November (so far)

After that Oktober quickie, I'm almost up to date! Let's see what's been happening...

November 1 is All Saint's Day. Since Austria is largely, largely Catholic, the holiday is seriously celebrated here, and banks and schools are closed. Citizens go to the graves of loved ones and do yearly care-taking and decorating. (Halloween, by contrast, isn't widely celebrated, though it's catching on among the younger generations. Even trick-or-treating. Free candy?! Internationally appealing!)

Wall of the Zentralfriedhof

For this reason, then, a friend and I went to the Zentralfriedhof (the central cemetery) to celebrate (is that the appropriate word here?) with the Viennese. The Zentralfriedhof is HUGE. I've heard that the Viennese like to say that it's half the size of Geneva but twice as lively. :)

The end of Oktober

I've been disturbingly bad at updating my blog (much, much worse than I thought I would be. I'm guessing it's the fault of lack of habit), but here are some highlights from the end of Oktober (in pictures): 

walking the Wienerwald (Vienna forest) while the leaves are changing

Last weekend

I love Vienna and I'm very happy that I decided to study here

This weekend I had guests (I'd say just like the second weekend, but I realize now that the post about my second week is still sitting as a draft in my blog entry list): a friend from high school who is studying in Valencia for the semester and his roommate from their study abroad program!

Delicious caprese. 

It was AWESOME, for two main reasons: they made me break out of my routine and act like a tourist for a little while (which means fun excursions and cool pictures), and because it was one of my roommate's birthdays! Hurray! They helped us celebrate and even cooked dinner one night as a thank you for letting them stay in our apartment.

Oktoberfest!

Me plus Germans Dana and Daniel, and persons "Tad" from IES

I'm alive, etc

Florence and Barcelona were amazing (Milan less so, but still good), classes have started, classes are amazing... I'm cooking my roommates yellow curry tonight... and tomorrow we're going to MQ Vienna Fashion Week (Thai designers! Yes, I themed the meal).

I haven't done any homework yet... but I promise I'll get to that tonight. There's a cafe nearby that plays nothing but bad American music from the 70s and 80s and has terrible upholstery on the booth covers. I think I'm in love with it. So hopefully I'll go there tonight and get some work done.

View from the top of the Duomo in Florence, Italy!

Um...

I haven't posted about my second or third weeks yet and it's already time for our nine-day break... What happened?!

At any rate, I'm going tonight on an overnight train to Florence, where we'll spend a few days (I'm traveling with my flight buddy, Kim), then to Milan for a day and a flight to Barcelona, where we'll meet up with some other IES students for the last four days! And hopefully go to the BEACH.

Update: I'm not taking any computers on the trip with me... but I'll try to be in touch here and there if possible.

Just a quick update...

Kim (my flight buddy) and I went wandering through the inner city with some other IES students a few days ago, and, being the ones with cameras, we were a little bit slow and distracted and ended up wandering off and getting lost. We found a place called (get this) "The Choco Bar", however, that had a special: prosecco with lemon gelato and a champagne truffle.

We split it. 

I love Vienna.