I'm feel old. (with picture! wow!)

Okay, so since Paris... I've had 4 tests and 2 presentations.  So what have I been doing? nothing but studying.  Well, okay maybe I've had some fun too.  Last weekend our friends from Schwabisch Hall came to visit!  It was a really awesome weekend, and it was really good to get to see them again.  Plus, we got to act like tourists since we were showing them all around.  It's weird being touristy in the city you live in, I mean, I never feel like I can pull out my camera without looking weird, or making it more obvious that I am not from here.  So we showed them around and just enjoyed hanging out together.  One of the nights they were here was the first night it snowed!  We were walking back from the U-Bahn station and we came around this corner and started getting sleeted on, it was intense, we actually had to stay under the shelter of a building for a few minutes before we decided it was too cold and that the only way we could make it back was to run for it.  I don't think I've ever been so cold in my life.  

Anyway, that weekend was also the night that we all went to the opera!!  It was awesome! We had really really good seats.  Mozart's Zauberflöte was playing, it was wonderful, I really enjoyed it a lot.  I was mostly excited that they had a translator on the back of the seat in front of you, so you could follow what they were saying, in German and in English.

this week was full of studying for my Econ test, which was on my birthday, lame.  and also making pies for thanksgiving.  Studying, not so exciting, thanksgiving.  Awesome.  We had a big dinner where everyone brought something and we catered a turkey, it was good to get to have a thanksgiving, even though it wasn't as good as being home.  I really missed home in fact, but it was good to get to Skype with the whole fam as they were at my house for the day.  

My birthday was alright, nothing to write home about.  I mean it wasn't a bad day, just 75% of it was filled with my econ test.  I missed being home again too, I didn't really want to make a big deal out of it cause I knew if I did I would just miss home even more.  We just went out to a bar for a little while and hung out.  It was fun.  I got a lot of nice cards from home though!  Thanks to everyone who sent me one, or an email :) That was really nice of you and it was AWESOME to receive those.  

Well, now I'm getting ready to go read Faust... whoo.  I've got to get my work done for next week, cause this weekend we are going to Scotland! I'm stoked for that, however I'm not looking forward to the 4 hour flight :(.

love you guys.

parrisss

So I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted.  I've been extra super discustingly busy with midterms and such.  I've got several tests and presentations this week and next week, and somehow I decided it would be a good idea to go to paris right before that all happened.  

Well that turned out to be a good choice, I absolutely loveeeedddd Paris it was fantastic and beautiful.  I had such a wonderful time.  I got in on Thursday night and Jessica met me up at the airport.  We went and got crepes then went salsa dancing with some of her friends, it was a lot of fun.  Then Friday I wandered around the city on my own in the morning as Jessica was in class, I saw the Eiffel Tower, the Grand Palais, A museum near the Lourve that has Monet's waterlily's in it.  The gardens around the Lourve, and I ran into Sarkozy (since mom didn't know this, the French President)  i saw a group of paparazzi and wanted to know what was going on since there were also a bunch of armed guards and a convoy of cars waiting, and lo and behold, Sarkozy came out of the restaurant they were in front of!  I thought that was cool.  That afternoon Jessica and I met up, and had some awesome lunch and went to the Lourve and some other random places before we wen to get mimi from the train station.  Just sayin, Mona Lisa holds nothing the the Painting opposite it, The Last Supper, but not the famous one, it was still really cool and the venus de Milo has a wart, and no arms... I wasn't all that impressed.  Anyway, once we were with Mimi we went and got sushi and then met up with a couple of other AC students and hung out for a while. 

Saturday was another day of sightseeing, we went to Napoleons Tomb, walked down the Champ-Elysees, then had a picnic of bread cheese and fresh fruit in the park by the Eiffel Tower.  After that we wandered to a church on a hill, the name I can't remember because I don'tbelieve french is a real language and therefore have forgotten everything I was taught.  But we watched the sun set and listened to some musicans on the steps, first and a capella group and then a guy and his guitar, and ate french pastrys, mmm that was fun.  Then we hung out in the bar of our hostel and chatted with some austrailians and a canadian for a while.  That was neat.

Sunday we got a late start, but went to the Luxembourg Gardens, and then took mimi back to the train station and the Jessica and I went to Notre Dame and heard a concert by a choir that was randomly going on while we decided to go visit, then we went and walked around on the right bank and looked in some shops, but didn't buy anything and then had an all out french dinner.  I had to get my escargo fix... it was delliissh... 

All in all it was a really awesome weekend.  I really really enjoyed Paris, but It's good to be back in a coutry with a real language and an Ubahn system that makes sense and signs I can read and pronouce.  

It'll be a busy week, a bunch of people from the Goethe institute are coming to visit thursday and I'm really excited about that.  Other than that all that I've really had going on is studying like crazy.  I've made some new friends that are German of course... lol, I seem to have a radar for germans.  Hope all is well at home.

I miss you guys!

things I don't like about Vienna

I can only come up with a few.

1.  That the sun sets a 4:30.  4:30!!!!!! I go to class after it's pitch black outside 3 days a week.  I don't like that, plus I feel like it's bedtime at like 8 because it's already been dark so long.  4:30..... I can't take much more of this getting dark so early.

2.  That grocery stores are closed on Sunday.  that's just annoying, they are pretty much the only stores that close on Sunday, and it's the only place I ever need to go... sigh. 

3.  That the sun sets at 4:30. 

4.  We had to go to "Wal-mart" to buy a pie pan.  I hate Austrian Walmart more than the real one.  It's giant and messy and expensive.  Finding a pie pan was probably the thing I have had the hardest time trying to find since we got here, it took a good 2 hours of searching everywhere to find one.

5. 4:30!!!!!!!!!!!

That's really it..... I think.  I really do love it here, so it's hard to find things I don't like, I mean we have found a grocery store that carries everything we need to make tacos and quesadillas, they have good salsa and avacados, we had a big mexican feast last night and I made some pumpkin pie from scratch.  Both were amazingly delicious.  Especially the pie :)  I can now I have ice so I can make my own iced tea, but it's getting too cold to care about that anymore...  Pretty much everything (except for my family and friends!) that I miss from home I have found equally good replacements for here.  

4:30!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That means when it's 10:30 in the morning there... and starting next week after your dst, 9:30 am, the sun is setting here. I'm counting down the days till dec 21 when it starts getting later again...

Exchange Rate

I just wanted to share the wonderful wonderful happenings that are going on right now.. if you haven't been paying attention, but since I have been in Europe, the Dollar has appreciated by 44 cents.  I'm really really thrilled about this... And just wanted to tell the world :)

now, just wait, because I posted this, tomorrow it's going to shoot back up to 1.68.... sigh..

Things I Love about Vienna

That every weekend is a three day weekend :)
It's really green here, even in the middle of the city.
Public Transportation.
The new and the old intermingled throughout the city.
Schönbrunn Gardens.
The Zoo, especially the seals.
Stephansdom.
That each district makes you feel like you are in a new city.
Maroni on every street corner, aka, roasted chestnuts.
The way everyone avoids looking at each other to whatever extent necessary on the subways.
Coffee.
Getting to speak German.
Meeting some really interesting people from all over the world.
The city at night.
That in a hop, skip and a jump I can go to about 10 different countries.
All the parks.
The surprising amount of peacefulness in the middle of the city.
That I am getting to experience more than just summer.
That it has already "snowed." Well, Texas snowed, we saw a snowflake :)
How much more efficient everything is.
Local Markets instead of giant grocery stores.
No wal-marts.
My waltzing class.
My Theology class.
My lit class.
My hilarious little lit professor.
The fact that text books can be checked out of the library for the semester and don't have to be purchased.
That's a good list of things... I'll probably come up with some more later :)

Now that it has been a million years since I updated...

Okay, sorry it's been so long, I've just been really busy. Three days a week I have over 10 hour days, so I am pretty exhausted by the time I get home at night, so I do homework, eat dinner and crash. But Wednesdays are my mostly free days. yay!
So last week was pretty good, the trip to Schwabisch Hall was absolutely fantastic! It was so good to see everyone even though it had only been two weeks since I had last seen them, but nevertheless, it was really rejuvenating to get to hang out with some familiar faces after I couple of difficult weeks acclimating to living in Vienna. Saturday we also went to Mainz to go see Lena and Nathan, from AC, Lena was our language resident for the last two years and Nathan is living in Mainz studying abroad this year. It was a lot of fun to see them, we went to a mexican food restaurant owned by San Antonians! That was pretty cool, wasn't the best though. Anyway, so that weekend was good, but it was really hard to leave again, knowing this time there are people I won't see again. 5 of them are coming here at the end of November for a weekend, and I'm sure it'll be even harder when they leave, but I"m looking forward to that.
So that started off a good week, classes went well, theology got easier, I understood a little more because i took my computer with me and looked up a bunch of the things he was saying that confused me because I didn't understand words, so that helped a lot. I finally started making some friends in class, so it's nice to be able to talk to people outside the Central group and my roommate. People also seem to be finally coming out of their rooms from hiding and are hanging out in the kitchen more often, so I'm meeting some people in my dorm too. Friday Nicole and I went out to Schonbrunn Palace, it was absolutely beautiful and on a fantastic day, we just walked around the grounds and walked through a hedge maze and took a lot of pictures. I think it's probably one of my new favorite places in the world. We are going back to go to the Zoo this weekend, I'm really looking forward to that.
We also went to Graz this weekend with the school, it was alright, we didn't do much because we were only there for like 36 hours, we took a tour of the Southern Wine Road, that was absolutely spectacular, I loved it. We toured a winery and go to have some traditional Austrian foods and wine, it was fun. Then Sunday we took a city tour, but it really wasn't much different from any of the other places we have been, basically just one of the districts in Vienna. Still nice though. But it was good to get back Sunday night.
So I've been just trying to keep up with my school work and sleep and exploring Vienna a bunch. I'm really loving it here, the city is fantastic, and life is starting to get a bit easier.
Also, Coffee in vienna is wonderful, I'm addicted. The Melange is my new bff.

I finally posted some more pictures, not many, but if you want a looksie...
http://freshbakedbread.shutterfly.com/

love you all, hope all is well!

First Real week of Vienna

So things have been pretty eventful this last week. Classes officially started last Wednesday, but I did not have most of them until this week.
Monday I have International Econ, which is in English and 4 hours long. When we got there (Stacy is in my class too) we could only find seats in the back and had resolved ourselves to sit in the front next class because he was talking so quietly that we could not hear him. Well like 30 minutes into class he asks if anyone is an American, so stupidly we raise our hands and then from that point on in the lecture he moves closer and closer to us all class, lecturing directly to us, until he ends up about 10 feet away lecturing to us as if it is our fault the American economy is failing. It was nice because we could finally hear him, but I think I am going to have study about 8 times harder than anyone else in order to be able to argue with him about things. After that I have a Music in Vienna course with the Central program. that looks like it is going to be a lot of fun, the prof is really cool and I think I'm going to learn a lot in that class.
Tuesday I have my internship from 9-5. Tuesday was okay because for a while they didn't have anything for me to do except for work on the computer, but my account wasn't set up so I couldn't do it. So I pretty much did busy work like filing things and reshelving books while IT set up the computer for me. Then I spent the rest of the time making pamphlets for my division in 6 different languages. It was pretty cool. After work I have my German Lit class with Central, I'm pretty stoked about that too. We are going to be reading a lot of different things and I am really looking forward to getting to read some actual German classic literature.
Wednesday is a very easy day for me. I don't have class till the afternoon, but I have what will be my hardest class, The Theology of Martin Luther, in german. I pretty much just sat there eyes terrified, mouth gaping the entire time, but the kid that sits next to me emailed me his notes, so that was helpful as I only understood about one tenth of what was going on. Now it makes more sense, and I really think I'm going to enjoy it.
Thursday we have our Austrian context course. In the morning we go out and do something in the city to experience Vienna, yesterday we went to the Museum of Vienna, it was alright. Nothing too exciting. I have my internship again in the afternoon where I spent the entire time typing call numbers on labels on a typewriter. It was miserable. I hate typewriters. After that we normally have the history portion of our context course, but our teacher was sick, so we didn't. So Pat and I tried to go to the music store across the street in order to play guitar and ukulele, but they were closed by the time we got there.
Friday is my wonderful day off and I already love this. 3 day weekends every weekend, so I can travel and sleep. whoo hoo! The only time I don't have Friday off, of course, is my birthday. I have my econ final and I'm already really angry about it. But today I am off to Schwabish Hall for the weekend with Nicole. I'm really excited to go back, I miss everyone there already and it's going to be a super fun weekend. It'll be nice to get a break with some friends after such a long week here. So we are off to gets some Burritoes and then to Germany!
love
Ann

texas=cowboys vienna= wiener schniztel

Well I am finally moved into my for realz dorm. I really like it so far, it's pretty big and for the all of 5 minutes I talked to my roommate before we both dashed off in different directions she seems really nice, all I know is that her name is Kristina and she is from Western Austria. I think she has an exchange student roommate every semester, so that's a good sign. But anyway, the dorm is nice, I think I'm going to enjoy it here, it's not too far from the city center or school or anything really.
This last week in Vienna was pretty eventful, we figured out what classes we will most likely be in, I'm for sure taking 3 classes with central, austrian context, german literature and then either music in Vienna or grammar and stylistics- those are all in german and are taught more similarly to classes in the states, except that they are only with other kids from my program. Then I'm also taking International econ, and then either the theology of Martin Luther, or Europes Political Economy, those are all classes at the University, so that's going to be an adventure. I am also taking a beginning dance class to like, 10 different dances among them Viennese Waltz, slow waltz, foxtrot, salsa, merengue, tango, cha cha cha, rumba, boogie and samba. whoo! That's going to be fun!
I had my interview with the UN yesterday, well it wasn't so much an interview as hi, I'm your boss, when can you work. But Anadin and I will be the "research specialists" for UNCITRAL which is the United Nations Commision on International Trade Law. That'll be fun I hope!
That's all really from here, we have just been getting to know Vienna, signing up for train passes, subway passes, living here, etc etc etc, it's crazy all the things we have had to do in the last week, it's made me dead tired. But this is a pretty easy week, classes "start" today but all I have is my stylistics class, if I decide to take it, today is a come in, we will sit and decide what this class will be based on those who want to take it, if you like it, take it. And then our mandatory Austrian Context class tomorrow which is a history and Viennese Sightseeing class. It'll be fun.
I'm loving it here, Vienna is wonderful the people are really nice and I'm really looking forward to my classes starting.

Vienna begins

So as I hope you all assumed, I am safe and sound in Vienna. Traveling here was fairly easy, the plane was pretty empty, our luggage was quick we took a taxi to the dorm, ate and then fell right asleep. Right now we are living in temporary dorms because we can't move into our until the 1st of October. But they are still good dorms none the less, plus I've got a single so it's nice to have some space to myself for a little while.
Friday we had our orientation, that was long. We just went over a bunch of stuff, filled out forms, toured the University, which I decided is basically Hogwarts without the moving staircases. You can fit all of AC into the main building. it's nutttssss and wonderful. We took a city tour that afternoon of just a little of the 1st district then had dinner with the central college program professors. There are some classes here offered by the school just for us that are more American style classes except in German and relevent to life in Austria, I think I'm taking the german literature class and a german writing class. But all the profs seem really cool, one gave me some advice on finding a theatre I can do work with, and told me I could probably find an Improv troupe to at least see if not hang out with.
Last night we stayed up till the unbelieveably late hour of 5 am to watch the presidential debate. It was moderatly worth it. but now I'm tired. Today was a fun day, Nicole and Stacy and I went shopping and touring around the city and then tonight neighbor from across the hall took me on a city tour of several interesting places in the city. We saw Karlskirche, Stephansdom, Prater Amusement Park, the Rathaus, the Opera House, a couple of parks, the Hapsburg Palace. It was a lot of fun. But now I am even more exhausted.
I really love Vienna so far. Everyone here is so nice, the city is beautiful and public transportation is my new favorite thing ever. I am really looking forward to the next 4 months here. I know it's just going to fly by so I better start taking advantage of my time here now!

Last day in Schwabisch Hall

So that's it, time to go to Vienna! We take the Institute's bus to Nurnberg today to catch our plane to Vienna and then that's where I'll be till February. You know, until I go travel, I've already got quite a number of places i want to go on weekends, old friends to visit, things to see. I can' tell you or I'll jinx me actually getting to go to them. :D
Anyway this last week was fantastic! It was just one big party after another, started with Oktoberfest, then Monday was Stammtisch where everyone gets together just to chat (in German of course!), and hang out, then there was the last Goethe party, which didn't really count as the last one because last night we all went out to the club in town and danced some more. This week has just been an absolutely fantastic one and it's a great send off from Schwabisch Hall. I'm definitely sad to be going, leaving some people behind while others go back home, I've met a lot of wonderful people here and have really enjoyed this experience. But I suppose it's time to move on to the next!
In other news I have been told by several different native German speakers that my speaking and grammar have improved tremendously in the last two months. So whoo hoo to Goethe doing it's job and teaching me German.
Next time you hear from me I'll be in Vienna!
love you all
ann

Oktoberfest!!!

So this week has been full of fun things! Wednesday we played soccer for a while and then went out dancing all night, it was really fun but it caused only about half the people to show up on Thursday, which made class nice cause we had a much much smaller class. Thursday was just another lazy lazy day, but then we tried to go Salsa dancing again that night, but ended up sitting around in the bar again because our teacher didn't show up, but we still had a really good time just hanging out. Then I got back and some of us went and sat up on the room and chatted for a while, it was a really clear night with very little wind so it was perfect for star gazing. Friday, I spent the entire day speaking only in german, I probably only said about 20 things in English the entire day, from class, to playing soccer, where I found out I am really good at playing goalie, to dinner, until we got to the texas hold em poker party the school out on that night, then we were forced to speak english cause there is a group of Italians here learning German, but are just at the beginning so the easiest way to explain things to them was in English. I should have won right? I mean come on, I 'm from Texas! I did alright, but I still had fun.
Then yesterday we went to Munich to go to Oktoberfest! We got up super early to catch a train out there and we got into Munich about noon. It was a lot of fun, it's like a million Wurstfests put together with about 2 million times as many drunk people. We got into a couple of the tents and they are freaking huge! I couldn't believe how many people were inside one, we didn't sit down though cause the group I was with didn't really want to pay 8 euro per beer. But we rode some rides, ate some freakishly good sausage and had a lot of fun. But on the way back there were so many people on our train that we had to stand most of the way to our first stop, but we finally got seats and my roommate and I sat with some guys from Nurnburg who were really nice and we had a really good conversation with them. But we then ended up missing our connection because the train we were on had been delayed, so we rode the train all the way to Nurnburg, and our new friends helped us to try to figure out what we needed to do to get back, but the Deutsche Bahn ended up sending us to Ansbach which is like 30 minutes from here and then paid for us to have a taxi ride home since there were no more trains anywhere that were going to Schwabisch Hall until the next morning. So we finally made it back around midnight, but every minute of it was worth it. I'm really glad we went, even though it was just for a day.

A Perfect Day in Germany

So yesterday was probably the best day I have had the entire time I have been here.
I took a mental health day off class, come on you know class for 5 hours a day 5 days a week gets to you after a while, and it was well worth it. I slept in some, then got up, did some German work, looked up Oktoberfest information, hopefully we are going to make it out to Oktoberfest this Saturday! and just relaxed and had some alone time until class was over. After class there was a walk up to a castle/church/cloister that's about 3 kilometers away, so I went on that with some of my friends and the school. That was a lot of fun, it was a beautiful walk and we had some good company to enjoy it with. After that we got some dinner and then went to Salsa dancing lessons, who knew you could learn salsa in Schwabisch Hall? Anyway, you can, and it was a lot of fun! It's not too different from Mambo, but I learned quite a bit and we had a really good time. One of the other students that is here is from Argentina so he helped to teach us, and we having another lessons on Thursday. There is a party on Saturday, but I don't know if we will be back from Munich in time to go. The lessons were in the back of a cafe, so afterwards we all sat around and had some drinks and people just kept showing up randomly, so we had a wirklich Stammtisch, Stammtisch is when people meet somewhere, sit around and drink and chat for a while. It was a lot of fun, especially because I was the only American there, I think that is the only time this entire time I have been in Germany that there hasn't been another American present at a group gathering. It was weird, but I definitely like it better that way.
In a little bit we are going out to play soccer in the freezing cold, I mean it's still in the 40's here, then we have an international buffet, which is like a pot luck where you bring a traditional dish from your home country, still trying to figure out what to take, American doesn't have many traditional dishes, and I don't think anyone wants meatloaf. Then later tonight we are going out to the club to do dancing. It looks like this week is going to be a fantastic one!
I'm finally starting to feel competent in my German speaking ability, like I'm actually understood and can speak fluently, when I know the words, but I'm getting good at describing things I don't know.
The only thing that sucks is now that everything here is getting easier and I'm having a blast, it's time to leave. But I'm sure Vienna will be even better.

It's finally fall

So this month has been totally and completely different than last month. Things are a lot more low key and relaxed, there is generally less to do but we still have fun, class is not as good, but I'm still learning and the weather has been as cold as it will be in the Winter back home. Right now it's in the 50's, but yesterday it was in the low 40's.
This week has pretty much been a relax and recharge week because classes are really intense this month. We do 5 hours of non-stop brain aching work and then are pretty lethargic the rest of the day because we can't get up the energy to much else.
I can't believe that it is 11 days until I go to Vienna, where as all the time gone? It's flying by so fast that I don't even know what day it is anymore. I'm really looking forward to being in Vienna though, I'm just a little worried about the city and the school being about 200 gagillion times larger than I'm used to for that kind of setting. But it's going to be a blast, so I don't know what I'm worried about!
Next weekend I'm going to try to go to Mainz to visit some friends I know from AC, but it's going to be really expensive to go, so I'll see if I can find a cheaper ticket or way to get there.
I'm going to go back to being mellow now for the rest of the weekend so I can survive another week of german grammar assault!

New Address!

Okay guys if you decide you want to send me anything, from now on, send it to

Ann Nelson

Central College in Vienna

Alser Strasse 4, Hof 1, Stg. 16, Top 3

A-1090 Vienna, Austria

fun huh?

today's two adventures, register to get my absentee ballot. get a haircut. this should be a fun day.

The Start of Month 2 at the Goethe Institute

Hey everybody!
So the end of our trip was pretty good, I think I left off when we went to Zurich, that was okay. We just sight saw and ate sushi :) how wonderful. We met some nice Swiss women that we shared a table with at dinner one night and conversed with them for a while about Switzerland and things to do. After Zurich we went to Lindau, Germany for a couple of days. We didn't actually spend much time there as Liechenstein was the place to be :) We hung out in that small and awesome principality one day, there happened to be a pretty cool festival going on. All the museums were free and we got some food from streetvendor that was probably the best Wurst we have had yet.
Well now I'm back in Schwäbisch Hall for another month.
So far this month is going pretty well! I like my new teacher most of the time, he's totally different from my last one, but I have still learned quite a bit from him. I think it's because he looks exactly like Einstein, so he just exudes knowledge. It's pretty crazy, I'll try to remember to take a picture with him so you guys can see how weird this is. anyway, I really like my new roommate. Her name is Amber and she is from Ohio, which I was actually really disappointed about at first, but so far we are getting along really well, so I'm happy. It's so weird though, there are only about half of the amount of people here this month, so there is way less of a cultural variety and of things to do. I'm getting sick of hanging out with Americans in Germany, but I'll have some Austrians pretty soon. And of course we still have Pelle, our trusty Sweede, who might as well be American, I mean he speaks perfect English, sounds like an American and knows everything about American culture, well at least about American culture on the Simpsons. It's pretty hilarious when he asks questions about the states, he's asks like, 'so I saw this on the Simpsons, is it true?' or like 'Oh... like this one time they did that on the Simpsons!' He's a funny guy.
Today I also had my first meeting with my Tandempartner, which is when they pair you up with a native Schwäbisch Hallian who wants to learn your native language, aka english and you meet and speak in both German and English, helping each other to practice speaking. It was really fun! Her name is Jana, she's 17. today we just went for ice cream and chatted a little bit, but next week when we have more time I think we are going to go to the movies and dinner or something.
I miss you guys! Hope you are all doing well. Send me an email and let me know what's up!
love you all,
Ann

Pictures!!

Okay, so I realized I have wayyyyyyy too many pictures to put up, so I've started a photo website in a addition to this one.
the site is
http://freshbakedbread.shutterfly.com/
So you should go look at what I've started, there isn't much there yet in comparison to all the pictures I've taken, but they take a while to load on this end. They will all be up soon. I hope.

In other news, Luzern is awesome.
Yesterday we took a walking tour around the city and saw the sights, we also took a boat tour around the harbor, that was nice too. There aren't too many exciting things that are typical Luzern that are worth mentioning. Today we went up to the Glacier Garden museum park hall of mirrors sight seeing tower thing. That was a lot of fun. We also went to this shady History museum that was just a bunch of crap that you got to scan with this reader thing that would give you information about whatever you scanned, it was weird.
Other things we encountered: a parade for Luzern's Olympic gymnast that passed us while we were eating dinner last night, it consisted of a marching band of guys in scary person/lion costumes, followed by the girl in a bike taxi and then like 200 people walking behind her. Weird. Then there was the steel drum band that was playing across the street from our hotel in an outdoor concert hall. They played all American classic rock, that was pretty awesome too.
With all this stuff we just keep happening upon, I wonder what we are missing!
The weather here has been absolutely beautiful, as has everything else.
I'm really enjoying this break, it's been nice to get out of Schwaebisch Hall for a few days.

And on the 46th Day, God said, let there be Mexcian food

You'll never ever ever guess what we had for dinner. Okay you might, but yeah, Interlaken, Switzerland has 1 Mexcian food restaurant, and now my taste buds are happy that they finally got some deliciously spicy food in the form of enchiladas and chips and salsa. So, I am now completely and utterly content. Oh Mexican food, how I missed you.

Anyway, on to a much more boring note. Switzerland is freaking amazing. We started our trip in cold, rainy Bern as you know, but now we are in Interlaken. Yesterday when we got here we went out driving around and literally stumbled upon a cavern inside of the mountains where all the glaciers melt and flow down through the mountains into the streams you find everywhere. That was really awesome. I can't even find words to describe it, maybe walking around inside of a cool natural bridge caverns but with waterfalls and pools of water everywhere? Not really, but that was really something. Then we drove a bit further down the rode and took a cable car up (rather 4 cable cars) up into the Alps and ended up on top of a mountain above the few clouds there were looking out in every direction on mountains, valleys, green and snow, small towns and lakes and so on and so on. That was also something, it was such a beautiful and clear day you could see for kilometers and kilometers. That phrase doesn't work as well as miles and miles, but when in... Switzerland. Anyway, that was one heck of a things to see day.
Today was pretty cool, but it wasn't quite as clear as yesterday so we didn't get views of the same caliber as yesterday. We mostly just drove around for a while, then we found another cable car and took it up another mountain but this time we hiked about half of the way back down before we got back on the cable car. That was a lot of fun, we hiked through some cow pastures and through some really pretty mountainy countryside (I think that contradicts itself, but it makes sense to me) and got really annoyed at all the cows with bells around their necks. And well, some other less interesting stuff happened after that, like sleeping and shopping, but the best part of the day was the Mexican food. That's sad, when food makes my day and I'm in Switzerland? But, oh well, it was delicious, and I'll leave it at that.

Getting Lost in France and a Rainy Switzerland

Hey all!
So the last week of classes wrapped up nicely, it just sucks to have to say goodbye to almost everyone. I met some really amazing people and it just sucks to think that I will probably never see them again. Anyway, I'm sure there will be plenty of cool new people around next month to meet.
So the parents showed up in schwäbisch hall on Thursday and Friday we left to come to Switzerland. We took the scenic route along the Rhine and through France to see Strassbourg on our way here. And as you may have guessed got lost in France, not too bad, but enough to make me hate France. That and the signs aren't in German, so I was useless. Now I know what it's like to be the parents in Germany and now in Switzerland. Anyway, we went to the Strassbourg Cathedral, it was soooo beautiful (uh oh, here we go with beautiful again) probably the prettiest one I've seen yet. Go look it up.
We finally made it to Switzerland, it has been cold and rainy today and yesterday, but tomorrow it's apparently supposed to be sunny. But I like it here, it is different enough to tell I'm out of Germany, but still really green and surprisingly artsy feeling. Right now we are in Bern, tomorrow we head out to Interlaken. There isn't much to do here as the only reason Bern is even popular is because it's the capital. There was a market today and we walked around with our noses stuck in the Rick Steves guidebook. I'll remember to start uploading pictures again someday, I'm just not on my computer.
Hmm, I had heaven in a skillet today, it was hashbrowns covered in ham egg and cheese, its called something like Röseti, its practically everywhere, I think I know what I am having the rest of the meals here!
I hope all is well back home and you guys aren't getting too much rain from Fay. I sent some postcards the other day and the guy at the post office told me he couldn't send them because there was a hurricane in the way. That's the first German I have met who actually tried to be funny! anyway, miss you all lots.
Take care, send me emails and let me know how you are doing!
love and Röseti
Ann

Almost forgot, anyone else as excited about Joe Biden as I am????
except I signed up for the Obama text and didn't get it. There was no disclaimer about international phones! Totally not fair. The parents think it means Obama doesn't love me or care about my opinions and so I shouldn't vote for him.

Nurnberg and American Politics

So while I sit here and wait and wait and wait for it to be two am, so that I can watch the religious forum here on my computer with all the other weird Americans who are into politics, I thought I would tell make a post to kill some time. This week was pretty uneventful, Monday we made baklava, it was pretty good, not quite as good as Austins moms, but still good none the less. The weather got pretty cold and rainy here this week, it's been nice that it's not really hot any more, but it's August, it shouldn't be so cold yet! I've had to wear my fleece jacket to stay warm the past couple of days. I started looking into the classes I want to take in Vienna since I have to decide that soon. I'm trying to decide betwee taking a couple of Econ classes, one I need to take and another on the European economy, perhaps a math class, a sociology class, waltzing and I'm really tempted to take a class on Luther's theology, there are like 10 times the amount of classes to choose from than at AC, but the hard part is figuring out what I think I'll be able to understand in German.
So every weekend there is an excursion offered by the Goethe Institute to another city somewhere nearby, this weekends was to Nurnberg and I actually went! I was so traveled out after the first two weeks here that I didn't want to go to the other two, one was to Stuttgart the other to Wurzenberg. But today was a lot of fun. We had a really good tour guide, who I actually understood lead us around the city and give us the history. We ate some Nurnberger Sausage, probably the best sausage I've had since I've been here. We went to a toy museum too, that was pretty neat, there's been one in every city and we finally decided it was worth it to go when I wasn't the one paying for it. It wasn't the best thing ever, but it was still neat to see the progression of toys.
Classes end here on Wednesday for this semester and then the parents come back on Thursday so we can go to Switzerland for 10 days before the next month here at the Goethe Institute.
Time is just flying by here like you wouldn't believe, I can't believe the first month here is already just about finished, it seems like it just started yesterday!
I miss you guys,
take care
Ann

1 month mark!

Hey Everybody
So this week has been pretty relaxing. I didn't do too much exciting, well you know, other than learn german! whoo! Anyway, I'm still having a really good time here, I might actually have some pictures for you guys soon, maybe, let's hope. Anyway, this week was pretty much filled with reading the 4th book in the Twilight series. Which I successfully ordered in German, so there was some German involved in that. I played some soccer with a whole bunch of kids the other day, that was a lot of fun, I mean I totally sucked compared to everyone else, but it was still a lot of fun.
mmmm, today we went for a long long long walk around the countryside and ended up 3 towns over. We had fun and it was good to see the countryside.
Anyway, this is we are going to see a swing related musical, I'm pretty stoked about that.
I'm still loving it here, the weather is getting better every day, it's actually tolerable now, well more than tolerable, it's actually beautiful, I could spend all day outside, oh wait, I did.
Anyway, Much love from Germany. I miss you all.
Ann

A really long update

So, I finally found some time to fill you guys in on what I’ve been up to! So I guess I left off from Salzburg. From Salzburg we went to Munich, which I enjoyed a whole lot more than Salzburg. I was used to being in much smaller cities and being in a large city was weird and I was starting to miss the quiet atmosphere that comes with smaller cities. But Munich was really enjoyable. We got there and took a bus tour around the city to get acquainted with it. They did the tour in both English and German so it was fun to listen to the German and see how much I understood when they repeated it in English. After the bus tour we went to have some sausage, because at that point we really hadn’t actually had any yet. But in the middle of our dinner it started pouring down rain, and then it started hailing on us! It was so weird! The next day, we went back to several of the sites we saw on the bus tour: to Nymphenburger Palace, the Olympic Park from the ’72 Olympics and the BMW museum. Munich is a really cool city, and absolutely beautiful, there were a lot more trees, parks and flowers than there were in Salzburg and it was just all around a nicer place to be.
After Munich, on our way to Rothenburg, we went to Dachau, the first concentration camp. I could have spent a much longer time there than we did. The museum was so interesting- it had a lot of information on the history, to personal stories, and there was a film about the camp also. It was really eerie being there, just knowing what had previously gone on in that place. It made me really uneasy most of the time I was there. Walking through the living quarters, the prison, and the crematorium, really just being there in general was difficult.
Rothenburg was really cool. It’s a medieval town, still “preserved” from the 1400’s. By preserved I mean, after WWII the parts that were destroyed were reconstructed to resemble what the town looked like 500 years before. It was a really beautiful city- we didn’t do much there, we took a tour with the night watchman, who was this funny guy who dressed up as the night watchman and took us on a tour of the city from “his eyes.” It was pretty funny, we walked around the city wall, had some delicious ice cream, really just enjoyed the scenery.
Then on Sunday night we came to Schwabish Hall- we tried to find the Goethe Institute and had dinner and pretty much just crashed. Monday was registration, so once we finally found the Institute, the parents left to head to Frankfurt so they could go to Stockholm for their cruise the next day and I had like 3 hours of German testing. I had an interview, a multiple choice grammar section and a writing section to figure out what class I should be in. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, in fact it was a lot like what we did in class at school. Truett actually did some good teaching! Anyway, I am in the 6th of 11 levels.
I really like my class. It will definitely help to improve my grammar skills and really already has. It’s like everything I’ve ever learned how to do in German is finally being explained to me so that I can reproduce it for more than just the in class exercises, like with Truett. One of my friends who is in the Vienna program with me, and lives across the hall is in class with me. Our teacher is from Turkey so the other day we went and played backgammon for a while, that was pretty awesome.
My roommate is pretty cool, can you guys believe it- I finally have a good roommate! She is from the Ukraine. We get along really well and are learning a lot from each other. There are 6 of us on the floor, My roommate, Lilja and I, the boy from my program Anadin and his roommate Alex who is from Romania, Pelle who is from Sweden and an older woman named Svetlana who is from Russia. We all get along well and spend most of our time together. Anadin has been cooking a lot for us, so it’s been good to get some homecooked meals again.
My days have pretty much been about the same everyday, I get up at 6:30, that’s right before most of you go to sleep, I have breakfast at the institute, have class from 8:15-12:45- we have a break ever hour and a half- eat lunch at the institute, the usually take a nap because it’s too hot to do anything else, do my homework, make dinner and then after that we have done something different every night. One day I walked around the city exploring some, another day we went and played pool, another we had a small get together sponsored by the school, another day we went to play backgammon, and yesterday night there was a big dance party offered by the school.
I’ve really been enjoying myself here, it has been really cool to get to meet and learn about people from all over the world. It’s been interesting trying to acclimate to the German culture, from figuring out what is on a menu, to checking out at the grocery store, to water bottle returns for cash, there’s something new everyday that I learn about the culture that I had no idea about before. It’s really cool to get to experience something that in a lot of ways is completely different than what I am used to.
Phew, I’m sorry that is so long and that it has been so long since I have posted something.
I love it here : )

Miss you all,
Love
Ann

Schwabisch Hall

Hey Guys, Just want you all to know I'm here safe and loving it. I don't get very much internet access since we don't have it in our dorm so it will be difficult for me to post things. I just wanted you all to know I am loving it here. Classes are good, my teacher is wonderful and I'm really enjoying getting to know people from all over the world.
I miss you all.

If you want to send me a letter or something before Sept. 15, because it won't get here in time before I move to Vienna otherwise.
Ann Nelson
c/o Goethe Institut Schwa(with 2 dots above)bisch Hall
Am Spitalbach 8
74523 Schwa(..)bisch Hall
Germany

Love you guys. I really am having a great time. I'll try to update soon.

Potato Pancakes!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, so Day 2 in Reutte. We went up to the Ehrenburg Castle ruins. It was a really nice hike up the hill and you could see the entire city of Reutte from above. Everything was so still and calm, I didn't ever want to leave. There was this cute little kid running around with a wooden sword and shield he got at the gift shop. Mom got a picture of him, it was pretty funny. We went down to the museum afterwords, it was neat too. I thought it was going to be about the castles, but it was mostly about the life of a knight during the crusades. I got to wear some awesome, but smelly, armor. It was pretty cool.
After Reutte, we drove up to Fuessen in Germany to see the Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein Castles. The first used to house the royal family of Maxiamillian I of Germany and the second was supposed to house his son, but he did before it was finished, that one is also what gave Disney his inspiration for the Disney castle. They were really elaborately decorated, and they were really cool to see, but I didn't really learn too much because we didn't really any information from the tour guides. On the way down on the suuuuper long hike from Neuschwanstien, we stopped at a restaurant and you'll never guess what I had, well I guess the title gives it away, real potato pancakes! Well, Oma makes real potato pancakes, but I got to have them in Germany! Oma's still win as best ever, but these totally destroyed Wurstfests. Anyway, I was pretty stoked about having those.
From there we drove to Hallstatt, Austria. It's another small, stunning town, but this one was settled in the middle of the mountains on the lake, Altsee. It was another one of those nights where we got in late and everything was closed so we just walked around the town and then had dinner. The best part of Hallstatt other than its awesome beauty was that instead of having a busy street outside our window, we had a babbling brook. It was so relaxing we all slept the best we have yet this trip.
The next day, after sleeping in we drove to Salzburg, again in the rain. We got in pretty early so we had some time to actually do things! We went and saw the house where Mozart lived, which was cool to see, but the museum was just a tourist trap because they even admitted they didn't really know anything about when the family lived there and it was a lot of music by other composers than just Mozart. We also went up to the Hohensalzburg Fortress which was built in the 1100's originally and was added onto several times and it now a massive complex that was used for royal living, a monastery, a fortress (believe it or not) and emmm.. something else. It's also the most preserved fortress in Europe, I'd believe it. It was in really good condition, but we only got to see a small part of it before it started pouring again. But before then, I got to shoot a crossbow! That was pretty sweet I'd say, I did get a bullseye!
Today was a super busy sightseeing day. We tried to take a river tour, but because the water was so high they were closed. So we went and saw Mozart's house, a panorama museum of Salzburg in 1850, and a scenic overlook. I thought they were all busts. We bought this tourist card that you pay a smaller price and get into all these museums and stuff without having to pay, so we went to a lot of those things- we didn't just randomly pick silly sounding places to go. We also took a horse and Carriage ride around the old city. That was a lot of fun! We also went to the old residence of the prince/bishop. I think that was the best tour we have been on so far. A lot was still in it's original state and the tour was really detailed in explaining everything. It was a good tour. Another floor of the old housing was an art museum with an exhibit there on sin. I really enjoyed that and thought it was really interesting to see the hundreds of years view on the same seven sins. I probably could have spent most of the day in there. Man I never thought I would say that about an art museum. Anyway, we came back to the room pretty early since we were all tired. Tomorrow we head out to Munich!
Love,
Ann
Sorry there aren't any pictures, I haven't had time to upload them since Staufen.
oh and jeff. We heard Guantanamera today being played in the art store across the street from our hotel. It made me think of you :D

Eating Sparrow and a town smaller than Sherman?

Okay, so the rest of our time in Baden-Baden was really enjoyable. On Tuesday we went into the center of the city and toured around, we saw the "world's nicest casino" from the outside, since you had to pay to get in and the tour was only in German and I'm not that good.... yet :D. We climbed this part on a mountain and got some really good pictures (the first picture above) of the city. We saw several other sites, like the Trinkhalle, the Roman and Roman-Irish Baths, and some really expensive stores. My favorite part of the day was when we went up this hill called Merkur and took this tram thing up to the top where we could see the entire city and surrounding areas(Pictures 2&3). It was breathtakingly beautiful! We had our first completely german meal there, of sausage of course, overlooking the town and watching the hang gliders jump off the hill and float down into the city. That 4th picture is proof I'm actually in Europe with my parents and not just making this all up!
Wednesday we drove through the black forest (picture 5) on our way to Staufen which is a small town on the outside of Freiburg, which is a "nicer place to stay than Freiburg." I thought we were going to spend the day in Freiburg, but I think I slept through that part of the drive. Anyway, we stopped a clock museum, which was cool, for about 5 minutes, then it just got kind of redundant. Chris, it would have driven you nuts with all the thousands of clocks ticking away. I felt like I was at Oma's house, times 10 thousand. Anyway, the black forest was really beautiful too. I wanted to go wandering through the forest for a while, but we never stopped to do so :(.
So Staufen, was like the east side of 75 of Sherman except exceedingly more beautiful (like everything else, also I need a new word for beautiful), everything was closed by 6, and was either residential or a restaurant. There really wasn't much to do there, so we left right after breakfast this morning, after accomplishing the impressive feat of getting out of the parking area which was designed originally for horse drawn carriages.
It was pouring down rain all day, the scenery was very very pretty (ha! I didn't use beautiful), well what I was awake for anyway. Now we are in Ruette, Austria for a couple of days. We just got out and walked around the city some. Another small, quite town where everything closes at 6, but tomorrow I think (and hope and pray) we are going up to the Ehrenberg castle ruins. We probably won't get to luge since it rained and they close the track when it rains, but maybe if we get lucky!
Anyway about eating sparrow, so on several menus we saw Spaetzle, and we couldn't figure out what it was, so I busted out my trusty dictionary and the closest thing we could come up with was.... sparrow. Anyway, the sad news is, it's not sparrow, it's actually sort of a mushier version of udons noodles and kinda looks like sparrows intestines.... it wasn't very good. But if I didn't remember what I was eating, the liver I had for dinner last night was really good! Something tells me I'll never try that again!
So all is well here, we are having a great time!
Love and miss you all,
Ann

People actually understand me when I speak German! Who knew?

So, I don't think I'm coming back. So far, this trip has been pretty amazing. You know, all 3 days of it.
So the first two days were in Amsterdam. If I get a chance I would definitely go back there. It was really neat to just walk around the city to see all the old houses and the canals and the weird people. We visited the Rijksmuseum, where I learned quite a bit about Dutch history and saw a number of Rembrandt paintings and we also went to the Van Gogh museum, it had about 200 of his paintings. We took a '100 sights' canal cruise, but then learned that the 100 sites were 25 sites repeated in 4 languages, it was still fun though. We also went to the Anne Frank house. The walk through was really well put together, but still eerie to be there none the less.
Today we took the train into Frankfurt then rented a car and drove into Baden Baden. I say we took a train, the train we were supposed to take was broken, so we had to change trains twice, with what we learned today is definitely way too much luggage and then one the 3rd train had to stand because only half of the train was there and there were no seats left. It was a pretty awful experience.
Baden-Baden is a really nice small and quiet town out in the country. All we have done here so far is wander around through the Lichtentaller Allee and out around the city outskirts where our hotel is. Tomorrow we are going into the central part of the town to experience.... something. Ha! I only know what we are doing when we are doing it, my parents are in charge of the finding things to do, I just translate. And often not very well, but hey I'm communicating! Hopefully it'll start getting easier soon, I still sort of look like a deer in headlights when people start speaking to me in German.
Love,
Ann

We Finally made it!

Just wanted to let you all know we made it to Amsterdam after two long days of travel. I'll tell you how awesome Amsterdam is when I have more than a 20 minute limit on the internet.
Love
Ann

t-minus 42 hours till take off!

Okay, so the blog starts now. I want you guys to be able to keep up with where I'm going and where I've been while I'm studying abroad. So I thought it would be easiest to keep you all up to date at once. I will still be happy to e-mail or write letters to you guys individually, but this is just easier than telling everyone the same stuff over and over again and I'll probably be able to get around to updating this more often than with correspondence.
So I leave Thursday afternoon, my parents and I fly out to Amsterdam and should get there I believe Friday evening. We will spend a couple of days there then we are going touring around Germany.