CHRISTMAS???

20 November Wednesday

When I woke up this morning at 10, Caelyn was gone!  So I got ready alone, and made a little egg with chocolate milk and a roll.  Turns out she was out "exploring" the area..!  I saw her again at the Minert's for lunch at 12:30.  Since I was alone I decided to snap some photos of the U-Bahn...a while ago Haley posted some B&W photos of the U-Bahn to her blog and it was wonderful to look at.  I love that she takes pictures of strangers...I get too scared.  Anyways, it was very nice to look at, much better than in color for some reason!  So mine ended up in B&W too because of Haley's good eye.

I pass the dog park when I go this way.  Haha.

and this beautiful block of art.

We ate lunch, then had our religion class.  We had a QUIZ...which we were all scared of, even though he told us what was going to be on it before.  Six prompts about the challenges the church  has in Austria/Germany today.  He only gave us time to maybe answer one or two!  But he said he wouldn't grade them hard...he would "assume the detail for all six what we wrote on one."  So that's good.

THEN we had a guest come in and talk to us.  He used to be a driver of one of the street cars!  For most of his life!  He is retired now.  He only spoke German, but told us stories, translated by Brother Minert, about crazy things happening on the street car.  He gave us all stickers and ads that are always on the street cars!  Hahaha!!  These are so great, we literally see them every single day.  I can't wait to hang them up in my room next to my Van Gough and Schiele prints.

For our "experiencing Vienna" "class", we went to the Kunst Historiches Museum.  Outside the museum was a Christmas market being set up!!!!!!!!  AHHH.  In the museum we saw a Vermeer and some Rembrandt and a bunch of Rubens.

Haley, Amy, Stephanie, Monika and I wandered through some Christmas markets!  OH MY GOSH.  I was dying.  The smell of donuts and scones and cinnamon roasted almonds...seeing candy canes and ornaments and hearing a choir singing ENGLISH Christmas songs was TOO MUCH FOR ME!!!  I love Christmas!!!!  These markets run every single day until New Years.  How did I get so lucky.  Hahahaha.  They are all OVER the place.  We went to two...one by the museums, and one by the Rathause.  Oh brother....so many ornaments!!   I want to bring a collection home.  I took pictures of my favorites, but didn't buy any...I'll only buy some after I've seen everything!!!

gonna come back for one of these...probably that colorful painted tree in the upper right

gonna come back for at least one of these beautiful orbs

first sights of nativity sets...! I love the simple solid figure of the three

at the Rathause

the most deceiving things!! These are freaking marshmallows NOT ice cream

GIANT creme/chocolate/vanilla/plum/apricot - filled donuts

I headed home at 6:40.  So the stop we get off on the purple line is called Schottenring (where I was earlier today, too).  The stop is literally UNDER the canal!!!  The first time we used this stop, we came up at Herminegasse instead of the one on the west side of the canal...and we were SO CONFUSED at how one stop could take you to both sides...well it does.  Public transportation, man.

DINNER TONIGHT!  Celery soup...she said she has a pressure cooker that she puts the celery in, the whole thing, with water....and then she blends it up and adds some cream.  Easy enough!!!!  It was delicious.  Then we had....schinkenflinkerln...ham and noodle casserole pretty much, and it was yummmmy.  I was hungry!  Salad also, then ice creams for dessert.

Good news for Jan (and me) - I finally was able to ask her where she got the material for the table cloth.  It was confusing because she was calling the fabric "Stoff" which means fabric...but whenever I said fabric she said "no, no"...so it was just getting really confusing.   We had to search the word Stoff after dinner.  Anyways she gave me the name of the place!  So I can go find it now and see what kind of shop it is....she may have gotten these fabrics years and years ago but I'm going to go see!  Probably next week.

Christmas cactus at the end....only blooms in the winter.