The End of the Visit

Hello Everyone,

Sorry it took me a while, but I’m here to report on the remainder of my visit with my parents, which was wonderful. Okay… so… after  getting back from Salzburg on Thursday, we got a quick dinner across the street at a local Biergarten (small homey restaurants that serve traditional Austrian food and Beer) then walked to the church near my house for Holy Thursday Mass. It was good, but very long and German.

So the next day, for Good Friday, we found the English speaking Catholic community in Vienna  and went to mass there, which was wonderful! It was great to be able to understand the readings and homily again and it truly is a community, something that the other churches I’d been to here really lacked. More to come about this later.

Before the service though, we went to Schloss Schönnbrun (the most visited place in Austria) This massive palace was the summer residence of Empress Maria Theresia and her predicessors. When we got there we walked around the gardens a bit then went on a tour of 40 of the rooms. Afterward, we walked up to the Gloriette, a viewing terrace at the top of the hill in the gardens that has a fabulous view of the city. This is also a place that my voice teacher at home, Dr. Cook, spent a lot of her time during her year as an Au Par in Vienna, so it is  a place that is close to both of our hearts. That night, I made my cous cous again for dinner, per mom and dad’s request.

On Saturday, we went on a tour of the Hofburg palace. This was the winter residence and workplace of the Hapsburg ruling dynasty. There, we also saw the imperial dishes (they had a prettier name for them, but I forget what at the moment) and a museum dedicated to Empress Elizabeth, also known as Sisi.

Sunday we went to Mass at the English speaking church again, which was a really beautiful service. From there, we moved my parents into the hotel/apartments that they would stay in for the next few nights (since my roommates were getting back). Then we went to dinner at a really great restaurant called Plachuta.

Monday, we all slept in a bit and I met up with my parents at a Starbucks in the inner district. Then we went to the Stephansdom so that I could give them a personal tour based on my knowledge from Art and Architecture class. I then introduced my parents to the glories of Viennese street food: Kebabs. Finally, went went to the Vienna natural history museum, filled with fun animals, plants, and minerals.

Tuesday seemed like it would be a low key day, but turned out to be pretty special. I had to go back to class that day, so my parents took the day for themselves. They walked around the grounds of the Belvedere Palace and walked the entire length of Mariahilfastrasse (a really long street… there’s shopping there). Then, around 6:30 they met me at IES for my “coaching”. After hearing so much about her, and wanting to hear me sing, they asked if they could sit in on my coaching with Greta.  When I mentioned this to Greta a few weeks earlier, she suggested that we put together a mini recital for them. So I reserved our recital hall at the center for that night, and after letting them to the room, went and changed into my nice, black dress and said “SURPRISE!” They were thrilled. We did 5 songs for them total, the two Mozart pieces that they had heard me talk about performing, and 3 others that Greta and I have been working on together. My parents loved it. My mom said that she cried more in the last 5 minutes of me singing then than she did in the entirety of my Jr. recital. (Let’s see how she does at my senior recital…)  I was so glad that they enjoyed it and I know that Greta really enjoyed being a part of it too.

Wednesday, I had class all day again. So mom and dad took the day to go to the top of Leopoldsberg (the mountain with the pretty church and incredible view of the city) and they had a picnic up there with food from the Naschmarkt. After I got out of performance workshop at 7:30, they met me at the center again and then we went to the café near my house just to visit before the end of the night.

Then, Thursday it was time for them to go home L After my German class, I met up with them at their apartments and accompanied them to the Westbahnhof where they would pick up their bus to the airport. I wish I could have gone with them to the airport, but I had to go to a voice lesson at 1. So we said our goodbye’s and they went on their way. It was so nice to have them here and spend my spring break with them. As cool as it is to travel to far off countries, I had just as much, if not more fun staying in Austria and showing my parents my city, with out the distractions of flights and long train rides. I miss them, but I know it is less than a month until I’m home and see them again!

Just a brief update on the rest of my week: Friday was me and Aaron’s six month anniversary! So we stayed up late talking on skype about all kinds of things. It is kind of strange that we’ve now spent more time physically apart from each other than we have physically together, but it has still been wonderful and neither of us would trade this time for the world.

Then… Saturday… I got to go see the Vienna Philharmonic. IES gave each of the music students a free ticket and I’m so glad I had the opportunity to go. It was incredible. I know I risk sounding ridiculous right now, but I’ve never been one for orchestral concerts, especially Haydn (of whom they played 2 symphonies) but it was incredible. The hall of the Musikverein is gorgeous and the sound fills the room in such a way that you can’t even tell where the music is coming from. It’s strange but cool. Then there was the whole realization that I was in the presence of one of, if not the best orchestras on the planet! I was in a standing room section, so I couldn’t see much, but it was quite an experience to be in the presence of such fantastic music. Surely one I’ll never forget.

Oh! One more thing. I got my grant! I found out Tuesday that I'd received a second SURF grant that I applied for to continue the work that I did in West Virginia last summer. This grant will give me the funds to transcribe and archive the interviews that I conducted last summer with residents of WV on their emotional reactions to music. I'll deposit the finished manuscripts in the special collections of UNH and West Virginia University so that other researchers may be able to use them. I'm going to be published! I'm pretty pumped about it :-)

Okay, folks. Time for me to head out. I don’t have too much going on this week, but I’m going on a school trip to Styria over the weekend so I’ll tell you all about it when I get back. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and are enjoying the season. I know that I am. Talk to you all soon.

 

Love,

Caitlin