The End

So I got home yesterday after a transatlantic flight and a delay in Toronto.  I'm finally posting the final post that I had drafted while in Vienna, but I have added some things to it.  The original post that I had drafted is the section in the middle in quotation marks.  It's so crazy to think about how much I have done over the past ten weeks and how quickly time has passed...

"The time has come.  It is my last day in Vienna.  Our recital went great, classes are over (they went really well too), and now the only thing left to do is hang out and eat pastries!  Oh and maybe pack.  Do you see a nice symmetry to this blog?  At some point I will upload a video of the final recital.  Probably when I get home.  The internet here is too slow and my upload keeps crashing.  But Shannon and I played a wonderful rendition of Movements I and II from Franz Krommer's Concerto for Two Clarinets No. 1, Op. 35.

Note: Since being home, I have uploaded said video.  Here it is!

For my last blog post here in Vienna, though, I have decided to lovingly steal a format from Elizabeth Shribman (Thanks Elizabeth!).  I want to take a few minutes to reflect on the past three months that I have spent here in Vienna, and here is what I have come up with to present that reflection.

Top 10 Things to which I am looking forward when I get home (in no particular order):

1) Seeing my family

2) Significantly less smoking

3) Not having to carry my clarinets everywhere with me

4) The use of vegetables in cooking

5) Not having to take public transportation everywhere (a car once in a while would be nice, especially when you're carrying tons of stuff)

6) Not having to share a bathroom with six other people

7) Having someone to cook for me (hi mom!)

8) Being given tap water in restaurants without having to order it and be glared at
9) Not having to convert prices in my head from euros to dollars and then think about how expensive everything is since the dollar is weak

10) Sharing my experiences and photos with my family and friends

Top 10 Favorite Moments/Things (in no particular order):

1) Seeing some amazing concerts in the best concert halls in the world

2) Taking lessons with an amazing clarinetist who became a mentor to me in more ways than simply clarinet playing.

3) Visiting the countries behind the Iron Curtain and seeing first hand what the ramifications of communism are

4) the abundance of two euro coins.  those are wonderful little buggers.

5) Gelato and pastries

6) Hanging out all the time with the close-knit group of musicians who were on this FSP (and, by extension, time just to sit on the terrace, playing guitar, singing along)

7) Being able to order a glass of wine with dinner

8) Juice gespritz drinks

9) Being able to take public transportation anywhere

10) Sitting in a koffeehaus for however long you want to without being glared at"

And now I am going to augment this post with a few final photos, many of them pictures of my everyday life in Vienna that I never bothered to upload until the end.

This is the metro in Budapest - Budapest boasts the first metro system in Europe, and clearly it hasn't been updated since then....

The guys at the farewell dinner.

Schönbrunn lit up for the Wiener Philharmoniker sommernachtskonzert, which I unfortunately missed by like 15 minutes...

Margaretengürtel - my U-Bahn stop

The Straßenbahn

Entrance into my flat - apartment 18 on the 5th floor

My room!

Grocery store

Vegetables at the naschmarkt

Our würstel (sausage) stand

The Wiener Staatsoper

The main entrance to IES Vienna

Inside Café Hawelka - my favorite cafe - this was the first picture, taken with a flash

And this was the second picture, taken without a flash.  Note my new friends!

The opera toilet inside Karlsplatz U-Bahn station.  If you ever forgot the Blue Danube Waltz, all you had to do was walk past the opera toilet where it was playing essentially 24/7.  I never could bring myself to shell out the 50 cents to use it, though...

Last but certainly not least, Stephansdom cathedral in the dead center of Vienna

And this, I believe, brings my European adventure to a close!  I had such an amazing time and am looking forward to the day when I get back to Vienna and to some of the other cities I visited.  But now it's back to Dartmouth for Sophomore summer.  Thanks for reading.  Auf wiedersehen!