Singing in the streets and der Polizei with pics

This is our group singing on Graben. We were amazing if I may say so.

Der Polizei caught us and told us it was forbidden. Notice Aimee's face of terror.

last Sunday in Wien

So today is my last Sunday in Wien! oh man sehr trauig. So here is a few of the awesome Austrians I have met. Me with Dr. Janda, my european history and politics teacher. He is really funny and even named his only daughter after me. how cool is that? Little Lisa was born in November.

Here is me, sis. Kapp, Kasia, and Cassandra. We visited sis. Kapp when she was in the hospital and she has remembered us ever since and always comes and greets us. She is super sweet.

This is me with the Schmidt family. Sis. Schmidt is actually from Poland. They are an awesome family and want me to come back to visit them. They drive about an hour each way to church, because they are the only members in their town.

The people of the vienna first ward have amazing faith. I will miss them all, because they are all really amazing people. I'm so glad I got to meet them.

Wir singen Rot, Wir singen Weiss, Wir singen Rot, Weiss, Osterreich!

Das Fussball Spiel gegen Turkei war SPITZE! aber leider haben wir verloren. Wir hatten sehr guter sitz Platz, der in der siebte Reihe war. Indi, Kasia, Me, Cass, Alicia

Me and my austrian scarf that I didn't see what it said till I got home and I still don't think I quite comprehend it. Opps.

This is the guy in front of us that painted our faces and taught us the fight songs.

We (meaning Austria) scored the first point! Although in the end we lost really badly. 2-4 Back: Indi, Kasia, Me, Cass, Alicia, Front: Willow, Anna

Singing in the streets and der Polizei

I don't have any pictures of this incident yet, because I was talking to the police. Let me explain. Here in Wien the city likes to know EVERYTHING. everything must be registered - where you live, tv, radio, internet, and if you want to sing on the street you must also register. Well Cassandra tried to register us but it never really worked out. So Markus -the know-it-all at the school told us to sing anyways. So we did. After four songs (we were great, people recorded us and took pictures, we were a hit) the policeman came up and told us we sounded good. Then he told us we were all going to be arrested - ok that didn't really happen. Actually then he told us to stop because it was forbidden. So then we tried to explain how we had tried to register and he told us we need to register at a certain place. When he came and interupted us some of our fans kind of booed him, but not too loud. So we stopped singing and went out for dinner. However the story continues. The address he gave us was the same one Markus had given us in the first place. So Cass and I went back and they told us we needed to go next door. So we went next door and the told us we need to go to an office in the 20th district. bla bla bla four hours later and a lot colder we get to the right office where we register and he tells us NO. The permits are all sold out. UGH. however he said we could sing in groups of four or smaller at certain times in certain locations if someone else wasn't already there. Large cities are very frustrating, especially Vienna.

My past week of awesomeness!

Indi and I making faces while playing on a swing. We were swinging for almost two hours. I couldn't really figure out how to push the swing correctly and laugh at the same time so my belly kept hitting the bottom of the swing. My entire upper body is still sore and that was on wednesday.

Willow and I at a play.

All the major streets have their very own christmas decorations.

Today is Krampus Day. Krampus is the Christmas devil who comes and punishes all the naughty children. The tale is krampus whacks naughty kids with a willow sticks. So I decided to buy a krampus and eat it. It was delicious.

Dresden

We went to Freiberg Germany on Thanksgiving weekend. So while all of you were doing your black Friday shopping I was on a 9 hour bus ride. YUCK. but it was worth it. We stayed at the hostel at the temple and got to do baptisms. Saturday night we went to Dresden. We were only allowed four hours - not nearly enough. But it was still great!Elizabeth (she is an american student going to school in Wien, she was baptised one year ago. She is super awesome!), Kasia, Me, and Indi

Thurigen Bratwurst! This made up for not being able to find a doenner stand. Notice mine is almost gone. Back: Kasia, Rachel, me, Elizabeth. Front: Jen, Jillian, Dani

My roomies at the temple except Kasia- who is taking the pic. Me, Indi, Anna, Elizabeth

Freiberg Germany Temple

Buda Pest (Buhdapesht)

This is all out of order. sorry. Anyways this is Indi, Anna, Willow, and Me. we all roomed together in Budapest. yeah - we get along great. This is during the day long tour and we were really bored on the metro.

We took a bus to get to the castle and the buses there are a lot smaller. Yet we still managed to cram everyone from our group on there plus a few hungarians. me and Indi - being scared for our lives. There are actually at least nine people in this pic.

We were walking along and i decided to take a pic - so I said look up (meaning at the camera) so Willow looked up and everyone else looked at the camera. Anna, Willow, Indi, and me.

The old part of town and the new. Stark difference. That is actually a pretty good looking part of the old town.

Budapest was awesome! It is actually two cities combined to make the capital of Hungary. On the left side of the river (see first pic) is Buda and on the left is Pest. Buhdapesht is how they pronounce it there. The first pic is Indi, me, and Alisha on the boat ride. The first night we took a tour of the Jewish district. the synagogue that we went to is named after the street it is on. The street is (translated ) tabacco street so we went to the tabacco synagogue. This was also gustapo headquarters during WWII. The next day we had a tour the entire day. That is a really llooong time and when we got on the boat most people went to sleep. Including me for a little while.

A pretty cool store named after two of my brothers.

Willow, me, Anna, and Indi with our Hungarian Ft.s.

That's right Ft. 15,000.

honestly there wasn't a whole lot to do in Budapest if you didn't have a metro card. Everything is way spread out. Plus on the last day we got lost and walked about seven miles off our map. On the last day I still had a bunch of almost useless money left so we went shopping and I got some pretty cool stuff.

Pies till 4 a.m.

so last sunday Cassandra, Tawny (prounced toni by all germans) and I made dinner for our entire group. Cass had this crazy idea that we should make pie for dessert. So we stayed up till 4 a.m. making pies.

Our pies: orange merengiue (we forgot to buy the lemons), Berry, Apple (the square one) Coconut, Pumpkin, and Chocolate.

Tawny and Cassandra mixing the whip cream (It never really got whipped. It was still saucy.)

Me making an amazing pie crust.

all our groceries. it looked a lot more impressive in the cart at the store.

Again all our groceries. I forgot to mention that the stores close here around 7 except for the one in the train station. We started at about 8:15 so we just made a made dash through the store and hoped we had everything we needed and enough of it. But we forgot some key ingreidiants such as the lemon. My work at aspen grove has paid off. I made some pretty sweet subsitutions. And thanks to mom for sharing with me the recipe for the jougurt pie a long time ago.

Fall

So I took this picture about a week ago. It is of the courtyard of the apartment. The trees are so beautiful right now.

Rhino at Schoenbrunn

As requested a Rhino for Josh. Does anyone else have a request. There are a lot of animals at Schoenbrunn and I have a picture of most of them.

Athens, Greece

Athens was a really cool city, it was really large, really white, really clean (for a large city) and had tons of dogs and cats that were everywhere. Weirdest part was that most had tags, but no one seemed to be owners. And there were lots of random small churches in the middle of squares.

On the last day we went and saw the Temple of Zeus and the stadium and then went to the flea market and of course got some more gyros.The acropolis through the ruins of the temple of Zeus

Trevor, Willow, Me, and Joseph at the Stadium

Nikki, Sydney, Jen, and Me in front of the Temple of Zeus.

It is REALLY BIG!

Aegina, Greece

Aegina was so amazing! I suggest everyone if possible go there on the off-season. Basically we bumbed around on the beach for two days. For dinner we ate at a restaurant and we were the only ones except for the owner and her mom and some other really old lady. After eating she would put on egyptian music and told us to dance - So we did. It was hilarious, bucause none could dance really except Sydney. The two old ladys really enjoyed it and kept clapping for us. Also traffic stopped to have a look. The entire town had nothing better to do apparently. Temple ruins. Nikki, Joseph, Willow, and me.

This is where we went swimming on the second day. Look closely and you can see five people in our group. The water was ridiculously clear even when we went swimming at night you could see the bottom underwater when you really deep.

Willow and I debating how to get into the water and if jumping from this rock would be safe.

Ta da! it was safe. It took us about ten minutes to decide that because we were kind of sissies.

Willow and I having lots of fun.

After swimming around we tried to get out in another spot, and we were still being sissies so it took us about twenty minutes to get out. There was fish, crabs, something large and unwelcoming-looking, quicksand and so on. Anyways we had a blast.

Grease and Greece

Greece was awesome and also very greasy. The traditional fast food is called a gyro (pronounced euro, and somewhat like a doenner) and it is super delicious and cheap. Consequently I had it quite a few times. Not to worry though I also had some healthier foods including swordfish and Kalamari (squid) and they were also delish. We spent two days in Athens and two days on the island of Aegina. Since the tourist season ended about two weeks ago we literally had the beach to ourselves and practically the entire town. Being a student has some definite benefits - everything we went to was free - awesome! In Athens we saw one of the seven ancient wonders of the world, the acropolis. We also saw the Angora and lots of other ruins. and one of the rocks that we saw was where Paul preached. After all this we climbed to a theater on the tallest hill in Athens. The city is white and goes on forever. Then of course we went and got some gyros. Yum Yum!

Nikki, Willow, Sydney, Jen, and me (all the girls on our trip) This is at the top of the highest hill in Athens. The city is HUGE!

Me with the throngs of tourists and the Parthenon.

They are rebuilding part of the acropolis. I think the newer marble looks better.

An ancient theater

Jen, Nikki, Trever, Willow, and Sydney watching an amazing show in the theater.

Parliament

On Friday I took a tour of the Austrian Parliament building. I got to sit in the chair of the President of the National Congress. Indi, Jillian, Me and Covey, in the national congress hall

The house sitting on top of the parliament building right now