As I sit here, in Starbucks, listening to The Sound of Music and working on my Year Abroad task, it occurs to me that this is rather amusing. It made me smile anyway :)
I've done it. I've booked my one-way flight to England on June 1st and it's happening! I'm coming home! I have just 36 days left of my Austrian experience and I'm determined to make the most of it. But first of all, it's been almost 2 months since I last posted, so I have some catching up to do.
In March, I did an intensive German course. This involved joining 9 other keen beans every Monday to Thursday afternoon for three hours of nothing but Deutsch. It was great, if only because it ensured that I was at least thinking about German 3 hours a day. I've signed up to do another one in May, sort of like a final big push to try and become fluent, ha. That's not going to happen, but I am improving :)
Singing lessons are going really well and I'm going to miss my teacher! I don't really have much else to say about it. I'm learning lots more technique and it's been great to get a second opinion on my singing in general.
In the 2 months that I have been lazy about blogging, I have done two concerts with my choir! The first took place in the Musikverein - the very same venue where the world famous New Year Concert takes place! We sang the Mozart "Great" C Minor Mass. It went really well, although I wasn't too impressed when I found out what we had to wear...it was sort of like burgundy choir robes but in two pieces, made up of a long skirt, and an unflatteringly baggy top uneven in length...with a nice belt to finish it off. The concert itself was fun. It was surreal to sing in such an amazing venue and the atmosphere was great.
The second concert, which took place when Tim came to visit me over Easter, was given in a church called "Minoritenkirche" which is near the Hofburg. I actually enjoyed this concert much more. The music was so much more interesting. We Sang Ligeti's Lux Aeterna, Lauridsen's Ubi caritas, some Bruckner motets and Bruckner Messe in E-moll. I absolutely fell in love with the Bruckner mass, which I had never come across before. It's full of scrummy dissonances, which I am very partial to :) When we first started to learn the Ligeti I hated it with a passion. It's a strange, modern piece. It's in 16 parts and every part sings the same melodic sequence, expect it's staggered so it sounds awful, although it has its moments. However, Tim told me it actually sounded good so it must have come across well in the concert. It's difficult to enjoy singing a piece in which you have to hold a pianissimo top B for 12 bars! Anyway, as a whole, I really loved that concert :) I'm excited to sing my last concert with Chorus Sine Nomine before I leave, which will be Schubert Mass in A flat in the Musikverein in May.
As I mentioned, Tim came to visit me over Easter. We took the opportunity to go skiing again, as it was the end of the season. We had planned to go to Semmering again but there was no snow. I'm actually really glad because instead we ended up getting a 4 1/2 train to Zell am See, in Salzburg and it was so much more fun than it would've been! We managed to get an apartment for a few nights really cheap and the whole thing was more like a holiday. And this time I didn't need to hire my gear as a certain someone got me a rather amazing birthday present! On the first day, the weather was absolutely perfect. The ski resort we went to has two main mountains, one of which has a glacier at the top. On the second day we went skiing there, which was lots of fun until it started snowing really heavily. On our final day it was really foggy and we were literally throwing ourselves down the mountain without being able to see much! The whole thing was an adventure and we're already planning a ski holiday for next year which is very exciting :)
I felt a bit down when we went back to Vienna, but soon cheered up at the prospect of my family coming to visit and my 22nd birthday! Tim's departure back to England overlapped with my family arriving, so they got to meet for the first time, which was really nice. We went for lunch at a typical Austrian cafe and then did some sightseeing from the top of Stephansdom!
The next few days were insanely tiring. I had no idea how wiped out I would get just by being a tourist for a few days! However, I did manage to fit lots of culture into a few days and for that I'm glad. Touristy things included: grand tour of Schloss Schönbrunn, tour of the Staatsoper, day out at Prater, lots of Austrian breakfasts, a Birthday dinner at the Donauturm and Sachertorte at Hotel Sacher.
Teaching is going well. I'm feeling a bit sad because at the moment I'm really enjoying it. I realise how little sense that makes...I think it took me a while to relax into the job and I wish I had been more laid back at the beginning of the year. Right now I'm just trying to make the most of it. Obviously I have my favourite classes and it's so nice to feel so appreciated by them. This week I was down to cover a lesson because the teacher was on a school trip in Exeter. The teacher who was supervising me happened to be their teacher for Russian - and she tried to make them have an extra Russian lesson instead of English. Then I walked in, and they all cheered :) It's moments like that which make it all worth it; I know that sounds cheesy but it's the truth!
The thought of coming home is really strange at the moment. I've been home quite a few times; for Christmas, Genesis Sixteen and Semesterferien...so it's hard to register that this time, I won't be going back to Vienna. This year has made me really appreciate England and realise how much I love it. I'm definitely, definitely looking forward to being home again but I don't want to be misunderstood. I have enjoyed Vienna. It has allowed me to become a much more independent person and it has helped me change circumstances in my life which I probably wouldn't have, had I stayed in England. I'm looking forward to being home, if only to look back on my year abroad and realise what I have achieved.
Things I am looking forward to before I leave: finishing my Year Abroad task(!), going to see The Sound of Music at the Volksoper with Phil, going crazy at Charlie P's, Schubert concert with Chorus Sine Nomine, a trip to Salzburg in May, intensive German course, trying as many types of cake as I can and trying by best to be as cultural as possible!
