My Birthday and our farewell dinner

On Friday, August 29th, I turned 22! When I woke up a group of friends and I went out for a traditional American-style breakfast (none of this espresso and croissant business.) We found a restaraunt that serves breakfast all day long, offering scrambled eggs, omelets, french toast, and waffles on the menu. Since breakfast is my favorite meal of the day but the Viennese seem not so enthusiastic about it, I was excited to eat a nice big, proper breakfast! Afterwards, we headed over to Kahlenberg which is in the Vienna woods, near the foothills where the wine country is located. It took us about 30 minutes to get out there through public transportation, which took us out to the beautiful suburbs of Vienna filled with large houses and tree-lined streets. Once we got there we walked along the windy roads through the various vineyards, in search of wine gardens. We stumbled across several, and enjoyed lovely, locally grown wine while overlooking the entire city of Vienna, high up in the hills. Around three pm we headed back to the apartments to get ready for a fun night out. After resting and getting ready we all congregated in one room while preparing to go out. All of a sudden, a few people came out with a cake covered in lit candles, while singing me "Happy Birthday". Eventually we left the apartments and headed to a really cute Spanish restaraunt where we got a large table and ordered food and drinks. The restaraunt is near the Museums Quartier- right across the street from a local Beer garden (the one that serves hemp beer). After spending some time at the restaraunt, we headed across the street for some beer, and later on in the night finally headed home. I had a really fun birthday, and even though I've only known the people in this program for several weeks, I was blown away that everyone went out of their way to make my birthday fun and special.

The next day was our last day in Vienna. I spent most of the day cleaning, organizing, and working on blogs. Around 4 pm I left for the Prater which is the Viennese amusement park that has been around for over a century, and is a prominent aspect of Vienna for locals and tourists allike. We rode the Ferris Wheel as a class, and I enjoyed this final act of closure as we gazed out over the entire city and laughed about all the good times we enjoyed over the past month. After the ferris wheel, the entire class headed over to the downtown area where we ate at a fun, local restaraunt with traditional Austrian food. We shared even more laughs and stories, and it was overall a really fun, final night in Vienna. I headed home to get ready for the next day's travel by packing and getting a good night sleep.

Overall,I thoroughly enjoyed my study abroad experience in Vienna. I thought some highlights were the class field trips such as to the alps, and all the museums. To be honest, I was dissapointed that our class was cut short and we only got as far as the beginning of World War II in our historical studies. I am really intersted in the time period between the french revolution through the 21st century, and I was bummed out that we only got as far as the beginning of the 1940's, as a class. I am really glad that I chose this program, and I want to thank Kathy for a wonderful experience.