The past 2 days were full of awesomeness! Friday was the last day of my intensive German class, and I was pretty sad. My instructor was such a good teacher, and the students in my class all really bonded together. We loved our class! I can understand some things that the Austrians are saying, and I feel very comfortable with getting around the city. I even talked to the waiter just a bit the other day. True, I got laughed at in my attempt to pronounce Entschuldigung, meaning I'm sorry, but wouldn't you have problems pronouncing a word with like 14 consonants put together? Yeah... I do my best! :)

After German class ended, the group went to the Schönbrunn Palace, where the emperor and royal family (including Maria Teresa) lived for centuries. My momma always taught me that money doesn't buy happiness, and that lesson takes human form with this family! They were SO messed up! Yes, this was the most incredible palace that I've seen, with hundreds of rooms and perfect gardens, but 1/2 of the family died of some dreaded disease, and the others were either crazy or anorexic. They did have some of the coolest hardwood floors that I've ever seen (again, mom.... you're influencing me all of the time!) After we went out into the gardens, we decided to run up the massive hill to get a bird's-eye view of Vienna, the gardens, and the palace. Even though I almost had a heart attack when we got to the top, it was definately the most spectacular view that I've had of the city so far. There were 8 girls and then Chad from New York, so we made Chad take pictures of us in "artistic" poses. He got tired of that really fast, but we got some great pics! :) Thanks, Chaddy!

Today was our last trip with the OK! Program. We took a 3-hour bus ride to Graz, the second largest city in Austria (next to Vienna). Graz was one of the only cities that Napoleon couldn't conquer. He tried three different times, and couldn't breach the mountain fortress, however, when he eventually took over the rest of the country, the Grazzians (I don't think that's what they are called, but it sounds good!) had to surrender. Napoleon blew up just about everything in the city, but the citizens bought the bell tower with all of the money they had left, and it still remains there today. We got a great view of the fortress gardens and bell tower when we hiked up possibly the steepest hill that I've ever walked up in my life. I seriously thought Patrick from Georgia was going to have to drag me up the rest of the way. I kept thinking that I was glad Coach Cress never took the soccer team here, because she'd have had a great time making us run sprints up this mountain (ah, the good old days of conditioning!). The view was incredible! We saw a very interesting art museum built like a blue kidney, some amazing gardens, the Arnold S. stadium, and the whole city.

Also, on the river that runs through Graz floats this concert hall and restaraunt. It is shaped like two halves of a ball placed beside eachother. The original designer wanted to put the ball completely under water, but didn't take into account the changes in water level, so he changed his design and made the ball halves float on top. Inside, the building is all blue and there are no straight lines in the design, to keep with the symbolic "flow" of the river. It was VERY cool.

Complete on the tour was another amazing meal. We had crepes soup, chicken salad, and tiramisu that was un-coffee tasting, so I really loved it! A+ on the food in Austria, let me just say!

Tomorrow, I think that I'm heading off to Croatia.... but I haven't completely decided yet. We shall see!