First 2 Days After Arrival!

I arrived safely and about 45 minutes early! Unheard of. Martin Nedbal, an Eastman doctoral student, living in Vienna this year, picked me up and helped me find my way through the with my massive amount of gear. Martin, who was also my music history TA 2 years ago, is a native of the Czech Republik, so he grew up very near to the city, and seems to know it fairly well.

It was quite the adventure finding my building. The means of transportation in the process of picking up my key and finding the building consisted of an airport train, several subways, about 5 streetcars, and a good deal of walking. I don't know what I would have done without Martin there to help me. We celebrated afterwards with a delicious, greasy lunch of sausage wrapped in bacon. mmmm...

My room is beautiful! It is in flat with two other guys (neither of which speak German, and limited English). One is from France, and the other is from Japan. Both seem very nice, though I havn't had too much time to see and talk them. I have a beautiful view out my window, and can actually see a glimpse of the Prater Park, which consists of a large city park area, and also and amusement park. The plan is, I will only be in this building for the remainder of September. I then move to another building in a different neighborhood for the rest of the semester. This was the view out of my window at 6:30 am this beautiful jet-lagged morning.


Joyce arrived yesterday. She is the other Eastman student in the same program as me. It will definitely be nice to have another Eastmanite her, despite her living on the complete opposite side of the city.

I had an amazing Austrian pork roast dinner last night with Indi, one of my new friends from the bass studio. I met Indi through one of my other Eastman friends, Bobby, with whom she went to highschool at Interlochen with. En route, I caught my first glimpse of the Opera House...where I may be going tonight. I'm certain there will be more stories soon!