Vienna/Life (nothing particularly touristy)

Aye, another gigantic update. Luckily I have split up the writing and photos so you can choose which to look at, haha. Since the last post, these are the things that I've done (that I can remember, anyway... so I guess that means this is the important stuff. Or traumatic. I don't know):

- Skating at the Rathaus

• Every winter, there is the "Wiener Eistraum". Basically, the whole area in front of the Rathaus (City Hall) is turned into an ice area. It's pretty awesome and really beautiful. Unfortunately, the skates hurt like heck and it's kind of expensive (€12.50 including skate rental) but since I already paid for it in the program fees, I didn't feel sad, haha.

- Kunsthistorisches Museum (Art History Museum)

• I think that the building itself (interior and exterior) was more amazing than some of the art. Unfortunately I don't have many good pictures because I had to use my crappy camera.
• There was an awesome exhibit with a mythical creatures theme (e.g., dragons, unicorns, centaurs, etc.)
• I met this Finnish girl who also speaks Swedish and is learning Mandarin. Awesome xD.

- Some random party on a boat (this was the traumatic one, heh)

• Crappy beer. Haha, okay, this is not an important point.
• Way. Too. Much. Fake. Fog. Smoke. Stuff. It was scary. There was literally a point in the night where I couldn't see ANYTHING. Maybe that's what being blind feels like...
•  I didn't even want to go anyway (obviously). However, I was dragged and everyone freaked out because I never do anything. 
• I talked to 2 random dudes from Lichtenstein which is awesome since it's such a tiny country and all... though it is somewhat near Austria so that also makes sense.
• Random creeper tried to talk to me because he thought I was Japanese. Random creepers also tried to dance with me... even though I was just kind of standing there. I'm going to guess they were ridiculously drunk (as most people were).
• Too many people smoking. This is probably the biggest negative about Europe.

- Freezing to death (multiple times)

• The weather here has been rather sucky lately. It's getting warmer though, thankfully.
•  We had this walking tour around the 1st district (city center, basically) and everyone was dying because it was ridiculously cold. I was seriously craving some really hot, spicy ramen. See next point.

- Finding stuff that I didn't expect to find (or not finding things I expected to find)

• I found this €0.45 ramen, and it was duck flavoured! (I like anything with duck in it... so tasty). It was surprisingly very, very good. It even had multiple packets (flavouring, chili powder, flavoured oil). I didn't realize so I just dumped it in a bowl and added water, but then the packets floated up. Oops.
• I still can't find baking soda or vanilla. I can find baking powder and vanilla sugar or real vanilla beans though. Hm.
• I actually found sliced turkey (like sandwich meat) at Hofer, of all places. Hofer is the same as Aldi, but it's called Hofer in Austria. In case you don't know what Aldi is, it's basically a discount store that sells food/some produce/some meats and fish/random household stuff (e.g., detergent, pans, paper towels, etc.)

- MANGOSTEEN! (see point below)

• I can't believe I actually found it here. I can't even find it in the States. If anyone doesn't know, mangosteen is my favourite fruit. It was so expensive (I think it was €3... for ONE) but it will be worth it because I will be so happy when I eat it.

- Ridiculously amazing kebap/Naschmarkt (kind of related to finding stuff I didn't expect to find)

• I found the mangosteen at Naschmarkt, which is this awesome outdoor market thing with tons of fresh fruit and vegetables. There are also many people selling spices, dried fruit, cheese, fresh meat/fish, random things, and KEBAP. It's great.
• There is also this really cool flea-market with tons of random (awesome) stuff.
• There are 3 or 4 Asian stores with a decent selection of stuff I've been missing. I managed to find hoisin sauce (the good/real kind...) and Asian noodles.
• There is this one kebap place which literally has the best kebap I have ever eaten in my life. It's amazing. I'm getting it again tomorrow, haha.

- IKEA adventure

• Andrea and I (Andrea, for all those who do not know, is another GC/UofI student who also came to Vienna for this semester) went on an adventure to IKEA to pick up cheap stuff. It's pretty far away (you have to take 2 trains and a bus) but we managed.
• The area that IKEA is in looks like suburban USA. It was really, really weird. I think I will have major reverse culture shock when I go home. What am I going to do without all the beautiful architecture?!
• We couldn't find the entrance so we walked around the store and went down some sketchy stairs. There was a super creepy tunnel/hall thing. You know in those movies where people are trying to escape from vampires or zombies or something, and then they end up at a dead end? Yeah, it was like that. The door even had bars and stuff where creepy things could pop out and try to kill you. Awesome.
• We never found the entrance until AFTER we bought the things we came for. Harhar. (Yeah, we were creepers and ran in through the exit when some people were walking out).

- First day of classes

• I've only had one class so far -- Global Strategic Management. It's a graduate level course so we'll see how that goes... 1/3 of my class is UofI students and most of them are accy/fin majors so my professor freaked out a little. "YOU DO REALISE THAT THIS IS AN ADVANCED MANAGEMENT COURSE SO IT WILL BE VERY DIFFICULT, RIGHT?!" Erm... Hopefully it won't be too bad.
• Classes seem similar to the ones back home. Since my class is 4 hours long, we get breaks every hours (15 minutes) so it's not bad. Basically classes consist of some papers, presentations, and an exam. Typical. Your group also rates you and such. Also typical. The main thing that is interesting is seeing how different people from different countries act in the classroom. Americans generally are very laid back and talk in a very casual way whereas the students from other countries generally are more formal in their speaking. It's interesting. Also, the Americans participate more. I don't know if its because they're American, because they're all just generally outgoing (since I know basically all the Americans), or because the class is in English and nobody else speaks English as their native language.
• We had to form groups, and because my professor is not a moron, she didn't allow people to form groups with people from the same place (school, country, etc.). My class basically consists of Americans (all the UofI kids plus some random girl from Wisconsin), Canadians (all French-Canadian, I think), actual French people, a German, 3 Dutch people, 1 Indonesian, and 1 Chinese person. There may be others, but I think that's basically it.
• Surprisingly, I already knew one of the Dutch people and the Indonesian so forming a "diverse" group was easy (I believe my group is the most diverse because every member is from a different country -- kind of awesome). The Chinese girl also ended up in our group because she asked me in Chinese and I couldn't say no... not that I would say no anyway, but yeah. So basically this whole group situation was good in the sense that I didn't have group-making issues (it seemed like other people did because they weren't allowed to be all exclusive/separate for once) but I also didn't get to meet other people in the class. However, it's okay because I'll just work harder to meet people in other classes. Besides, I like the people in my group (not sure about the Chinese girl since I don't really know her, but we'll see).

- German placement exam/language stuff

• It was hard. Clearly, my German sucks. Ugh. I need to improve it. Hopefully this will happen because there is this Tandem-Learning program here where you are basically paired up with someone who wants to learn whatever language you speak and you learn whatever they speak. It's similar to some of the RSOs on campus, but the Tandem-Learning program is way more legit and efficient.
• I'm scared that I won't place into the class that I need to take in order to complete my German minor (which I have decided to try for... again).
• Ordering food is basically all the German practice I get (still). However, the food vendors don't really speak English or they don't automatically switch to English when they see I'm not a native German speaker, which is really nice.

Photos! 
(Sorry some of these are not so great... I used my crappy camera and there is something wrong with it so there are random vertical red lines sometimes).

Kunsthistorisches Museum

This room (above) was kind of funky because all the paintings were really crowded on the wall. Somehow it worked though.

Main stairs @ the Kunsthistorisches Museum

Wiener Eistraum

Rink + Rathaus

Naschmarkt (the flea market section)

Dedicated to Nina...

Woman at the awesome kebap place

Attempt at lemon chicken. :D

More chicken...

Zhajiang mian! Gah, I was so happy about this. Best dinner yet.

There were 2 more "pancakes" (pan-crepe?) after this, heh.

Pancake-crepe things with cinnamon sugar and applesauce = awesome. Even though Naomi's mother insisted that they would not turn out good without baking powder, we found otherwise, haha. Next time, I'm going to try to make Kaiserschmarrn (Austrian dessert pancake).

Okay, I'm off. Tomorrow I'm getting up early to eat breakfast at a café and then I'm going to wander around and go back to the Naschmarkt for some awesome kebap. Then there is a Tandem-Learning kick off event/dinner.