For my intercultural business communications course last week we had to write a report and do a presentation. I was the person that compiled the report and did the bibliography. Bad idea. It can be hard to compile a paper with different parts written by competent English-natives. Now add in incompetent non-English-natives... It took me about 5 hours and I was so annoyed by the end I thought I would snap. The Spaniards didn't cite any sources within the paper or send me any information. They also did not respond to my emails. Thus, I had to find my own sources. Swedish girl tried to cite wikipedia. And our presentation sucked, which makes me mad. I spent all that time working on the paper, while everyone else was supposed to do the presentation, and it SUCKED. The paper was good, and I'm not being egotistical saying that. The whole thing was just frustrating though, so I'm glad it was over quickly.
On Friday I went with Zuzana to Bratislava. The train tickets there and back are only 14€. Bratislava is... mmm... not all that pretty, for the most part. It was clear that it was former Soviet Union. Gray buildings and such. The castle is nice, though you couldn't see much from up top because of the fog. Apparently you can usually see Austria from up on the hilltop. We had a good lunch at the Slovak Pub, and later went to the Christmas market with one of Zuzana's roommates.
I met up with Jessica (from Emory) on Saturday afternoon to buy my dad's Christmas present. We finished quickly (I have little patience), and ended up going to her dorm and watching tv for hours. Her room came with a television and cable - so jealous! If I had a tv, I'd watch CNN all day because it's in English. After lots and lots of tv, I helped her take her stuff to the the train to the airport.
Sunday was my Christmas market finale. First I went to Karlsplatz, since I had yet to go there. Not that good, to tell the truth. Then I went to Rathaus, since I hadn't ever been there at night. Beaaaauuuutiful!!! Loved it! I ranked the Christmas markets by my favorites:
8. Museums Quartier - Maria Theresien Platz
7. Belvedere Palace
6. Karlsplatz
5. Am Hof
4. Spittelberg
3. Freyung
2. Schönbrunn Palace
1. Rathaus
Today I finished up my Christmas shopping at (the very busy) Thalia bookstore, and bought groceries at Billa, including candy and pie to console myself because my parents' flights got canceled and now they won't be here until 6:15 pm tomorrow (Christmas day). I'm so depressed. I think tomorrow I'll just watch Christmas movies/scenes/tv shows, like:
1. Love Actually
2. The Office "Christmas Party" (season 2)
3. The Office "A Benihana Christmas" (season 3)
4. Veronica Mars "An Echolls Family Christmas" (season 1)
5. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - Christmas scenes
6. Mean Girls - talent show scene
Despite this, I hope that everyone else has a fantastic Christmas! And don't worry about me, since my parents will be here... eventually. So just enjoy yourself and blast "Last Christmas" by Wham, just like I'm doing. Last Christmas I gave you my heart, but the very next day you gave it away...
Monday, December 24, 2007
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
I'll Punsch You
To update is to show weakness!
Eh, or not really, more laziness, actually. I've been so busy... eating kebab. Not really, but kinda. Oh, I've been drinking too.
Zuzana, Angélique, Raphaëlle, and I had a girls' night/dance party a while ago. You know what's sad? When a French girl teaches you how to dance to Cotton Eye Joe. Especially when you're a good ol' fashioned hick Texan. I was also introduced to the greatness that is Le Papa Pingouin. Click on it. You know you want to. It's so catchy, it'll be stuck in your head for days... weeks...
I had my exams in int'l financial markets and business german. IFM made me want to cry. I consoled myself with kebab. German was not as awful, but still made me want to binge drink. Not that I did. AND I didn't eat kebab (you should be proud).
I did, however, eat kebab on Saturday. It was cold and snowing and windy and snowing and I braved the elements for my kebab. Yummmm. Totally worth that numb feeling in my face/fingers/toes/ears/etc. etc., because my tongue was dancing in joy. That night, Angélique, Raphaëlle, and I went to the Spittelberg Christmas market. Not, however, before Raphaëlle attempted to tackle me to the ground... in public! Unpredictable and scary, those French people. Anywho, the market was similar to the others (ie. cold), but I got a Kinderpunsch so that I could continue my mug collection. We also took a bunch of pictures with this Santa that was absolutely meant for kids under the age of 4, and people were definitely staring. They're just jealous that we actually enjoy the Christmas markets, whereas the sparkle was gone from their eyes long ago.
Then Raphaëlle was cold (imagine that, in the snow?!), so Angélique and I continued the Christmas market quest alone. I was the direction-giver, and we definitely got lost. But, luckily for us, there are several landmarks in Vienna that help us find our way (like our own North star) - namely, the Hofburg (imperial palace, which is flippin huge and you'd be blind to miss it) and the Rathaus (really tall, and well lit at night aka 4 pm). There are others (Stephansdom, the opera), but those aren't useful at this time. Back to the point, it went something like this:
Me: Where are we?!
Angélique: I don't know, you're the idiot with the directions.
Me: Oh look, the Hofburg! OH! And the Rathaus! Don't fret, my dear, I have found the way!
Or something like that. We eventually found the Freyung Christmas market (another mug collected), and came across the Am Hof market, where the night's true trickery lay.
I, being the silly mug-collecting girl I am, ordered an orangenpunsch (please tell me I don't have to translate that. too easy) to get another mug. With or without alcohol? Oh, what the heck, let's get with! Forget that I already had a Glühwein. It's not like wine actually counts! Then, at the other end of the market, we realize another punch stand has better mugs. GASP. But I've already got this full mug of hot, alcoholic-y orange punch! What do I do?
Why, you drink the punch as quickly as you can now, and ask to switch mugs, says Angélique. Oh, how clever you are, Angélique, I say. I sip the punch, and then feel like I'm going to vomit, or die, but hopefully die because it's that awful. Ok, so I just have to drink this like normal alcohol then - as quickly as possible. Nevermind that this punch is practically boiling hot. Drink it quickly, Angélique says, while snatching my camera to take a video. Two minutes later the mug is empty, but my insides are crawling, boiling, doing backflips, my gag reflex is in overdrive, and my tongue is a little burnt. Mission successful. That is, if the mission was to get me drunk at a Christmas market... a Christmas market! Of all things holy, consumerist, familial, and sacred, a Christmas market! Now that's embarrassing. Of course, I can't move on without adding that I did, in fact, successfully exchange the mug. And you know what? It really wasn't that much better than the one I had before. But it's orange, which will forever remind me of my orangenpunsch.
I'll probably give the mug away. Gag.
So Angélique, seeing as she was the devil's advocate in this situation, was left to drag my drunken self back to the dorm. We got lost again. Finally, we were directed towards the greatest of all Viennese directional beacons - Stephansdom! After finally returning to Haus Erasmus, instead of being led to my room, I was taken to Zuzana's room to be fully mocked. Bah!
Sunday was, of course, church, and then I met Monica, Christine, Christine's boyfriend, Stephan, & Max to go to the Rapid Vienna vs. Linz soccer game. If you don't recall, the girls are UT students, and the two Austrian lads will be exchange students next semester. So, it's like... you know, 32 degrees or so outside, which is quite cold to be expected to sit outside for hours. I, quite cleverly, was wearing long underwear, jeans, AND khackis, and two shirts, a sweater, a coat, with my big woolly scarf (made by Emily Stuifbergen!) and thick ski gloves. Not that I've ever been skiing. My toes were cold, but I survived without getting hypothermia.
What was good was the fact that I was able to enjoy watching the game. I hadn't really expected that, for some reason, even though I usually enjoy watching sports (at least the ones that have action). There's a section for the die-hard fans, and they LITERALLY sing, clap, and shout the entire game. Entire game! These crazy people were not wearing gloves. My hands got sympathy shivers. It made for a very entertaining experience though, only enhanced by the crazed men around me that would yell incomprehensible German at the opposing team and referees. I once asked Max to translate, and he reported that the man behind us had said he wanted to cut the referee's head off. Nice imagery, sir. And, like in all sports, the game was made fully enjoyable by the fact that our team (look how quick I am to claim them as my own!) won 2-0. Afterwards, we Texans showed our enthusiasm by buying green and white Rapid Vienna scarves, which we are apparently not allowed to wear in the city due to rivalry with the other Vienna soccer club.
Yesterday and today I was engaged in my last course - Intercultural Business Communications - with the Emphasis on the Role of Women in Business. That's a mouthful! You might be surprised, but about 1/3 of the class is guys! The class began Monday afternoon, and we were assigned a 5-8 page report and 15-20 minute presentation in groups due on Thursday. Woa. That's like 3 days... In my group are Sophie from New Zealand (with a delightful accent), Marie from Sweden, Maria from Spain, and Ricardo from Spain. Nice group. I'm glad I didn't get stuck with the other Americans - a girl with an awful Boston accent, and another girl who somewhat bothers me. I love listening to Sophie talk. Maybe I should just move to New Zealand to listen to the people there talk.
That's all folks! Hope you enjoyed my ramblings this time.
PS. EEK! How could I forget? Tina left last week. I'm all alone here, sitting in the dark, blasting my music, and acting in ways that would be fully obnoxious if someone else were in the room. HA.
Eh, or not really, more laziness, actually. I've been so busy... eating kebab. Not really, but kinda. Oh, I've been drinking too.
Zuzana, Angélique, Raphaëlle, and I had a girls' night/dance party a while ago. You know what's sad? When a French girl teaches you how to dance to Cotton Eye Joe. Especially when you're a good ol' fashioned hick Texan. I was also introduced to the greatness that is Le Papa Pingouin. Click on it. You know you want to. It's so catchy, it'll be stuck in your head for days... weeks...
I had my exams in int'l financial markets and business german. IFM made me want to cry. I consoled myself with kebab. German was not as awful, but still made me want to binge drink. Not that I did. AND I didn't eat kebab (you should be proud).
I did, however, eat kebab on Saturday. It was cold and snowing and windy and snowing and I braved the elements for my kebab. Yummmm. Totally worth that numb feeling in my face/fingers/toes/ears/etc. etc., because my tongue was dancing in joy. That night, Angélique, Raphaëlle, and I went to the Spittelberg Christmas market. Not, however, before Raphaëlle attempted to tackle me to the ground... in public! Unpredictable and scary, those French people. Anywho, the market was similar to the others (ie. cold), but I got a Kinderpunsch so that I could continue my mug collection. We also took a bunch of pictures with this Santa that was absolutely meant for kids under the age of 4, and people were definitely staring. They're just jealous that we actually enjoy the Christmas markets, whereas the sparkle was gone from their eyes long ago.
Then Raphaëlle was cold (imagine that, in the snow?!), so Angélique and I continued the Christmas market quest alone. I was the direction-giver, and we definitely got lost. But, luckily for us, there are several landmarks in Vienna that help us find our way (like our own North star) - namely, the Hofburg (imperial palace, which is flippin huge and you'd be blind to miss it) and the Rathaus (really tall, and well lit at night aka 4 pm). There are others (Stephansdom, the opera), but those aren't useful at this time. Back to the point, it went something like this:
Me: Where are we?!
Angélique: I don't know, you're the idiot with the directions.
Me: Oh look, the Hofburg! OH! And the Rathaus! Don't fret, my dear, I have found the way!
Or something like that. We eventually found the Freyung Christmas market (another mug collected), and came across the Am Hof market, where the night's true trickery lay.
I, being the silly mug-collecting girl I am, ordered an orangenpunsch (please tell me I don't have to translate that. too easy) to get another mug. With or without alcohol? Oh, what the heck, let's get with! Forget that I already had a Glühwein. It's not like wine actually counts! Then, at the other end of the market, we realize another punch stand has better mugs. GASP. But I've already got this full mug of hot, alcoholic-y orange punch! What do I do?
Why, you drink the punch as quickly as you can now, and ask to switch mugs, says Angélique. Oh, how clever you are, Angélique, I say. I sip the punch, and then feel like I'm going to vomit, or die, but hopefully die because it's that awful. Ok, so I just have to drink this like normal alcohol then - as quickly as possible. Nevermind that this punch is practically boiling hot. Drink it quickly, Angélique says, while snatching my camera to take a video. Two minutes later the mug is empty, but my insides are crawling, boiling, doing backflips, my gag reflex is in overdrive, and my tongue is a little burnt. Mission successful. That is, if the mission was to get me drunk at a Christmas market... a Christmas market! Of all things holy, consumerist, familial, and sacred, a Christmas market! Now that's embarrassing. Of course, I can't move on without adding that I did, in fact, successfully exchange the mug. And you know what? It really wasn't that much better than the one I had before. But it's orange, which will forever remind me of my orangenpunsch.
I'll probably give the mug away. Gag.
So Angélique, seeing as she was the devil's advocate in this situation, was left to drag my drunken self back to the dorm. We got lost again. Finally, we were directed towards the greatest of all Viennese directional beacons - Stephansdom! After finally returning to Haus Erasmus, instead of being led to my room, I was taken to Zuzana's room to be fully mocked. Bah!
Sunday was, of course, church, and then I met Monica, Christine, Christine's boyfriend, Stephan, & Max to go to the Rapid Vienna vs. Linz soccer game. If you don't recall, the girls are UT students, and the two Austrian lads will be exchange students next semester. So, it's like... you know, 32 degrees or so outside, which is quite cold to be expected to sit outside for hours. I, quite cleverly, was wearing long underwear, jeans, AND khackis, and two shirts, a sweater, a coat, with my big woolly scarf (made by Emily Stuifbergen!) and thick ski gloves. Not that I've ever been skiing. My toes were cold, but I survived without getting hypothermia.
What was good was the fact that I was able to enjoy watching the game. I hadn't really expected that, for some reason, even though I usually enjoy watching sports (at least the ones that have action). There's a section for the die-hard fans, and they LITERALLY sing, clap, and shout the entire game. Entire game! These crazy people were not wearing gloves. My hands got sympathy shivers. It made for a very entertaining experience though, only enhanced by the crazed men around me that would yell incomprehensible German at the opposing team and referees. I once asked Max to translate, and he reported that the man behind us had said he wanted to cut the referee's head off. Nice imagery, sir. And, like in all sports, the game was made fully enjoyable by the fact that our team (look how quick I am to claim them as my own!) won 2-0. Afterwards, we Texans showed our enthusiasm by buying green and white Rapid Vienna scarves, which we are apparently not allowed to wear in the city due to rivalry with the other Vienna soccer club.
Yesterday and today I was engaged in my last course - Intercultural Business Communications - with the Emphasis on the Role of Women in Business. That's a mouthful! You might be surprised, but about 1/3 of the class is guys! The class began Monday afternoon, and we were assigned a 5-8 page report and 15-20 minute presentation in groups due on Thursday. Woa. That's like 3 days... In my group are Sophie from New Zealand (with a delightful accent), Marie from Sweden, Maria from Spain, and Ricardo from Spain. Nice group. I'm glad I didn't get stuck with the other Americans - a girl with an awful Boston accent, and another girl who somewhat bothers me. I love listening to Sophie talk. Maybe I should just move to New Zealand to listen to the people there talk.
That's all folks! Hope you enjoyed my ramblings this time.
PS. EEK! How could I forget? Tina left last week. I'm all alone here, sitting in the dark, blasting my music, and acting in ways that would be fully obnoxious if someone else were in the room. HA.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Beer, Wine, and Business Courses
It was quite lucky that I managed to put up my last blog entry when I did because like the next day my internet was turned off until December 1st. MADNESS! Yeah, there's like this really low limit, and Tina had bought more but the office kept messing it up, so we had no internet in our room for a couple days. It was horrible. I thought I was going to die of insanity. On the 29th I talked to Sara, Hannah, Odile, and Amy on the phone - from my room phone. I was on the phone for like hours because I was SO BORED. And not checking my email just makes me all nervous. I felt like a drug addict in withdrawal. On the 30th, I caved in and went to the university - which is a 30 minute trip each way - just to get online (for 7 minutes) to check my email. At midnight, when it came back on I was so happy I did a little dance.
Ok, so what else has happened?
After German class last week, a bunch of us went to the little Glühwein (hot wine) stand outside the uni. By outside, I mean it's on the steps right in front of the doors. I was with a bunch of French people, a Belgian, and a Czech. So Ms. Czech and I were like "ooook, we'll speak English over here, then, while you guys speak French." Which seems to happen to me a lot, especially around Angélique and Raphaëlle. When they're speaking French to each other, I wait for a pause and then go "oui!"
On Sunday I went to the Christmas market at Schloss Belvedere with an American girl, Jessica. That market actually wasn't that great, and the Glühmost tasted like more alcohol than cider.
In my int'l financial markets class on Wednesday, the girl next to me, Anna, noticed the most amazing thing. Annoying Canadian Boy (as I like to call him) was drinking beer. In class. And the professor saw it too. And all he said was "you should not have too much beer" after Annoying Canadian Boy asked a dumb question (hm, go figure?) during a presentation. I was amazed. Then the following day, in German, Raphaëlle did her presentation (on Bordeaux) and gave out wine. So afterwards, I'm sitting in class, listening to my professor talk about how to apply for a job in Austria (resume, cover letter, etc), and it hits me: I'm drinking WINE in class. It's ridiculous. These crazy people here. I love it.
I also had *my* presentation in German class. I talked about Texas. The professor said I spoke "surprisingly freely." The hand strikes and gives a flower (yes, I totally took that line from The Office). I have to admit, I'm a little offended, but I found out later that she said the same thing to the Brazilian boy. We (North & South) Americans gotta stick together! Actually, though, I only spoke "surprisingly freely" because I had practiced several times with Raphaëlle the night before.
In German class, sometimes when I'm not really understanding what the prof is saying, I'll zone out for a few seconds, and then sometimes I'll hear something like "unsere Amerikanerin" that totally zaps me back in. All I need is "Amerika" to get my attention. Yesterday she was saying that you have to put a passport photo on your resume, which is important for "our American" to notice. She smiled at my face that was in total disbelief. She added later that it used to be required to put what religion you were on your resume, and I hung my head, closed my eyes, and was shaking my head in utter disbelief and thinking about how you could NEVER have that in the US, which also made her laugh a little. Sometimes Austria doesn't seem too different from the States, but then there's stuff like that. Geez.
Two weeks from today I will be completely done with the semester. Geez. Come quickly!
Ok, so what else has happened?
After German class last week, a bunch of us went to the little Glühwein (hot wine) stand outside the uni. By outside, I mean it's on the steps right in front of the doors. I was with a bunch of French people, a Belgian, and a Czech. So Ms. Czech and I were like "ooook, we'll speak English over here, then, while you guys speak French." Which seems to happen to me a lot, especially around Angélique and Raphaëlle. When they're speaking French to each other, I wait for a pause and then go "oui!"
On Sunday I went to the Christmas market at Schloss Belvedere with an American girl, Jessica. That market actually wasn't that great, and the Glühmost tasted like more alcohol than cider.
In my int'l financial markets class on Wednesday, the girl next to me, Anna, noticed the most amazing thing. Annoying Canadian Boy (as I like to call him) was drinking beer. In class. And the professor saw it too. And all he said was "you should not have too much beer" after Annoying Canadian Boy asked a dumb question (hm, go figure?) during a presentation. I was amazed. Then the following day, in German, Raphaëlle did her presentation (on Bordeaux) and gave out wine. So afterwards, I'm sitting in class, listening to my professor talk about how to apply for a job in Austria (resume, cover letter, etc), and it hits me: I'm drinking WINE in class. It's ridiculous. These crazy people here. I love it.
I also had *my* presentation in German class. I talked about Texas. The professor said I spoke "surprisingly freely." The hand strikes and gives a flower (yes, I totally took that line from The Office). I have to admit, I'm a little offended, but I found out later that she said the same thing to the Brazilian boy. We (North & South) Americans gotta stick together! Actually, though, I only spoke "surprisingly freely" because I had practiced several times with Raphaëlle the night before.
In German class, sometimes when I'm not really understanding what the prof is saying, I'll zone out for a few seconds, and then sometimes I'll hear something like "unsere Amerikanerin" that totally zaps me back in. All I need is "Amerika" to get my attention. Yesterday she was saying that you have to put a passport photo on your resume, which is important for "our American" to notice. She smiled at my face that was in total disbelief. She added later that it used to be required to put what religion you were on your resume, and I hung my head, closed my eyes, and was shaking my head in utter disbelief and thinking about how you could NEVER have that in the US, which also made her laugh a little. Sometimes Austria doesn't seem too different from the States, but then there's stuff like that. Geez.
Two weeks from today I will be completely done with the semester. Geez. Come quickly!
Monday, November 26, 2007
Here's to You, Mr. Yip
I only realized a few days ago that I’ve completely neglected this blog the past month. I’ve made a list of things to talk about here, so now I’m finally taking the time to go through it all. Ready? Set. Go!
Halloween. Now, normally Austrians don’t celebrate Halloween. I think it’s an American/Canadian thing, actually. But apparently it’s becoming a lot more popular for young Austrians to celebrate it, so… Eva (my buddy) had a party, with costume required. I was the only non-Austrian, which was pretty cool. The best outfit was Eva’s boyfriend Daniel, who dressed as Yasser Arafat. Apparently people were staring at him on the subway, which I can believe, since people were also staring at me. I was dressed as a black cat. I kinda based it off of Pam’s Halloween costume in season 2 of The Office, and also I was doing it as a tribute to my darling little kitten that I miss very much.
November 11. Celebrated by some as Armistice Day, and some as Veteran’s Day. Celebrated by me for being the first snow of this winter in Vienna. I woke up at 10:30 and looked out the window, and stood gaping and slowly blinking for a moment or two. Then I pulled the closest shoes on, grabbed my glasses, camera, and keys, and ran downstairs. I stood there in my long-sleeved shirt and pajama pants, and started laughing like an insane person. Seriously, snow? In November? Since then it’s snowed a few more times – once was even like 3 inches. I was amazed… and everyone thought it was hilarious how amazed I was. I’m from TEXAS! Also since the first snow I have worn at least two pairs of pants whenever I go outside. For a couple days I wore three. It’s really cold! Oh, and I’ve also been listening to Christmas since then. You know, it’s like snow is associated with Christmas. But now that it’s after Thanksgiving, it’s more acceptable to listen to Christmas music, so I listen to it even more.
A peer advisor at UT had sent out an email to us UT students at WU and the WU students who were coming to UT next semester suggesting that we meet. So I emailed the WU guys, and 3 WU guys and 3 UT girls managed to meet up to talk about our exchanges. Now we’re planning on going to a soccer game to see Vienna vs. Linz. I’m not really into soccer, and I’m not really into being outside in the freezing cold for hours, but I still think it’ll be fun. Plus, when in Rome…
On Sunday, November 18th, my mother’s friend (and my friend’s mother) Susan arrived to visit me. One of her suitcases got left at the Paris airport, so she was filing a claim in the baggage claim area, which I wasn’t allowed into. She didn’t come out until an hour after her plane arrived, and I had been so worried that she had missed her connecting flight, or that I had somehow gone to the wrong terminal. We went to her hotel, which was right off of Stephansplatz (prime location, if you ask me), and were hassled by the receptionist, who told us that if I was to spend the night, it’d be 50€ a night. Psh, whatever! We went to my dorm to deposit all the goods that she brought me – 12 cans of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup (which I ate every single day when I was younger - no joke!), a whole bunch of packets of both Goldfish and Swiss Miss hot chocolate (with marshmallows!), a package of oreos, and a set of long underwear. Basically, she’s awesome.
That night we went to mass at Stephansdom (St. Stephen’s Cathedral). I’m not Catholic, and it was in German. I didn’t know what was going on until the message part (we call it message, I don’t know what it is in Catholic), which I could actually understand. After that we went to this concert at Schönbrunn that was amazing! The ensemble consisted of two violinists, one violist, one cellist, a clarinetist, and a pianist. They played a bunch of songs by Mozart and Strauss. During the songs that were opera songs, this guy and girl came out and sang and acted out the songs. During the songs that were from ballets, a different guy and girl came out and danced. It was really really cool.
Monday, we woke up at 4:45 to catch a 6:08 train to Prague. We left the hotel like 10 minutes late and I was convinced that we would miss the train, but we were somehow there 5 minutes before it left. We spent like half of the 4 hour trip in the dining car. The rest of the train was set up with compartments, like they have in Harry Potter! That in itself was very cool to me. We exchanged our money into koruna… I got 100€ worth. From the train station we took a taxi to Prague Castle. It’s really cool, and big, and from far away looks a little bit haunted (or scary at least). The cathedral inside (St. Vitus’) is practically overflowing with tourists. Susan, being the hardcore Catholic and all-around crazy person she is, took an HOUR to walk through the cathedral, while taking pictures of almost every single thing inside it. After lunch and exploring the rest of the castle a little, we walked down towards the rest of the city, first stopping at St. Nicholas’. Lather, rinse, repeat. Eventually we made it to the bridge over the river that splits the city into two parts. On the eastern side we stopped in just about every tourist shop on our way. We settled down at a restaurant at the Old Town Square, where Susan had a couple beers and got a bit drunk. On our taxi ride back to the train station, she asked our taxi driver about a million questions, and in doing so quite mortified me. In the dining car on the way back, there was a couple from Maryland sitting behind us whose daughter was studying abroad in Italy (I think?), so we talked to them a little.
On Tuesday we didn’t have much time to do something because I had class and a presentation, so we just went to the Rathaus (city hall) and the Parliament. In front of the Rathaus was a Christmas market (Christkindlmarkt). There were all these tiny little buildings, and it looked like a little Christmas village. Lots of shops were set up to sell “punsch”… warm alcoholic punch. Woo, nothing like getting a good warm kick at 10:45 in the morning when it’s (literally) freezing outside. After my class that night, we went to Café Sacher (at Hotel Sacher) to have the famous original sachertorte. Umm… it wasn’t that good. I was a little surprised. Neither was the Himbeere (raspberry) Soda that I had. Disappointment! But, we were actually in the café at the same time as the Maryland family from the train. Scary coincidence! Since dessert and drinks together were like 20€, we got dinner at a cheap little food stand (that are all over the city) – I got dürüm döner (kinda like a fajita burrito) and Susan got a hot dog. I love just looking at the words “dürüm döner” because of all the umlauts over the vowels.
Wednesday was “day of the churches.” First we went to Schönbrunn to do the tour inside (which I had already done before) and look for a bit at the gardens and park. Then we went to three different churches – Dominikaner, St. Barbara, and Jesuit. It was not interesting to me. And churches are very cold inside. After that, though, we went to a restaurant where we had some schnitzel. Yum!
Thursday was Thanksgiving! In the morning we went to the Votive church, which was cool looking, but after going to so many churches… not so exciting. I actually fell asleep in a pew while Susan looked around. Then we went to the Museums Quartier, where another Christmas market was set up. The drink I had there (Glühmost) was really good – it was like (alcoholic) apple cider. From there we went to the Hofburg – the old imperial palace. We went to the Sisi (Empress Elisabeth) museum and imperial apartments, which were both pretty boring. We met Tina to have our Thanksgiving dinner at TGIFridays, but we got there too early to have their special Thanksgiving dinner. Plus, we looked at the menu for it, and it looked very non-Thanksgiving-y: bbq turkey, bbq ribs, chicken wings, coleslaw, corn on the cob, and pumpkin pie. Pumpkin pie, yes. Everything else, no. We had (not very good) nachos instead. Tina went home, and Susan and I went to Billa to buy some better food to eat. We ate in Susan’s hotel room while watching The OC in German. It was the Christmakkuh Barmitzvakkuh episode from season 3. On Friday morning, Susan left to go back to Houston.
One of the classes that I had in November was this European law and economics class. It basically taught us all about the law-making institutions of the European Union. At the end of the first day, we realized that we basically got extra credit for participating and asking questions, so on the second day the Americans completely dominated discussions. Six of us were sitting in the front right and we asked so many questions. Most of them were genuine questions about things that made no sense to us – like heads of state versus heads of government. To Americans it’s the same thing, but in most European countries it’s not. They have a president (head of state) that basically does nothing (ie. the Queen), and a chancellor/prime minister (head of government) that does the real work. The course met for three days, 6 hours each day, and then on Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) we had our exam. It was my first exam while here!
Then on Saturday morning I woke up at 5:15 to catch a 6:14 train to Munich to see Barbara, my German exchange partner from 10th grade. It was so amazing seeing her again, and we talked just as easily as we did four years ago. Her roommate Alena actually did the exchange too, so that was cool. Barbara took me on a bit of a tour of the city because, even though she really didn’t know what a lot of the stuff I asked about was. It was actually pretty funny, and she was like “Sorry, I’m not a very good tour guide.” We ate at a traditional Bavarian restaurant, and kept walking around. Altogether, I think we walked at least like 4-5 hours! That night we went to a bar with Babsi’s friend Jessica, who used to work at Disneyworld. She told us about a bunch of stuff there, and made it sound really awesome. And Jessica’s boyfriend was our waiter, and gave us our drinks for super cheap (2€ instead of 6€). The only downside was that on both sides of us was this one birthday party with all these rich kids wearing expensive clothes and acting like they owned the place.
We didn’t wake up on Sunday until 11:30! We went to this BMW exhibition/museum thing called BMW Welt. They had all these current (German) models of their cars, and people just walked around looking at them and reading the information on them like at a car dealership. Then they also had this area where you could learn about how they choose the colors, textures, and materials for the cars, which was actually more interesting than it sounds. We couldn’t figure out what the point of the place was, though, since it was free to get into, there are no salesmen, and you don’t actually buy cars there. After that we went to the Olympiapark from the 1972 Olympics – the one where all those Israeli athletes were kidnapped and murdered (look up the movie “Munich” on imdb). It was too cold to spend much time there though, so we returned to Babsi’s apartment. For dinner we went down to Oberhaching, and had some delicious Italian food. We also got ice cream at this ice cream café that we went to many times when I was there in 2003. If you didn’t know, last time I was in Germany, I ate ice cream once a day… at the very least. So going to this café was like a little joke with me and Babsi. We also stopped by her father’s house, which is where we stayed when I was here. The little dog Sally was terrified of me even after 2 weeks, and (of course) was still terrified of me 4 years later. Sadly, I left this morning at 9:28 to come back “home” to Vienna.
Of course, when I got back, I could not find my key. I found my keychain, which is on a lanyard, which I also had. The key had just fallen off. I searched through my bags multiple times before giving up. It goes to figure the ONE TIME Tina’s not here is when I can’t find my key. I went across the hall where Alison and her roommate took mercy on me. I was only there for like 45 minutes before Tina came back and found the letter I left. Luckily she had an extra key so I didn’t have to pay the housemaster 50€ to get a new one. The rest of today has just been relaxing and filling out the last of the TWENTY-ONE postcards I will be sending tomorrow… which will cost me at least 30€ to send.
There you have it, my last month. It came out to almost 4 pages in Word (Times New Roman, 12 pt), so if you made it this far, congratulations to you!
Halloween. Now, normally Austrians don’t celebrate Halloween. I think it’s an American/Canadian thing, actually. But apparently it’s becoming a lot more popular for young Austrians to celebrate it, so… Eva (my buddy) had a party, with costume required. I was the only non-Austrian, which was pretty cool. The best outfit was Eva’s boyfriend Daniel, who dressed as Yasser Arafat. Apparently people were staring at him on the subway, which I can believe, since people were also staring at me. I was dressed as a black cat. I kinda based it off of Pam’s Halloween costume in season 2 of The Office, and also I was doing it as a tribute to my darling little kitten that I miss very much.
November 11. Celebrated by some as Armistice Day, and some as Veteran’s Day. Celebrated by me for being the first snow of this winter in Vienna. I woke up at 10:30 and looked out the window, and stood gaping and slowly blinking for a moment or two. Then I pulled the closest shoes on, grabbed my glasses, camera, and keys, and ran downstairs. I stood there in my long-sleeved shirt and pajama pants, and started laughing like an insane person. Seriously, snow? In November? Since then it’s snowed a few more times – once was even like 3 inches. I was amazed… and everyone thought it was hilarious how amazed I was. I’m from TEXAS! Also since the first snow I have worn at least two pairs of pants whenever I go outside. For a couple days I wore three. It’s really cold! Oh, and I’ve also been listening to Christmas since then. You know, it’s like snow is associated with Christmas. But now that it’s after Thanksgiving, it’s more acceptable to listen to Christmas music, so I listen to it even more.
A peer advisor at UT had sent out an email to us UT students at WU and the WU students who were coming to UT next semester suggesting that we meet. So I emailed the WU guys, and 3 WU guys and 3 UT girls managed to meet up to talk about our exchanges. Now we’re planning on going to a soccer game to see Vienna vs. Linz. I’m not really into soccer, and I’m not really into being outside in the freezing cold for hours, but I still think it’ll be fun. Plus, when in Rome…
On Sunday, November 18th, my mother’s friend (and my friend’s mother) Susan arrived to visit me. One of her suitcases got left at the Paris airport, so she was filing a claim in the baggage claim area, which I wasn’t allowed into. She didn’t come out until an hour after her plane arrived, and I had been so worried that she had missed her connecting flight, or that I had somehow gone to the wrong terminal. We went to her hotel, which was right off of Stephansplatz (prime location, if you ask me), and were hassled by the receptionist, who told us that if I was to spend the night, it’d be 50€ a night. Psh, whatever! We went to my dorm to deposit all the goods that she brought me – 12 cans of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup (which I ate every single day when I was younger - no joke!), a whole bunch of packets of both Goldfish and Swiss Miss hot chocolate (with marshmallows!), a package of oreos, and a set of long underwear. Basically, she’s awesome.
That night we went to mass at Stephansdom (St. Stephen’s Cathedral). I’m not Catholic, and it was in German. I didn’t know what was going on until the message part (we call it message, I don’t know what it is in Catholic), which I could actually understand. After that we went to this concert at Schönbrunn that was amazing! The ensemble consisted of two violinists, one violist, one cellist, a clarinetist, and a pianist. They played a bunch of songs by Mozart and Strauss. During the songs that were opera songs, this guy and girl came out and sang and acted out the songs. During the songs that were from ballets, a different guy and girl came out and danced. It was really really cool.
Monday, we woke up at 4:45 to catch a 6:08 train to Prague. We left the hotel like 10 minutes late and I was convinced that we would miss the train, but we were somehow there 5 minutes before it left. We spent like half of the 4 hour trip in the dining car. The rest of the train was set up with compartments, like they have in Harry Potter! That in itself was very cool to me. We exchanged our money into koruna… I got 100€ worth. From the train station we took a taxi to Prague Castle. It’s really cool, and big, and from far away looks a little bit haunted (or scary at least). The cathedral inside (St. Vitus’) is practically overflowing with tourists. Susan, being the hardcore Catholic and all-around crazy person she is, took an HOUR to walk through the cathedral, while taking pictures of almost every single thing inside it. After lunch and exploring the rest of the castle a little, we walked down towards the rest of the city, first stopping at St. Nicholas’. Lather, rinse, repeat. Eventually we made it to the bridge over the river that splits the city into two parts. On the eastern side we stopped in just about every tourist shop on our way. We settled down at a restaurant at the Old Town Square, where Susan had a couple beers and got a bit drunk. On our taxi ride back to the train station, she asked our taxi driver about a million questions, and in doing so quite mortified me. In the dining car on the way back, there was a couple from Maryland sitting behind us whose daughter was studying abroad in Italy (I think?), so we talked to them a little.
On Tuesday we didn’t have much time to do something because I had class and a presentation, so we just went to the Rathaus (city hall) and the Parliament. In front of the Rathaus was a Christmas market (Christkindlmarkt). There were all these tiny little buildings, and it looked like a little Christmas village. Lots of shops were set up to sell “punsch”… warm alcoholic punch. Woo, nothing like getting a good warm kick at 10:45 in the morning when it’s (literally) freezing outside. After my class that night, we went to Café Sacher (at Hotel Sacher) to have the famous original sachertorte. Umm… it wasn’t that good. I was a little surprised. Neither was the Himbeere (raspberry) Soda that I had. Disappointment! But, we were actually in the café at the same time as the Maryland family from the train. Scary coincidence! Since dessert and drinks together were like 20€, we got dinner at a cheap little food stand (that are all over the city) – I got dürüm döner (kinda like a fajita burrito) and Susan got a hot dog. I love just looking at the words “dürüm döner” because of all the umlauts over the vowels.
Wednesday was “day of the churches.” First we went to Schönbrunn to do the tour inside (which I had already done before) and look for a bit at the gardens and park. Then we went to three different churches – Dominikaner, St. Barbara, and Jesuit. It was not interesting to me. And churches are very cold inside. After that, though, we went to a restaurant where we had some schnitzel. Yum!
Thursday was Thanksgiving! In the morning we went to the Votive church, which was cool looking, but after going to so many churches… not so exciting. I actually fell asleep in a pew while Susan looked around. Then we went to the Museums Quartier, where another Christmas market was set up. The drink I had there (Glühmost) was really good – it was like (alcoholic) apple cider. From there we went to the Hofburg – the old imperial palace. We went to the Sisi (Empress Elisabeth) museum and imperial apartments, which were both pretty boring. We met Tina to have our Thanksgiving dinner at TGIFridays, but we got there too early to have their special Thanksgiving dinner. Plus, we looked at the menu for it, and it looked very non-Thanksgiving-y: bbq turkey, bbq ribs, chicken wings, coleslaw, corn on the cob, and pumpkin pie. Pumpkin pie, yes. Everything else, no. We had (not very good) nachos instead. Tina went home, and Susan and I went to Billa to buy some better food to eat. We ate in Susan’s hotel room while watching The OC in German. It was the Christmakkuh Barmitzvakkuh episode from season 3. On Friday morning, Susan left to go back to Houston.
One of the classes that I had in November was this European law and economics class. It basically taught us all about the law-making institutions of the European Union. At the end of the first day, we realized that we basically got extra credit for participating and asking questions, so on the second day the Americans completely dominated discussions. Six of us were sitting in the front right and we asked so many questions. Most of them were genuine questions about things that made no sense to us – like heads of state versus heads of government. To Americans it’s the same thing, but in most European countries it’s not. They have a president (head of state) that basically does nothing (ie. the Queen), and a chancellor/prime minister (head of government) that does the real work. The course met for three days, 6 hours each day, and then on Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) we had our exam. It was my first exam while here!
Then on Saturday morning I woke up at 5:15 to catch a 6:14 train to Munich to see Barbara, my German exchange partner from 10th grade. It was so amazing seeing her again, and we talked just as easily as we did four years ago. Her roommate Alena actually did the exchange too, so that was cool. Barbara took me on a bit of a tour of the city because, even though she really didn’t know what a lot of the stuff I asked about was. It was actually pretty funny, and she was like “Sorry, I’m not a very good tour guide.” We ate at a traditional Bavarian restaurant, and kept walking around. Altogether, I think we walked at least like 4-5 hours! That night we went to a bar with Babsi’s friend Jessica, who used to work at Disneyworld. She told us about a bunch of stuff there, and made it sound really awesome. And Jessica’s boyfriend was our waiter, and gave us our drinks for super cheap (2€ instead of 6€). The only downside was that on both sides of us was this one birthday party with all these rich kids wearing expensive clothes and acting like they owned the place.
We didn’t wake up on Sunday until 11:30! We went to this BMW exhibition/museum thing called BMW Welt. They had all these current (German) models of their cars, and people just walked around looking at them and reading the information on them like at a car dealership. Then they also had this area where you could learn about how they choose the colors, textures, and materials for the cars, which was actually more interesting than it sounds. We couldn’t figure out what the point of the place was, though, since it was free to get into, there are no salesmen, and you don’t actually buy cars there. After that we went to the Olympiapark from the 1972 Olympics – the one where all those Israeli athletes were kidnapped and murdered (look up the movie “Munich” on imdb). It was too cold to spend much time there though, so we returned to Babsi’s apartment. For dinner we went down to Oberhaching, and had some delicious Italian food. We also got ice cream at this ice cream café that we went to many times when I was there in 2003. If you didn’t know, last time I was in Germany, I ate ice cream once a day… at the very least. So going to this café was like a little joke with me and Babsi. We also stopped by her father’s house, which is where we stayed when I was here. The little dog Sally was terrified of me even after 2 weeks, and (of course) was still terrified of me 4 years later. Sadly, I left this morning at 9:28 to come back “home” to Vienna.
Of course, when I got back, I could not find my key. I found my keychain, which is on a lanyard, which I also had. The key had just fallen off. I searched through my bags multiple times before giving up. It goes to figure the ONE TIME Tina’s not here is when I can’t find my key. I went across the hall where Alison and her roommate took mercy on me. I was only there for like 45 minutes before Tina came back and found the letter I left. Luckily she had an extra key so I didn’t have to pay the housemaster 50€ to get a new one. The rest of today has just been relaxing and filling out the last of the TWENTY-ONE postcards I will be sending tomorrow… which will cost me at least 30€ to send.
There you have it, my last month. It came out to almost 4 pages in Word (Times New Roman, 12 pt), so if you made it this far, congratulations to you!
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Live and Learn
Things I have learned about Vienna in the past 6 weeks:
Little old ladies are usually not that nice. Sometimes they are scary and mean.
People here never work, unless you count those three hours four days a week as “work.”
Banks don’t really want to help you. That’s why they’re closed during lunch hours, after 3 pm, and all weekend. It’s also why the bankers are grumpy.
Customer service is usually not important.
Someone talking loud on the subway is either a teenager or a foreigner.
Teenagers must dye their hair black or platinum blonde and wear as much black as possible. Accessories must then be used to make teenagers look as emo/scene/punk/hard-core/goth as possible.
Anti-Semitism is rampant. Anti anti-Semitism is also rampant.
Turkish people are the European equivalent of Mexicans, and they are taking over.
Americans aren’t the only lazy people around. Yes, I’m talking to you, Mister I-Got-On-The-Subway-Just-To-Get-Off-One-Stop-Later.
Starbucks hot chocolate is just as bad in Vienna as it is in America. Good to know they all follow the same recipe, right? Also, Viennese Starbucks do not serve caramel apple cider because Austrians don’t even know what cider is.
While a 1 Euro coin is about the same size as a quarter, it is not even close to being worth the same.
Americans are expected to know all music that comes from a musician born in the States, as if we have the same taste in music (puhhh-lease). Americans should also know music from continental Europe (ha!).
It’s hard for Europeans to understand that most cities in America don’t have subways and trams, and even harder to understand that we don’t use trains to travel between cities.
As much as they care about walking and eating healthily, a lot of people don’t apply the same healthy-living reasoning to smoking.
At any given time, at least 50% of the people around you will be wearing black. Starting in October, at least 50% of the people around you will be wearing black wool coats.
People here are serious about their trash sorting. Your cleaning lady will yell at you if you don’t sort correctly.
You don’t need to be afraid to wear a scarf and/or coat in September if you’re cold. Others will be wearing them too.
When talking about the weather, you don’t need to say that it’s windy. It’s like saying that it’s hot in Texas in July. It’s assumed.
To make a statement into a question, you can just add “or?” to the end.
If someone says they’re going to go party, don’t think they’re going to an actual party. They’re most likely just going to a bar or club.
The rest of the world really does use the metric system, just like your teachers always told you. Nobody will understand if you talk in miles, cups, pounds, or Fahrenheit. Just remember: 1 mile ≈ 1.5 kilometers, 1 cup ≈ ¼ liter, 1 pound ≈ ½ kilogram, and 80° F = 25° C, 32° F = 0° Celsius.
Europeans are too busy watching soccer and rugby to care about American football, baseball, or basketball (their loss).
While Austrians speak German, do NOT call them Germans. They hate it as much as Canadians hate being called Americans… even though they only didn’t become part of Germany after WWII because the Allies wouldn’t let them. Don’t mention that.
If you make a mistake speaking German, or even speak with an American accent, people will immediately start speaking to you in English. But if you actually ask them to speak English, they get huffy.
Groceries don’t have much besides groceries and bathroom necessities (shampoo, soap, diapers). Don’t think you can buy medicine, batteries, magazines, make-up, cleaning supplies, school supplies, toys, or greeting cards. God may know where you actually can buy batteries, cleaning/school supplies, or toys, but I surely don’t.
Some people get offended if you don’t know where their country is. Come on, like I actually need to know where Romania is!
Cashiers always seem a bit annoyed if you pay with a credit card.
If it says it costs 4,50 €, then that’s exactly what it costs - tax is already included! Waiters are therefore perfectly happy to split bills. Tipping is also not necessary.
Smiling at a stranger makes you stick out as an American. Or, if you’re a guy, it might make you look like a sexual predator.
Being asked for directions can be considered a compliment. If they ask in English, it’s especially fun to note their surprise when you reply in a fully American accent.
Little old ladies are usually not that nice. Sometimes they are scary and mean.
People here never work, unless you count those three hours four days a week as “work.”
Banks don’t really want to help you. That’s why they’re closed during lunch hours, after 3 pm, and all weekend. It’s also why the bankers are grumpy.
Customer service is usually not important.
Someone talking loud on the subway is either a teenager or a foreigner.
Teenagers must dye their hair black or platinum blonde and wear as much black as possible. Accessories must then be used to make teenagers look as emo/scene/punk/hard-core/goth as possible.
Anti-Semitism is rampant. Anti anti-Semitism is also rampant.
Turkish people are the European equivalent of Mexicans, and they are taking over.
Americans aren’t the only lazy people around. Yes, I’m talking to you, Mister I-Got-On-The-Subway-Just-To-Get-Off-One-Stop-Later.
Starbucks hot chocolate is just as bad in Vienna as it is in America. Good to know they all follow the same recipe, right? Also, Viennese Starbucks do not serve caramel apple cider because Austrians don’t even know what cider is.
While a 1 Euro coin is about the same size as a quarter, it is not even close to being worth the same.
Americans are expected to know all music that comes from a musician born in the States, as if we have the same taste in music (puhhh-lease). Americans should also know music from continental Europe (ha!).
It’s hard for Europeans to understand that most cities in America don’t have subways and trams, and even harder to understand that we don’t use trains to travel between cities.
As much as they care about walking and eating healthily, a lot of people don’t apply the same healthy-living reasoning to smoking.
At any given time, at least 50% of the people around you will be wearing black. Starting in October, at least 50% of the people around you will be wearing black wool coats.
People here are serious about their trash sorting. Your cleaning lady will yell at you if you don’t sort correctly.
You don’t need to be afraid to wear a scarf and/or coat in September if you’re cold. Others will be wearing them too.
When talking about the weather, you don’t need to say that it’s windy. It’s like saying that it’s hot in Texas in July. It’s assumed.
To make a statement into a question, you can just add “or?” to the end.
If someone says they’re going to go party, don’t think they’re going to an actual party. They’re most likely just going to a bar or club.
The rest of the world really does use the metric system, just like your teachers always told you. Nobody will understand if you talk in miles, cups, pounds, or Fahrenheit. Just remember: 1 mile ≈ 1.5 kilometers, 1 cup ≈ ¼ liter, 1 pound ≈ ½ kilogram, and 80° F = 25° C, 32° F = 0° Celsius.
Europeans are too busy watching soccer and rugby to care about American football, baseball, or basketball (their loss).
While Austrians speak German, do NOT call them Germans. They hate it as much as Canadians hate being called Americans… even though they only didn’t become part of Germany after WWII because the Allies wouldn’t let them. Don’t mention that.
If you make a mistake speaking German, or even speak with an American accent, people will immediately start speaking to you in English. But if you actually ask them to speak English, they get huffy.
Groceries don’t have much besides groceries and bathroom necessities (shampoo, soap, diapers). Don’t think you can buy medicine, batteries, magazines, make-up, cleaning supplies, school supplies, toys, or greeting cards. God may know where you actually can buy batteries, cleaning/school supplies, or toys, but I surely don’t.
Some people get offended if you don’t know where their country is. Come on, like I actually need to know where Romania is!
Cashiers always seem a bit annoyed if you pay with a credit card.
If it says it costs 4,50 €, then that’s exactly what it costs - tax is already included! Waiters are therefore perfectly happy to split bills. Tipping is also not necessary.
Smiling at a stranger makes you stick out as an American. Or, if you’re a guy, it might make you look like a sexual predator.
Being asked for directions can be considered a compliment. If they ask in English, it’s especially fun to note their surprise when you reply in a fully American accent.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Baby It's Cold Outside
I've fallen into some bad habits in regards to my sleep schedule. For much of the past week I have slept until noon. At least. On Thursday, I woke up at 1:25 PM... five minutes before I had to meet downstairs to go to business german! I just pulled on my clothes, threw my stuff into my bag, grabbed a slice of Tina's pizza from the night before, and ran out the door. Since then I've set my alarm for noon every day, but today I woke up earlier.
First I woke up at 8:30 by accident. I blame it on Tina's boyfriend (henceforth "The Boyfriend"). He was snoring like a freight train. Of course he didn't stop for a while, and by that time I was awake. I put on my headphones and listened to the (entire) soundtrack to LOTR: Return of the King (best. soundtrack. ever.). I finally fell back asleep, then woke up at 10:30. My intent there was to go down to the office before they went on lunch break. Ha, nice try Katie. The posted office hours here seem to be more of a loose guideline rather than times they will be open for sure. They're supposed to be there 9-12 in the morning, and I came at 11. Seriously, what's up with that?
Friday afternoon was pretty fun because Angélique, Raphaëlle, and I went to Lugner City to shop. I got a skirt at H&M to wear with my Halloween costume. We also went grocery shopping at the Penny Markt, which is the cheap grocery store. Not exactly the highest quality, but alright. I got this box of pizza baguettes for under €2, which was good for 3 meals.
Saturday, I worked long and hard on my paper for Export Marketing Management and busted the thing out, only taking a break to come downstairs to go potty (I was upstairs in the study room). It was supposed to be 1000-1200 words, but I did like 1350. He said he wouldn't count, though. That might be the first time since high school that I've written more than what I was told.
As a side note, I'd like to mention that I've been following the baseball playoffs as best I can. Meaning, I check who won the game every morning. I'm pulling for a Red Sox win in the world series (duh). I just wish I could figure out a way to watch the games... even if they start at 2 am my time.
Yesterday I did basically nothing. The thing is, there's nothing to do on Sundays anyway. You can't even go shopping. Plus it's cold outside (far colder than those lying weathermen say), so I don't want to go outside just to walk around. And until this morning I didn't know of a church that I could go to. I talked to my parents for an hour and mentioned to my mom that I didn't know of a church, so she looked one up on the internet. It's a non-denominational service in English, and doesn't start until noon! How great is that? Answer: pretty great.
I finally went to the post office today. I didn't go before because, even though I had bought a bunch of postcards, I hadn't actually written more than like two. I wrote a bunch last night, and they were all dated, so I really couldn't procrastinate much more. I was able to look up the location online, and there's one a few blocks away. The fool that I am, I walked. When I say it's cold, I mean, like, think of the coldest winter days in Austin, and that's what it's like here... in Autumn. Ok, it really wasn't all that cold, but it was windy. But it was close - I'm just a wimp. Anyway, being the stubborn mule that I am, I refused to even try speaking to the guy in German. Whatever, I'm just making it easier for both of us.
The post office is really close to the big shopping street Mariahilferstrasse, where I knew a large bookstore was (I looked it up online!), so I moseyed on down. Yay bookstores!!! I found the English section (quite large), which had a table of classic books for €3,95. I bought Gulliver's Travels and Emma, which are both on my list of books to read. I guess I'll go check to see if the office is open now...
First I woke up at 8:30 by accident. I blame it on Tina's boyfriend (henceforth "The Boyfriend"). He was snoring like a freight train. Of course he didn't stop for a while, and by that time I was awake. I put on my headphones and listened to the (entire) soundtrack to LOTR: Return of the King (best. soundtrack. ever.). I finally fell back asleep, then woke up at 10:30. My intent there was to go down to the office before they went on lunch break. Ha, nice try Katie. The posted office hours here seem to be more of a loose guideline rather than times they will be open for sure. They're supposed to be there 9-12 in the morning, and I came at 11. Seriously, what's up with that?
Friday afternoon was pretty fun because Angélique, Raphaëlle, and I went to Lugner City to shop. I got a skirt at H&M to wear with my Halloween costume. We also went grocery shopping at the Penny Markt, which is the cheap grocery store. Not exactly the highest quality, but alright. I got this box of pizza baguettes for under €2, which was good for 3 meals.
Saturday, I worked long and hard on my paper for Export Marketing Management and busted the thing out, only taking a break to come downstairs to go potty (I was upstairs in the study room). It was supposed to be 1000-1200 words, but I did like 1350. He said he wouldn't count, though. That might be the first time since high school that I've written more than what I was told.
As a side note, I'd like to mention that I've been following the baseball playoffs as best I can. Meaning, I check who won the game every morning. I'm pulling for a Red Sox win in the world series (duh). I just wish I could figure out a way to watch the games... even if they start at 2 am my time.
Yesterday I did basically nothing. The thing is, there's nothing to do on Sundays anyway. You can't even go shopping. Plus it's cold outside (far colder than those lying weathermen say), so I don't want to go outside just to walk around. And until this morning I didn't know of a church that I could go to. I talked to my parents for an hour and mentioned to my mom that I didn't know of a church, so she looked one up on the internet. It's a non-denominational service in English, and doesn't start until noon! How great is that? Answer: pretty great.
I finally went to the post office today. I didn't go before because, even though I had bought a bunch of postcards, I hadn't actually written more than like two. I wrote a bunch last night, and they were all dated, so I really couldn't procrastinate much more. I was able to look up the location online, and there's one a few blocks away. The fool that I am, I walked. When I say it's cold, I mean, like, think of the coldest winter days in Austin, and that's what it's like here... in Autumn. Ok, it really wasn't all that cold, but it was windy. But it was close - I'm just a wimp. Anyway, being the stubborn mule that I am, I refused to even try speaking to the guy in German. Whatever, I'm just making it easier for both of us.
The post office is really close to the big shopping street Mariahilferstrasse, where I knew a large bookstore was (I looked it up online!), so I moseyed on down. Yay bookstores!!! I found the English section (quite large), which had a table of classic books for €3,95. I bought Gulliver's Travels and Emma, which are both on my list of books to read. I guess I'll go check to see if the office is open now...
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
All These Things That I've Done
Since I last wrote...
I had my first international financial markets (IFM) class. Before the class started, there was basically no information about the class on the WU website. Just that it was a course in english, and the time and place. Not much help, right? So *after* I'm already registered for the class and at my first session, I find out that I'm supposed to have already taken finance. Oops. Annnd I am supposed to actually remember something from statistics. Double oops. But others in the class have the same problem, so at least there's that.
But before I even got to the class...
The classroom is in the building UZA 4. UZA 1 & 2 are the two closest buildings to the subway stop. To get to UZA 4 you go down this longggg walkway. Not a big deal, right? Like UT, right? No, wrong. It gets dark super early here... like 6 something. My class is at 7:30. The campus area is not well-lit at night. They keep like as few lights on as possible. Like all the lights in the buildings are off. So I'm walking down this long, dark walkway, by myself, in a foreign city, in the district that just so happened to have an attempted bombing a few weeks ago... And then in the actual building, of course it's all dim because these crazy Europeans with their trying to save energy turn off unnecessary lights. See where I'm going here? I was scared. As my sister said:
"i dont know why you're so worried katie. its not like there was a bomb threat at the embassy or some guy who was arrested for cannibalism after he ate his roommate in some hostel in vienna. it *seems* pretty safe right?? i mean if someone comes up to you while you're walking, they probably just want to be your friend."
Thursday was business german and the exchange student welcome party on a boat. I am such a hopeless The Office addict that every moment I was on that boat, I was thinking about the episode "Booze Cruise." Cause if our boat had been cruising on the water, that's exactly what it would have been. "It's a booze cruise!" "Alright!"
Friday and Saturday I did...
Um, nothing. It's becoming a bit of a trend for me. I just really enjoy doing nothing all day. Is that a sin? Well, actually, does that go under "sloth" of the seven deadly sins? Oh dear. Anyway, I have a dandy old time watching tv shows and movies on my computer. Plus, I've been reading a lot here. Like I just finished rereading A Tale of Two Cities, which has the amazing ability to both terrify me and make me cry. Oh, and make me terrified of French people. I think that was the main point of the story - Dickens wanted to make sure we all knew how scary French people are.
On Sunday I wrote my pre-course assignment for the block course Export Marketing Management that I had this week. I tried going to campus to print it, since I had an infomation paper about the computer labs stating that they were open "24 hours." Right. For future reference to anyone going to Austria, if something says "open 24 hours," it really means "open 24 hours... except Sunday." Or maybe it means open 24 hours during the whole week. Geez! Having a computer lab closed on a weekend day is unheard of back home. I also read some of the materials for the class, including a case study on the soccer club Real Madrid. Let me tell you, reading about the business behind a soccer club is even more boring than watching soccer.
Monday I had Export Marketing Management (EMM) from 9 until 5. Seriously. Ok, we actually had a 30 minute break in the morning, then 1.5 hours for lunch, and then another 30 minute break in the afternoon, so all in all, it was only 5.5 hours of class. Still long, though! That night I was so tired that I went to bed at 10... giving me plenty of sleep before going back to EMM 9-5 on Tuesday. In the afternoon we separated into groups to discuss a case study on the company Dandy and prepare a presentation. Do you see the fault here? Every group had to do a presentation on this case study... all 6 groups. Six presentations on the same thing. That's what we had to endure this morning for 3 hours. My group went first, though (luckily!), so I pretty much zoned out the rest of the morning.
Tuesday, though, after all day of class, I was feeling pretty tired. When I got home, my internet line wasn't working. It actually still isn't, but I'm using Tina's. After dinner, Alison and I went to look for the hausmeister (housemaster) to see if he could do anything about it, but, alas, Mr. Drunken Hausmeister (he's a notorious alcoholic) was nowhere to be found. THEN, a screw fell out of my glasses. I thought I was about to flip out and raise hell for all the things going wrong. Luckily, though, Alison suggested I join her and some friends to go to an ice cream shop downtown. I knew three of the girls already, so it was ok. I had a nice time being *not here*, and I didn't have to think about my internet or semi-blind or Tina's boyfriend, who is still living with us, even after I talked to her.
Whew, that was a good summary. I've got to go make dinner & go to IFM... in the cold darkness.
I had my first international financial markets (IFM) class. Before the class started, there was basically no information about the class on the WU website. Just that it was a course in english, and the time and place. Not much help, right? So *after* I'm already registered for the class and at my first session, I find out that I'm supposed to have already taken finance. Oops. Annnd I am supposed to actually remember something from statistics. Double oops. But others in the class have the same problem, so at least there's that.
But before I even got to the class...
The classroom is in the building UZA 4. UZA 1 & 2 are the two closest buildings to the subway stop. To get to UZA 4 you go down this longggg walkway. Not a big deal, right? Like UT, right? No, wrong. It gets dark super early here... like 6 something. My class is at 7:30. The campus area is not well-lit at night. They keep like as few lights on as possible. Like all the lights in the buildings are off. So I'm walking down this long, dark walkway, by myself, in a foreign city, in the district that just so happened to have an attempted bombing a few weeks ago... And then in the actual building, of course it's all dim because these crazy Europeans with their trying to save energy turn off unnecessary lights. See where I'm going here? I was scared. As my sister said:
"i dont know why you're so worried katie. its not like there was a bomb threat at the embassy or some guy who was arrested for cannibalism after he ate his roommate in some hostel in vienna. it *seems* pretty safe right?? i mean if someone comes up to you while you're walking, they probably just want to be your friend."
Thursday was business german and the exchange student welcome party on a boat. I am such a hopeless The Office addict that every moment I was on that boat, I was thinking about the episode "Booze Cruise." Cause if our boat had been cruising on the water, that's exactly what it would have been. "It's a booze cruise!" "Alright!"
Friday and Saturday I did...
Um, nothing. It's becoming a bit of a trend for me. I just really enjoy doing nothing all day. Is that a sin? Well, actually, does that go under "sloth" of the seven deadly sins? Oh dear. Anyway, I have a dandy old time watching tv shows and movies on my computer. Plus, I've been reading a lot here. Like I just finished rereading A Tale of Two Cities, which has the amazing ability to both terrify me and make me cry. Oh, and make me terrified of French people. I think that was the main point of the story - Dickens wanted to make sure we all knew how scary French people are.
On Sunday I wrote my pre-course assignment for the block course Export Marketing Management that I had this week. I tried going to campus to print it, since I had an infomation paper about the computer labs stating that they were open "24 hours." Right. For future reference to anyone going to Austria, if something says "open 24 hours," it really means "open 24 hours... except Sunday." Or maybe it means open 24 hours during the whole week. Geez! Having a computer lab closed on a weekend day is unheard of back home. I also read some of the materials for the class, including a case study on the soccer club Real Madrid. Let me tell you, reading about the business behind a soccer club is even more boring than watching soccer.
Monday I had Export Marketing Management (EMM) from 9 until 5. Seriously. Ok, we actually had a 30 minute break in the morning, then 1.5 hours for lunch, and then another 30 minute break in the afternoon, so all in all, it was only 5.5 hours of class. Still long, though! That night I was so tired that I went to bed at 10... giving me plenty of sleep before going back to EMM 9-5 on Tuesday. In the afternoon we separated into groups to discuss a case study on the company Dandy and prepare a presentation. Do you see the fault here? Every group had to do a presentation on this case study... all 6 groups. Six presentations on the same thing. That's what we had to endure this morning for 3 hours. My group went first, though (luckily!), so I pretty much zoned out the rest of the morning.
Tuesday, though, after all day of class, I was feeling pretty tired. When I got home, my internet line wasn't working. It actually still isn't, but I'm using Tina's. After dinner, Alison and I went to look for the hausmeister (housemaster) to see if he could do anything about it, but, alas, Mr. Drunken Hausmeister (he's a notorious alcoholic) was nowhere to be found. THEN, a screw fell out of my glasses. I thought I was about to flip out and raise hell for all the things going wrong. Luckily, though, Alison suggested I join her and some friends to go to an ice cream shop downtown. I knew three of the girls already, so it was ok. I had a nice time being *not here*, and I didn't have to think about my internet or semi-blind or Tina's boyfriend, who is still living with us, even after I talked to her.
Whew, that was a good summary. I've got to go make dinner & go to IFM... in the cold darkness.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
The long night of burnt schnitzel
Ok so I made it through my first school week here. And let me tell you, it was exhausting. That one class that I had to go to... whew! Haaaaaaa... I'm funny. No, really, it's been pretty good not having to go to class or work or orientation all the time. I mean, I don't know what to do with all my free time, but it's ok.
On Thursday I had my first class - Wirtschaftsdeutsch Level 4(b), aka business german. It's my only class that's in german, but that's ok because it's a foreign language course. Yay for taking a foreign language course in the country that the foreign language is spoken in! *Once again* I am the only American in the class of around 30. I really don't know if that's a good or bad thing. Angelique and Eva from the orientation business course and Diogo from my floor at Erasmus (we often cook at the same time) are all in my class. It was a three hour class, with no breaks, so that seemed like eternity. But it also seemed alright. I'll be ok.
Friday, I finally took the leap and bought a microphone headset for my computer so I can use skype. I talked to Amy and my mom during their lunches, and on Saturday I talked to my Dad for an hour during the OU game (insert sad face here), and I called Jason too. Sunday I got to talk to Odile and Hannah. I love being able to talk to people! It helps me to not feel like I'm half a world from everything and everyone I know.
Saturday was the big event Die Lange Nacht der Museen, or The Long Night of Museums. You just had to buy one ticket to a museum in the city, and then there were like 50 other museums you could go to for free using that one ticket. I went with Angelique and we met with some of her french friends. They all just spoke french in front of me, which made me think I should be trying to learn french here instead of german. The museums themselves weren't that great, and Angelique and I separated from her friends and went off trying to find a good museum. Too bad we ended up getting lost and it took us like 30 minutes to get back to where we had started. I mean, we had ended up at the Foltermuseum (Torture museum!) - AS IF! No way. After a while we gave up on museums, and ended up taking goofy pictures at the Stephansdom and Rathaus (which looked AWESOME at night).
The most interesting thing that happened to me today was when Alison (from across the hall) and I almost burned down the dorm. Alison had decided she wanted to make wienerschnitzel and potato salad, and asked if I wanted to help and split it. We started off pretty well, with the help of Will, and made two lovely schnitzel. Then, between the second and the third, the pot caught on fire. One second nothing. The next second WHOOSH - a huge fire. Of course Alison and I freaked out, not having a clue what to do. Will wasn't there with us, but this other guy was there, and he poured water in, despite our protests about mixing burning oil and water. Luckily for us, the fire went out. However, the formerly red pot was now black, both inside and out, and thoroughly destroyed. The smoke was so thick we had to stand in the hall or at the window for like 10 minutes and could barely see through the room. Somehow, though, the fire alarm didn't go off. All of the tables and the floor had a thin layer of ash. It was like a mini volcano! Alison and I laughed about it the whole rest of the time we were cooking. The funniest part was that the pot wasn't ours, but Will went to buy a new one and just replaced it. I hope the guy whose pot it is notices something weird, and is really confused.
But the food was good! Totally worth almost burnin' down the Haus.
Die Lange Nacht pictures here.
On Thursday I had my first class - Wirtschaftsdeutsch Level 4(b), aka business german. It's my only class that's in german, but that's ok because it's a foreign language course. Yay for taking a foreign language course in the country that the foreign language is spoken in! *Once again* I am the only American in the class of around 30. I really don't know if that's a good or bad thing. Angelique and Eva from the orientation business course and Diogo from my floor at Erasmus (we often cook at the same time) are all in my class. It was a three hour class, with no breaks, so that seemed like eternity. But it also seemed alright. I'll be ok.
Friday, I finally took the leap and bought a microphone headset for my computer so I can use skype. I talked to Amy and my mom during their lunches, and on Saturday I talked to my Dad for an hour during the OU game (insert sad face here), and I called Jason too. Sunday I got to talk to Odile and Hannah. I love being able to talk to people! It helps me to not feel like I'm half a world from everything and everyone I know.
Saturday was the big event Die Lange Nacht der Museen, or The Long Night of Museums. You just had to buy one ticket to a museum in the city, and then there were like 50 other museums you could go to for free using that one ticket. I went with Angelique and we met with some of her french friends. They all just spoke french in front of me, which made me think I should be trying to learn french here instead of german. The museums themselves weren't that great, and Angelique and I separated from her friends and went off trying to find a good museum. Too bad we ended up getting lost and it took us like 30 minutes to get back to where we had started. I mean, we had ended up at the Foltermuseum (Torture museum!) - AS IF! No way. After a while we gave up on museums, and ended up taking goofy pictures at the Stephansdom and Rathaus (which looked AWESOME at night).
The most interesting thing that happened to me today was when Alison (from across the hall) and I almost burned down the dorm. Alison had decided she wanted to make wienerschnitzel and potato salad, and asked if I wanted to help and split it. We started off pretty well, with the help of Will, and made two lovely schnitzel. Then, between the second and the third, the pot caught on fire. One second nothing. The next second WHOOSH - a huge fire. Of course Alison and I freaked out, not having a clue what to do. Will wasn't there with us, but this other guy was there, and he poured water in, despite our protests about mixing burning oil and water. Luckily for us, the fire went out. However, the formerly red pot was now black, both inside and out, and thoroughly destroyed. The smoke was so thick we had to stand in the hall or at the window for like 10 minutes and could barely see through the room. Somehow, though, the fire alarm didn't go off. All of the tables and the floor had a thin layer of ash. It was like a mini volcano! Alison and I laughed about it the whole rest of the time we were cooking. The funniest part was that the pot wasn't ours, but Will went to buy a new one and just replaced it. I hope the guy whose pot it is notices something weird, and is really confused.
But the food was good! Totally worth almost burnin' down the Haus.
Die Lange Nacht pictures here.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Rewind
Ok it's going to be a little difficult trying to fill in this whole past week, but I shall try my hardest!
Sunday our orientation group took a trip to Graz. The city is small, but nice, and like a trip to the past. It also reminds me of Salzburg, especially with the fort on top of the hill looking over the city.
Monday we went to the Ottakringer Brewery. It smelled awful, and the tour was long and boring, and I didn't enjoy the free beer because I don't like beer. Later that night we had a potluck dinner for Canada Anna's birthday. Obviously her real name isn't Canada Anna, but her roommate's name is Anne (pronounced Anna) and she's from Belgium, so there you go. It was amazing all the food that people brought and made. Tina (and I) made beef stroganoff, which turned out really well. There was pasta, pizza, apfelstrudel (yes, that's apple studel), chicken, and sooo much more. All delicious! It was the best meal I've had here.
Tuesday was the trip to the Austrian television station ORF. Most of the tour was rather boring, but we also got to mess around in a blue room. I wish we had just stayed in there the whole time!
Wednesday we went to the beautiful Schloss Schönbrunn. It was an imperial palace (which I seem to keep hearing all throughout Vienna). We got to have an audiotour instead of a guide (thank God!). Guided tours aren't good because the whole group can never hear the guide and then you can't go faster or slower than other people. One of the rooms we went through was the room that Mozart performed for the Empress in when he was a small boy. Yes, EVERYTHING revolves around Mozart - in the entire country. You'd think it was where he'd been born or died... oh wait, yeah, it is. After the audiotour, however, we got the chance to go out to the gardens/park. Oh my goodness! It was so beautiful. It was also enormous, and even had a zoo and a labyrinth. I didn't go to either of those, but I intend to.
Thursday was our exam in german class. It was stupid to even take a test in a class that really means nothing to me. It doesn't make a difference whether I pass or fail or even attend at all. Afterwards I skipped the trip to the Museums Quartier because I had not exactly heard rave reviews about the museum.
Friday was our trip to the Vienna State Opera. The building is lovely, and the hall is fantastic. We saw them setting up for the premiere of the Nutcracker, which I really want to go to! Standing room tickets to the opera only cost 2 € or 3,50 €, depending on where you are. That sounds alright to me! Oh yeah, if you didn't catch that, when they are using numbers, they replace commas with periods and vice versa. One thousand is 1.000, while one and a half is 1,50. Weird, huh? I think so, at least.
Saturday our group went to the town of Melk to take a tour of the abbey there. When you're sitting in the park, you can hear music playing. Guess who it's by? Duh. Mozart, of course. The abbey was really beautiful, with all the painted ceilings and such. And of course, the church had a marvelous organ. Maybe I can try to make it my goal to see as many organs as I can while I'm here. After that, we had lunch at a nice restaurant inside of a Best Western. Yes, that was not lost on me. It was really good, and more apfelstrudel! At least that's one local thing that I've eaten. No schnitzel yet, however. From there we went to a winery called the Loiseum. The tour was through the cellars, except they had set up all this really weird, random, and sometimes creepy things. It kinda freaked me out that we were underground the whole time. On the bus ride home, we did kareoke by country. Each nationality had to come up and sing a song by a performer from their country. The Belgians really got into it, but they made the Americans sing like three times because each one "didn't count." Actually, the last one was with the Canadian, and we sang Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On."
Yesterday (Sunday), I woke up to find Tina and her boyfriend... who is apparently staying with us for a while. How long? I don't know. Did I know he was coming? Not now. Am I a bit annoyed? You bet. I'm especially annoyed because I don't have orientation anymore or class yet, so I'm just sitting here with them. It's awkward! At least today I have to go take a(nother) german placement exam.
I haven't fully updated them yet, but pictures of Graz are here and Vienna here. I will edit this with a link to Melk also, when I get the chance.
Sunday our orientation group took a trip to Graz. The city is small, but nice, and like a trip to the past. It also reminds me of Salzburg, especially with the fort on top of the hill looking over the city.
Monday we went to the Ottakringer Brewery. It smelled awful, and the tour was long and boring, and I didn't enjoy the free beer because I don't like beer. Later that night we had a potluck dinner for Canada Anna's birthday. Obviously her real name isn't Canada Anna, but her roommate's name is Anne (pronounced Anna) and she's from Belgium, so there you go. It was amazing all the food that people brought and made. Tina (and I) made beef stroganoff, which turned out really well. There was pasta, pizza, apfelstrudel (yes, that's apple studel), chicken, and sooo much more. All delicious! It was the best meal I've had here.
Tuesday was the trip to the Austrian television station ORF. Most of the tour was rather boring, but we also got to mess around in a blue room. I wish we had just stayed in there the whole time!
Wednesday we went to the beautiful Schloss Schönbrunn. It was an imperial palace (which I seem to keep hearing all throughout Vienna). We got to have an audiotour instead of a guide (thank God!). Guided tours aren't good because the whole group can never hear the guide and then you can't go faster or slower than other people. One of the rooms we went through was the room that Mozart performed for the Empress in when he was a small boy. Yes, EVERYTHING revolves around Mozart - in the entire country. You'd think it was where he'd been born or died... oh wait, yeah, it is. After the audiotour, however, we got the chance to go out to the gardens/park. Oh my goodness! It was so beautiful. It was also enormous, and even had a zoo and a labyrinth. I didn't go to either of those, but I intend to.
Thursday was our exam in german class. It was stupid to even take a test in a class that really means nothing to me. It doesn't make a difference whether I pass or fail or even attend at all. Afterwards I skipped the trip to the Museums Quartier because I had not exactly heard rave reviews about the museum.
Friday was our trip to the Vienna State Opera. The building is lovely, and the hall is fantastic. We saw them setting up for the premiere of the Nutcracker, which I really want to go to! Standing room tickets to the opera only cost 2 € or 3,50 €, depending on where you are. That sounds alright to me! Oh yeah, if you didn't catch that, when they are using numbers, they replace commas with periods and vice versa. One thousand is 1.000, while one and a half is 1,50. Weird, huh? I think so, at least.
Saturday our group went to the town of Melk to take a tour of the abbey there. When you're sitting in the park, you can hear music playing. Guess who it's by? Duh. Mozart, of course. The abbey was really beautiful, with all the painted ceilings and such. And of course, the church had a marvelous organ. Maybe I can try to make it my goal to see as many organs as I can while I'm here. After that, we had lunch at a nice restaurant inside of a Best Western. Yes, that was not lost on me. It was really good, and more apfelstrudel! At least that's one local thing that I've eaten. No schnitzel yet, however. From there we went to a winery called the Loiseum. The tour was through the cellars, except they had set up all this really weird, random, and sometimes creepy things. It kinda freaked me out that we were underground the whole time. On the bus ride home, we did kareoke by country. Each nationality had to come up and sing a song by a performer from their country. The Belgians really got into it, but they made the Americans sing like three times because each one "didn't count." Actually, the last one was with the Canadian, and we sang Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On."
Yesterday (Sunday), I woke up to find Tina and her boyfriend... who is apparently staying with us for a while. How long? I don't know. Did I know he was coming? Not now. Am I a bit annoyed? You bet. I'm especially annoyed because I don't have orientation anymore or class yet, so I'm just sitting here with them. It's awkward! At least today I have to go take a(nother) german placement exam.
I haven't fully updated them yet, but pictures of Graz are here and Vienna here. I will edit this with a link to Melk also, when I get the chance.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Fast am Ende der Woche
This week has been busy and tiring, but altogether good. Tuesday afternoon we had this long, awfully boring information session about mostly things that we should already know, like how to register. I pity the person trying to register this week, only to find out that all the English classes are full.
The past three days my german classes have been awfully boring. One day we talked about egg donation, yesterday was energy (oil, wind, coal...), and today traffic. Seriously. Can we get any more boring??? I think not. I mean, I love talking about traffic or listening to traffic reports in Austin, but we were talking about increased truck traffic after the iron curtain (soviet empire) fell.
After german on Wednesday was the sign-up for all the trips through the Buddy Network. They had organized trips to Oktoberfest, Budapest, Prague, and two ski trips. There were only limited spots on each, and 450 of us, so... the line went down the stairs and out the front door before the sign-ups officially began. I'm like the sixth person on the Budapest wait list. They said it's very likely that I'll get to go, but it makes me nervous. I just want to go to Budapest! It's October 26-28.
Anyway, that line took forever, so it was like 2:15 before I got down here around Westbahnhof. Since I was *starving* (21 hours without food does that), I went to McDonalds. Whatever they say, I think Europeans like it as much as we do. I got two cheeseburgers for 2€. I never eat cheeseburgers at McDonalds, and I don't like ketchup, but I just scarfed those down.
Wednesday afternoon Tina took me to a mall that's right next to the Burggasse subway stop - which is the closest subway stop, meaning the mall is really close. I probably would have never noticed it, since that side of the street has lots of places like "Erotik Shop" and "Peep Show," so I don't like being over there. At the mall I had to buy a power cord for my laptop. I have a plug adapter, but my plug doesn't fit into the plug adapter. I also had hot chocolate (me) and coffee (Tina) because the high that day was like 60° F.
Thursday afternoon we had a tour through Swarovski crystal shop. I think they expected us to have heard of them before... but I definitely hadn't. Oh well. Then we took a tour of the first district aka the middle of the city. We saw several churches, and it seemed like every other building had a sign that said "Mozart did ____ here." Ok, thanks, we get it - Mozart lived in Vienna. There was also one for Franz Grillparzer, whom I quoted at Robert's memorial service. Most of the churches get to be a drag, but I never tire of looking at the grand organs they have. I've not yet been inside the St. Stephen's Cathedral, but I look forward to it. I bet the organ is beautiful. That tour took two hours and really wore me out, so I spent last night chilling out and watching One Tree Hill on dvd.
Today we had a lecture on government in Austria. I've never been able to understand exactly how these European parliaments are set up, and Austria seems especially confusing to me. President, Chancellor, 5 political parties, equal representation... It's all so confusing. And there was so much swapping of land in the 20th century in central Europe that it's mind-boggling. I also learned that Austria had been split into four the same way Germany had after WWII, and (like Berlin) all four were in Vienna. After the lecture, we went to the Parliament building. It's a beautiful building, with a very very strong Greek influence. If you look at my pictures you'll understand what I mean. The tour wasn't very exciting, but who would expect it to be?
Tomorrow we have the day off and I hope to go to the Albertina gallery. Sunday is Graz.
And, of course, you can look at all of my pictures here. I will work on captioning them, but it's very difficult because I don't know what all of it is. Bis später!
The past three days my german classes have been awfully boring. One day we talked about egg donation, yesterday was energy (oil, wind, coal...), and today traffic. Seriously. Can we get any more boring??? I think not. I mean, I love talking about traffic or listening to traffic reports in Austin, but we were talking about increased truck traffic after the iron curtain (soviet empire) fell.
After german on Wednesday was the sign-up for all the trips through the Buddy Network. They had organized trips to Oktoberfest, Budapest, Prague, and two ski trips. There were only limited spots on each, and 450 of us, so... the line went down the stairs and out the front door before the sign-ups officially began. I'm like the sixth person on the Budapest wait list. They said it's very likely that I'll get to go, but it makes me nervous. I just want to go to Budapest! It's October 26-28.
Anyway, that line took forever, so it was like 2:15 before I got down here around Westbahnhof. Since I was *starving* (21 hours without food does that), I went to McDonalds. Whatever they say, I think Europeans like it as much as we do. I got two cheeseburgers for 2€. I never eat cheeseburgers at McDonalds, and I don't like ketchup, but I just scarfed those down.
Wednesday afternoon Tina took me to a mall that's right next to the Burggasse subway stop - which is the closest subway stop, meaning the mall is really close. I probably would have never noticed it, since that side of the street has lots of places like "Erotik Shop" and "Peep Show," so I don't like being over there. At the mall I had to buy a power cord for my laptop. I have a plug adapter, but my plug doesn't fit into the plug adapter. I also had hot chocolate (me) and coffee (Tina) because the high that day was like 60° F.
Thursday afternoon we had a tour through Swarovski crystal shop. I think they expected us to have heard of them before... but I definitely hadn't. Oh well. Then we took a tour of the first district aka the middle of the city. We saw several churches, and it seemed like every other building had a sign that said "Mozart did ____ here." Ok, thanks, we get it - Mozart lived in Vienna. There was also one for Franz Grillparzer, whom I quoted at Robert's memorial service. Most of the churches get to be a drag, but I never tire of looking at the grand organs they have. I've not yet been inside the St. Stephen's Cathedral, but I look forward to it. I bet the organ is beautiful. That tour took two hours and really wore me out, so I spent last night chilling out and watching One Tree Hill on dvd.
Today we had a lecture on government in Austria. I've never been able to understand exactly how these European parliaments are set up, and Austria seems especially confusing to me. President, Chancellor, 5 political parties, equal representation... It's all so confusing. And there was so much swapping of land in the 20th century in central Europe that it's mind-boggling. I also learned that Austria had been split into four the same way Germany had after WWII, and (like Berlin) all four were in Vienna. After the lecture, we went to the Parliament building. It's a beautiful building, with a very very strong Greek influence. If you look at my pictures you'll understand what I mean. The tour wasn't very exciting, but who would expect it to be?
Tomorrow we have the day off and I hope to go to the Albertina gallery. Sunday is Graz.
And, of course, you can look at all of my pictures here. I will work on captioning them, but it's very difficult because I don't know what all of it is. Bis später!
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Intro to Vienna
Yes, yes, I have finally arrived in the (somewhat) beautiful city of Vienna, after waiting only two years.
The flight was rather long, naturally, and I didn't sleep much (of course). My partner from the buddy system, Eva, was also at the same time en route to Vienna from the States, so her mother picked me up. We went to their family home, where I talked to Eva's funny younger brother Andreas and we waited for Eva. Eva and Andreas both attend(ed) the American International School, so their English is almost native, and they understand slang and sayings. After Eva arrived, she drove me to my dorm, Haus Erasmus.
My dorm is not too bad - the beds aren't that small or bad, there's a huge desk along wall with two chairs per person, several shelves and cabinets and a wardrobe, and our own bathroom/shower. Each floor has a kitchen - but no microwave. But that's ok, really, because it's not like they have spaghettios or microwave meals anyway. And my roommate likes to cook and she's made me almost every meal since I've gotten here.
For pictures go here.
The flight was rather long, naturally, and I didn't sleep much (of course). My partner from the buddy system, Eva, was also at the same time en route to Vienna from the States, so her mother picked me up. We went to their family home, where I talked to Eva's funny younger brother Andreas and we waited for Eva. Eva and Andreas both attend(ed) the American International School, so their English is almost native, and they understand slang and sayings. After Eva arrived, she drove me to my dorm, Haus Erasmus.
My dorm is not too bad - the beds aren't that small or bad, there's a huge desk along wall with two chairs per person, several shelves and cabinets and a wardrobe, and our own bathroom/shower. Each floor has a kitchen - but no microwave. But that's ok, really, because it's not like they have spaghettios or microwave meals anyway. And my roommate likes to cook and she's made me almost every meal since I've gotten here.
Speaking of my roommate - her name is Tina. She is 24 and from Georgia the COUNTRY. She's loud and crazy.
We started german class/orientation yesterday. First we took a placement test, and I'm in an advanced class (level 4 out of 5) while I think most people are in beginner or advanced beginner (1&2 of 5). I'm the only American in my class, which makes me embarrassed (for my country) and proud (for me). The professor speaks in german the whole time, of course, and I understand most of it, probably because he is trying to speak clearly. The people on the street, on the other hand... let's just say they're not. It all sounds like garbled up words to me. I catch words and phrases.
The city is really amazing, though. And different. So different! For example:
>>On the Ubahn (subway) to the Uni, I pass at least 6 sex shops & strip clubs. Meaning there are at least 6 of these on a MAIN STREET, with nice BIG signs reading "Erotik Shop" or "Peep Show." Um, ew.
>>People here smoke. All. The. Time. I see like 14 year old kids walking down the street smoking.
>>U-bahn (subway). Strassenbahn (trams). Bus. That's just if you're going around in the city. The trams are kinda scary, though. I really feel like I'm going to get run down. It's also weird, because it's different from both Munich and Berlin, where the Ubahn is (duh) underground, while the Sbahn is on the ground but kinda like a train in America (not a tram).
>>People here smoke. All. The. Time. I see like 14 year old kids walking down the street smoking.
>>U-bahn (subway). Strassenbahn (trams). Bus. That's just if you're going around in the city. The trams are kinda scary, though. I really feel like I'm going to get run down. It's also weird, because it's different from both Munich and Berlin, where the Ubahn is (duh) underground, while the Sbahn is on the ground but kinda like a train in America (not a tram).
>>In Texas, sometimes you just smile at a person you walk past on the street. We're friendly. But here? Nuh uh! I've been told that the Viennese are cold people, where old ladies yell at kids on the bus.
>>Everything is closed all the time. Things close really early, like 4-6ish. And stores are closed on Sundays. People go strolling all down the shopping avenues and just look in the windows. Seriously! Restaurants are mostly open (thank God), and so is the gas station. The food stands on the street (Imbiss) and some of the stores in the larger train stations (like the Westbahnhof by my dorm) are also open, but for limited hours.
>>All the buildings are connected. You tell one building from the next by the change in color or even architecture. And I pass two huge gothic churches on my way to school, and there's another at the end of my street. Huge gothic churches, like the kind you visit when you want to be touristy - three of them! And that's not including St. Stephen's, which is the main one people visit. Actually, the churches are not connected to other buildings, so there's something.
>>Everything is closed all the time. Things close really early, like 4-6ish. And stores are closed on Sundays. People go strolling all down the shopping avenues and just look in the windows. Seriously! Restaurants are mostly open (thank God), and so is the gas station. The food stands on the street (Imbiss) and some of the stores in the larger train stations (like the Westbahnhof by my dorm) are also open, but for limited hours.
>>All the buildings are connected. You tell one building from the next by the change in color or even architecture. And I pass two huge gothic churches on my way to school, and there's another at the end of my street. Huge gothic churches, like the kind you visit when you want to be touristy - three of them! And that's not including St. Stephen's, which is the main one people visit. Actually, the churches are not connected to other buildings, so there's something.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Packing
Packing is difficult.
I know anybody who has ever traveled somewhere for longer than two days knows that, but it's especially hard when you're going to be gone for four months. And if your destination has a cooler climate than where you're coming from? Hopeless. I have no clue how many sweaters and jackets I should bring! If I bring too few, I'll wear the same clothes over and over, but if I bring too many, then they're just taking up space in my (already crammed) suitcase.
I could get along perfectly well in an Austin winter with two sweaters, six long-sleeved shirts, and a few hoodies. But Vienna? It actually snows there - more than once every three years. How absurd!
My shirts have made this nice, tall pile in my suitcase. Is this really going to work? I tried out some travel space bags. It's quite impressive when you roll out all the air and everything's all squished in there. That is, until you look at the bag 30 seconds later and notice that the bag has filled with air again and your clothes shifted around and expanded. Spectacular. I can at least use them like giant ziplock bags so I don't have security guards pawing through my underwear.
Actually, I think shirts are all I can handle tonight. I'll try for more (shoes, jammies, socks, etc) later.
I know anybody who has ever traveled somewhere for longer than two days knows that, but it's especially hard when you're going to be gone for four months. And if your destination has a cooler climate than where you're coming from? Hopeless. I have no clue how many sweaters and jackets I should bring! If I bring too few, I'll wear the same clothes over and over, but if I bring too many, then they're just taking up space in my (already crammed) suitcase.
I could get along perfectly well in an Austin winter with two sweaters, six long-sleeved shirts, and a few hoodies. But Vienna? It actually snows there - more than once every three years. How absurd!
My shirts have made this nice, tall pile in my suitcase. Is this really going to work? I tried out some travel space bags. It's quite impressive when you roll out all the air and everything's all squished in there. That is, until you look at the bag 30 seconds later and notice that the bag has filled with air again and your clothes shifted around and expanded. Spectacular. I can at least use them like giant ziplock bags so I don't have security guards pawing through my underwear.
Actually, I think shirts are all I can handle tonight. I'll try for more (shoes, jammies, socks, etc) later.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Pre-Departure
Hello, friend! I have created this blog here so I can tell everyone about my comings and goings as I spend the Fall 2007 semester abroad in Vienna, Austria, studying at the Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien (Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration).
I have not yet arrived in (or left for) Vienna. I depart on September 14 (at 1 p.m. CST) and arrive September 15 (at 10:05 a.m. CET).
Ok, I don't have much more to say yet, so I'm going to go work on my packing!
I have not yet arrived in (or left for) Vienna. I depart on September 14 (at 1 p.m. CST) and arrive September 15 (at 10:05 a.m. CET).
Ok, I don't have much more to say yet, so I'm going to go work on my packing!
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