Vienna, I miss you.

Greetings from Hudson, OH!

Well, I am finally home after 10 weeks, 42 concerts, a 9-hour flight home, and a 6-hour drive home from Toronto!  Yesterday, I - along with my two huge suitcases, duffel bag, clarinet bag, and purse - arrived in Toronto, where I happily greeted my parents, who drove me home to Ohio.  (Those of you who know my mom know that we made a bit of a scene in the airport - squealing and jumping up and down)!  I fell asleep around 6 pm in the car (midnight Vienna time), but upon returning home, gave my parents their presents from Vienna!  Their favorite gift was a Sacher Torte, which I brought home - wrapped and packaged in a little wooden box - from Cafe Sacher in Vienna.  After almost collapsing at the kitchen table from jet lag, I went to bed only to wake up at 5:30 am (10:30 am Vienna time).  As I was wide awake, I sent a few emails and did some organizing.  Today has mostly been showing my parents pictures, unpacking, and chatting with my mom about my experiences.  I am also about ready to go to bed, as it is 10:30 pm Vienna time...haha, but I am going to try to stay awake long enough to go out to dinner with my parents at one of my favorite restaurants, Aladdins!

I thought I would take this blog post (my final blog post) to write a bit about my daily life in Vienna and the sights and smells (and of course tastes!) I am going to miss the most.  This will be mostly pictures and captions.  During my last few days in Vienna, I tried to take pictures of everything I could so I could capture and share memories of my daily life in Vienna.

Our room!  (Shivani's bed is on the left, mine is on the right)

Our kitchen

Door to the girls' apartment

MargaretenStraße - the street on which I lived!

Cute park by our flats - the City of Vienna puts up hammocks in parks for the summer!

Poster for a Vienna Philharmonic concert - I love seeing posters for classical music concerts in metro stops!

One of our beautiful classrooms at IES (in an old palace called Palais Corbelli)

The BIPA - where one purchases toiletries 

The Billa, aka the grocery store

The Opera Toilet in the Karlsplatz metro station - for fifty cents, one can use the facilities while listening to opera music

Our U-Bahn stop

My stop on the U-4 line 

The Heiligenstadt line goes into the center of town, while the Hütteldorf line goes out of the center

Bratwurst stand near IES

Kartner Straße - one of the main streets in Vienna (IES is on a side street of this street)

The Wind Music section at Doblinger Music Publishers, the best music shop ever!

Naschmarkt (the open air market)

Delicious dried fruit from the Naschmarkt

Inside my favorite café, Café Hawelka

My favorite Vienna coffee - a "melange" (coffee with milk) 

St. Stephen's Cathedral

Outside the Musikverein

Inside the Musikverein

Outside the Staatsooper (photo credit Elizabeth Shribman)

What I am going to miss the most - our amazing FSP!
Back: Jason, Avery, Drew, Remy
Front: Maggie, Matt, me, Amy, Shivani, Anna, Danielle, Paul, and Richard

As you can probably tell, I really miss Vienna.  I miss strolling the streets of the city, navigating the U-Bahn system, and figuring out useful German words.  I miss seeing people carrying instruments everywhere, reading classical music posters on metro stop stations, and passing by the Musikverein and Staatsoper every day.  I miss attending numerous concerts (42 total!), learning about music history with great professors, and studying clarinet with my amazing teacher.  I miss being able to travel around Europe, visiting friends in Prague and London, and learning about the cultures in cities such as Salzburg, Bratislava, and Budapest.  I miss sharing a flat with five wonderful girls, sitting on the terrace with the guys while we ate dinner/played guitar/sang together, and going on countless adventures with 12 other musicians who understand the power of classical music and who have become wonderful friends.  

This was a truly amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience.  Although I plan to return to Vienna (and Prague and London and many other cities in Europe - I can't wait until my next European adventure!), I know that never again will I have the chance to have quite this experience - spending 10 weeks with 12 other Dartmouth musicians, learning about music and each other, and absorbing many experiences in Vienna together.  I am so grateful to my parents for enabling me to go on this experience, as well as my teachers and friends in Vienna for giving me such a priceless experience.  

Yet, now it is time to spend two weeks at home before heading back up to Hanover for Sophomore Summer at Dartmouth.  I can't wait to see my Dartmouth friends again and to spend the summer in beautiful New England!  Until then, I have several loads of laundry to do, as well as lots of scrapbooking, visiting with friends and family from home, and, of course, reflecting on my time in Vienna.  

Thank you to everyone who followed my blog!  It meant so much to be able to share my adventures with you!

Vienna, Ich liebe dich.

Das Ende

Hello, everyone! 

I am writing this blog with a bit of a heavy heart, as it is probably the last blog I will write from Vienna (until my next trip, hopefully)!  This trip has been incredible...not to sound trite, but I have grown so much musically and personally.  Attending concerts in the most musical place in the world has been invigorating, and finding my way around a new, non-English speaking city has been empowering, Yet, I hesitate at the moment to get too nostalgic, as I still have one night left here with my FSP-mates, and I am going to try to prolong the tears as long as possible!  I promise to be more reflective in my last blog post, which I plan to write upon returning home this weekend.

I am going to begin this post by stealing an idea from my friend Elizabeth (and Matt, who plans to use it as well).  I have been thinking about the top ten things I am looking forward to upon returning home, as well the top ten things I am going to miss about Vienna.  Also, I apologize in advance for this blog not being that well-written, as it is 2 am here...

Several things I am looking forward to upon returning home (in no particular order):
-Seeing my family and friends in both Hudson and Hanover!
-Going shopping with my mom (and living with her in the fall)!
-Understanding everything people are saying most of the time
-Driving
-Cupcake Shop! (Hi, Mom and Gwen!)
-Seeing my teddy bears (yes, I am five)
-Taking English classes (Sophomore Summer, here I come!)
-Knowing what the knobs on the washing machines mean (I dyed all of my whites blue once because I accidentally hit "steam")
-DSO! (although not until Winter 2012)
-Applying more techniques from my clarinet teacher and ditching my anchor tonguing problems!
-American coffee pots...I never quite figured out the one in our flat


Several things I am going to miss about Vienna (again, in no particular order):
-Attending concerts almost every evening - there is something so inspiring about hearing orchestras, operas, and chamber music live
-Seeing people carry instruments everywhere and seeing concert posters in metro stops - this city is obsessed with classical music!
-Getting to study clarinet intensely and practicing daily...basically doing nothing but music for ten weeks
-The COFFEE (especially the Wiener Melange and cappucinos here)
-Hanging out with other musicians all of the time - I love everyone on this FSP and wish we could stay here as a group together for much longer!
-The various sweets - gelato, pastries, cakes, and otherwise - that are abundant in this city
-The U-Bahn...they don't make metros as clean, nice, or fast as this in the US
-2-Euro coins and coins actually being useful here!
-Being a short trip away from other amazing parts of Europe, such as Salzburg or Prague or London
-Seeing street musicians everyday on the way to class
-The cafe scene in Vienna
-Being near and going swimming in the gorgeous Donau river
-Walking past gorgeous buildings such as the Wiener Staatsoper and Musikverein on my way to class

There are obviously many more for both lists, but these are the ones I can think of off the top of my head!

The beginning of this week was mostly about work and studying.  We had a Music History final on Wednesday, a final recital on Wednesday, and a final paper for Perspectives in Music Performance due on Thursday.  We attended our last concert on Wednesday night; we saw "Die Lustige Witwe" ("The Merry Widow") at the Volksoper.  This marked our 35th official FSP concert and my 42nd concert in Vienna (as I saw some extra performances).

On Wednesday, we had our final recital.  I performed the Krommer Double Concerto with Matt as well as the Honegger Clarinet Sonatine.  I was particularly proud of this concert, as Matt and I were able to learn two movements of the concerto while here.  I was also happy with my performance of the Honegger.  One of my goals during lessons has been to be more relaxed when I'm playing.  My teacher told me to take three deep breaths before performing the Honegger, so I tried to calm down during my performance, and I think I played much better.  This is just one of the many techniques I learned from my teacher here that I will bring back with me to further develop!

Matt and me with Anthony Oliveras, our incredible clarinet teacher!

On Thursday, Steve took us on a "surprise field trip" to the Simmering Zentralfriedhof, which Matt and I had already visited, but we were able to see the graves of some other composers that we had missed during our last visit.  Afterwards, we went to the Haus der Musik, basically an "amusement park for musicians," where we were able to test our pitch thresholds and other cool brain/music things.  Afterwards, we made one last trip to Demel, where I purchased some goodies to bring home (hi Mom)!

Me and Amy with Brahms

Me with Arnold Schoenberg, a composer whose modern music I have grown to appreciate more while in Vienna

Paul conducting the "Vienna Phil" at the Haus der Musik

Me and my Demel goodies

Yesterday evening, we had our farewell dinner at a really pretty castle overlooking Vienna.  It was nice to be able to share a last meal together and see our professors one last time.

The girls in front of the gorgeous Vienna background!

Matt and me with Professor John Moraitis, our Music History professor

Me and Matt with Steve, our Perspectives in Music Performance professor and Dartmouth FSP leader

The girls on the FSP, Von Trapp family style

Today, I finished up some final things I wanted to see one last time and purchased some gifts.  Then, our whole group met up for dinner at an Austrian pub called 7 Stern, where I had one last Austrian meal of apfelgespritz (apple juice with soda water), sausages, and sauerkraut.  We then headed home to pack, and once again, I filled both of my two huge suitcases to the brim.  On a whim, we then all decided to head out to Praterstern to go on the bumper cars and Prater Turn, a ride on which you go all the way up to one of the highest points in the city and spin around; although I was terrified, it was great to get one last view of Vienna.  Then we all came back and just hung out, enjoying each other's company one last time in Vienna.

One last cup of Vienna coffee!

Me with the Vienna Philharmonic sign!

I am definitely sad to be leaving, but also ready to go home and see my family and friends.  Yet, I don't think it's hit me yet that I'm leaving Vienna.  I truly love this city so much.  I feel like I really fit in here; everyone loves music, culture, and coffee as much or more as I do, and the whole city is just bustling with the arts.  For example, last night, there was a summer concert at the Schonbrunn Palace, and thousands of people came to hear the Vienna Philharmonic perform - I feel as if something like this wouldn't really happen in the states!

Well, it's 2:30 am here, and I am heading to the airport in a few hours, so I will sign off for now...but I apologize in advance for a slightly weepy post upon returning home to the States.

Thank you to everyone who's been following this blog - it means a lot to be able to share my adventures with my friends and family.