Settling in...

The GR group right after we landed in Germany!

Welcome to the Vienna Opera House!

Me at the Vienna Opera House

Platzkonzert - one of the two ballets we saw this evening

Greetings from Wien!

I slept like a rock last night after finally getting here, but I was still pretty tired throughout the day today - Ingrid (my house frau aka Vienna mom) says it takes one day for every hour, so I have six days before I will be adjusted to the new time zone. Today was the first day of class, and Art & Architecture is going to be interesting and easy - two words I love to hear about a class. Rachel (my roommate) and I take the "U3" subway to class in the mornings - we did it in 25 this morning, but we made it in 18 this evening because we were able to catch right as it arrived. Most Viennese people actually get their lunch from one of the two popular grocery stores in Austria - Billa or Spar - so I had Spar for lunch today and Billa for dinner! Billa is actually in the ground floor of a shopping mall sort of at the bottom of a courtyard - so all the shoppers can see you down there buying your groceries and dinner - it was weird. I had class this morning, hung around the institute in the afternoon for orientation and then our luggage finally came!! I was sooo excited for a change of clothes and my glasses and umbrella (it was raining this morning). Rachel and I got a taxi ride back to our flat, quickly showered and changed, then headed back to the institute to meet up with some friends and go to a ballet at the Vienna Opera House! It was awesome, and standing row was only 2 euro (about 3 dollars)! Now I just need to get packing because we leave shortly after class tomorrow for a weekend trip to HUNGARY!! I am beyond excited about that, and I will have my eyes peeled for Geresy, Hungary and wooden spoons :)

Some random things I've experienced:

• I forgot to mention this before, but as we were waiting in the GR airport, a guy brought his girlfriend to the exact spot they had their first kiss two years before and proposed to her - my mom took a picture of them afterwards
• Gelato = heaven in a cone
• Their is an orangutan at the Vienna Zoo named Mouma, and she paints
• You are allowed to take pictures during the performance at the Vienna Opera House!
• The U3 is the best of the U's in Vienna, my friend rides the U1 and has already seen two people foaming blue at the mouth from meth popsicles; Ingrid says the U1 is full of drunks and drug addicts - I am so glad we don't have to take it.
• clean clothes are amazing, even if they are wrinkled.
• Yogurt parfaits here taste like they are mixed with cream cheese then whipped - it's weird at first, but then tastes really good.

Okay, that's all for now - stay tuned for news from Budapest!

Andi

I'm finally here!

Guten Abend!

Okay, so things haven't started out as smoothly as I would have liked. We were all set and on board our puddle jumper from GR when once we got to the runway, we had a three hour delay. Because of that, we arrived at O'Hare at 4:30, the time we were supposed to be leaving on our connected flight to Vienna. However, there were delays in Chicago so we (a group of 10 students) booked it through the airport. When we got to the right terminal, we could still see the plane from one of the windows we passed, it was still sitting at the gate! Well, after I finally got through the security check thanks to a guy who decided to pack each part of his desktop separately in his carry on and then didn't understand that each piece had to be unpacked in order for him to be cleared, we ran down the hallway to the farthest gate where we were hoping the plane still was. Unfortunately, we missed it - we were all sweaty from running and now stranded. The next flight wasn't set to leave until the same time on Wednesday, making us not get to Vienna until Thursday morning local time. We ended up working with this guy named Steve who was able to get us out of O'Hare and on our way to Europe at 10 that night, all we had to do was take a little layover in Frankfurt, Germany. Oh darn, another country to add to my passport :) The plane we ended up taking was REALLY nice (Lufthansa - I had never heard of it, but it was the nicest plane I had ever been on by far) and everything else seemed to turn out well. Well, except for the fact that we all felt disgusting most of the trip and our luggage won't be here until tomorrow. So, right now I can't upload pics because my adapter was in my luggage and I am typing on a German computer that has the y and the z flipped, among many other weird things about it. All I can say is that if the rest of this Vienna trip is as exciting as actually getting here was, this is definitely going to be a trip to remember for a lifetime.

Some random/cool things I've experienced so far:

• there are pink clouds over Vienna, and I flew through one of them.
• It was also really cloudy when we flew over O'Hare, and I saw a plane pop up out of a cloud... it was really funny.
• the German word for sugar = Zucker.... yeah, I'm gonna leave that at that.
• I think babies cry more when taking off and landing because they don't understand what's going on when the pressure changes.
• Step Up 2 is a really good movie, especially while eating chicken and greenbeans at 2 am.
• Watermelon Bubblicious works better than Strawberry Bubblicious for helping pop your ears during take off and landing.
• Mercedes make good taxis, but the drivers will smell worse than you do after being on a plane or in an airport for 24 hours.
• Never get the seat number that is also the gate number, lots of people get really confused and think that you are sitting in their seat.
• ALWAYS pack most of your stuff in your carry on, because just when you think that lost luggage won't happen to you - it will.
• In Europe, it's called CocaCola Light, NOT Diet Coke, but you really should be drinking tomato juice anyway.

Well, that's all I have for now, I only slept three hours on the plane, so I am really tired and I have my first class tomorrow!

Andi

All packed and ready to go!

Today was crazy - running all around Holland tying up loose ends before the trip, then spending hours on end trying to figure out how I was going to pack all my stuff - but it's finally done! Now it's just a matter of time, 14 hours to be exact, before I head off! I am getting really excited, and so far not nervous. At least not about the trip - I've gone over the packing list countless times and I'm still convinced I am going to forget something. Oh well, all part of the adventure!

So much more to come,

Andi

Getting Ready!

Hey everyone!

Well, I take off on Tuesday morning for three weeks in Vienna! I am going to be studying Austrian Art and Architecture, but I have a feeling that's only going to be a small part of my experience there. This will be the easiest way for you guys to get a glimpse of what is going on while I am over there. So, bookmark this page for the next month, visit often, and leave comments - I'll try to post as close to daily as possible! Well, it's off to laundry and packing!