I have been noticing some things around Vienna that would never happen the same way in the US. For instance they do road work with traffic still flowing by basically figuring out what to do and where to go on it’s own without any flaggers or detours or anything. They have also been doing a lot of work on and near the sidewalks and they will have people working giant machinery while pedestrians walk right beside it and it isn’t blocked off at all. Giant CAT claws will swing right by your head and machines will be lifting things up in the air and they just keep letting people walk through while this is happening and most of the workers don’t wear helmets or protective gear of any sort. This has been pretty shocking to me since in the US we constantly see road work areas barricaded off and people showing you exactly where you can and can’t go, while here it seems like they basically let people figure it out on their own.

This week I have been a lot more focused on violin and classes as the program is nearing its end so I need to prepare for finals and a concert I have to perform in. A couple of days ago my German teacher took us on an excursion to an apartment in Heiligenstadt that Beethoven lived in. While he was living in this apartment he finished his 2nd symphony and some piano sonatas and variations.

View from Beethoven’s window

Beethoven’s apartment

After we left Beethoven’s house we went to a cute restaurant and got some wiener schnitzel!

We ended our day by going to the tree circle of life in the Vienna woods. It is a big circle made up of a bunch of different types of trees. We all walked around and found the trees that corresponded with our birth date and they have a plaque in front of the trees that talk about the characteristics of people who were born then. My tree, the kiefer, is in this picture.

After we left the tree circle we walked on a long trail through the Vienna woods that led back into the town where we could get on a streetcar to get back home. Also, last week we went inside the Votivkirche (Votive Church) but I forget to include a picture of it then!

Those were the most significant things that happened since my last post. Unfortunately I have become sick so I missed classes yesterday and today I am actually supposed to be in Salzburg right today and tomorrow but I ended up staying home. My site director didn’t think it made any sense for me to go if I would just be miserable and she said that being surrounded by people and walking long distances in the sun would only make me feel worse and I think she is definitely right. Staying behind was a really hard decision because I so badly wanted to be there, but when I woke up this morning I didn’t even feel like going to the subway station let alone on a train for 3 1/2 hours followed by touring places all day long. When I went to the store today to get some tea and soup I realized I had made the right decision because the store is very close to where I live and when I got back I was absolutely exhausted and my throat was bothering me and I kept coughing really badly so there’s no way I could have had a good time there. It is better that I rest and heal before my finals and my concert!