Wow, what a weekend! This might end up being a very long post, so get settled in.
On Thursday after I got back from school I picked up my package of winter clothes from the post office, and when I opened it at home I got a great surprise! My dad included 3 bags of peanut butter M&Ms in the box! They're my favorite candy, and you can't get them here in Austria, so that really made my day (thanks dad!!!!). Then I hopped a train to Vienna to start my weekend.
Anne Storey, who works with TEA (Teachers of English in Austria), organized a mixer between Austrian university students studying to be English teachers and TAs. Last week Thursday a bunch of us met with her in Burgenland, and she invited us to the mixer (we hadn't signed up earlier), and also said that we could stay with her in Vienna. Her "apartment" is amazing! It's really about half of a house, and it's very old and gorgeous. The three of us girls were staying in in the front of the house, which is really it's own apartment, but also can connect to the rest of the flat. There were four guys who stayed there as well, two of them were in the upstairs, which also could've been it's own apartment (but it had no kitchen or second entrance), the other two stayed in the playroom off the kitchen. She lives very close to a few tram lines, as well as the U-bahn (subway), so it was really easy to get everywhere we wanted to go. Anne was also a really great hostess, she told us to make ourselves at home, and use whatever we needed/wanted. She even provided food for breakfast, including homemade Marillen (apricot) jam! We all joked about wanting to be related to her, but really she's an amazing person, and I hope I get the chance to stay with her again and chat more, she has great stories!
After dropping off my stuff at her house and meeting up with some of the others staying there we headed down to the Austro-American Society where the mixer was being held. The mixer was great, the Fulbright Commissioner (Lonny Johnson) was there, as well as our main contact in the commission, Jürgen, so it was good to see them again. There were also a bunch of TAs there who I'd met in Graz and we all did some catching up, but the best thing about it was getting to know some actual Austrians! I mostly talked with them in German, and one of the girls I met actually lives about 5 minutes from me in Baden. I'm pretty excited to know an Austrian here in Baden, I need to make plans with her so I can meet other Austrians too. When the mixer was over we went back to Anne's and hung out there for awhile talking and drinking wine in the kitchen.
On Friday morning we had a great breakfast, mostly made great because of all the laughter and conversation trying to plan our day. We got off to a late start, finally leaving the house at about 11, and headed into the city center. We spent a few hours wandering around the center taking pictures, seeing the sights (which most of us had seen before), saving money by not going in anywhere. Then we went out to Schloß Schönbrunn and wandered through the paths and mostly-baren gardens. While we were out there we had so much fun, and we were pretty sure they were going to kick us out for being so ridiculous. We decided to start a new tourism fad, we call it Photo Jumping. I know it's not really something new, to jump in the air while someone is taking a picture, but I don't think anyone did it as much or as enthusiastically as we did. We talked about doing other group trips and having a whole series of us jumping in front of as many historical objects as possible. Of course some of the group, weren't so keen on photo jumping, but in the end everyone got into it and we were all laughing and jumping until our sides (and legs) hurt. That night we ate dinner back at Anne's, and then another TA friend, Alan, came over and we sat around drinking wine and talking. Alan invited us to go to a club where he knew some Austrians, so we went out. In the end I was the only one of us that really talked to the group of Austrians, the other three who came out pretty much stuck together. I was pretty tired though, so I went back to the house long before the others returned.
Yesterday was yet another great day! I met up with Bryce, another TA I got to know at Annes, and we went to the Naschmarkt together. The others were just barely awake when I left, and they were all making plans to go back to their homes, so it was just the two of us wandering the market for hours. I didn't end up taking any pictures in the market because it would just be impossible to capture everything in a picture. I know they say a picture is worth 1000 words, but with places like the Naschmarkt you just have to go there and experience it for yourself because there's no describing it. Anyway, I'll do my best. On Saturdays as part of the market they have a flea market, which is pretty interesting. There's a lot of clothes and junk, but there's also some really cool antiques, and tons of old (and not so old) books. Since funds are running low and I've got 3.5 weeks until I get paid I wasn't really looking to buy anything, but it was still fun to see the stuff. The market itself, which is open pretty much everyday, is full of great fresh produce, spices from around the world, specialty food shops, lots of dried fruits and nuts, and of course restaurants and food stands. I wanted to buy some dried fruit because it's so good here (I don't know why/how really but it's different from dried fruit at home), but it was a little more than I really wanted to pay. In the end the only food we bought was our lunch! We had some great pepperoncini (finger tip sized red sweet/hint of hot peppers) filled with goat cheese, and falafel wraps (according to Bryce, who has lived in Vienna before, the best place to get falafel is the Dr. Falafel stand in the Naschmarkt). It was a really incredible lunch, I wish we had a falafel place here in Baden! We also picked up some wine for our dinner. Bryce had some other shopping he needed to do, so we headed up to one of the nearby shopping districts, Mariahilfe. On our way to the shops we stopped and had a krapfen, the traditional Austrian doughnut filled with apricot jam (of course they fill them with other things as well, but the ones with apricot are the traditional ones that I love). After we finished our wanderings we headed back to Annes with plans to dump our stuff and head to the Stadtpark to soak up the beauty of the day. The whole weekend was sunny and really amazing fall weather, so we thought it would be good to take as much advantage as possible. In the end we didn't go, because when we got back Abby, a second year TA, was at Anne's and she was preparing dinner for us. There were a few other second years who were coming by to eat and hang out so we just stayed home and chatted. It was another great night of laughter and conversation. Abby made two incredible soups, a corn soup (topped with delicious corn guacamole) and a chili with pasta. She also baked some great crusty bread (which she made), and another 2nd year TA, Evan, brought over a pumpkin pie. We were going to head to a bar at some point, but in the end we were having too much fun sitting at Anne's drinking good wine and eating great food to bother going anywhere else.
Now I'm back in Baden, after getting up early to catch a train out of the city, and I've got a day of planning lessons and cleaning up my apartment ahead of me. This weekend was so much fun, but I'm so tired and glad to be home again!
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