Arrived in Mariazell!

Today is my second day in Austria.

Short recap of the trip..
The travels yesterday went almost as well as they could have gone.  The plan was O'hare to London, meeting Ross at O'hare and we were on the same flight, then meet Ryan in London, then wait a few hours, and then London to Vienna.  The first flight was cancelled and moved an hour earlier.  Ross was moved to a flight to Brussels, so we weren't on the same flight :(  But it worked out and we met him later!  I met Ryan in London and everything went smoothly after that.  We took a 3 hour bus ride to Mariazell for orientation weekend, which is turning out to be really fun!  (Who would've guessed?!)  ;)

The flight felt really long.  I sat next to a guy from Ireland, Connor, who was in Chicago for work, but going home for college graduation.  He told me he was majoring in "accountancing"  aka accounting. haha.   My other airplane buddy was a girl from Minnesota, eh.  Her name was Hannah and she was visiting a friend in Frankfurt and was really nervous about flying.  Didn't get ANY sleep on this 8 hour flight, so I crashed on the second flight to Vienna which would have been at 4 AM Chicago time!  By the way, London was really interesting!  The Heathrow airport is huge!  Upon arrival, we had to take a 10 minute bus to the terminal!  And they drive on the wrong side of the road! ;)  Connor corrected me, saying,  "no, it's the right side." lol.  It was definitely the beginning of the culture shock.

So, now I'm in Mariazell, which is a gorgeous city.  I promise I'll post pictures soon!  It's incredibly mountainous, even though they say we're at the foothills of the Alps, these foothills are quite big!!  We've only been at our hostel so far, having meetings and such, but we are venturing into the city later today.  The food is pretty fantastic; meat and cheese and nutella for breakfast!  They also have lactose free milk... i <3 this place.  I had coffee this morning, which turned out to be VERY strong and I was fidgeting through our academic meetings trying not to jump out of my seat.  Probably somewhat b/c of the coffee and somewhat b/c I'm just realizing.. I'm in Europe!!

I played a bit last night with my silent brass mute, and this morning I warmed up after breakfast.  I'm already feeling a bit lightheaded and dizzy while I'm playing in the mountains!!  I hope I don't pass out in my audition just from taking big breaths!!

And lastly,  the people here are really awesome!!!!  All the students are super friendly and easy to talk to.  I found all of my roomies and it seems like it'll be a great semester with them.  The teachers are really nice and are pushing us to jump into the culture.. I can't wait!!

Only a few minutes until lunch, then we go on a tout of the city!  We have some more info meetings and german placement interviews later tonight and then a "traditional austrian evening".  Keeping you posted!  :)  Let me know if you want to skype sometime!!  I'd love to "see" you!