Styria

Hello Friends!

How are you all? I’m doing well. I just got in from a school trip to Styria. This is one of the other provinces in Austria. Graz is the capitol (Arnold Schwarzenegger worked out there). The school subsidized many of the expenses so we got to see a lot things for not a lot of money out our own pockets. We left early Saturday morning and drove for a couple of hours to an open air museum, where we saw period houses from all different provinces of Austria. It reminded me of the Farmers Museum in Westminster for you Marylanders who are reading. The cottages were so cute, I kind of wanted one for myself. 

Then we drove to our hostel to check in and had a short walking tour of Graz. Graz is the second largest city in Austria, but still pretty small. That was good though because we could walk everywhere and it felt very relaxed. We saw a couple of churches, one of which had a double spiral staircase. The only one in Europe… very cool. Then we went back to our hostel and had dinner. Many of us were pretty tired so we just relaxed for a couple hours before going to an Irish pub for drinks later that night.

On Sunday we got to sleep in for a while and then we went to a “spa”… or so we were told it was when we signed up. Turns out that by “spa” they really meant waterpark (lost in translation?) haha. But it was still really fun. It was kind of a family fun resort so there were about 7 pools and 5 hot tubs all with different features (one of the pools was windy with a current like a river!). There were also water slides and saunas. So it wasn’t what we expected but still very fun.

Then we got back on the bus and got back to Vienna around 5. Not many people went, only about 20 out of 150 in the program, but it was nice that way. I got the opportunity to hang out with people that I hadn’t really gotten to spend time with before that, and it never got “clicky” like Berlin did at times.  It was a great way to get away from the stress of the end of the semester.

Okay, now I’ll back up a bit to the week after my parents left. Tuesday night was a really nice night for me. The English speaking church that I’ve been going to is hosting a series of evenings in the weeks leading up to Pentecost on the Holy Spirit. So I joined the woman leading the evening, the deacon and his wife and a few other parishioners for a night of prayer, discussion and reflection. It was so exciting and fulfilling for me to share prayer in a community again. It is something that I’ve really missed while being here. I know that I already grew from this past Tuesday and I’m looking forward to going in the coming weeks.

Other big news this week… I’ve discovered Mahler! Okay so I had heard Gustav Mahler’s music in bits and pieces before but never really delved into any of his pieces. We studied him this week in my Lied class and talked about how he incorporated song into his 10 symphonies.  I’ve always had a hard time connecting to purely instrumental music, but I borrowed a recording of all 10 symphonies from our library at school and was hooked. Not only is the music itself gorgeous, but he asks his audiences important philosophical questions about life, death, love, and faith in a way that is nothing short of brilliant. It is truly incredible. This discovery was perfectly timed because it turns out that his sixth symphony is being performed in Vienna at the Musikverein on Monday night. I found out in enough time to get a standing room ticket and I can’t wait.

On Friday afternoon, IES had another student concert. I sang two songs by Gustav Holst for Voice and Violin. They are based on medieval sacred texts and are beautiful pieces, but deceptively challenging. The concert was long, but the program was really interesting and everyone performed beautifully as always.  

Oh, I registered for my classes next semester and my schedule is SWEET! I have no classes on Fridays and only one class on Mondays and Wednesdays that starts at 5 PM! I feel like it is too good to be true, but then I remember how crazy my last 6 semesters have been (especially the 5 at UNH) and I think I deserve it. But I’m also really excited because the classes themselves are really interesting to me. Outside of my music classes, I’m taking “Social Welfare Policy “and “Technology, Crime and Society” to fulfill my science gen ed. I’m excited because I can learn about things in these classes that can apply to my service work. I’m also taking, opera workshop, my voice lesson, and “Music of the Classical Period”. All of this will allow me to devote more time to Oxfam, Catholic Student Organization, having a job, applying for post-grad stuff, spending time people, with any luck NOT BEING SUPER STRESSED! If you couldn’t tell… I’m pretty pumped.  It will be a great senior year!

Well folks…I think that is all for now. I hear you are having beautiful weather over there, at least in New England. I hope you are finding time in the craziness of life to enjoy the sunshine.  Talk to you again soon.

Love,

Caitlin