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