i'm heeeere :)

So everyone, I have finally arrived, after all the planning and preparing, in Salzburg! I left Logan with Ashley at 4:15 pm on the departure flight (after saying goodbye to my family which was very sad!!) everything was pretty simple and went smoothly in terms of security and getting on the flight. The flight itself was of course long, but nobody was sitting next to me so I got to make a fool of myself by twisting my body into some very ridiculous positions in an attempt to get comfortable. The food on the flight was pretty good too, I mean there was...a salad with shrimp on it, pasta, and even mousse with strawberries..pretty high class if i do say so :p

After we got off the flight Ashley and I had a 3 hour layover in Frankfurt where we landed. It was boring and we had to get our passports stamped by a scary guy who asked me where I was going and WHY. I felt like I was being interrogated. Then they searched my carry-on to a point and told me they needed to test my laptop for "explosives" and Ashley's little keyboard piano that she brought. So they brought us out back and tested them, which sounds scary, but they were really funny and nice so it was ok. They were cracking jokes the whole time. They can't even open the cover of your laptop to inspect it, they make you do it for "insurance reasons." I think it was just a random check thing that they picked our stuff...I mean obviously because my laptop with the purple case is highly suspicious for explosives...but anyway, after that we just wanted to cry cause the layover was SOO boring. Then, at the boarding call, instead of just getting on the plane, we had to get on our bus that took us to the plane which was tiny and made me feel queasy! But then we FINALLY landed in Austria...and it was the weirdest feeling ever to finally be here after all this planning and talking about it constantly.

So my friend Josh Maxfield from high school is here with a different program and he met us at the airport and we took a taxi to the hostel where we're staying for 3 days (Yoho) until we can move into our Studentheim. We couldn't check in to Yoho until 12, so instead we walked around the city and took a bus to the "old city" and saw some different random sites including an ancient Catholic church, the fortress on the hill, and the birthplace of Mozart. It was fun and made me really excited to walk around and actually live in a city for four months! Because it is a small city and it definitely has that city feel, all without being too big. Then we got Dönnerkebabs which are just...really, really delicious shaved meat on bread with sauce and spices and it's soooo good. And it was pretty inexpensive too! 


Now Ashley and I are suffering from major jetlag and very tired. I took a shower, and now we're hanging out until we go to dinner with the rest of the group from the New England Universities in Salzburg (NEUS) program. We're getting picked up at 5:45. I guess it's an authentic Austrian restaurant with good food and beer...apparently beer or wine is cheaper to order at a restaurant than soda here! I found that very interesting/strange. 


Well, I guess I'll go socialize with some people and try to keep my eyes open for dinner so I can meet everyone else in my program! After that I'll be hitting the hay early so I can have more energy for tomorrow! :) more updates will be coming soon!