Vienna is Different

Today we learned that that is the saying for Vienna. So you're supposed to 'Keep Portland Weird' and 'Vienna is Different', who comes up with this stuff? But it totally fits Vienna. We were taught about the U-Bahns today and where they go and everything and we learned they have a U1, U2, U3, U4, and U6. No U5, because they were trying to decide the best place to put it and could not come up with a decision so they just didn't do it. We also learned that there is a street car

system that I think is kind of like a Trolly and they are all numbered with random numbers and awhile ago they had a few that were lettered, but they decided that was too confusing, so they tried changing them to numbers, but there was so many protestors saying they always rode the D line and they wanted their grandchildren to ride the D line. They ended up keeping the D line, but they somehow changed the rest of them, so now all the street cars are numbered, except for the D line.

Also we learned about how to get standing room for the opera -Opera is apparently a big deal and you could see hundreds of people waiting for standing room- it involves standing outside at 4:00 (or before if they are doing a popular opera) and they open the ticket office at 4 and you go buy a 4 Euro ticket and go up to the opera doors and then wait for them to open the doors at 6:30 and then you run in and find a good place along this railing that has a monitor for every person with a translation and you tie a scarf there that marks that it is your spot and then you're free to go wherever until 7. Apparently tourist sometimes get confused and start to edge other people's scarves away and even though there are ushers standing there they don't need to do anything about it, because the other audience members will gang up on that person and cause a scene. So if you ever go to an opera in Vienna...DON'T MOVE THE SCARF! I'm excited to go see one.

I took some pictures of the house we live in...it's nice b/c the U-Bahn is pretty close and we have a kitchenette. They told us that Viennese people are normally very careful with locking their houses, but our host family never locks their door and he only gave us a key, because they're required to and because when they're neighbor comes over she locks it for them. It's a town house and you can tell because it it's a different color than the other half.

I took a picure inside the tunnel which reminds me of byu, because I always had to walk through the tunnel to get to campus and now I still do...this one is just a little gangified.

I also took a picture of the stairwell at the AAIE...it's the scariest thing going down, because it's like turning the whole way. They also have the best store on planet Earth!!

There was a horse carriage thing and no one was around that looked like they owned it and they weren't hooked up or anything and they just never moved. Course they know what's good for them, because the drivers here are a bit scary. The guy that was showing us around told us that we need to make sure to look at the driver when we walk a cross walk and that they "test your courage."

We went to the Naschmarkt...like an open market today and we got some lunch and I got a sandwich thing that I THINK the guy called a K-Bob or something, but the bread was pretty good. I've come to know that the meat here just tastes different and I think it just takes some getting used to. I also went to this penny market that had cheap groceries with just limited selection and I figured that grocery stores would have like english translations on the food, b/c in the U.S. we kind of have spanish translations, and Europe has a lot of English on signs and stuff, but absolutely no English in grocery stores! I got some milk, Gouda cheese (thank you, She's the Man), apple juice, lettuce, soap, bread, instant rice, apples, 2 yogurts, some sandwich ham (ham translates to schinken, a lot of it does not translate and I was so confused at all the meats I had to go back and translate all the meats online) and lastly a fruit salad bowl. All for about 21 Euros.

My card wasn't working for the first grocery store and at the bigger one we went to we noticed that you have to leave the card in...you don't swipe it, they like go off a chip in your card not the bar. The cashiers didn't speak english and I only found out about all of this because the older daughter that lives here explained it all. I noticed she was leaving with the St. Lawrence exchange student that also lives here and I asked them where they were off to and she explained they were going to do some "pre drinking and clubbing" I was totally surprised when she said that, but then it dawned on me how sheltered I was at BYU and that it's a norm for college aged kids. It's all good though, I apple juiced it up and clubbed my way through pinterest. :D