busy busy bee

Sorry I haven't written on this in so long! Only 6 days until I leave! I've been wrapping up some things this weekend and such. Erin and I went souvenier shopping together and I got a sweatshirt that says University of Salzburg on it, a Salzburg flag and a glass :) we also went shopping on Friday and I got a couple gifts for some people, and a few clothes..it was my last real shopping in Salzburg! The last thing I have to pick up is some chocolate to bring back for a few gifts and..that's it! Erin had to pick up gifts too. We had a shopping spree and picked up some Flux (a type of lemonade) to try, and then came back and made some pasta in my room. Then Saturday, today, we went to Berchtesgaden, in Germany (the very southern part of Germany, right over the border), so we could see the Eagle's Nest. In German it's called the Kehlsteinhaus. It was a cottage/house given to Hitler on his 50th birthday, that overlooks Salzburg and parts of southern Germany. I won't lie, it was a little eery being there. We ended up eating in a restaurant that may have been the location of Hitler's old office, or a guard's room..we couldn't tell for sure on the map..either of them is totally creepy! Below the Eagle's Nest is a "Dokumentation" museum which is about World War II and Hitler's rise to power, it had a lot of documents with Nazi propaganda, including pictures with children, a anti-Semitic children's book, letters back and forth, and different recordings of speeches, flags, a sculpture of Hitler..it was all really creepy stuff. We also saw an old Nazi bunker used for protection from Allied bombings. Being there made me extra thankful that the Allied powers won WWII. We had to take a bus into Germany, then a taxi up the mountain partway to the Dokumentation area (because the bus wasn't coming we took a taxi) then another bus to the little Eagle's Nest, then we hiked, and eventually took a Gondola, and then a bus back to Salzburg. lots of transportation!

After we left the Eagle's Nest we went on a half hour hike/walk to get to some awesome..alpine slides! They were really fun, you sit on a little car on wheels and go down slides, the little car you sit on has a break and everything. They were steep metal slides so we went pretty fast..and at the same time had gorgeous views of the mountains. It's hard to describe without seeing pictures, and I do have some pictures.. It was a really neat experience :) then we took a gondola back down to the ground! We then went back to Salzburg and Gabby treated us to dinner, I got really yummy Cordon Bleu and "chips" aka little french fries..sooo yummy. I also drank some Almdudler which is an Austrian soda, it's almost an apple flavor..I like it a lot! I'll miss drinking it in the US.

Tomorrow is a day I'm devoting entirely to homework and studying, perhaps a little run if I need to destress or something. I have my final for DaF class on Monday, but unfortunately we still have class Tuesday and Thursday as usual..I'll find out my final grade for the class before I even fly home, which is a good thing. I'm stressed though because I didn't know we had classes next week (including Gabby's class one last time) so it's a lot to do! I have to study for the final and take it, write 2 essays, and pack my whole room up and majorly clean everything. On Monday after the DaF final we're going to the bank to close our bank accounts (I never even used mine) and then Gabby is taking us to the lake. Tuesday we are going to meet the Rogenbauer's at a beer garden/restaurant to say goodbye to them, they were the founders of the Salzburg program and they are really sad that we are the last group to go through it. They're both really nice people.

Well, tomorrow will be a busy day. I think I'll go watch a movie and relax for a little bit..so excited to be home soon! Hope all is well! :)

*Edit* I wanted to add a list of the things Kris and I did while he was here visiting:
-walked on the Mönchsberg
-Festung Fortress (huge castle on the hill)
-St. Peter's Cemetery and oldest Bakery nearby
-looked inside the Dom church/around the Altstadt streets
-went to the Mirabell Market 2x and got yummy fried chicken/walked around
-he tried Mozartkugeln chocolate, Reyna's pizza, Murat's Kebap x2 and Heisse Kiste x2 :)
-we went to the Salzburger Dult, the local fair
-Milch Automat/walked on Hellbrunn Allee
-went to the Mirabell Gardens x2 and explored around
-went out at night to see some Salzburg nightlife: O'Malley's and Roses
-Stiegl Brauwelt, the brewery, to take the tour
-went out to dinner once
-Munich, Germany for the day
-souvenier shopping :)

Well, we could have done more as well, but we did a lot! I had a list and felt like writing it down. Unfortunately the weather wasn't always cooperating, but at least we did some fun things :)

winding down..

Things are going well in Austria…only 13 days until I’m back in the US! Yesterday Kris, Ashley and I went on an adventure to find the Milch Automat. It’s a machine where you pay 60 cents and fill your own bottle with delicious fresh milk J we had to wander around for a little while before we could find it since it’s down the path of a field, but when we did it was totally worth it. Then, we found a path called “Hellbrunner Allee” which is a tree lined path that goes back towards the center of the city. It’s pretty, really popular with joggers/locals and was something I’ve been wanting to find for a while, so we all walked back on it together. That was nice, I’m really glad I found it before we left.

I only have 2 DaF classes left and things are also winding down for Gabby’s classes. I have a short essay and a long essay for Gabby’s class, and then a final exam for DaF. The next week will be filled with some studying and preliminary..packing! That feels very weird to say. I only have a little bit more souvenir/gift shopping to do, which is nice but also…just so strange! I can’t believe I’m about to be leaving…

Last week the day after going to the fair I had some weird food poisoning or something..I didn’t eat anything at the fair but we made sausage after and I think that was it. I felt pretty bad for a little while but I’m better now. I’m glad it just went away on its own!

Kris leaves Monday morning so I want to show him a couple more things if there is time. Unfortunately the weather hasn’t been cooperating so well, BUT on Wednesday we took a train to Munich, Germany with Ashley and Paige. It’s only two hours from Salzburg. I wanted to go there for a day before I left Salzburg, so that was another thing I could cross off my list, too. We went to the city center where we saw the Glockenspiel (a famous clock with dancing people that move), and some other famous buildings in the center. We stopped at the Hofbrauhaus, the most famous beer garden in Munich. We packed our own peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because we were trying to save money. It worked! We also stopped at a really huge discount clothing store and I got a dress for only 7 euros which was pretty awesome:) it was a quick trip but I’m still glad I got back there on this trip. (It was one of the places I went to in high school so it was cool to go back). Now I can say I’ve been to both Northern and Southern Germany, which is awesome. I didn’t get to London unfortunately, but I’m glad I can say I went to lots of places!

Well, that’s about all for now. I guess I’ll go make plans for the day!

fun long weekends!

Things are going welll in Salzburg. It feels like we’ve been doing lots of fun stuff, and I have a 5 day weekend right now (it started Friday, and we don’t have class until Wednesday). On Thursday night I hung out with Kris, Ashley and Erin. That was fun, just hanging out together. Ashley went to bed but Erin, Kris and I went to Heisse Kiste so he could experience it. It’s basically a tiny sausage stand that sits right near the Altstadt. People only go there to get sausage at night (mostly) so we went and got Käsekrainer..that was fun, and delicious. Friday, I gave Kris a tour of the Altstadt, so we visited St. Peter’s Cemetery, and the oldest bakery in Salzburg, looked inside the Dom Cathedral, and then went to the Festung. That was my second time at the Festung and it was nice to see the great views again. We had really yummy tortellini for dinner that we bought at the store.

Saturday, we went to Stiegl Brewery, where they brew Salzburg Beer, and we got to see the process of how it works (again, since Gabby took us there when we first arrived in Salzburg in February, so long ago). We had coupons that we got from the grocery store, for entrance for only 2 Euros…plus, we got a coupon for the gift shop, so I bought a t-shirt! After that we went to dinner at the delicious Wildermann restaurant, I got Wienerschnitzel and really yummy Kaiserschmarnn dessert again…I definitely want to learn how to make that one! Then Kris and I watched the movie Little Fockers on my computer.

Sunday morning I went running, and then we lazed around a bit until Ashley, Kris and I went to the Salzburger Dult..which is a fair in Salzburg. I felt like I was at a smaller version of the Fryeburg Fair, which was awesome. I definitely noticed that the Austrians are a lot less strict with regulating fair rides..half of the rides that tip and spin didn’t even have safety bars or anything..you literally have to hold on for dear life, that was pretty crazy to watch. It was fun to people watch and watch people do carnival games all in German..and they had lots of yummy looking food, but the only thing I got was a serve-your-own slushie, which was really good..it’s free admission so I’m sure we’ll be going back before it ends on the 19^th, with more people that want to go.

Well, today we have plans to go check out a sort of craft fair that’s set up along the river, and getting kebaps tonight with Ashley. Tomorrow I have to actually do some homework, and hopefully go running again. Only 18 days until I’m home! I'll try to update again soon!

Berlin :)

Our trip to Berlin was a success! The train ride was a little long…but anyway, when we all arrived in Berlin on Wednesday evening (last week) it was really late and we just went to bed in the hostel. The next day, Thursday, we took a 3.5 hour walking tour all over the city. We saw parts of the old Berlin Wall, a lot of famous buildings, a Holocaust memorial, and the area where many WWII events took place. We even stood on the ground above where Hitler’s old bunker was, and where he committed suicide. It was a really well done tour and very interesting. Friday, some people went on another walking tour, but Paige, Kris, Ashley, Lindsay, and I decided to go to the Berlin Zoo! It was a really large, nice zoo and I’ve never been so close to some of the animals. With the way it was set up you could get really close to a lot of animals, even lions and tigers, so it was a pretty cool experience.

Berlin is awesome because they have lots of world food. On Thursday we found a Dunkin Donuts! And then after the zoo, we found..a PIZZA HUT. I felt so American but we loved that pizza so much.. that night we went out through the city a little bit and saw the East Side Gallery where professional artists made murals on  a long stretch of the old Berlin Wall. They were really awesome!

On our last day in Berlin, we went to the Pergamon Museum (not really my first choice of what I want to do/see in Berlin, but our teacher wanted us to see it) where we saw a few famous things like the Ishtar Gate and some Islamic art. We wandered an outdoor market with lots of cool souvenirs .We also did some shopping in touristy stores throughout the trip. One thing I bought for myself was a tote bag with the Ampelmann on it- the Ampelmann is a cute little man wearing a hat that they use as a symbol in the crossing lights in parts of East Berlin- it has become a sentimental thing for the people of Berlin.

For our last evening we went out to both an Indian and a Mexican Restaurant (we split into two groups and had a choice of which kind of food we wanted, I picked Mexican). It was very delicious, and Gabby said a good chance to get ethnic food because Berlin is full of it, unlike Salzburg.

We had to get up early on Sunday and take the train back to Salzburg,  which wasn’t very fun. We were equipped for the ride with more Dunkin Donuts though :)

Back in Salzburg classes have been going ok, we’re coming down to the final stretch so soon I will have another final, and a big paper to write. Kris is visiting so I have shown him around the Mirabell Gardens, Mirabell Market, and part of the Altstadt so far. We made a list of the places he wants to see. Unfortunately June is usually pretty rainy so it’s been pretty cloudy for the most part, but it’s still nice. Today we have more sun but the rest of the forecast doesn’t look so great.

I love hanging out with all my friends here and I will miss seeing them all the time when we go back to the US. It feels sad to talk about having a farewell party and going home, but part of me is really excited to be back home too. I know I keep saying that in every entry but it’s a really strange feeling to be so excited and so sad at the same time!

Today is sunny so hopefully we’ll be doing something outside, and then a small group of us will be going to Stiegl Brewery because we have coupons to get in for just 2 Euros. I realized I never wrote about the Maibaumfest that took place at Stiegl Brewery..it was a big gathering outside in the field outside their building, a traditional day where everyone has food and drinks together and they raise a huge Maypole in the yard. It takes them hours just to get the pole raised because they do it the old fashioned way. The festival also falls on the same day as Mother's Day so it's a big family event here. Once the pole is raised, they do different traditions like dance around the pole, and then kids and adults try to climb the pole. There are sausages and pretzels dangling from it, prizes for if you climb high enough to reach them. It was really interesting to watch. So basically Stiegl Brewery is a pretty big part of the Salzburg community here.

Also, there is a fair in Salzburg coming up so I’d like to check that out too. So much to do, and so little time..I'll just do what I can! Only 21 days until I’m home! :)

only one more day of classes!

The weekend trip we had was a lot of fun. We went to Eisriesenwelt, the largest ice caves on the world, and it was snowing on the mountain as we hiked up to get to the caves! It was really cold up there, but cool to say I've been to the largest ice caves. We also went to Hohenwerfen, the fortress of the city, and then the village of Piesendorf where we stayed in a hostel overnight. The next day, we drove for 2 hours, then took a boat across the lake to Hallstatt, a cute lake town, where we went to a salt mine and then had time to walk around the town. Gabriella bought us ice cream sundaes, and we checked out the souvenier shops. It was a really busy weekend and we saw a lot all at once, but worth all the craziness! Plus I got to see Austria by bus, which was nice as opposed to a train.

Today was a pretty good day so far. I paid my last rent of my semester here in Salzburg! Luckily the exchange rate got a tiny bit better, so it's not QUITE so bad. One more day of classes tomorrow, and then Wednesday we leave for Berlin until Sunday! I'm soo excited to go to Berlin, it will be a great trip. This morning I got up and cleaned my room, ate some dry cereal since I have basically no food, went to class, then headed to the post office and mailed out some postcards. Then we went to the bakery with the girls and got some doughnuts we wanted to try :) mine was a vanilla doughnut filled with vanilla pudding with icing on top..in the shape of a heart! Delicious. We paid rent after that and then treated ourself to some pizza. It's awesome, you pay 2.90 for a "slice" but its actually HUGE and two slices, so I got lunch today, and lunch tomorrow is sitting in the fridge!

Now I'm doing one more load of laundry so all my laundry will be completely done..and then I really have to do homework! Ashley and I might make dinner together tonight, but neither of us has any food because we're trying to conserve and not buy stuff before Berlin, when it will just go bad. Berlin is my last big trip of the semester, it's going to be a lot of fun I hope! And the weather looks nice as well, we'll see! Today is sunny and in the 80's here in Salzburg, it's been so nice. I'm soaking up the sun because it's supposed to rain tomorrow.

well, I won't have internet in Berlin so you might not hear from me for a little while, unless I write again before we head out. But I will definitely update on how that trip goes!

the last few days

The last few days have been great! Wednesday we went to Golling Wasserfall, it was beautiful there! It also has a few paths that lead up to the source of the waterfall and over it, so it was a lot of fun to walk around with a bit of exercise too! That night, Ashley Erin and I made this really yummy dish with potatoes, cheese, Käsekrainer and onion in it..I'm not sure what it is but it's delicious..we sortof invented it ourselves here. Thursday, Gabby cancelled our afternoon class! So after DaF class, Paige, Erin and I went to the public pool on Alpenstrasse. It was a gorgeous day in the 80's here. You Pay 2,70 for day entry and you get to stay the whole day! I thought I slathered sunscreen all over myself but of course didnt get enough on my stomach..I'm not sure what happened but I'm pretty sunburned there. Other than that it was a great day. The pool is HUGE, it was a relaxing and fun afternoon and I finally got to swim!!

Today, it was a rainy day but I had to go to an info meeting for our ice cave field trip today at 12. We're leaving tomorrow at 8am and we'll be back Sunday in the evening at like 7pm. We're going to the ice caves, a castle and the Lake District which is supposed to be beautiful, we also get a boat ride across it, a trip to another salt mine (different than the one mom and I went in) and we're staying in a youth hostel, so we should be able to meet other people outside of our group there! It's a trip meant for study abroad/foreign exchange students in Austria, so it's people from all different countries going. And Gabby is going with us too. After the meeting I went to the ATM, went home, cleaned the bathroom, cleaned my room up, organized, did laundry, and did a little bit of homework.

We're leaving for Berlin Wednesday in the early afternoon! We're taking a train..and getting into Berlin around 11 at night or something like that. Then we have Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and we leave Sunday morning to come back to Salzburg! I'm not missing any classes because this coming Thurs and Fri are holidays in Austria (and Germany on Thursday). I'm excited to go to Berlin, everyone I have talked to said it's a really great city!

Well I have to go pack for the overnight trip, and then go to bed so I can get up to meet everyone in the morning!

PS.  Oh wait!! I wanted to mention that Josh went back to America yesterday :/ but we had a farewell dinner at Wildermann and it was SO YUMMY. I got Wienerschnitzel that had bacon, onions and mushrooms inside it. It was soooo yummy. Also, Erin gave me some of her Knodel (dumplings) which are also reeeaaally good. But then, one of the best things I have honestly had so far in Austria, was this: for dessert Erin and I shared a plate of "Kaiserschmarrn" which literally translates to "emperor mismash/mess." It's called this because it was probably first served to the Austrian emperor Franz Josef. There's a lot of legends about how it came to be created. But, basically it's a plate of pancake pieces made from a really sweet batter, and then they're baked in butter. They gave you cranberry sauce or some such thing to dip them in but they were even better just plain. They were SO fluffy, buttery and absolutely delicious. I have to get them again before I go home. It. is. delicious.

Well, that's all now, hope all is well for everyone :)

hello!

Hi everyone..I had a great weekend in Paris! Finally, a dream city come true :) It was a little bit of whirlwind because we only had 2 days there but we made it work! Erin, Paige and I left Salzburg at about 5:45 am on Friday and took a train to Munich, Germany, then a flight to Paris at around 10:55 am I believe it was. We got to Paris around 12:30, and met Kris there (he flew from Spain). The airport is pretty far from the city so we had to take the S-bahn into the city center to where we were staying. Once we put our stuff down it was time to speed explore!

We grabbed food (unfortunately at a McDonalds, which is never the best idea in Europe but it was pretty inexpensive and we were all so hungry and impatient after flying!) We started off with the Louvre, the huge art museum in Paris. There, I finally got to see: the Mona Lisa in person, the Venus de Milo, and some other cool paintings/sculptures. The Louvre was HUGE! You could never see everything in one day..we were probably there for 3 or 4 hours. That was enough for me. I'm not a huge art person but I appreciated a lot of the art and it was SO COOL to see the Mona Lisa in person! We took lots of pictures in there. 

After we left the Louvre we walked along a park outside and took some pictures, got scammed by some people trying to sell bracelets to us (no really, they surrounded us and nearly forced us to buy these bracelets, we all felt pretty terrible about it after it happened..don't really feel like typing out the story now, but it was a waste of 4 euros) and then we went and got some food and headed towards the Eiffel Tower! It was still light out at 9pm there which was very strange. Then we saw the whole Eiffel Tower for the first time! I got a first glimpse of the top of it out of the window of the Louvre. Seeing the whole thing in front of me was sooo cool. It was like a dream come true! We had a little picnic of ham and cheese sandwiches in the park below the Eiffel Tower and watched it light up twice. It's lit up all the time at night, but for 5 minutes every hour it sparkles! It's really pretty, I got a video of it. That was a lot of fun! We were all super exhausted after this day though, and we all had to pee so bad by the time we got back home because we couldn't find an open public bathroom! Apparently Paris is one of the hardest cities to find a public bathroom in..random fact.

The next day we headed back to the Eiffel Tower in the morning to actually climb it. There were soldiers walking around with machine guns for crowd control/protection which was a little scary. The Eiffel Tower actually has 3 levels you can go to, which I didn't realize until I was there. I also didn't realize how BIG it is until I actually saw it in person. We decided to use the stairs to go to the first and second levels because we wanted to say we had actually climbed it. You can't climb from the second level to the very top, the only option is an elevator. So we climbed as much as possible, which was a nice little workout. On the first floor they have a little restaurant/cafe so we had baguette sandwiches and french fries there, that was pretty cool having lunch on the Eiffel Tower :) I guess I didn't realize there was room on the Eiffel Tower for all that but I was wrong. Then we took the sketchy elevator to the very top and it was great panoramic views of the city of Paris! So cool to say I've been to the top!!

After the Eiffel Tower we got back to the ground and went to the park next to the Tower to get pictures of it from far away, and relaxed a bit in the grass. Then we decided to head to the Notre Dame church, another must see on our list. We took the metro cause it was a decently long walk. The Notre Dame is really, really pretty! I'm glad I got to see it on both the inside and the outside. The stained glass was awesome, I got pictures. Then we went to the Seine River and looked around a bit, THEN decided we were hungry, and found a restaurant where I got delicious roasted chicken (as did Erin) Paige got steak and Kris got spaghetti :) we all enjoyed our food. Then, we went for even MORE walking, got some awesome frozen yogurt where you picked out the fresh fruit right in front of you and they made it into the ice cream, and then got to the Champs-Élysées which is the famous street in Paris with the Arc de Triomphe at the end! We didn't go ALL the way down to the Arc because it was a long walk and our feet were soo tired, but we got fairly close and stood in the middle of the road (on a crosswalk section obviously :) ) and got a picture of the street. Last, we took a picture of the Moulin Rouge, which we were staying near. 

The next morning we had to go to the airport early because it was so far away, so we didn't have time for anything else. had a great experience in Paris though! Most if not all of the people we met were friendly enough, so the French stereotype didn't hold up, at least in our short two days. I got a few great souvenirs as well, some are surprises :) food was good, and the city was great! It just may have been my favorite so far!

Then, we had another great day because on Monday, Gisela, my German teacher from UMaine and the program director of the NEUS program that I'm on, came to visit! She's such a great person so it was a lot a lot of fun to see her! The program paid for our dinner at a restaurant called Stiegl Keller, with traditional Austrian food, and it was delicious! I got some sort of Pork, with string beans and potatos :) very Austrian and very delicious! we even got to have dessert (I ordered Apfel Strudel-apple strudel). Gisela all shared the great news with us that the program has some money left over, so we're gonna be able to go to Berlin, Germany sponsored by the program!! I'm sooo excited about that, I've always wanted to see Berlin! AND, I also convinced Gabriella (resident director) that we should have class at Golling Wasserfall tomorrow! Plus we're going to the ice caves this weekend on an overnight trip. So basically, lots of traveling up ahead!

This morning I went to breakfast with Gisela (Ashley, Erin, and eventually this other guy TC also came too) at Tomaselli Cafe, the oldest cafe in Salzburg! It was opened in 1705 and apparently Mozart and other famous people used to eat there. Gisela treated us! I got a hot chocolate and an orange juice (we all got two rounds of drinks and I hate coffee) and for breakfast I tried a Topfen-Strudel which is like a cheese strudel/danish. They are known for their pastries and it was absolutely delicious. I've been spoiled for the past two meals not having to pay! I'm actually going out to eat one more time tonight at a restaurant called Wilder Mann, for my friend Josh's 21st birthday celebration, a bit early, and as a farewell dinner because Josh and the rest of his group are leaving on Thursday! It's sad :( so we're going out tonight to have dinner together!

Anyway, that was a lot of updates, but mostly all exciting fun news! I have some homework to do so I think I'll start it before I go to dinner with the rest of the gang. Miss you all and I'll try to update again soon about the waterfall we go to tomorrow!

the week so far...

I got a 2 on my midterm! The Austrian grading system is number based 1 through 5, and 1 is the best. According to UMaine standards a 2= a B+. wooo! Pretty proud I pulled that off, it was a hard test!

Not too much to update on really. This weekend I went to the Mozarts Geburtshaus (Mozart's birth house) because Sunday was free museum day. Almost every major museum in the city was free for entry, just for that one day. Nobody else wanted to go out really (it was raining) so I had to go by myself but I was glad I went. I saw: Mozart's first violin, a piece of his hair, and of course the house where he was born. The funny part is that Mozart didn't really like Salzburg..he much preferred Vienna, Austria. But the City of Salzburg makes a lot of money off of him, so there the museums will stay!

I didn't really run for the last couple of days because my leg was sore but I'm going running after I finish writing this and doing laundry which is halfway done now...I was almost out of socks, so it was time to do some. Plus I need clean clothes for Paris!! We're leaving on Friday morning, taking a train to Munich, and then flying to Paris! Finally I don't have to travel alone somewhere..Paige and Erin are traveling from Salzburg with me, and we're meeting Kris in Paris. So far I think we all want to go to most of the same places, so that's convenient for sure. I also have to do a little bit of homework for Thursday, but for the most part I've worked ahead and don't even have anything due for next week! It will be a fun weekend to get away from school again :)

Last night Ashley, Erin and I made steak and cheese subs out of hamburger meat..so I guess it wasn't technically steak but it was still yummy. And we had french fries with it. I feel like I haven't eaten anything that greasy in a while! Although Austrian food, traditionally, is really greasy, I haven't had any Austrian meals in a while..but, next Monday Gisela will be here and we're all going out to dinner together, pretty sure the program is paying :) I'm so excited to see her!

Today is the nicest day of the week here so far, sunny and 75! I don't want to jinx anything but the weather for Paris looks pretty good so far..we'll see how it turns out! One of the few conversations I had with my roommate, since we barely talk, she told me I'll love Paris. I'm hoping she's right, she is from France after all!

For the past couple days a few people were in bad moods..little things kept piling up. It can get really annoying being around angry people all the time..but things are looking up now I think, the weather really does have a big effect on mood..drives me nuts! The rain is a downer, but still..we're in Austria people :) Sometimes it feels like I'm going to get home and feel like all of this was a dream, I still can't believe I'm here sometimes and we're over halfway through. I have mixed feelings about leaving..I'm excited to see family and friends but really sad because I'll miss being here :(

Well, I'm going to go get some more things done, hope it's sunny back in the US!

long awaited update

Here's an update for the last week. My midterm went by successfully…we’ll see how successfully it was when I get my grade. But I did my studying and pretty much just did the best I could so hopefully it all turns out well. One thing I noticed in Austria, is they are a lot more serious about spreading people out for the test so nobody can cheat. Our teacher had us sit with two seats in between each person, and had everyone also sit every other row so there was an empty row between each set of people. It’s funny, because in the US we sit with everyone all crammed in together, but I think it’s because in some of our college classrooms there is no way they could spread people out that much. 

The rest of the week was spent divided between relaxing and doing actual work. I had a presentation in my literature class Thursday (on the author Stephan Zweig, who we're reading in class) so I’m glad that’s over now. Thursday when trying to get to class (Erin, Ashley and I all wait at the same bus stop) there was a random huge 20-minute rainstorm. Salzburg is famous for those I guess.  The rain was POURING down and I was wearing a raincoat, but didn’t have my umbrella. So my jeans got soaked, and really all of us were soaked. So we usually get the bus at 4:09 to go to class and it didn’t come, didn’t come, so it was 4:30, when our class starts, and no buses had come, and no traffic coming from that direction, as well as sirens. We had to text our teacher and tell her we would be really late, and we ended up getting to class a half hour late and soaking wet. It wasn’t a very fun class…and I had to do my presentation after I got there.

Other than that rain, it’s been great weather all week! One day it was even sunny and 78 degrees! I love how summer starts earlier here. I’ve been running and going outside. We sat by the river one evening and just hung out.  We’ve watched a few movies inside in the evening, and we also went to IK (another dorm) to visit Paige where she lives and to have dinner outside in their patio area. We ended up with 12 or so people just hanging out. It was really fun! It’s great to just be spontaneous here and randomly decide to do different things.

This weekend I have one essay to write, I already did one Thursday. Other than that, it’s pretty much up in the air and I can plan to do whatever I feel like doing for the next couple days! Less than a week from today we’ll be flying to PARIS.. I’m so excited!! I can’t wait to see Paris! I’ve had a picture of Paris since I was 7 or 8 I think and told Mom I wanted to go there, so I guess it’s finally coming true J  

It turned out that we didn’t go to the Eagle’s Nest Friday, because we didn’t get signed up in time for the trip...so Gabriella is going to take us in our own group. Also, we’re still going to the Eisriesenwelt (ice caves) field trip and Gabriella said there might be some extra money for us to take one more trip somewhere, but she has to check with the program. Gisela, my German teacher from UMaine, is coming to visit us on the Monday after we get back from Paris for a few days!! I’m so excited. She’s the program director and she’s really an amazing person. It will be a lot of fun going to dinner with her! J

Friday night Ashley made us "beer batter chicken" which is basically fried chicken (her Mom's recipe). We also had rice, garlic bread and bundt cake for dessert! It was our first REAL meal for a while...sooo yummy! Being here has definitely demystified cooking for me, now I feel like I could go cook some fried chicken no problem if I wanted to. I guess I'm branching out my horizons in that area. Erin and I went for a little walk after dinner and that was fun. Today (Saturday) it's raining so I might just be staying inside today..I pulled a muscle in my leg running so I don't even think I should run today :/ well, that's all for now but more updates soon!!

cool moments in austria

Just had a really cool moment here in Mozarthaus, my dorm. Some cleaning ladies came in because they're going around cleaning all the windows, and they only spoke German. So it was a little awkward, because we had to move all my stuff out of the way so they could climb up and clean both windows, but they asked where I was from, how long I was here, what I thought of Austria, and if I had brothers and sisters. They were like, "some americans come here and they cant speak a word of german, or it's bad german." honestly my german wasn't perfect but it seemed they were happy I could converse, it was a fun conversation and then they told me I had a pretty face :) haha! fun little moments and compliments can definitely make your day! Only one more class and then the weekend, which will be spent studying for the most part, but going to a Maifest on Sunday for May Day (they do it on the first Sunday of the month here, and people try to climb the May Pole that they set up. Should be fun! Talk to you soon :)

last day of spring break!

Well, I'm safely back in Salzburg now and had a lot of fun with Kris on our adventures in Mallorca and Barcelona. The traveling back and forth was long and exhausting but it was well worth it. I'm proud of myself cause I flew by myself both ways and figured out the train with no problems this time :)

I saw some other sites in Barcelona including: the Barcelona Cathedral, La Rambla (a big shopping/tourist street), a beach in in the Barceloneta area, and the Magic Fountain which plays music and lights up with colors in the evening. We also went to an open air market and a nice park, so I'd say I got the tourist experience :) I bought a t-shirt and then for 5 Euros on the street, there are people who are artists and write your name in a sortof Oriental style, with letters in the shape of birds and different things, so I got one of those. It was fun :) we also got some sand in Mallorca and 2 little bottles so we're each going to fill the bottles with sand and some shells we found as a souvenier.

It was weird because in both Barcelona and Mallorca there were topless women on the beaches, they're a lot more casual about it over here in Europe so I have heard, but it was still very strange to me. It was fun being in Barcelona because of different cultural things, like different foods at the market (new vegetables, different kinds of meat are more popular..like chicken with the head still on it..gross!)

I have a midterm a week from tomorrow! This week is going to be a lot of studying so I can do well on the midterm, because it's a very challenging class. It probably won't be the most fun weekend of my life but it will be worth it to get a good grade.

Also, Happy May! For May traveling plans I have coming up: a day trip to Hitler's Eagle Nest not this weekend but the next, which was his mountain hideaway. It's in Germany. The next weekend, May 20-22, is PARIS! and then the weekend after that, our resident director signed us up for a trip to Eisriesenwelt which are ice caves in Austria, and it's an overnight trip with a few other places as well. I'm excited! After the midterm I will be a little bit less stressed :)

Well, I'm skyping Mom at 3, and then doing some laundry hopefully, except one of the washers is broken. Then I hope to go running if it's not raining, it looks pretty cloudy. It's a laid back Sunday which is nice, a little bit sad that my lovely vacation is ending, but overall it was lots of fun !

Mallorca and Barcelona!

So, my Spring break started when Mom was here visiting! We had so much fun going around Salzburg. We went to the Hallein salt mines, the Festung castle, Mirabell gardens, up and down the river, Hellbrunn Palace and Sound of Music Pavilion, Mirabell Market, and she tried lots of yummy food as well including kebaps, gelato, Sachertorte, Wienerschnitzel, pastries, different drinks and some pizza! She saw the Augustiner Beer Hall and we watched some movies at night to wind down as well, and had lots of fun times. It was rainy for some of the time but she got two solid fair weather days, so I'm glad she saw Salzburg in the sun as well :) I'm just so thankful she was able to come visit and that I could see her almost exactly halfway through my stay! It definitely makes Europe less lonely.

No, I didn't forget about my blog I've just been really busy traveling with Mom, and then after that with Kris! The day Mom left I packed my bags and left to meet Kris in Barcelona the next day. It was one of the longest days ever..I had to get up in the morning, take a train from Salzburg to Munich, take an S-Bahn from the train station to the airport, had a 4 or 5 hour layover, flew from Munich to Zurich, had to wait another 2 or 3 hours, and flew from Zurich to Barcelona. It was a very, VERY long day, very tiring and I couldn't sleep because I was alone and nobody to watch my luggage. I slept for maybe a very short time on the planes,  but not much at all. It was my first time flying alone, and it's a little scary, but nothing I can't handle. I was proud of myself for figuring everything out!

Kris and I only had about 4 hours in between when I arrived in Barcelona, before we flew AGAIN to Mallorca, Spain! It's an island about a 50 minute plane ride from Barcelona, and it is beautiful. It was totally worth it, but let me tell you, I was overtired for the first day or so after the constant traveling! We didn't have perfect weather in Mallorca at first but by the end of our trip we got some nice sun. Luckily it never constantly rained or anything like that. Mallorca was just what I wanted though. It had an island feel, turquoise/blue water, white sand, everyone relaxing, on vacation and ready to hit the beach. Almost everyone we met was really friendly, and the cool thing about the beach area we were at, El Arenal, was that it has a heavy German influence, so there was a mix of Spanish and German. That was pretty cool since Kris is studying Spanish, and I'm doing German. We spent as much time as we could on the beach, laying around, attempting to swim (I only waded because the weather wasn't the hottest, but the water was definitely at least a little warmer than the Atlantic..it's still early though) shell collecting (I found some pretty ones!), going to a few restaurants, and also one day we rented bikes which was a really great decision, and biked about 18 miles total to Palma and back, which gave us some BEAUTIFUL views, good exercise and we got to see Palma, which is where a cathedral and the castle are (I think it's the capital of Mallorca, and it's a big city compared to where we were). That was a lot of fun, and I'm so glad I got to see more of the island that way!

I was really sad to leave Mallorca, but also excited to see more of Barcelona! Since I hadn't even seen Barcelona in daylight before, it was nice to finally see it. We haven't been doing a lot of crazy sightseeing because I think we're both pretty worn out from all the traveling before, but I have seen so far, Park Guell, which is a park designed by the famous Gaudi architect (unfortunately I hadn't heard of him before being in Barcelona, but he does a lot of cool work) basically it's a park you can walk through with lots of pretty tile work, sculptures covered in tile, and cool shaped buildings, tunnels and stairs. There's also a famous dragon that everyone is obsessed with for some reason. It was pretty cool.

Also this morning Kris and I went running and ran to La Sagrada Familia which is a huge Catholic church in the middle of Barcelona (also designed by Gaudi) it's really beautiful and so unique. The interesting thing about this church, is that Gaudi actually passed away in the middle of building it, so it's still in construction today and being finished according to his plans. I think it's pretty amazing the way it is but apparently it's going to be even larger. I looked it up and it's anticipated to be finished in the year 2026. He started adding his design to the church in 1883 and died in 1926, so that can give you just a small idea of how complex the church is. It has sculptures just covering it and a really intricate shape, I can't really describe it but I got pictures! I also looked it up and apparently the Sagrada Familia has divided some people in Barcelona because some people say that it's not necessarily being built the way Gaudi would have wanted, as well as that it may overtake another Barcelona cathedral, the Santa Eulalia, which I also want to see.

Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and 75 degrees with a 0% chance of rain, so I think we're going to the beach in the morning before Kris has his internship. Other things on my list are, La Rambla, which is a famous street in Barcelona with street performers and other stores, the outdoor market, the Magic Fountain which plays on weekend nights and has a light show that goes with the fountain part, as well as hopefully the Casa Batllo, which is another Gaudi building.

The culture here is definitely very different from the German culture, I guess not really in a way I can describe in words, but the people are obviously different as well as the language. Some of the people here dress very  nicely but others seem more casual (sweatshirts, etc) wearing things you would never see in Austria. The people seem..louder? There are more pushy street vendors trying to get you to buy things, the people just seem to talk louder in general. I have heard that stereotype before, and I think it's partly true. It seems like a pretty laid back culture, but I think that might be true for Europe in general. Barcelona is also a HUGE city, it's the second largest in Spain with 1,621,537 people (I just looked that up) so it's a lot different than Salzburg, which has about 145,000 people...just as a comparison Portland, Maine has 66,194 people. For some reason I thought Salzburg was smaller than Portland, but I guess not. Anyway, I really like the size of Salzburg. Someday I wouldn't mind living in a city about the size of Salzburg, but probably not any larger. Who knows though! Europe has really opened my eyes to many different styles of living, and I always have been intrigued by living in a city, so you never know.

Anyway, I'm glad I have seen some Spanish culture in my travels. Now I've experienced German/Austrian culture, Italian, and Spanish. Up next in May..French culture! And I'm hoping I have enough travel money left to get to London and Berlin, Germany as well, but we'll see how it goes! London is my top priority for June before I leave!

Well, I suppose I'll do a little homework and relax before Kris is out of his internship. I will try to update again sooner rather than later!

more of our Austria adventures!

I'm kindof tired and don't feel like writing right now, but this is a basic list of the things we've been doing in Salzburg this week!

Friday (cloudy with some rain, but we made the best of it):
-we got up in the morning and had yogurt and cereal for breakfast

-headed to the train station and bought tickets to Hallein

-arrived in Hallein and toured the salt mines! it was fun and yes "Salzburg" does mean "Salt Mountain"... even though the salt mine is outside of Salzburg, the reason Salzburg has all the beautiful architecture and buidlings is because of the rich salt miner guy Wolf-Dietrich. And, we got to ride into the mine on a train, take a boat through the mine, and slide down slides to get to each descending level!

-took the bus and then train back to Salzburg

mom got her first kebap!

went to the shoe store (I got a pair of sandals and some sneakers)

came home and had snacks and watched Secret Life :)

Saturday (started off beautiful, got a little cloudy and chilly):

woke up, had delicious bread and nutella for breakfast! seriously the bread here is so delicious, I will miss it when I'm back in the US.

went to Mirabell Gardens which was sunny and beautiful! Mom got to see the Sound of Music hedge, and other parts of the gardens where scenes were filmed (the song Do Re Mi). We also went to St. Peter's Abbey which inspired one of the scenes in the movie. The Residenzplatzsquare statue is also where Maria ran by when she sang "I Have Confidence" :) racking up the Sound of Music references!

took the S-bahn car up to the Festung (the big castle on the hill)

toured the Festung! It was a really cool castle, which they began building around the year 1072 or something like that.

went back into the Altstadt (old city) and got sausage and a pretzel..first Austrian sausage for Mom!

found a wool store where mom got pretty wool for a scarf

Mom bought us stein charms (we both have charm bracelets)

went in St. Peter's Kirche (church)

walked back home and rested our tired feet :) doing laundry which is in now!

Well that's about all the update for now, but more will come later and also tomorrow we are touring the Hellbrunn Palace and going to the zoo!! :)

** EDIT 5/1/11**
I just found a note of some of the things Mom and I did on Sunday before she left, and wanted to add it to this entry!

-we went to the Hellbrunn Castle, where we saw the trick fountains that the Archbishop had set up there. Some of them were really cool..and the tour guide definitely sprayed us with water a few times. Luckily it was a pretty nice day and not cold/rainy! We also wen't inside Hellbrunn, but it wasn't super impressive. There are some nice park grounds there which you dont have to pay to see, so maybe I'll go back sometime!
-We walked on the Mozartsteg bridge, which has Sound of Music connections (it goes over the Salzach)
-Mom tried Sachertorte (chocolate cake) and Gelato..mmm:)
-We didn't get to go on the grounds because they were private but we saw the Leopoldskron castle from across the lake, and it was gorgeous there. It was the castle used for the Von Trapp home in the Sound of Music!
-We walked on the Mönchberg which is the huge hill overlooking all along Salzburg, that was a nice evening walk with good views of the city :)
-we looked for the abbey used in Sound of Music, but couldn't find it. We went to the Augustiner Beer Hall, we didn't get anything but I wanted her to see what a traditional beer hall looks like!
-we got stalked by Mormons..who wanted to give me a Bible..haha they went on the bus with us and talked to us.
We also watched 27 Dresses and 13 Going on 30 the last two nights. The next day we went to the Mirabell Garden and walked along the river. Mom bought a picture of Salzburg, and we got gelato one more time before she had to leave :(

I had sooo much fun with mom visiting :) it was so great to see her! Just wanted to update with the other list I had set aside of what we did!

Guest Blog from Mom

Hello everyone!!  We have been very busy and having lots of fun.  While Alisha is at a class (the last before her break begins) I thought I’d sit down and do write on her blog.  So much has happened already!

The trip over was very long and I was very relieved when I finally reached my destination.  As some of you know, my flight from Frankfort to Salzburg was cancelled due to a strike at the airline I was supposed to fly on.  They had me fly to Munich and then go by bus to Salzburg.  The Lufthansa airline was very helpful because when I got off the plane in Munich there were two airline women waiting with a sign that said Salzburg. The group gathered (about 12 of us), got our luggage and headed out to the bus.  It was a two hour bus ride to Salzburg and I wouldn’t have chosen to go by bus.  However, it was quite a treat to see the country-side of Austria.  The season is a bit ahead of us so everything was green and blossoming.   Villages of houses would be grouped around farmland (I’m guessing lots of haying because the ground wasn’t dug up).  There were also the houses way up on the sides of the mountains…picture Heidi….just not in the Alps….smaller mountains.  There were long winding roads that lead to them.  They must have good plowing here!  The farms were very neat…much like Canadian farms.  Not a rusting car or truck to be seen!!!! 

Alisha was a very welcome sight when I got off the bus!  We headed right to her place on the city bus.  Once we got my suitcase taken care of we went for lunch.   We chose to walk and went along the river and I saw the scene of the picture of the fortress on the hill.  It’s so big and amazing.  We had decided on pizza and it was delicious.  Picture this…sharing a pizza in a small restaurant…finishing and paying…and me tripping and turning my foot as I exit the place on a little step down that I missed!! Yes, it’s true! In Salzburg for about an hour and a half and I go and do that! The very good news is that it could’ve been so much worse!  It feels much better after an icing and a couple of days. It turns out to be bruised.  My Clarks sandals have been a footsaver!

Alisha took me to her grocery store and we watched Survivor on her computer.  I struggled to stay awake towards the end of that but it was a fun evening.

Wednesday morning we visited St. Peter’s Church (the one Alisha told us about with the six organs) and had some yummy pastries for breakfast.   The weather was very cold and was still spitting rain.  The day before had been steady wind and rain so we were glad that had passed.  We spent quite a bit of time at the church so it was time to head to Alisha’s class.  I had intended to go to class but ended up a small café on the next street.  I was there for about an hour and a half writing in my journal and nursing a hot chocolate.  I was worried I’d overstay my welcome and would’ve braved the cold but took my cue from two women that were there when I arrived.  They left only ten minutes before Alisha came back to get me.  I felt very European!!!

We ended up going into some shops that Alisha wanted me to see and then we went back to her room until it was time go to IKEA and then meet up with Erin and her mother and sister. They arrived on Wed.  We met to go to an authentic Austrian restaurant.  I had the traditional Wiener-Schnitzel with potatoes and Alisha had bacon wrapped pork and potato wedges.  I tried a white wine spritzer and Alisha had Radler that is half beer and half lemonade.  I wasn’t crazy about either one…too much after taste.  The meat dishes and potatoes were very good with lots of salt as Alisha has told us.  For dessert we ordered a Salzburg Nockerl.  It was awful!!!  It smelled like egg and was the texture of custard with the meringue on top.  We’ve decided to stick with the other delicious pastries and chocolate!!!  One thing to note, here the server doesn’t bring your check until you ask for it!  He had checked in to see if we were doing good but we ended up sitting a while until we asked for the check!

We ended our day skyping with Fred and gabbing. 

This morning, Thursday, Alisha had a class so I did some much needed stretching and wrote in my journal.  When she got back we went to the Farmer’s Market they have on Thursdays.  It was a cross between our traditional markets and the Fryeburg Fair.  There were food booths selling hot cooked food like the fair, cheese, sausage (many, many kinds of both cheese and sausage), fish, pastries and loads of fresh flowers and plants.  We shared a cream roll and a pretzel.  This is a great (?) place for me because I love pastry and bread!  After this we walked back up to the Altstadt where we went into the church and visited the St. Peter's Cemetery and the shops.  It’s a bit warmer today and so it was much more pleasant.  I saw Mozart’s birthplace and some other statues and interesting tourist spots like a giant chess set in the square. We also stopped at St. Peter's Bakery, the oldest in Salzburg, and got some warm straight out of the oven bread!

Alisha helped get me back to her room before her class.  I’d wanted to go by myself but she insisted.  I would’ve had a little extra ride because I think I would’ve gotten on bus one instead of bus three.  I would’ve noticed what I’d done but it’s just as well she helped me!!!

A few more random thoughts…we saw Stephen King, Agatha Christie, and Mary Higgins Clark books (to name a few) in German.  There were English books and I thought it might be fun to buy one here but they’re more expensive plus the exchange!!!

The people here do not say excuse me…we’ve been in three different grocery stores and we hadn’t moved out of the way as they came up behind us we might’ve been run over!!!!

I don’t want my gravestone/marker to say RIP.

Bottled water isn’t too expensive when you buy it in the grocery store.

            I’d say most of the people have initially spoken to me/us as we’ve been out and about in German but have no trouble switching to English when they see my blank look!!!

            I know we are all aware of the good head on Alisha’s shoulders.  She continues to use it.   Now that I’m here, I’m even more aware of how much she’s had to learn and adjust to in a very short time.  She’s done extremely well and I’m very impressed!!!  What they say is proving true…the young lady we sent to Austria will not be the one that comes home!!   She’s doing GREAT!!!!

            We’ll be back to blog again before I leave.  The next three days will be busy as there’s still a lot we’d like to do together.  Today we decided not to take the time to do a day trip to Munich because I can say I’ve been there (Ahem!) and we’re hoping the weather will warm up, the rain will go away and we’ll get to do the many other things on our Salzburg list!!!

Friday, Saturday, Sunday!

This has been both a lazy AND a productive weekend at the same time! Friday I didn't really do much in the morning (that I remember as significant or worth mentioning), in the afternoon I went to the park and took pictures of the cherry blossoms and walked around to enjoy it all, that was really nice and I got pictures of the cherry blossoms while they were looking gorgeous! I also ended up meeting up with Paige and Lindsay there and we went to the playground, where we ended up playing on the seesaw with a little Austrian girl and her mom! That was a lot of fun, it's an awesome playground..they have a huge slide that is literally scary to go down..even though I'm not in elementary school anymore..

After that I skyped with Mom and Dad for a bit, and Ashley and I went to the grocery store to get hamburger meat and food for our Friday night party! This involved a trip to two grocery stores because the first one we went to didn't have hamburger meat..odd? I think so. Anyway, we got hamburger buns, hamburger, pickles, veggies, chips and a delicious bundt cake for dessert :) the 5 of us girls all got together and cooked some delicious food! Of course none of us had experience cooking burgers before, but Ashley and I manned the grill (or the stovetop) and they came out excellent! Then we ended up having a fun night just hanging out as a group after eating, highlighting Erin's hair and listening to music. It was a great time !

Saturday, I spent the morning watching a movie for class, it's a 3 HOUR long movie called "Sisi" which is a more modern version to the Sissi movie we watched in class last week. I watched it ahead because I won't be in class Tuesday (mom will be here!!) Actually it was a pretty good movie but it got boring just because I watched all 3 hours at once. So I lazed around all day in my room and watched that movie, planned out some mini trips for when mom is here (looking up ticket prices) and besides that did nothing, which was ok but I got really antsy from sitting around, so I went running in the late afternoon and explored the Altstadt some more..Saturday night I was going to go out and do something but ended up really hungry, making pasta for dinner and catching up on a Survivor episode (it was a pretty dull day overall, but I did some necessities).

Unfortunately, Sunday has been dull as well..because I've been doing homework ALL DAY! I set my alarm this morning, woke up, and wrote two essays..and edited another one. Then I did sentences for DaF class, looked up verbs and looked up some other grammar stuff I didn't understand. I'm trying to stay caught up with everything so I won't do really awful on the midterm. I feel a lot better now that I've done a huge chunk of work, but it was a pretty boring day and I literally stayed in my pajamas all day! So I think I might go on a walk or a run now, because once again I've been sitting around a lot. I'll be glad I did though when I have very little work to do this week when I have company! :)

So for the first time in a while, I'm not disappointed that the weekend is ending, because Mom is here on Tuesday! Then she's here for a whole week, and there are only four more days of classes until..two weeks of spring break!!! I'm so excited to have a spring break in Austria, Barcelona, and Mallorca..doesn't get much better than this!

Well, I'm about to go running and get some action in my life..too much sitting around, but I have been very productive and pretty proud of myself :) bye for now!

Thursday!

Today was a good day. I woke up early, before 6, to do laundry early before anyone else got up and used the washer and dryer (I wanted to wash my bedding and definitely needed to use the dryer, but the cool thing is they have clotheslines strung up in the basement for your clothes). Anyway, I did that and when my clothes were in the dryer I went on a little run, it was nice to see the city in the earlier morning, and have the Mirabell Gardens all to myself! AND the cherry blossoms are in bloom, I have to take a picture tomorrow!

I had DaF class in the morning and that was pretty boring but at least it went by pretty fast today. Then I went home and actually took a little nap after I made lunch because I was suddenly really tired. Then I got up and hung out before my other class at 4:30, and it was so nice out that our resident director decided to have class outside and bought us all a drink at the restaurant area we were sitting at, it was very nice and like in the 70's and sunny outside, so it made for a better class than sitting inside!

After class, we stopped at the grocery store, and I was standing waiting for my friends to grab food, and an older lady had a button fall off her sweater and roll a little ways under a display. So I bent down to get it and gave it to her and she thanked me. So then 10 minutes later we were all standing outside the grocery store getting ready to leave and the lady walked up to me and gave me this big bar of chocolate and said "für früher.." which means for earlier! It was soo nice of her! I said thankyou very much and she just smiled and said bye! That was sweet and made my day.

We went back to Mozart (my dorm) and I made my bed because I had just washed all my bedding, and then we made KRAFT MAC AND CHEESE for dinner because Ashley's mom mailed her some! it was wonderful..I really missed macaroni and cheese...then Erin, Ashley and I watched Anchorman after eating the macaroni and cheese, which is a funny movie. We also had cream puffs that Ashley bought as well as Wheat Thins and honey mustard pretzels which her Mom also mailed..ahh snack foods..

well, this weekend I hope to have some fun but also want to get a lot of work done to get it over with! I will have to balance the two together :) so glad I've made it to the weekend again!

Wednesday

Today was an average day. I didn't have class until 1pm today, but I got up in the morning and did some homework and cleaning. My room gets messy as fast as I clean it because I have to eat in my room (there is no kitchen in my apartment). So I'm always having to sweep and clean things up constantly. 

I had class at 1pm and that seemed to drag on for a while, it's the film class on Wednesdays, so we just talked about the film that we watched yesterday (Sissi). I won't be there for the film next week because that's the day mom comes!! so she burned me a DVD of the movie for next week (another Sissi film, but a more modern version) so I can watch it this weekend. It's 3 hours long..so I hope it's at least semi interesting.

After class, I took the bus back to my room, ate a banana because I was super hungry, did my German homework, went on a long run (went exploring and ended up on the hill above Salzburg, that was pretty fun), came back to my room and did an ab workout in my room. Then I ate dinner, took a shower, and watched an episode of one of my shows..and now I'm typing this! 

Everything is blooming here and it's really beautiful right now! I hope it lasts for a while until mom gets here next week! Now I only have to get through Thursday classes, and the weekend will be here :)

Tuesday!

Tuesday is usually my busiest day. Today, I woke up, ate breakfast in my room as usually, and went to class from 11:30-1. It was my DaF German class again, and we just went over more grammar stuff, she literally just talked for an hour and a half about grammar and it was really boring today!

After class, Erin and I went to the grocery store and bought a little frozen pizza to share for lunch, so we walked back to her dorm and cooked it, which was enjoyable, plus a little piece of cake for dessert :) then we had to take the bus back out to the other side of the city for our other Tuesday classes: Literature, where we talked about Kafka, and Film. On Tuesday's we actually watch the film. Today we watched the film Sissi about an Austrian queen..both classes are always held in my resident director's apartment, and back to back from each other. It got a little boring but the film was pretty interesting.

After class I came back to my room, talked myself out of running because it was chilly today and I was drained of energy from sitting down for such a long time..weird but true how sitting still makes you tired. So I made pasta instead for dinner, and then tonight I booked a TRIP TO PARIS FRANCE in May! I'm going with my friends Erin and Paige and then Kris is meeting us there! It should be a lot of fun!!! Paris was at the top of my list for places to see!

Now it's late and I'm about to head to bed, I didn't sleep very well last night, but I'll try to do more entries all this week!

Oh, and this is a super weird random fact, but we are looking at a map of the Paris metro right now and talking about how complicated it is, and it reminded me of how I wanted to comment that in Rome, the metro only has TWO lines on it..because they have so many ruins and things under the city, I guess they can't build a very complex metro system. But it was very surprising that for such a large city they have such a simple metro. They do have buses though. Oh well... :) bye for now!

Monday..

I figured I will try to do a blog entry every day this week so you can get an idea of what I do every week. Just to begin, Monday always comes so quickly, the weekend always flies by. Sunday afternoon was pretty nice, I relaxed down by the river with my friends Erin, Ashley and Lindsay and listened to some music and did a regular journal entry. It was such a GORGEOUS day yesterday.

Today I got up at around 10, had some breakfast and hung out in my room. It's raining today unfortunately, not really hard but enough that I wore my rain jacket and got wet on my way to the bus stop. Luckily it's not far away. On Mondays I only have one class, DaF, so I took the bus to class at 12, and it went pretty well today, it went by quickly (it's an hour and a half 3 days a week, so sometimes it feels really long). Today we went over more grammar and had a mini surprise quiz at the end of class...

After class I headed directly to the grocery store and hunted out some sales, definitely saving some money for the week. I usually do my grocery shopping on Mondays. Fact of the day: mayonnaise and mustard come in tubes here. I got a tube of mustard for 0,39 cents! Oh and just as a side note my bus pass finally got checked for the first time today, they use an honors system here, so you buy a bus pass and then they check it at random. I bought a semester bus pass so I'm all set, but this was the first time since I got here in February that I've been asked to show it.

Then I came back and made mashed potatoes and a piece of white sausage for lunch. I'm getting slightly better at cooking living here, but not much. I really need a meat thermometer so I can know for sure when things are done, I'm not good with cooking meat at all. I had to go online and look up how to cook "white sausage" because I had no idea. It's a Bavarian, southern German sausage. I only had a little piece but it was good. Otherwise I was proud of myself for making my own mashed potatoes. They turned out pretty good and then I added a little bit of garlic powder, salt and pepper to season them, so I think I did a decent job! I guess I have to learn how to cook real food sometime, but as always pasta is still the cheapest thing you can find!

Mondays are usually pretty mundane..right now I should be doing some DaF sentences for homework, we have to write them out to practice different types of grammar, so I guess I will get that over with. After that, maybe do a little reading for German and then call it a night, and probably catch up on some Survivor episodes! I think I'm 4 or 5 behind...I want to know what's going on!

Well, as long as I remember I'll do an entry for Tuesday tomorrow! :) hope all is well with everyone!

another great weekend!

Well, this has been a really great weekend! Thursday night (which is when my weekend starts) we went out to dinner at a pizza/Italian restaurant in Salzburg. It was spontaneous and very delicious! We also got dessert crepes which were pretty yummy but kindof a ripoff (not worth the price at all, but worth a try I guess). Thursday night I caught up on some tv shows which was pretty fun.

Friday I went running with Lindsay (she's in my group), did a couple quick errands, and then Erin and I cooked dinner (omelets and homefries, which were super delicious). Friday night we hung out with our resident director Gabriella outside of class which was pretty fun! She took us to a cafe/restaurant on the roof of a hotel with a great view of the city below. I want to take Mom there when she comes :)

On Saturday I had the best day so far almost!! With Erin, Josh, his roommate Tyler, a kid Bobby I met, and these girls Shannon and April hiked the Gaisberg and it was such a gorgeous day..and a challenging hike! I guess we ended up taking the "hard" path up the mountain rather than the easy one..little did we know. By the top of the mountain my legs were basically numb, but I felt so accomplished. It was such a great workout with the most amazing views I have seen so far in Salzburg. It looked just like the Sound of Music mountains, green hills and huge Alps..we could see mountains that were over the border in Germany. Then at the top Josh had packed cookies for us, plus a piece of cake. It was SUCH a great day. And when we got back we made homeade alfredo sauce for pasta..it felt well deserved after such a great hike!

It's another beautiful day in Salzburg today (it's 71 degrees!!) so I might go down to the river and do some homework. My German as a foreign language class is a little harder than I would have expected, so I need to study little by little if I want to do well in it. I feel so lucky that I get to see this beautiful country and live here for study abroad! It was a great decision to experience this and to already have seen Italy and a few other cities in Austria. I'm also going to Barcelona and Mallorca (island off of Spain) to visit Kris, and want to book a trip to Paris today!!

I'm so excited because Mom is here in a little over a week, and my spring break is also a little bit after that! There should be some fun times ahead :) :)

recap of the weekend

So, I finally branched out and decided to buy some more food rather than just..nutella, bread, and pasta. So I have gotten some onions, eggs, potatoes, carrots, more fruit..tonight I made an omelet with garlic potatoes, it was so good! I'm proud of myself for actually cooking something..haha!

This past weekend was pretty fun. Thursday night, I got all my homework done early so I could enjoy the weekend. On Friday, Josh and I went to Fuschl, which is like a little town maybe a 20 minute bus ride outside of Salzburg. We tried a bit of hiking (it was hard to find the right paths so we didn't do too much) and walked around the lake. When I got back, I went running with Erin. Friday night, I went out with some friends. Saturday, I lazed around and didn't do too much..Saturday night I caught up with my Pretty Little Liars show, and I skyped home Saturday too. I needed a relaxed day! Sunday, again I didn't do a whole lot until the evening, when I went to a concert which my roommate was in (she is a music student who plays the oboe, and she gave me a free voucher for it). It was an orchestra, but there was a surprise visit by a slam poet at the end which was really interesting. I'd say it was a fairly "modern" orchestra. I went to the concert with Erin and Paige, who are both in my program.

And now..it's Monday again! I have one class on Monday from 12:30-2. After class I went running and ran up Kapuzinerberg Mountain..ok well I didn't run up all the way, because it's REALLY steep, but I did intervals and just kept going until I made it to the top, which was totally worth the view of the green hills, and also the city below! There are a lot of nice trails in that area, and the path to get there is only about 5 minutes running, 10 or so walking, from my dorm!

I guess tonight I'm going to relax, and do some homework, which I unfortunately must get done...tomorrow is my busiest day of classes. Looking forward to another weekend coming up, because those are always the most fun..but I also appreciate the weekdays, especially Monday and Wednesday where I only have one class on each day so I can fit in some sightseeing and exploring in the afternoon!

Oh..and I'm really excited that my mom is coming to visit in 2 weeks!! it will be so much fun to show her around and see her!! :)

And one more note..I got all my classes for UMaine next semester which is wonderful, and housing selection is tonight so hopefully from afar everything will work out! It was a little stressful taking care of everything from overseas, including faxing a housing application, but I'm glad it's all looking to work out nicely!

Roma, and another weekend is coming!

Hello everyone..only one more class for me at 4:30 this afternoon and then it's the weekend! Although it won't involve quite the traveling I did last weekend, I'm still really looking forward to it!

Rome was really fun. The only thing that wasn't fun about the trip was the train fiasco when I was trying to come home, and also a 9 hour train ride is never fun, even if it does go smoothly. Luckily I was able to sleep for a lot of the way there. On the first day that we got there, we met up in the train station, and after we were all settled we walked around and just tried to get our bearings of the city. We checked out the Colosseum from the outside and ate some Italian gelato, which is very good but probably overhyped. The gelato I've gotten in Austria is just as good :) We also got stuck in a rainstorm at the Colosseum and as a result also saw a rainbow right over the Colosseum! That was really cool, getting stuck in a rainstorm, not quite so cool... also, later that night we had pizza which was yummy!

On Saturday we took a trip to Vatican City which was very interesting, I don't really know much about Catholicism but I'm glad I saw what it's like there. St. Peter's Basiica was sooo detailed, it was crazy how much work they clearly put into building it. We unfortunately didn't get to go in the Sistine Chapel because it was closed for father's day (their version of father's day) so I may have to try to go back sometime to see the famous Michelangelo ceiling! After the Vatican we hit some other locations like: The Spanish Steps (a famous square area with a church at the top), The Pantheon, The Piazza Navona, another famous square with 3 fountains, The Trevy Fountain, basically the most beautiful fountain I've ever seen, and then stopped for some real Italian pasta which was delicious! We also ate outside and had someone with an accordion come over and serenade us, it was pretty cool. Overall the food in Rome was delicious, the pastries were actually one of my favorite things there.

On Sunday we went to the Colosseum and actually took a tour inside, which was one of the most amazing things I think that we saw. It was crazy to imagine what it was actually used for so long ago, with all the gladiator fights and things. Then we went in the Forum which is a big area connected to gardens and old houses and ruins, but it's basically where the center of Ancient Rome was. There were just crumbling ruins everywhere you went, it was amazing! You couldn't go anywhere in Rome without seeing ancient ruins everywhere. Before we left we got more pizza for dinner which was VERY yummy.

It was a really fun trip and it was great to see Kris too. I'm glad I can say I've been to Rome! I bought a little painting of the Spanish Steps, and a t-shirt that says I "<3" Roma, like the picture of a heart (like an I love New York t-shirt). Kinda touristy but that's ok.

If I have a chance I wouldn't mind going to a few other places in Italy: either Florence, Venice or Sicily. We'll see what happens. This weekend, I don't have very many big plans. My friends and I were going to hike Mount Untersberg but I guess that not all the snow has melted so it's not really safe to hike yet. Hopefully we can go in a few weeks! For lunch I just made a grilled Nutella and banana sandwich and it was delicious...luckily I've also been running quite a bit so all this food hasn't caught up with me! It's a good way to see the city and it really helps me to find the fastest, easiest ways to get places and really know where I'm going in Salzburg.

Well, I'm going to go do some homework so I can get a lot of it done and then be able to enjoy the weekend! It's 60 degrees here today and I think it's supposed to be fairly nice weather this weekend, at least on Friday! It might rain on Saturday so I'll probably use that time as a chance to catch up on all my American TV shows! :) I'll try to write more later this weekend!

Train Misadventures...

So here is the really long blog I wrote on the train at about 5:00 in the morning when I was really angry. It's rambling but it explains why my train got messed up and what happened. At this point I'm tired and just going to maybe take a nap before my class at 12:30...or if I can't sleep I'll just upload pictures. I'll update about Rome later....

Sorry this is long winded but if you feel like reading about my train misadventure it’s all written here. I am seriously so pissed off right now I could scream. When I bought my tickets for Rome, I got a round trip ticket for Salzburg to Villach, and then a one way (each way) from Villach to Rome. So on the way to Rome, I went from Salzburg, to Villach, to Rome. On the way home it was supposed to be just the opposite. Well, it worked fine on the way to Rome: I got on at Salzburg, got off at Villach, waited for a one hour layover, and got on the train to Rome successfully. But this time…

I got to the terminal with plenty of time to spare with the train leaving Rome at 7:05 pm. I got on the train that was the same number and time as my ticket: #234 at 7:05 pm, got in the section with the seat it told me to be in (63) and rode all the way to the time when I was supposed to be getting off (4:14 am) in “Villach.” I stood up to get ready to get off, and a German mother and daughter ask me as I started to get up, “are you transferring in Innsbruck too?” I said “no, I’m getting off in Villach,” and they were like…”this train isn’t going to Villach.” I went and asked the police that had just checked our passports as we got back into Austria, if the train was going to Villach, and they said no, you’re on the wrong train, you can get off at a certain stop, I think it was Klagenfurt or something like that, or Innsbruck, and change trains. Apparently, the train was in two pieces or something ridiculous like that, and one of them was headed in the wrong direction (to Munich) which was the one I was on, and the one I was supposed to be on was headed to Vienna (with a stop in Villach where I needed to go). Well, first of all thanks for all the informative signs and things letting me know there are TWO HALVES to the damn train. So I was a little shaken and pretty pissed but I thought, whatever, I should just get off here rather than any other station. Innsbruck is a big station, and that’s where the mother and daughter were getting off the train so they could help me.

So I get off the train at Innsbruck, and the mother and daughter and daughter were really nice. The mother went and spoke to the train officer in German to be absolutely sure I couldn’t get to Villach from the train I had been on. Then they went downstairs with me and looked at the board and told me that I could get on the train going to Budapest, but to be sure to get on the back part of the train because the back part was headed towards Vienna, meaning it was stopping in Salzburg.  Again, who knew trains had two halves…I will admit at this point there was another girl who was trying to find her train that spoke English, and I sort of tried to help her but I was worried about my own situation, although I do feel bad I didn’t help her more. She was trying to figure out which train to get on at the same time the German people were talking to me, so I only half listened to her and sortof waved her off to check one of the platforms, which is probably why Karma came back to bite me in the end. Hopefully she got to her train.

 Anyway, I said thank you to the mother and daughter (they were really nice to help me), and ran to that platform, where I met these 3 random Hungarian people who I thought were just traveling to Vienna. They said yes, we are going to Vienna, blah blah. So then the driver of the train came up and the Hungarian guy spoke to him for me, and I told him my situation.  The driver said, “you don’t have the right tickets, but it’s ok. You can get on this train and ride with me and get off at Salzburg.” I said, thank you so much, and then stood there for 10 minutes and talked to the people a little bit, the random Hungarian guy was like “oh yes, I’d like to go with you to America,” in that stereotypical foreign accent, implying that America was so wonderful. He seemed nice, I was really happy at that point that he had spoken to the driver for me.

Then, the train finally came and the driver walked away to one end, which I thought was where we had to go (so worried about which half of the train to take) but then the Hungarian people were going to the OTHER end of the train, so I said, “is this the part of the train going to Vienna?” to the Hungarian guy, and he said something I couldn’t really understand, so I asked the other Hungarian man and he said yes. So I got on the train, and finally see a sign that says the train is going to Salzburg, and I think YES this is awesome, I finally made it.

As I got on the train I realized that the Hungarian people are actually workers on the train serving food in the dining car to first class and everything. It was strange. So anyway, the driver had told me it was fine to be on that train, so I just sat down in the back of first class after asking a final random guy at the info desk if both parts of the train were going to Salzburg (of course I was overly paranoid at this point about being in the wrong half of the train). He said yes, the whole section I was on was all Salzburg.

So I’m sitting there, thinking I have it made, I even got juice and a Kit Kat bar, when the same info booth guy comes back to check everyone’s tickets. So, thinking he would be as nice as the driver who SAID I COULD RIDE WITH HIM AND IT WAS FINE, I tried to explain the situation, and instead of being understanding he decided to be an, excuse my language, asshole. He also didn’t speak perfect English or anything but he definitely understood what I was saying. He kept saying, “this ticket is not for this train,” and I said “I KNOW it’s not for this train, I was on the WRONG train and I talked to the officer on the platform and he said it was ok and I could ride to Salzburg on this train, he told me it was ok.” The guy said, “this is not the right ticket, I’m the officer right now on this train and this is not the right ticket.” I even tried to flag down the Hungarian guy, who halfheartedly attempted to explain the situation, as well as the Hungarian girl that was with him, but the officer on the train seriously had to be an asshole and ruin my day, he was like “where did this happen” or something along those lines, I was like, “I just talked to him out on the platform, I KNOW this isn’t the right ticket he told me it was ok.” But this guy seriously would not budge and I was starting to cry because at this point it was 5:00 in the morning, I slept awkwardly and hardly very well on the whole 9 hour train from Rome to “Villach” aka Innsbruck, and all I want to do is get back to Salzburg. I was also upset that the Hungarian guy would not help me more, he just shrugged and said “well, you don’t have a ticket for this train.” Thanks for sticking up for me buddy! You barely explained to this guy that I talked to the driver and he already said it was ok…whatever, maybe he was afraid of getting fired or yelled at if he said something.

 So I finally said “fine, can I just buy a ticket here then?” He said yes, and I was sitting in first class luckily I was able to tell him I wanted to move and sit in economy class because I would not want to pay for a first class ticket. So I had to pay 40.80 Euros..which is like the equivalent of probably $55 or $60, for a ticket just to go from Innsbruck to Salzburg. Absolutely ridiculous. Thank God they took debit cards because I did not have enough cash for that, I don’t even know what I would have done in this situation if I had decided not to bring my debit card with me to Rome, which I almost didn’t do. I’m just so infuriated that I already paid for the round trip ticket from Villach to Salzburg, used one half of it and probably will never use it. And it makes me really angry that the signs at the train were not more clear that they were going to two separate places, or maybe you had to switch halfway through, but I wasn’t aware of it. Two different people looked at my ticket that said “Roma to Villach” and didn’t say anything to help me. I’m just really angry that I had to spend that money on a stupid ticket, all because that one guy decided to be a real ass and ruin my day. I’m so tired and right now it’s 5:39 in the morning, the ONLY good thing about this is that I don’t have a 3 hour layover in Villach, so I’m getting back to Salzburg a few hours earlier than I was going to, I should be back in Salzburg at 6:57, rather than 9:48. I’ll probably take a nap for a few hours and then I have a class at 12:30. I really just want to GET OFF THIS TRAIN. Oh, and by the way I kept the orange juice and the Kit Kat that I got when I was sitting in first class, I think I deserve it. I was so thirsty for 9 hours on that other  stupid train going in the wrong direction, I guess orange juice will have to do for now. As long as the guy doesn’t come and make me pay for that too. Ugh. I know everyone says that the train system in Europe is “so great” but really, it’s not that great….I do not enjoy taking the train alone, and I think next time I may try taking a flight wherever I travel, depending on the price. The good thing is, I handled the situation well enough, I don’t think there was really anything else I could have done at that point, it definitely wasn’t made clear when I got on the train at Rome that one HALF was going to Munich and one HALF was going to Wien, I was a little bit confused about why the sign said “Wien-Munich” in Rome and my ticket said “Wien Medlung,” but now I guess I know. Thanks for the help train people, I’ll be flying next time if I can help it.

I will have to write more details about the actual FUN WEEKEND I had in Rome later! This was just kind of a crummy experience, and at this point all I want to do is get off the train and be safely in Salzburg. Luckily less than an hour until we are due to arrive there, and I can put this situation behind me. 

when in roma..

so i'm leaving for Rome tonight! Sorry I have not kept up with these entries very well, it's been a pretty busy week. I am sooo excited to see Kris, and the city of Rome! I will add an update once I'm back :) Classes are well and basically it was just a week of classes and hanging out with friends, nothing too exciting but a pretty good week!

One thing I learned in the past 24 hours: there's always more to people than you see on the surface. Sometimes people are struggling with things you wouldn't even expect. It's sad that people have to overcome challenges nobody else even knows about, but it also brings people together because you realize you aren't alone in your worries or challenges in life. I've just been reminded to be less judgemental of people and to remember that I don't always know the whole story of who they are.

Anway, I went to Innsbruck yesterday, and unfortunately because we took the inexpensive trains, we only had 4 hours to go around the city. That was a little disappointing, but we did as much as we could. We saw the touristy old city, with the Golden Roof which is part of the home of a past emperor of the city, and then we took a cable car partway up (not all the way to the very top of the mountain, so it was on a track, not dangling like a ski lift) so we could overlook the city and take some nice pictures of the scenery. It was a little foggy or hazy, but you could still see the mountains. Then we ate at a restaurant in Innsbruck, which was only average, but at least we tried it. Then we had a wonderful 5 hour train ride home...which was pretty bad, and we got back to the train 1 minute before it departed...we literally had to sprint through the city for our train.

Today I went on a really long run through Salzburg, long overdue, and wished I had my camera many times because it was just so idyllic and beautiful. This really is a beautiful city.

Well, I need to shower and fold laundry, and we're celebrating Erin's birthday with a pasta dinner here at the dorm tonight. Last night we were hanging out in the old city and celebrating for her birthday, and some guys from Holland sang Happy Birthday to her with me on the street! It was very cool :)

Well, best wishes to everyone for the new week and I will add more soon!

austrian and american perspectives

Last night I met a few people from Austria and it was really interesting to talk to them about the stereotypes of America and everything like that. They said that there is a stereotype of Americans that we are very prudish and religious, and also that we are the "police of America" and have to be involved in everything (which I have already heard). We told them how there were a lot of huge differences even just within America about beliefs regarding religion and war, and that different parts of America were vastly different from each other.

Then they asked us what the stereotypes of Austria were. So I told them, well most Americans don't even really know much about Austria except for the Sound of Music and skiing, and that we tend to just lump it in with Germany and the stereotypes are probably: punctual, harsh, and of course the idea of "Nazi"s which still exists today. First of all, most of them had never seen the Sound of Music, and one of them saw it at age 18..and said it was nothing like Austria at all. Then, we talked about the Nazi thing, and she said it was something that younger generations still feel like they have a burden of and they feel responsible for, even though they weren't even alive when it happened, because some of them have family members that were involved during that time. I guess it's comparable to slavery and the Civil Rights Movement in the USA.

I asked them if they thought Americans were "loud" and they said no the Spanish and the Italians were stereotypically the loud ones. They also surprisingly said we have a stereotype of being friendly and polite, since it's expected in America that when you go into a store or meet someone on the street you say "hi, how are you?" when you don't necessarily ask people how they are in European countries. They said Americans are much more open, and willing to talk about their lives, but in Europe it's more closed.

The other thing they said was that they thought it was "strange" that Americans were so patriotic. They said that when you see flags flying in front of American homes, that you would never see that in Austria. They found such strong patriotism for your country very strange. I asked them why they thought the Austrian flags were flying in the city center if that was the case, and they said they thought it was more for tourism. They said that greeting soldiers on the street and thanking them for their service was also very strange to them.

We talked about how in Austria and much of Europe you HAVE to be intelligent and smart to continue in school, while in the USA, even if you are really not smart at all, if you have the money to pay for it you can still go to school. They said they got the idea that if you have the money, you can do just about everything in America..which I think is mostly true that money is power. We also said we wished we knew multiple languages, the girl we were talking to mostly had been taking English for 12 years and was basically completely fluent. We said we were almost embarassed we weren't fluent in another language. She said, "I understand why you might only know English, English is the world language, so as long as you know that you're all set."

Well, it's really interesting to get different perspectives! I do appreciate my country but I think we have many problems (as do many countries really). It's interesting to hear what other people my age think.