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.

Not in Kansas anymore...

Well, here I am! In Klagenfurt, Austria. Living in the dorms. Yikes!
Katharina and I arrived in Klagenfurt yesterday about 7:15. Agnes, who is in charge of the exchange buddy program at the university picked us up at the train station and drove us to the dorms. She walked us across to the campus and showed us a few things. I'm literally directly across from the main building on campus, so that's very nice!
I would be lying, though, if I didn't say that the homesickness set in once I arrived here. The weight of being here on my own kind of all settled in, I think. Luckily, Katharina understands from all of her time in new places... so she gave me lots of hugs!! Then we decided it was best to just go get some food and relax. There's a nice little cafe directly next to my dorm, so we walked over and had some salad and decided a few drinks would probably help too :) Well, of course, they did! Katharina had me completely distracted from my homesickness and we were giggling and talking like always in no time!
Today we woke up and had some campus things to take care of-- letting the international office know I had arrived, filling out dorm paperwork, and so on. The priority in my mind was the internet!!!!! I thought that surely the dorms would have wireless... but no! After we got everything taken care of on campus, we tried to connect my laptop to the wireless on campus... didn't work! So, we went into town and bought a cable to connect to the Broadband in the dorms, spent the day at the mall and in the downtown shopping area, had ice cream and bought some groceries... And we were SO excited to have the internet in the dorm, finally... but no! Even with the cable, the internet isn't working in my dorm! So, no pictures and not a lot of time to be on here! But.. oh well! I should be exploring the city, not sitting online!!
So, short and sweet.. just wanted to let everyone know that we had arrived in Klagenfurt, at last!!

P.S. The train ride through the alps was INCREDIBLE! Can't wait to share the pictures!

Last day in Freiburg

It doesn't seem possible that it's already time to head to Klagenfurt! Katharina and I will leave tomorrow morning between 8 and 9 and will get to Klagenfurt around 7:15 tomorrow evening. It'll be a little interesting with all the luggage I have on the train.. but I'm sure between the two of us, it'll be fine! I really don't know how people can get by for 4 months with less.. but it's kind of a pain in the...!!

We didn't end up going to the Black Forest today. We were afraid we'd run out of time, so we had a pretty relaxing day in Freiburg. We rode our bikes across town and looked at a section of town that is really eco-friendly. Everything is built in a way that is supposed to cut down waste, etc. The houses are insulated really well and built.. well, I don't know but in ways that's hopefully better for the environment. Apparently, Freiburg is very well known for its efforts in solar energy and eco-friendly buildings.

I'm not sure if any of you caught it or not, but I did say that we rode across town on bikes. Yes... me on a bike. Well, we tried it out the other day and, they say you never forget how to ride a bike... and fine, I'll give them that! But you sure do get rusty at it!! Not to mention that there are soo many people riding around on bikes in Freiburg! Plus pedestrians and cars! It didn't take long for me to be able to ride but I'm certainly not a GOOD bike rider!! Haha. I do enjoy it though. Sadly, I don't have any video or pictures of me flailing around on a bike to share with you all!!

So then after we saw the eco-friendly buildings, we walked up a hill, small mountain?, something and stopped at the Jesuitenschloss, which has a restaurant and we had some delicious homemade ice cream!! Mmm! I had Schwarzwaelder Kirsch ice cream. Chocolate and vanilla with cherries and a little Kirschwasser (cherry liquor). I assumed they'd barely put any Kirschwasser but was I wrong! I had to make sure not to try to get too much in eat bite! But it was very good! We sat there and just looked down on the city for quite a while. It was so relaxing and the weather was perfect today! We got pretty hot on the hike up but once we got there, the wind was blowing and it felt great to just sit there.

I'm really happy to say that I've not been homesick yet. I've only been here 4 or 5 days, I know, but I really feel fine. I'm trying to take one day at a time and I think that helps. Of course, being with Katharina who I know definitely helps!! I hope that I continue to be able to just take each day as it comes, not think ahead to December when my family is here and not think about how long it's been since I've seen them too much, as well. And I'm still really excited to meet people in Austria, to see how I perform on my German proficiency exam, and to get acquainted with the city of Klagenfurt! Really, I just have to much to do to sit around being homesick! :)

Lots of love! Enjoy some pictures from today:

Switzerland!

Hi everybody!! Well... if I may say so myself, I'm quite the world traveler ;) HA! In the last week, I've been in the U.S., Germany, France, and now Switzerland.. and back to Germany, of course! Okay... not quite a world traveler, but I've been to three countries that I sure never had been to before!! I even left the European Union!! haha It's so weird too... I've only had to show my passport at the airport! Even in Switzerland, no one checks for I.D.s. I think it's pretty cool but it's kind of weird to think that now the U.S. is making it so much harder to come in and everyone else is kind of opening up their borders all at once.

Basel was really cool. It was only a little over an hour by train, with stops about every 10-20 minutes, I'd say. It's pretty cool that for about 23 euro, you can go to another country (as long as you're in a city close anyway!). While we were in Basel, we had lunch at a little cafe, walked through the main shopping area, and looked at the Muenster building there. Muenster is, according to wikipedia (what else, after all, could I rely on for educational info? HA!), was a type of church built, originally, not as a parish church but as a part of a monastery... but then in the 13th century, that all kind of stopped and it's just.. whatever it is! haha.. I sound so smart, huh?! :) Anyway, they're really cool, ornate, HUGE buildings. People are just everywhere in these churches and they (the whole two I've seen, I'm such an expert) have gift shops.

Then the Rhine river runs right through Basel, so we sat on some grass and watched people, talked, and had ice cream! It was really a very good day. We thought that it would be a nice, relaxing day but it ended up being at least 79 degrees Fahrenheit and with all the walking we did, we were both exhausted!! We got back to Freiburg and kind of just bummed around. We ate a quick dinner here and then watched a movie, KeinOhrHasen (Rabbit without Ears), with English subtitles *yay*.. it was a really cute love story. And now we're getting ready to crash for the day!

Tomorrow we're off to the Black Forest in the afternoon-- should be fun!

Hope you're all doing well!!!!!!!!!

Here are some pictures from Basel:

Pictures!

Slideshow from the last two days!

My first days abroad!

HALLO! :) Can you believe that I've been in Germany for 2 days already???!! It's so surreal.

Yesterday was a blur! I got to the airport in Frankfurt around 6:30 am local time. After getting my luggage and going through customs, it was a little after seven before I got out of the secured part of the airport... and I didn't see Katharina! So I was a little nervous... called home to let them know I made it and buy time to find her. Luckily, only a few seconds after calling home, she came around the corner. It doesn't seem like there's anyway that it has been 6 years since she and I have spent time together!! It is still so natural. Our conversations are easy and we understand each other very well!! It helps, of course, that her English is soooo good!!

After the airport, we grabbed a quick breakfast and went to Baden-Baden where her family lives and met her parents and talked, showered, etc. Then Katharina and her mom and I went into the town and walked around. Of course, when we decided to do this, the rain decided to come back! It rained all day!!! By about 4 o'clock, I was exhausted!! The night before I left, I only slept 2 hours or so and sleep on the plane is never as good as the real thing! So, we went back to her house in a little village called Vernhaft and I slept for a few hours... much better!!! Then our easy to understand English quickly shifted to German!! Katharina's brother came home and her boyfriend came to town... and German was very quickly the language of choice!! I definitely missed alot of the stories b/c I was so busy trying to translate in my head but it was good to become accustomed to the sounds!

Today we woke up and had breakfast... traditional German: bread rolls (harder than anything we eat at home), cheeses, meats, peanut butter, Nutella, jam, etc. Then we went over to France, which is only about a 15 minute drive from here! WOW! We went to a small town that looked exactly like things look in Germany!! The waitress where we ate lunch even spoke German :) So it wasn't that exciting but hey... two days and I've been to Germany AND France!! :)

A little later in the day, we went back into Baden-Baden and went in the remains of an old castle on a mountain. It was so cool. The castle is from the 12th or 13th century and we climbed to the very top!!! I could see the Rhein, the river that creates the border between France and Germany and I could the mountains in France. SOO Beautiful!!

Finally, we went to a "Dorffest" in Katharina's village. It's a street party basically, except the whole village goes. They close off most of the streets and drink beer, dance, play traditional music and have fun. Katharina was kind of embarrassed because it's a very small town sort of thing to do and she wouldn't normally go but it was a chance for me to see very "German" things! And eat very good food and drink very good wine and beer :) (But of course, not too much!)

Love you all!! Hope you're having a blast in the States!!

(And hopefully your weather is better.. it's rained almost nonstop since I arrived here!!)

.....My pictures are taking too long to load and I'm very tired!!! I will post tomorrow morning when I'm more awake :) ....

Headin' out!

I'm sitting at the Charlotte Airport... the beginning of my five hour layover here. How exciting! HA! I thought I'd take the chance to pull the rest of my "going away" pictures off my camera and post 'em on here.... but it's being funky, so... hopefully my sis will be sending me some that she has on her computer (Thanks, E!) and then I can post all of them at once...

The last few days have been rough.. saying bye to people, even for only a few days or weeks, is not something I'm generally good at, so leaving my family and friends for 4.5 months is tough! But I know that it's going to be so worth it!! I am more excited than I can express in words! Before my next post, I will have flown across the Atlantic Ocean (by myself!!), arrived in a totally foreign, but amazing, exciting, beautiful, and historic country(!!!), and, last but by no means least at all, reacquainted with an amazing friend I haven't seen since 2003! If I don't start falling asleep without Tylenol PM after this, I'm helpless!!!!!

I love and miss you all (I know.. already!)... keep me updated about your lives and I cannot WAIT to share about my (suddenly) very exciting life!!!