London!

London Trip!

Ok! Here we go. This entry is going to be pretty long. I’m going to combine a journal that I will be keeping for my trip in London. I will first start with my experience to the unforsaken place called Braitslava. I woke up on Tuesday morning at 04:30. I was very tired but moving. I had to catch a bus, at 6:50, all the way on the opposite side of Vienna. It takes me about 35 minutes to get the bus stop. When I get there I start to freak out. On the buses website there is an address saying where the bus stop is. I find the address and all I see are two blue double doors and it was down an alleyway. I started to freak out. I had 30 minutes to find my bus. I thought the bus would be there but no luck. I call my RA and he told me I was in the right area. I started freaking out more and then at 6:46 I see my bus. I get on and then we leave 4 minutes later. We didn’t wait for anyone. There were only 5 passengers including myself on the bus. The bus could fit around 100 people. We then started on the highway from Vienna to Bratislava. I started to look around when we were at the halfway point and it looks just like home. All you see is land. I saw a few houses but not a lot. There was just a lot of unused land. The only way you can see something green in Vienna is if you go to a park otherwise it is all cement. Anyway, I get to Bratislava airport and then I got through security. This is a very small airport that maybe only 400 people go through a day and their security is much more strict than Indianapolis Airport. I had to show my passport to 4 people to get past checkpoints. The worst one was the last checkpoint. Where I’m standing there for 5 minutes while this lady looks at the passport and then looks at me and again at the passport and then at me. It was sorta ridiculous. I’m she started scratching at the passport on my picture to see if it was real. How does scratching a sticker tell you if the passport is real or not? I wasn’t a fan. I hate Bratislava and I always will. It is a death trap. I then got to the gate and see the convenience stores in the gate. They don’t sell any food. They just sell magazines and liquor. Lots and lots of liquor. Apparently you can take a huge two liter bottle of wine that they sell on the airplane. Very interesting.

Now off to London!

So I got on the plane and everyone was very interesting. The plane was a Boeing 737 and they tried to stuff the place. The flight wasn’t that long. It was 2 hours or so. They tried to sell everyone a lot of things. Ranging from food to cosmetics like makeup. They also tried to sell use lottery tickets and even smokeless cigarettes. I don’t know how they can be smokeless but they were.

So I arrive in the London Stansted airport and I’m so happy. I was in an English speaking country, and I knew I could go up to anyone and ask where anything is and they could probably help me. I get on my bus and it takes an hour to get into the city. We drove through the slumps of London and it was not pretty what so ever. I then get dropped off at a train station and it was very awkward. It was completely different from Vienna. There are also a lot more people here than in Vienna. There are also a lot of busses EVERYWHERE! Double deckers. It took me a while to realize that they were driving on the opposite side of the road. It is weird to get around because you have to look the other way. They have written out signs on the ground saying look left or look right. The drivers here also suck. They will knock you over if you get in their way. They don’t like people. I then find my hostel and it is a nice hostel but there were a lot of extra charges like for the key and a lock. It is a deposit though so I will get it back. I then headed next door to my hostel and saw the British Museum. It is the biggest museum I have ever been in. It has over 70 rooms full of stuff ranging from Greek statues to the Rosetta Stone from Egypt. They even had a room just for clocks and the history of clocks. I was there for an hour or so and then I headed over to oxford street to look at some stores. They have so much fashion here. It is ridiculous. After that I took the tube to the Parliament and the Westminster Abbey. Right when I walk out of the train station I see Big Ben and it truly is amazing. I have never seen anything like it. It was beautiful. I also went to the abbey for a service. They call it the Evensong. It was a group of men singing songs that I have studied in school. It was weird to finally hear a live performance of it. After the service I set up a time to meet with a friend from Butler, Rachel A.! We met right after the service. It was so good to see her. I haven’t seen anyone I know from home in person since the beginning of January. We walked up and down the Regent St and Oxford St. She showed me some cool shops and she also showed me Picadilly Circus. It is like the Time Square of London. It was really cool. A lot of people are on the streets and they try to ask you to sign things. People do this in Vienna too but I always say “No thank you” or something else in German. I get to London and I say the same thing. I didn’t realize I said it up until Rachel pointed it out. I did it at least 3 times that day. It was Rachel’s last night in London and she is on a Butler Study Abroad program with only Butler people. She was going to go to a last night party at a pub called Cittie of Yorke. She wanted me to come to see if I could eat with them. The professors did let me eat with them and it was really nice. I got Fish and Chips and I loved ir=t! It was really good. It was a little expensive but I really haven’t had a really good meal for a while so I decided to partake. I’m just glad Rachel and I got to catch up. After dinner we said our goodbyes. I headed back to my hostel because I was exhausted. That was my first day of London.

My Second Day!

I had a lot of trouble sleeping so I woke up in the middle of the night a lot. I finally woke up around 7 and got ready for the day. The hostel provides breakfast starting at 8. I headed down there and ate. I also talked to a person that works at the hostel and he started asking me questions about how I think the differences are in Vienna, London, and the USA. I had thought about it a lot in the first month of being in Wien but now it is like second nature. London is very fast pace but only after 6 pm. In the morning it is like a normal city like Indy. I started walking around London and went over to Hyde Park. I didn’t take the tube because if you take it before 9:30 in the morning you have to pay two extra pounds and I thought I could use the excersie. I didn’t realize how long it would take to get to hyde park. I went to say hello to the Peter Pan statue and also see the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. It was beautiful. After that I decided to head to Buckingham Palace and it was also beautiful. I saw a lot of guards but they are by the palace and you can’t walk up to them. It made me a little sad. After that I decided to head over to the London Bridge and the Pier. The London Bridge was very boring. I wasn’t a fan. After this I was completely exhausted but I decided to go to the most expensive part of the city and see what was there. It was Notting Hill. This is where a lot of celebrities live. I didn’t see any but this is obviously where I would live if I every lived in London. I would never be able to afford it but It was a really nice part of town. After walking a bit I had to head back to my hostel to change to get ready for the musical Sister Act. I was really really excited to see it and I have to say it was an AMAZING Show! I literally had a smile on my face the whole time and there were a lot of funny jokes. I was in the 13^th row and had great cheap tickets. After the show I still hadn’t had enough so I get on a train to Picadilly Circus and look to see what other shows are going on. I decided to try and get student tickets for Les Mis. Rachel had seen it and she said it was amazing. I get a student ticket for 27 pounds, which is a good price because the seat that I was in cost 90 pounds. I was in the second row front and center. The show was unbelievable. I haven’t see talent like that for a long long time. It was really one of the best shows I have ever seen. After this I tried to find a starbucks because it is a lot cheaper here than in Vienna. I couldn’t find one that was open so I went back and ended my night.

Day Three!

I woke up early again this morning and got ready to check out and get breakfast. I checked out and left my stuff at the hostel in the luggage room. I started to then walk down Oxford St because I wanted to buy some new clothes. I went to H&M and bought a shirt and sweater for really cheap. After that I headed to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guard. A lot of people where there and it was sorta intimidating. All of these policemen were yelling at people to get in line. Then it started at 11:30. Changing of the Guard was actually pretty boring. I saw them change the guards and it took 30 minutes for that to happen. They also had a band playing and they were playing the national anthem, songs from Les Mis, and the Beatles. It was very interesting. I then tried to find a place to eat and I couldn’t decide where. I started to think about Harrod’s department store. I went and it was like a castle full of clothes, jewelry, and accessories. I walked into the fragrance department and so at least 20 workers in this small room with a different fragrance and they were trying to spray it on all of the women. I wanted to go have a cup of tea at the Harrod’s café. One cup of tea cost 4 pounds which is $6. I decided to leave and I found a resturant by Picadilly Circus called Mermaid’s Tail. It was AMAZING! I got ribs for really cheap and I loved it. I love American food. I then went to a Starbucks and got a frap. A lot of the drinks are different in the UK compared to the US. After this I had to go catch my bus to the Airport. I really had a blast in London. I don’t think I could ever live there permanently but I would like to go back sometime and stay for a longer time!

Now my mom is here and all is well! I’m so excited to see her and we are going to have a blast!!!!!

PICTURE TIME

Rachel and I in a telephone Booth

Big Ben and Big Ben

Ben's Cookies!! So Good

Changing of the Guard Band

London Pier Bridge

The guards about to change

Guards in the Street

This is how close I was to the stage

Sister Act was AMAZING!

London Bridge

Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace

Princess Diana's Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park!

Me at Piccadilly Circus

Parliament

Double Decker

My First Plane!

SPRING BREAK!

Hello everyone,

Sorry it has been awhile since I have updated. I have been sick with the stomach flu and bronchitis. NOT FUN! Today is the first day since Tuesday that I have been up and back on my feet again. Wednesday was the worst day. I had a fever of about 102. Thursday I went to a doctor. I tried to go to a doctor in the inner city but that doctor was sick and almost all the doctors in the inner city were sick. I went to IES and they called a few doctors and they all said they were sick! I felt like death at this time and I was getting aggravated. IES then called the IES 24/7 emergency doctor. Kent, the student services guy, to me to the doctor. The man was very interesting. I thought this doctor was a normal doctor but it turns out that when i walk in all I see are woman. He took me to his office and then I only saw diagrams of woman's anatomy. It turns out the doctor is an OB/GYN! I could not handle it. He got me the right drugs and he gave me a strict diet. I really haven't been able to follow the diet because I haven't really been able to eat. Since Wednesday I have really only had pretzels, sprite, water, and cooked veggies. I diet consisted of only cooked veggies. ughhh not fun! I still have no appetite and when I try to make myself it I get sick to my stomach, but I'm doing a lot better!!!! No need to worry anymore!

I have officially started Spring Break. I actually started it on Wednesday when I got sick. This week is the week of midterms, meaning no other classes. It is just a big test that is just like a final. I got out of taking the 3 that I was suppose to take because I'm sick and really haven't had any motivation to study. I will take the 3 tests after spring break. I don't have to go back to school until April 6th. So I have 2 weeks of spring break left. Tomorrow I will be flying into London and staying there til Thursday night. I will be meeting up with a friend from Butler, Rachel A., for an hour or so. I am going to play everything I do by ear. I do know that I will be going to a musical on Wednesday Afternoon. I will be seeing Sister Act: The Musical! I know it seems corny but I'm so excited! It will be a great show. Right now it is only in London and they want to bring it to the states. I might also catch another show on Wednesday night but I might want to do something else. I just really want to eat some Fish n Chips! I get back to Vienna around 23:00 on Thursday, and then on Friday morning my mom comes!!!! I'm so excited to see someone I know. She will be here til April 4th. 10 DAYS! We will be going to Salzburg, Austria and hopefully Prague, Czech Republic. We are going to have so much fun. We will be taking lots of pictures and I will put them up quickly. I know I have become bad with this blog and picture taking.

Well I need to go finish packing and cleaning!

Love,

Ben

I'm so bad at this blogging thing now!!

I'm sorry everyone that I am taking a week to get a new blog. I have been really busy. Soon I will have a lot more time. This week right now is really rough. Tomorrow I have a big test that I still need to study for. It a listening quiz but it will be easy. I just have to write down the titles and composers when I hear a song. A lot has actually happened since last week. Life is really just great right now. I love been this busy but I wish I would have more time so I could explore more of Vienna. When my mom comes next Friday we will be going to a lot of places that I haven't even seen of Vienna, but also some places that I love. Last week kept on dragging along and I couldn't have handled it much longer. During German class on Friday it got to the last straw. My mind was no longer translating and was refusing to listen to anymore German. It shut down. Meine Leherin asked me a question and I gave her this dumb look on my face like I was gone and I had left my body. I was having trouble in the class earlier that day. I kept asking a lot of simple questions that I wasn't understanding. When she saw my dumb look she said " Haben Sie letzte Nacht zu viel getrunken" Everyone then starts to laugh. I had no clue was she was saying so I put my head in my hands and make a ughhh noise. Like I can't handle anymore of this. She responds with oh ya ya ya. It turned out she asked if I had to much to drink the night before. I respond with my hands in my head and she then thinks "Yep he is hungover/probably still drunk." I had nothing to drink the night before and I went to bed at 9 the night before haha. I got 10 hours of sleep. I went to another Opera on Saturday and it was really weird. It was called Moses und Aron. I wasn't a fan. My voice lessons are going great. I really love my voice teacher. She is so caring and I have learned so much. I feel completely refreshed and new. I had a voice lesson on Saturday and on my way to her house I went to an Easter Market on the way. I was told that it was a great market! I WAS LIED TO! It was the worst thing I have ever been to. It was so boring. I went with a friend and it takes us 2 minutes to walk past the 15 stands. They were selling hollowed out decorated egg shells, toys, and deserts. It turns out that they have this Market for the 40 days before Easter. I bought something called a langos. It looked like an elephant ear. Boy was I wrong. It was something that was fried and then they put garlic sauce on it. HORRIBLE! Yuck Yuck Yuck. At least I tried new things. I also got a haircut that day. I went to a place recommended by a friend. The guy I wanted to cut my hair was not there so another guy cut it and he was pretty good. I really like it. The hair stylist was a character of his own. So this week is hectic because I have a concert on Friday and then a Midterm on Saturday and then two midterms on Monday. The best part about the upcoming week is that I will be going to London from Tuesday Morning til Thursday night. I have already booked everything. I will be going alone and I'm so excited. I need something english. I plan on going to Buckingham Palace, seeing changing of the guards, Big Ben, and also a musical or two. I know I will be seeing Sister Act the musical and then I don't know what to see after that. I'm so excited. Then i come back late at night on Thursday and mein Mutter comes the next day. She will be here for 10 days. We are going to have so much fun. I can't wait to finally show someone my new home.

I also meet my language buddy last night. Her name is Vera. I walk up to her and I was going to shake her hand but we did the european thing where you kiss on the side of the cheeks. I was so not ready for that. She really is great though. She is the same age as me, and we related to a lot of things. We meet at this famous cafe called Cafe Hewelka. A lot of famous people have been there and they are known for there strong coffee. Vera is so nice. She was shy at first but then we ended up talking for 2 hours. We talked in english most of the time. I got really excited that I finally met her so I couldn't think of anything to say in German. She goes to school for photography, und psychology. I kept on asking her questions about her life and what Vienna is like for her. I tried to make her laugh a lot because she wasn't talking and then finally after she started to understand me more she became more relaxed. We then talked about America and how boring and dull it is. haha. Time flew by and before we knew it it was 11 p.m. We then said our goodbyes and we are going to do something this weekend. We were talking about going to a few museums or going to go see a show. I'm just really excited to finally get to meet an Austrian and have a conversation with one of them. She is going to introduce me to a lot of her friends.

Well anyway I need to go study.

Love,

Ben

P.S. There is only a 5 hour time difference now but only til March 27 and that is when i leap forward an hour.

Smile!

Hello Everyone!

Well it has been awhile. I have been really busy since Thursday. My weekend was a very musical weekend. I had a voice lesson on Thursday, Saturday, and Today. Wow 3 voice lessons in less than a week. I learned so much and I'm trying to comprehend everything. It is going really really well. I love my voice teacher. She is amazing and I have already learned so much from her. I'm really excited to get my recital together. She has given me one Italian, one French, and 5 german pieces. She wants to give me another French piece. I'm so excited that I don't have any English pieces for Voice lessons. I have a lot of English rep and I want to expand more on other languages. My recital date is officially May 18th at 6:30. It is the last week of school and also the week of finals. It will be a struggle to fit it in but it will work out. I also went to 3 music events this weekend. First I went to a brand new opera that was commissioned by the Wiener Staatsoper. It is called Madea and it tells the story of Medea and Jason after they steal the golden cloak. Medea sorta goes crazy and kills Jason new love Creusa and she also kills her 2 children that don't love her anymore. It was a very powerful opera. It was all atonal meaning no tonal center. Like most songs have a key signature (i.e. C Major) This whole opera had no key signature. It was just random notes but it was beautiful. The next morning I went to the Musikverein and saw the Vienna Philharmonic play Debussy and Ravel also the composer was a famous composer from the states. He was the conductor of the New York Phil. He is a big deal. Later on Sunday I went back downtown to see Simon Boccanegra by Verdi. It was interesting. I didn't like the beginning but after the first act the plot and music got a lot better. This weekend I plan on going to The Flying Dutchman by Wagner, Moses und Aron by Schönberg and Arabella by Strauss. I'm really excited. Ever since I have been in Vienna I realized that my main love of music is Opera. I'm still a big fan of musical theatre but I want to learn as much as I possibly can about Opera. When I was younger I use to fall asleep during classical music concerts, and now they wake me up. I was exhausted before the Opera but then I was so excited to see the opera. Yesterday was a great day too. I started class at the Wien Bibliothek by the Rathaus. It is where a lot of main manuscripts are of schubert, schumann, and other Viennese musicians. We were looking at manuscripts by Schubert. I saw with my own eyes a paper that Schubert wrote on and touched. I was so going to die. It felt like I was meeting my idol. Its just like someone meeting there favorite basketball player or favorite singer. I felt like I was in the same room as him. It was amazing. After analyzing some Schubert it was back to normal life at the school. I got to go home early which is always nice. Yesterday I also realized that I get about a 2 week spring break. I finish classes/midterms on March 22 and I got go back to school until April 6th. Mom is flying in on the 26th so I'm thinking about flying out to London/Ireland on the 22nd at night and coming back on the 25th at night. I was thinking of maybe going somewhere else instead but I found round trip ticket for 80 euro which is really a steal. Any ideas on where I should go instead of London/Ireland? I was thinking Barcelona but I don't know. I'm sorry I haven't responded to some people's emails. I just really have been busy and I'm trying to live my life up here. I know this is sorta a short entry but I will try and update more frequently. I'm off to go work on Homework

Tschüß!!!

~B

Ich möchte alles haben was gut, ächt und schöne ist!

The title of this entry is a quote by Mozart. In english it means I would like to have everything good, genuine, and beautiful. I saw this when I went to Mozart's Figaro House yesterday for class. It was very interesting. To be honest it wasn't worth the money. I got in free because it was a requirement for our class to go, so IES pays for it. One of the things on exhibit was Mozart's Punch Ladle. It was quite fascinating. NOT!!!! The building was a really nice building. It is right by a really nice small street called Blutgasse! Meaning Blood Alley. There are many myths about this street and why it is called Blutgasse. Many say it is because of the Blut Countess. She apparently lived on this street and found young men and she would take them to her apartment and kill them because and she would drink their blood to stay young. Obviously this can't be true. But this myth is actually pretty big in Vienna. It goes all the way back to before Mozart lived in his Apartment at the end of Blutgasse. The reason why it is called Mozart's figaro house is because that is where he wrote Marriage of Figaro. It is in the first district of Vienna. Some of it was very interesting but I would not go back again. They showed paintings of people that don't matter and actually have very little to do with Mozart. It was very weird, but anyway that is what I did yesterday. This past week has been pretty busy. I have had a lot to do. I have had a lot of coachings and I really haven't had to time to go out in Vienna and explore. This weekend I will be doing some fun things. I have a voice lessons Saturday and then I'm going to an opera called Medea. It is a brand new opera that was commissioned by the Staatsoper in Wien. I heard that it is pretty good. I hope I get in to see it. I'm just working really hard on my music. I just have a lot of music and they keep on giving me some, which I love. I had a coaching today with my accompanist, Greta. She is amazing. She keeps telling me how much she loves my voice, and that I'm a tenor no matter what. My favorite quote by here is "You are a tenor as much as I am a woman." She just keeps telling me that if I find the right teacher then all will be well. Who knows what is going to happen. I'm on a break right now. I have another coaching this evening at 6:30 my time. Then I'm free but I will be going home to study for another German test that I will be having tomorrow. She wants us to go through a chapter each week. Ughhhhhhh. It is so so so so hard, but I will be fine.

I found out yesterday that Butler Choirs next year during Spring Break will be going to Greece and Italy. I don't know if I will be able to go because I heard it is a lot money, but we will see. I want to also do a program next summer in Italy. If not next summer the summer after that. Just depends if one day I win the lottery or not. I'm planning to this summer. :)

Like I said not much new here. I went to a nice pizza joint over by a friends apartment. I got a really big pizza for 5 euro. The place is called Da Capo. It was very small and interesting. I have been trying to get to know more people here. i really want to meet some Austrian. I will be meeting my language buddy next week at some social. It will be pretty fun....I hope.

Anyway I should get back to work so I can sleep tonight and not worry about my German test.

Auf Wiedersehen. I hope to update more frequently soon!!!!

Ciao

~B