It's Settled

Annie is the reason we went to Vienna. She wants to look into the University of Vienna for her college years, and living in Vienna some day is a main motivator for her to learn German right now in middle school. It positively amazes me that her seventh grade is in German and Italian, and that she is doing so well. She often does better than the majority of her classmates on tests and assignments, even the ones in German! She has been studying it for 8 months, while many of them have been studying in German at this school since Kindergarten. Way to go, Annie! 

As she and I explored the city center on the first day of our trip, she "Ooooo!"-ed and "Aaaaaaaah!"-ed the whole way through. Finally she announced, "It's settled. I am going to live here someday." 

Every day, Annie and I walked past the College of Applied Arts, where she recognized Athena Parthenos and explained all the imagery to me, including the Nike in Athena's hand, the rod and the owl. 

Annie, Sebo, Clare and I had enormous Wiener Schnitzels, and the penny dropped for Annie when she realized the "Wiener" means "Viennese." Meanwhile, Clare went nuts over the rolls. I think Clare had two plates of goulash and as many rolls as they'd serve us. Hilarious. 

Their version of frizzante or sparkling water is "prickelnd." That seemed so funny to us. Prickly water.

A couple asked us to take their picture. Annie understood their German and answered back in German without hesitation. When they walked away, she turned to me with tears in her eyes and said, "I can speak German!" It was one of those moments for both of us that you wouldn't give anything for. 

Here is Annie doing an impersonation of one of the really sweet girls in her class. Super cute. Annie gave me a lengthy description of her classmates, whom on the whole she adores. I also set out to memorize the names of all her teachers and what subjects they teach. She has more teachers than the average 7th grader, because many of her subjects she has in both German and again in Italian, with different teachers. While Italian schools get out around 1:45pm, Annie gets out at 4:05pm. She is in an intense prep school and she really pays the price. It's a lot of work. I am very proud of her! What a smartie! 

Isn't Annie awesome? Yes. It's settled.