Vienna

Vienna Parliament Above and a stop that we take a lot on the undeground is Karlsplatz.

Cool baroque church!
Candles Dana and I lit!
Locked in the church haha




Vienna is really beautiful.

Dana and I have been playing the Billy Joel song Vienna Waits for You a lot. It's really fun, I like Billy Joel.

Our first day, Eugene, Scott, Sean and I went to this place called the Floh Market. It is miles and miles of pastries and eastern European clothing and bags, and basically everything you can think of. It was pretty amazing.

Then we went to the center of town to look around. We got off the underground, went straight to a bratwurst stand and got a huge brat dog. They take an entire bread biscuit, stick a hole in it, put in the ketchup and mustard, and then put the dog inside of it. It is sooo great. Eugene then showed us all around the city, taking us to a rococo style church and to the parliament building and we listened to great street music the whole way through. There are tons of orchestras and bands playing that you can go see, I'm not sure if we will get to that or not.

Our hotel is a little outside of the main city on the Hutteldorf exit. It is a nice surbarban like area, and very clean of course. From my room, which is huge, I am looking out on hills and forests. Whenever I open the window, a rush of cold air comes in. Also, right next to the hotel is a great grassy park with tons of trees. Yesterday, a couple of friends and I were throwing my Frisbee around and watching the leaves fall from the trees, and it was a perfect temperature the whole time.

Our first class was great, combining art history, photography and literature in to one. After class, we went to a huge museum in the museum square in the center of town. It was great, there was Vermeer, Peter Paul Rubens, Hans Holbien, Rembrandt, lots of roman and greek sculptures, egyptian art and lots of armour.

We were thinking of going to Budapest for the weekend, but we all love it here so we decided to stay.

Our plans for today and the rest of the weekend are to hike around, go to a couple more museums, and just relax. I'm really excited.

If you are my friend on flickr, check it out, I posted tons of pictures!

Song of the Day

Billy Joel- Vienna Waits for You



French Word of the Day


jaune- yellow

Rome!!!!

Hi everyone!

Im sorry for not posting in Rome at all! I couldnt find internet anywhere and I found out they have it right in our hotel lobby...

Well, everything has been amazing. I have been to the Colleseum, a really cool park next to the Medici Palace, the Pantheon, and yesterday we went to a really great Museum in the Borghese Palace with some of the greatest sculptures I have seen. I have a new appreciation for Bernini, he really makes the sculptures look alive and real, giving different skin textures and everything. This morning a couple of people went to the service in St. Peters in the Vatican, and it was amazing. I sat right next to Berninis 97 foot tall Baldachinno and listened to an entire service in Italian. Theat building is the biggest church in the world! After the service we went outside on the square and saw the Pope speaking on the screens because he is on vaction somewhere.

We also went in the Vatican and saw the Sistine Chapel and the School of Athens painting.

Also, yesterday, I was out with some friends to get some gelato, and I realized that I had been in the exact gelato shop when I went to Europe in high school. It was really weird and cool, because I remember being in there with my friend Arjun so long ago, it brought back a lot of memories from that trip.

Other than seeing everything around Rome and eating gelatos all day, I have been playing a lot of guitar and people have been singing and playing, its really fun. And I realized that I have tons of movies and tv shows (thanks Matt) so we just watched Office Space a couple of nights ago and have been watching friends and house. Its great and relaxing. The weather is all over the place here, with lighting and thunder, then the next day is sunny and really beautiful.

Our hotel is great and I am rooming with all the guys again. Its great being with all of these people, because I am really becoming close with basically everyone on the trip, and I am learning a lot about myself too. I realized that going on this trip was really one of my best decisions. We leave for Vienna on Tuesday, and I hope there is internet so that people will actually have something to look at on here! I have tons of pictures, I found out yesterday I have taken over 2500 already, so that will be fun to look through.

I miss everyone, and I hope everything is good back home! :)

Songs of the Week
James Taylor- Fire and Rain

Simon and Garfunkel- Homeward Bound

Steely Dan songs!

French Word of the Week

Je Taime- I love you (thanks to John haha)



and sorry for no pictures or music, defnintely cant get that on thest computers in the lobby hah.