Emily's Exploits

Bowing and Being Graceful Me and Laura Ladies on the Steps Red Carpet Action One Entrance to the Hofburg Posing... Candid Shot- Ty and Me

On Friday we have no class. So naturally, I wake up around noon-ish to get a good start on the day. This particular morning (February 27th) I was planning on doing a walking tour of Vienna, seeing some sights... you know, the usual. But it was Carli's birthday so we went to our favorite Shottenring Cafe for lunch! I met up with them around 1:30. Laura, Carli, Joseph and I were there talking about spy and mafia conspiracy theories, how great it would be if somebody could just choose our food for us (which the Schottenring cafe graciously did- they brought us fish and soup without us ordering it!) birthdays, friends, and family when Joseph asks:  "Do you guys want to go to Bratislava ?" We all look at each other with mischievous grins and say YES! It's an hour train ride to Bratislava from Vienna (Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia) and we called Elisabeth - she said it was a 12 euro train ticket, so we were TOTALLY on board.  I was wearing a skirt, boots, gloves, no...

Click on the Photos for a bigger picture! AMAZING! I'm talking to Jared, another one of the musicians I danced with. Bernhardt: One of my dancing partners. He plays the violin and studies math. Me, looking up at Mattias, utterly in awe of his musical genius. Britain, Laura and I were all quite taken by the charm of these Austrians! ;) My Friend Elisabeth caught this candidly as we were dancing- just so you can see a full shot of my dress- and the shoes that I bought! I also love the chandelier in the background. From Left to Right: Naomi, Rebekah, Me, Carli Isn't it gorgeous???

THE BALL: A SAGA IN FOUR PARTS PROLOGUE: ONCE UPON A TIME On the evening of Tuesday February 24th 2009, Emily May Bateman attended her first ball.  That's right. A ball.  But not just any ball. This was the Elmayer-Kranzchen Ball in the Imperial Hofburg Palace. Elmayer is the name of the most prestigious dancing school in all of Austria. Dancers from this company performed a number of pieces for us during the evening. But I'm getting WAY ahead of myself. Let me take you back a ways, and this will all start to make sense (name that movie).  PART I: FAIRY GODMOTHERS The month of February is "Ball Season" in Vienna. There are balls in every major city building: the Rathaus, Hofburg, Staatsoper, Belvedere, you name it. We were lucky enough to be here during this festive time of Austrian tradition.  When the question was raised of going to a ball, I decided I didn't want to go. I had no formal dress and I felt like it would be a waste of my time. So for the week while...

I realized just now that I write A LOT of blog entries. But it's just because I have stuff happen to me that is amazing!  Yesterday I went shopping with Naomi (neither of us ended up buying anything)- and we were on the hunt for a good deal, or a good HAT! And we found the most charming hat shop with hats of all shapes and sizes. I didn't take many pictures because I was too busy admiring the fur ones, and looking for one that resembles Britain's cap- but suffice it to say that we will be going again just to look at it. The shop is called Oberwald and it's on Kartnerstrasse- and many hats are hand made! Definitely a shop to visit if you come to Vienna. (Mom, Grandma and Julie, WINK WINK!) Then we went to the Staatsoper with Becky to see Giselle  (click for a quick video), a ballet (apparently it is the ballet of all ballets- Giselle is a highly sought after role that takes a lot of skill)! I have never seen a ballet other than the Nutcracker, so it was great to see some...

There is simply not enought time to document all of the exciting things that happen to me while I'm in Vienna. However, the more significant things that happen make me feel like a rockstar, and MUST be blogged about. Last night I attended the dress rehearsal of Theater an der Wien's production of Partenope , an obscure Handel opera (The Messiah guy). Just click on the link above to see some production photos. This show was nuts! GOOD NUTS! They moved everything to present day- making the queen a wealthy woman who does yoga, goes swimming by the pool, hosts lavish parties, has a personal trainer, and has many love affairs in the meantime. The music was exquisite. This was some of the best singing I've heard in Vienna since I've been here. Christine Schafer, soprano, starred as the title role, David Daniels, one of the leading counter-tenors in the world was also in it (a counter-tenor is a man who has trained his voice to be able to sing entirely in falsetto- so he almos...

The city of Vienna has a fabulous public transportation system. In order to get around, one can take the bus, Strassenbahn (street car), U-bahn (subway), the CAT (City Airport Train), or the Schnellbahn (Schnell means fast).  To get to the Stake Center where we have voice lessons, for example, I take the U1 (red line) to Schwedenplatz from Karlsplatz, then I take the Strassenbahn 1 to Wittelsbachstrasse. Last night after eating another excellent dinner at the Schottenring cafe of chicken, vegetables, potatoes and (as always) Litungswasser (tap water... unless you ask for this type of water specifically, they will give it to you in a bottle and also charge you- and Vienna has GREAT tap water, so its not really a problem), Rebekah, Britain, Carli and I headed for Rebekah's house to relax and watch a movie (since we don't have class on Friday). [this was around 7 pm] We got on Strassenbahn 1 to Schottenring U-bahn station, transferred to U-4 (the green line) and headed to Ober St...

"Easy Cheesy!" -Ty... "Rebeker!" -Prof. Wassertheuer (our German professor) "I put my hamster in the washer. "Why???? "Because it was dirty"  - Prof. Wassertheuer (yes, he purposefully killed his hamster in the washer) "If it were not for ADD medication, I'd throw myself off of the top of Stephansdom" -Joseph "That's PROBABLY a good idea" -Rebekah, referring to Ty covering up his monstrous hat hair "You and I are the SAME person!" -Laura "Golly, eh?" - Naomi (she's Canadian- but we LOVE her for it!!) "Essen, hum hum" - Eva, Ty and Joseph's Hungarian house maid "Gelato IS food of the Gods. There is no higher tier." - Rebekah "All I heard was: Blah, blah, blah..." - Laura and Ty "I make a good girl, huh?" -Dr. Vincent, while batting his eyelashes "Life in Vienna is SOO difficult." - Carli "It was so tenderly marinated and moist t...

So much happens in the course of 12 hours. It's insane.  I woke up and ate breakfast with my host sister and her friend. It's nice to have people in the house again. Then I left the apartment to go on Walking Tour #3 around the City of Vienna. Keep in mind that today is possibly one of the coldest days that I've ever felt in Vienna. And not only is it cold, but the wind is biting while we walk around in the city searching for landmarks. Quite honestly, the city of Vienna itself is a museum. Every time you turn the corner you see a sign on a building that says "Mozart lived here from 17-- to 17--" or Beethoven, or Shumann.  CRAZY! One of my favorite places was the church of the Order of theTeutonic Knights- built in the 14th century or something- it had lots of crests of knights on the walls within it. Then there was a story about how Richard the Lionheart was crusading and on his way back to England he was captured and held ransom in Vienna, and the ransom money ...

Quite a few exciting things have happened to me in the past few days- let me try to recount them with some brevity.  CHURCH: On Sunday I attended the Vienna 1st Ward, which was entirely in German. I don't know about you, but 3 hours of listening to German can make you a little LOOPY. I thought it was hilarious- Sacrament meeting was last and all 10 of us were sitting together. It was fast and testimony meeting and so all these sweet Austrians were getting up to bear their testimonies. You could really feel the spirit, but we had just attended the opera the night before, so we were PLUMB tired.  I sat between Britain and Rebekah. Rebekah was giving Naomi a back scratch, and they were going vice versa, down the row from me, Joseph had completely fallen asleep. Amy was also asleep behind me. Britain was nodding off so I eventually just told her to put her head on my shoulder... and then from behind, Laura started giving me a back scratch... It was really just a sight to see all these ...

The paper size is weird. It is skinnier and longer than American 8 1/2 x 11, so some kids in our group bought folders that will actually hold their homework and things. Women wear ridiculously huge fur coats during the winter, and some big fur hats. But they do look mighty warm! When you walk on the street, people don't try to move or make way, or avoid you. Its up to YOU to move and get out of THEIR way. I suppose having lived in Provo for a while, I'm just not used to everybody bending over backwards to make me happy. haha jk. Everyone smokes. I'm sure my lungs will turn black by the time I leave. I hate to think that my clothes and other things are being engulfed in the smell of smoke. But sadly, I'm getting quite used to it. The showers are strange. Well, acutally- it's because of the water heating system. There aren't vast stores of warm water before you go in to take a shower, so often, you will be forced to hose yourself down with warm water, turn the wat...

Attending the Staatsoper's performance of  Un ballo en maschera  was an absolutely amazing experience.  First of all, I was in standing room ( Stehplatz) . It cost me 4 euro. You file in, and are very very close to one another. There are bars to rest your arms on if you get tired. There are tiny screens every other person, connected to the bar, on which subtitles are played (either in German or English).  There were two 15 minute  intermissions- between the first and second act, and between the second and third. It was really good they did that because I would have fallen down dead if I couldn't have sat on the ground!! Between acts the lead singers would come out for a curtain call! It was insane! And the audience was wonderful. There were lots of "Bravo"s when people really liked certain arias-- which is something I am not used to. And everyone paid very good attention to what was going on, and definitely, you could tell that the applause was sincere. My favorite ch...