Vienna nights

Hofburgkappelle at the Long Night of Churches
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Today was the beginning of our weekend. We have class Monday through Thursday.Yesterday I had a German test that our teacher sprung on us the day before. Bad news. Maddie and Lindsay and I thought of mnemonic devices to remember the names of the provinces and capitals. I aced that. The vocab was a completely different story altogether. Maybe I should’ve written in that I was at a German opera last night and thus missed out on 3 hours of valuable study time. Do you think she’d have bought it? Probably not. I've only taken one semester of German, but I find that I can get along alright here. They seem to like it when I try at least.

Volksoper
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Last night we went out with my Viennese friend Pepita. Maddie, Melissa, and I went and got happy hour drinks (which are still 4.50 Euro!) at a little club by St. Stephan. She was really happy because I brought her Oreo’s from the states, and apparently Oreo’s here and not the same and somewhat gross. Later she got us into a really exclusive party where we were the only Americans there, which was cool and awkward at the same time, but we were having too much fun dancing and drinking to care. So it goes.

There were also dancing pig-girls and a giant cannon shaped like a wine bottle.

I’ve been going to loads of operas this week. On Tuesday, Josh and Melissa and I went to go see Strauss’ Der Ziegeunerbaron at the Volksoper. The Volksoper’s goal is to make opera more accessible to the German layman, so they do all German language stuff and a lot of operetta. The operetta we saw was sort of odd. It’s about a former carnie who inherits land and falls in love with a gypsy who turns out to be princess. The staging was REALLY modern and fun! There were a lot of people doing circus tricks, like juggling knives and acrobatics. There were also dancing pig-girls and a giant cannon shaped like a wine bottle. There was dialogue this time–all in German. I caught some of it. I would definitely be lost if we hadn’t have gotten a program. The next night we saw Moses und Aron. That was VERY modern. Good and thought-provoking, but very different.

Tonight was the Long Night of Churches and we went to one in Hofburgkapelle (where the Vienna Boys Choir sings). We didn’t see them, but we heard some organ music and heard some chant from the choir. Then I came back and took a nap and I have felt weird ever since. I think I need to go back to bed.