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.