What? The semster is almost over?

Hey Everyone!

Every semester I am amazed at how fast time goes by and before you know it, you are taking finals and getting everything ready for the next semester. I have a lot to do, but at the same time, the work load is considerably less here. There is just more pressure to do well on the things you do have because for most classes you have a midterm, final, and a term paper and those three things are what determine your grade. But its good because then it gives me time to go see the sights and do all of those cool things.

Speaking of awesome weekends, Natalie was here in Vienna last weekend and it was the most fun that I have had in Vienna yet! She ended up being up for a total of 24 hours on Friday, which I felt bad about, but we had a great time! We ate a lot of good food such as kaesekrainers, kebap, pizza, and wonderful wiener schnitzel! I am going to see her next weekend in London and I am pretty excited about that! We went and saw some of the sights and went to the Sound of Music at the Volkoper, which was a lot of fun! It was all in German, so it was interesting to hear how they translated the songs in German. For example, the chorus "These are a few of my favorite things" was translated as "Die sind die Dinge dass ich gerne mag," which made me pretty happy. The crowd got really into the performance which was cool. Overall it was just a wonderful weekend of good food, good sights, and wonderful company! I can't wait to go to London!

Overall life has been pretty good here lately. Yesterday my roommate and I went to the Merkur, which is basically like your typical American supermarket, but they had so much food there, it was great! I bought some Kaesekrainers there, which are basically cheese filled hotdogs. They are awesome! You can get them at imbisses around the street, but now I can make them at home. I made two of them yesterday, and they were delicious! I do love the food over here, and the chocolate isn't that bad either:)

I'm working in the library all day today, which is nice because then I can get a bunch of emails written and catch up on all of that kind of stuff that I never seem to have time to do during the week. I am probably going to some Christmas markets after work so that should be exciting! Natalie and I went to the one in front of the Rathaus on the first day it opened and it was so cool! I bought a cd there of the Vienna Boys Choir, which I definitely want to get to sometime while I am here. They have amazing deserts there, apfel strudel, and anything and everything that you can imagine! They also have a good drink called gluehe wein, which is basically like hot, spiced wine. It makes me pretty happy. Then they have all the little shops filled with little trinkets and such. Its just overall a good time.

Well, I hope this finds everyone well and I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving. We are having our own Thanksgiving on Thursday night with everyone from IES, where we go to a heurige, and have lots and lots of food. It should be a good time:)

Till later,
Amanda