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.

it's almost the weekend!

I only have one more class at 4:30 pm before it's the weekend. YAY!
This weekend the other 4 girls in my group and I are planning on going to Innsbruck, which is a small town about 2 hours outside of Salzburg by train. It's supposed to be a cute little town to explore and with different shopping and the largest Swarovski Crystal store in the world, but it's closed for renovations I think, which is sad :( but it will still be fun to explore a new city, and it's supposed to be beautiful there.

Other than that, I am just experiencing lots of new things. On Tuesday I was out around town for "Faschingsdienstag" which is "Mardi Gras" here, it's a lot like Halloween in America, everybody was dressed up and in costume. I saw a lot of people dressed up in Native American costumes, which I found very strange. We met a guy from Austria, and he found out we were from Maine, he asked us if we knew Stephen King! It was very funny, I was surprised he knew who Stephen King was, but he said he had read all of the books.

So my classes are: DaF, or Deutsch als Fremdsprache (German as a foreign language) which is just a German language class here in Austria. I'm also taking a Film Class and a Literature class (not history like i thought). Both are just covering Austrian film and literature, a lot of movies and books from this country are very dark, so it should be interesting...the film and literature classes are held in my resident directors apartment, so it's a pretty casual setting. I have classes on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday...but I have Fridays off, so 3 day weekends!!

Today was the first day it rained in Salzburg or Austria for that matter where we were, but now it's bright and sunny again :) We went to an open air market after our class this morning, I tried Käsekrainer (sausage with cheese) from a Würstelstand (sausage stand) for lunch, it was really delicious! I also got a big pretzel to take home with me, it has chocolate and apricot on it and it's very, very yummy, but I brought most of it home with me because I didn't want to eat it all at once (I could just eat all day here, the food is soooo good, but I try not to overeat even though I easily could) We walked around another market later which was fun, they sell fresh flowers, fruits, veggies, more food, and little garden trinkets and other trinkets as well as clothes and purses and everything. I think next week I might buy some fruits or vegetables. I have noticed that the clementines and oranges here are both very tart!

Also, I'm officially addicted to Nutella..luckily they sell it in America too. It's a chocolate hazelnut spread, the consistency is very comparable to peanut butter, and it's only a little bit less healthy for you than peanut butter..it's really yummy on toast for breakfast or with fruit. It's SO GOOD. I could eat it by the spoonful.

I've also been running a few times down the Salzach river which is really just very beautiful, and there are swans on the river. It's awesome! I've been told it will be even more beautiful once the trees bloom and everything is green again! I'm trying to get into a running routine here, it's different running in the city because of stoplights, and becuase you always have to predict the direction where so many people are walking around and dodge them as you run. It gets annoying, but I think I'll get used to it, and once I get to the river it's easier. And so pretty! I think I picked a great semester to come here (SPRING semester!) I want to get up hiking into the mountains and get some really awesome pictures, as well as see a few Sound of Music things like the gazebo. I want to take a picture up in the hills like the sound of music picture where she's spinning around in flowers!

This weekend, I have the plans to go to Innsbruck, figure out how to do laundry, and tonight our school is hosting a party for people to meet each other, it's on Akademiestrasse (the street where we have our classes) in one of the buildings where we have class. I think a lot of people are going so hopefully it will be fun.

So I apologize if I already blogged about any of the stuff above, but I've been telling so many people about so many different things that it's hard to tell! I will have to do another entry when I get back from Innsbruck and let you know how it was there. I hope the weather is as gorgeous in the US as it is here right now!

a note on supermarkets...and classes

So, supermarkets here are just such a different experience. I mean, first of all they close at 6:30pm at the very latest on weekdays,  5:00pm on Saturdays...and they're closed on Sundays! So if you don't have enough food you're in trouble on Sunday unless you want to go out to eat (which of course I DO but it's too expensive to do constantly). Anyway, it's really annoying that it closes so early because I'm used to being able to just walk into the grocery store at 9pm and grab something if I needed to.

Then when you're in there, you never see people loading up their carts like in the US with every single food item you could think of. When we go to the grocery store we usually buy most everything we need for 1 week at least in my experience. But here in Austria they seem to go every few days and just get small amounts of food. The reason for this is PROBABLY because they make you bag your own groceries and they don't wait for you to be done bagging yours when they start sending the next person's food down the line, oh no. So basically, you're frantically trying to grab your stuff and pay and speak in German while these people fly through their job.

For the most part I think food is cheaper here but with the exchange rate I'm probably paying the same as the US. But today I got 2 cans of soup, a box of cookies, eggs, paper towels, yogurt, cereal, a huge bag of pasta and some bread for like 16 euros, which really isn't bad. It's not "super expensive" like I imagined it would be, if you watch for sales. I also think fruit is quite a bit cheaper here than in the US but I'm not completely sure yet.

Anyway, enough ranting about supermarkets. Today I had my first day of class! It was basically a day to fill out some information sheets and start a review of some German grammar. The teacher seems nice, she expects you to put the work in but she seems friendly. Her name is Frau Weigl. I have to buy 2 books but I think they will total about 25 euros..which is a LOT LOT cheaper than what I pay for textbooks in America by FAR, so I'm relieved. Luckily I think most of my spending on the initial things I had to buy is over. After class we went to the mall/IKEA and I got a little desk lamp, a small mirror for my room, a frying pan and a colander today as well, which were all super cheap, which is good.

Also, I'm going to Rome in 2 weekends and will be meeting up with Kris there! I'm going by train.

Well, I'm going to go clean up my room and do some dishes, but I have more classes tomorrow so I will let you know how that goes!

Miss you all, more later!

life in salzburg

So I actually spent today as like a down day to recover from this crazy week! I caught up on some tv shows which can be frustrating because a lot of videos that are allowed in the US won't work over here in europe..it's hard to find shows! Anyway, I'm about to go shopping and try to find some more european shoes because the sneakers i have just are not cutting it..I look wayyyy too American all the time. It was nice not to have to get right up and be somewhere this morning though.

Yesterday I went for a run in the city and that was a lot of fun. I went exploring and found some paths up in the mountain areas. It was fun! but for now i'm going to clean up my room and go on a little shopping trip :) a longer update will come soon because I start class on monday!!

one word...exhausted.

This week has been SOOOOO exhausting!! so much paperwork to take care of, things to buy, things to organize. I lost a folder that had some papers in it which is really frustrating and stressful. I got a cell phone today and it took forever to figure it out, especially even just switched the phone from German to English. There are so many situations here that you wouldn't expect to be hard, that are...I mean, you don't even think about it until you have to do it. Like, reading a shampoo bottle to see what kind it is..and everything is in German. Or going grocery shopping and figuring out what kind of milk you are buying (I don't think they have skim milk over here...)

Here are some random thoughts because I'm too tired to write long explanations:

People don't wear "sneakers" here. People wear converse, vans, boots, but not running sneakers. As a result I wish I brought my vans or boots. And all of these shoes are pretty expensive over here. FRUSTRATING.

Food shopping here is strange, because you have to bag groceries yourself and also you usually have to pay for bags if you don't have them with you. It's hard to pay and bag at the same time! They also go lightning fast here.

Learning the bus system...is hard! I'm not used to taking a bus places. But it is very convenient and the bus stop near my house, Kongresshaus, goes right to where I have class and the other side of the city. Just take Bus 3!

Moving into my room and trying to do all the paperwork has been sooo stressful. But, the paperwork is drawing to a close for the most part. My roommate is French, here name is Mäiiwenn or something like that. It's pronounced "My Wen." So far we haven't talked a lot but she is studying music (she plays the oboe).

Walking everywhere in the city is very different! It's actually a little bit smaller/about the size of Portland. I love having the chance to live in a (small) city to see if I like it. 

Sometimes it's frustrating here because the vending machines have beer and cola and red bull..but they hardly ever have normal soda or just water! And that's usually what I want. 

Hearing cars at night on the street is different..usually it's more quiet in Maine!

Also, most of the population is "white" but there is definitely a very large diversity of languages around here! It makes the US seem more isolationist than I ever thought. It's weird how you could live in the USA your whole life and never go outside the country, but here you are so close to so many countries.

Well, bed time for me because I'm doing some more paperwork tomorrow bright and early!

OH and just so everyone reading knows I took a placement test today and I got into Mittelstufe I which is the level I had to get into to receive credit for my classes at UMaine! Yay! The test was challenging so I'm proud of myself that I made it into that level :)

More later!