We have survived day one!

Greetings from Vienna- We have officially survived our first full day in Europe, and what a day it was! The flight was as good as can be expected, and I am grateful for the overnight trip since it has helped with some of the jet lag. The hotel is nice, my room is roughly the size of my parents walk in closet, but it is plenty of space for one person. Today we spent a lot of time "getting there", as in we were never lost, but we took some scenic routes. ("Seriously? That has to be the same flower bed we have walked past three times already"). Today we visited the Vienna Opera House, the Kunsthistorisches Museum, and attended a concert featuring works by Mozart- a very full 15 hour day with lots of walking all over the city. The weather was absolutely perfect and the rain cooperated with us, yay! The students are great and have really impressed me with their interest in their coursework. I will close with some of my random observations so far from the trip-

1. German is a hard language to put onto a map since so many place names are so long

2. Going to a classical music concert at the end of a long day can be a real test of your ability to stay awake- especially if you normally listen to classical music when you are trying to sleep

3. Rembrandt had a bit of a Narcissism complex and painted 60 self portraits

4. Randomly breaking into songs from the Sound of Music is absolutely, positively unavoidable for 25% of our group when walking around Austria. The other 75% wish that it was avoidable.

5. Everything in Europe was built before America was even established as a country, which forces me to think of the USA as a bratty kid sister telling the older kids what to do. (and trust me, I know that bratty kid sister role well, don't I Jennifer?)

(P.S. If anyone can tell me how to change the navigation on my blogspot back to English from German- that would be great!)