Hallo!

So it has been a week since I have updated this thing. A lot of things have happened. Some are exciting and some are not that much hahaha. The first week of classes ended really really well. It was a hard week but I had a lot of fun with it too. I didn't do much because I wanted to see if I could handle school as a whole. I realized that I can. I haven't gone out much in the past week. Last week I went to another Gelato place and this place is even better then the first Gelato place that I went to. I got something called Nutella Spaghetti. It is Vanilla Gelato put through a press to make it look like spaghetti. Then they put nutella, hazelnuts, and a cookie on it. It was AMAZING!!!!!! Yumm..... After that I went to the Naschmarkt with a friend and we bought some great cheap food. The Naschmarkt is really big on dried foods like fruit. I bought some dried apple and dried strawberries. It tastes like sweet candy. Last night I went to the Rathaus. The Rathaus is the City Hall of Vienna. During the Winter time they have a really cool Ice Staking rink in front of the Rathaus. So last night I went Ice Staking and I had a lot of fun. For some reason I didn't fall and I did it alone with out holding anyone's hand haha. After Ice Staking we got some hot chocolate and they give you these cool mugs for 2 euro. You can return the mugs to get the money back but the mug is really cool so I kept it. I have been working hard on my music. I have had coaching all week. Coaching and Voice Lessons are different. A Voice Lesson is when I have my voice teacher and I work on my technique. A coaching is completely different. A coaching is when you have someone help you with pronunciation, meaning of the song, and expression of the song. I had two coaching on Tuesday. One with my Workshop voice professor. We worked on some Hugo Wolf. Then I had another coaching but I had it with the Brass coach. I'm singing a song called Die Seejungfern. It means The Mermaid. I am singing with a harp and a horn. So the brass coach came in and he also helped me become more musical with piece. Then yesterday I had ANOTHER coaching with my accompanist. All I have to say is I'm in love. She is one of the musical people I have ever met and she is truly amazing. She knows everything. Her name is Greta. She thinks I'm a tenor and she kept on comparing my voice to the sun and how it has so much warmth. My confidence and self-esteem always goes up so much whenever I hear AMAZING musicians say that they think I have great potential and that I'm good. I told her that I frustrated because I'm in between a Baritone and Tenor switch. She thinks I will be a tenor and then she started suggesting songs that I should sing. She wants me to sing this beautiful Brahms piece and hopefully I will work on it. It depends on what my teacher wants me to do. I don't have a coach at Butler and I realized that I'm missing out on a lot. Everything here is truly great. The weather is getting so much nicer over here. Since Sunday we have been in the 50s and it has been sunny all day. When it gets hotter it the transportation is not that great because the trams and trains smell horrible. Some people have major hygiene problems but its fine. Its their culture. Today it is suppose to rain. Womp Womp. But life here is great. Today I'm going to the Collection of Antique Musical Instruments. I'm really excited about that. Tomorrow I will be going to the Opera to see Cavalleria rusticana / Pagliacci. I'm really excited about that. I also found out that my mom will most likely be coming to Vienna during my Spring Break. I'm really excited to finally show someone around the city that I have been living in. I will leave you all with some pictures.

Love,

B

This really cool cake I saw in a window!!!! I want to go try the cake!

The Belvedere

The Statsoper

The sound proof practice rooms a.k.a The Bomb Shelter

The Flea Market on Saturday at Naschmarkt

The outside of the Bomb Shelter

This is the big Practice room that I usually sleep it.

The backyard of the Schoenbrunn Palace

The Kitchen

The Living Room

This is a monument in the Stadtpark (right by my school) for Strauss!

The Naschmarkt! Yummm

This is my Fruit Guy's Stand. His fruit is cheap and really really good

Another Fruit Stand

Austrians Love there Cheese

This is the Schoenbrunn Palace

Nutella Spaghetti

ICE STAKING!!!

We are the beginners

This is the Rathaus at night it is truly beautiful. The rink has paths that go through out the front part of the building.

Better!

Everything is getting alot better. I'm still a little stressed but life is moving on. I have a lot to do in a short amount of time but it will get done and life will go on. This weekend I'm staying in and doing all of my homework for next week. Right now I'm at school and I don't have a class for another hour or so. I haven't done much since I last updated. I found out that I got on the Dean's List at Butler. It was really nice to hear that my hard work paid off. I'm one of the top 97 out of 482 people in the Jordan College of Fine Arts. Meaning I'm in the top 20%. YAY for finally feeling smart! Well anyway like I said not much is going on here. I plan to go to an opera tomorrow night. That should be no suprise to all of you. Well this is a going to be a short entry and I'm going to go do more reading!

Love you all!

~B

Life just got SOOOO Complicated

Oh Life!

So I thought that my schedule was easy and I thought my classes would be easy but let me say that I was WRONG! My life just got so stressful but I sorta like it. So yesterday was a very easy fun day. I got to school at 8:30 for my 9:00 German class. I walk in and I don't know who my professor is. All I know is that she is not speaking any English to us. NEIN ENGLISCH!!! (meaning no english) I start to freak out a little. She speaks a little bit of English when she tells us what our homework is so that we understand everything that we are suppose to do. She didn't speak any english for at least 45 minutes. It was intense. After that I had nothing planned for the day and I thought life would be easy. I went to go practice in a practice room across from the school. I like to call them the Bomb Shelters because they actually look like bomb shelters. Its because they are sound proof. Back to practicing. So I went to go practice and I warmed up for about 30 minutes and then decided that I would take 5 minute break so I lie down and accidently fall asleep for 2 hours. I woke up and had to go to a rehearsal with someone. We then practiced for 30 minutes. I decided also that I wanted to go to the Opera that night. I saw Falstaff by Verdi. It was very interesting. It was my 6th Opera I have seen since I have been in Vienna. I'm really excited to see a lot more. So anyway that was my day yesterday and then today happened..... So I go to my first class - The Lied - taught by a great guy named Dr. Solvik. We get in class and we talk about history and then we move really really fast into some music theory. It has been about 8 months since I have done any theory and my brain was rusty. He was disappointed in our class because our brains weren't working. We then got our homework and I have to read these big packets and analyze a Beethoven Lied. But I really do like the class. I really am going to learn a lot. I will just have a lot to do in the class too. I then went to practice again and then I had my Music History class. I actually understand was is going on in this class, but then I had a 3 hour Music Workshop. This is where life got complicated. So I went in ready to sing. After singing realized that my voice is a little shot because I have practiced so much today. I had to also sing a new piece that went really well. I have to memorize it in a month. We will see how it goes. The part about my life becoming complicated is the brass coach came up to me and asked if I could have a piece ready by Tuesday. I haven't looked at the piece yet but I said I could try and he said Good. I sorta regret it because the piece is 12 pages long and in German. I sing with a harp and a Horn. I have to learn this by Tuesday. I hope it works out. I also found out I have to schedule coaching each week with my accompanist, and then I realized on top of all this music I am learning I also have to do a recital. DEAR GOD!!!! My voice teacher is in Russia for the next 2 weeks and I won't have a lesson until March and then I have to give a recital sometime in May. I'm just a little nervous about the whole situation. You might not think that my life is complicated but I'm sorta freaking out. Everything is fine though. I will get through it and I will conquer it!!!!!

Love,

B

And Classes Finally Begin!!!

Guten Tag,

Today was the day I feel like I have been waiting for forever. I feel like I have a purpose again in life. I felt like I was just sorta stranded a little bit and was just being a vagabond but school has finally officially started. I don't think I have ever been this excited to start taking classes. I only had two classes today but they are going to be my hardest classes. I had The Lied which is a 400 level class and Music Survey: Classical Era to the 20th Century which is also a 400 level class. 400 Level class mean VERY VERY HARD! These two classes are the only 400 level classes the IES Vienna program offers. I know it will be hard work but I'm really excited to work on them. The Lied is a class about German Art Song Literature meaning Schubert, Schumann, Hugo Wolf, Mahler, Strauss, Wagner, and Beethoven. We also talk about the Origin of where it came from and how it has progressed in history. Today we talked about what music history is and what it has done. Also how we are still writing about music history. We also found out that our professor, Dr. Morten Solvik, is a pretty important guy in the field of musicology. He discovered a song cycle by Schubert that no one had ever seen before. Its pretty sweet. It might not be to the average person but to me he has changed the course of history. I had that class for an hour and 30 minutes. Then i had a two hour break. I then had Classical Era to 20th Century. This class is going to be a lot of fun. I'm a nerd when it comes to this stuff. I find it really fascinating. We will be going to different museums and we will be listening to a lot of music. After my classes I was exhausted. I feel like my whole body was just about to fall apart. The night before I didn't go to bed until really really late because I called someone from home using skype and talked to them for about an hour. It was good to hear someones voice from home. I only got about 4 to 5 hours of sleep so my body was drained. I got home and took a 3 hour nap and then leftovers for dinner and then I practiced and that leads me to now! So today was an eventful day I would have to say. I also got paired up with an Austrian buddy that goes to the University of Wien. Her name is Vera. I haven't met her yet and won't until the beginning of March. I got to do a little speed dating by reading people's info sheets and she seems pretty cool. I also get to work on my German and she gets to work on her English. I can't wait to meet her. Well I'm going to practice a little more. I have to perform a new piece on Wednesday and a piece from last semester so I have to polish up a little more. Tomorrow I only have one class but it is in the morning at 9! Meaning 3 A.M. in Indy! I have to get up at about 7:30 so I won't be late. Well Anyway I'm off.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Ben

Life is just great!

hat Hello again everyone.

So I haven't done much in the past few days but I keep on hearing from people that they read my blog a lot and so I just want to keep everyone updated on everything that I do. This week has truly been great. I'm so glad I got a week off and I really didn't do much. I needed the week just to relax and have fun in Vienna. Yesterday was great. I didn't wake up til about 1:00ish which is a big thing for me. I was up for an hour around 7 but went back to bed. I am usually get up around 8 and then go to bed around 11. Yesterday was just uneventful. Alyson called me and we went to go get Gelato. Even though the wind chill was 15 degrees we wanted and NEEDED Gelato. There is this really really good place called Zanoni & Zanoni. It was really good Gelato. After that I went back to Alyson's apartment and we just hung out and watched videos on Youtube. It was fun. Thursday we also went to a cool cafe called Cafe Drechsler. It is known as a really good Cafe in the Naschmarkt and Oper area. I got a melange which is known as a cappuccino. Basically Coffee with milk. It was really really really good. The coffee here is very very strong and can basically wake anyone up. After that we walked through the naschmarkt and bought some fresh produce. The Naschmarkt amazes me every time. It is really really cool. I only go to a certain guy for my fruit and another certain guy for my veggies. There are maybe 100 stands of fresh produce that extend half a mile of street. It is pretty cool. They are also into dried fruit and nuts. They have these dried apples that are UNBELIEVABLE. It is sorta like candy. It is like a gummy and very sweet.

Today I did nothing and when i mean nothing I mean nothing!!!! I only went grocery shopping so I would have food for tomorrow. Thats it. Tomorrow I plan on going to see Tosca at the Staatsoper. From what I understand it is going to be Breath taking. I'm really excited. Classes start Monday and I'm really ready to start. Not much is going on here really. Life will start picking up more when classes start and then I will have something to actually write about :)

Love you all,

Ben

Not Much Going On....

Hello Everyone,

This week is just flying by. School starts Monday and surprisingly I'm really really excited. I only have two classes on Monday and one on Tuesday. I will have a lot more free time and also it will give me more of a chance to work on my music and to explore Vienna more. I haven't done much because I have become determined to get rid of the bug that I have. I'm on my 4th day of my antibiotic and feeling so much better but I don't want to get more sick and the weather here is horrible. SO COLD! Yesterday I had a voice lesson and I loved it. I could already tell a small difference and it was my 3rd lesson of the semester. After that I went to go pick up a package at school and saw a classmate that was going to lunch so I went with him. We went to a place down the street called Zum Bettelstudent (The Beggar Student). They have specials for really cheap during lunch time and all I can say is this is some of the best food that I have had since being in Wien. When you buy the special they also give you a free pliff of beer. A pliff is about 1/2 cup of beer. I did have a few sips because my friend told me that they are usually water down more if they are free. I couldn't stomach to have the whole thing. Yuck, but I did have a few sips and was fine. No breakout hahaha. After that I walked through the park by the school, the Stadtpark. It has a lot of cool monuments in it and I can't wait til its spring so I can just go hangout there everyday. It was beautiful except for being iced over. They had monuments of Strauss, Bruckner, Schubert, and Mahler. It really was cool. There were also a lot of ducks in the half frozen water. Some of the first birds I have seen in Wien, except for the pigeons. Today I'm going to a cafe with a friend, and then hopefully going to an Opera tonight. We will see if I'm exhausted or not. Well I'm off to start the day. Goodbye

Vienna

Hello Everyone,

So I'm on my week break from school and I start my classes a week from today. This break is really nice. I'm staying in Vienna the whole time and I will be exploring things I haven't seen yet. The past few days I have been trying to get over being sick. Today I finally caved in after have a sore throat, drainage, and congestion for a week and 1/2 that I would finally start to take an antibiotic. I started this morning and I can already tell a difference, but it might have been that I might have had a fever because I woke up from a nap today drenched in sweat. Everything is fine. I can't go to a doctor this week because IES is closed since it is the week off and I don't know how to get in contact with a doctor. If I'm not feeling better by the end of the week then I will be going to a doctor next week. I'm tired of being sick. I think it might be a sinus infection. Who knows all I know is I'm feeling a heck of a lot better. Anyway everyone in my apartment is gone except myself, my RA and one roommate. We have just been vegging out in our apartment. All of us are a little sick, but we are getting over it. Anyway so I went shopping around Vienna and it consisted of Window shopping. I do have to buy a recorder over here so that I can record my Voice Lessons. I went to check the prices at a place called Saturn. It is like a best buy but about 1000 times better. They have everything electronic and when I mean everything I mean everything. They range from mP3 players to electric skillets and from DVDs to humidifiers. It was a very interesting place and the place was hopping. It was really funny actually. People here don't understand the concept of staying in lines or who is there first. They basically just cut and sneak in to get through more quickly. It is only in order when you have to take a number like when registering or something with the government. I went into a few clothing stores and I love the European style of clothing for my age. It really is pretty sweet. None of the clothes fit me....yet. I have sorta made a deal with myself if I lost some more weight then I will buy some shirts probably at H&M. They are pretty cheap but very fashionable. I just like clothes haha. I also went to a palace called Schoenbrunn. It was beautiful. Its a great place to go for a walk/run and just to play in the park. The sad thing right now is that there is ice everywhere so it was really hard to walk through the park. I will do it when it started to get warmer. It was really fun just to see it though. I will put some pictures up later of it. Anyway, right now I'm taking a break from practicing. I have a voice lesson on Wednesday and I have to teach myself how to speak French by then haha. Its fine. I just can't read french but German and Italian are fine. French for some reason just seems too complex for me, but I'm excited to learn it. My teacher is really hard but I love it. I told her I'm here in Vienna to get the culture of the city and the music but also to be challenged and becoming a better musician by listening but also through my own voice. Life is great here. Last night I saw an opera by Strauss called Der Rosenkavalier. To be honest it wasn't the best opera that I saw. It was okay. Standing room is usually where all of the tourists go and you can spot an american a mile away. Last night I realized how much American under-appreciate the arts. When you see a family stay for only 45 minutes of the first act and decide to leave because they thought they did something cultural then that makes me mad. A lot of people left after the first act which was 1 hour and 20 minutes. You could also tell that everyone who was in the audience who had a sit was still there. The whole audience stayed til the very end. The Austrians love their arts and most of there money goes to the Arts in Wien. I wish America would do that but we spend all of our money on the government. It was four hours long and I stood the whole time. Thank god my legs didn't give out. I will be seeing maybe a few more shows this week. There isn't much going on this week because it is the week of the Opera Ball which takes place in the Opera House. It is the biggest ball and most expensive ball in Vienna. This year someone named Richard Lugnar (Vienna's Hugh Hefner) is taking 3 people to the Ball. His girlfriend who is maybe 25 and he is 60ish, his daughter, and this certain celebrity named Lindsay Lohan. It is all over the news here in Wien. She is doing an autograph signing about 10 blocks away from my apartment at Lugnar City Shopping Center on Wednesday. Lugnar's daughter is a huge fan of Lohan's and wanted her to come to the ball. So Lugnar invited her. Tomorrow I'm going to go shopping, practice, and go see some monuments of Mozart, Schubert, and Mahler. I wish I would get my museum pass that I bought but its not in yet. Break is going very well and I'm actually really excited for school to start. I have a lot that I have to accomplish by the end of May. I just want to accomplish it all. Well I need to get back to practicing. I love you all

~Benjamin

WOW So much is going on....and I love it!!!

Hi Everyone,

So I know that it is 6:30 ish in the morning where I am but I just woke up. I will probably go back to bed but I just wanted to type some because I'm wide awake. This week as been very interesting but fun at the same time. I haven't done anything musical wise this week because I had to work my butt off for this German Final I had yesterday. When they mean 3 week intensive German course. They really mean INTENSIVE. I learned all of these verbs, how ask for things, negation, and I probably learned over 500 words. It weird how it is sticking to me because usually it doesn't. My voice teacher here just assigned me two German pieces and it is weird how I knew a lot of the words. I still had to look up some to do a full translation of the piece to know what it means but it was very strange that I could pick up on some words. It took me an hour and 45 minutes to do this final which was 6 pages long and I was not told consisted mostly of fill in the blank. It was fine. I don't think I did AMAZING on it but I did well. Frau Meyer, my teacher, always knows when I'm having some trouble because apparently I give these facial expressions that make her laugh all the time. She knows though when i give different facial expressions that I'm either lost or confused. She came up to me and told me I need to learn how to trust myself because I'm not a bad student I just don't think that I can learn it. Which is very true. It is really overwhelming, but I want to learn it. If this is where I want to live in less then 10 years. I HAVE to learn it. After I took my test I went to a bar called 1516. I ordered water....it was free and very good. Everyone else got a beer or hot chocolate with bailey's. I had a voice lesson at 5:15 my time. So I had to go make the hike back to my voice teacher's house. I actually enjoy going to her house because it is so far out there. The window that she makes me look out oversees all of Vienna and all of the vineyards too. It is beautiful. She is right by the WienerWald (Viennese Woods). It is absolutely beautiful. Also I love my voice teacher. I learn so much in the short amount of time. She makes me laugh and she has so much knowledge. She truly is an amazing women. I love her technique of teaching too.

I found out yesterday that I will be giving a recital here. I knew that but I didn't know any of the details. I will most likely be giving the recital in Mid-May. The minimum time will be 40 minutes. (Wow a 40 minute recital of just me. It makes me anxious haha) It has to have a small group of German Lieder pieces which are Schumann, Schubert, Wolf, Mahler, etc. I'm really excited. I don't know where 40 minutes of music is going to come from but it will happen somehow. I also have to make a program and it has to be recorded so Butler can see that I did a recital. When I come home I plan on doing the same recital somewhere in Indiana haha. Either at my church, Butler, or where ever I can find a place.

It feels weird knowing that I'm going to do a recital because at Butler only Juniors and Seniors do recitals. I'm really excited and I'm up for the challenge. I will have to prepare a lot but it is completely worth it.

Last night I went to a club, my first club experience and maybe one of my last in Vienna haha. I really did have a lot of fun don't get me wrong. The club was called Club Loco! It is free entry so a lot of IES people go there. I just had to pay a euro for coat check. The music was great and I went from 10 to 11:30 haha. I started to fall asleep. It doesn't help with going out on the town when you usually for asleep before 10 o'clock. Two nights ago I feel asleep at 8ish and woke up at 8 in the morning. Well anyway going back to the club. It really was a lot of fun, but after walking in I realized that every bar in Vienna is smoking. Whomp Whomp. After the first hour I could feel my voice and my throat becoming dehydrated. Also my lungs started to get really tight so I had to leave. I can't do that every weekend. I don't know how some people do it everyday. My friends dragged me out. They wanted me to have fun because I stay in every night or go to some music event and then go straight home. I'm glad that I went out though. It was a fun experience.

This week is a break week for me before real classes start. I decided to stay in Vienna while most people are going on this IES Germany trip. Today I will be going to the big shopping street called Mariahilferstrasse. I just want to look to see what the style is here. I will also be taking a small stop at the Schonbrunn Palace. It is the only royal palace that I haven't seen. I think it was the winter palace for the royal family, but now it is connected with the oldest Zoo in the world. I'm excited. I also think I will try and go to the opera tonight. I want to go to a musical event every night I'm here. Anyway my body is starting to fall asleep again. I love you all bye bye

It feels like its been awhile

Hello Everyone,

I hope all is well at home and where ever you are. Everything here is great and Amazing. I'm a little stressed right now because of German and I have a lot for my Voice Lessons. I have to translate a few pieces and pluck the parts on the piano to get them engraved in my head and then I will be fine. I have had an adventure this week. On Monday I went to the Albertina which an art museum and it has a special exhibit over impressionism and they had a few Monet, Manet, Van Gogh, and Picasso. It was amazing. It took me two hours to get through the exhibit and that was sorta rushing through it. I went around 4 and they closed at 6 so we had to get out of there. It was unbelievable. I will for sure be going back soon. Tonight is the last night of Othello at the Staatsoper and I'm going to go. Yes I know I have a big final tomorrow but I heard that this Opera is one that I shouldn't miss. I will be fine tomorrow. I hope.... :) Anyway life here is grand. I have a voice lesson tomorrow so I have to work on stuff for that too. Then I have a week break and it will be time to relax. I will only be going to Prague. I'm going at the end of the week next week and I will be spending most of my time exploring mroe of Vienna. I realized that I'm really here for Vienna and I feel that I would get a lot of London if I went for 3 or 4 days. I will travel don't worry but I want to know more about Vienna. I will go to a musical event every night which I'm really excited for. I have registered for classes and I have a really easy schedule. Right now I only have one class on Tuesday and Thursday. It is German and it is from 9 to 10 in the morning. I might at a class in the middle of the day n Tuesday and Thursday but right now my schedule looks AMAZING and so much easier than it was at home. I will still have a lot of work but I will have more free time. Well I need to go practice and get ready for German today. I have a dialogue improvisation about a topic that I pull out of a hat. Either buying some at a market, throwing a party, conversation in a coffeehouse, conversation in a hotel, or one other I can't think of. It is going to be hard. I mean I have only had German for 3 weeks and they are wanting me to do this.....WOW! I will conquer through it though and be a Champ! Wish me luck. Anyway I'm off.

Auf Wiedersehen und Ich liebe dich,

Ben