Vienna - city of music! The past two weeks have been spent settling in, collecting various official residence documents, applying for a Residence Permit, getting an Austrian cell (now THAT was a process - so many options here!), and getting to know my new city. I've also been taking a German course in the mornings, which has been both fun and informative.
I had a visit yesterday from my pal Simon, who was here on a choir trip (they won 1st place in their category at the SCL Youth Music Festival!!). It was great to hang out with a fellow Canadian for an afternoon.
I spent the afternoon applying for my Residence Permit. I was nervous that my documents wouldn't be valid, or that I would have to get them all translated into German ($$$$) or that there would be some other Beurocratic hoops to jump, but it turns out I was over-prepared. One thing I did discover though, is that even though I've applied early for my Residence permit, it will not be valid until my first day of classes (October 1), which means that I will over-stay my 90-day tourist visa by 8 days. So I have to leave the Schengen Zone (most of the countries in Europe) for 8 days sometime between now and October 1. That's a bit of a pain. But the good news is that I have a spare week between the end of my au-pair job and the start of the Registration period at MDW. So I might pop up to the UK to visit Liz.