So far, my favorite places in Vienna are related to artwork: the Belvedere, the gugging artists, and the Hunderwasserhaus.  I think I wrote about two of the three so far.  I living in Maria Gugging (Klosterneuburg).  Here (two doors down from me), is the house of the Gugging artists.  In addition to being neighbors, there is an art museum there too.  Although, my favorite of their artwork is the painting on their house.  There are bright colors and abstract designs … not something you expect when you see the other buildings around.

This is the fourth week of Deutschkurs 1A. Even though I have to travel one hour each way to get to class, I am glad that I am taking this course. Yesterday in class, we did an interesting exercise. We were paired up, and each given a paragraph to read to the other person. We had to write down what we heard the other person say. This was a good exercise, because it helped us practice our pronunciation, and helped our listening skills.

I look forward to my next course (although this might not be for a few months …)

This is how pretty Vienna is.  This is a building near the Hunderwasserhaus.

Ich wohne in Klosterneuburg.  Und ich mag in Heurigen essen.

Heurigen are restaurants owned and operated by wine makers.  They have cheap wine, and a good selection of meats and pickeled salats.  My favorite Heurigen is on Agnes strasse in Klosterneuburg.  I enjoy the atmosphere at Heurigen because we can eat outside, sometimes under a canopy of grape vines!

So, I have completed three weeks of my german course. I can see that I am improving every day, but I also see that I have a long way to go! Lisa (the teacher) is great. I know that her job is tough — teaching a language to people who do not know the language … entirely in German. Sometimes at the end of class, we play a review game. She makes cards, each one asking us to conjugate a verb, determine the nomativ and the akkusativ of a noun, or determine the plural form of a noun. Although I get the gender wrong almost every time I get a noun card, I still enjoy playing this game. It is a great help to helping us determine where our weaknesses are.

Above, I have a picture of Haas Haus on Stefansplatz. I think this building is really neat looking … and there is a Zara inside of it!

Ther are many things that you should not miss during your stay in Vienna. One of which is the Belvedere. The palace has a small garden, which is nice to walk around. But, the best view of the gardens is from the 2nd floor of the upper Belvedere. There are two parts the the museum. And, the upper part houses work by Klimt and other Austrian and French artists. In the lower Belvedere, the most impressive sighs are the Marble Room and the Golden room. In addition, the orangerie has modern artwork. It is a small part of the museum, but intriguing to visit.

In Wien, ich mag in die Museen gehen und in die Heurigen gehen. Ich möchte den Stephansdom besuchen. Wöchentlich spiele ich Fußball mit meinen Kollegen. Am Sonntag spiele ich Lacrosse!

Nächstes Wochenende besucht mich Darrell. Er wohnt in den USA, aber er ist in Frankreich für eine Konferenz. Danach ist er ist hier!

Das sind Bei (links), Me (mitte), und Karine ( rechts).

In class, we have been working on perfecting the Akkusative and Nomanative.  We can use possessive articles.  Now, we are starting to put ideas together instead of having simple sentences in class all of the time.  We are learning more each day!

Gestern, ich lerne Österreich hat eine lacrosse Team!  Ich möchte spielen in dem Team.

Mein Lieblingsessen ist scharf essen.  Aber, Österreich hat kein scharfes Essen.

Karine, Bei, and I went shopping at the Nashmarkt on Saturday. Karine is a student in the class, and Bei is one of my colleagues.  After shopping, we walked around the Habsburg palace, and then went to Klosterneuburg to have dinner at a Heurigen.

Wir haben 9 Studenten in der Klasse.  Sehen Sie die Fotos? Auf dem Foto, ich habe ein rosa T-Shirt. Die Hälfte arbeitet in der Forschung oder studiert für PhD. Elliot ist ein Musiker und Cynthia ist eine Köchin. Regina kommt aus den USA und sie ist eine Lehrerin. Arbert ist jung. Er ist 16 Jahre alt! Er ist ein Student. Am Wochenende, Ales macht Schnaps in Tschechien. Lisa ist die Lehrerin in der Klasse. Sie hat ein lila T-Shirt (auf dem Foto).

Above I have 3 photos that I took from the Hundertwasser house. The architecture is very unique, with bright colors, uneven floors, wavy lines, and trees growing out of the building!

My friends and I have explored the city quite a bit in the month that I’ve been here so far. We’ve walked to the Naschmarkt from Klosterneuburg (4 hours). It was quite a pretty walk through the vineyards. We’ve explored many Heurige. Those are my favorite places to get a bite to eat. I’ve gone through the MozartHaus and the Belvedere. My favorite part about Vienna is the Hunderwasser arcitecture.

In Deutschkurs, things are coming along. We’re learning about the Nomanativ and the Akkusativ this week. One assignment we had last week was to create a conversation from a picture. Yi and I worked together on this. We named our characters Thom and Simon. Here is their conversation:

T: Guten Tag!

S: Guten Tag, Thom.  Wie geht es Ihnen?

T: Mir geht es sehr gut, und Ihnen?

S: Es geht.  Ich bin müde.

T: Wo wohnen Sie?

S: Ich wohne in Antartika.

T: Warum sind Sie hier?

S: Ich bin ein Student.

T: Stimmt das? Wie alt sind Sie?

S: Ich bin 30 Jahre alt. Und Sie?

T: Ich bin 42 Jahre alt.

S: Auf Wiedersehen!

T: Wiedersehen!