December 20, 2009

Yesterday was crap. Friday night I said goodbye to Joe, Sam, and Tommy. That sucked. Then Saturday morning I got on a train to Frankfurt and said goodbye to Audrey and Amy—indefinitely. I know I will see these amazing girls again but I have no idea when that will be. All of us are a bit strapped for money after this semester, Amy’s off to France next semester, where she’ll be working and improving her French but paying an outrageous 500 euro/month in rent! (More than she’ll be earning, I might add.) And Audrey’s headed back to the University of Northern Iowa, where she’ll keep studying History education. Audrey’s not too far away and I know Amy will always be phone call away but I’ve gotten so “accustomed to [their] face[s],” how am I supposed to go back to life without them? Whenever I’ve been bored in the last 4 months, I’ve gone down to Room 111 and plopped myself down on Amy’s bed-- I couldn’t even begin to count the hours I spent with those two.

The bleakness of that situation is PARALLED by the sheer JOY that keeps surging through me. As I write this, I will see my family in 30 minutes. THIRTY MINUTES. I want to get up and JUMP! I’m not going to be a hot mess. I haven’t seen my family since September 3. Wow. That’s 107 days of not seeing my family.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been torn about my feelings. My joy for seeing my family was a bit overwhelmed by my reluctance to be done with this semester and my time with my wonderful *new* friends. It’s a family vacation (and not only that, a *Broadbent* family vacation)... that basically demands some form of an argument. I haven’t seen my family for 107 days and I just want to enjoy it—not deal with who is mad at whom. I’ll just say: that’s long gone.

I get to see my family! Yeah, it feels pretty darn good.

Mehr Berlin! :)

On the train for my eleven hour trip back to Klagenfurt from Berlin. Incredibly exciting. Incredibly busy is a better description though. I think there’s been some sort of computer problem with seat reservations—every SINGLE seat on the train says reserved. They made an announcement but aside from “computer problems,” “reservations,” and “sorry,” I can’t be sure what was said.

Berlin turned out to be wonderful. If I hadn’t continually gotten lost Friday, I certainly would have seen a bit more but the trip turned out to be just right. I made it to my free tour on Saturday. I even got to grab a Dunkin’ Donut on the way (soo Berlin!).

The tour lasted from about 11:15 to 2:45. We went from the Brandenburg Gate, looked at the American Embassy, the hotel where MJ dangled his baby, and the French Embassy (overwhich Victoria conveniently stares), then we made our way towards the Memorial for the Jews murdered in World War II, an uneven pavement covered in identically-dimensioned cubes—our tour guide said some people interpret them as graves, others bodies… I kept picturing the bunkers in concentration camps like the one in the picture of Elie Wiesel. After that we made our way to a muddy parking lot—the official memorial to Hitler’s bunker. Okay, maybe not official but it’s quite appropriate. The parking lot is directly above where Hitler and Eva Braun killed themselves. The bunker has been destroyed and there was only one simple sign indicating the “significance” of the location. Our guide said Berliners bring their dogs to the parking lot on Hitler’s birthday to potty. Perfect J We made our way towards CheckPoint Charlie—a bit of a dissapointment—a bunch of signs about the wall, a fake checkpoint, a picture of an American soldier, a fake sign about leaving the American sector, and a museum. But I saw it, so that’s all right After lunch, we went to Gendarmenplatz, the location of the French cathedral… as well as the German cathedral (because could Germany really allow an entire market dedicated to the French? Of course not!). Our next stop was the Humbodlt University/State opera area. Humboldt University can pride itself on having alumni/former staff such as the Brothers Grimm and Einstein; however, Humboldt cannot deny its darker past—the burning of some 20,000 books under Nazi regime. Many of the burnt books were single editions, originals that could never be republished, from authors such as Einstein…? A memorial in the center of the market looks like an optical illusion at first: a room underground with white booksheleves—enough to hold exactly the number of books that were burnt that night. The most incredible thing here though was the plaque commemorizing the memorial with a quotation from Heinrich Heine in 1820: “When man burns books it is only an Vorspiel, man will also burn people.” Heine may have died before the Nazis…. but the connection to his quotation and the Nazi’s action is eery.

Our tour guide, Stephanie, was great—I was the first person at the meet point in West Berlin so I got to talk to her a bit on my own before others showed up and stayed in her group for the overall tour. I had lunch with her and her boss, who was from the States. They invited me to go dancing later and were soo friendly. At the end of the tour, I was sticking around to thank her, tip her, and ask her what she thought I just had to do in Berlin. A couple from my group was waiting around to ask a few questions as well. Their accents sounded British so I asked what part of the UK they were from and started talking. The four of us ended up going to get a hot chocolate together. The British couple, Gary and Jo, were lifesavers. When they found out I was alone, they invited me to spend the rest of the afternoon/evening with them.

We walked miles through Berlin and visited several Christmas markets, had several glasses of Glühwein… and most importantly (well.. my end goal, at least), we made it to KaDeWe (the Kaufhaus des Westens, also known as the largest department store in all of Europe). We basically walked the entire way across town to visit KaDeWe, so the expectations were rather high. It had better be worth the trek we had just made through Berlin or I was in for it! One word: massive. 7 stories of department store craziness. I walked in to a hallway that reminded me a bit of the Wynn’s shopping area—Louis Vutton, Prada, and so many brands I can’t even waste time looking at in a magazine. Beyond that was basically a Christmas market inside the store. Yep, it’s that big. We made our way through perfume heaven and up to the “gourmet restaurant.” After all, we’d basically been walking Berlin since 11, it was going on 6:30, we were a bit hungry! Everything was just incredible. It looked like a fancy restaurant but was a buffet-style food area. After some delicious cake, we made our way through the remaining 6 levels. Simply insane. I would love to go back and just spend hours in that one store. Had I been on my own, I’m sure I would have spent even more time than I did in KaDeWe… but it’s probbaly best for my wallet (and my ever-expanding luggage contents) that I didn’t have that time to spend!

I don’t know what I would have done without Jo and Gary. It was at no point awkward with them and we saw so much of the city that I would not have without them!

This morning I woke up and made my way further east towards the East Side Gallery—the longest remaining segment of the wall, covered in original artwork. It was such a whirlwind of emotions. A lot of the things I had seen on the tour Saturday were a rush of emotions as well, maybe it was being alone at the wall today, the weather, leaving Berlin, or just the significance of the wall itself, but the East Side Gallery was incredible.

17 days until I’m home to see everyone!! Only 7 until my family is here!!!

Day 2:

East Side Gallery:

Hauptstadt Deutschlands!!

Sorry it's been a while! I am currently sitting my hotel room in.. BERLIN! It's been an adventure so far. This will definitely be a trip to remember.

Amy had thought she might be able to join me on my trip but-- it being the end of our time in Austria, we're all a bit short on cash-- it didn't work out. That was okay though. I had told myself there were just certain things I had to see. And Berlin just happened to be on the absolute *top* of that list. So I ended up waiting longer than I had hoped to buy tickets, so, of course, the price went up. Not a problem though. I was determined.

I booked a great hotel. Artemisia Frauenhotel Berlin. An only women's hotel in Charlottenburg district. Great location directly across from a subway stop and very secure. I managed to find a reduced price on one of the hotel booking Web sites and managed to get a single room for 39 euro instead of 69/79! No complaints!

Being the procrastinator that I am (and no, to any of you that hoped that might change while I was abroad, it hasn't), I printed my tickets out on Wednesday night before my train was to leave at 6:46 the next morning. I double-checked everything and realized that somehow in the process of booking online, the date had changed from 10.12 to 06.12... My tickets were no longer valid for the 10th. After a major panic attack and some choice words at the internet and myself... and calling home and... I wont lie... some tears, I realized that I had no choice but to book new tickets. ::sound of money draining::

I decided that if that was the worst thing to happen on my trip, I could totally handle it. Some money on a credit card, a bit of stress while still comfortably in Klagenfurt-- totally do-able. I packed my things and had Amy sit with me to make sure I was being practical and including EVERYTHING. I thought I was doing great. I even went to bed by 11 o'clock! (Feel free to GASP!!) I had everything set out so as not to wake Claudia at 5 am when my alarm went off. I quickly got ready and called the cab-- phone didn't seem to be working. I had to change my eeTy SIM card out for the international card I had bought at home to use in Germany. Small panic that I'll have no phone in Germany all weekend. Claudia without fail wakes up anytime I move in the room, which for once paid off. I used her cell phone and called a cab. Pain free to the train station.

I was a bit anxious about the train ride. All of the connections on the fabulous journey through almost all of Austria and Germany are lame. I picked the best one (which meant leaving at 6:46 and getting to Berlin at 18:11) but was still left with a measly TEN minutes to run from one platform to another in Salzburg. If I could get to that connection, I was home-free. And run I did! But I made it. WHEW. After that was to Munich, where I had an hour connection. Easy as pie. When I got off the train in Munich though, my stomach was suddenly in knots. I had somehow managed to leave without my passport. Having a hotel in Europe means showing your passport. I had tried calling Amy earlier on my cell phone and it was not working so I rushed to pay phones, which are basically Greek to me. The few times I ever used pay phones were in grade school when I went to the community center to swim and used COLLECT to call Mom for a ride home. Not exactly going to work to call Amy... When I finally got ahold of her, she tried calming me down. She reminded me that when we went to Venice, Sam didn't have his passport and was OK... I would be fine. It worked for a bit but I was still very anxious.

I arrived in Berlin on time. What a massive train station. At least 4 stories! It's not only a train station but a mall. Shops everywhere, Pizza Hut, Subway, clothing stores, travel agencies, anything you can imagine almost. I found an information center and purchased the Berlin Welcome Card, which allows me to travel on almost any public transit line throughout most of the city. Onward to the subway to get to my hotel. Berlin's a huge city-- the public transportation system is huge-- getting to my hotel should be simple. WRONG. After walking back and forth between almost all of the levels of the train station, I realized I had two choices. Ask someone or stay in the train station, wandering between levels, the entire night. I can't have pride in a foreign city! I felt much less stupid after asking for directions-- I wasn't blind, the subway I needed does not go to the Hauptbahnhof. I took the S-Bahn to the U-Bahn (street car to underground car) and got off, out of anxiety of missing my stop, a stop too early. But I was in the right area-- right street name-- I'll survive walking a few blocks!

After a *few* blocks I found my hotel, lugged my bag up 5 flights of stairs, and checked in. The receptionist was very nice and helpful. My room's great. Right by the reception area. I have a room to myself, TV, big window, and a shower en suite. The shower is shared between my room and another which was, and as far as I know is still, empty. The toilet is simply across the hall. And being that it's an all women hotel, I don't mind too much at all!

I was so organized about this trip (okay, maybe it's not looking that way... but I *felt* so organized for this trip). I wrote up a daily agenda, looked at what I wanted to see and grouped things based on their proximity to one another, etc. I had intended to take a free tour of Berlin today, visit the Alexanderplatz, and the DDR Museum. I missed the free tour due to lack of knowledge of how the heck to find the right transit. By the time I was on the right bus, it was 10:30-- time to meet. I headed to Unter den Linden. Somehow, I found the tour and thought I'd try to sneakily join the group about 20 minutes late. But the group I joined was full and I was "politely asked" to join a group led by so-and-so. Well, so-and-so blended in pretty well and I couldn't find him, so I just bailed. Off to DDR (GDR) Museum! A few minor set backs as far as transit, but I made it! Pretty cool little exhibit. Then off to the Judische Museum. At first I thought the museum was great.... but then it kept going. I had purchased an audio guide and couldn't find over half of the points to listen to the information. The information was too long and there was way to much information overall. The architecture is amazing - the intention is great - I was simply... bored of it by the end.

Well, that wraps up day one in Berlin! More to come-- and probably some back blogging about Krampustag!!

Liebe Grüße

An Austrian-style Thanksgiving and Venice

It's officially the holidays! Thanksgiving has come and gone. One of the professors at the university acts as a coordinator for the University of Northern Iowa (where Audrey and Sam study) and a few other US schools (not WU) and organized a Thanksgiving dinner for the three of us. Somehow, we are the only three American students studying at the university this semester!!

Gunhild had emailed us a week or so ago and told us she wanted to do a Thanksgiving meal with us. So we were aware of it.. but I wasn't sure how it would go. We were having a dinner since it's not a holiday and everyone still had work (so wrong!). I felt a bit lethargic last week... there was Mozartclub, as usual, on Tuesday. Audrey wasn't feeling up to going and I had no problem staying in with her watching movies. Wednesday there was a free Jameson event and I had to force myself into going. So Thursday was a struggle. I didn't want to do anything. I finally had to accept mid-day Wednesday that I was homesick. Apparently all of me but my conscience knew that. Luckily people were around to Skype with (mostly Mom!) and that helped a bunch. I geared myself up for Thanksgiving-- Austrian-style.

It's always hard knowing what to expect when going to someone else's for dinner. And I hate being underdressed. So the three of us decided that, even though at home Thanksgiving is super casual, we would dress up a bit for this. Gunhild sent her son to give us a ride to her house-- he showed up in jeans. Figures. We were greeted at her place by her husband, her older son, and herself-- also in jeans. Oh well. Better over- thank underdressed!

Instead of pumpkin pie, we started the meal off with pumpkin soup. Apparently it's not a traditional type of soup here but I've sure never heard of it at home! But it's soo good. Soup was followed by all the goodies-- turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, etc. etc. etc. SO good. There were a few Austrian-ish specialties mixed it. Some figs with bacon (actually really good) and little things like that. Instead of an entire spread of pies for dessert we had an authentic, home-made apple strudel. Mmmmmm! If that didn't get your mouth watering... you haven't had good apple strudel before. Don't get me wrong, I'm still craving a piece of pumpkin or chocolate pie, but apple strudel should probably be added to our repertoire of desserts more often at home! :)

Overall the dinner was very nice. Initially they spoke English with us but soon discovered we all studied German, so we quickly switched to German... which often switched between English and German! The vice-rector of the university joined us. He asked a lot of questions-- what we liked, what we didn't. Any specific complaints? How's Entree been? Well... a bit reluctantly (and a bit joyfully) we got to share our disappointing experiences with Entree and the Survey of Austrian culture course we are taking. Hopefully it helps but it very well could go unnoted. That's life, right?

When we returned from the dinner (by this point almost 10 pm), there was a dorm party in our dorm. Of course, the one night! Did I mention we had planned our trip to Venice for Friday? :) Amy, Sam, and I joined the party for a bit and tried to go to bed around 2 but the music was so loud, I'm not sure how much sleep any of us actually got. We woke up early and caught the train around 10. It's only a 4 hour train ride to Venice (crazy!) so we got in around 2.

We'd found this apartment-style accommodation that was cheap and centrally located. It offered a double/queen bed and 2 twin beds. Perfect! We followed the instructions and took a boat to Rialto's bridge and tried to call the owner. Instead of a person, there was an automated message, which seemed a lot like "the number you dialed..." GREAT! After a few attempts, we decided we'd have to find internet, double check the number, and go from there. Off to McDonald's we go (it's getting a bit sad, isn't it?). There's only one McD's in Venice but luckily, we found it and got online. But the number we'd dialed was correct. Why does the Broadbent travel curse follow me everywhere?! I apologized profusely to everyone... I had found this accommodation, I should have known, I felt awful! We decided to dial the number via Skype... and it worked! But halfway through Sam's conversation, the guy hung up on him. Oh, beautiful. I was having Florida flashbacks at this point.. we decided to look up the name of another hostel.

We waited a bit and headed back towards Rialto's bridge, found a pay phone, and, THANK GOD, got ahold of our *friendly* host. Although he and Sam had spoken some level of English on the phone, he refused to speak any English in person. It took about 3 times repeating the phrase for us to figure out he was going to lead us to the apartment. Once in the apartment, we realized this wasn't quite the apartment shown on their Web site. There were beds for 4 people but it was one queen and one *fold out* double in the middle of what should have been a living room/kitchen. We went sight-seeing and when we returned from dinner, the heater wasn't working in the main room. Audrey and I slept on the incredibly comfortable (ha!) fold out bed, which was about as cozy as sleeping on hardwood floor. We tried to make it an early night but in the end, I was awake until after 4.

If any of you have seen Just Married, insert any memory you have of their first night in Venice here. That's how I felt! Well, no giant cockroach (that we saw...) but still! It was beautiful. But we survived the accommodations (which were cheap), and the city was great. We really only saw Piazzo San Marco and the Basillica. Very pretty. I was surprised how much you can just walk around. It seemed like everywhere should be canals, not sidewalks! You could definitely tell you were surrounded by water though. Sometimes the smell was overwhelming, other times you barely noticed it.

This weekend Audrey, Amy, and I are staying in Klagenfurt. Hopefully we'll be venturing over to Villach (about 20 minutes by train) for the Krampus parade. Krampus is the opposite of St. Nicholas. He brings "gifts" for the bad kids. He looks like a demon. Klagenfurt had a parade this Saturday but we weren't back in time for it. Hopefully it's entertaining!

Few pics from our girls night and Thanksgiving:

Austrian-style fun

Well, I've been talking about it long enough so I thought it was about time.... I went into town and tried on dirndl Friday! In case you aren't sure, dirndl is the traditional style woman's dress from southern Germany/Austria. Think St. Pauli's Girl or Oktoberfest-- yup, that's it!

Amy, Audrey, Joe, and I went to find a good store and found one with a gorgeous purple dirndl in front... but I saw the price on the dress-- 880 euro!! So much for buying one! I thought. We went in anyway and I was surprised how relaxed the staff was-- a group of English speaking 20-somethings around expensive clothes never goes without all sorts of fuss at home. They simply pointed us towards the room and left us be. There were all sorts of cute, pretty, and awful dirndl and all sorts of prices-- from 150 euro for a short length dirndl to the painful 880 euro for the pretty thing in the window. I grabbed an armful and went to try on... but I felt a bit lost-- how do you tie the apron? do I unbutton each button to put it on or can it flip over my head? How's the undershirt work? Just in case any of you find yourselves trying on dirndl-- unbutton each button, there are funny snaps on the skirt-- you did not rip it, the undershirt just feels funky, and tie silk aprons in back. :)

The first dirndl I tried on was very traditional-- plaid with a higher neckline. It was very much what I think of when I think of old Germany-- like when everybody wore these!! The next dress I tried on was very Christmas. Black bodice with red flowers and a red striped apron. Very pretty! But soo Christmas-y. Then I tried on a grey and light green dress. Omy. SO pretty! A bit more modern aka the neckline dips a bit. It looked so nice, the price wasn't bad.... I'm preparing to become the wacky German teacher. I own a dirndl! :)

We did another thing we've been needing to do for quite a while... we went out to eat! I know, trivial but it was long overdue. We had no idea where to go, which explains why we haven't gone out! We even got online and looked into it. We finally decided to go to Weiβes Roβ, a traditional German/Austrian guest house/restaurant. Best. Choice. Ever. The food was absolutely awesome and the prices were great too. I am glad I found it-- I'm taking the family in a month! I had the tastiest Cordon Bleu! Mmmmm!

Another bit of shopping I did this week to add to my classroom someday-- I bought 3 children books from an author that Katharina recommended and we watched a bit of a documentary on. His name is Janosch and his most-beloved character is a wooden duck striped like a tiger, resulting in the creative name Tigerente (Tiger-duck).

That's been my week of fun! On the menu for this week: Monday- test in Sprachkurs. Tuesday- test in Grammatik. Wednesday- jump around. Friday- Krampus parade. Saturday- Venice!

Alles liebe!

Photo Catch up

Hi hi! So I just realized there are a few parties that I haven't posted pictures from... so I put together a quick slideshow. Nothing incredibly exciting but just a bit of the goofiness we've been up to lately!! The first party is from October 22 (oops!!!) and the second was last Tuesday.

Off to Grammar... wish me luck because I need it with this awful class!!!!!!!

Another week gone by..!

I know I've said this going on a bajillion times, but really.. time is just flying by! I cannot believe it's already been another week!!

Let's see, let's see.. where to start?! Just another week of classes-- thrilling as usual. Sadly, they're beginning to prep us for the mid-term tests. ICK!! I am absolutely dreading any form of test in grammar... but I'll survive one way or another. The best part about class here is you suffer through most of them once a week and then it's done. Basically the band-aid approach. Do it all at once and then forget about it-- which, for these classes, is best. Except, I could handle having grammar split into two classes. I think I would dread it significantly less not thinking Omigosh...2 and a half hours of grammar. WHY?!!!! each time. If it were only, Okay, an hour of grammar. This will be over in no time! I think twice would be better...but they really don't care what I think!!

I've stayed in Klagenfurt (for the most part) now for the past two weeks. Aside from a small excursion to Graz last Saturday, I've stayed put-- which has actually been quite nice. It's been relaxing and enjoyable. Got to just breath and spend time with everybody here. Yesterday Audrey and I went into town and did some shopping-- books (yay!), a new purse for Audrey, basically just the normal shopping day sort of items! But the Gluehwein Fest started Thursday. Gluehwein is basically wassail. Pretty gross if you ask me. But they also serve Gluehmost, which tastes like cider with some alcohol in it, and it was MUCH better. The best part of the festival was the lights. Klagenfurt is 100% ready for Christmas. Lights on every street, most buildings etc. The main areas, Alter Platz, Neuer Platz, and parts of Heuplatz, are just awesome! Alter Platz has lights strung everywhere (but not gaudy!) and it's exactly what I had hoped for as far as Christmas in Europe goes. And this is Klagenfurt-- not even Nuremberg or Munich or Frankfurt!!

FridayAudrey and I took advantage of the great weather and went on a mission to find bikes to rent. Sadly, our first two stops were failures. Apparently, once summer is over, bike rental is not such a common thing in Klagenfurt; however, we found a place that mostly just looked like a workshop that rents bikes year-round-- for great prices too! For only 10 euro, we rented bikes for 24 hours! Can't beat that. We met up with Joe, who has a bike, and went through town-- and a bit through the outskirts-- to look at the "castles," which are really just mansions. Of course, castles (whether they're just talked up mansions or actually castles) are on big hills or mountains, so it was quite a bike ride! Let's just say I got quite the work out in. The bad part was that most of the castles are private property now so we couldn't see inside any of them and only got to go up close to one. Boo! But it was definitely a good way to spend the day. I'm fully exhausted and a bit sore now!!

To finish off our weekend in Klagenfurt, we planned to try on Tracht Saturday! How perfect, right?! We met in town and started our mission. But each of the stores we knew of that sell Tracht were closed already! Isn't Saturday a shopping day? How can stores be closed by 1 then?! This place...!! So no Tracht, yet. Definitely a yet though. We've rescheduled our Tracht excursion for next Friday! Can't wait! Now just to decide: traditional or "gothic/punk Tracht," which is cute but.. not the real deal.

But really... can anyone tell me how it got to be mid-November? I don't know where October went...! Most Christmas markets officially open November 24ish. That's 10 days away. Holy cow. I have only four weekends left until my family arrives-- which is both exciting and a bit frustrating. I haven't gotten to do everything I've wanted. I'm just feeling really comfortable here and have started to get adjusted to life here. I'm not ready for this to be over. But, of course, I am thrilled to see my family again and then to be home and see my friends and everyone... but it's a weird feeling right now. I guess I kind of knew it would be like this but I didn't think it would fly by so quickly!

So since my time here is limited, I really have to prioritize what I want to do. Krampus day is December 5 and the parade is that Saturday, which I hear is very entertaining and is local. Everyone would really like to go to Venice. Berlin is a must for me. The group is talking about going to Munich but I'm pretty torn. I'll be there for a bit with the family so I can't decide if it's worth it or if I should get a cheap flight to Hamburg or Cologne. Ideas or suggestions?!!

What's been going on in the life of Amy

Hello hello! It's been a while, eh? After my trip to Vienna, I was completely exhausted-- and almost immediately hopped on another train to Germany, but it was totally worth it!

Last Thursday I woke up bright and early (well, not really bright but.. definitely early) to catch a bus to Freiburg for Katharina's going away party. My total trip was about 10 hours on 2 buses. Once we got to Germany, the problems started rolling in... first we were about 10 minutes delayed, then we passed the train station at Ulm and literally stopped on the tracks-- for 30 minutes! My connecting train was only supposed to arrive 36 minutes after the first and I just knew I would be screwed.. and to top it all of, my cell phone would not connect to a network! I could just picture myself stranded at the Mannheim train station, entirely unsure of what to do, all by myself! Of course, every other trip I've taken has gone entirely smooth-- because I had someone else with me and I just knew this would be it. My train ticket was for a specific train and I had no idea what I would do when I got to Mannheim and had missed my train. However, with some sort of incredible luck, our train managed to only be 20 minutes delayed and I had enough time to run to the next platform and get a drink out of the vending machine on the platform as the train pulled up! ::insert deep sigh of relief!!:: The rest of my journey was uneventful. The intercity train from Mannheim to Freiburg was completely booked and then some, I stood for the first 45 minutes before I was able to jump a seat from someone but that was bearable! I arrived in Freiburg only about 10 minutes behind schedule to see Katharina waiting for me!! YAY!

Katharina's party was a very nice time. Quite a few of her and Till's friends made it out and had drinks, snacks, and fun saying goodbye-- although, of course, the goodbye's were a bit less fun. I was so exhausted from lack of sleep and my stressful ride that I was a total party crasher! I left the party before midnight, I think, to crash in bed. We woke up the next morning and had a wonderfully relaxing day just sitting, talking, and eating with Till and his roommate, then caught a bus to Baden-Baden to spend the weekend with her parents. It was great getting to speak some "real" German and be in an actual house (with my own room and everything was CLEAN!!). I felt like the weekend really helped my German, even though I still spoke English a bit-- just being around German I can understand and that I've actually learned, watching it on TV, etc, I could just tell it helped me.. if only I could do that more often!!

Like always, my visit with Katharina flew by and before I knew it, I was back in Klagenfurt... but to my surprise, it actually felt really nice to be "coming home." I had class Tuesday-- grammar, which is no fun at all-- and Wednesday-- Austrian culture, painfully boring, phonetic, actually fun, and my general language course, which is boring but goes by quickly! Joe's birthday was Saturday, so Audrey, Amy, Sam, and I schemed to surprise him with a bit of a party. We invited a few people to the dorm, there was ice cream cake, scones, and wine! It was a very good time! The best part was that Joe had no idea we were doing anything-- always a plus! We just sat around the dorm and he kept saying if there was nothing else to do, we could always go grab a drink somewhere and I said, yeah, or we could just have a bottle of wine! It was great. And Saturday we ended up catching a bus to Graz, only a two hour trip, and spending the day there. Quite a nice city. It's the second largest city in Austria but it didn't feel that large and I guess, in comparison to "big cities" at home, it's not. Less than 300,000 people live in Graz! Yikes.. but it was good.

Now it's back to class once again. Drat!! But time's flying-- we have six weekends left in Klagenfurt! WOW! I have some major exploring to do... Berlin and Hamburg top out my list, while the rest of my group has set their sights on Venice. If they go, I'll go because how could I not?! But it's definitely not my must-see location.. it's not even German, after all and what am I here for?! So, I may be making at least one trip by myself... but I'm okay with that! If nothing else, I've definitely been reassured of my independence in the last few months.. although I'd still prefer company to not a lot of times... I know that I could navigate the trains, the buses, the hostels, etc. in a foreign city without too much fuss, so I just may be doing that!

The family is here in less than 50 days-- yikes! So exciting. So crazy!! Christmas is in the air in Austria. I went to town on Friday to see the Alterplatz, formerly filled with tables and chairs for cafes, now being filled with booths and lights strung between buildings-- Christkindlmarkt!! Whohoo :) The opening ceremony is THIS Thursday, so that should be a new and exciting experience-- I hope it lives up to my expectations! The Christmas markets will definitely be one advantage to traveling in November and December. Almost every city has their own market with local cafes, wines, and crafts and I can't wait to see how they each represent themselves! My Austrian Advent calendar is just aching to be opened... but I'm being good. It will be opened all the way before I even know what's happened!!

Well.. laundry is calling my name. Lots of love to all!!

This is Vienna

Wow! That's really all there is to say about Vienna! What an incredible city!! Every street, around each corner there is something spectacular to see, something that's not even in the tour guides because it's just another beautiful building in the city.

We arrived in Vienna around 1 on Saturday. We needed to bum WIFI off someone to find our hostel, so we "treated" ourselves to some classy McDonald's-- after all, what's more Viennese than that?! :) When we got to our hostel, we were, at first, pretty confused. From the outside, it looked like any other building. We had to ring the door to be let in and then again when we were inside. There was no welcome desk or anything! The voice at the other end of the "check-in" told us that we were in beds A, E, G, and H. I thought, oh dear.. the Broadbent family vacation luck has followed me to Europe.. we're in different rooms and I requested a private room! When we got inside, we realized there were only 2 rooms in the hostel. It was a small apartment. We walked into an entry way, to the left was a kitchen/shower room, straight ahead was a living room and two bedrooms. Ours was the 8-bed room and there were 2 others in our room. I was so bummed at first... we buzzed the check-in desk again and ensured that it was correct and that we weren't paying for the private room... we ended up only pay 19 euro per night for a room. After the first night, we were the only ones in the room and Joe got to stay the last night too. By the end of our stay, I was really impressed with the hostel. I really had no problems getting into the shower in the morning like I worried I would. It was quite cozy and homey and the staff was friendly when they arrived in the mornings.

We set out on our adventures but realized that... although the Web site for our dorm made it sound like it provided city maps for us... we were without maps. We had to find a kiosk to buy a map and then still mostly wandered aimlessly, especially as it was almost 5 and everything in Austria closes around 5. We ended up coming across a beautiful church, which we originally thought was Stephansdom or Karlskirche, two of the most famous churches in Vienna. A man told us we couldn't go in because of a movie (??), so we wandered around taking pictures outside. I turned around after taking a picture to see Audrey and the rest of the group freaking out a bit. Audrey had stepped in some, well... unpleasantness and was frantically trying to get it off her shoe. I laughed at her, only to be repaid by karma... my shoes was covered! We scrapped off what we could, but you know how that goes!... A few minutes later, we were told the church was now open and I, shamefully, went in. It was great! The architecture in Vienna is just incredible... a lot of the lights were off in the church so it was a bit hard to see but.. what we could see was just amazing. We went back to our hostel to change (especially our shoes...) and went to dinner and to get drinks. We thought Mexican sounded great (yes, I know.. another GREAT Viennese meal!), but ended up getting a bit lost. When we finally made it to the restaurant (about 40 minutes after we should have), it was basically an Austrian Chipotle. Okay but not quite the Mexican food I would have liked! Sam had heard of a bar called "Wunderbar" (wonderful in German), so we went on another mission to find that. We walked in circles for ages... asking everyone we passed for directions. One man knew exactly the bar but we missed a small alleyway and were entirely lost after that, most people had never even heard of the street. We gave up and finally went to a little bar... as we sat there, I kept worrying that we smelled like the unpleasantness from before... After about an hour, we stood up to find that, somehow, Audrey and I (and only Audrey and I) had once again stepped in some... The first time, it was on my left foot and her right, and now it was switched.... It was chasing us! I know-- random, gross story.. but that will definitely be a memory of Vienna for me.. and it was pretty funny looking back! :)

Our next day in Vienna was much more productive (and less smelly!). We woke up early and planned to buy tickets to a musical, Rudolf. It's about the crown prince, Rudolf, of the Hapsburg monarchy. We found the theater only to discover they only sell tickets 2 hours before the show begins so we had wasted about an hour walking to the theater for nothing!! Our next plan was to find the real Stephansdom. Absolutely stunning. Stephansdom is the mother church of the Archdiocese of Vienna, so it's probably the most significant religious building in the city. We managed to get there right before noon, when a mass was starting but they only let tourists in to a point before blocking it off. So we walked down to find the Stadttempel-- the only synagogue in Vienna to survive Kristallnacht. Built in 1825-6, the Emperor had passed an edict that only Catholic churches could be built facing the street. We literally walked past the synagogue the night before and had no idea! It looks like an apartment, maybe a library but definitely not a synagogue. Who would have thought that anti-semitic laws would actually help it so? Pretty impressive. After we found the synagogue, we returned to Stephansdom and were able to take an elevator to the top of one of the towers. The view was absolutely beautiful. It was a bit scary but totally worth it!

We also found Karlskirche, which was originally completed in 1737. This was one of the most incredible buildings I have ever seen. It's completely different than the churches we think of when we think of European catholic churches but it was entirely breathtaking. My pictures will do no justice to this church.

We only ventured to one castle while in Vienna, sadly. We went to the Belvedere in the center of the city. We were a bit disappointed to discover that it's mostly just an art museum. What a waste of an incredible building and a great opportunity to share the history of Vienna and Austria... I know nothing about the building itself because there is literally nothing about at the location. Sad. The art was very nice but...

After the Belvedere, Audrey, Amy and I rushed back to the Raimund theater to try to get tickets to the musical... we had hoped to make it back to the hostel to change, as well, but we had no time for that. I felt so embarrassed-- at the theater in Vienna in jeans! But, I was in luck, and there were many people dressed worse than me... and the musical was really nice! I know I missed a lot because it's hard enough to follow German in every day situations, much less in a musical!! But it was still very interesting and what I followed was good!

Our last day in Vienna was much more laid back. We went to Karlsplatz and wandered across to Heldenplatz and the museum quarter. At the Leopold Museum, there was an exhibit of Edvard Munch and quite a bit Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. That was definitely great to see up close!! Finally... we made our way out of town to the Hundertwasserhaus. An apartment complex built in the 80s. It was designed to avoid any "ugly buildings" from being constructed in the spot. Floors are uneven and trees grow through walls and windows! The outside of the house is painted in different colors and the walls are not smooth. Tourists aren't allowed inside but it was still worth seeing.

I really wasn't quite ready to leave Vienna. I don't feel like I saw enough to do justice to the city! But I will be back :)

Now I'm packing my things to jump on another train.. this time to Freiburg to say goodbye to Katharina and Till before they go to Australia for two months! I am dreading this train ride.. 10 hours by myself-- wish me luck! Time's flying and will definitely continue to do so if I'm only in Klagenfurt for a few days at a time!

I had to use another program to make a slide show because of my EXCESSIVE amount of pictures.. I hope it works!!

More to come soon! :)

Inspiration

This is an entirely random note but thoughts going through my head and I figured that I’d put them out here.

After the Mozart museum, I felt so entirely moved—raw talent and not only in one way— he wrote, played, he was truly “genial.” To have talent that ensures you popularity… but not just popularity but honest fame, notoriety, and respect for hundreds of years, it’s unfathomable. My mind starts reeling. Imagine that in your life, you’ve known someone with incredible talent—no matter how impressed you are with them, would you for a second stop to think that in 200+ years, people will still respect, memorize and analyize their talents? Can you imagine how someone who grew up with Mozart felt in his presence though? Did they assume he’d be incredible, travel around playing and not only playing, but creating and then not only for his contemporaries but for all time?

Those thoughts were strarting to drain from my mind when I put on one of my favorite bands’ music today. Not really one of my favorites, I guess, but in a way. One of my favorite bands is Something Corporate, which doesn’t exist but the lead singer is now in Jack’s Mannequin. As I was listening to the words of a song the lead singer, Andy, wrote about his struggle with cancer, I just got chills. Most likely, in 20 years, no one will know Jack’s Mannequin or Andy McMahon, but still what incredible talent. To be able to write chords, lyrics, and put it together and create a finished work that has an impact on the life of someone that you will never meet, that you know nothing about, have, perhaps, nothing in common with—it’s so powerful. There is no single word that I could use that would do justice to what I want to say about it.

And maybe you’re reading this thinking, Sure, but isn’t that what song writing is about? Shouldn’t any halfway decent artist be able to put words to a melody that is infleuntial and strikes deep within a majority of people? Maybe. But does it usually actually have that outcome? What power…. what raw talent.

This may sound like a tribute to Mozart and Andrew McMahon… but that’s not in any way what it’s meant to be. I guess what it is would be a call to myself, to you, to whomever, to find that inspiration in ourselves, to find that talent in ourselves and to cherish it… or nourish it. Whether the talent is musical, philosophical, linguistic, or interpersonal or whatever it might be—it’s there, don’t forget that. At the same time, I think it’s a reminder to recognize that which we see in others, the glimpse into genius, into something real that we may overlook or react jealously to…. Maybe none of us will go down in history books, but at the very least, we will go down in the memories and in the hearts of those we are blessed to meet, and we should be willing… no, we should be ecstatic to be given the opportunity to present ourselves in the best light possible, and to do so, we need to reconigze what that is exactly.

So… that’s my rambling. I know it’s not quite what you expect to come across when you visit my travel blog… but it’s what is in my heart/head right now, so I’m sharing through the venue that I have at my fingertips.

Love you all.

Salzburg, Austria

I’ve finally done it— instead of sitting in Klagenfurt all weekend, I traveled to Salzburg, Austria! Audrey, Amy, Sam, Joe, and Tommy went by train to Salzburg for 2 days. The forecast looked great, so we were all very excited but when we got there, we were greated with a constant rain! Only Joe had thought to bring an umbrella, so that was fun…. I got to buy an umbrella but, I suppose, there are worst things to have to buy. It was definitely worth it, as both days were a mixture of drizzle followed by constant downpour! There were only a few times that we were able to walk without an umbrella! So sad….but we still had a great time!

I think we all assumed we’d be able to pick up maps of the city at the train station but none of were able to find any… so we started our adventures randomly. We walked in whatever direction we were drawn to, I guess…but luckily, ended up pretty much exactly where we wanted to be! (Love that!!) We had lunch in a cute little café, and then as we were trying to find out how to go about getting to our Pension (guesthouse), we came upon a place that offers tours, which Amy, Audrey and I really wanted to do. We thought we had enough time before the tour to run to our Pension and put our bags down and get back for the tour, but after we got to the Pension and found a bus back into town, we missed the correct stop and were LITERALLY running through town and managed to get back to the meeting point for the tour with 3 minutes to spare. WHEW! The guys thought €24 was expensive for the tour, but it lasted an hour and a half and pointed out so many things that I would have had no idea about otherwise: Christian Doppler, who is credited with the Doppler Effect, was born in Salzburg; Albert Einstein presented on the theory of relativity at a congress meeting and it was one of the first times that Einstein received good reviews; etc. etc. The tour was also really nice because it was in a van—no walking around aimlessly in the rain!! Along with our tickets, we were able to go to the Mozart Wohnhaus Museum. Salzburg PROUDLY is home to both the birth house and residence of the Mozart family. There are museums in both houses, but we only went to the Wohnhaus. All of the family’s furniture has been lost over the years, but it was still soo incredible to read about W.A. Mozart, Leopold Mozart, and W.A.’s sister, Nannerl, who was also incredibly talented. The relationship between Wolgang Amadé Mozart and Franz Joseph Haydn was also really interesting to read about. I definitely wish I had kept studying piano over the years!!

All in all, I was really impressed with our trip. Some things didn’t go as smoothly as we would have liked, but what is a trip without a bit of that?! Our Pension was soo cheap (€28/person/night including breakfast!), and was actually really nice and cozy. We had a nice Chinese dinner, walked through the city and got to see some cool things, and to Amy’s joy, a lot of Sound of Music spots throughout the city! So, I think our trip was a total success and I cannot wait to go to Vienna, Venice, Berlin, etc. etc. etc.

Sorry that a lot of pictures don’t have explanations—the tour went so quickly that I cannot remember everything but… they’re still neat to see, I hope J

Let's play catch up...

It looks like I don’t write as often as I had intended… sorry!! J

Klagenfurt has been mostly uneventful. Still dealing with little things but nothing “to write home about.” J The best thing was that Katharina and Till came down Saturday to visit me and meet everyone. SO much fun!!

Luckily, the youth hostel is only a few blocks away, so we were able to spend a lot of time together. We walked to the lake, explored a bit of Klagenfurt, did some shopping, and spent some time with Sam, Audrey, and Amy. The time flew soo quickly and I was definitely not ready for them to leave Tuesday but, thank goodness, we figured out another time to meet up before she is off to Australia (lucky girl!!). In a few weeks, they are having a going-away party in Freiburg and I am going to try to make it up for that, which actually works great because the Monday after that is a holiday so it will be an EXTRA long weekend!!

We are officially planning our first trip out of Klagenfurt (finally!!!). Tomorrow Amy, Audrey, and I are going to the trian station to get our Vorteilungskarte, the discount card for train travel, and then we will book a train to Salzburg for this Saturday and Sunday. We found a really cheap Pension for around €30, which is GREAT! We’re also hoping to take a guided tour called “City Tour: On the Traces of Mozart” that will take us to most of the main attractions, as well as Mozart’s residence and birth place, and it only cost €24!! CRAZY! Then the plan is to head to Vienna the next weekend, and there’s certainly PLENTY to see and do there! My list is much too longer to list just now!

I took some pictures of the Welcome Party at the university this weekend, as well as some pictures from the weekend. The mountains are breathtaking! It’s incredible that I wake up and see mountains each day!! Now that it’s getting colder, there are even more clouds around the peaks, and it’s just incredible. Hope you enjoy!!

Downtown Klagenfurt

So... we realized the other night that we've been here for 4 weeks and haven't properly taken pictures of Klagenfurt yet. So, Audrey, Amy, and I decided to take care of two tasks in one-- we went into town and did some shopping and took a bunch of pictures of the Alter Platz, where most of the shops are. We went into a couple of churches-- one was really impressive and the other was very simple. Hope you enjoy the mini-tour of Klagenfurt :)

One month...?!

I left the KC airport 31 days ago... wow!! I can't believe how quickly everything's going-- first my week with Katharina flew by and before I knew it, I was in Klagenfurt and now it's 3 weeks later and I still can't really even believe I'm in Klagenfurt half the day!

We've added an American to our group :) Amy's roommate arrived last week and she is also from Iowa (what are the odds?!). For some reason, at every event we go to the girl that heads the Entree exchange student program makes a comment about the English speakers hanging out together and how we need to branch out and speak more German but when I look across the room, the people that speak Italian are together, the Turkish are together, etc. etc. etc. I think it's because there are a LOT of people that speak the other languages and only the 5 of us though. And we definitely do talk to other people...And no one will speak German with us because we speak English! Even in the dorms, when the other students ask a question in German and I try to answer or didn't catch what they said, they realize I speak English and that's all they speak after that!

Classes start Monday! My language course will be on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6 to 9 (yuck!), my grammar and phonetics courses won't be decided until after the first night but they will be in the evening Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, and my other courses are Survey of Austrian Culture (Wednesdays from 2:30 to 4) and Issues in Second Language Acquisition (Tuesdays, 12 to 2). It's going to be pretty rough, huh?! No classes on Thursdays or Fridays.. no class Monday until 5... I don't know how I'll manage!! It's hard to believe that is worth the 15th hours I signed up for at Washburn... but I won't complain!!

I've started making a list of places to travel to... and knowing that I have 4 day weekends every week makes it even better!! Hopefully someone else will have long weekends as well and we can travel together. I think the top 5 places I want to go are: Vienna, Berlin, Venice, Prague, and....okay, I don't know what my 5th one is but that's definitely a good start! Wicked the Musical is playing in Stuttgart-- in German!-- so I really would like to go see that one weekend. It's expensive but if I could go to a matinée, it wouldn't be that bad-- and how awesome would it be to see that?! I know all the songs by heart in English, so even if I wasn't positive about vocabulary, I would be able to figure it out and it would be really interesting to see how they adapt it! I think it's kind of a must! :)

For now my homesickness is very much subsided! I'm getting to know Amy and Sam better and I really like Amy's new roommate, Audrey. There have been a lot more welcome and "meet and greet" events for us this week, which has been a lot of fun and has helped us meet more people-- most of whom I will never remember the names of! I am still dealing with some culture shock but I am reminding myself that I have to just adapt to it for now and in 3 months... it won't be a problem anymore! While it's frustrating that they are closed and don't seem very bothered to be helpful, the concept of the whole system is a good one.... maybe I'll end up a fan-- we'll see!

Here are some pictures from one of the welcome parties this week:

No place like home

Sorry it's been a while! Things have gotten hectic... well, sort of. Can you believe I've been gone almost a MONTH?!.... I can't!

Things around here are so much different than at home. Stores close between 5 and 6 every day and aren't open at all on Sundays... office hours are 9 to noon... and I feel like I've been thrown into this university without any guidance.

I'm definitely experiencing some culture shock! The music on the radio and in the restaurants is from the 90s.. not late 90s either! To put it nicely, the people dress for the same time period! It's kind of like a time warp! Everyone jokes about Lederhosen and Dirndls.... it's no joke here, folks! The pictures of the store front selling the Tracht is not a tourist attraction. People just wear it for the heck of it. As long as you're up for taking the time to wash each piece by hand... you wear your Tracht whenever!

I also cannot get used to the office hours. We have class daily from 9 to 12:30 with a 30 minute break around 10:30; however, we are expected to get all these things done before noon. The first week we had to go to our dorms and have the administrator sign the police forms saying we live here, then take them back to the international office, and while at the international office we needed to get some other paperwork signed, provide copies of our passports, etc. That's only a few of the things we were expected to do.. and we ALL have to do all of these things so we are all standing, waiting in line for 30 minutes wasting our break time..

On our first day of class, we had a meeting with the international office and they told us that they would arrange for each of us to talk with a campus "advisor" about what classes we should take... well, the semester officially starts Thursday and none of us are enrolled. My roommate is enrolled because she missed that meeting and found someone to help her. But most of us... just left hanging. I've emailed a few people and am waiting on replies... but I've searched the course catalog and am just not sure how their system works so I really need to talk to someone! It would have been one thing had they told us to handle it ourselves.. but they straight out said they'd help us and haven't. It's so frustrating!

I think across the globe universities have a reputation for being a bit disorganized, but this definitely takes the cake!! When I applied, I sent a copy of my passport. My first week here, they asked for another copy of my passport and of my Visa, and now I have an emailing saying I need to come by the international office (again, over my break when I need to be figuring out what classes to take!!!) and bring my passport! I'm starting to wonder if they're stealing my identity! :)

It's funny the little things we take advantage of and don't realize it's specific to the US. It's always the little things though... For me: ranch dressing (or any "normal" salad dressing), PEPSI (especially Diet Wild Cherry... how I miss you....), tortilla chips and Mexican food in general, hamburgers and fries (I might get brave this weekend and see what Austrian burgers are like.. eek!), and, of course, in a BIG way, Wal-Mart!!!!!!! :)

Aside from the frustration..... it is funny how quickly we become accustomed to certain things. I'm used to the room.. the shower... I just accept that after class, we go across the street to the cafe, Uni.Wirt, and have a coffee/pop and hang out until we get completely bored with that... then we come back to the dorms and do our own things until dinner and Amy, Sam, and I eat in the kitchen and hang out all evening. Tuesdays we go to Mozartclub at the other dorm. Kind of pathetic... but at least I am not alone in my boredom OR my frustrations! We speak English all of the time, so sometimes I forget where I am.

Our intensive course is far from intensive, except in a boring way. Last week I had a really bad encounter with the phonetics instructor. It was our first time with him and he decided to make me an example. Everyone had to read a sentence or two from a text and he would tell them how good they did and maybe fix one thing... but when it was my turn, he stopped me every few works and corrected me over, and over, and over, and over! Everything I said, "No, no... like this" and no matter what I tried, it was wrong! At the end of class, he dismissed everyone saying, "You all did very well!" Then looked at me and said, "Work on your umlauts, the 'st', 'sch', and ..." went on and on! I was furious, embarrassed and just wanted to go home! Today our normal instructor told us he was coming again and I about left the class, but today was much better!! The first time I read, he said nothing and when I read more later, I actually heard him say bravo without interrupting me. YAY! He did correct a few things, but that's to be expected. I KNOW my German is far from perfect!

So hopefully, I'll have my classes figured out in the next few days-- and along with it, my schedule for the next 3 months! A few of the classes that I've found that meet the subject of what Carol said I should try to take only meet a few days a semester for quite a few hours at a time, which I would actually be pretty okay with! Who knows though..!

Of course-- the things I miss the MOST from home are: my family (puppy dog included!) and my friends! Love you all!

No creative title.. sorry :)

Well, I've officially made it through a week of class! It went soo fast. I can't believe it even. I'm slowly started to figure things out and kind of get used to how things work. Some things that I figure out are just plain frustrating though!! For example, I desperately need to do laundry... but you have to have a credit card or some type of card with a chip in it to put money on. Right. Don't have one. I'm officially going to be the stinky kid ;) Just kidding!!! Apparently, once I get my student ID activated I'll be able to put money on it. But I would really have liked to do laundry like TODAY. I broke down and did a few things in the sink because I have no other choice! I'm not sure if there are any laundromats around here or not but my google search for it was just confusing!

A few of us tried to go out to the bars last night. I'm not sure it was all that successful. Amy, Sam, and I went over to UniWirt, the cafe/bar right next door for a few drinks then met some of the other students in town. There's a guy here that's been at Klagenfurt for three years now, so he thinks he's incredible, basically. He was telling us where to go, what to do.. one of his friends from Austria went to a waitress at this little crappy dive-bar and said in German (as if none of us would be able to understand) that she was bringing a group of new students and that they probably couldn't speak German, just English. Then she turned around and told us "Go sit over there," because we obviously aren't intelligent enough to decide to sit or stand! I wanted to scream. I'm sure if I were telling this story to my family in person, Erin would be making a comment about me talking back.. but I didn't... Well, not to her. And it was way to loud in the room for her to hear anything I may have said :) Hahaha.. She was rude though. Very, very rude the entire time!

Amy, Sam, and I kind of decided that next time we'd just rather have drinks at the dorm or something. At a few of the places, our drinks were over 7 euro a piece! That's just outrageous. Definitely can't afford to do that. And everywhere is soo smoky! All of my clothes reek (and I can't wash them yet!!) so that's not going to work out. At all.

Well, here are some pictures of the lake, the little party on Tuesday night, and the museum we went to yesterday.

My week!

Hi all! Hope everyone is doing well! My first week in Klagenfurt is going so well! I couldn't have dreamt it being better, really. I've met some great people already and am excited about the semester :)

Of course, most of the people that I've been spending time with are native English speakers... but that's kind of normal. All of the Italians spend most of their time together, as do the Turkish students, etc. etc. etc. But it's funny... there are 2 students from England and then 2 of us from the US that hang out a lot. We basically sit around and laugh at one another. We all speak so differently! It's really hilarious how even the most simple words can sound so entirely different!! But lucky for me, we are all in the same group for classes and two of them live in the same dorm as I do, so we've been having meals together and keeping one another company when there's nothing going on-- which is great!

Today was the first sunny and just NICE day that I've really had in Klagenfurt! Everyone told me the weather would be comparable to home... but I'm pretty sure in Kansas in September I don't generally wear long sleeves and a jacket and STILL feel cold! But.. hopefully, that's just a brief thing but the trees are starting to lose their leaves already.. so I'm really thinking it may just get colder! BOO!! Sadly, we had to spend a lot of the day in class today. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we have class from 9 to 10:30, then have a half hour break, then again from 11 to 12:30. Tuesdays and Thursdays, though, we have that AND class from 2 to 3:30. But after class, one of the guys from class and I decided to take advantage of the day and go into town. We took the bus in and walked all over the place, had ice cream (yummmm!), and then walked back home. It took about two and a half hours, so it was a great way to spend the afternoon.

Now I'm REALLY excited. I finally had a successful trip at the grocery store the other day and got some good bread, some meat and cheese, some ground meat, tortilla shells, etc. etc... so there's another American here for only the intensive 3-week course, and he said he was out of food for tonight so I told him I had stuff to make pasta or stuff to make tacos and his eyes LIT up! It's really sad how excited we can get over little things, sometimes! But we decided I didn't have nearly enough supplies so he is running to the grocery store to buy more things to make guacamole, etc! YAY!!! :) Maybe I won't be soo bad at this feeding myself thing, after all! Haha..

There's really nothing too exciting or fabulous to tell you all about (I don't really think anything I've written so far was that great!!) but I thought I should fill in the last few days :)

Love you all!

What a first day!! I was really nervous this morning. Woke up early and got ready.. so I ended up being ready about 45 minutes before I needed to be!! I wasted some time, ate a little breakfast, and went across the street to "get it over with!" I looked in the lecture room and there were only 2 people in there, so I sat down for a while outside and wasted time.. again! Finally, I sucked it up and went into the classroom.

As I walk in, this Japanese girl turns and smiles, waves me over, saying, (imagine a REALLY strong Japanese accent for this)"Sit, sit! Hi!!" She was practically bouncing in her seat to have someone sit next to her! Turns out, her English is far from good but her German is probably worse! We stumbled through a conversation as other people came in the room. Finally, the instructors came in and welcomed us all. They told us we would be taking our placement exam today and gave us a little schedule. The students with absolutely no knowledge of German were told to go ahead and go to class today since the exam would be a waste of time. Then we started our exam.

They told us to make sure we took the entire test because there was more than one part. So, I finished the first page and turned the test over and there was another section, so I took that section as well. I thought, there's no way I can really be done already! We had an hour to take the exam and it'd been 15 minutes. Another girl got up and handed her test in so I thought, okay then... When we came back into the classroom an hour later, we were split into groups to perform interviews. After calling my name, the instructor asked why I hadn't completed the rest of the test!! OF COURSE!! Luckily, I was able to finish the test while others in my group were interviewed. While the first half of the test was soo easy, I felt like I got over 90% correct, the second half was much harder! One page was a story that asked us to fill in the blanks with words provided. Easy enough.... but not. I was positive on about... 5.. MAYBE 5. The rest, I tried to look at the stems of the words and figure everything out but not sure that it was anything other than random choice! The next part was a little easier but.. We were given two paragraphs with blanks and expected to know how the writer intended to form the sentence.. but given the topic, I thought there really could be several options... But even after some confusion and frustration, I finished my test, and interviewed with the instructor without too much worry!

After that we had about an hour break. During the break, a bunch of the international students congregated together and we talked (in English, I know... horrible!) and were able to get a bit of a feel for each other. It was really neat because in each group of people that I would be talking to, there would be me from the US and then, almost always, 3 or 4 people from 3 or 4 different countries.

Once we went back into the class, we were split into groups based on our level of proficiency. Group 1 had already gone because they know no German. So group 2 is the next lowest up to group 5. Being the paranoid nut that I am, I was soo scared my name would be called in one of the first few groups!! But I am happy to say that I am a member of Group 5! YAY!! The highest group :) That feels pretty good, I won't lie. Of course, that doesn't really mean a lot. It's not like there's a score that I must achieve to be in it, it's just I'm one of the top 8 or so in this particular group. But still.. pretty cool!!!!

So moving on to an entirely unrelated note: Everyone has told me that the city center is not too far by foot. I've gone into town several times by bus and it's about a 10 minute trip. Today I wanted to go into town and look at H&M and get groceries on my way home... no big deal! Once I was in town and ready to head home, I thought I'd just grab my groceries at the store by the main bus stop and hop on the bus and go home.. but then I didn't have the one euro to get a cart, so I was grabbing only the bare essentials.. then I had to pay 20 euro to charge my cell phone... All okay. As I'm walking out of the store, my bus is waiting. Perfect timing!! I run to the bus, pull out my wallet and only have a 100 and 50 euro bills and about 80 cents in change! I thought about going inside and getting change for my bills but then decided I could walk home. HAHA. Not a funny joke on myself. The walk took me about 45 minutes!!! IN NOT COMFORTABLE SHOES!!! And it's COLD and rainy!! Always an adventure with me! :)

Well... random highlights of my day! I think I might try to go to the store down the street and do my REAL grocery shopping now.

Connected Again!

Hi everybody! After a few glitches, I finally have internet connection in my dorm room... and my dorm room is starting to feel like MINE!

The first day in Klagenfurt, Katharina and I took care of a few little campus things and headed into town, where, thank GOD, we found people! I was a little bit nervous at first. The area around campus isn't exactly teeming with people, so I was worried that it would be pretty difficult to find a place to belong here. But once we got into the Heiligengeistplatz, which is basically the city center, we saw lots of people and LOTS of stores! We went into the mall and got a cable for internet (yep, b/c it's 2009 and my laptop has to be plugged into a cable in my dorm all semester. Sweet) and a new SIM card so that I can get really awesome prices on calls and texts! YAY!

Sidenote: There are so many stores that are so much like the stores we have in the US, and soo many times, they're exactly the same. When Katharina and I went to get groceries, I recognized a sign on a grocery store, and so did Katharina, as being an Aldi store. BUT the sign here says Hofer. Same exact store. But what I find even more interesting is that in the US we have Forever 21 and at the mall here, there is Forever 18. It's just a minor thing but... it's such a huge cultural statement, I think. 21 is the age that everyone wants to be in the US... you can finally drink and do "whatever you want" legally. But here, by 18 you've been drinking a few years legally and you're probably about done with school, and you are recognized as an adult. 21 is insignifcant here. It only has any weight in the US because we don't allow legal adults, who can vote for the president, fight and DIE for their country to have a drink if they want one. But.. that was just a little thought I had. Didn't mean to have a spiel about drinking age at all, I just think it's funny that they went so far as to change the name of the store because 21 is soo trivial here.

Anyway... the second day in Klagenfurt, Katharina and I went to IKEA, which was an experience! WOW. Let me just say, those Swedes have it figured out! H&M and IKEA. Cheap stuff that still looks good. I mean, H&M clothes won't last forever but they get you buy while the look is in style, and same with IKEA stuff. I bought two lamps for my room, a coverlet for the comforter on my bed and pillowcase & sheet, a throw blanket, pots, plates, and cups for the kitchen, kitchen and bath towels, and some organizers for my bathroom yesterday all for about 82 Euro! So.. $110 or so! That's really stinking awesome! I probably could have found cups, plates, etc for the kitchen in some room that I've heard of here that is from other students but... this way it's new, clean, and MINE. And it was super cheap! I won't complain. And it really gave me a sense of home here. I walk into this room and it's not just white. It's blue (yay), it's cozy, it's starting to be MY room.

And it needs to starting becoming mine but I'm officially on my own with a bunch of people I don't know! Katharina left Klagenfurt this morning at 10:30. It's such a wierd feeling. Being in a city, hundreds of miles from home, where I know no one, and am still learning the language... it's scary, it's exciting, it's unbelievable that it's really happening.

After Katharina got on her train, I was pretty... scared. Could I remember how to get back to the dorm on my own? What if I asked a question and didn't understand.. what if I don't make friends quickly? etc etc... But... there's always reassurance when you need it. As I was getting on the bus, a mid-Eastern woman was trying to ask the bus driver a question and didn't speak German. She asked me if I knew English and I said yes. So she asked me how to get to the lake. I told her I wasn't sure but thought she should get on the same bus I was getting on, go to the city center, and switch buses there. She asked if I could ask the driver, so I did (auf deutsch!!), and he told me the same thing. Even told her to get on Line 10, which is what I would have told her to do! So, I felt really good about that. It's a totally minute thing but it helped me feel like, okay, I can do this. It will be okay! :)

So, still a lot nervous but.. I know it'll work out!

Love you all.