August 9

We didn’t have class today because it was Saturday. Jennifer, Stephanie, and I wanted to go to one of the museums that we are required to go visit so we could cross it off our list of things to do. We decided to go to the Haus der Musik. This museum was different from all of the previous ones we have been to. It was divided into 4 separate floors, which each held different types of exhibits. The first floor focused on the history of Vienna’s Philharmonic. The second floor consisted of many interactive exhibits on sound waves, hearing, and other such things dealing with how we hear and interpret music. I liked this floor because it was fun and it reminded me of a museum in Philadelphia that I used to go to as a kid called the Franklin Institute. I especially liked the room that allowed you to make interesting and bizarre music by pressing a series of buttons that each played a different sound. The third floor was the most educational though, because this was where all of the exhibits on the important musicians and composers were on display. The exhibits on Mozart and Beethoven were especially interesting because of the many artifacts that were included. I also liked the display that allowed us to listen to how Beethoven progressively lost his hearing. This floor also had exhibits which focused on the Viennese Classical Period of music, which lasted from 1780 to 1830. This period was headed by Mozart, Beethoven, and Joseph Haydyn. Even though many of my fellow classmates didn’t enjoy the Haus der Musik, I enjoyed it because I liked the music that they played there. I am not particularly into classical music, but I listened to some of the CD’s that were on display on the first and second floors, and I especially liked the CD by Stefan Obermeier called Beethoven Reloaded. The CD was a remix on some of Beethoven’s compositions. I think that I am going to buy it when I get back to the U.S. because it was too expensive in the museum’s gift shop. Anyway, that night I went out again with Stephanie and Jennifer to city hall (Rathaus) to hang out and watch the concert playing on the big screen in front of it. I think that it is awesome that they play concerts and operas on the big screen every night. It is a really great place to hang out and have fun in the city at night, especially because there are many different types of restaurants set up right behind the movie screen area. I especially liked that the Rathaus is all lit up after the concert is over. I took many pictures of this beautiful sight. Before we went to city hall though, we walked around a bit to see what else was around, and we ended up going to see Votivkirche. I had seen the neo-Gothic church while on the bus tour with Dr. O, but I wanted to get a closer look at it. Renovations were being done to the church, but I still took many pictures of this beautiful church that was built on the Ringstrasse at the site of the attempted assassination of Franz Joseph. Ferdinand, Franz Joseph’s brother, ordered the church to be built as a monument to his brother. The first time I saw the church I mistook it for Stephansdom, but I realized that it wasn’t after I visited the much larger and older church in the middle of Stephansplatz .
The German word of the day is Krieg, which means “war”.