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May 29 Thursday was the Mirabelle Gardens & Friday was a free day.The Mirabelle Gardens at the Mirabelle Palace are not the most ornate or beautiful gardens that we've seen on our trip to Austria, however, the palace is significant in the history of Salzburg. It was built by Wolf Deitrich von Reitenau for his mistress, Solomae, whom he loved dearly. von Reitenau was a powerful man whose fortune was made with the salt mines that we visited Wednesday. The Gardens are still beautiful although simple, and we worth visiting. Several areas in the Mirabelle Gardens were used in the filming of The Sound Of Music movie. There is an upper garden with 13 statues of dwarves. No one is certain as to the significance of the statues, but they are cute anyway.
Two of the students who were on the Study Abroad with us last year, Sylvia Timothy and Meredith Morris joined us at the Gardens as well as our friend Christian Weisbacher who is from a little town on the border of Germany and Austria but attended and graduated from SUU. We had a good time seeing them and they spent the rest of the day with us.
After touring the Gardens, we went across the river to the inner city, the Innenstadt, and had lunch. After lunch we went back to the other side of the river and into a hotel where we took the elevator to the top of the building for a magnificent view of the city as well as delicious desserts.
Colton left us after lunch to go the Salzburg airport to pick up his father who had come to join him. They will travel to Germany and back to Vienna together before going back to the states.
On Friday, it was a pretty relaxed day. Kim, Jim and I took one of the Sound of Music bus tours. We were taken to many of the sites that were used in the filming of the movie such as the house by the lake, the real house of the von Trapp family, the Nonberg Abby that is still in use and the St. Michael's church where Maria and the Captain were married (in the movie). The gazebo was built just for the movie and then donated to the city of Salzburg. It was open to the public and while the publice can still look at it from the outside, they have locked it so that visitors cannot go in. The reason? An 82 year old woman was trying to jump from bench to bench like Liesle and Rolf did in the movie when she slipped and broke her hip. Now the gazebo is locked up tight.
Friday night we all got together for a farewell dinner at the Kirchenwirt Gasthaus where we are staying in Puch. The food was delicious and Jim and I bought dessert for everyone; two traditional and original Salzberger Nockerals. A nockeral is a very large souffle with a current berry sauce that is very good that is famous here in Salzburg. Sylvia, Meredith and Christian joined us for dessert and almost everyone liked the nockeral.
Tomorrow Kim, Katrina and Sara will all leave Salzburg for home and other destinations. Jim and I will leave Salzburg on Sunday afternoon and Colton and his father will leave on Monday for the next part of their trip.
Thanks for joining us on our 2009 Study Abroad. We had great experience this year and hope you enjoyed reading about it. Salt Mines at Bad DurrenbergOn Wednesday we all went to Bad Durrenberg to the Salt Mines. Sound boring? It wasn't! The salt mine tour is lots of fun. We took a bus from the train station and drove high into the Austrian Alps, some of the most beautiful mountains in the world. When we got inside the entrance we were given white pants and a white shirt to put on over our clothing to keep our clothes from being damaged. Then we were led to a little train of rails where we rode about 1/2 mile into the mine. Once we stopped we got off the rails and walked probably another 1/4 mile to a little theatre where there was a short presentation on how the salt mines came to be. It was originally discovered by the Celts that had settled in that area around 800 B.C. The salt trade was very important to the area and salt was used as money for hundreds of years. There were several levels to the mine and we got from one of the upper levels to a lower level by using a hardwood slide about 30 yards long. It was a steep slide and lots of fun. Then on to another video showing more of the salt story and another slide that was much longer than the first and still very fun. After the second slide, we had to cross an underground lake on a pontoon type boat. The darkness in the cavern was almost tangible until they turned on dimly lit colored lights. After the boat docked we followed the tracks to another space where we saw the last of the videos describing the history and the characters important to the salt production at the mine. During the walk through the mine, we passed the borders into Germany and then back into Austria.
Luckily we didn't have to climb out of the mine. A very long escalator took us to the top, then we were back on to the little rail train and out of the mine. We were all given minerature packages of salt that came from the mine as a souvenier.
Once we were out of the mine and our mine clothes, we went outside and walked up a steep road to an old church on the mountain above the mine. The climb was very, very steep, but it was worth it. From the walkway surrounding the church we had a fantastic view of the valley between Bad Durrenberg and Salzburg. People live there in the little village of Bad Durrenberg, in fact there is a little Kindergarten there.
A little Celtic village was at the bottom of the mountain and we poked around it for awhile before catching the bus back to Hallein, our starting point.
After arriving back in Hallein, we found a Chinese restaurant that had very good food so we had a great lunch and then couldn't resist stopping at a little ice cream shop on the way back to the train It was a great day and everyone had a really good time.
May 28 MauthausenGetting to Mauthausen from Salzburg is quite an ordeal. It's an hour and a half train ride from Salzburg to Linz where we change trains to continue on to the very small little village of Mauthausen. Then we either take a taxi or walk to the camp. The taxi is better because the walk is a long, steep uphill climb which is brutal in hot weather as last year's group can attest. But our journey doesn't seem too bad when it is compared to how the inmates of the Mauthausen Concentration Camp must have felt on their journey to the Camp. For some it was the last journey of their lives.
We arrived at the stark stone camp at about 11 a.m. on Wednesday. The first thing we saw was a field where the Russian captives were kept. The camp is in a beautiful area that makes it hard to imagine the ugliness that was going on behind the stone walls. Then we moved toward the stairs, or the Todestiege (stairs of death), on which inmates were forced to carry huge blocks of granite on their backs from the quarry below the camp. There were over 200 steps and unlike the stairs that are there today, they were uneven and some of the steps were as much as 1.5 meters high. The inmates were shoulder to shoulder as they trudged up the stairs and if one inmate happened to stumble or fall, he would cause those around him and behind him to stumble and fall as well.
When our students got to the bottom of the stairs and into the quarry area, they saw that in the quarry are three pools. One of these pools was used as an amusment for the camp guards. They would force the inmates to line up single file at the edge of the cliff over the pool. Then the guard would force the inmate at the back to push the man in front of him causing a chain reaction with the inmates falling off the cliff into the pool below. They were either killed by the fall down or drowned in the pool.
After the students climbed back up the stairs, panting and wheezing, we headed into the camp through monuments erected by several nations remembering those who had been incarcerated there. Then it was through the massive gate into the camp where a very sobering experience awaited them.
The first stop in our audio tour was the "Wailing Wall" where new prisoners were forced to stand upon arrival for anywhere from a few hours to a few days, no matter what the weather. Mauthausen is high and the winters can be severe whereas the summers can be extremely humid and hot. When inmates were taken from the Wailing Wall, they were processed and assigned to overcrowded barracks that were too small for such a large number of men. Then they began living a nightmare with cruel guards with guns and vicious dogs that were ordered to attack prisoners that displeased the guards; high stone walls with electric barbed wire on top of them; lice, inadequate meals served every couple of days; inadequate clothing; inadequate to non-existent medical care for the illnesses associated with living in such cramped quarters and inhumane doctors that enjoyed doing experiments on living human beings.
The tour included entrance to the gas chamber, the neck-shot room, hanging area and the crematorium ovens as well as a museum that had many graphic photos of the prisoners and camp life as well as a model of the camp. To wind up the trip, we went into the visitor's center and watched a 45 minute documentary on the camp and it's heartbreaking history. The documentary included interviews with former inmates, a man who helped supply the camp with food, a woman whose mother sheltered a prisoner that had escaped and an American Marine who helped liberate the camp.
This was a very moving experience for all of us and the students said they thought it was an important experience for them take part in.
May 25 Festung Hohensalzburg & The CityToday was hot and humid again and we also had two girls whose allergies were acting up and making them miserable. Katrina had a scratchy throat and Sara had itchy eyes. But they were real troopers and came along and participated in day's activities anyway. Because of the heat and the girls not feeling well we cut today's tour of Salzburg a little short.
The first stop was on one of the prettiest streets in Salzburg, the Getreidegasse. On this street is the house where Mozart was born, the Mozarts Geburtshaus, and has beautifully ornate hanging signs, a practice that got it's start in medieval times.
Jim also showed the students around other parts of the city and we visited a couple of small little street markets that were fun to poke around in. One of the little markets included a very large cheese and fresh meat vendor. There were lots of different types of cheeses and meats and with the hot weather the smells were interesting to say the least. We shared a huge apple pretzel that could easily become addictive that we bought from a street vendor. Other sights included the cemetery that was the inspiration of the graveyard scene in The Sound Of Music movie. When we left the cemetery, we went into the castle bakery and some of us bought a fresh, delicious roll with raisins. The bakery still uses a water wheel to generate the power to grind the wheat into flour.
Of course no European city tour is complete without including a church or two, so we saw the inside of three churches; the Collegian Kirche, the St. Peter's Kirche and the Salzburg Cathedral Dom also called St. Paul's. Inside St. Paul's is the baptismal font used to baptize Mozart.
No self respecting tourist area in Austria is free of street vendors and musicians and Salzburg is no exception. We listened to a group outside the Dom playing the accordian, two minerature balalaikas as well as a large one. I've included a picture of the group so you can see what I'm talking about.
The highlight of the excursion today was to climb to the top of the hill and visit the Borg or castle. Whenever you see a picture or Salzburg, there will most likely be a picture of this fortress in it, it's quite impressive. Although it was hot, Jim and the students made the climb to the top in about 15 minutes. At the castle we took a self guided tour of the interior, went into the museum, a marionette museum (marionette shows are popular here), saw the canons and the castle well.
After our tour around the castle, we went back to the train station where everyone had Doner, a turkish sandwich that everyone loves, and a cold drink.
Tomorrow, we will go to Mauthausen, a brutal concentration camp during WWII. May 24 Wifi in SalzburgWe got to Salzburg on Saturday and it's great to be here where it is so gorgeous. It is also nice to have wifi at the hotel where we are so that I can update this blog and have been able to add the pictures because the blog is in English now. Woohooo!
Because of the price of the train fare to Prague, we didn't go. To kind of make it up to the kids, we took them to Bratislava which is in Slovakia. Actually, only the girls went. It's only an hour train ride from Vienna and the ticket was only 14 Euros which was a great deal. We went on Thursday because the students were out of class for Pfingsten or in English, the Day of Pentacost. The train was crowded on the way to Bratislava. I guess lots of families had the same idea as us about getting out of the city on the holiday. The Austrians and Germans really celebrate their holidays. Very few stores and restaurants are open. It's like a Sunday with almost everything closed up.
Bratislava was under communist rule for quite awhile but became a democracy again in 1993. It's taken awhile, but they are slowly rennovating their Old Town which is a very pretty place. The Castle, however, was somewhat of a disappointement because it was entirely shrouded in scaffolding and plastic while rennovations are being done. But the weather was nice and the crowds were not too bad. We showed the girls the St. Martins Cathedral which was where the coronations were held in historic times. It is said to have the only true example of Baroque architecture in the city.
The girls had a good time and it was exciting to be in another country. Before the European Union, one would get a stamp in their passport when entering each new country. Now, once you've entered an EU country, there is no need to show your passport again and therefore, do not get a stamp in it with each different country visited
The students all went back to class on Friday and then on Sat. we got on the train headed for Salzburg. After a 3 hour ride through breathtaking beauty we arrived at our destination, a lovely, traditional guest house, the Kirchenwirt. May 15 Week Two, Almost ThroughWe've been having a good time seeing the sights of Vienna. Jim studies the places we take the students so he's a great tour guide. I've been asked about posting pictures, and the short answer is, it's a little too complicated to post pics with the limited amount of time I have on the internet. I'll post the pics of this group when I get home. It's not as good, I know, but right now it's the best I can do. All the prompts and instructions for this blog are in German. I don't read German that well and Jim is busy doing other things and can't help me. So there's my sad excuse for not posting pics. I think I have it figured out so that I can do it next year though.
This past week we visited Karlsplatz, the Nasch Markt (a favorite), the Hofburg & Schonnebrunn Palace. The weather was fantastic except for yesterday when it 'misted' all day on us. Since we're all from the west, we loved the mist and rain so it was still a great day.
The Nasch Markt is two blocks of food, clothes, accessories and people! It's always busy and such a fun place to go. There are lots of booths set up selling different things and we bought falafal for the students to try. They loved them and so do we. A falafal is (as I described in the previous post) a deep fried ball of some sort of grain or meal. Very good!
The students didn't have anything planned for this afternoon so we're taking them to the Hunnertwasser Haus, a very strange apt. building built by a man whose last name was Hunnertwasser (Hundredwater). A strange name for a strange building. Look it up on the internet, it's so interesting.
We have one more week in Vienna and seem to have run out of time for everything we'd like to do. The students have said they'd like to bring their parents back to Vienna and show them around. They love it here and have all seemed to enjoy their time associating with each other, sightseeing and even going to class. May 06 Food in Austria Food doesn't seem to be as tightly regulated in Austria as it is in the U.S. There are little food stands all over the city, sometimes not looking terribly clean, selling pizza by the slice or whole, falafal, which is a Turkish ball about the size of an Italian meatball that is made of some sort of green meal and then fried. They are really good. Also sold on the street are "hot dogs" . These are actually long thin wursts that are inserted into a long bun by a hole poked in one end of the bread, they're kind of strange looking. You can also buy ice cream, more wursts, schnitzels, kabobs, doners and other meat sandwiches.. An interesting fact about the restaurants here in Austria as well as in Germany, is that they don't have lots of restaurants serving traditional Austrian or German food. The explanation we were given by a German was that if people want German or Austrian food, they stay home and cook, if they go out they want something foreign. Hence, many, MANY, Asian and Italian restaraunts. To our surprise Jim and I were taken to a Mexican restaurant here in Vienna and it was actually pretty good. While some of the food was a little different from what you get in the States, it was still good. McDonald's and Burger King are also a huge presence here in Europe. The Europeans LOVE these restaurants and they are always busy. The difference between the McDonalds and Burger Kings here and at home is that here the sandwiches are much fresher and taste so much better! It seems that they make the burgers to order rather than having several already made up and handing you one when you order it. There is an open air market called the Nasch Markt where we take the students and it's a lot of fun. There are vendors there selling all kinds of food. The smells are interesting to say the least. We've seen food that I didn't know existed, fruits, vegetables, fish and meats. In Restaurants the people take their time. In America we're in a hurry to eat and run; here they will take hours lingering over their meals, coffee and cigarettes and it seems to be perfectly okay with the establishment.In fact you have to ask for the bill to pay because they generally don't just bring it to you. I think their philosophy is the longer you stay the more drinks you'll buy, but I don't know that for a fact. Food is definitely a great experience here in Austria and we look forward to wandering around each day we can and seeing what the little sidewalk stands have to sell. The students are having a great time experiencing all the new taste treats that are being sold on the streets here. I'm sure they'll have some interesting stories to tell when they get home. May 05 We're Here!Hi Eveyone:
The students have all arrived and started classes. They are having a great time exploring. This group hasn't traveled very extensively so everything is new to them which makes it so fun for Jim and me. We love to show the students 'OUR' Vienna.
For those who came with us last year, here's a little update: ActiLingua has changed restaurants for the meals. It's a much better restaurant but it's in a less convenient location, so I guess it's a trade off. We had lunch there yesterday and the food was really good. Also, they are serving breakfast at the Residence on Sunday now which makes things better too.
Kaertner Strasse is all torn up for renovations. It looks like they may be paving it with blacktop rather than replacing the cobblestones, which would be really sad. I hope the blacktop that is there now is going to be replaced, but we shall see. St. Stephens is still shrouded for cleaning, but the part they have cleaned is beautiful. It would be fun to come back in about 5 years and see the changes to the Stephen's Platz area.
We have 4 students with us this year; Kim, Sara, Katrina and Colton and they are still a little overwhelmed by the S-Bahns, trams, busses and U-Bahns, but they'll know the system within a day or two, we're sure. They made it to school on time this morning all by themselves, so they're getting the hang of things.
We hope you will enjoy coming along with us on our Study Abroad trip by checking back frequently. I will update as often as I can, but with internet accessibility somewhat limited, I never know when that will be. Please feel free to post comments, we'd love to hear your thoughts about our adventure.
Thanks!
May 29 Salzburg, Salt Mines, Castles & FriendsSorry I haven't kept up with the blog very well. It's been hard not having easy access to a computer.
We arrived at our little guesthouse last Sat. afternoon and we've been on the run since. The guesthouse is so traditional looking with flower boxes, etc. The owners are so happy to have us. It is a family run business and the father speaks no English at all, but every morning he'll say to all of us 'Morgan America!'.
We have visited the Borg, or castle, the Salt Mines, Mirabelle Palace & Gardens, Twila's host family from when she was a student here, Mauthausen, the concentration camp and an exchange student, Christian's house for a cook out.
It was a steep climb to the borg which sits on top of a mountain above Salzburg, but once you get there the view is magnificent. The entry ticket allows you a tour of the castle, the museum and other things.
The salt mines were lots of fun. We rode a rail into the mine then went on a walking tour for about an hour and half in the mine. There we went down two rail slides and took a boat across the underground lake. We were sorry to leave the coolness of the mine and go back into the heat and humidity. The mine is accessed high in the mountains where there were beautiful green meadows with wildflowers and trees surrounding it.
Mauthausen was a very sobering experience. I don't think any of the students had been to a concentration camp before and they said it was a very valuable experience.
Twila, one of our students, was an exchange student here a few years ago, so her host family invited us all to their house which is by Wallersee ( a lake) for a cookout of kabobs, pork cutlets and salad. it was great. Some of the students went swimming in the lake after dinner. The next night, some of the students went to Christian's house which is right over the Austrian Border in Germany for another cookout and swim at a water park. Christian is a student at SUU as well and they were all happy to see each other again.
The students are starting to leave for the last parts of their trips to Europe. Some are going on to other places to meet up with friends and family and some are going home.
We have enjoyed this study abroad program as much this year as in other years. The kids have been cooperative and responsible and that always makes for a lot of fun. The weather has been hot and humid. While the rest of us are us are sweating terribly because of the humidity, Molly, our student from Boston, has remained cool as a cucumber. This humidity is nothing she told us. I'm glad I'm not going to Boston this summer if that's true!
Thanks for coming along with us on this 3d SUU German Study Abroad Program. We hope you've enjoyed reading a little bit about our activities and we've had a great time experiencing them. May 23 Last Days in ViennaWell, we're winding down our stay in Vienna. This week we did our last two culture classes. I have been asked how we do the culture classes since the students are divided into two groups for their lanugage classes. We take the afternoon group on the tour in the morning and the morning group in the afternoon, so Jim does the culture class twice each time. He also does two classes a week.
This week we toured the Belvedere Palace, a beautiful palace built right in the heart of Vienna for Eugene of Savoy for saving Vienna from a Turkish invasion. The palace was built in the end of the 17th and beginning of the 18th centuries. It looks a little like Versailles. It has an upper and a lower part to the palace with French gardens in between the two. Eugene lived in the lower Belvedere and used the upper and more ornate palace for receptions, etc.
Thursday we took the students to the Vienna cemetery which is huge. There are many different sections in the cemetery, Jewish, Russian, public officials, etc. The one that we were interested in was the musician\s section where Brahms, Beethoven, Schumann, Hugo Wolf and the Strauss' were buried. There is also a Mozart memorial, but no one is really sure where he was actually buried because he was buried in a pauper's grave. There is a beautiful chapel at the cemetery which is very large. There is a lot of gold leaf mozaic in it which is breathtaking. The students all really enjoyed visiting the cemetery even though some were a little hesitant at first.
The students are finishing their language course today and we will be leaving for Salzburg tomorrow morning. They are all looking forward to going to Salzburg, but would like to stay in Vienna a little longer too. They have all have a fun experience and are so glad they have had the opportunity to come on this Study Abroad Program.
May 19 PragueHello Again:
Jim got permission to get the students out of class at ActiLingua last Friday so that we could get an early start on our weekend in Prague. We left on the 10:04 train from the South Train Station in Vienna and arrived at the Holesevica Train Station in Prague after 2. We arrived in a downpour so those of us who took our umbrellas were really glad! The students stayed in Plus Prague, a youth hostel. The hostel was clean and the students seemd to think it was okay. There was even a pool at the hostel where two of our girls went swimming!
After getting the students all checked in and settled, we all went our separate ways and explored the beautiful city with the Charles Bridge, the astronomical clock, the Prague Castle, Kafka's house and many other wonderful sites.
Saturday's weather was better, it was cloudy, but it wasn't cold and there was a small drizzle for a few minutes, but no downpour until later that night. On Saturday, the students that went with us to the castle were lucky enough to see an exhibit with birds of prey that they were allowed to hold, for a price, and that was a lot of fun for those who held the birds. Gabe held a huge Horned Owl with big orange eyes, and Meredith held a barn owl that was more her size.
After seeing the birds of prey exhibit, we went to the inner courtyard of the castle where we watched the changing of the guards. The change lasts about 15 minutes and is really interesting.
We weren't able to go into the castle cathedral because the line to get in was so long that it wrapped around the back of the church. But we walked through the castle and took pictures of the outside of the cathedral while Jim explained about flying buttresses and how and why they are so important in the construction of the huge cathedrals.
We had lunch at a charming little outside cafe. Charming until we got the bill, that is. There was a 25 crown per person "cover charge" and they charged us 200 crowns or about $12 American dollars, for a liter of water. Of course we didn't know the water was going to be that much until we got the bill. It was a real learning experience, but the food was good and the company even better.
After touring the castle we went to the beautiful and touristy Charles Bridge. It's a gorgeous cobblestone bridge with many large statues on the sides and it was very crowded. But it was worth fighting the crowd to cross it. After crossing the Charles Bridge, we took the students to an outside market in Wensceslas Square where they had a good time looking and buying a few souveniers. Then the kids went to do some REAL shopping and Jim and I just roamed around. Everyone seemed to have a really good time in Pragu and were really glad that we went.
We left to come back to Vienna on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. It as raining again when we left Prague and it rained on us all the way to Vienna, where it continued to rain all night. Being from the southwest, rain is an exciting thing, so no one minded getting a little wet.
Today everyone is back in class and tonight we are going to a concert at the Golden Hall, a beautiful concert hall where the Vienna Philharmonic plays.
This week we will be taking the students to the Belvedere Palace and the cemetery where Strauss, Brahms, Beethoven, Hugo Wolf and many other important Viennese citizens are buried.
May 14 Heiligenstadt, Mass & Nasch MarktHi everyone:
We've had several experiences since I last wrote and I'll share a little bit of what we did.
Last Saturday we visited a house that Beethoven lived in during the summer of 1802 in Heiligenstadt, a suburb of Vienna. Beethoven went there when he found out he was going deaf. He believed that the deafness was from something that would prove fatal, so it was in Heiligenstadt that he spent his summer and wrote his final testament or will. When he discovered that the deafness wouldn't be fatal, he returned to Vienna and composed his 3d symphony which was really the beginning of Beethoven's music that we now know. We also went up the mountain from Heiligenstadt to Kahlenberg where we had a fantastic view of the Vienna basin. It also was where Jim explained some of the battles between the Austrians and the Turks when the Turks tried to invade Austria.
Sunday the Brückner Mass in D Minor was being performed at the St. Steven's Cathedral. It was also Pentecost or Pfingsten so it was a long Mass and a Cardinal presided and gave the sermon. The music was beautiful and the chapel was packed. Afterwards, those who chose to, went to an LDS Sacrament meeting.
Tuesday the students didn't have class at ActiLingua because of Pfinsten, so they explored Vienna on their own. Yesterday Jim and I took them to see the Hofburg or the Hapsburgs winter palace, the Karlskirche and the Nasch Markt. The Karslkirche is the best example of the Baroque style architecture of the 360 churches in Veinna. It's undergoing renovation, so we didn't go inside, but it is a beautiful building.
The Nasch Markt is an outdoor bazaar with lots of different kinds of foods, beverages and other items being sold. It was fun to walk through and see everything that was being sold and accept a few samples of the interesting food they sell.
We hope all is going well where you are and want you to know the students are having a wonderful time exploring Vienna. May 07 St. Stephans and SpringHi Again:
Today was the first culture class and we couldn't have asked for more perfect weather. The skies were blue, the sun was warm and there wasn't a raincloud in sight.
Our first stop was at the St. Stephan's cathedral, which was started in the year 1137 and was completed sometime in the 17th century. It's undergoing some repair and maintenance work right now, so there is scaffolding around the south tower and half of the front is covered as well. But it's still a beautiful cathedral and the inside is as remarkable as ever. Prof. Harrison explained about many of the aspects of the church which made it more interesting.
Our next stop was at a clock that is a fun thing to watch. There are12 figures of different famous people, one comes out and crosses the front of the clock every hour. At noon, all twelve figure cross the front of the clock and there is music with it. It's on a side street, so it would be an easy thing to miss unless one was told about it.
On to the oldest Roman church in Vienna, the St. Ruprect. It is very small and not at all ornate. There are some small stained glass windows, but that is all the ornamentation there is in the church. It's quite a feeling to know that the Romans used this little church all those years ago to worship.
We finished with the Schottenkirche, a church that the Irish built years ago. The celts and quite an impact on the area here.
The students are enjoying their German classes and are learning a lot. Everyone says their apartments are comfortable and they like the accomodations. So all in all, things are going well with the students. They are excited to be here and we are so glad to have them here. Each one is a delight and their enthusiasm is contagious!
Thanks for your support and we'd love to hear any comments you'd like to share.
May 05 We're here and so's our luggage!Hi Everyone:
First let me apologize for what will be interesting typing errors that are sure to be included in this blog. The reason for the errors is that the German and Austrian keyboards have a different key placement than the American keyboards and they have punctuation that we don't even have in America, placed in positions of other keys on the American keyboards. So having explained all that, try to bear with me, read between the lines and don't think too badly of my keyboarding skills.
The last student arrived last night so all are here safe and sound. There was only one problem with lost luggage and it was delivered yesterday, so everyone has clean clothes, their makeup, hair stuff and all is good We took 5 of the students to downtown Vienna to show them some of the sights yesterday and they all enjoyed their first taste of Vienna. We took them back to their apt. so that we could go pick up Meredith from the airport and some of the students went back downtown. The downtown area is as beautiful at night as it is busy and exciting during the day. Molly and Amanda had lunch at a little outdoor cafe and had some uninvited guests join them on their table, pigeons and sparrows. There are lots of birds in the downtown area because of all the people eating and dropping food so you have to be careful not to encourage them.
Everyone got a good night's sleep last night and were anxious to get to their school, ActiLingua this morning. We met the students at their apt. at 8 a.m. and took them to the school. The location of the school couldn't be more perfect. The restaurant where their meals are served is right across the street, the underground is right next door and there are trams out in front. And it's always fun to walk on Rennweg, a main street running right into the Innenstadt, or inner city where all the action is.
The students have all been assigned to their classes. Gabe, Molly, Sylvia, Alexandra and Twila are in the morning class; Amanda, Meredith and Elise are in the afternoon class.
The weather has been typical so far. We've had blue sky and balmy weather and then cloudy skies, rain and cooler temperatures. So all is normal!
I will try to update this blog as often as possible, so check back often. We hope everyone is doing well at home and are glad to report that everyone is doing well here.
Please leave comments if you'd like. We'd love to hear your thoughts on what we're doing.
April 24 A Favorite Quote"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time" April 10 Q & A EveningOn Tuesday, April 8, all the study abroad students went to Prof. Harrison's house for a German meal of wursts, rotkhol, German potato salad, apple cider & apple cobbler. After dinner, information packets were handed out to each participant with travel tips, activity itinerary, a copy of their passports and flight itinerary and a break down of costs. It was a fun evening for the students to get to know each other better. One of the students from last year's program, Alexana Neves, came to answer questions from a student's perspective which seemed to be helpful.
Travel plans to Prague were discussed and reservations at a hostel have been made, so it looks like we're good to go for our adventure in this beautiful Czech city.
We are leaving in less than a month and everyone is excited.
Please check in with our blog frequently. I will update it as often as possible.
March 29 2008 Study Abroad ProgramWell, we're in the final stages of preparation for the SUU German Study Abroad Program. We will be going to Vienna and Salzburg, Austria again this year and know that the students will have a great experience.
I will update this blog when possible once we get to Vienna, but won't be able to add pictures until we get back into the States. Check this site often to find out what we're doing.
We will have a Q & A evening at Professor Harrison's house soon for last minute questions and each participant will be given a packet of information.
We need a printed copy of each participant's flight itinerary as well as a copy of their passport. Each student should make one or two copies of their passport so that they can have a copy with them at all times while in Austria.
Also, each participant needs to go to the Foreign Studies Dept. at SUU and get their picture taken for their International Student I.D. card that will help them get discounts in some places.
If anyone has questions about the upcoming program, please feel free to email Professor Harrison at Harrison@suu.edu
We are looking forward to this year's program and know that it will be fantastic!
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