I've been in Vienna for 2 months!!

So it had been a while since I have written some thoughts down on this blog. First here are some highlights in the life of Hillary this past week…
• We started our Art History class, with Professor Katie Isaac. Our architecture class is over with Prof. McFarland, and for the month of July a BYU professor and her family have flown out to teach us Art History. I have never taken an Art History class before so I am excited about it. So far, we have had three lectures in her apartment, with a slide show of art pieces and she talked about the history of them, then on Thursday we went to the Kunsthistorisches (Art History) Museum, where the original paintings actually are!!! It was pretty neat to see the actual works, and I must say it is so much more awesome to have a class where we are looking at actual paintings, way better than sitting in a classroom everyday!!! I am going to miss this! Nothing can top this!
• One day in our art class, there was a really loud, intense thunderstorm!! The weather has been pretty nice, well it would be nice in the morning and then rain really hard for a little while, then it would clear up and be sunny again! It is really niche though, and I love the rain!
• I really enjoy getting on a random Strassenbahn (streetcar) and just riding and looking around the city. The other day I went almost to the end of track, and I saw part of the city I have not seen yet. It is just a fun time to see what is outside and surrounding the city.
• As far as the language goes, I LOVE the German language even more every day!!!! I feel like I have really taken a turn, and I speak it way more often and I am gaining confidence with the language. I am definitely not fluent, and it is still hard for me to pronounce my ‘r’ (in the back of my throat), but it has gotten much better! I am so grateful that I will be living in the German house when I get back because I think I would go crazy if I couldn’t speak it with someone everyday! I also have been reading some out of Das Buch Mormon, which is also another great way to increase my vocabulary.
• I also love my ward! This past Sunday, the 12th of July, I realized that we only have three more Sundays in our ward, then we will be traveling around for two weeks, and then the program will be over! Wow time is flying by so fast! The people in our ward are so kind, and it is so awesome to hear the gospel auf Deutsch! It is so beautiful! The missionaries are also really awesome! The sisters both gave talks in church on Sunday, and one has only been out for almost three months, and she just opens her mouth, and even though her German is not perfect, she just does an amazing job, and she is such an example to me. I need to just open my mouth an help those around me!!!!
• A couple cool little incidences… one day I was eating pizza by myself, and I was just leaning against a fence in the middle of the city, and a man came up to me and asked if there was a pizzaria near by, and my response just flowed form my mouth. It was of course all in German, and he could understand me, and I was so excited!!! And today, I had walked out of the U-bahn station, and a lady came up to me asking for directions, and although I couldn’t understand every word, I was able to help her all auf Deutsch!!! It is so exciting too to know that I have been here long enough in this city to know my way around! And about the first month I was here, when I would order something, it would be really broken German, and I was very hesitant, but it has since gotten so much better!! I am so grateful for that!!
• We also have really great German teachers this term! One of the teachers is the same as last term, and he is still great, but our second teacher is really great! He said the first day of class that we will learn in his class, and that we will have better German by the end of the five weeks that we will be with him. I was very impressed, and excited because he has a great plan for the course of our class, and he has been really helpful with different strategies of teaching to help us improve. We have already written two papers in German for his class. I know I will continue to learn in these next three weeks!!