Mluvíte anglicky?

I'm back from Prague.
I had a lovely time.
It looked kind of like a Disney Movie sometimes.
This castle/church being an example.






















Our Hotel.
Pretty from the outside.
"Faded Glory" inside.
It looked like the Shining.























The famous clovk thing.
It's pretty but I couldn't figure out how it told time.
And it is perpetually surrounded by tourists.























I'm at the Opera.
It was super pretty.



















Me with Prague.























This church was really pretty.



























Here I am inside. The stained glass was really nice.



























Hope all is well. I'll give more details of my trip later.
Love.

Donnerwetter?

I think it is thundering outside. But it is also snowing.
Weird country, Austria.
Today I went grocery shopping. A big accomplishment.
Later I intend to do laundry and eat dinner.
My life is tremendously exciting over here.
But tomorrow I'm heading to Prague.
Also:
Sugarfree redbull only costs 99eurocent here.
Even with the exchange rate that is a good deal.
Thanks, Austria.


James: Here I am taking pictures of myself. Do you see how well this works?
Anyway. Here I am going grocery shopping.
It's snowing.























This is the grocery store I went to.

Gott und Eier.

So. We went to church. It was a cute little collection of people who all pretty much had no idea what that guy up there was talking about. Not only was he speaking German-with an Austrian accent-but also it was Catholic. A lot of standing up and kneeling and sitting back down. And the church was mostly empty...even though it is Easter. And we were the youngest ones there by 30-40 years. But all the girls got red easter eggs. That was exciting. I also learned from the Slovenian girl who lives here that you can dye easter eggs with onion peels...and blueberries. Next year.
I wish I were in America right now eating scalloped potatoes and Ham. And Jello eggs. Hope you are all having fun!


Here I am chilling with Goethe...dressed up for Easter.


















Goethe wünscht Frohe Ostern!






















The Easter Eggs in the Market.





















The church we went to on Easter.

Frohe Ostern!

Happy Easter everyone.
Not too exciting here. The Easter Bunny doesn't seem to have found my room. Oh well. A few kids from the floor below me and I are planning on going to evening Mass. Everything here is Catholic which is weird for me.
Anyway. Break is still going okay.
Erin left yesterday for Italia so now I am the only American left in the dorm.
It's really quiet here. There are maybe 3 people on my floor.
And 4 on the floor below me.
So. Yesterday I went shopping. Yay for having an H&M three blocks from home. I got a spring jacket, two tanktops, summer shoes and some socks. I have no idea how I'm going to get all of my stuff home. I'm really not looking forward to lugging it around this summer. Too bad I brought stuff I don't want to have to part with.
Anyway, last night Devrim, the Turkish guy, Phillipine, the French girl, and I made crepes....more accurately stated...Phillipine made Devrim and me crepes. Then we decided to go out since we have all just been sitting around the dorm for the past week. So we went to the Naschmarkt which is during the day a big food market. At night there are bars/restaurant things. So we got drinks and sat around til they closed (at 1! lame.). Then we bought döner which is like a turkish gyro and walked the whole way home....its a long way.
I still need to make a photo album of Vienna.
It will happen soon.
Happy Easter!

Schnee!

Google tells me that today is the first day of Spring. Strangely it is snowing rather intensely for the first time since I have been here and it is crazy. I don't know what to think of it. It reminds me of home, but the snow doesn't stick to the ground and it falls a lot faster.
But yay for snow in Wien.
It's still Spring/Easter break and I still haven't accomplished much.
Most of the students went home for the break so the dorm is incredibly quiet always. But the few of us here spend a lot of time playing this game where you have a name written on your forehead and then have to ask yes or no questions to figure out who you are. It's fun but I'm really bad because I don't know any celebrities.
Then yesterday Erin (a boy from Mac who lives in my dorm) and I went out exploring Favoriten, the area of Vienna where we live. It's a very working class neighborhood with a high immigrant population-mostly from Turkey-and the buildings and all aren't that beautiful. But I like it nonetheless. We were probably the first tourists Favoriten had ever seen. But we found some pretty stuff amongst all the pawn shops. I'll post pictures soon.
Hope all is well!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

There does not seem to be any corned beef available in this country.
So I'm going with cabbage and potatoes.
But no one but me seems to understand the significance of this holiday.
Tragic I know.
I'm celebrating regardless.
Also: I forgot to bring any green clothing. If this were America I would get pinched left and right.
It seems so sad to me to not have this day as a holiday.
Weirdo Austrians.

Pommes mit Senf.

Vienna.
Is pretty. But everyone walks with a cane.
And wears fur.
I feel kind of out of place here.
But I like it all the same.
Friday we went to the Burgtheater and saw a play that we had read.
Reigen.
It was good...
I didn't like it as much as everyone else I think.
But conceptually it was cool.
And it was good to have read it.
Austrian accents are intense.
Then we had a birthday party for a girl in our group.
That was pleasant too.
I took the last subway home and was sitting in the common room reading and some crazy kid with an austrian accent asked me something, I have no idea what he said really.
But somehow I ended up invited to a party in the hidden part of my floor.
Everyone was nice enough, but the 3rd floor, where I live is pretty intensely austrian so I feel kind of stupid. But there was a girl from Duesseldorf whose German I could understand so I talked to her for a long time and then went to bed.
Saturday I overslept and was tired all day because of it.
I only left the dorm to go to the grocery store with the people on the floor below me.
We bought ourselves some Austrian beers and I bought bread and such because on Sunday there is nowhere to buy food.
Last night we had a party of sorts on the 2nd floor, where all of the people I would call my friends here live. It was pleasant. You just sit around and try to speak German...it seems like it would be so unpleasant for the two or three people who are actually German. But they are pretty nice about it.
Then rather late we walked a long way to find an open bar. We had a drink and came home. On the way I bought french fries from a very attractive Turkish boy. They always look at you like you are crazy if you order french fries with mustard here. But I don't like ketchup. Or mayo. And the mustard here is really very good.
Then we sat around in the common room and talked until an unreasonable hour.
Today I haven't accomplished much.
I think I will attempt to get some homework done now.
Austrian History is sooo boring though so I feel pretty uninspired to do the readings.
But I'm off.
Love.

I miss:
My Mom and Dad.
My sister.
Chester.
Jaime.
Jamila.
James.
Carrie.
Connie!
Mexico Viejo.
Fryn' Pan Coffee.
Driving in Cars.
Snow.
Edamame.
My blankie.
Sen~or.
Stone Arch Bridge.
Running along the Mississippi.
Ranch Dressing.
My cell phone.
Double Cheeseburgers without ketchup from McDonalds.
Ice in my soda.
Corn fields.
Free refills.
Tampons with applicators..
Chips that aren't bbq flavored.
Cheddar cheese.
The Dollar.
Country Music.

suppe.

also.
i lovelovelove having a kitchen.
i made soup for dinner and it made me so happy.
i love cooking!!!!

wien!

so. i have made it to vienna.
i don't have the internet yet because i need some sort of cable and all the stores are closed
on sundays.
my dorm is interesting.
i think i will like it well enough here.
my room is small but comfortable enough.
i have a lofted bed and i hate climbing ladders but i suppose i will get used to that.
the dorm itself isnt really at all what i was expecting.
on my floor there are probably 12 rooms. maybe 16.
each group of four rooms has a kitchen and bathroom that they share.
but everybody seems to just share the entire space.
i just discovered that the kitchen/bathroom that i thought was mine is in fact not.
but no one seems very upset that i have been using it.
anyway. everyone i have met has been friendly enough.
i cant really understand that much of what the people on my floor are saying.
i think some of these girls are maybe from austria. or very east germany.
they have bizarre accents.
last night though i hung out with the people on the floor below me because
that is where the other mac kids live and everyone there was really pleasant.
two of the people were from germany and i could understand them well enough,
although their accent is very different from the Berliner accent.
then there was a girl from france and a boy from turkey.
they were both pleasant as well.
i think im glad i ended up here and dont have to share my room with some weirdo.
i cant wait til the grocery stores are open tomorrow so i can buy real food and
cook again.
i miss cooking so much!

anyway.
my last week in Berlin was probably the best.
I wish I had been as adventurous the whole time.
it was really nice to have Liza around. It really helps to have someone to show
around.
and i had been feeling really lonely so it was nice to have a friend.
we did basically a repeat of all the touristy stuff but this time i took lots
of pictures.
we also climbed to the top of the tv tower which i had been wanting to do the whole
time.
it was great.
then on thursday after liza had left christian made me a really delicious
traditional german meal and we went to the movies with these free passes i had gotten.
we saw sweeny todd.
it was really bizarre i thought.
it was also really strange because it had been dubbed into german but the songs were
all still in english with just german subtitles.
it was kind of hard to switch from one to the other the whole time.
then friday i did as much exploring as i could trying to get everything accomplished
before we had to leave.
then the whole group met at the hauptbahnhof at eight and our train left at nine.
i had a bunk in a sleeper car with 5 other people from the program.
there wasnt any storage space for luggage though so it was really funny to try to
fit all of our stuff and all of us into this tiny little room.
these people brought an incredible amount of luggage.
then we got to vienna at 8:00 in the morning and Gisela took us all out to breakfast.
then a rainstorm just rolled in right as we needed to find our dorm. im glad my
computer didnt die.
and since then i havent done really much exploring.
today i went out walking around our neighborhood.
i feel much less safe here than in berlin for some reason.
i also feel much more foreign since the language here is so crazy and im not at all
familiar with how anything here works or where i even really am.
but i suppose i will get all settled after a week or so.
it does seem really pretty here.
not here so much.
but in the center of town at least.
anyway. im going to go try to cook dinner in this crazy dorm.
wish me luck.
lovelovelove