Vienna is for Singers

I'm so spoiled!!! 

This summer, as my last hurrah before I graduate from BYU forever

(yahooooo!! Comin atcha, world!)

I am going on another Study abroad in Europe,

this time to...

VIENNA, AUSTRIA!

When I tell people Vienna, the general response is,

Why are you learning German if you're going to Italy?

To them I say, No no no my darlings, Vienna is a musical hot spot in Austria--

With INCREDIBLE Operas and Orchestras,

and Kelly and I are going to take music lessons from some of the best!

Inside a Viennese Opera House

Did I mention Kelly is coming too?

We are going with BYU's School of Music,

she on cello, and I on classical voice (AKA Opera, let's be real:)

Kelly and her celly:)

It's headed up by BYU's trombone professor Will Kimball, a real swell guy.

We'll live with a cute Austrian family!

And make our way around Vienna as we need to for class and whatnot!:)

ANYWAY preparations are already weeeell under way for this event.

We've been studying German. We're still terrible at it.

I bought a new passport!! Since my last one was lost while I was in London

(What a GREAT story that is, I will have to tell you all about that!)

We still need to buy our plane tickets...oops...

But actually studies have shown the best time to buy a plane ticket to Europe

is 55 days in advance. In case you wanted to know.

Sigh. Such good times await us:)

I've already been told romantic tales

by Patients at the Physical Therapy clinic

and other friends,

about the waltzes held outdoor in the town square,

or in large extravagant ballrooms,

the Viennese Waltz

and of the chestnut trees lining the streets in full bloom.

Vienna has officially been listed as the #1 most liveable city for 2013,

doncha know??

If I find someone there to marry and get me citizenship,

I may never come back.

JK I love Utah too much:)

Also another SWEET part is that I have been hired to work while I am there!

But one can hardly call it work,

when it is going to be so fun and exciting!

I'm hired... wait for it... as a photographer!!

Me with my cam in front of Anne Hathaway's house (Shakespeare's Wife)

I'll be spending some time, entirely separate from the Study abroad,

working on a Research Grant with some of Brass players.

We'll of course spend most of our days right there in Vienna where we live,

but for one week we are planning to take off

to Budapest, Hungary

and then Prague, Czech Republic.

Basically, we are researching Brass iconography,

or in other words, taking pictures of paintings with brass instrument in old Churches,

to study how the instruments were held & perceived at different time periods,

and to interview people in the Churches,

who will definitely know more than we do.

An example of brass iconography

I'm way excited about it! 

It should be a fun project, rife with adventure.

It will also be nice to help earn back some of the money I'm spending to get there:)

Part of what I am supposed to catalogue for this project, however,

is not just the paintings, but the search itself.

The paintings won't be easy to find,

and we don't anticipate there will be very many of them,

so I am supposed to keep a detailed log of the entire adventure.

Which will be SAWEEEET!!

Brooke gets tired of Photographing adventures

As part of that I will SERIOUSLY this time, 

keep a weekly update of our work

on this blog rot hur! (hick accent for "right here")

Thanks for tuning in!