The last course day arrived! I felt so excited because after a great effort I got the crown. I have passed the level.  I believe that all my classmates felt the same.

Today we made an important review of grammar and vocabulary. That’s good because we need to be constant in learning the language.

After this important step, I am planning to continue studying German in Deutsch Akademie next level. I will start next Monday. I don’t want to lose time because I need to speak the language in a short term.

I would like to thank my dear teacher who helped us a lot and to congratulate my classmates for their effort too. Good luck to everyone!

Meanwhile, I will rest a little this week-end and, if the weather is good, I will  practice some sports, visit a museum or going to an spectacle in the living Vienna with my family, which has supported very much for learning German. Autumm is here and is a good thing to enjoy it.

I took the level test in Deutsch Akademie some days ago.  Althoug it was difficult, I had few mistakes. My teacher recommended to me to review them for improving my skills.

I think it was good to study hard (a full weekend) for doing a good job.  It was also very useful to practice daily the examples given in class and review them periodically, because German is a difficult language that it needs a permanent learning.

That’s why I really believe that it was the best choice to study an intensive course of three hours a day. Otherwise, my learning it would have been slower and I would have forgotten easily the issues learned.

I really feel satisfied with the results of my test and with the knowledge I have acquired during this month.

It is difficult to say which place or places you shouldn’t miss in Vienna. As I explained some days ago, there are so many interesting places that the selection depends on your personal preferences. For example, if you are a fanatic of art, you cannot miss absolutely visiting all the main museums and galleries of the city. Each of them has something different to show to the visitors. The same we could say if you like music very much. Vienna has various possibilities that you will not have enough time for attending all the events and spectacles. That’s why Vienna is called the city of the music.

For lovers of culinary traditions, there are so many places to go, that it is difficult to choose the best restaurant or Cafe in Vienna. Each of them has something special to offer that they can satisfy to the most demanding customers.

In my case, as I like sports and enjoying of sun and warm weather, I think that my favourite place is the Danube River. Definitively, you cannot miss of visiting it, particularly in spring and summer. The natural environment is so quiet, that you won’t want to finish the visit. I like the forest and trees that surround  the river. In some places of the „Donau Park“ (Danube Park) it would seem that you are in the Paradise.  In this fantastic place, the possibilities for all kind of outsider sports are enourmous (walking, jogging, cycling, skating, swimming, sealing, etc).

Now I understand why Strauss composed his famous Vals „Blue Danube“.

We have started our fourth week in Deutsch Akademie and I am very excited.

Today we have made the funniest exercise in class, which consisted in inventing one or various healthful food products. Our group made a nutritional pyramide where we showed some of these products, as vegetables, fruits, products with proteins and milk products.  Other groups invented products, such an exclusive wine and special cakes.

We enjoyed very much. We could practice our conversation skills much more.

I have been placed in level 1B since last September, when I started studying German in DeutschAkademie, and I hope to continue the next level because I have learnt a lot. As I told before, I am able to talk easily and, at this stage, I could say that I understand every word my teacher and  class mates speak.  I am really satisfied.

As I mentioned before, Vienna has so many interesting places that evening locations are not the exception.

You find food from various countries and styles, but definitively the Austrian food is excellent. Besides the famous Heurigers (typical restaurants), I really recommend the „Zwolf-Apostel-Keller“, Twelve Apostles Basement, a subway medieval building where you can find most of the Austrian food and with convenient prices during all the year, but particularly in winter, when you can drink hot beverages and always a good wine exclusively made for the restaurant.

I also like the japanese food and in Vienna there are some excellent restaurants. I prefer one in the heart of town, near Stephansplatz, Akakiko restaurant, which has convenient prices and good food.

For the coffee fanatics you will find a great quantity of cafe shops along the city, but specially in the center. Having made a tour in some of them, I really like „Cafe Central“, in the Herrengasse Street, nice, comfortable where you can drink the best of the best, as the famous „melange“ coffee and a delicious „Sacher Torte“, (chocolate cake). The interesting of this Cafe is the fact that you feel time stops and you can enjoy its quiet atmosphere listening piano, reading a dialy newspaper or talking in low voice with your friends.

After almost three weeks of my German Course, I could say that I continue advancing in learning German. We had our first test and, although it was a little difficult and I had some mistakes, I feel I have improved much more.

We have learned to conjugate verbs in past and present perfect, doing each time more gramatical examples. Moreover, we can distinguish between regular and irregular verbs.

For increasing our vocabulary and  enhancing our conversation skills, we have discussed about the different types of food around the world, specially the typical food from the countries of my classmates and today we have talked on some common diseases.

Our teacher always helps us in every doubt we have and has explained specially well a grammar rule for distinguishing the conjugation between a regular and irregular verb. I couldn’t say which excercise has been the most helpful for me, because I consider that every exercise is important for improving my German, but maybe those relating to past and present perfect times and also those for conjugate regular and irregular verbs have helped me a lot.

Vienna is a city with so many interesting places for visiting that one month maybe could be not enough, but at least it is a good time for knowing the most important monuments and sights.

Although it doesn’t matter the season you arrive to Vienna, because, as I explained before we always find activities to do along the year, it is good to visit first the main churches and monuments. As Vienna has an excellent public transportation you can get the subway or the tram for reaching these places. The majority are in the down town, in the center of the city.

The first one, the symbol of the city, St. Stephan Cathedral, which is one of the most important religious gothic monuments in Europe and is located in the square of the same name, Stephansplatz. From here, you can start your journey to other monuments and places, depending on your time in Vienna.

On a good Sunday and if you like walking, going through Graben, the shopping avenue, and taking  Kohlmarkt, you arrive at the Imperial Palace (Hofburg). Its main entrance, called Michaelertor, was built at the end of the nineteen century.You cannot miss of knowing the imperial rooms, the Sizi Museum and the Treasure Chamber, which have most of the imperial history of the Habsburg Emperors. These museums are enough for one day.

The following days you can continue your travel through the Heldenplatz (Heroes Square) and the New Imperial Palace, visiting the National Library and the Ethnology Museum. From this place you arrive to the most famous avenue since the imperial age, the Ring. If you are not tired and have enough time, you can visit the „Twins Museums“, the Museum of Natural History and The National Museum of Art, which has the fourth most important painture gallery in the world. Between them, there is the monument to Maria Theresa Empress. From there you can reach in some minutes to the Opera, one of the most famous buildings in the world.

The other famous places are the St. Charles Church, some minutes from the Opera, the most important Baroque Church of Vienna, and from there you can take the tram D to visiting other treasure: the Belvedere Palace, built for Eugene Prince, where you find other interesting galleries and of course its fabulous gardens. These treasures deserve one day at least for visiting.

Other weekend you can use it for going to the famous Summer Palace: the Schönbrunn, the Yellow Palace of Maria Theresa, which deserves at least one day for visiting its enormous gardens, museums and zoo. Finally you can take other weekend for going to the Town Hall (Rathaus),  with its neo-gothic style, the Parlament, (helenistic style), representing the democracy, although it was built during the imperial time, the Burgtheater and the University.

On the weekdays, you always will find places and typical restaurants to visit, particularly in down town. While you traverse the narrow streets in the center,  don’t forget to attend some famous art galleries I mentioned some days ago: Albertina, Liechestien and Leopold Museums, very famous around the world for their fantastic art treasures, from the Middle Ages to the Modern.

As I told before, one month is not enough, but if you are anxious to know more places and if the wheater is good, you can enjoy in the Danube Island, the Prater Park and the Stadt Park, the most known places for sports and relaxing time.

Vienna

Vienna is a city where we have many facilities for all kinds of sports, particularly cycling, walking and jogging, due to the great quantity of parks and green spaces we find along the city, even during winter time. I haven’t seen so many cycles as in Vienna in my life.

I like walking in Stadt Park and Botanic Garden. During weekends, I like to go to Heurigers (typical restaurants outside the city) with my family and walking, when weather allows, in many places as Prater park, which is very big and interesting. I like also Donauinsel, (a beautiful island in the Danube River) where we can do many sports outside. During summer, people can even swim.

At home, I prefer to do yoga, particularly during weekdays, due I don’t have enough time because I am studying very hard in DeutschAkademie. During leisure time, I also like to go shopping, although we don’t have many commercial centers near my home. I live in third District, in the heart of the city.

Yesterday was my eigth day in Deutsch Akademie and I was really excited because I learned a lot.

Until now, I have acquired more vocabulary, which includes more pronouns, nouns and adjectives. Regarding Grammar, I am able to build complete sentences, because we know more verbs and their conjugation. Now, I can distinguish the correct time of the verbs and I am improving my writing. It is incredible that I can talk more than when I came the first day, beacause we make many interactive dialogues and group activities.

In Grammar, I also know more about prepositions and adverbs. My listening also has been improved because I can understand more when my teacher and my class mates speak. Yeserday we learned to build more complete sentences with subjects, nouns, verbs, adjectives and complements.

I am very happy about my progress in German. I think that, although I have a lot of work learning in the mornings and doing homeworks in the afternoons, this was the quick and best way for advancing in the learning of this difficult language.

Vienna is a city where you never get bored, because in all the seasons there are different cultural and musical events for enjoying.

In  autumn and winter, if you don’t like to be outside because the cold, you can visit a great amount of galleries of art, full of permanent and temporal exhibitions, which show the history of art since the Middle Ages until the modern times. For example,  last autumn, I visited Albertina for looking an exhibition of the genious Vincent Van Gogh and the Secession Museum with the enormous murals from Gustav Klimt, the Viennese precursor in the modern art. I really prefer the modern art, although the Middle Ages Art also is very interesting for me. You can also find a great quantity of this last art in churches and statues along the city. I hope to visit next autumn the Museum of History of Art and the Museum of Natural History, both located in the Ring, because I only could visit their buildings outside. Between them, there is a monument in memory of the Emperor Maria Theresa.

You cannot miss of visiting Museums Quartier, which is one of the 10 most important museums in the world, which have art of all the ages and siecles. Also the Leopold and Liechenstein Museums have interesting permanent and temporal exhibitions during all the year.

Since Vienna is the city of the music, it is easy to attend to classic and modern concerts all the year. Last winter, I could attend the concert of the famous Singer Children of Vienna in the ancient Chapel of the Imperial Palace (Hofburg) and other concert of Mozart and Strauss music, which included ballet and opera in the Imperial Summer Palace (Schönbrunn). These concerts are played all the year in convenient hours, so a busy tourist, who is visiting the city in a short time, can get a place for enjoying.

In summer, you cannot miss the Annual Movies Festival in the Rathaus (Town Hall). You can eat and drink before the exhibition of famous pictures and videos. I couldn’t attend it because I went outside Vienna with my family, for visiting various regions of Austria by car. This is another chapter of my stay in Austria that I prefer to detail it in other day.

For the lovers of opera and theater, there are many possibilities too. I don’t have time to detail them but you really will enjoy them.

And for the fanatic of pop music, there are rock and modern music concerts all the year in Rathaus (Town Hall) or in Schönbrunn. Next october it will be a mega concert in memory of Michael Jackson in Schönbrunn Palace. I am not sure if I will get a ticket for the concert, but if not, I can go to other cultural activities that are programmed for next autum and winter.

It is difficult to choose which place to go with so many posibilities, isn’t it?

This is the sixth day in Deutsch Akademie and I am really happy because we met a new colleague in the Course. She is from Spain.  My other colleagues, who started the Course with me the last week, are  also from different countries and regions from the world. I will detail them by alphabetical order: Canada, Ecuador (me, sorry for writing first), Hungary, Italy, Japan, Slovenia and the United States. I could say that the female gender is imposed in the Course, due the majority (now six from nine) are women. Sorry boys!

When we made our presentation the first day, I could discover that despite the fact that we come from different countries and we have different interests and ages, all of us are learning German for integrating to the Austrian society, for studying school or University or for working.

It has been a new experience for me to meet people from different backgrounds. I am really surprised to notice that I am not shy  as I believed it and that I can make friends who have the same goals in the life and that are anxious to learn German.