Okaz... we donät have much time, and we apologiye for the fact that all of our y's and z's are reversed. Europe is weird like that and we donät reallz have time to mess with the kezboard, which has a million extra kezs we swear. Anzwazs, we are currentlz in downtown Vienna. St. Stephens cathedral, the vienna opera house and Hofburg palace are literallz less than a 10 minute walk from us, in addition to several former living locations of Moyart. There are actuallz far too manz things for us to mention so we will have to just blog more about it all later. Finding internet access has proved to be a challenge we underestimated, so we apologiye for the lack of bloggage (Lance!!). We are going to hopefullz tour the stable of the lippiyaner stallions later todaz and then attend a ballet at the Vienna opera house this evening. Vienna is wonderful and Ali and I have both decided that weäre going to move here. Sorrz familz and friends... but if zou were here, zou'd understand. Haha! Anzwazs, we are pazing bz the minute for internet access so we must go.

Auf wiedersehen!!

P.S. On a rather funnz... but not extremelz funnz note... Ali, once again, was left standing at the airport without her luggage. Zes... it appeared that once again the airline had lost her, and onlz her, luggage. Alas, it turned out that thez bag did make it to Vienna, but was sent to the wrong terminal and Ali has now decided that it was cursed and is going to purchase new luggage once she gets back to the states.

Hey Everyone! We made it! Here's the highlights:
1) The security people in Chicago are not friendly... at all.
2) Austrian flight attendants wear adorable red and blue outfits.
3) Eggplant and mince meat is not a dish I ever thought I would be served on an airplane. It actually wasn't that bad, believe it or not.

So, anyways, as it turns out we have to pay for internet here at the hotel (it's owned by a bunch of pirates) so our blogs may be rather infrequent. We'll try to post as often as we can though to keep you updated! I'm going to hand the keyboard over to Ali now, though, so she can give you her evaluation of the events of our journey.

Hope all is well!
~Kayli

So, as we began to pack for this little musical adventure, we discussed what should be taken on our carry on luggage.  Brittany (bless her little soul for working at the airport) says to the class, "In a group as large as 30, there is bound to be at least ONE piece of luggage lost on our endless flight exchanges."  We get to the Varna airport, after 24 hours of traveling, and are waiting by the luggage carousel to get our luggage.  Everyone starts to head for the door with their luggage and turns around to see who is left. Well you may ask....who is left?  There stands me with my lil ol raggedy pillow and my carry on and 30 people's eyes on me as I am the last one to get my luggage.  Just then the sound of horror filled the room.  The luggage carousel had stopped.  Do you know how depressed  the absence of a single sound can make you.  It didnt help that everyone was staring at me and you knew exactly what they were thinking.  "Poor Ali...but i am glad it wasnt me....THANK THE LORD!!!"  So there you have it, I am the ONE out of thirty people who's luggage cannot be found for the day.  Luckily, the airline said the most it ever takes is a day to get the bags back and also very lucky for me i had pretty much everything i would need for the next day in my carry on...even an extra pair of clothing(thanks mom's voice in my head!)  Then we get to our fabulous four star  hotel and find out...we are in the ghetto of the resort.  A hint for future travelers....always find out if a hotel is evaluated by American standards or Bulgarian standards cause guess what? There IS a difference.
PS...I dont believe kayli about the eggplant...but who knows...looks can be decieving.

Too much kisses(inside joke),
~Ali

Hey Everyone! This is the first official post of the infamous Ali and Kayli as we embark on our European Excursion. We will both try to post as much as we can about our adventures so you can get the down-low on all of our shenanigans. We'll do our best to post pictures as well so you can read and SEE what we're up to!

Currently, Ali and I are are both sitting at our kitchen table, writing a list of things to get at Target before we start frantically packing. (Haha... anyone who knows us knows we aren't packed yet.) After visiting T-get we're going to pay rent since we'll be gone when it's due on the 1st of June (see how responsible we are!!).

I'm sure there will be more to post later! Until then... ciao!

~Kayli


Rachelle's Wedding - August 2007


Below is the first part of Movement 6 of the Brahms Requiem, which we will be singing in Varna, Bulgaria with a Bulgarian Symphony Chorale. This is one of the hardest (if not the hardest) movements of the Requiem. It's my favorite because it's so triumphant. "Tod, wo is dein stachel? Holle, wo is dein seig?""Death, where is your sting? Hell, where is your victory?" At about 4:00 the movement starts getting really good, but from 5:45 to then end is the very best part. I love this movement because of the music and the words. If it makes you emotional listening to it, you should try singing it.



This is Ali's favorite movement. It's definitely a contender for hardest movement, as well. "Siehe, meine Tage sind einer Hand breit vor Dir" "Behold my days are a hand wide before you." (Be sure to check out where the music really starts cookin' at 7:45 in the recording. THAT is why we LOVE this movement. It's insanely hard, but so beautiful!!!)