Hello Everyone,
I’m so sorry for not writing sooner. Needless to say, it has been a pretty crazy week. Crazy, but wonderful.
I have to say that I think I held myself together pretty well when saying good-bye to my family and Aaron at the airport. We got to the airport early and got to sit and talk over coffee for a while before I left which was really fun. I started to cry as I walked towards security, but the TSA guy at the gate, joked with me that I wasn’t allowed to so I promptly sucked it up.
I had a nice surprise after going through security, a friend of mine from high school, Daryl, was working there! It was such a gift to see a familiar smiling face after feeling like I would never see another one again. After getting past security, the confidence kicked in and I realized, “Okay, I can do this.” I didn’t really have a choice, there was no one there to hold my hand, it was all on me.
Both of my flights went smoothly. On my way to Zurich, I was seated next to a girl about my age who was going to Berlin to visit her boyfriend. She had studied abroad the year before and told me about some of her experiences. Fortunately, I was able to sleep through most of the flight, which was great. I also found a very nice card that my sister had hid in my bag for me, which made me smile inside and out.
During my layover in Zurich, I met Colleen, another IES student who is very nice. I really enjoyed talking to her and she is now in my German class. Then! When I got on the plane, I was seated next to another IES student, Angie. She is another music student, soprano. We related on a lot of levels and ended up talking for almost the entire 2-hour plane ride. She is now one of my best friends here.
After landing, Angie and I met up with a few other students who were arriving around the same time. We were all staying in the same area and took the bus there together, and then met up for dinner later that night. After dinner I went back to my hotel room and spent some time trying to figure out how my phone worked, but it was eventually somewhat successful.
The next day, I walked to the Westbahnhof to meet up with the rest of the people in my program. Then we loaded onto our busses and rode to our orientation in the Alps. That is where I met Danielle and Brian, who would eventually become two of my roommates.
Orientation was fun, we had meetings in the morning, free time/activities in the afternoon and then more meetings/ activities in the evening. I got to see my first castle, it was a little disappointing, but I’m looking forward to seeing more of them. I learned how to waltz, witnessed lumberjack polka-dancing, and found out that after one glass of wine on an empty stomach the room starts spinning… good to know!
At orientation we took care of housing and it all worked out extremely well. I’m living in a four person apt. with Danielle and Brian, who are dating, and Tyler who is from New Market, NH! It is only about a 30 minute commute from school which is pretty great and the stop for the street car that we take is directly outside of our apt. Additionally, there are 4 other apartments in our building of IES students. Our friends Angie, Christa and Lindsay are right upstairs. Our apt. is beautiful, and huge and super 80’s in decorations, it is awesome!
On Monday we started our intensive German class. It was incredibly intimidating the first couple of days because I didn’t remember anything from when I took it freshman year. But I talked to my professor about it and she helped me to feel confident that it would eventually come back. So in addition to my regular homework assignments, I’ve been reviewing my old text book a bit each night. I love my professor and the class is very small, only 12 people so there is a lot of opportunity for speaking and questions.
On Monday, my roommate Brian and I got a rather rude introduction to Vienna’s public transportation system as we spent 2 hours going in all the wrong directions before eventually ending up back at our apt. It was surely an adventure to remember and a bonding experience, if nothing else.
On Wednesday, I had my audition for the Performance Workshop, to which I’ve been accepted! I felt like the audition went well. I sang Mozart’s Vedrai Carino and Bellini’s O Quante Volte. I think I’ve sung both better before because I was more nervous than I anticipated, but I got really positive feedback from all of my peers and felt as though I showcased my capabilities well. We have a meeting this coming Wednesday where we will find out who our private teachers are and what ensembles we’ve been assigned to. My roommate, Brian, is a piano major and we are both hoping we’ll be placed in the same ensemble, but we’ll see.
Yesterday, Saturday, IES hosted a bus tour of the city that was about 3 hours long and we passed by/ stopped at some of the major historical places in the city. I’ve included a couple of pictures.
It took a bit of time, but I feel like I’m settling in well. While I’m still getting used to having so much travel time between home and school, it is really nice to be able to come home to such a great apt at the end of the day. I’ve been having to remind myself to let go of some of my American tendencies, mainly related to feeling the need to be on the go all the time. I love that everything here closes at 7 on the weekdays and closes all together on Sundays, it kind of forces me to slow down during those times.
There have certainly been times that I’ve missed the comfort of familiarity, but I know that that will come here with time. There were also rough moments to the past week and a half, but I really do love it here and I can’t wait to see where the next four months take me.
I’m sorry that this post was so long, I’ll try to update more regularly so that they are not all quite this lengthy. As always, feel free to email me or send snail mail because that is always exciting. Also, I have skype capabilities; this is a free phone-like service via internet that I use to talk to Aaron and my parents. It is very easy to set up, let me know if you have any questions about it. Thank you so much for reading. You are all in my thoughts daily which is a beautiful gift of home that I always keep with me.
Love,
Caitlin
P.S. I'm very sorry that there are no pictures with this post. I tried to upload them in the internet cafe across the street from my apt. but it would not work. I will try again tomorrow from the IES Center and hopefully I'll have better luck.
Glad to know you figured out a glass of wine on an empty stomach makes the room spin...Try to stay out of those spinning room...they're a doozy:)
ReplyDeleteLove,
Mom
I'm glad you found my card! hehehe! :-)
ReplyDelete