'Tis the Busy Season

It's been pretty crazy around here lately, lots of long days of class and meetings and papers and other assignments, thankfully also some time for some pretty cool events and holiday preparations.

The days are getting noticeably shorter, lots of days being up before the sunrise, and still sitting in class as the sun is setting...which is now officially before 4pm.

We've had our first bit of snow around here as well, definitely not as crazy as last winter so far, but we've had some nice seasonal snow showers here and there.

Our school has now expanded a bit into using some conference rooms and things at the hotel next door for lectures, or in this case a wine society lecture and tasting, with insanely gorgeous city views behind us.  (photo by Peter Frank)

A bit of an unconventional Thanksgiving for me this year.  I had an elective last week which meant class 9am-6pm including Thanksgiving day, so sadly no parades or turkey for me this year, but we did have a bit of a celebratory dinner with my cohort for completing our 3rd and final economics semester.  And everyone played along and said what they were thankful for, so it was almost just like being at home...

School did serve traditional Martin Gans meal the next day actually...goose with spiced red cabbage and dumplings...so tasty, and pretty close to Thanksgiving.

A highlight of this time of year is also the annual UN Womens' Guild Bazaar.  Stands from all over the world are selling crafts and clothes upstairs...

While downstairs there is food from all over the world...first stop Venezuela...followed by China, Paraguay, United States, Eritrea, and Brazil this year...

A proper Eritrean coffee ceremony. 

We've also been having some gorgeous winter sunsets lately

And of course now it's really feeling more and more like Christmas, which makes a lovely place to meet up with friends in the evenings when we can.

Probably some of my most favorite holiday decorations, so grand and elegant.

Or perhaps a cozy alpine scene is more your taste...Austria does it all.

Another cool thing I got to be a part of last week was being on the judging panel for the Tierärtze ohne Grenzen (veterinarians without borders) charity bake off.  The veterinarian university here in Vienna teamed up with Modul this year to host the event, so I was the student representative from Modul on the panel.

So many cakes!

All the pieces we have to taste...thankfully each pair of judges only had one category, although mine was Torten, and there were 35 entries in that category. Even at one bite a piece it was a lot, but definitely a very fun day.

And finally our annual MSc punsch crawl where we go from Christmas market to Christmas market hanging out, sampling food and drinks from various stands. 

Part of the group at Rathaus

This year it wasn't nearly as freezing cold as last year so we made it to four markets!

Finishing up the night at Altes AKH

This really is such a wonderful time of year to be in Vienna, everything seems to twinkle a bit and everyone is outside enjoying good friends and good food.  I'm still working on getting a few final assignments and things finished, including my thesis proposal presentation for Tuesday...but we also have a couple more holiday themed events happening as well including our church Christmas pageant and our school wide charity punsch day next week. All this and I'll be in NYC in about 10 days!