{day thirteen}

this morning around 2 am i woke up, sitting on the toilet. so... i guess i'm a sleepwalker? after recognizing where i was i stumbled back to my room super disoriented and as soon as i stepped foot in my room this black hairball hissed at me and darted passed me out the door! tschina the nasty scared the bajeezies out of me. she's not allowed in our room.but luckily it didn't jazz me up too much and i fell back asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

well, don't worry. it's finally starting to get really cold here. so we've been forced to turn to alternatives so we can avoid being outside at all costs. today we had german and i had to read something out of the book in front of the class. most embarrassing moment of my life! (almost) if you want to have a preview of how i sounded, feel free to listen here. after german we set off for vindobona! vindobona is old vienna when the romans lived here, and there is a museum full of roman ruins. it was awesome and i learned a lot about their early civilization here in vienna. 

me being a good student.

this was under the floors of roman houses. they would pipe heat through the spaces to warm the floor. they also had walls with "pipes" they would send hot air in to accomplish the same thing. so it was kind of like living in a toaster! and this weather, a toaster doesn't seem too bad.

the roman toys in the museum!

*so, as i told you it's been getting really cold here. 2 reasons i remind you of this:

1. i finally resorted to wearing my man sweater from goodwill in public. 

2. you never want to get out of your warm bed in the morning so you keep pushing the snooze button until you realize you have 10 minutes till you have to leave and have to choose between breakfast and shower... i choose breakfast. 

this is a comparison of what the romans used to what we use now a days! pretty incredible... but i think we're a little more intelligent in the q-tip industry. 

the cold has also forced me to resort to shrouding myself in my scarves to protect from windburn/frostbite. 

i though this was a cool shot. i also found that the tree in the cemetery isn't the only one living! alas, there is another. see that ugly tower with the cool shadow on it? the man who built it had a very nagging wife. now this nagging wife had some sort of ailment where walking up the stairs was a struggle for her. so naturally, to avoid any unnecessary nagging, this man built the tallest ugliest building in vienna so when his wife started to get on his nerves he could climb the very top where his office was, hike up the ladder and pull in up and shut the "trap door" and be free from his wives nagging for as long as he pleased!

true story.

ruprechtskirche

me&alexa

i've been here before, but we came after the vindobona ruins museum as a class to hopefully get inside, but it was closed again! someday i will be inside. after we took some pictures, it was about noon. we were in luck because just around the corner was the famous anker clock. every day at noon, this clock plays music while famous people in austrian history slide across the front to the music that represents them best. it was really cool, but the coldest day of my life! i took a video, but it was 10 minutes and i figured... no one would want to spend 10 minutes hearing me complain about how cold my hands were.

here's the clock! you can kind of see how it works.

they kinda like alcohol here in vienna.

after the clock, me and alexa went on a treasure hunt, and we succeeded! we were on the lookout for an antique bookstore. unfortunately, on the way we ran into this not-so-treasurey treasure. 

this lady is always hanging out outside a store we walk by every time and startles me EVERY TIME. finally i decided to join the crowd and take my picture with her.

if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. 

we found a shakespeare bookstore, and i bought a vienna, prague, and budapest guide book! i'm so excited. but then the real treasures came. we walked into this obscure bookstore on our way home and found books all the way back from the 18th century! 

this book was published in 1805, isn't that incredible? after an hour or so exploring the assortment of books, me and alexa came back to my house to relax and unthaw before we had yet another choir rehearsal. i ended up falling asleep for two hours (yeah i know, naps in vienna=lame) and then we went and got pizza before rehearsal. we were running a little tight on time so when we finally got our pizza, it was when we should have been leaving to catch the u-bahn! i've never eaten pizza that fast, i didn't even get to enjoy it. i was kind of glad to leave though, the restaurant was full of cigarette smoke. but mostly to avoid the mean waiter who made me order mineral water. :(

luckily we made it to choir and it was in the coolest place ever!! it was like what you picture to be when you've never been here: cobblestone roads, old houses, lamps, and statues. it was so cute! and the choir was mostly old people, but i was fun. i think that's the one we're going to perform with and i can't wait!