...and then I found 10 Euro!

What a full and fun week it has been!

The title of this blog is in honor of the TEN EURO I found on the ground Thursday morning on the way to school! What luck!

Tuesday was the first event of many that I will be attending. Before dinner, Bene and I got ready at the Lehrerhaus and then headed down to the school to meet people. When we got there, Bene realized that she forgot her ticket. Fining a taxi was neck breaking but luckily Erick finally got one. While they went back to the Lehrerhaus, I went with Mary-Claire and Reinet to dinner. We had some spectacular pizza and Äpfelsaft :) (Applejuice).

After that we met up with everyone as the Grosses Festspielhaus to see Thomas Hampson sing with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. It was so fun and there were so many fancy looking people there. I felt like I was living in high society.
The fancy people included the WestConn Crew of course!

Many people in our group were moved to tears by the beauty of "Mechaye Hametim" by Zubin Mehta. Also Thomas Hampson is a beautiful man.

Wednesday was very fun as well. After our German midterm (totally got an A!!!) we went to Hellbrunn Palace and saw the Wasserspiele (Water Games). The Palace belonged to a Prince/Archbishop and it was his weekend home. 

We took personal tours of this palace with little phone systems. I saw a neat fish:

We also got to see how a contraption works that we would later see in the water games:

Then it was off to the water games!! In the water there was this gigantic fish who really wanted to be a creature of the land because he was trying so hard to get out of the water:

 The table where the begging of our water games tour began was rigged with jets that shot water onto people. Some came out of the seats of the chairs, others shot out from the table. The volunteers at the table got soaked! But by the end of the tour of all the tricky little places, everyone had gotten a little wet. It was really fun!

Next we hike hike hike hike hiked up a mountain and back down to see the gazebo where they filmed the gazebo scenes in the sound of music. 
Along the way I saw some interesting things:

 ...I don't even know. I came up the stairs and this is what I saw...

Finally we made it to the Gazebo!!! 15 minute photo opp!!!

 A flower box for Grandma!

When we got off the bus on the way home there was a DELUGE! It was pouring and all I had was my dinky raincoat. I got more soaked on the way back to the college than I did at the water games. But it was all good! I enjoyed a spot of tea my "with love" cookie when I got back. I bought it for myself <3
 It was a good end to a great day! :D

Thursday marked the mid point of my adventures in Salzburg and was also the day of the midterm recital! DUN DUN DUNNNN!!!! In the morning I had German class followed by a great lesson. Between that and lunch I went with Reinet and Kyleigh to a chocolate store that is the closest thing to Charlie and the Chocolate factory that I'm going to get here!

The chocolate store had all these interesting flavors. When you walk in there is a fountain of chocolate in a case with a pump next to a cup of spoons. I helped myself naturally. Then they had conveyor belts that had all these different samples on them! I was punished for being a glutton however because when I took two off of one of the sample trays, it was chocolate with essence of trout. BLECH. I had to take several more samples to get that one out of my mouth. IT WAS GROSSSS. 

We all walked over to a church near the Salzburg Cathedral for the midterm concert recital. I sang Ständchen by Schubert. I'm also fairly certain it was the best I have sung that song so that was perfect timing! I can already tell how much I'm learning and what great results I'm seeing from participating in this program. I can't wait to see how far I progress in the final half!!!


It was a very warm day and my hair started to frizz...but somehow I pulled this beauty of a hairstyle out of no where. I might try to replicate it one day. It worked very well!

 After the recital the WestConn crew hopped on a bus and went to Dr. Astrup's house for dinner. She served us some fried peppers, salad, and chicken. We seem to be deprived of meat here so getting to chew something was such a blessing! 

After dinner and some quality conversation, we all split a taxi and went to the movies to see BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. It was so good. I'm going to go see it again. In fact, I think I'll have a movie day where I watch the first 2 Batman movies and then I'll go see this one again at night. That sounds like a plan! Who's joining me? ;)

The real adventure of the day started at 11:20 PM when the movie got out. Bene and I had to find our way back to the Lehrerhaus. The amount of money we spent on transportation that day deterred us from getting in a taxi however, I was not sure where we were going. We walked for a very long time down a less than populated road. I asked someone in German where we were going and understood how she responded to me! That was fun!
Eventually we got into familiar territory, but it was still dark, late, and unpopulated. 

Once we got over the river we really relaxed. The area became populated again and Bene and I compared stories of how on the walk over the river we were thinking of different ways we could fight people off. I'm sure if anything had happened to us we would have been ready because we were so paranoid.
I had my keys wedged between my knuckles ready to punch if I needed to, and Bene had her grip tightly on her heavy bag. We were very aware of everyone around us.

Finally we made it back to the Lehrerhaus at about 12:30 AM and went to bed. It was such an exciting, exhausting, and thrilling day :)

Friday (today), is our free day to explore!!! ....We accidentally slept in late and missed breakfast. When we got up and ready to go we went into the city, got a croissant and went to the college to have free coffee with our pastries. We brought our bags (which we had left at the school the night before) back to the Lehrerhaus. What a hike that was. Not to mention it's VERY HOT today. 

At 5 o'clock we have tickets to see Plácido Domingo sing with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra! We're very excited to see that! 

Hopefully tomorrow I'll got to the Marionette theater and then on Sunday I have tickets to see the Mozart Matinee in the morning. I'm not sure what that entails, but I'm excited none-the-less. 

Stay cool!!
~~~Rachel~~~