but I wish I would've recorded the conversation because it was pretty funny. I was also able to get a Hungarian Book of Mormon at institute so that was nice. After institute a few of us went out for ice cream with a group of guys from Utah State who are just finishing up their study abroad. We also went to Prater which is an amusement park here. What's great about this place is you don't have to pay a ridiculous amount to get in, you can just go in and pay for a ride. It was one of the best rides ever, the perfect amount of swinging and being held upside down.