Feel the burn!

Sorry for the delay - We've been having some internet problems this weekend and our host mom is gone until Sunday so I'm at a coffee shop called "Mokador" that's a short walk from the flat. ANYWAY, now onto what you've all been waiting for: SKIING!

From Laura in Vienna, Spring 2009

Here's a picture of the lodge up at the top of the mountain. This isn't the very top but just about. There's a big cafeteria inside and everything looked pretty new (More on my lunch, later...). As you can see, it was pretty busy. I'm not sure if it's always busy or just because it was a Friday but it was bearable - certainly not what we're used to back at home. I guess I took it for granted, before!

My ticket was from Südbahnhof to Semmering and back with one transfer towards the end. The transfer was simple enough - from platform 1a to 1b (just had to walk up to the train in front of the train I was in.) After we got out of the city a bit, almost all the people in the train were skiers with their skis/snowboards and all their ski gear on so I knew I was headed in the right general direction. Some people even had their ski boots on from the begining of the train ride! I might not use my bag if I go here again because most people just carried their skis around with them everywhere. We got to the "Semmering" train station and much to my dismay, NOBODY got off!! I just froze, not sure what to do... so the train took off again and I was telling myself, "Damnit that was definitely my stop! Now I'm going to have to get off at the next one and wait for a train back the other direction." But I decided to wait it out and see where all these other people were going. Two stops later there was another Semmering - Spital am Semmering - and everyone got off so I followed suit. There was a van waiting for us at the train station to take us about 2km down to the base of the lift.

I put my gear on, found a place for my ski bag and got a keycard at the ticket counter. This is one aspect of skiing here that needs to be implemented back home! Instead of individuals standing in the lift lines scanning lift tickets, there's an automatic scanner that allows you to pass through when your keycard is successfully scanned. You can put it in your pocket and it is still able to read it so you just walk through and the little gate opens for you automatically. DUH!

The lifts were all 4-person or more and really fast! A couple of them had sheilds you could put down if the weather was crappy or something. Lucky for me there was just a little fog in some areas and mostly sunny all day!

For lunch I ate up top and had Wiener Schnitzel with french fries. It's not burgers and fries here, it's Wiener Schnitzel and fries! AND the beer is cheaper than soda or water so of course I washed down my meal with a refreshing Ottakringer, one of Vienna's biggest and well-known breweries. I brought my own water bottle so don't worry, I was plenty hydrated.

After lunch I had a few more hours before the lifts closed at 16:00. I tried to make the most of them but my legs were mad at me for not skiing in three weeks and I was struggling! When I tried to navigate my way back down, I somehow found myself to a different parking lot... so up again a went to try again! Found it the second time and we had to take a lift off the mountain, a lot like Silver Mountain's gondola, back to the parking lot where my shuttle would take me to the train station.

I got there a little early so the van driver suggested I take the next train to Mürzzuschlag, one stop further, to catch a direct route to Vienna. It worked out perfectly but when the ticket man came to check my tickets he said I needed to buy a ticket from Semmering to Mürzzuschlag - it was €1.80 and I kind of laughed.

I got home safe and sound around dinner time. I cooked up a little "instant" pasta. Just pour it into some boiling water for about 5 minutes and there's dinner!

Last night I navigated the night bus system all around town. It's a pretty good feeling knowing you can get just about anywhere in Vienna at any time of the day or night. Love it! I met up with Max (the German skier I met at Flex a while back) to hang out and say goodbye. The quarter is over for University of Vienna students so their break starts this weekend. I believe they have a week of holiday. But Max was only here for one quarter so he's going back to Munich to work! Anyway, we're going to try to make plans to meet up in Laax, Switzerland at the European Open in March.

Aaron is in Paris this weekend visiting a friend and watching more European soccer. We don't really have cell phone contact because it's expensive outside of Austria so I hope he's doing okay!

I posted more pictures of skiing in the Vienna Photos album so you can check those out. Hopefully we'll have internet by Sunday night or Monday at least!

Thanks for the e-mails! :)

Skiing at last!

On Friday at 7:00 I will be headed, by train, to Semmering, Austria for a skiing day-trip at Stuhleck! My ticket was a special combination with round-trip transportation (including train transport from Südbahnhof to Semmering and a bus from the train station directly to the lift) AND a full day life ticket - all for just €50! The ski resort is not one of the huge, famous resorts of Austria but it's a popular spot for the Viennese locals and only about an hour away by train. Still trying to figure out what to do with my skis or where to put them on the train. But I will DEFINITELY be taking pictures on the mountain!

I'm still in the process of planning my other skiing adventures and the hardest part will be deciding which resorts to go to because there are SO MANY good ones! Lodging is my biggest road-block because staying on the mountain is, obviously, SUPER expensive and not all the small ski-towns have hostels or cheaper places to stay. Laax is basically confirmed because I have a couple different options there but St. Moritz has turned into a problem because I can't find available lodging for the entire weekend. I don't really want to show up and realize there's nothing under €400 a night. I'm thinking St. Anton for the first weekend in February but again, I need to find some cheap lodging before I can commit! Kitzbühel, Hintertux and Hallstatt are also in the running for some weekend skiing. I will keep you updated...


Andy Roddick is making a comeback against Roger Federer in the Australian Open semi-finals this morning. I set my alarm for 9:30 so I could watch it live on EuroSport. I'm not too fond of the announcers and it's making me miss the McEnroe brothers!

I woke up to snow today but there's not a lot on the ground, less than an inch. It hasn't been lasting too long, maybe a day or two, because the weather has warmed to the 35s and 40s this past week. My boots are perfect, though, and I have no complaints. Super comfy and super warm!

We have a little German quiz this afternoon - introductions, numbers and "I am," "he is," "we are," "they are," etc. Shouldn't be too difficult. After that, our music class is going to the Mozart museum for a little tour. Then it's weekend time! Probably going to take it easy and hang out around here. I still have a lot of exploring in Vienna to do. :)

I suppose that's all the news. GO ANDY!!

Finally - the Prague adventure revealed!

Guten Tag! I finally have some time to sit and write - I've been pretty busy lately. I hope you enjoyed looking at some of the pictures, in the mean time. So here goes...

We arrived in Prague around 10:30am - four girls and two boys. When we got off the train, three of the girls decided to split off and do their own thing. Myself, Aaron and the other guy, Will, already had reservations at Sir Toby's but the other girls didn't so they were going to try to find a different one to stay at for some reason. I have no idea why but whatever. So the three of us went to the hostel to get rid of our things and lock them up there. The front desk guy was super nice and had maps and information all ready for us about where to go and what to see, along with what trams went where, etc. The hostel was very cozy, as you might have noticed from the pictures, with clean bathrooms and a nice, big kitchen. We spent the afternoon walking around Prague. Aaron had done some reading to figure out what the best things to see were and also had some background information for us about a lot of the attractions. Almost the entire city had cobblestone streets so it really had an OLD city feel. Our first stop was a huge museum with just about everything you could imagine. We spent a few hours there and still didn't really see all of it! After the museum we checked out some cool towers and the main city square, Old Town Square. It was starting to get dark so we decided to head back to the hostel and pick up some dinner on the way. We cooked spaghetti in the hostel kitchen that night. After careful consideration in the grocery store, we chose some spaghetti sauce made by Heinz. When we opened up the can to put on our spaghetti noodles, it was a can of pre-made spaghetti!! We took the noodles out and poored what little sauce was left onto our noodles. It tasted like spaghettios... but it was food! There was quite a crowd in the kitchen with us, eating and cooking, so it was easy to start conversation with some new people. We met a Canadian from Calgary, an Argentine from Buenos Aires, an Australian girl from the Sydney area and an old Swedish guy who was really nice and full of information about all his traveling.

While we were talking in the kitchen, we watched in disbelief as a bunch of AHA students walked by the window. There were about 5 of them who were supposed to go to Brno, southern Czech Republic, just for the day or one night, I can't remember. So they showed up in the kitchen with an interesting story:

Apparently they had a train transfer they didn't know about and two or three hours into the trip someone started to realize that they should have been in Brno by now. They found a train attendent who laughed and told them, "Warsaw is nice, too! We are almost to Poland!" So the group decided to get off and either go back or take a train West to Prague and meet up with us. They opted for the latter and there they were!



We relocated to the bar downstairs in the hostel and stayed there just talking and laughing for the rest of the night. It was a great night for all of us!

Our rooms were the cheapest available at the hostel, a 10 bed dorm room. They were pretty basic but the linens were clean and comfy and there were plenty of showers and sinks for everyone in the evening and in the morning. There was also plenty of locker space - I'm SO glad Megan told me to get a lock! (Just so happened there is a lock/key store between my homestay here and the U-Bahn station I go to everyday!) Anyway, I was really impressed with the hostel, especially since our rooms were only 250 Koruny a night which is less than $12 or €9!

Saturday morning we did more walking and touring of sites. Basically all day, every day we were walking around the city exploring. We climbed just about every tower and entered just about every church we encountered. Europe has some mind-blowing churches, let me tell you...

Saturday night I made kielbasa for the three of us and again we hung out in the kitchen talking with other guests until 9 or 10pm when we migrated down to the bar for more conversation.

On Sunday we had to be out of our rooms by 11am so we packed everything up and locked up so we could walk around in the city again. We headed to an old Jewish cemetery with a small Holocaust museum attatched. It didn't have the same effect as Washington, D.C.'s but it was pretty good. We randomly ran into a friend from the hostel in Old Town Square and went to lunch at a traditional Czech cuisine restaurant - it was tasty! After lunch we headed back to the hostel to check e-mail and gather our things for the train ride home. Departure was at 17:30 and we got in right at 22:00 (10pm).

So that was our trip in a nutshell! We ran into the girls a couple other times but they were more interested in boys than anything else so we didn't hang out with them much. Some people were dissapointed that we didn't go out and get crazy since it was PRAGUE but I'm really glad we just stayed low-key. I can go out and party anywhere so my #1 priority was seeing the city and getting a feel for the Czech Republic. I'm happy we didn't have to worry about where the "best" place to party was and we had tons of fun in the hostel, anyway.

Prague, Czech Republic

I'm in Prague! We've been pretty busy but this place is amazing! The hostel is great and we've spent two days walking around with still plenty to see. I'll post all my pictures when I get back to Wien. We're leaving tomorrow at 17:30 so I should be home around 22:00 or 22:30. Expect some postcards!

Exciting day!

Today we visited a good friend of our music teacher who is an antique piano restorer! We got to look at all these old pianos (like from the 1800s!!) and hear how different they all sounded. It's pretty amazing how much variation there used to be - now a days, he explained to us, pianos are all built pretty much the same and have little character.




I can't remember what is name was but he was in the process of building a piano, a version more similar to a harpsichord, that would be played in the main music hall of The Musikverein! Pretty cool stuff. Today was my favorite "school trip" so far. I kept thinking, "Oooh, Mom would be so jealous!" Aaron even said today that maybe she should have just come along because I've been saying that a lot! By the way, that is Aaron in the upper right.

We also has a school trip to a Jewish Temple that was the only one left standing in Vienna after WWII. The temple had been "camouflaged" in a way because the city of Vienna allowed them to construct it as long as it didn't look like a Jewish Temple. So instead of a massive stand-alone building, the temple was actually inside a normal Viennese-style building. This is the main reason the temple was spared in the war because not many people knew it was there.

A few thoughts on being an American in Austria: In the beginning I just wanted to blend in and "be a local" and I would get frustrated because most of the time it was still obvious to many people that I wasn't from around here. Guys selling stuff in the U-Bahn stations would say, "Hello, it is nice to meet you!" and, "Hi, how are you?!" without any of us even uttering a word! Now that I've had some time to think about it, I think it's pretty neat that the American style and culture is so apparent overseas. I like that our bright ski jackets and backpacks have become a symbol of the American youth and I'm proud to walk the streets flaunting my unique, American style.

I'm also still on the hunt for dill weed and an Asian grocery store...

Prague tomorrow morning, I'd better start packing! I'll send some postcards!

United Nations Vienna, the highlight of my trip! ...Just kidding!!

From Laura in Vienna, Spring 2009

From Laura in Vienna, Spring 2009

Well I had one class today and then we had a class trip to the United Nations building here in Vienna. It was cool to see one of the headquarter buildings but we didn't get to spend much time roaming around and our two lecturers were 1) Boring and 2) Full of s***. Haha but of course it was an experience and I'm glad we had the opportunity to go.


Anyway, another quiet night for me. Class tomorrow at 9am! Tchüss!

An Evening with Mozart & Beethoven

(I just added a couple pictures to this post.)



Aaron and I spent our Sunday evening at The Musikverein in the city center. (A small change of plans from the hockey game!) The following was our concert program:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:

From Laura in Vienna, Spring 2009

Ouverture zur Oper „Lucio Silla“, KV 135
Alma grande e nobil core. Arie für Sopran und
Orchester, KV 578
Giunse al fin il momento. Arie der Susanna aus
der Oper „Die Hochzeit des Figaro“, KV 492
„Temerai…come scoglio“ aus der Oper
„Così fan tutte“, KV 588
Parto, parto, ma tu, ben mio. Arie des Sesto aus
der Oper „La clemenza di Tito“, KV 621
Ludwig van Beethoven:
Symphonie Nr. 7 A-Dur, op. 92

Maybe Mom can interpret that!! There were a couple that I really liked and the singer was incredible! I think Aaron was even able to enjoy it. The cost was €5 for standing room only but we were able to sit on the floor about half the time so it wasn't bad.

For the music class we have to do a short report on a concert or Opera of your choice and also a report on a composer. I was assigned Beethoven so I have to write a paper about him! There are quite a few concerts/operas/musicals to choose from but one of my friends wanted to see The Magic Flute so I might go to that. I think I've heard of it but I don't know anything about it. Anyone want to fill me in?? :)

I went to the grocery store for the FIRST time today! That is probably a bad thing but they are so tiny here and it isn't any fun when you have no idea what anything is. But I managed and I should have plenty of food here for a while. I got sandwich items so I can pack a lunch, too.

Aaron and I booked our train tickets to Prague. We'll be leaving Friday morning at 6AM!! Aaron has soccer practice until 19:30 Thursday night so we decided just to leave early in the morning and try to sleep on the train - that way we won't have to pay for another night at the hostel. (Sir Toby's) We should get to Prague around 10:30AM. We reserved the cheapest rooms and our round-trip train ticket was only €80 total so I think we're traveling fairly cheap.

I keep forgetting to fill you in on Aaron's soccer situation since you might be wondering why he has actual PRACTICE! He is a goalkeeper on his college soccer team in Ohio and wanted to participate in a study abroad program to pursue a position with a semi-professional or professional soccer team here in Europe. He contacted some teams in Vienna and arranged for a try-out and got on one of the semi-pro teams here! So now he has practice 6 days a week with the exception of some pre-excused weekends for our program trips. But we're all really excited for him and will hopefully be able to watch him play in some games, soon!

Anyway, so we're trying to get some other people to come to Prague with us but we didn't want to wait around with the tickets so we just booked everything for ourselves. It sounds like a couple more students will join.

I'm looking forward to a quiet night tonight! Tomorrow I have Music, German and Psychology. I feel like I'm never going to learn German because it's so overwhelming but I think I'm starting to pick up on some things. Hopefully the huge learning curve will start to kick in! I have plenty of time!

Samstag Nacht

Well Mom will be happy to hear that my Saturday night was not as eventful as Friday. I went to Aaron and Mark's homestay for spaghetti and we just hung out and talked about life and travel plans. After a few hours we decided to go walk around the neighborhood and do more exploring. When I was too tired to stay up and longer I decided to head home, but had to use the night bus! So we figured out I needed bus 67 and I could catch it about 5 blocks away. Didn't have any trouble finding it and when I got on I sat next to a couple of guys and told them it was my first time on the night bus and I wanted to get off at Südtiroler Platz. They told me it was one stop before there's and they would tell me when. So we had a short little conversation about where I was from and what I was doing here and then it was time for me to get off. It stopped pretty close to my homestay and I didn't have any trouble finding my way back from there. So proud!

Vienna Capitols hockey game tonight - I have to try not to spend all my money on hockey! But these games are only €11 for standing room so I should be okay.

First BIG night out!

Well I don't have any good pictures for this post but the story is pretty interesting! Most of the group met up at a brewpub called 1516 for drinks around 21:30 or 22:00. Because there wasn't enough room for all of us to sit together at one table, (there were about 14 of us) we split into two groups. I went upstairs with Aaron, Mark and Paige and the four of us had shared five pitchers by the end of our night there! Although Aaron told us he wasn't going to drink much because of a soccer game he had the next morning, for whatever reason something clicked and he decided he was going to chug the rest of the beer he was drinking, buy and consume three shots of Jäger, tell us all, "Goodnight, see you tomorrow!" and finally chug a second beer. We then busted out Aaron's camcorder and documented the after effects so hopefully we'll get that uploaded soon.

I heard some native English speakers behind me at some point during the night and asked them where they were from. One was from New York and one was from Ohio but the entire group was a part of the IES Study Abroad program, one that I looked into. I decided not to do it because it was a lot more expensive than the others but after talking with them a bit about it, I'm REALLY glad I didn't do it. Their group is over 100 kids! Our group has 17!

A few hours later we decided to migrate to a club called Flex - said to be one of the more popular clubs in Wien. We had to catch the U-Bahn before the last run of the night at 23:30! Aaron and Mark decided to call it a night and headed home but I went the other direction to Flex. I came out of the U-Bahn station and started walking the wrong direction. (I was given some horrible directions!) But someone came up to me while I was trying to text for better directions and said something in German. "Sprechen Sie Englisch?" I said. He responded in English and asked what I was doing standing all alone and I said, "Flex?" He pointed me in the right direction and Flex was only a few blocks down the river. "Danke Schön!"

The club was dark and smokey but FINALLY we were in a place with a lot of young people. I grabbed a bottled beer and started chit-chatting with some locals. Most of the young people spoke decent English but I did encounter some that were not very good at all! After some talking our group of Americans (now down to about 5) decided to hit the dance floor. It was pretty chaotic! I met a guy from Germany who took me up to the stage to dance! We were up in front of everyone, just dancing and having a good time. He was a skier and was pretty impressed that I skied, too! After a while the other kids in our group started to leave, one by one. Then the bouncers started kicking people out for the night. I went with my new friends to the U-Bahn station where I thought we were going to wait for the Nächt Bus (Night Bus - Some of the tram lines turn into bus routes that go all night long. I'm still trying to master this schedule, though)... Turns out it was about 4:30AM and we were waiting for the U-Bahn to open up again at its regular 5AM start time! Apparently that's how everyone does it around these parts. So I ended up getting home about 5:30 this morning. Hopefully that won't become a regular occurrence.

Tonight we're going to try to find some different bars and do more exploring. There is another club called B72 that we're going to try. All the young people come out of the woodwork on Friday and Saturday night so it was nice to see more kids our age on the U-Bahn and walking around the city. Wish us luck! :)

More Photos

Here is a link to my Facebook photo album for Vienna that will be updated regularly. I can't really post all of my pictures on this blog so this is one way you can see all the pictures I take. You can view the album without being a member of Facebook by clicking below:

Some Pictures from in and around Vienna

The Klosterneuburg Monestary

Today we traveled to The Klosterneuburg Monastery just north of Wien. It didn't seem to take long to get there but I had to take the U-Bahn all the way to the end of one line, then we met with Frauke and got on a bus that took us even further north, all the way to Klosterneugurg. The monastery was INCREDIBLE and I actually managed to take some pictures!
























The existence of the monastery was first documented in 1108. Our guided tour included places inside that the average tourist could not gain access. It was pretty amazing looking at a wall said to be over 1000 years old. We saw original paintings of the first-ever depiction of the city of Vienna, eye-glasses and metal. (Artists before that time didn't know how to paint a picture of metal using shading/light, etc.)

Here's a shot of our group in one of the smaller chambers of the monastery. This was definitely one of those places you have to see in person to get the whole feel. The sheer size and attention to decorative detail was astonishing. Needless to say, everyone in our group was blown away!






The area near the monastery is wine country, so of course there was an old winery on-site. We gazed upon the country's largest wine barrel - 56,000 liters!!

From Laura in Vienna, Spring 2009

After we toured the monastery we went to a Heuriger for food. Heurigers are essentially wineries that offer food and spirits. There are many throughout the small towns around Wien because of all the vineyards. Wien is fairly well-known for their wine and now I know why! The wine here is superb!

I haven't been keeping up with my daily postings but I will keep trying! Thanks for reading.

Boring Days

I didn't write yesterday because not much really happened... and today was pretty bland, as well. It's hard for me to say that without feeling a little guilty because I'm in VIENNA, AUSTRIA right now!! And while not many "notable events" took place the last couple of days, the daily travels to and from class are always enjoyable as there is still so much to see. There are quite a few different options as far as transportation to the school is concerned and we have yet to discover them all. For instance bus, tram (street car) and/or Ü-Bahn (underground train).

But you might be somewhat interested in the days happenings so I will try to write about them in a nutshell. Paige and I slept in until about 10:30 since we didn't have class until 13:30. Once we got there we went to a youth center near the main area of town where young people are offered all kinds of free information about where things are and what to do in Vienna. We also learned it was a good place to buy cheap concert tickets. From there, Paige and I went to a small restaurant for a soup dinner and after that we split off to do other things. I went to the store to purchase a few things like shampoo, conditioner, soap and a washcloth. (Apparently most people around these parts do not use a washcloth!) I came home and relaxed for the rest of the night.

This morning, Paige and I had class at 9:00 - Music in Vienna. This class seems like it will be mostly about music history and theory but our instructor, Solvik, did play (literally, like on the piano next door to our classroom!) some peices for us in attempt to demostrate the differences in musical eras. For example music from the Classical era compared to music from the Romantisicm era. Some students in the class have NO musical background so it should be interesting! For lunch I went with Jeff and Aaron to the Universität Wien cafeteria for a filling, yet inexpensive lunch among many Austrian students. After lunch we had round two of Beginning German class where we learned basic introductions, how to say where you are from and where you live and what languages you can speak. There are about six student in the class and Frauke, our instructor, is very fun! The next class was Psychology in Vienna and although rather dull today due to the need for a background and history lesson before getting into the real material, I have a feeling it will be very interesting. I think we will be doing a lot of class discussion from now on. Our instructor has a thick accent but it is fun to listen to her.

Tonight I am going over to Aaron and Mark's homestay where Mark is going to cook us an authentic Russian soup for dinner. He was having trouble finding chicken broth but I think one of the instructors was able to point him in the right direction. (Cubes, right!?)

Tomorrow I have European Cities from 9:00 to 11:00 and then I'm done! Not sure what I'm going to do with my free time, yet. Hopefully take some pictures for everyone!!

I have changed my Facebook to Deutsch so everything is in German, now. Full immersion! :)

Hockey Night in.... Austria!?

Of course I looked up the local hockey team here in Vienna and found it home to the Capitals, a member of the ERSTE (means 'first' - thanks Mom!) Bank league.

From Laura in Vienna, Spring 2009

As it turns out, Doug Lynch - former Spokane Chief and British Columbia native - now plays for this team! I vaguely recall hearing something about him playing in Austria when I was in high school but hadn't really thought about it until I looked up the player roster and saw his name. Pretty random! So a couple AHA friends and I headed to the rink tonight for some good ol' Austrian hockey. The "Caps" beat Slovakian team Jesenice 4-3 in overtime. Maybe next week we will go and stay afterward to try to talk to Doug!

In other news, one of the AHA students here is first cousins with Sasha Cohen.

This morning, Paige and I woke up to the sound of children playing and laughing. I stepped outside the room to find this:

Just like home back in the old days! Irmtraut had her 3 grandchildren over for their Sunday visit. They live in a different area of Vienna.

I'm sure you're interested in our night last night. It was kind of a bust... a lot of the students decided they were too tired to go do anything! So Paige and I ended up walking around our neighborhood in attempt to A) Get to know the place, and B) Possbilly/Hopefully find a place to hang out. The closest we came was a gay bar with "MEN ONLY" written in English on the door. Oh well!

First day of classes tomorrow. Paige and I are not in the Human Rights course that meets at 9:00 tomorrow morning so we don't have to arrive at the school until 13:30. That will be nice!

More pictures!

Our host mom, Irmtraut, has a piano!! Big thanks to the homestay coordinator for placing us according to our hobbies and interests. There is also a small community ice rink outside in the park next to us!


Here is the group, minus a couple students in the corner that I couldn't fit in the picture. We are eating at a restaurant called the Rosenburg Market. It is a popular restaurant chain, buffet-style, in Austria. Many of the students are from the Portland area but there are also students from California, Nevada and Ohio.

Today we did a lot of walking around in the main city center. We saw the stables where the famous Lipizzaners are kept (right in the middle of the city!) and a lot of giant churches, court yards and old emperor quarters. I didn't take any pictures even though I told myself I had to... but I plan on going back on my own or with one or two others to get a closer look at everything. I will take pictures then, I promise!

Tonight will be our first night out because we have tomorrow off! A friend I met in Vernon, BC came to Austria a couple years ago and has some contacts here. He gave me his friend's contact information and we chatted online a bit last night about where some good places to go are... Hehe, should be interesting.

I forgot to tell you a pretty funny story from our first day here. One of the girls in our group, Maria, had to visit the hospital the day she got here because her hand fell asleep on the airplane and never woke up! She was freaking out a little bit but the doctor apparently wasn't too surprised and explained that it happens all the time. He gave her a splint and said she'll need to wear it for 2-4 WEEKS! The feeling in her hand still hasn't started to come back, yet... how crazy!

I will be sure to fill you in tomorrow on tonight's adventures. Good morning to everyone back home! :)

Home Sweet Home

My new roommate, Paige, and I are finally unpacking in our new home away from home on Hauslabgasse. It is much larger than I thought it would be and our host mom is extremely nice. She knows English fairly well but I requested she speak lots of German so I can learn faster!

Today the students gathered in our classroom for the first day of orientation. We learned a bit of basic Vienna history and also a few culture and customs differences we might encounter here. We went to the Universität Wien student cafeteria for lunch which was surprisingly cheap and very good. After a few more hours of orientation in the classroom, we headed back to the hotel to finally meet our host families. We had some issues with my ski bag - had to order a cab because my host mom didn't have a big enough car! Whoops!

Tomorrow we have more orientation and a city tour. It's only been one day but I feel like I already know my way around pretty well. Public transit is easy to negotiate and our program fee includes free city transit everywhere in Vienna. I'm looking forward to some days off for exploring.

Here's a picture of my corner of the bedroom. I share it with Paige but it is probably 3 or 4 times larger than my room at home!

From Laura in Vienna, Spring 2009

Willkommen in Österreich!

Pros: No extra charge for luggage - even oversize!
Cons: Austrians get airsick far too easily.

I have finally arrived in Vienna where the other students and I have settled in at a small hotel (Pension Kaffeemühle) near the Westbahnhof as per program instructions. We are meeting for dinner tonight with our program director, Frauke Binder. Tomorrow we will receive our schedules, cell phones and meet with our host families who will then take us to our new home away from home.

More later.