On a beautiful, sunny Wednesday

 On a beautiful, sunny Wednesday Rachel, my mom, and I were out on a walk to the Kunst Historisches (Art History) Museum!  When we arrived we found a statue of a man and decided to sit down and draw it as our art lesson.  I posted a picture that my mom took of the guy.  The picture was taken at a different angle, with different lighting than I saw so it looks a little different than my drawing.  I drew it all in pencil which was really fun. I posted a picture of my drawing!  I hope you like it!  The Museum was really amazing but we didn't get to look around much because of our tight schedule.  I can't wait to go back to the museum!

 

 

NaturXocolat!!!

The other day we went to the Naturhistorisches Museum (the Natural History Museum) .  It was a big museum that housed the famous Venus of Willendorf, a little statue of a pregnant woman.  She is at least 25,000 years old!  She was found in Austria! It was really awesome to get to see her and I posted a picture of her.  The museum was filled with rocks in one section. There were four rooms, each room had at least 6 cases and each case had at least 500 astounding rocks in it.  We went through the first few rooms and we were sure there couldn't possibly be any more but when we stepped through the doorway there was the biggest room yet, filled with more rocks!  Apparently that museum has one of the biggest rock collections in the world!  When we went to the next room we were almost positive there were no more rocks.  Well, there were no rocks like we had seen in the other rooms but there was a room full of meteorites which are technically still rocks, but they're from space.  The Natural History museum has the biggest meteorite collection in the world.  There were also some stuffed animals and a dinosaur exhibit.
We went to an awesome chocolate store called Xocolat.  It was filled with all different kinds of chocolates from all over the world.  We decided to each get a bag of eight truffles.  Gabe bought a chocolate bar with his own money too.  The truffles were delicious!  My favorite was an Equadorian truffle.  It was a truffle with chocolate powder on the outside and creamy dark chocolate filling on the inside.  When you bit into it, it would crack and all the dark chocolate filling would flow into your mouth!  I loved it there and I plan to go back!

Awesome art lessons! In Vienna! With Rachel!

          Rachel and I have started art lessons!  Rachel is an art major and she taught me art at home.  It was a coincidence that she also came to Vienna with us, so we decided to continue art lessons here! Vienna is a beautiful place to do art in, but sadly I've been feeling sick so we stayed inside.  My first sketch was of teacups stacked on top of each other and I posted a picture of that.  Then Rachel and I drew ourselves in a big mirror.  I posted a picture of that drawing too!  Tons more art will be coming up! I really enjoyed the first day of art lessons in Vienna!  I'll post all my drawings!

Doop!

Hi everyone!  I wanted to introduce you to Doop, a little blue guy who was sewn under the light of a blue moon by yours truly!  He goes with me everywhere and I am going to start taking pictures of him in famous places!  He is the blue guy in all the pictures!   Ill be posting all the pictures that I take of him in famous places on my blog so look out for Doop in other blogs!!!

Freeze!

Hey everyone! We have a foot of snow here! Apparently tomorrow it will be negative 7 degrees celcius! Then it will be negative 10 degrees celcius! That is 14 degrees fahrenheit! We are prepared to be frozen!

Cat cafe!!!

           We went to the cat cafe, a cafe with 5 cats wandering around the place!!!  When we arrived there was a free table so we sat down and discovered that Momo the cat was sitting in one of the chairs!  He was adorable! He should be the in the first picture.  The second picture is of Thomas who was sleeping in a box.  He has thin soft fur and the look of our beloved cat who is missed lots, Amir.  The third picture is of Luca who is a Maine Coon,  a type of cat with long fur.  He sat at the table next to us.  There were two other cats who were in a private place for when they wanted to have peace, so we never got to see them.  There names are Mauritz and Sonia.  Mauritz is also a Maine Coon and Sonia is a little back cat who reminds of another little black cat named Sabrina =) We had lots of fun!!! The rest of the pictures are of Luca, Thomas, and Momo!  I am trying to attach a link to a video I made of the cafe. 
           It also snowed a foot here!  We went sledding and walked around in a winter wonderland!

SPEED! (holiday on ice)

                    Ugh! The horrible music still rings in my damaged ears. Last night my mom and I got tickets to an ice skating show,FOR FREE!!!  It was called: Speed, Holiday on Ice.  It was amazing except for the terrible music! They brought out fire, giant beach-balls, motorcycles and more all on ice-skates!  At one part they were all dressed like they were at the beach and a guy came out with a surf board.  They raised the board into the air on wires and he got on and held on to the ropes as he surfed the mighty waves!!!  They had metal balls that people would get in and hang on while swinging in the air.  After the 20 minute intermission, they had a circus act.  A woman came onto the the ice, skating on stilts!!!  We were amazed. the announcer came out and jumped over a line of around 7 women laying down.  My favorite part was when they brought out a wheel with a long triangle metal part on top with a swing at the top.  My description is probably confusing so I posted a picture that i tried to draw of it since we forgot the camera.  A man walked on the inside while a lady swung on the swing.  It turned around and around.  Soon the man climbed on the outside of the wheel while she swung!  It was astounding!!!!!!!!!!  We both enjoyed the show sooooo much!

Last Gunter walk

             We went on our last city walk with Gunter, our German teacher.  It was freezing, and many students were numb all over. We passed through St. Stephensdom, a beautiful place where I drew one of the candles and posted an image of my drawing. Later we went to an amazing church and I drew a crown that was on a statue's head and posted an image of that drawing.; We passed by the most awesome thing in the world! A cat cafe! Real cats were sleeping on chairs, being groomed, and playing with people! Awesome!!!  Apparently on the menu you can order stuff and there are descriptions for all of the cats personalities and names. Gunter didn't let us go in there but I have been promised that we will go back and I assure you for a full blog on that trip! When we finally (after long hours of walking in the freezing cold) stopped our walk, we and a few students went to a cafe where I had delicious hot cocoa and awesome cheesecake, while my family ordered apple-strudel (gross) and a cream-cheese strudel with vanilla custard (not that gross). Here are my pictures, I hope you see them! :

Belvedere and barber

          The other day we went to the Belvedere, a big palace where Gustav Klimt has tons of his art on display.  We saw a famous piece of art called "the kiss".  All of it was amazing!  Sadly we werent allowed to take pictures inside but I posted some pictures taken outside.  We bought year passes (even though we won't be here for a year) so I know we'll go back a lot!  I can't wait to return to the amazing Belvedere palace and explore more of Gustav Klimt's artwork!

           That other night we went to the wierdest opera.  It was my mom, 2 students and I.  We saw The Barber of Seville.  It is an opera in italian but they sung it all in german instead!  At the ending of the first act, some army came and raided their house for no reason.  Then right before the second act, the director came out and announced that the count (one of the three main charectors) was sick and had to go home.  His understudy looked younger, and he didn't have as good as a voice, but they looked a lot alike.  It was the first time either of the students had seen an opera and they really liked it.  I thought it was great too!  Figaro had a wonderful voice and so did Rosina.

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Cafe class

         Today we had cafe class!  What could be better than eating delicious baked treats and calling it class! Plus we didn't even have to pay.  We just learned about the menu. I had a delicious chocolaty round bun thing, cut in half and filled with whipped cream! It was delicious!
         I drew a lamp and a tea cup and posted pictures of my drawings. It snowed again today,but sadly not enough to go sledding.  I had tons of fun and that was just in the morning!  I can't wait to see what the day will bring!!!

Vienna schnitzel!

Mmmmmm.  Delicious wiener schnitzel!  We made our own.  It was like meat on a conveyor belt: Sarah and I would smash the meat with a hammer then Missy would cut slits in the side, Kim would flour it, then it was egged and Gabe and Mary-Helen breaded it.  They handed it to Olivia or John, the master fryers. By the time we finished with it, we had some delicious wiener schnitzel!  Meanwhile a few people were on the job of 'erdapfel salat' (potato salad).  It all turned out to be a delicious meal!!!

Outside to Play on an Epic Snow Day!

               The air outside is crisp and cold as flaky flecks of snow flick themselves onto the ground.  We drink warm cups of tea and wish we had a fire going.  Snow starts catching on the ground and Gabe and I just cannot wait any longer!  We rush to get warm clothes on and we race out the door! We decide to build forts out of giant snow balls,almost as big as me!!!  First I make a delicious cup of snow-cream.  If you want to make some snow-cream,here are the ingredients:
                a cup
                a spoon
                snow
                milk (for a better taste use cream)
                vanilla
                honey (optional)
              
                How to make it:
                Put snow in cup.  Add milk.  Stir together with spoon.  Add vanilla and honey.  Stir together with spoon until the mix is creamy,like a milkshake.  Drink,or eat with spoon.

                After i ate my delicious snow-cream,we went to work on our forts.  As we were working the students came out to go on a walk and we pelted them with snow balls. 
               Soon my dad came to walk us to the park.we played on the play-scape then went walking around Turkenschanz park,looking for hills to plop our sleds down in the snow and take off!!!  We found a couple and assumed they were the best in the park.  Then we came upon an outstanding hill. we realized it was abut the time that school got out so lots of kids started to come sled.  We think it must be "the hill" where everyone sleds.  We came home and ate some snacks the settled down for a cup of cocoa.  Today was the first snow day in Vienna and I cant yet imagine a better one,nor can I wait for one to come!

                                                           
              

The last downtown walk with 1 name.

               Today we went on a fun, educational, 3 hour walk around town with all of the students staying with us. We went to 3 beautiful churches but they didn't have very great lighting so the pictures are bad.  I really want go go back to the last one we went to.  It was amazingly beautiful!  We stopped at a cafe and ate Sacher tort, a delicious chocolate cake with a layer of fresh jam.  There I drew more sketches.  I drew a lamp and tea cups that were hanging from the chandelier! 
                In German class we picked our own names in German.  My new name is Liesl (Lee-zull).  I had lots of fun today!!!