Eurotrip and Chinaland Blog

One week down, about 500 to go.

2008-09-01T19:48:00.000-07:00

Well I made it through one week of class! I am taking 18 credits this semester, but it didn't feel like I had too many classes at all. At least not yet. I have night classes on monday and tuesday, and then three other classes on mon/wed/fri, and one other on tues/thurs.
My first day of school picture :) Dorky, i know :) ...but it's tradition!

Me and two of my roomies--Nat and Katie. Toni was already at class and couldnt take a pic with us :(

My hardest one will probably be marketing. I don't know why, I just think it will. I absolutely love my accounting professor. He's a cute little retired man and I dont know, he's just adorable. Everyday he gives the class some random tip. Like it's not something he plans on doing every day, but it just happens somehow. Like one day he said, we should all get our passports if we dont have them. And he said if we needed any help, we should ask him. Completely unrelated, but so cute :)

On Thursday Colo played at the dome so we went to that game.

It was Chandler's birthday and he went to the game too, so I made him this adorable birthday cake!

This weekend was a pretty good weekend. My brother, sister, and sisters boyfriend came up. We went out to eat together, went to the bars together, and then hung out together at my house.
Friday night with the girls at our house. Mir, Me, Toni (idk whats going on with her :)), and Amber.

My two favorites in the whole wide world! aka, my bro and sis!

And now we're all a bit more ready.
Me and Abby. ...it was a late night, we aren't looking our best.
If you're in need of a good laugh, this will definitely work. This was a video that christy randomly took while just hanging out in my room. I love it :)

I FINALLY GOT MY CHINA HOMEWORK DONE! It was due on Sunday, and I got it done at 10pm--two hours to spare! I was super relieved.

Monday night I started my first day of work at Lonestar Steakhouse in Waterloo. woohoo! Finally some income! ...toni works there too, and she trained me last night. I think I'm gonna like it...I hope so!

I don't remember if I mentioned this or not...but last weekend GAVIN CAME OVER! Yes, the gavin from austria! He's not from austria, but he lives in kansas and was doing the same program with klagenfurt. So it was amazing to see him again! :)

This is Gavin, me, and Marcus.

just another update

2008-08-24T12:09:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty sure I never wrote about the last few days of china....SO, here it goes:

The closing ceremony went sooo well! All of my kids were amazing. This is a video of our practice in class the day before. They didn't really get into it during the practice--or this video--because they were soooo sick of singing it over and over. BUT, on stage, they did perfect...and all of the other teachers said my kids had the cutest performance :) I was so proud!

These are my second class kids on the last day of class. They are adorable...i miss them tons :(

I sat with my kids during the closing ceremony and they were just adorable...i started to get so sad when i thought that this would be the LAST time i'd ever see them again. Then, right before we left, my favorite student, annie, came up to hug me and say goodbye and she started bawling. Then i started bawling. I didn't think I'd be that emotional :(

The next day i was sooo happy because Annie and one of my other students came to see me off. I was the only one that had students come say goodbye! But, of course, when Annie and i said goodbye again, we bawled our eyes out. BUT, EVERYONE WAS SOOO EMOTIONAL so i didn't feel quite so dumb this time. All of our TAs were there to say goodbye, and i dont know, it was just sad. Every single one of the guys even cried...like bawled. It was a sad day.

We got to Hong Kong--it was GORGEOUS. I didn't even know one city could be sooo beautiful. The first day we took a tour, and then went out to dinner. The second day we had all to ourselves. Nat, Alisha, and I all went on the longest escalator in the world--2598 feet (give or take a few feet). Then we shopped for a while, went out to eat at KFC for our last meal in china, and then went to the amazing light show. It was a looong day and we didn't get back till super late. Then, we just packed and went to bed.

We went to the airport the next day and nat and i had a 21 hour journey back to the states. We were on three different planes total, and landed in Omaha around 11 pm on tuesday night. My mom was there to pick me up--and toni even came to surprise me! I was soooo happy to be home, and still am!

I was home for a few days, and then my family and some cousins and aunts and uncles all went to south dakota. To be honest, i wasn't too thrilled to go..just cuz sitting in a car for ten hours didn't sound like fun at all after a 21 hour travel day. But it was sooo nice to see my family again and we just had fun hanging out in a cabin and seein what there is to see in s.d.

this is what happens when the meyers get cabin fever.

our family song.

Then, on Saturday the 16th--the day after i got back--i moved to my new house in cedar falls. I absolutely love it here. I live with Toni Perisho, Natalie Tendall, and Katie Reidy. ..and i'd love to mention that we share one bathroom. Haha. But it's a fairly nice house and im sooo happy to finally be settled!

I applied at about ten thousand restaurants up here (at least 8) and after waiting for almost two weeks, finally got a call back from one--Lonestar Steakhouse. It's in waterloo, which will kinda suck driving there all the time, but it's a job...and i need whatever i can get. AND, toni works there too...and i love working with her. It'll be fun :) I start on Labor Day.

Tomorrow classes start. Ugg. I still haven't bought my books. Actually...i found this new website chegg.com--u can RENT ur books from there. It's soooo freaking cheap. Like i'm renting a book for 45 dollars that costs 100 in the book store here. U just get it for the semester, and then they send u the postage to mail it back when ur done with it. I got four books through that...and then i still need to get all my business ones from the bookstore here--they are all custom made so i can't order them offline. it's dumb. each of them is at least 90 dollars a piece. thank god i got that job.

anyway....thats the latest with me!

Ni Hao

2008-07-27T00:01:00.000-07:00

The whole gang at the great wall.

Me and nat kissin the buddah.
SO, THESE ARE THE ONLY TWO PICTURES I COULD UPLOAD...I'll do the others when i get back to the states and have a decent connection. Read away--ignore any typos.

I am now one hell of a bargainer. Seriously, you can drop the original price by like two-thirds sometimes. And everything is already so cheap! The exchange rate is 6.8 RMB to 1 dollar. The most expensive thing I bought was a jade necklace, but it was worth every single penny. It cost me 55 US dollars. But yeah, anyway we went to these markets and everyone just went crazy. There were some ADORABLE clothes there. I bought a pair of knock-off puma shoes for less than 5 US dollars.

Well, so far Dongguan is awesome! This is what we’ve been doing:

Thursday, July 10th: We got here super duper late on the first day…at like 2 or 3 am. Our housing is SOOO nice! Two people share a room, and I am staying with a girl named Brianna. Everyone signed up to room with someone, but apparently they paid no attention to it and just put us wherever. But, whatever, Brianna is adorable and we are both messy and super relaxed people so it’s perfect.

So in our like suite thing, we have one good sized bedroom with two double beds, a bathroom/shower combo (I’ll be sure to take a picture of it) a HUGE living room with a leather couch and chair, tv, desk, coffee table, and the normal things in a living room, and then some kitcheny thing—with only a sink and a bunch of shelves. But all in all, it’s good and about 30 times better than what I expected to be living in.

Friday, July 11th: I woke up around 7:30, unpacked my bags, and got at least a bit more organized. Then, by eleven we all met downstairs and went to this little meeting room and did introductions with the directors. Then we had breakfast (rice, fish things, and nothing that resembles breakfast in the slightest bit) at this hotel near us. We were in like a banquet hall place with a stage. The room was PACKED and we all had seats on the stage. They did it on purpose. We are treated like royalty here. Like celebrities. Then, we had a tour of Dongguan. We went to parks, gardens, and then some museum thing about China. This city is GORGEOUS! And the best part, I think, is the fact that there is no smog! In Beijing I couldn’t even see the sun.

That night, we ate dinner in the dining center. All I could eat was the rice. I think I’ll probably lose about a pound a day. …either that, or spend every bit of my money on KFC and Papa Johns. Afterwards, a few of us went to the bars. OMG, and the crazy thing is that taxi rides are literally ONE DOLLAR basically anywhere you want to go. It’s amazing. So…we went to this bar called Oasis, and once again we bargained with the bartenders. We got an extra hour of Happy Hour. Then, once that was over, we got 20 percent off of everything we bought.

Saturday, July 12th: We had a meeting bright and early the next morning (after only like 2 hours of sleep) and we met all of our teaching assistants. Mine are absolutely adorable. Their names are Ella and Wenny. They are about 20 years old, but look about 15. And guess what…they only get paid 300 RMB plus room and board. I get paid 2000 RMB, plus room and board, plus 1000 dollars of airfare (7000 RMB). And I feel like they do sooo much more work! They are with the kids 24/7. Literally. I think I’m going to buy them something extra special before I leave.

Saturday night we all went to this hole in the wall bar. And then Jack and I went to Oasis again to take advantage of Happy Hour.

Sunday, July 13th: We spent pretty much the entire day preparing for the opening ceremony. Then, at 2:30 in the afternoon we had the opening ceremony. Each of us had to introduce ourselves and then we did this skit/song thing. I was beyond nervous for it (I HATE being on stage), but I didn’t screw up a single bit!

Afterwards we had some Chinese lady come in and measure us so we could get suits (for the guys) and dresses. We all looked through magazines and each picked out our own outfit and fabric. I put in an order for an asian-inspired dress. It’s going to be adorable and I cannot wait to get it! Apparently, it will be done early next week. Guess how much I paid? Sorry if this makes your mouth drop, but it was only 30 dollars. To have a dress MADE FOR ME! How much would that cost in the states, a couple hundred maybe? I don’t know, but I am pretty freaking happy. The boys’ suits were a little bit more expensive, but I think that’s to be expected. They were 70 dollars—still so cheap!

Later, I went with Mike, Alisha, and Natalie to Wal-Mart. I got a bunch of different school supplies to help plan my lesson and then splurged on a snickers bar. Mike bought a bag of blueberry flavored Lays potato chips. Everyone that tried them either had a love or a hate reaction. I was on the hate side (as well as almost everyone else), and Natalie—the pickiest eater I know—was on the love side. Oh yeah, and this is not the most typical Wal-Mart I’ve ever been to…this one had entire fish hanging up, pig heads laying around, and a bunch of other random meat that I’d rather not know what it is.

After we got back, we all gathered in Natalie’s room and did some lesson planning. All of us were sooo nervous. But, the brainstorming was great and I felt like I had some pretty good ideas. At about 1 AM, I finally went to bed.

Monday, July 14th: I woke up late (typical) for the first day of class and only had 30 minutes to get ready. Every morning we have to report to our “meeting room” where we discuss the plan of events for the day, get teaching advice, and learn two or three different Chinese phrases or words. Then, at 8:30 AM, the bell rings and we head to our classrooms. Our kids are always there when we walk in because they have a “morning reading” with the TA’s (teaching assistants) from 8-8:30.

When I walked into the class, oh my god was I nervous! Some kids didn’t have English names, so that’s what I did right away. There is no way I’d be able to remember a class full of Chimaotas and Waodinghoos. So, a few of the names I gave were Sarah, Dylan, Brett, Aaron, Angela, etc. And one girl’s English name was already Suki!

Basically, I had no idea how much English they already knew, so I started with the simplest things. I talked about the days of the week, colors, numbers, etc. They actually knew a lot more than I thought they would (which makes things sooo much easier on me) and the TA gave me some suggestions about what I could teach.

My first 20 students are in the classroom from 8:30-11:30 with three ten minute breaks every hour. Then, we go to lunch (the teachers sit in their own AIR CONDITIONED room), have a break until 2:00, and then from 2:00-4:00 we have a new class of 20 students. My second class was much easier than the first one. I was a lot more confident, and the kids were so much more well behaved. That is until we went outside for a game at the end of class. The boys were incredibly wild, screaming things in Chinese, hitting each other, and running around like chickens with their freaking heads cut off. And it just happened to be that the director of the camp passed right by my group while the kids were going crazy.

Anyway, I survived my first lesson.

Tuesday, July 15th:
I forgot to write on Tuesday and don’t exactly remember what I did. Sorry!

Wednesday, July 16th: Well, I thought I should maybe give a little quiz just to see if they were learning anything at all. I have to give tests every Friday, so I thought a quiz was in need. And it was. “What day is today?”, “What day is tomorrow?”, “What day was yesterday?” are three questions I’d been repeating over and over and they had been writing over and over, but guess what? Have the class had no idea how to write any of them. So, basically we spent a lot of time practicing the days of the week. I also began sentence structure…for example, “I am,” You are,” “She is,” “He is,” “It is,” “We are,” and “They are.” Everyone actually caught on quite well to that. Then I taught them the difference between, “The marker is,” and “The markers are”. They caught onto that quite well too. Haha, then at the end of the day I taught them the Hoky Poky. OH MY GOSH! They were so cute! Wednesday was my best day of class this week for sure.

Wednesday night, we went to “English Karaoke Night.” A few of the 8, 9, and 10 year old kids got on stage BY THEMSELVES (I was impressed) and sang songs like “Bingo,” or “You Are My Sunshine,” or “Ten Little Indians” (which I heard about ten times in a row).

Then me, Alisha, Natalie, and Jack all went out and got pedicures and manicures. It was only ten U.S. dollars total! It was amazing. Afterwards we went shopping and then went home.

Thursday, July 17th:
Thursday didn’t go too well. I gave a worksheet to both classes (went okay) then I played bingo with my first class and they absolutely loved it. We used action words (jumping, running, playing, etc) and I would do the action instead of saying the word. THEN came the second class. They would not listen at all. I tried to explain what bingo was, but my TA couldn’t even understand. I mean, BINGO!?! It’s the simplest game in the world. Anyway, I left that class feeling absolutely frustrated and was so happy when Tim asked if I wanted to play soccer (what a stress reliever!). So, a few of us, and a bunch of Chinese kids went to the fields to play soccer, but after about 10 minutes, the event coordinator asked if we would stop so they could have the students run around the track. So, that left me even more frustrated. So, I went home, took a shower, ate dinner, and then relieved all my stress with a few beers from the bar down the street. It was Megan’s birthday so everyone went out to celebrate. Then, a bunch of people went out and got massages but I wanted to finish writing my test for the next day and go to bed…so I did.

Friday, July 18th:
Class was great today. I gave the test to my students right away. A lot of them did great, and a few of them did horrible. But, I guess I expected that. The ones who did horrible were the trouble makers that never pay attention or do what I ask them to do. It’s so hard to get the entire class to cooperate. There are always the drifters (and always the same ones). They stare at me with their mouths wide open, and their eyes always have this blank stare. It’s so frustrating. I have so much more respect for any teacher I have ever had now.

All the teachers decided not to teach their students after their test today. So, I taught my kids this girl scout song that goes, “crocodile, crocodile, croc, croc, croc. Dance to the beat of the hickory stock…” And it’s like this circle clap game. THEY LOVED IT! Then Mike and I took our two classes to the lake to feed the fish. Then when we got back, I taught my class the hand jive. They loved that too!

After class I tried to get on the internet…but it’s so slow and never works. So…that is why I haven’t been blogging or replying to any emails. And I apologize for that! As soon as I can, I will! Thank goodness I have my laptop here (no wireless though).

One thing I’d like to comment about…the UNI people that have been here for literally 2 weeks now, are already saying things like, “what I’d give for a slice of cheese” or “I just want some normal food.” Actually, they were saying this after three days. I’m reaching six months without a tad bit of normal food—imagine that. I just laugh to myself when I hear them say that…how freaking ridiculous.

Oh yeah…After class today, one of me and Mike’s students asked us if we would like to go on a home stay with him. Every kid has the option of doing this. They pick the teacher(s) that they want to have come home with them for a Sunday morning/afternoon. Then, their parents have to approve of it, and send an itinerary of what we’d be doing. So, both Mike and I agreed! We leave on Sunday at 11 am, get a tour of Dongguan, and then go bowling, eat dinner, and then come back. I can’t wait!

Friday night we all went to this mountain thing in Dongguan. The view was absolutely beautiful. And we made it to the top just as the sun was setting. It was absolutely amazing.

Saturday, July 19th:
Saturday was our little weekend getaway. Some of the campers, all of the teachers, and the TA’s all went to some city about 2 hours away. I actually thought it was quite boring. And lunch was disgusting. It was such a long day and I was so happy to get home. And, we got home late—around 9:30—so for dinner, the director ordered pizza hut pizza for us! Talk about heaven!

Afterwards all of the teachers and our TA’s went out to the bars. It was the best night I’ve had so far. First we went to this little hole in the wall place in a random alley. They sell three beers for ten RMB. That is less than 50 cents for a single beer. And they are BIG bottles—half liters. So, we all drank there for a while, and then took a taxi to a dance club. There was a band there, and a few of the teachers got on stage and starting singing with the band. It was soooo much fun! We got home around 3 AM, stayed up for an hour or so, and then went to bed.

Yup, i KISSED this panthon.

Sunday, July 20th:
I woke up around 10 AM. Mike and I were going on our home stay together, so we were ready and downstairs by 11 AM. Wenny (our TA) also came to be our translator. Jim (one of our students) and his dad came and picked us up and we drove to this restaurant to eat lunch. One of Jim’s friends (and also one of my students), Oscar, and his parents met us at the restaurant.

It was the nicest restaurant I’ve ever been to. We went up stairs and had our own private room. There was a huge round glass table for all of us to eat at, and then a karaoke machine, three couches, and a huge tv. We all just hung out in there for a couple hours singing, and eating way too much delicious food. Afterwards we all went bowling. It was a pretty big deal too. Both kids’ entire families came. Like cousins, grandparents, aunts, etc. After bowling, we went shopping for a while, then went to Oscar’s house and hung out for a while. Then ate dinner at Jim’s house. They served us Indian curry food. …random, I know. Indian food in a Chinese house. But it was absolutely amazing! Afterwards we went home. We got back at like 9:30. All in all, a good day. But I was so happy that Mike came…it was nice to be able to speak English with someone.

Monday, July 21st:
Today was the worst day of class I’ve had so far. The kids would not listen. My afternoon class was by far the worst. So bad, that I actually cried when I got home! I feel like such a baby saying that…but I just couldn’t handle it. And it was all because of one student…this is what happened: We had two hours of class. For the first hour, I taught them how to use the words want/wants, need/needs, have/has, am/is/are, like/likes, and know/knows. I had a bunch of stuff written on the white board for the kids to write down. Everyone except for two boys were cooperating. So, I told them if they didn’t write this down, they couldn’t play the game after break time. That didn’t seem to bother them, so they didn’t write anything down, and they didn’t play the game. Then, after the game we were doing something new—questions and answers. I had a list of about 8 different Q’s an A’s on the board, and for the last twenty minutes of class we worked on learning them. All the kids wrote everything down like I asked—except for this one boy. He was sitting in the back of the class, not writing, not paying any attention to me, and bothering the kid next to him. So, I moved him to a desk at the front of the class and told him to write everything down. He wouldn’t. Every two minutes I would walk over to his desk, see that he didn’t write down anything, tap my pen on his paper and tell him to write everything down. I even had my TA translate, so I knew he understood. Right before the bell rang I put one more question and answer on the board and told everyone they could leave once they wrote it down. This kid still didn’t have a single word on his paper. So, both myself and the TA told him he couldn’t leave until he wrote everything down. He wouldn’t do it! By this point I was getting incredibly frustrated and started to get more stern with him. But, still nothing. After he sat there for a good 2 minutes staring off into space I just gave up and let him go. I felt bad for being so stern with him, but I don’t think there is anything at all I can do to make him listen to me or put any ounce of effort into learning. So, yeah, when I got home I was telling Natalie about it and couldn’t help but start crying. Maybe it doesn’t sound like a big deal, but I just don’t know what to do to make him work. Even if I moved him to a lower class, he’d still do the same thing—nothing. It’s not that he doesn’t understand, or that he can’t write (copy what’s on the board), it’s that he doesn’t TRY. And I don’t want to focus ALL of my attention on him because that is not fair at all to the other students. But basically, he just ruins my entire mood and wears out my patience, and then I have a hard time putting on a fun façade for the rest of the class. I think I’ll talk to Mike—his other teacher—tonight and see what he thinks we should do.

At night, me, Mike, Alisha, and Ali (our professor from UNI) all went to do some shopping. First stop—the cheap DVD store. First, let me tell you all the DVD’s that I bought, and then I’ll tell you how much I paid! Mr. Brooks, The Guardian, Knocked Up, Little Miss Sunshine, P.S. I love you, Georgia Rule, Zodiac, Brokeback Mountain, Cloverfield, and Friday Night Lights. All for a grand total of 98 RMB—less than 15 dollars. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT? It’s like a dollar and a half each! And their selection is HUGE. Dad I just got off the phone with you and forgot to ask…but what DVDs do you want that you haven’t bought yet? Name anything and I can get it for you. I saw a bunch that I knew you liked, but I couldn’t remember if we had it or not. But, I bought Friday Night Lights cuz I remember that was one that somehow disappeared from our house. Oh yeah, and I bought the first 7 seasons of Gilmore Girls for a grant total of 80 RMB.

Afterwards we went to Wal-Mart and I bought a few prizes that I could bribe my kids with. Then we came home, and I stayed up till at least 4:00 AM trying to get my lesson plan all done.

Tuesday, July 22nd:
Today went much better than yesterday. The kids loved what I had planned for them. And the kid that I had problems with yesterday, well I just completely ignored him. He sat in the back of the class and did nothing but disturb his neighbor. So, I’m not really sure what to do about him, but not fighting with him seems to work out much better.

After class I went to a camp event about the Olympics, then to Wal-Mart with Jack, and then home. Someone found the new batman—The Dark Night—on DVD for 5 RMB, so we watched it for a while (but I got too tired and came up to get ready for bed). Now I am currently sitting in bed and trying to figure out what to do for my class in the morning!

Wednesday, July 23rd:
Class was basic standard. Me and Mike attempted to take our two classes to the track to play tag during last hour. Bad idea. Nothing was accomplished…they don’t know how to play tag in China!
It was Alisha’s birthday, so we all went out to this Brazilian restaurant to celebrate. OH MY GOD WAS IT GOOD! First of all, it was a buffet. But, they also had waiters come around with all sorts of different chunks of meat, and they sliced it right in front of you, and slapped it on your plate. It was amazing. I tried goat, chicken heart, and octopus for the first time. They were all quite good actually. The heart just tasted like super juicy dark chicken meat, but the fact that it was heart bothered me, so I only ate one. The octopus was my absolute favorite. Oh, and I also had duck—which is AMAZING! Do they serve that anywhere in America, cuz I have to have that again someday. I’ll kill the duck myself if I have to.

Don’t worry, I haven’t eaten any dog or cat. I haven’t even seen it anywhere yet.

Thursday, July 24th:
Class was fine. But I wasn’t in the greatest mood. I gave my class a worksheet that took pretty much the whole time. It was the review for tomorrows test, which actually the review IS the test. I wanted to make sure they knew how to prepare and knew what to study for. I want my kids to do well tomorrow…the smart ones AND the other ones!

We played tug of war and the winners (the teachers!) won pizza! Some of the TA’s ate some too, but they all insisted on wearing plastic gloves when they eat it. I don’t understand. It bothered me A LOT.

Tonight a bunch of us are going out for happy hour at Oasis. In fact, I need to hurry and get in the shower. Tchuss.

Friday, July 25th:
Well, Thursday night didn’t go quite as planned. I was feeling kinda homesick while I was at the bar with everyone and not in the greatest of moods. I ended up catching a cab by myself and going home. Then, I woke up on Friday and realized my wallet wasn’t in my purse. Either I left it in the cab, or at the bar. So, of course I panicked. I called my mom right away and had her call and cancel my credit and debit cards. Luckily I didn’t have much money at all in there. But still, some random person in China has all of my information. And of course, I was so proud that I hadn’t lost anything the entire 6 months I was away…then 10 days before I leave…my wallet’s gone. Ugh. Anyway, I went back to the bar last night to see if it was there, but it wasn’t (or so they say). And as far as money goes…the camp gives us 1000 RMB on Monday, so that’ll be more than enough to get me through the next week. Gosh, I’m still soooo mad about that. As everyone knows, I am the biggest worry wart there is. So, you could imagine how much I’ve been worrying about this. It’s seriously ALL I think about.

I gave my class their test on Friday morning. I haven’t graded them yet…but I think they went okay. My afternoon class was getting into soooo much trouble, so I did some old fashioned punishments. First, I made the entire class put their head down on their desk for ten minutes, and for every word I heard I added a minute. At least that’s what I said I was going to do. After three minutes of them being quiet I gave in and let them put their heads up. But, of course, the naughty ones continued to be naughty. So, I had to think of a different punishment. I made them stand at the back of the classroom and put their nose on the wall for a minute. That’s horrible isn’t it?!?! I felt bad for doing it, but it was either that or send them to Mr. Mao’s office. And well, my punishment worked fine. The two kids that I made do it were angels the rest of the period.

Friday night I didn’t go out. I was too upset that my wallet was gone. Instead, Natalie and I thought that I needed a massage—my stress level was through the roof. So, we went and got one hour, five dollar massages. They were absolutely amazing.

Right afterwards we went to bed.

Saturday, July 26th:
Woke up around 6:30. We had a day trip to some random city somewhere in China. I HATED it. We were just dropped off at this park at like 9:00, and told to meet back at the bus at 4:30. First of all…all there was to do was bargain with the street sellers (which I am so sick of doing) or walk around in the more than 100 degree heat while getting eaten alive by thousands of mosquitoes. Not my idea of a fun day. Anyway, after a long miserable day, we got home and had more pizza hut pizza waiting for us!

Saturday night we went out to the hole in the wall alley bar. Afterwards, Jack, Cody, Mike, Nat, and I all went and got massages (this one was only 4 dollars). It was amazing. Then I went home and went to bed.

Sunday, July 27th:
Woke up at 9, put a load of laundry in, an hour later took it out. TWO OF MY SHIRTS WERE IN SHREDS! I am so mad. And they are two of my newest shirts. I’ve worn both of them twice. One of them is the one I was wearing at the great wall, and the other is the one I was wearing the last night in Klagenfurt. Ugh. Anyway…hopefully H&M still has them and I can order them online.

I am currently at Starbucks, and SO EXCITED. I am on my own computer and on the amazingly fast internet. It’s absolutely amazing. And lucky for you, now you all can actually catch up on my blogs. haha. Tchuss!

ZAO!!! (good morning)

2008-07-08T07:28:00.000-07:00

HEY EVERYONE!! Just thought I'd let you all know that I made it to CHINA. It was kinda of a rough start though. Somehow, my flight wasn't reserved, so luckily there was space on the plane for me still--plenty of space actually. Haha, on the way to Beijing, I had an entire row of four seats to myself. I literally stretched out completely and still had tons of extra room. So, first thing I did was pop two tylenol PMs, and I was out like a light for a good 8 hours of the flight. It was pretty much the best plane ride I've ever been on.

Once we landed, we had about 7 hours in the airport to wait for the Iowa group to arrive. Then, we packed our bus up and headed to a restaurant. It was amazing. There are about 20 of us, and we sat at two round tables. The waitresses kept bringing plate after plate after plate of different dishes and set them all on a huge lazy susan in the middle of the table. We all ate tons of food...and all different kinds. My personal favorite was the duck. YUMM! I haven't tried cat, dog, scorpion, or mice yet, but apparently those are all pretty popular in Dongguan (where I'll be teaching) so I'll be sure to at least taste each of those :)

After dinner we headed to our hotel. We all share a room with one other person...and of course me and Natalie are sharing a room :) We went to bed at 8:30 Pm. Ridiculous, I know. I ended up waking up at 1:00 am cuz I was sooo jetlagged, and then couldn't fall asleep again until 4:30 AM. Talk about miserable.

Today we did a ton of sightseeing; the Forbidden City, Summer's Palace, and something like teminal square (not really sure what that's called). We also went to a fresh water pearl place and saw how the were made and everything. And of course, I bought PLENTY of real pearls. It was soooo much fun. Both lunch and dinner today were the exact same as last night. OH, and breakfast, haha....that was pretty much the exact same too. It was continental in our hotel, and considered "American Breakfast." It consisted of rice, peas, eggs, sausage, frenchfries, and a whole lot of other random Chinese things that I didn't eat.

Anyway, the weather here is pretty crazy. It is soo foggy (due to pollution) that you can't even see the sun. Which is probably a good thing because it is already incredibly hot. I was sweaty the second I stepped out of the hotel.

Tonight we went to some acrobatic show. Which was absolutely crazy. Just to give you an idea of how crazy it was.....they managed to get 12 people on a single bike. And they looked good doing it.

Alright, I have to go to bed! I am thirteen hours ahead of Iowa time. ...so it is 10:48 PM here. BUT, fyi, tomorrow I'm going to the GREAT WALL! I can't wait :) Alright, well that's all I've got for now.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY VERY BEST FRIEND!!!! (aka toni ann perisho)

for some reason i cant upload pics, so i'll do that next time i blog :) love you all.

Ciao Ciao Austria. Halo China! (like most of my other blogs..i did zero proofing)

2008-07-05T06:36:00.000-07:00

Well I can’t believe that today is here. My very last day in Klagenfurt. I thought I’d be a lot sadder than I am, but I think it’s different because Natalie and I are the last of all of our friends to go. We’re through with those goodbyes, and now we basically just have to say goodbye to the town itself. Last night Rachael and Alex had to sleep in our room because they had to check out of Mozartheim by 8 am yesterday. So, they left today around 11, and then I went to the lake for a few hours…for the very last time. WEIRD.
Rachael and Alex before leaving Klagenfurt. Such a cute couple!
Tonight we are going out for dinner at Augustine (the very first restaurant I ate at here) to get schnitzel for the last time. Haha. I’ve spent the past few days packing my bags, and boy has that been a nightmare. I have three bags—my two rolling bags, and then my huge backpack. At first I threw everything wherever, and then yesterday I decided that I might want to ship two of the bags home so it won’t be such a hassle having them in China…so I repacked everything and put all my China stuff in one bag. That took a bit of work. But, FINALLY, everything is packed. Each bag weighs the exact limit that they can for my flight—441bs.

Before I go into details about China…I’ll fill you in with the past few days:

Yesterday I wore blue in honor of the Fourth of July. All day I spent packing, and then at night, all of the Americans that are still here decided on having a bbq to celebrate. There are only three of us, so we invited a couple other people too. It started to pour down rain, so instead of grilling outside, we just ate in the kitchen. I’d have to say it was the worst Fourth of July BBQ I’ve ever been to in my whole life. We didn’t want to buy any food (cuz we leave tomorrow) so we had canned corn, buttered bread, and hot dogs around a kitchen table. No fireworks, no nothing. Haha, anyway, afterwards we went out to the city center and had a glass of wine and then came home around 12.
Tim, Nat, and I out for drinks at Augustin.
Tuesday Hannes left so a bunch of us got together and cooked some schnitzel as his going away party thing. That’s all that I really remember doing that day.
Hannes with his kartofeln salat (potato salad).
Angie and the schnitzel!

Sorry, this is pretty gross.

Wednesday night we had a barbeque for Sophia and Gregorz going away party. IT WAS SOOOO FUN! There were a ton of people there, a ton of food, and I don’t know, I just loved it! Afterwards I went home for a while, and was sitting on the computer. Then, I fell asleep with the door wide open and about twenty minutes later Natalie was back with Gregor, Ayman, and Magda and all of us went to the lake to go swimming.
a few of us at the bbq
on the way to the lake. grzegorz had no idea how to ride with two people so i had to do the pedaling.

The next morning, guess what….my favorite black heels were missing. Yup, apparently the night before someone came in and stole them while I was sleeping with the door open! Of all things, someone stole those. There were two laptops, cameras, ipods, all that good stuff, but they took my shoes. I’m still upset about it, but at least it was only one pair of 20 euro shoes and nothing more expensive.

Thursday night was our last night to party, so a bunch of us went to the city center and went to a few bars. Natalie and I went home at different times, and when I left the bars, it was like 4am, and I didn’t feel like paying for a taxi by myself, so I hitchhiked again. Some dude picked me up and he was just starting his paper route. I ended up doing his ENTIRE paper route with him and didn’t make it home until 6am. I was a little frustrated.

the trademark dragon in kfurt.

at the kebab place before going to the bars.
Me and my favorite person.
Christian, me, and Marcos at Die Burg.

ALRIGHT, this is the plan for tomorrow:

Me and Nat’s train leaves at 6 AM…and just in case we miss it, there is a 6:48 AM train too. So, we’re going to call a taxi around 5, throw all of our seven bags in there, and hopefully get there by 5:30.

We should get to the Vienna Sudbahnhof by ten or eleven, depending on what train we catch. Then, we’re taking the underground to the airport. Our plane doesn’t leave until 2:35 PM, so we should be there in plenty of time. I’m going to find out if I can throw two of my bags on a plane and just send them home…and if not, then I’ll just lug them to China.

We have an hour to switch trains in Dusseldorf, so hopefully that goes okay. Then, we’ll land in Beijing China at 9AM…I think it’s a total of like 12 hours of traveling…which isn’t TOO horrible (compared to the 21 hours home from China). The rest of the UNI China students won’t land until 3PM, so I suppose we’ll just hang out in the airport all day until they get there. Then, our tour guide will be there to pick us up and take us to our hotel. That is basically all I know. I have no idea how many days we’ll be in Beijing, what we’ll be doing, or any of that.

I’ll be living in a dorm with Natalie at the Dongguan University for the month that I’m teaching in China. There are a total of 20 UNI students going and two teachers from UNI. All of us will be taking at least one class while there (that the UNI teachers are teaching), but both Natalie and I are taking two classes.

I think I’m only actually teaching for three weeks total, and I have class for about 6 hours a day (mon-fri). I have one class in the morning, and one class in the afternoon. I’ll be teaching 9 and 10 year olds…I’ll have one group of twenty students in the morning, and a different group of students in the afternoon. As of now, I have no idea what their skill level is, so I feel incredibly unprepared and nervous—but I think that’s how all of us feel. Each “teacher” (that’s me :) ) will have one translator in the room, and one assistant (to make copies and such). So, I feel pretty important!

On Saturdays, we go on day trips somewhere around China with all of our students. All of those trips, my room and board, and my airfare was paid for…and I get a 250 dollar stipend. So, all in all, I think this trip will be a wonderful experience and I am sooo excited to get there!

So, all of this information is basically just for myself, my mom, and my dad. I just want to make sure I have access to it no matter where I am:

Contact in Dongguan:
Mr. Tomas Mao, DirectorNo 251 Xue Yue Road, Dongguan CityTel: 86-769-226-80900Mobile: 86-130-068-48864

Travel Agent’s number—Nancy: 134-3976-9823
Emergency contact—Alice: (0) 137-050-70180

Daisy: (0) 137-638-39005

Beijing Hotel:
Hongrun Business HotelNo 28 Baiqiao StreetChongwen District,BeijingTel: 86-10-671-96888web: http://www.hongrun-hotel.com/

The other group: United Airlines Inc—flight 851 (..and btw, 815 is the flight number that crashed in “Lost.”)

sad on our last busride EVER.

...and this is me and nat's final picture in klagenfurt. the ironman is being held in our town and yeah...u can see the signs behind us.

Auf Wiedersehn

2008-06-30T08:07:00.000-07:00

WELL, I had my two tests last week. So I pretty much did nothing but study for them all week long. My first one was on Thursday, and I THINK it went pretty well. At least B worthy, but of course I’m hoping for an A. They don’t give +’s or –‘s here, so that kinda stinks. My Friday one was a bit more difficult, but it went better than I expected it to go. I probably got a B on that one too.

We’ve been having going away parties lately cuz well everyone is leaving. Our best friends from here are already gone, and we still have a whole week here without them. HOW DEPRESSING. Today about nine or ten of us had lunch at the UniPizzeria to say goodbye to Gavin. His train left at 3:30 today.

Thursday night Gavin, Natalie, and I ate dinner together. Schnitzel and icecream! Afterwards we stopped at mozartheim to help celebrate suzie's bday party, but couldn't stay long cuz of our test the next day.
...HELLO AUSTRIA! sorry this is sideways, not sure how to change that.
Don't pay attention to my horrible voice. haha. But this was Gavins serenation song.
Friday we had our last uniparty...and it was pretty boring if you ask me.
All of us girls!!
Hannes has been getting tons of hugs lately!
Saturday night gavin came over after his trip to Germany (at 1 am), then the three of us ended up staying up super late and eventually Gavin fell asleep on the floor. haha. It looked quite uncomfortable.
El Gavino asleep on the floor.
Last night we went to the city center to watch the championship game between Spain and Germany. I was rooting for Germany, but Spain won :( Afterwards we went out for a kebab and then basically just sat around and talked cuz we were trying to prolong our last night ever with Gavin and Derek. Around 1 or so we headed home and said goodbye to Derek. Gosh that makes me so sad.
During the game!
After kebabs. GOSH I ALREADY MISS DEREK!
Cutest picture in the history of cute pictures.
ANYWAY, this afternoon Nat and I went shopping and got a few things to wear while teaching in China. In about an hour we’re going back to the city center to have ice cream with the Irish girls. June and his weird meal.
A few of us out for pizza.
Basically that’s about all that’s been going on. I’ve already packed one bag completely full, and have no idea how I’m going to get everything else into only one more. It will definitely be a challenge.

The rest of the week, I don’t really have any plans besides for laying out at the lake all day every day. I figure I should take advantage of my lazy life while I can because in a month I’ll be back to working my butt off.

Almost time to say goodbye :(

2008-06-23T09:37:00.000-07:00

Let me update you:

Tuesday was a pretty frightening day. Haha…well I guess it started and ended fairly well, but the middle was horrifying. This is what happened: Nat and I went to the lake to lay out (cuz the weather is finally amazing again!), and Rachael and Kintali met us there about an hour after we got there. We were all swimming and having a good time, and then I decide to test out my camera in the water (cuz it’s an underwater camera). That was a bad idea. Not to put the blame on anyone, haha, but Natalie ended up dropping it to the bottom of the lake. First thought I had, how am I gonna tell my parents I lost this? …it costs over 300 dollars!!

So, we all searched for a while and had no luck at all. Then, Rachael and Kintali went to buy some goggles and Natalie and I continued to look for it. The water is extremely clear, so we could see to the bottom, but we couldn’t exactly remember where it was dropped cuz the current kept moving us. Then, at one point I spotted it. But, I wasn’t quick enough to swim down before I lost sight of it again.

Anyway, after literally 50 minutes of tredding water (it was about 7 feet deep) looking for that stupid thing, suddenly, Natalie took a deep breath and went under the water. I crossed my fingers and hoped what she saw was actually it, and low and behold, 5 seconds later she burst from the water holding my camera in her hand! I WAS SOOO HAPPY! Then 2 minutes afterward, Kintali and Rachael came back from buying the goggles. Haha.

My favorite place to swim at the lake! The cove!

Nat diving!

That tall tree on the left of Tali's head is the one i jumped out of!
Look at how clear the water is! ..this is Rachael.

And this is beautiful Natalie.

Besides seeing the transvestite on Wednesday, Gavin and I got a kebab and some gelata for lunch. Then we went to the mall cuz Gavin needed some electronic dictionary or something.

That night, me and Natalie just sat in our room. We watched Smoke Signals (one of the movies that I have to watch for one of my classes), then we went to bed.

Thursday night, a bunch of us went to the UniPizzeria, and afterwards went to Concordia and hung out for a while.
Derek, Nat, and I at unipizzeria.
Friday, Nat and I went to the lake for a while, but after jumping in and having my raft blow away in the water, and swimming for half an hour to chase it down, it started to lightning and rain, so we went home.

Friday night was Emma and Pierre’s going away party in the Uniheim. Then around 2, Sandra, Daniel, Nat, and I all went to the bars, then came home around 4:30AM and people were still up and partying so we hung out for a while with them again, then went to bed. At Emma and Pierre's party.
And before going to the bars with Derek and Sandra.
Saturday I went to the beach from about 11 to 3. I went by myself, but Marcos and another Polish friend I haven’t mentioned before ended up being there at the same time. We had a blast. I even climbed halfway up a tree and then jumped in the lake from there. It was sooooo fun! I can’t wait to go back.

Saturday night was the best night I’ve had so far in Klagenfurt. Hope was having a birthday party in Mozartheim, and basically everyone was there. Everyone was in such a good mood, and we all just had an absolute blast. Hope has an amazing voice, so she sang a few songs, and then so did Louis. Gosh I just loved it. We left around 4:30, and only because some dumb kid came down and said if we didn’t stop singing and go home he was going to call the police and file a noise complaint. Pretty ridiculous for a student to do something like that on a Saturday night, but whatever…we all just went home.

Hope singing Fever.
Me and Niamh.

Maria, Brian, Derek, me, Kintali.

Yesterday, Natalie, Louis, Derek, Gavin, and I all went out to eat at Schnitzelwelt for supper, and afterwards Nat and I came home and had to read a bit. So, we took our rafts outside, laid them on the grass in the lawn, and read for an hour. We looked so stupid.

Anyway, that’s the latest update. I have two finals this week (my only two), so I’ll be studying nonstop for the next three days. Actually, I probably won’t, but I probably should.

I’m starting to get sooo sad though. One by one, everyone is leaving. I think basically every day this week someone else is going home for good. Talk about depressing.

The Billa HeShe.

2008-06-18T12:27:00.000-07:00

Today was a very important day in my life. I saw my first transvestite ever. Gavin and I were shopping in Billa (the grocery store) and he (now she) was standing by the cheese counter. I had to go and get a closer look but Gavin couldn't handle it and walked away. He/she was dressed in the shortest white jean skirt ever and the tightest white tank top ever. ..and to top it all off, giant white heels. Gosh that was exciting to see. Sadly, I don't have a picture, but at least the image of him/her will forever be burned in my mind.

The rain, the rain, is driving me insane. BUT WOHOO FOR THE EURO CUP!

2008-06-17T14:33:00.000-07:00

Well tonight is the last night of my 6 day weekend. The last time I had class was Wednesday of last week, and I never have Thursday or Friday class, and yesterday the university was closed because we had a Euro Cup game in Klagenfurt, and then the class I used to have on Tuesdays is over for the semester. But, lucky me, I have class tomorrow. Ugh.

Basically the long weekend was full of watching a ton of Euro Cup soccer games and lots of rain.

Thursday afternoon Natalie and I attempted to highlight Gavin's hair...but for some reason it didn't work out. Apparently Austrian hairdye won't color American hair. Because I bought a box a month ago and the same thing happened--nothing. Anyway, later that night we went to the Europa park to watch Germany vs. Croatia. Croatia game. Croatia won. But anyway, there are soooo many people here. This was just one of the many places that you could go to watch the game, and it was PACKED.

The unsuccessful attempt.

One of the viewing places in Europa Park.
Gavin and his 8 euro beer.
This is what the waitresses dressed like!

During halftime of the game.

After the first game, Nat and I went with Derek and his friend Marco to the Neuer Platz for the after party. It was amazingly fun. A lot of dancing! I ended up getting home around 2.

Our kick line. Me, Daniel, Christian, Marco, and idk who the last person is.

A bunch of us :)

After everyone had cleared out of the Neuer Platz.

I slept late of course, and then went to Concordia for a bday party. Afterwards Nat, Derek, Marco, and I all ended up just hanging out in Dereks room till 4:30 am. ...then Nat and I came home and slept till the afternoon the next morning.

Misty (from kansas) and Nat.

Me and Derek.

After waking up late on Saturday, Nat and I basically did nothing. I guess I kinda finished up a couple things for school. Then, around 6 I decided I was bored to death, and Gavin and I both agreed that nachos sounded amazing. So, we got Maria, Hope, and Stephan to go out with us. Afterards I just went to bed.

Sunday was the first semi-nice day all week. Natalie and I went for a walk to krumpendorf, and then went and laid out at the lake. We only laid out for like 30 minutes cuz then all the clouds came. Ugh. Then, we went to Mozartheim for a bit cuz people were grilling out, then we came home, got ready, and then went to Concordia for another party.

The three UNI kids in K-furt. Nat, Brian, and I.

Last night Austria played against Germany and they are huge rival teams. So it was a pretty exciting day. But, before all the soccer excitement went on, Natalie, Blabi, and I went on a walk to Erdbeer Land (strawberry land), but lucky us it was closed because of the tourney, so we just went to the grocery store, came home, cooked dinner, and then went to watch the game. We were going to watch it in the city center, but we were only there an hour before it started and the gates were already closed cuz they had reached the people capacity. So, we went to the Europa Park and watched it there. Nat and I left 20 minutes before the end so that we could watch it in the city center. Luckily we could get in!

At Neuer Platz...but we couldn't get passed the gate. UGH!
This was outside at one of the viewing areas in the Europa Park.
This is kinda boring, but you can kinda get an idea of how many people were at the Neuer Platz in the city center.

After the game the whole city was completely filled with people celebrating. Germany won the game, but that didn’t stop everyone from having a good time. Christian and I went and ate at MacDons, and then we went to the center and danced for a few hours.

Adorable Hannes in his adorable outfit. Go Austria!
Nat and I with our favorite neighbor, Hannes :)

I just love our Austrian polizei uniforms.

And we had to get extra police to come over and help watch the crowds....so these are the German polizei.

Me and Christian.

Dancing on the tables!

At yet ANOTHER viewing place in the city ...there were like ten thousand and eight-five places to watch the game. This was the party afterwards.
...once the music got shut off, the fans kept the party going with all of our Austrian cheers.

Around 2:30 AM, Natalie and I were ready to go home, but the buses had stopped running. We didn’t really wanna walk all the way home, so I just stuck my thumb out at the first car that drove by, and luckily he stopped. He was a nice guy—originally from Afghanistan—and he drove us all the way back to our dorm. I think I’m gonna start hitch-hiking a lot more from now on. That was just too easy.

Today I've done nothing. Tomorrow I have class. OH, and I forgot to mention that every day it RAINED. I am sooo ready for a nice sunny day.

2008-06-11T07:38:00.000-07:00

To make it short and sweet, I had such a good time with everyone. The highlight of the trip was definitely our segway tour through the streets of Paris, and the worst part was our time in london. BUTTT....all the details are below. And there are tooons of pictures. So enjoy! :) :)

Tuesday, May 27th
Well, Natalie FINALLY got back home at 5 PM. So, we caught up on everything that happened back home and in Klagenfurt, and then at 9:30, I left to catch my bus to the city. BUT, it wasn’t going to come for another 25 minutes, so I decided to walk. When I finally made it to the train station, the ticket place was closed, so immediately, I started to panic. You can buy tickets on the train, but it’s kinda frowned upon, but I had no choice. So, when the ticket guy came around, I asked him if I could buy one and he told me his machine was broke. SO, my first thought was, “oh no, I’m going to prison.” Luckily, that didn’t happen. His “colleague” came an hour later and I bought it from him. Pretty much five minutes after I got on the train, an American boy came up to me and asked me if I wanted a beer. Normally I hate beer, but considering how high my stress level was after that ticket situation, I agreed. I moved all my stuff and went and sat with him and five of his other American friends. They were on their own Eurotrip—headed to Florence—so they were in party-mode. To make a long story short, they bought the rest of the beer on the train—over 50 euro worth—and by the end of the night, only one bottle was left! It was probably the most fun train ride I’ve ever been on.

Wednesday, May 28th
I got off the train at Treviso at 3:15 AM. My plane didn’t leave till 12:20, and I had nowhere to go until I had to be at the airport. The train station was completely empty except for one guy that was sitting on a bench. I went and laid down on the bench next to him. Next thing I knew, he pulled out his sleeping bag, took off his socks and shoes, and made his bed on the bench. Yup, he was a homeless person. Not gonna lie, I was pretty scared. Mom, if you knew where I was, and who I was sleeping next to, you would’ve have been SOOO worried. Haha, but I’m still alive and here to tell the story, so it’s all good.

At 7:00 I went to the airport and sat around for the next five hours. I was soo incredibly bored and exhausted. Neway, I landed in Frankfurt, took a 2 hour bus ride into the city, found my hostel, and was asleep by 9 PM.

Thursday, May 29th
Their plane was supposed to land around 12:30, and so I decided I’d get to the airport by 10:30 just to be sure I could figure out where they’d come out and everything. So, after I got there, I realized there flight was delayed by 40 minutes. …not terrible, but the anticipation was killing me. So, 40 minutes after their plane landed, they still hadn’t come out of the baggage claim. I started to worry, and thought maybe they missed their flight in London. So, I called my dad and mom, and they hadn’t heard anything. Eventually, after another 25 minutes, they came out. The airline lost Chad’s bag, so that’s what took so long! But, I was sooo happy to see them! I couldn’t stop smiling all day long.

Right after they landed, a few of us went and got kebabs. The ones that actually tried it loved it. Then, we hopped on the ryanair shuttle bus and drove 2 hours to another airport outside of Frankfurt. When we got there, Abby gave me the Tostitos cheese dip that she’d packed for me. We had it finished in about 20 minutes. It was heaven. Oh yeah, and by this time, one of Dane’s straps on his bags completely broke off.

All of us in the Hahn Airport...you can't really see Abby or Chad though.
The Birthday Boy after one strap broke :(
Everyone was SOOOO tired!
Zzzzzz.
Zzzzzz.

Hahaha
Zzzzz.
So CUTE!
After our plane ride, we were in Barcelona! It was about 9:00 PM when we landed, and then we had to take yet another shuttle bus into the city center. …everyone had at least 15 hours of travel time before actually making it to a destination. Then to top it off, we take the subway to our hotel, and after getting off, Dane realizes that his wallet was gone. Yup, he got pick pocketed after being in Barcelona for no more than 15 minutes. Oh, and did I forget to mention it was his 18th birthday? That has to go down as the worst birthday in the history of birthdays. Poor guy!

Anyway, we found our hotel, got all checked in, and then everyone took showers. We went out in search for a pub to celebrate Dane’s birthday, but there was absolutely nothing open. So, we went and got a late, late dinner—kebabs.

Friday, May 30th
The girls were awake around 10 AM. We called the boys to see if they wanted to go to the beach with us, but Chandler answered and said they’d rather sleep. So, the three of us went alone. The beach was beautiful and the weather was absolutely perfect! This was probably one of my favorite days. I could be a beach bum for the rest of my life. Oh yeah, and it was a topless beach! I was happy the boys weren’t there cuz I wasn’t quite sure how they’d handle it. Around 2, the boys decided to come, and we all played in the Mediterranean for an hour or so. By that time, I was feeling quite crispy. So, we went home, showered up, and then went to find a seafood restaurant.
Me and Jamie on the beach!
And us three girls.
And finally all the boys came.
Siblings.
Chan in his dorky shirt.
Well, this was by far the best seafood restaurant I’ve ever been to. The food was delicious, and then at the end, the waiter came out with two bottles of schnapps, and a bottle of whisky for all of us to drink. FOR FREE!
Sis and the sangria!
My AMAZING seafood platter.
The waiter serving Dane his whisky shot. Yuck!!!
The entire table.
After dinner, we went back to our hotel, and then later that night walked back to the beach and just hung out there for a while.
The richest homeless guy in Barcelona.
Me and Chandler!
Saturday, May 31st
We were up super bright and early. We caught our bus to the airport, and our plane to Paris, found our hotel, dropped off our bags, and went out for pizza. This was the first European pizza any of them had had before, and I think it went over pretty well! We had time to kill before we could check into our hotel, so we walked up and down our street for a while, checked our emails at an internet café, and then checked in. Our hotel was SOOOOO nice. We had two huge four-person rooms, but I’m positive we all could have fit in one pretty comfortably. We were all exhausted from such an early flight, so we went to bed around 3 PM, and didn’t wake up until 9 PM. That was pretty much my saving grace. I was incredibly sunburned from the day before, and any sort of movement was excruciating. Sleeping was the best thing for me.

When we woke up, we all showered, and went walking through the streets of Paris. We stopped and ate at a kebab/crepe stand. And then went and saw Notre Dame, the Eiffel tower as it sparkled, the Louvre, and whatever else was around that area. Around 2 AM, we all headed back and went to bed.
Ham and Cheese Crepe!
Sunday, June 1st
We woke up super early to make up for the 6 hours of sleeping the day before. The girls all got a baguette (for only 90 cents) to share. We went to the Eiffel tower and stood in line for a good hour and a half waiting to go up. Everyone except for Becker went to the very top. Becker is afraid of heights (haha) so he stayed down by himself and just walked around the area and did some souvenir shopping.

After coming down the tower (we took the stairs!), we met up with Becker and he showed us all the good places to do souvenir shopping. Then, Abby, Dane, Jamie and I all went out for Starbucks, went to Notre Dame, and then went back to our hotel. That night we hung out in our hotel for a while, and then went out at night again.
Standing in the longest line EVER.
Look like anyone you know??
I wrote my name on the Eiffel...shame, shame.
At the top of the tower.
Going down ALL THOSE STAIRS.
At Starbucks.
In the boys' room.
Monday, June 2nd
Basically this day only consisted of shopping…which didn’t bother me much. The boys split up from the girls, and then we met back up for dinner at KFC later. Then around 6, we were basically on a mad-dash to the Eiffel tower. We reserved segways for all of us to go on a tour together. We finally made it there and well that night was probably the best night of our entire trip. We all had a little segway lesson thing for about half an hour. Then, when we were all feeling fairly comfortable on them, we were off! We went and saw a bunch of sites, and then went and stopped for dinner at a cute little café. Then we kept going on the segways. I felt like a celebrity because all of the other tourists that saw us would immediately grab their cameras or video cameras and start taking pictures as we went by. I have to admit, we did look pretty cool. And they were SOOOO fun! Everyone had a blast. That will be my next big purchase after my car, school, and everything else is paid off!
Walking around the city....some random building.
During our segway lesson!
Becker at one of the stops.
Dinner with our two tour guides.
Baby brother.
All of us.
Our tour ended at 11:30 or 12, and then half of us went to the Moulin Rouge. That was pretty cool and really looked just like the movie. But, there was nothing to do there, basically just looked at it. If we wanted to see a show, it would have been more than 100 euros…I think not.

Afterwards, we were all super tired and went straight to bed.

Tuesday, June 3rd
We were awake by 5 AM, and checked out by 6. Our train to London left at 6:43, and it was the EuroStar…the new thing that goes through the underwater tunnel that connects to London. I was super excited to see the tunnel thing, but sadly, every single one of us slept through the entire ride.

We arrived a little after 8 AM, checked our bags at the airport, and then searched for a place to buy the Big Bus tickets. After an hour of asking around, and being sent in circles, we went to a travel agency and got it all straightened out. Oh yeah, and it was pouring down rain this entire time. Basically, this was the worst day of the trip. We were all sooo tired and miserable. Oh, but one good thing…we got fish and chips, and it was delicious.
Our dorky ponchos provided by the tour bus.
Buckingham Palace.
We went on a cruise that was included with our bus ticket, but everyone fell asleep through the second half of it. Around 5, we went to our hostel, showered, and then we all went out to the Hard Rock Café—the first one ever made! That was amazingly fun. We sat downstairs and there was a live band playing, and the food and drinks were amazing! I had some kind of margarita and it was the best thing I’ve ever tasted in my whole entire life. After dinner, we went into the gift shop and got a tour through some like rock star museum.
Jamie was disgusted by the flooding in the shower and wouldnt let her feet touch the water.
Becker with the signed Oasis guitar.
On the way home, a crazy lady was following us and yelling nonsense. I told Becker and Chandler to ignore her, but of course they stopped, turned around and talked to her. She asked where we were from, and when they told her, she yelled, “You’re disgusting!” …apparently she didn’t like Americans. So, she continued to follow us all the way to the metro screaming hateful things at us. It was dumb.
A typical moment on the escalator.
OH YEAH, and before I forget…up until this point, I STILL had glass stuck in my feet from two weeks before. Walking around so long everyday hurt horribly, and by the end of this night, I couldn’t take it any more. I forced my brother and sister to do anything in their power to get it out. Our only “surgical” supplies were fingernail clippers, tweezers, and peroxide. After a good hour of picking, tugging, and screaming, they finally got a nice big sharp piece of glass out of my heel.

Wednesday, June 4th
Since we had to be at the train station by 2 PM, we didn’t really do anything on this day. We slept in till 9:30 (doesn’t seem very late, but after getting up before 5 AM, it was pretty nice), checked out, and then went to the station. We did some souvenir shopping, and then ate at the same all-you-can-eat pizza place that I had my Easter dinner at in the train station. Then, we sat in a bar to kill some time and spend the few pounds we had left.

We took a train to the airport, and then flew to ROMA (my favorite place)!! We didn’t get to Rome until about 9 PM, and then after bargaining with the taxi drivers, got two cabs for 60 euro each to take us to our hotel (they started at 75).

Our hotel was a cute little place way out in the outskirts of Rome. The owner spoke zero English. …so checking in was a bit difficult. And, we only booked it for 8, so sneaking in an extra person was also a bit difficult. After about an hour of checking in, we finally went out to eat at this pizza place about a half mile down the road. Then we came home and went to bed.

Thursday, June 5th
We were at our bus stop by 10:30 AM waiting for a bus we weren’t even sure would come. It wasn’t a very good start to our day. But luckily, it came and took us into Roma. It probably took a good hour to get into the city. Once we were there, we did all of the normal things that you do in Rome. Ate pizza, ate gelata, saw the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, The Vatican, and ate pasta in Piazza Navona. I bought a painting of the Pantheon from a painter on the street. I absolutely love it. The Pantheon is my favorite building in Rome, so I’m pretty pleased with that purchase. It was an incredibly long—but very fun—day. We didn’t get back to our hotel till midnight. Then, we went straight to bed.

Becker loooking so pathetic waiting for our bus.
And now Jamie.
At the Trevi Fountain.
The cutest guy I've ever seen.
All of uf at the pantheon.
Drinking the fountain water at the spanish steps.
The boys at The Vatican.
And all of us.
I love this one.
Dane and his two favorite girls.
Friday, June 6th
We left a bit earlier on this day. We were in Rome by 11 and went straight to the Colloseum. We did the whole tour thing of that and the grounds outside of it. I debating doing the tour again, but I’m glad I did. This guy talked about completely different things than the last one did. Then, everyone was starving so we ate some pizza on a little side street. Then, Jamie and I went shopping as everybody else went to the Sistine Chapel—I didn’t wanna go again. When we met up with everyone at 6:30, they told us that they couldn’t even find it. SO, that proved to me that they would have been lost without me—literally! Mom and Dad, I officially have some map skills!Inside the colloseum.

Adam, Dane, and Chandler looking out at the Colloseum.
The wiping system in the old days.
Adam tickling the statue's toe.
All of us at the colloseum.
And now just the siblings.
We got home around 8:30, sat around and didn’t do anything for a while, and then Jamie and I went out for some pasta at a restaurant down the road. It was amazing.
They decided to purchase these cute boxers :)
At dinner. I was impressed with their wooden plates.
Saturday, June 7th
Well, this was yet another early day. We were all ready by 5 AM—awake by 4. We went to catch our bus to take us to the city which would connect us to a bus to take us to the airport. BUT, lucky us, the first bus drove right past us without stopping. So, we had to get a taxi. That was a huge ordeal, but we finally got a couple to lug us there. …and we realized that we got ripped off from the first taxis that took us to the hotel. Ugh.

We flew to Berlin, and once we were there didn’t have any problem finding our hostel. We were all staying in one huge room. It was an awesome hostel. After dropping our bags, we went through the Check-Point Charlie Museum. …if u ever go to Berlin, DON’T go through that. It wasn’t very good. Normally I like that kinda stuff, but I was just bored to death in this one. Afterwards we went and looked at the remains of the wall, and just walked around a bit. Then, us girls went shopping (didn’t buy a thing), and then went back to the hostel and met up with the boys. A few of us went out to this huge party thing. It was really fun. We got back after 2 AM and had to be GONE by 5:30 AM the next day—not a good idea. The wall is the grafiti thing behind all of us.
love this piece of the wall.
Beck with his Beck's beer.
In our hostel. Looking cool.
Sunday, June 8th
Well, nobody woke up to our alarm, but luckily Chandler happened to wake up at 5:35 AM. He woke us all up and basically everyone flew out of bed, brushed our teeth, packed our bags, and were out the door within ten minutes. It was chaotic. We ended up having to take another taxi to the airport.

We got to Frankfurt around noon and luckily we could check-in right away. We all went to bed right away, and didn’t wake up until supper time. Then we showered and went out to a cute bar and grill type place and ate weiner schnitzel. Everyone loved it, I knew they would. OH, and we watched the Germany vs. Poland Eurocup game which was held in KLAGENFURT! Germany won, and after we left the restaurant, it definitely showed. People were going crazy everywhere. There were flags all over the place, all the cars were honking, and there were tons of drunk people everywhere. They are sooo into soccer here, I love it!
Last group photo of the boys.
Us girls went out for a drink and then went back to the hotel. We packed our things and then went to bed.

Monday, June 9th
We were up before 4 AM. Everyone else had to be at the airport by 5:30. I decided not to go with them to the airport cuz it was just going to be too big of a hassle and I thought I’d be pressing for time. I said goodbye to everyone at the hotel (and I didn’t cry this time!). Then, I went upstairs, showered, and decided a nap would be okay. Bad mistake. I woke up 30 minutes late, and ended up missing the 7 AM shuttle to the airport. So, I had to wait till the 8 AM. My plane left at 10:50, and you have to be there 40 minutes before your flight in order to be checked in. The ride was 2 hours long, and there was sooo much construction. I was stressed out the entire ride. I made it to the check-in desk by 10:05 (five minutes to spare!!).

Then, I took a train back to Klagenfurt, but it was delayed for 2 HOURS. Talk about a long boring wait when all you wanna do is get back home. Ugh. Once I was finally on the train, I instantly fell asleep. The conductor came and woke me up before my stop. I felt like I was five years old again and it was Earl waking me up on the school bus.

When I stepped out of the station and into Klagenfurt, I was in shock! The town was soooo crazy! Like I said, the Eurocup is being held here for the next month, so that means an extra like 60,000 people are here from all over Europe. There are tents set up all over the place and people everywhere. Natalie and I decided it’s like an Iowa/Iowa State game with people tailgating everywhere. Except this is a month long tailgating party and it’s 10,000 times as big. There are two soccer games every night. One at 6 PM, and one at 8:45. All of the games are held in Austria or Switzerland. …so basically it’s CRAZY and I love it!

Tuesday, June 10th
The weather was beautiful so Natalie and I went to the lake to swim. We found the most perfect secluded little cove and went swimming there. I can’t describe how perfectly amazingly beautiful it was. I’ll take a picture sometime and put it up here. The water is completely clear all the way to the bottom, and it’s at least 7 feet deep everywhere. And did I forget to mention that there are swans and ducks everywhere and we’re surrounded by mountains?

Last night we watched tourney games at Mozartheim.

Wednesday, June 11th
And finally, I am up to date with this blog! This morning I had an 8:30 class. Then at 10:30 Natalie was still sleeping and I was bored, so I went to the same little cove as yesterday and went swimming by myself for a couple hours. Then I had class at 2:30, and then tonight we went and watched the tourney games at Mozartheim. THE END. I am going to bed now!

MY BROTHER AND SISTER ARE ALMOST HERE!

2008-05-26T15:28:00.000-07:00

OKAY. So, Thursday I basically did nothing. I stepped on glass the night before and my feet were absolutely killing me, so I avoided walking as much as possible.

Friday I basically spent the entire day planning the itinerary for when my brother and sister and everyone comes over here.

Saturday I did one load of laundry. I thought I’d save money that way…but it was a pretty stupid idea. I forgot that I hadn’t washed one of my new black shirts yet, and so everything came out a darker shade than it went in. Lucky me.

That afternoon Gavin and I went into the city. We both got a kebab and Gavin needed to do some shoe shopping so I tagged along. That night there was a barbeque going on at Concordia, so around 10pm, I walked over there. THEN, everyone decided to go to the city, so back I went. We went to Havana Club and Die Burg, and then around 4 we caught a taxi home.

Sunday I got all of my stuff together for the trip. Then I talked to my mom and sister online till super late at night. Didn’t end up going to bed until after 5am!

Today I went to class, then ran to the hauptbanhof (main train station) to check on some tickets for our trip, came back, and packed everything up!

Tomorrow my train leaves at 11:35 pm, stops in Venice at 2:52 am, and then at 5:15 I get back on and make it to Treviso at 5:35 am. My plane doesn’t leave until 12:35 that afternoon, so I’ve got a good long seven hours to kill that morning. …hopefully there is a Starbucks in the area.

So, after getting on my plane, I’ll land in Frankfurt around 1:30 pm, find my hostel, do I don’t know what, go to bed, wake up, go to the airport, and PICK UP MY BROTHER AND SISTER!!!

FROM THERE, here is the itinerary that I’ve been working on for the past couple weeks:
(BY THE WAY, please don’t waste your time reading this. It’s more for my own knowledge. Just in case I happen to get lost somewhere, I’ll be able to get online and figure out where to go and how to get there!)

A General Euro Trip Guide

Wednesday, May 28
6:00 PM – Depart from Chicago.
Duration of flight is 7 hours; there is a 7 hour time change.

Thursday, May 29 (HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY DANE!)
8:00 AM – Land in London Heathrow airport.
9:50 AM – Depart from London Heathrow airport, terminal 2.
12:20 PM – Land in Frankfurt International Airport.
Andi will be there to pick you up and she is expecting a giant hug from each of you.
3:00 PM – Take a shuttle bus either from the Frankfurt Airport or from the main train station to the Frankfurt Hahn Airport. Bus will cost 12 euro per person. Duration of bus ride is 1 hour and 45 minutes.
If place of departure is Frankfurt Airport (departs at 3:15 PM): Bus-Station, Terminal 1, arrival area in front of hall B, bus-stop number 22.
If place of departure is Frankfurt Main Train Station (departs at 3:00 PM): Bus-Stop at Mannheimer Street. Bus-Stop is marked with a "RYANAIR/Bohr" sign. It is located on the south side of the main-train-station.
4:45 PM – Arrive at Frankfurt Hahn Airport. If we happen to miss the 3:00 shuttle bus, there is also one at 4:00. They depart every hour.
7:30 PM – Depart from Frankfurt Hahn Airport.
9:20 PM – Land in Girona Airport (Barcelona)
10:00 PM – Take the Barcelona Bus from Girona to Barcelona City Center. Bus will cost 12 euro per person for one-way, or 21 euro per person for two-way. Duration of bus ride is 1 hour and 10 minutes.
11:10 – The bus will drop us off at the Estacio d' Autobusos Barcelona Nord (Barcelona's main bus terminal) in Barcelona city centre. From there, we can either take the underground or a taxi to our hotel.
If we take the underground:
- The nearest underground station is the Arc de Triomf. It is a 5-10 minute walk from the bus stop.
- Get off at the Llucuna underground. Walk northwest on Carrer de la Ciutat de Granada for one block until you hit Carrer de Pallars. Turn right. Hotel will be at the end of the second block.
Express by Holiday Inn Barcelona
C/ Pallars 203
08019 Barcelona, Spain
Phone Number: 0034 934 863 991
Check-in is at 2:00 PM.
Abby reserved this hotel so she must be the person to check-in.

Friday, May 30
Spend the day in Barcelona.

Saturday, May 31
3:45 AM – Take shuttle bus from Estacio d' Autobusos Barcelona Nord to airport.
4:55 AM – Arrive at Girona Airport.
6:50 AM – Depart from Girona Airport (Barcelona).
8:35 AM – Arrive in Paris Beauvais Airport.
8:30 AM – Take a shuttle bus from Beauvais Airport into Paris. Bus will cost 13 euro per person. Duration of bus ride is 1 hour and 30 minutes.
10:00 AM – Bus will drop us off at the Porte Maillot (congress center).
If we take a bus to our hotel:
- Take line 62 or 132. Get off at the Bibliotheque Francois Mitterand.
If we take the metro to our hotel:
- Get on line 14. Get off at the Bibliotheque Francois Mitterand.
If we take the RER to our hotel:
- Get on line C. Get off at the Bibliotheque Francois Mitterand.
n From Bibliotheque Francois Mitterand, walk southwest on Rue De Tolbiac to get to our hotel.
Paris Park and Suites Grande Bibliotheque
15, rue de Tolbiac, 75013 Paris
Phone Number: 0033 (0) 8 9268 3000
Check-in is at 2:30 PM.
Abby paid for this hotel so she must be the person to check-in.

Sunday, June 1
Spend the day in Paris.

Monday, June 2
Spend the day in Paris

Tuesday, June 3
6:43 AM – Depart from Paris Nord Station.
Duration of train ride is 2:15 hours.
7:58 AM – Arrive at London St. Pancras Station.
- Take the pink line to the Royal Oak station.
- When exiting Royal Oak, turn right and go under bridge. Hostel is next to the shell station.
London Torquay Hostel
1 Torquay Street
n Via Victoria:
- From the Victoria Station, take bus number 36. There are stops just before, or just after the shell station. Hostel is next to the shell station.

Wednesday, June 4
3:00 PM – Depart from London Victoria Station on the Gawick Express Train.
- Tickets are available at Gatwick Express office in London Victoria and Gatwick Airport. Train comes every 15 minutes.
- Discount prices are available for groups: Four or three adults pay for only two tickets when traveling together between London Victoria and Gawick Airport.
- One single adult ticket is 17.90 pounds for one-way. The entire group would only have to pay for three tickets. Total is 53.7 pounds, or 6 pounds per person.
Duration of train ride is 30 minutes.
3:30 PM – Arrive at Gatwick Airport.
5:00 PM – Depart from Gatwick Airport (London).
8:25 PM – Land in Ciampino Airport (Rome)
– Take shuttle bus into Rome OR take taxi directly to hotel (hotel is 12.4 miles away from the Ciampino Airport).
n If we take the shuttle bus:
9:00 PM (aprox) – Bus departs from Ciampino Airport
Duration of bus ride is 45 minutes. Cost is 5 or 6 euro per person.
9:45 PM – Bus will drop us off at the Roma Termini train station.
- From Termini, take the underground Line B to Tiburtina Station. They come every five minutes between 5:30 AM and 11:30 PM.
- From Tiburtina, take the Blue Bus Cotral to Palombara. This bus comes every 50 minutes. Get off at the Marco Simone area—the bus stop before S. Lucia of Mentana.
- Hotel is north of golf course; Via Pedica delle Ginestre intersects with Via Palombarese. The address of our hotel is:
Residenza Villa Maria
Via Pedica delle Ginestre 16, 00012 Marco Simone
Phone Number: 0039 (06) 80 77 492
Check-in is at 2:00 PM.
Abby paid for this hotel so she must be the one to check-in.

Thursday, June 5 – Spend the day in Rome OR Venice…it’s up in the air.
6:50 AM – Depart from Rome Termini train station.
Duration of train ride is 4 hours and 27 minutes.
11:17 AM – Arrive at the Venezia Santa Lucia train station.
6:36 PM – Depart from Venezia Santa Lucia train station
Duration of train ride is 4 hours and 32 minutes.
11:08 PM – Arrive at Roma Termini train station. Use directions above to get back to hotel.

Friday, June 6
Spend the day in Rome

Saturday, June 7
7:00 AM – Take bus or taxi to the Ciampino Airport. Bus departs from the Termini Station, so use the same directions we used to get to the hotel.
9:35 AM – Depart from Ciampino Airport.
11:40 AM – Arrive in Schonefeld Airport (Berlin)
- Take the train (either the RB14 or the RE7, 18 mins) or the S-Bahn (line S9, 25 mins) from the airport train station to the Ostbahnhof.
- Directly infront of the Ostbahnhof Station, the street Straße der Pariser Kommune begins. You just follow it crossing the square Franz-Mehring-Platz. Then you will find the Pegasus Hostel on the left hand side of the street in a bright yellow house with dark blue oriels. Please note that the Straße der Pariser Kommune continues after the Franz-Mehring-Platz.
Berlin Pegasus Hostel
Str. der Pariser Kommune 35
10243 Berlin, Germany
Phone Number: 0049 30 2977360
Check-in is at 2:00 PM.

Sunday, June 8
8:00 AM – Depart from Schonefeld Airport.
9:15 AM – Arrive at Hahn Airport (Frankfurt)
9:45 AM (aprox) – Take shuttle from airport and get dropped off at the Frankfurt Central Train Station.
- Take the bus line 37 in the direction of Gutleut/Briefzentrum. Get off the bus at the stop Johanna Kirchner-Altenheim. Our hotel on the right hand side. It is about a 10 minute bus ride.
Express by Holiday Inn Frankfurt-Messe
Gutleut Strasse 296
Frankfurt, 60327 Germany
Phone Number: 0049 69 506960
Check-in is at 2:00 PM.
Abby paid for this hotel so she must be the person to check-in.

Monday, June 9—Everyone except for Andi
5:00 AM – Take a train from the main train station to the Frankfurt International Airport. Trains run every 15 minutes and it is only a ten minute ride. Cost is 3.30 euro per person.
5:10 AM – Arrive at Frankfurt International Airport.
7:25 AM – Depart from Frankfurt International Airport.
8:10 AM – Land at London Heathrow airport.
11:15 AM – Depart from London Heathrow airport, terminal 3.
2:10 PM – Land at Chicago O’Hare Airport.

Monday June 9—Andi’s plan
5:00 AM – Go with the group to the Frankfurt Airport.
7:00 AM – Say goodbye to everyone L
7:15 AM – Take shuttle bus to Hahn Airport.
8:45 AM – Arrive at Hahn Airport.
10:50 AM – Depart from Hahn Airport (Frankfurt).
12:10 PM – Land in Treviso.
2:27 PM – Take train back to Klagenfurt
6:04 PM – Arrive at Klagenfurt train station.

I miss home :(

2008-05-22T17:13:00.001-07:00

My pops mentioned that I haven’t updated my blog in a few days so here I go! BTW, I love you dad :) And mom, you know I love you too!

Friday was Kintali’s 21st birthday, so everyone celebrated with her that night. Christian came over for a bit as I was getting ready and then we walked over to Mozartheim together. There were so many people there! It was a lot of fun. After a couple hours, we went into the city and went to a couple bars. That was extremely fun too. I went home fairly early though—3am—cuz there was some creepy dude that kept bothering me. Even though he was aware that I don’t speak german, he never stopped trying to talk to me. I was sooo annoyed. So, I walked the entire way home. The fact that I walked is no big deal though. The big deal, is that I walked the entire way home BAREFOOT. I was wearing heels, but my feet hurt soo bad in them. I got home around 4, washed off my black feet, and went to bed.

Gavin and Kintali...or as they like to be called, Americaussie.
Gavin, June, Louis, Me, and Brian (another guy that goes to northern iowa)

Rachael (the texan), and me

Me, Einman, and I have no clue how to spell the other guys name so I won't even try.
The next day, I woke up around 2, and at 4 a girl from one of my classes came over. We had to give a presentation on Monday, so we worked on that for a bit. She left around seven. Then, that night two girls that studied here last year were visiting Clemens, Christian, and Hannes, so I hung out with them in the TV room for a while. They all went to the bars around 1, but I wasn’t really in the mood so I stayed home.

On Sunday, I don’t think I did anything exciting. I went to bed super late though because of course, I procrastinated with my presentation. I woke up early the next morning, after 3 hours of sleep, and finished working on it. Lisa came over at 10 am, and we got everything finished up, and ran through what we were going to say. Then at noon, we went to our Native American class and gave a presentation about The Bureau of Indian Affairs. Not my favorite topic. It went well though.

Monday and Tuesday were basically just boring days. It rained all day and night, so I couldn’t really lay out in the sun. Oh wait, actually, I dyed my hair on one of those days. All by myself. Sorry dad, I know you want it to be natural again, but the roots were so horrible looking.

Last night was yet another UniParty. Beforehand, I went to Mozartheim and watched Manchester United beat Chelsea in a shoot-out! Then, headed over to Concordia. Derek had two more of his Italian friends visit, so there was a bunch of people hanging out with them. Around 1 or so, we all went to the uniparty. Once again, I took my shoes off when I was dancing, but this time ended up stepping on some glass. Stupid me. I went home around 4 or 5, and woke up today around 2. Basically, I spent the day trying to pick the glass out of my feet. I can barely even walk. It’s miserable.
Christian, me, and Stephan in Concordia.
Tonight I am 100 percent homesick. I’d pretty much give anything to fly back home right now. I think I’m regretting signing up for this China thing. If I wouldn’t have, I’d be on my way home in a month and a half. That sounds so luxurious.

I forgot to mention, I’ve been living off of potatoes for the past four days. Today I tried to mix it up, and made some homemade baked lays. Believe me, they tasted nothing like the real thing. Tomorrow I’m going to the grocery store.

OH, and these are the pics from when alberto took me to that tower thing last week. Look at how beautiful my lake is!

This whole thing is entirely too random. Sorry about that.

2008-05-15T17:19:00.000-07:00

I can't sleep so I thought I'd blog. I taught my business class yesterday...it went pretty well, but I don't think I want to be a teacher for the rest of my life and I'm very happy that I didn't go to school for that.
I have one thing I'd like to brag about real quick...haha. Two days ago I knocked 31 seconds off of my fastest time from my normal running route. THEN, today I knocked ANOTHER 32 seconds off of that time! So, in four days, I am a full minute faster! Boston, here I come! Hehe, I wish :)
Tomorrow is the day that I would be moving into my new house in Cedar Falls if I were back home. That is pretty depressing to think about. I wish I could be there for that.
My parents brought tuna helper for me when they visited in April. Tonight I decided I couldn't wait any longer and I made it. AND, surprise surprise, I hate the entire thing. At first, I controlled myself, and put half of it in the fridge right away. But, as soon as I finished the other half...I got up, walked straight to the fridge (luckily it wasn't cold yet) and ate the rest. Self-control and I haven't been getting along very well lately.
Oh, another depressing thing...my whole family--and even my grandma--was at my house today getting ready for Dane's graduation party. Too many important events are going on and I have to miss them. Ugh. Oh yeah, and they will be serving BBQ pork sandwiches...one of my favorites.
On Monday Alberto came into my room and said, "I have a surprise." So, even though I had a ton of work to do, I went. He drove me to the other side of the lake and took me to this tower that is like 3000 feet high. Literally. We went to the top and you could see for MILES. It was gorgeous. The tower was so small though...only made for this purpose. There were probably 7 other people at the top...and not many more people would have fit.
Afterwards we went to this super fancy hotel and sat at this restaurant on the lake and drank an Almduler (this austrian soda that is AMAZING). Then we went back.
Wednesday morning I was trying to finish prepping for my business class when all of a sudden the cleaning lady walks in. There I am, sitting on my bed in my bra and underwear. Talk about embarrassing. So she begins cleaning the bathroom, and I put some pjs on. Any other day I would have left the room for a bit, but I had to finish this business thing. I told her she didn't have to clean today, but she insisted, so I just stayed and did my own thing. Not even ten minutes later, 3 other people walk into the room to do I don't even know what. They put like barcode labels on every piece of furniture in my room. Talk about awkward. I hadn't even brushed my teeth.
Today I laid out for 3 hours and then came home and an hour later emptied that box of tuna helper, went for my run, talked on skype to ten thousand people, and here I am. I think I can't sleep cuz I just watched a very intense episode of Lost and now I'm a bit scared. I think I'm just going to have to watch one more and hope that the next one ends on a more cheerful note.
Its already 2:45 am. Good thing all I have to do tomorrow is get a tan.
If it isn't already obvious that I miss you all and wish I was back home with everyone, I'll make it a bit more clear--I miss you all and wish I was back home with everyone.
Love Love Love,
Andi

Wien, Blabi's, and That's About It.

2008-05-13T02:33:00.000-07:00

On Monday last week, Natalie, Clemens (Hannes just told me I've been spelling his name wrong!), Daniel, and Christoph all watched A Clockwork Orange. It was an incredibly stupid movie. Afterwards, I cooked a midnight snack for everyone--pancakes! Clemens and Christoph had never had syrup before. They were disgusted that 26% of it was sugar. Haha.

Tuesday night, Christian and this kid named Stephan came over. I cooked skillets for the two of them. I even cut the hashbrowns myself. It took aproximately 10 hours, but they were delicious! A bunch of people got home from the bars and joined us in the kitchen, and then we all went into the tv room and watched Apocolypto--with only Deutsch subtitles. I fell asleep after five minutes.

On Wendesday, Natalie and I spent the night packing and getting ready for the weekend. Then Christian called and said he wanted to come over or go out or something. We told him we couldn't go out cuz we had to be up early in the morning...so instead, we all went to the uni pizzeria around 9 and ate some pizza. Afterwards, he came over for a bit....lol, and then we were bored just sitting around, and so I forced him to let me put makeup on him. hahaha...that was interesting.
Pucker up :)
I guess I went a little extreme with the makeup.
On Thursday, Natalie and I caught our train at 8:48 to go to Vienna. We had to go in order to get our Chinese Visas. We had an empty room to ourselves on the train, so we each sprawled out across three of our own seats and took a relaxing two hour nap. We got off the train around 1:30 and headed towards the Chinese Embasy. We finally get there, just to find out that it's closed on Thursdays. It's only open on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. We were pretty mad. So, we went all the way across town and found our hostel, dropped off our things, and then went shopping down the main road in Vienna. I was in no mood to shop. Everything was incredibly expensive too...so basically I just window shopped for about 4 hours.

After all the stores closed, we went and got dinner at KFC. ....fyi, it's nowhere near as good as American KFC. First of all, NO BISCUITS! That's the whole reason for going to KFC. And secondly, no mac and cheese....my favorite.

Anyway, after dinner, we went back to our hostel and Natalie cut my hair in the bathroom. I haven't had my hair cut since December, so it was well needed. She did a good job :)

The next morning, we went straight to the Embasy and got our visas. Luckily we could do it all in one day--you just have to pay an extra 33 euros. But, it was worth it, otherwise I'd have to pay for another train ticket to come back to Vienna in a week to pick it up.

After we had our visas, we went and toured Vienna. Everyone I'd talked to said Vienna is one of their favorite places in all of Europe. But, honestly, it was my least favorite. There is nothing to see. I was bored walking around. Eventually, Natalie and I didn't know what else to do...and our trian didn't leave until 6:30 at night, so we just bought a little tub of icecream from a supermarket and sat in a park and ate the entire thing.
In the midddle of Vienna
At the park where we devoured our icecream.

I loved this....it's an actual working clock.
AMAZING singer.
...he was going for a good minute before I started recording.
At 6:30 we got on a train and went to a town just outside of Salzburg where our friend Blabi lives. He picked us up at the train station around 9, and then we went to his house. We watched the movie Ghost (Nat and I had never seen it) and then went to bed.

The next morning we went grocery shopping with Blabi's mom. She was so cute. She spoke no English...so we had a fun time trying to communicate with the very little German that we knew. She cooked us some real, homemade schnitzel for lunch when we got back. It was AMAZING. By far the best I've had since I've been here.

After lunch, we went hiking with Blabi and his cousin. It was so fun. We went to the very top of the mountain....about a two hour journey. Then we all sat down and ate some candy and strawberries and just enjoyed the view.
Apparently they have something like this on every mountain top here.
A couple of the wild mountain goats we saw.
Me, Christian, and Nat at a park on top of the mountain.
Nat, me, and Blabi.
Later that night, several of Blabi's friends came over and we all went to this huge party. There were several bands playing, and it was just amazingly fun. AND GET THIS! I was standing around with this baseball team, and this one Australian guy started talking to me and asked me where I was from. I told him Iowa and he asked where at in Iowa. I was pretty general and just said central...I knew he'd never know where Colo was. Then, he's like, "well I went to school at Iowa Central for two years!" HOW WEIRD! So, of course he said he'd partied on the hill at UNI, and been to Ames, and all that.
Nat, Blabi's mom, and I before going out.
The whole gang at the party.
Anyway, we went home around 3 am. The next morning, we caught our 10 am train. Natalie went to Munich though, and I went back to Klagenfurt. Nat is meeting a friend in Munich, and then flying back to the states on the 16th.

So, I got home sunday, did nothing, and then Christian called and was bored. So, him and Stefan came over. We hung out in the room, and then went to the TV room for a bit and there were a bunch of people in there so we just talked with everyone. At one point everyone started talking in German to eachother, and of course, since I couldn't understand a thing, I fell asleep. They woke me up when everyone was leaving and I went to bed.

Yesterday (Monday), I worked on my business lesson plan.....it's going okay, but I'm still not done. I also managed to squeeze in a good three episodes of Lost, went for a run, and then surprise, Christian was knocking at my door! Haha, he was bored again, so him Stephan, Clemens, and I all went and watched TV for a bit. But, watching Saw 2 in Deutsch wasn't really my thing, so I left and went to bed early.

This morning I woke up sick. I had a horrible night of sleep. Anyway, today I'm just gonna work on my lesson plan, and sleep as much as possible so that I'm better for class in the morning.

Only 16 days till my brother and sister are here!!!!

teaching ALREADY!

2008-05-07T03:43:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure if I have talked about the business class that I am taking over here or not. But, it is a business class for german students that are learning english. The only reason I'm taking it is to get some ideas or lesson plans for when I begin teaching in China. I talked to the professor about it before the semester and she thought it was a great idea. So anyway, it's time for the mid-term exam. I didn't think it would be right for me to take it...and didn't want to be unfair to the rest of the class, so I asked my professor if there was something else I could do to make up for the points on the mid-term. And she suggested I get a head start on teaching, and teach the next lesson! She wants the topic to be either "Business in America," or "Buisnees in China," or both. Oh my gosh! I am so excited! But soooo scared! I'll be teaching next wednesday. My class is about 30 or 40 students.

Normally our professor has us doing lots of fun activities. Like getting in groups...or I don't know, we're just always walking around the room doing something different. So, I would like to do some sort of fun activity and not just have me stand in front of the room and talk by myself. If anyone has any suggestions at all, they would be GREATLY appreciated.

All the students speak great English, but they've been working on random things like...how to write with more formal English words that would be used on resumes, or emails, etc. But, like I said, she wants it to be a culturally based lesson. Alright, now throw me your ideas! :) ....you can always comment on this blog if you don't feel like going through the trouble of sending me an email. Thanks everyone, love you!

My Weekend in Croatia.

2008-05-04T16:03:00.000-07:00

Soo...Croatia. I woke up bright and early on Saturday morning....like at 6:30. Then I went to the Austrian version of Sam's club and got a few things--including the biggest bag of gummy bears I've ever seen. Then, I came home, finished packing, and then all of us met at the train station around 10:30. Our train didn't leave until 11:13, so I got a sandwich and then we took off for Zagreb, Croatia (the capital city). It was about a 5 and a half hour ride, so luckily we were all able to be in the same cabin.

The whole gang in Villach (our first train stop). Natalie, Gavin, Kintali, Christian, Me, and Louis.

We got to Croatia around 4:30, and then since I was the only one to look up directions to the hostel, I was responsible for getting everyone there--which is quite the task for a directionally-challenged person, but luckily we made it without any problems.

It was an adorable hostel. The six of us had a room and bathroom to ourselves...which was absolutely amazing. It was all very modern looking and overall, I'd say was the best hostel I've stayed in yet. Anyway, we dropped off our things, and then went off to get some kuna (croatian money) and some dinner.

First of all, the money there is ridiculous. It's called Kuna, and 60 euro is equal to more than 400 kuna. Anyway, we all took out some Kuna, and then found a cute pizza place to eat at. The menu was entirely croatian. None of us spoke the language. Luckily there was a pizza called "Mexico," so assuming it was a taco pizza, I ordered that. It ended up being a ham pizza with a very large amount of sour cream on top. Different, but good. The bill for just my dinner was 59 kuna. It just seems weird to say that. ....my sprite was 12 kuna to put it in better perspective. We decided everything is about 7 times the euro. Talk about inflation.

I felt pretty dang rich with my new kuna money.

Afterwards we went to the grocery store and bought some chips and beer for the night. We heard the nightlife in Croatia is the best in all of Europe, so we thought we'd better see for ourselves :)

When we got to the hostel, we went to the lounge and ended up meeting a kid from New Zealand, so we invited him to go out with us. The seven of us hung out in the lounge for a few hours. We had such a good time. Louis is in a band, and is also a solo artist, and there just happened to be a guitar in the lounge for everyone to play, so we enjoyed listening to him for a while.

Tom, me, and Louis in the lounge.

Louis is so talented! This is my favorite song by him.

A little after midnight we walked to the clubs. We ended up going to about 4. HAHA, Natalie spent 100 kuna at the bar. I only spent 21 kuna (one drink). Even though I knew it was only 3 euro, just hearing 21 scared me so I stopped after that. We left around 4:30 am and caught a taxi home--73 kuna--and then we all went to bed.

The first bar we were at

The bartenders dressed up as cops.

We were all up by ten am the next morning. ....we showered and left the hostel around 11:30. Tom came with us again. It's a good thing he did cuz he actually kinda knew where he was going. We ate lunch at a chinese restaurant. We all ordered way too much food. The portions were huge, and not a single one of us finished. Afterwards we walked, and walked, and walked. There was a flea market going on, so we looked around there, and then continued walking. We went to the old town and just walked around. Before heading back to the train station we sat at some random bar and had a drink.

At the flea market.

Some random rooftop that I was pretty impressed with.

Us.

Nat, me, and Croatia.

The gang.

A few of us got hamburgers and kebabs, and then we picked up our bags from the hostel, and caught our 6:50 train back to Klagenfurt. The train was packed so all of us were split up. We had to change in Villach, and our next one was quite empty so we were all back together again. Then, we caught taxis back to our dorm and that was it.

The seven of us on the tram to the station.

Basically, I loved it. It was such a fun group of people. I never stopped laughing. And, I saved myself from being deported from the country...so that in itself is a success.

Happy May!

2008-05-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

So, as most of you probably know, if you stay in another country for more than 3 months at a time, you need to get a visa. Well, I'm going to be here for 5 months, and never got one. I thought I could just slip by without one. But today marks day 1 of me being an illegal Austrian resident.

Natalie is in the same position as me, but she is going home in 15 days for her sister's graduation, so we assume she'll be okay. But, this past week, I started to get a little bit nervous about my situation. So, I went and talked to the study abroad office over here. My only option--leave the country and come back. Then the 3 months thing starts all over. My only problem--I can't just go to any country I want. It has to be one that is not in the European Union. And well...CROATIA HERE I COME! Haha. So yup, that's what I'm doing this weekend. I was able to talk Gavin, Louis, and Christian into going with Natalie and I. We leave tomorrow morning and are coming back sometime on Sunday. This morning I went and un-registered with the police..and when I get back I just have to re-register. So, it's not really all that difficult.

Anyway...some other news--only 26 more days until I have more visitors coming! My brother, sister, chandler, chad, adam bell, grant robinson, jamie olson, and andy are all coming to visit and we're going on a ten day euro trip! I am sooo excited! They are all flying into Frankfurt, and I'll be waiting there to pick them up at the airport. The only thing is, the flight that I got leaves from Venice on the 28th (they land the 29th) and the only way I'll make my flight on time, is by catching a train to venice on the 27th. Which means I have to stay by myself at a hostel in Venice on the 27th, and by myself in Frankfurt on the 28th. I'm gonna be quite lonely for two days. But, it's okay....definitely well worth it. I miss my brother and sister so much!

Alright...a recap on my last week. The only exciting thing is...

Wednesday night Christian, Clemmons, Nat, and I sat in the TV room and watched episodes of South Park and American Dad. In German.

Thursday I don't remember what I did. Apparently nothing too cool.

Friday during the day Natalie, Gavin, and I went shopping in the city. I got a pair of heels for only 20 euro!

Friday night a bunch of the exchange students--like 10 of us--went to the city. It was incredibly fun. Once again, everyone wanted to leave--except for me--so I ended up staying till about 5 am with Hannes (my neighbor) and Daniel (an Austrian that I probably haven't mentioned before). Then we got back here, sat around in the kitchen for a while, met up with markus and another neighbor kid, and went to the lake at 6am to watch the sunrise. Sounds corny I know, but it was fun. I didn't go to bed until about 7:30 am.

Rachael, Kintali, Villy, and Natalie.
Me and Hannes after everyone else left!

Me and Daniel at the lake.
Me and Markus decided to test out the water...let me tell you...it was FREEZING.

Saturday night, Louis, Gavin, Alex, Nat, and I all went out to a club called Stereo for Reggae night. I personally thought it was kinda boring, but everyone else seemed to like it. We ended up going home around 2.

Alex (from Romania and Rachael's boyfriend), Louis, and Gavin.

On Sunday, Gavin, Derek, Natalie, and I all went on a walk around the lake. We were gone for a good 3 hours. It was sooo nice out! We ended up sitting at an outside bar and then found a dock and just laid around and talked for a good hour. On our way back, we heard really loud music, so we went and checked it out. There was some sort of carnival going on with a few rides and a beer garden and a band. Pretty cool, but we weren't in the mood to hang out there, so we just stayed for a couple minutes and then kept walking home.

Nat at the bar during our Sunday stroll.

Sunday night the four of us and Louis all went to the Schnitzelwelt again for a late dinner.

Monday was boring. I went to class, came back, did homework, and went for late night run.

On Tuesday I went for another late night run and afterwards went to the Mozartheim party. Pretty fun...but they are starting to get a bit old. It's the same thing every Tuesday night.

Gavin, me, and Niamh at Mozartheim.

Wedensday afternoon, I went and got a Kebab with Gavin and Louis, and then we went to the train station to look up train prices for our Croatia trip. Then I went to class and then came home. Wednesday night there was another UniParty. We didn't go until after midnight, and stayed until 3:30 or 4. Derek had two of his Italian friends come visit, so he brought them along and we got a chance to meet them--Giovani and Mikki.

Louis during our adventure to the train station.

At the UniParty--this is the Christian that's going to Croatia with me.

Thursday I did nothing. Absolutely nothing. Since I can't watch any tv here, I've started to watch a few things on-line. Since my parents and sister are obsessed with Lost, I decided to try it out. It is amazing. In the past week I've watched the entire first season. Yup, you can call me obsessed. I went to bed at 8 pm, and slept until 10:30 this morning. Call me lazy, I know.

BAcK 2 NoRMaLcY

2008-04-23T11:35:00.000-07:00

Alright, I realize I haven't updated everyone on anything since my parents left, but honestly, it just hasn't been too exciting.

The first Monday back, Gavin, Natalie, and I all went out to Salud's and we each got our own order of nachos. Mmm, Mmm, Mmm. We all decided to take advantage of our drinking age, and ordered margaritas. Natalie and I were thrilled cuz it was the first drink we'd ever ordered at a restaurant. Afterwards, we didn't feel like going home yet, so we went into a bar and just sat around til about 1:30 and then we all took a cab back home.

Tuesday, we went over to Mozartheim and hung out with Blabi and Christoph. Blabi made some homemade strawberry liquor that he'd been working on for like three weeks, so he had us over to try it out. ...it was gross.
The homemade concotion.
Wednesday Natalie and I watched a movie with Alberto. ...it's called The Unsaid. It's VERY good. I suggest u all watch it.

Thursday night we had our Studentenheim party--which is the party my dorm hosts. That was fun...EVERYONE was there.
Mom, this is Christian. ...he is the one from the last blog...the one that I love and that you haven't seen a picture of yet.
For lunch on Friday, Gavin, Louis, Natalie, and I all went out for pizza at the UniPizzeria..and then did nothing during the day.

Friday night was the university party. Yes i know, another party. Seriously, they party like crazy here. And it's weird, because they always party during the week, and then during the weekend noone does. The weekend is pretty much just for relaxing--which is quite nice. The UNIparty was great though. Before hand, all the exchange students came and hung out in our room. Then around midnight we all went to the UNI. It was pretty dead at first, but it ended up good. All of my friends left early (typical) and I ended up staying until close--around 4am--with Al (our tour guide guy). It was fun...just lots of music and dancing. And best of all, there was a kebab stand there. So, on the way back we both got one. yum :)
All of us in our room before going out.
The original four :) Nat, Blabi, Christoph, Me.
Teaching Gavin how to swing dance :)
Derek and I.
Blabi, Nat, and I.
Saturday I don't think I did anything. Just slept a lot.

Sunday was another nothingness day. Natalie, Gavin, Derek, and I all went to the Schnitzelwelt and got Weinerschnitzel. It was a fast food restaurant that served only shnitzel. And it was amazingly cheap. Two schnitzels and a ton of fries for only 5 euro.

Monday Natalie and I had to give a presentation over the book, The Things They Carried. It ended up being a TWO HOUR presentation--yup, we were in front of the class for the entire period. Miserable. But, it actually went pretty well (I hope at least!). Monday night Nat and I watched Pretty Women. Neither of us had seen it before...we liked it.

Tuesday we woke up at 11 and then went out for lunch with gavin at some chinese restaurant. All you can eat chinese for only 6.50. I tried sushi--not bad. And Gavin tried a fried banana. I thought about trying some tofu, but couldn't do it.

And well, now you're updated. Tuesday night was the mozartheim party.

And today...I've done nothing but go to class.

The weather has been pretty bad lately. It's always raining. ...thanks for the umbrella ma and pa, it's been getting a workout lately. Whenever it's not raining I try to squeeze in a run, but that's about it. Alright....until next time, bye bye :)

...I didn't spell check this. sorry.

my kids don't have a choice.

2008-04-23T09:49:00.000-07:00

I had such a good night last night! Today was one of those days where all day during class I just couldn't keep from smiling cuz I was thinking about random stuff that happened last night. We had a Mozartheim party...and at first, I really, really didn't want to go--I think I was just in the mood to relax and watch more episodes of Survivor on the internet. But, around 11pm, I ended up going.

Gosh, there were just so many reasons that I had so much fun there. First of all, it was Clemmons’ birthday, so that alone is exciting. Secondly, Christian (one that isn't on my cool character chart) was there...and I LOVE Christian. He is just a genuinely nice person...and we get along so well! Basically, whenever he shows up somewhere it's just a big surprise and I love it.

Thirdly, there happened to be some football team there (with American boys on the team--and very cute ones I might add) and I ended up meeting 3 of those boys and hung out with them most of the night. I don't know what made it so fun, but it really was just a blast.

Fourthly, I also met 3 guys that play some other random Austrian game and hung out with them for a good majority of the night too.

Basically, around 1:30 or so, all of my friends decided they wanted to leave...so they did. But, I was just having so much fun with all my new friends that I decided to stay by myself. We ended up staying till after 4--and we only left because they were closing up! We were no where near ready to part our separate ways, so two of the football boys walked me home and we had fun talking the whole way back. Don't worry, we exchanged phone numbers and all of our facebook information :)

Lucky me, today I had an 8:30 class. I love waking up after getting 3 hours of sleep.

One thing I would like to mention. I don't care what my future kids have to say about this--they don't even have an option--they are studying abroad some where. I won't let them pass up something like this. This is by far the best experience I've ever had in my whole entire life. I wish it could last forever!

eurotrip numero 2--with my PA AND MA!

2008-04-17T05:37:00.000-07:00

I had the best time with my parents last week! I already told you about Salzburg (but I just added pics to that blog), so now I’ll tell you about our time in Klagenfurt, Rome, and Paris.

Sunday’s in Klagenfurt are exceptionally boring. There is absolutely nothing open…and I mean NOTHING. Luckily, the weather was great so we made plans to spend the day walking around the lake. My parents came over around noon and I made breakfast (the pancakes they brought from the states!) for us. Then we ventured out to the lake—and I just loved showing that off—it’s just so beautiful! After a while we headed back home and went to the city. I wanted to go to one of my two favorite restaurants, but of course they were both closed. So, instead we tried something new out, and it actually ended up being very, very good!
Worther See--aka My Lake :)
On Monday, the rain came….and came, and came. I went to my parent’s hotel around 10:30 in the morning and walked into the room soaking wet. So, before heading too far into the city we went and got umbrellas. Then we went to my favorite kebab stand and ate lunch. I had class from 12-4, so I left my parents alone in the city for the next few hours.

After class my parents met me at the university and I showed them around. …there’s really not much to show so that was probably quite boring for them. For dinner, Natalie and I met them at Salud’s (my fav. restaurant!) and we had a great time there! Afterwards we got gelata, yumm! Then we split up for the night. I went home and packed my bags for the next week and went to bed!

The next morning I met my parents in the city around 9. We went to the train station and headed for the Treviso airport. After a bit of a mix up on the train, and a bit of a wait at the bus stop, we made it! We ordered a pizza, and just sat around for the next several hours.

After landing in ROMA we took a bus to the city, and then walked for which seemed like an hour to our hotel. This hotel looked quite questionable from the outside (graffiti on the door!) but the inside was great! I had my own pullout bed, so I was more than satisfied.

The next morning, we went around to all the sights! First the Sistine Chapel, then The Vatican, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and Spanish Steps. I hadn’t seen the Sistine Chapel before, but it was GORGEOUS—and much bigger than I expected. For lunch we ate at some little side street place. And had dinner at the Piazza Navona. I absolutely loved that place. I got Gnocci pasta…for those of you that have never heard of that, it’s like potato stuffed and mine had four-cheese sauce all over it. Gosh, heaven.
Inside part of the Chapel!
Between the Vatican walls.
Me and my mama in Roma. Gosh we are CUTE.

Before going back to the hotel we stopped and got a bottle of wine and some chips and salsa. I took the pleasure in opening the wine bottle, but was shocked when the cork popped out and champagne came spilling out all over me, my bed, and the floor. Obviously, I’m quite inexperienced with champagne. Then—lucky me—I poured mine into a plastic cup with a HOLE in the bottom of it. Not long after cleaning up all of that champagne, I dropped the entire salsa bowl onto the floor, managing to get much of the salsa splattered on the wall. Finally, we relaxed and watched some Italian TV before bed.
Impressive huh?
The next day we went to the Colloseum! I’d been there before, but I hadn’t gone inside before. So, we signed up for a guided tour and spent all afternoon looking around the inside of the Colloseum, and the ruins that are outside of the Colloseum. I LOVED IT. Afterwards we headed to the airport and caught our next flight to Paris.

Inside the Colloseum. That newer looking stage is what the floor would have looked like when the colloseum was still in use. Notice how close the crowd is (there is a model of where the bleachers would have been).
Some of the ruins around the Colosseum.
Alright, confession time…Paris is my new favorite European city. Anyway, we arrived at the airport, and then took an hour and a half bus into the city. We caught a taxi, and then took another 20 minute drive to our hotel. Now, I know I said Paris is my favorite city, but this hotel…well let’s just say it was absolutely miserable and disgusting. First of all, one bed, and very little floor space. Secondly, there was NO TOILET in the room. We had to use a communal one.

Anyway, for a late, late dinner, we ate at some pizza place. Just a reminder…this was my first time in a french-speaking country, so I’d had no practice whatsoever with the language. When we ordered the pizza, we had no clue what we ordered. But, my mom said it was the best she’d had in Europe!

After a long night in the hotel, we were up bright and early to see Paris! First we went and saw the Notre Dame Cathedral…which was beautiful! And afterwards we went to the Musee du Louvre. That, I must say was pretty boring. The museum was absolutely huge. Apparently you could spend 2 weeks in there before seeing everything. Anyway, we saw the REAL MONA LISA. So, it was worth it!
Me and my pa in Paris. Love the face dad :)
The real life Mona Lisa!
Afterwards we took a super long walk towards the Eiffel tower. We stopped to eat dinner, and then waited in line for about half an hour to go up the tower. We only went to the second tier, but that was plenty high. It was getting pretty windy and even started sprinkling, so I don’t think the very top would have been very enjoyable.
The Eiffel Tower!

The view from the tower.
Afterwards, we warmed up with some hot chocolate in a little café, and then went back to the tower where we met up with a Fat Tire tour group. One of the families doing the tour ended up being from Claremont, California (where my Uncle Kris, and Aunt Krista are from) and then new Uncle Kris! So, yeah, small world!

THE TOUR WAS A BLAST! It started at 7, and lasted until midnight. We had an ice cream stop, and even an hour long boat ride. This was by far my favorite part of the trip. We road our bikes through the streets of Paris, and even got to see the Tower when it sparkles. I had sooo much fun. Our tour guide was great too!
This was during our ice cream break on the tour. We got to wear these shiny cool vests the entire time. ..and btw, thats Notre Dame behind us.
This is part of the bike tour by the Musee du Louvre. Most of the tour wasn't this slow...but this was one of the prettiest parts so we definitely took our time here.

Anyway, we got back to the hotel, went to bed, and in the morning went strait to the train station to buy our tickets to Munich—easier said than done. The 3:00 train was fully booked, and the only one we could get on was at 10:45 at night. We wouldn’t arrive until the next morning at 9 am. So, 330 euros later, we had our tickets for a night train. Good god.

So, now we had time to kill. We got breakfast at some restaurant, stopped at an internet café to book a hotel in Munich, went to the Pantheon, and I don’t even know where else…we just wandered. We stopped at a bar and had a couple drinks, and out of nowhere, this group of guys started singing some song. It was some fun entertainment! We ate dinner at a pizza place by the station, and then at 10:45 boarded our train. We shared a six person room with two other people. Some french guy that spoke no English (yet insisted on speaking to us), and then some other kid that didn’t say two words the entire way.

...the singing guys in the bar
The Pantheon in Paris.
At 2 am in the morning, I ended up sprawling out on the floor and slept until we got off in Munich, 7 hours later. My neck definitely hurt when I woke up, and I will never, ever take a night train again. Haha. Once in Munich, we got my train ticket back to Klagenfurt, and my parents got tickets to see a castle in Munich. We sat in Starbucks for a while and then sadly, at 10:30 I had to say goodbye to my parents and head back to Austria. Four hours later, I arrived at Klagenfurt, caught two different busses, and made it safe and sound to my dorm.

All in all, the trip was fantastic. I LOVED seeing my parents again, and I love that they got to see so much of Europe! Thanks mom and dad for coming over here and going on a eurotrip with me! I loved it, and I love you two so much!! I can’t wait to see you in another four months! …don’t worry though, time will fly by!

MY MUM AND PAPS ARE HERE!!!

2008-04-05T14:41:00.000-07:00

Well, here's the latest recap:

Sunday after getting home from my eurotrip, I had a horrible cold, and basically spent the entire day updating my blog (which was a total of nine pages of text on word!). And pretty much, the rest of the week was spent doing basically nothing. My cold was pretty bad on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday...so besides going to class, I basically just laid around. I didn't even go to my kickboxing class on Tuesday...and I didn't go to the lake once-pretty depressing.

BUT, thank the lord for Friday! WELL... Thursday night Nat and I went to Mozartheim and watched The Exorcist with Blabi. We didn't get back to our room until about 2am. Then, by the time I got to bed it was nearly three. Friday morning I was very eager to get up and ready for the day because I was going to see my parents! I was at the train station by 9 and after a three and a half hour train ride I met my parents at the Salzburg station. They flew into Munich and took a train to meet me there. We ended up arriving within half an hour of eachother so it was pretty much perfect.

We spent the afternoon walking around the city center, and then went out to eat at a restaurant called "Humboldt." Thats right all of you Meyer's...Humboldt. After a delicious meal consisting of weiner schnitzel, we went back to the hotel. I unpacked all the food that my parents packed for me (there was an entire suitcase full of it!) and enjoyed several of the DELICIOUS homemade chocolate chip cookies that my grandma k made for me (thanks grandma!!!!). Then we were all exhausted, so we went to bed at 5pm!! haha!
HUMBOLDT?!?!?

Dad had a long day.
This morning (saturday) at 9:30 am we checked out of our hotel and hopped on the Original Sound of Music Bus Tour. For those of you who don't know, the movie "The Sound of Music" was filmed here. And, for those of you who don't know my mom...she loves that movie (I don't know how many family vacations I've gone on where the sound of music soundtrack was playing full blast..with of course my mom and sister belting out every single yodel).
The Fortress is behind us!
Anyway, the tour was actually very good. And not nearly as cheesy as I was expecting. Basically, Salzburg is GORGEOUS. My dad was sad when it was time to leave...he said, "I think if I would have visited this place thirty years ago, I probably would have moved here." So, now you hear it from someone else. I know I may be biased cuz I live in Austria...but it really is beautiful and just something you just have to see.
One of the more cheesey moments on the bus.
Anyway, the tour was over at 1:30 and our train left for Klagenfurt at 3. Once we were in Klagenfurt we found my parents' hotel and dropped off their bags. Then we took a bus to the Univeristat and I showed them my where I lived. I had fun showing it off :) Then Nat joined the three of us for dinner in the UNI Pizzeria. Then I sent my parents in the right direction of their hotel and went back to my dorm. I talked to Toni on skype (wooHOO!!!) and now I am anxiously awaiting my bed! Tomorrow I wanted to take my parents to the lake but there is a 70% chance of rain, so we'll see how that goes. Anyway, tchuss!

My first ever EUROTRIP! ...beware, this is LONG.

2008-03-30T11:20:00.000-07:00

Where to begin!?!? Basically, I had an amazing last two weeks. I am just going to start from the beginning, and I'll try not to leave out a single detail!

Our train left Klagenfurt around 10:15, and we were there in plenty of time. We happened to meet a group of girls that were also going to the Trevisio airport (near Venice) so we just stuck with them. We had to change trains at some point in Italy, and then once we got off the train in Trevisio, we took a bus to the airport. We were at the airport in plenty of time too....so of course, I finished off a can of Pringles as we sat around for the next couple hours.
In Klagenfurt, right before our big Adventure!
We were flying with Ryanair…which is the cheapest airline EVER. We didn’t buy a single plane ticket for more than 20 euro (30 dollars). But, it costs 18 euro to check a bag, so Natalie and I were smart and shared a bag. The only problem with this was that it was EXTREMELY heavy and such a hassle to lug around. The weight limit for checked bags is 15 euro, and of course ours was over weight. So, we pulled out all we could from the bag and shoved it into our purse (we shared a purse the entire trip too).

This is a video of Nat putting on the GINORMOUS backpack for the first time.
We landed in Rome and first thing I saw when I got off the plane was a group of guys in kilts. I thought I might see that in Ireland, but Rome? I was confused. Once Nat and I had our bag, we tried calling my cousin Megan, to see where we should go. We had never used our phone before, so we had to have someone else help us the first time. I talked to my uncle Kris on the phone and he said that we should take a taxi to the Christoforo Columbo hotel. He said it wasn’t far from the hotel at all and shouldn’t be too much.
This was a group of the men in the kilts. We later found out that there was a rugby game against Ireland, so thats why we saw so many people dressed like this the entire time.
We talked to information before trying to find a taxi, and they said that it would be at least 50 euro to get to the hotel from where we were…so we decided to figure something else out. We ended up taking a bus to the train station and after wondering around forever, finally asked someone which bus would take us where we were going. We hopped on the bus and were on our way.

Our only problem now, was that we had NO IDEA where to get off the bus. We tried asking the bus driver, but he spoke no English, and was no help at all. Luckily, some sweet lady overheard us asking, and came up and tried to help us. She called some friends and figured out where we should get off. She spoke only a little English, so she used quite a few hand signals. At one point, she told us we needed to be very, very careful at this time of night—it was like eleven. She made some kind of a stabbing motion, and then put her hands around her neck and made a choking sound. She said there had been stabbings going on and that two girls shouldn’t be walking around at night like this. So, needless to say, we were scared. We got off the bus and some man pointed us in the right direction of the hotel. It was probably a half mile walk there. Natalie was scared to death. Haha.

Once we walked into the hotel, I was SOOO relieved to see Kris, Krista, and Megan at the front desk waiting for us! And they were very relieved too! For some reason our phone wouldn’t receive any phone calls, so they were quite worried about us. My uncle called my mom and told her we were there and safe and sound…I’m sure she was quite relieved to hear that. By this time it was probably 11:30, and Natalie and I were STARVING. Megan and Kris were nice enough to go on a food hunt for us. The only thing open was a little stand across the street with a big fat guy serving little pita things, but at that point anything would do, so Nat and I chowed down.

After talking with everyone for a while, we all decided we were super exhausted and went to bed in our hotel. Megan, Nat, and I shared a room. The second my head hit the pillow, I was out like a light.

The next morning, we were ready by 9:30. We ate breakfast at the hotel and checked out of our rooms. Then we were on a journey to find Kris and Krista’s next hotel. We had to walk half a mile back to the bus stop that Natalie and I were at the night before. …it was a lot less scary during the daytime and with three other people.
...Lugging the bags to the bus stop!
I couldn’t believe where their hotel was...RIGHT NEXT to the PANTHEON. It was amazing. Their bedroom windows overlooked the Pantheon. I was in awe. We left our bags and then went out and toured Rome! We saw the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. We did a little bit of shopping at Zara between all of that and also stopped to get lunch at a cute little pizza stand. Megan and Krista tried french fry pizza—weird—but they said it was good!
Nat, Meg, and I in front of the window...yup, that's the Pantheon in the background!!

Inside the Pantheon with uncle Krisy.

At the Trevi Fountain!
Krista and her french fry pizza.
The Spanish Steps.
After seeing the Spanish Steps, Krista and Megan went and did a bit more shopping and Kris walked Nat and me to the Vatican city. It was GORGEOUS! I’d love to describe it, but no words could give it justice, my pictures and video don’t even give it justice. We spent quite a while there, and then as we were leaving we saw policemen blowing their whistles and standing in the street, and I said, “Oooh, maybe the Pope is coming.” But Kris said it would probably be a bigger deal if it was the Pope. But, sure enough, his motorcade came out and then the pope mobile came! I even got it on video. So, needless to say, I feel pretty cool that I got to see the pope—well saw his car thing.
Here we are at the VATICAN CITY!
At the Vatican.
Uncle Kris as we were leaving the Vatican.

Of course, I had to put the video of the pope on here!

We walked back to our hotel from The Vatican and met back up with Kris and Krista. Uncle Kris made us reservations at the Crowne Plaza—which was so incredibly nice of him! Kris, Krista, Nat, and I took our bags to our hotel and Kris checked us into our hotel. Then we all headed back to the city centre and met Megan at the hotel. We went out for dinner at a cute restaurant in the Piazza Marona. After dinner we walked around the Piazza for a bit and then went and got some gelata—which is Italian ice cream. It was absolutely DELICIOUS. Then we went back to Kris and Krista’s hotel and Kris got us a cab to take us back to our hotel.
Aunt Krista was a bit tired during dinner, and didn't notice the paper we put on her head.
In front of the Pantheon with our Gelata.
To say the least, Nat and I felt like queens at this hotel. It was soooo nice! They had a bathrobe and slippers for us to wear. We each had our own queen sized bed, and the room was HUGE. I wish we weren’t so tired that night so we could have enjoyed it more, but we basically just got there and went straight to bed.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel. It was 18 euro a plate (ridiculous!), but ours was included with our room. I ate soooo much! I hadn’t had real breakfast food since I’ve been in Europe. So I had about three plates of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and fruit. I was pretty much in heaven. Afterwards, we packed up our things, checked out, and took the hotel shuttle bus back into the center of town. Nat and I did some shopping in Rome, and then met up with Kris, Krista, and Megan again.

Then, all of us took a bus to the train station, and soon we were on our way to Florence! The ride was very, very fast. Only 1.5 hours! Once we were in Florence, we took a taxi to our hotel. But, once again, this was probably THE NICEST hotel I’ve ever stayed in, and ever will stay in my whole life. It was apartment style. Two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a dining room, and a kitchen. I loved it. Anyway, we dropped off our things, and then went walking around Florence. We shopped a bit and then went out to eat at Mammamias. It was extremely good—I got hotdog pizza. Haha. Afterwards, we all got these white slushy drink things…..they were soooooo good. Afterwards, we got gelata again.

Then, Megan, Nat, and I went clubbing. Megan’s Birthday was at midnight, so we got a lot of free drinks and just had a really good time! We met one of Meg’s friends—Francesco—and also met this kid named Birtie. He ended up taking us to a dance club. Afterwards, we walked home and when we walked in the door we saw that Kris and Krista had hung a huge banner on the wall for Meg’s birthday, it was sooo cute! Then we all went to bed. Even though there were three beds—one for each girl, we all started out sleeping on the pullout bed in the living room. Natalie ended up moving to the other room but Megan and I cuddled all night! Haha.
Out for Meg's bday!
Cuddling in bed after we got back!
In the morning, we were woken up bright and early to someone knocking at the door. Megan answered, and it was 21 roses for her Birthday! Her dad had them delivered to her. It was sooo cute! But, we were still tired, so we went back to bed and didn’t wake up until super late…like 1 in the afternoon.

There were washing machines in our building, so Krista decided to stay in and try to do some laundry while the rest of us went out and walked around and did some shopping. I finally found a pair of skinny jeans—that’s what all Europeans wear—so I bought those! We ate at a little pizza stand, and then went and got some gelata. Haha, we couldn’t get enough of that stuff!

When we got back, we were surprised to see Krista was still working on the same load of laundry. It was literally taking hours to get all of the clothes washed. I still don’t understand how to work them. When I tried to do a load, it took at least two and a half hours to get them just washed. It was ridiculous.

That night we were going out to dinner with Megan’s house mom and dad in Florence. We met them at this AMAZING restaurant. We reserved a table that was in the basement of the restaurant. It was very authentic Italian. Megan’s house mom and dad’s names are Anna and Joey. They were so adorable and fun.
Meg with her flowers and banner before going out for her bday dinner!
Let me just tell you everything that we ordered at this restaurant: 2 plates of these little appetizer thingys, then four huge pieces of garlic bread as an appetizer (and there was a basket of bread at the table for us), 4 people got huge bowls of soup, everyone got a main dish, we had a bottle of house wine, and Kris and Joey drank quite a bit of beer. ….all in all, Italians eat A LOT. I couldn’t believe the amount of food that just kept on coming to our table. The waiters brought Megan ice cream for her birthday, and everyone in the basement of the restaurant sang Happy Birthday to her and applaused. It was adorable. I had so much fun that night!

Singing Happy Birthday to Megan!
Afterwards we all went to Joey and Anna’s so that we could see where Megan had been living the past few months. It was a very cute place! We sat around and talked until midnight, and then took a taxi back home.
At Joey and Anna's.
The next day was St. Paddy’s day! Kris and Krista woke up early and walked Meg to her class that morning. Natalie and I slept in till eleven, woke up and showered. We did some laundry and ended up getting locked out of our apartment. So, I ran downstairs just before the front desk closed and got a key from “the lady.” Then everyone came home and Nat and I ventured out into Florence on our own for a bit. We stopped at a grocery store and got something for us to eat the next day.

When we got back to the apartment, Meg, Nat, and I all walked back to Joey and Anna’s house so that Meg could drop off her flowers there. Then we met Kris and Krista in the middle of the city and then we walked to the train station so that we could buy our tickets for the next day. On our way home we all stopped at a little restaurant and ordered kebabs—yum!! Then we stopped at a liquor store to stock up for the night, since it was St. paddy’s day and all :)
Kris and Krista
We got back to the apartment, showered, and had a few drinks at the apartment. Two of meg’s friends came over—Allison and Diana. We all went to a few bars and just had a ton of fun! Then, we got home and meg and I ended up sleeping on the pullout bed again.

The next day Kris and Krista left pretty early for the train station to go to Lake Como. We said all of our goodbyes, and then soon after, we had to say our goodbyes to Megan before she left for class. Nat and I showered and packed our things. Nat THOUGHT she knew her way to the train station, so we took off on foot to find that. After she realized she didn’t know where it was, we asked several people and realized it was getting close to 11:30—when our train was leaving. So, we started running through the streets of Florence. FYI, I was wearing the HUGE backpack. I still don’t see how I ran with that thing on. It was sooo heavy! We ended up getting a taxi at 11:25 and pretty much just told the driver to go as fast as possible. We made it there with two minutes to spare. We rummaged through a thousand people on the train, finally found our seats and sat down.

I wrote a few postcards on the train, and then just as I was about to start writing one out to Christy I had a panic attack; the night before I had taken my passport out of my purse and gave it to my uncle before going to the clubs, and I couldn’t remember him every giving it back to me. So, Christy’s postcard was full of lots of things like: “if you haven’t heard from me by the time you get this postcard, come to Rome and find me…I’ll probably be on the streets begging for money somewhere.” Sorry about that Christy…it probably wasn’t the most pleasant card in the world. Neway, I found it. It was in my purse...so apparently Uncle Kris put it in there sometime without me knowing it. Whew.
We got off the train, and immediately Nat and I found a place to set our stuff down and sit for a while to eat our lunch (a little piece of bread). After sitting there for about ten minutes a cop came up to us and said we couldn’t sit there and we had to go sit in McDonalds. Apparently we looked homeless or something. So, we went over and sat in McDonalds for the next hour cuz Nat was feeling pretty sick.

Finally after about an hour and a half of sitting around at McDonalds, we left and walked 15 or 20 minutes to the Colloseum. Our plane didn’t leave Rome until ten at night, so we had quite a bit of time to kill. We ended up finding a quiet place outside of the colloseum and just rested there for a few hours. At 5:30 we left and found an internet café. After being there for about an hour, we walked back to the train station and got on a bus to take us to the airport. I bought some chips in the airport and called it supper.
The Colloseum!
Our plane ended up leaving about twenty minutes late. We met a kid that was on our flight and was originally from Florida, but studying in Madrid. He was traveling by himself over Easter break—CRAZY! Anyway, we sat and talked with him the entire plane ride to London.

Our plane landed around 12:30 and then it took us forever to get our passport stamped. We made it to our bus stop by 1:05—when it was supposed to leave—but the bus was late and didn’t get there till 1:30am. We got on and it was a 45 minute ride into the city. Once we got off the bus, we had to find the Victoria station in order to catch a different bus and find our hostel. At this point it was 2:30 am. We didn’t have any money for the bus, so we found an atm and then ran back to catch the bus before it left—luckily we made it just in time. That bus took us to King’s Cross—which we later found out was the bad part of town—we got off the bus and some nice people told us which direction to go to find out hostel. Sadly, we went to the address we had written down, but the hostel wasn’t there. I was so frustrated. ….wondering around at 3am in a new country is NOT FUN. A taxi driver drove by and stopped to help us. We asked him if he knew where it was and he looked it up on his gps thing. He found it and said, “I’m going in that direction anyway, I’ll give you a lift for free.” It was so nice of him! Anyway, we made it to our hostel—The Ashlee House—and checked in.

It was close to 4am when we got to our room. It was a four person room and there were two people in there sleeping, a guy and a girl, both on the bottom bunks. I’m sure we woke them up when we came in, and I felt so bad! I was extremely nervous and scared being in a room with two strangers, and ended up sleeping in my clothes and cuddled with my purse (just to make sure nothing was stolen!).

We had to be up the next morning by 8 am to pay for our room. So, needless to say, I had a restless night of sleep, and when I did finally get up and out of bed, I felt so sick—and so did Natalie. Before going downstairs I went to the bathroom and threw up. It was horrible, and I felt miserable. I couldn’t eat breakfast, and ended up eating nothing the entire day. Both Natalie and I were either throwing up in the bathroom, or sleeping all day long. We didn’t leave the hostel.

By the end of the night, all I wanted to do was go back to Klagenfurt. I couldn’t imagine being miserable like this for the next week. I used a pay phone to call my mom and basically just ended up bawling to her. I feel bad that I had to call her like that, but when you’re sick all you want is your mom with you, so I had to call her. She looked up flights for me to go home early, but we didn’t make any set plans. Instead Natalie and I tried to get a hold of our friends to see if we could stay with them for a couple nights.

Natalie got a hold of one of our friends from Sheffield, England. He is also studying in Klagenfurt, but was home for Easter break. He said we could stay at his house if we wanted to, so we made plans to go there the next day, thank goodness.

I woke up the next morning and felt a lot better...still a bit sick, but nowhere near as bad as the day before. We checked out of our hostel, found an internet café, and bought a bus ticket from London to Sheffield. We took a bus to get back to the Victoria station and found a subway restaurant inside so we and ate there.

Then we got on our bus to Sheffield. It was a 5 HOUR bus ride (it was raining and there was a ton of traffic). When we got off, we called Louis (pronounced Louie) and he told us he was at the Café Moco on main street in Sheffield. So we took the tram to where he was and sat there for a couple hours. Nat and I were hungry so we went to a little pizza shop and ate there. The pizza was disgusting. I ate one tiny, tiny piece and threw the rest away.

Natalie went to a summer camp last summer in Maine and met a kid from Sheffield named Andy, so she called him up and he met us at the café we were at. Natalie told him how much she loved flapjack (a traditional English food) and he ended up buying each of us a piece there! Around 10:30 Andy took the two of us to a bar and we sat there and talked with him and his friends for a while. All the girls there were so dressed up. Like wearing the shortest, and I mean SHORTEST dresses I’ve ever seen in my life. And there I was in my jeans and winter jacket. I felt a bit out of place. Soon after, Louis came and met us at a different club, and we went there for about an hour. I was extremely tired and couldn’t really enjoy it too much. But FYI, the people at that club danced soooo weird. BUT EVERYONE DANCED. And I mean everyone, there were people who were all by themselves and just dancing up a storm. It was kinda weird.

We went to Louis’s house afterwards and were thrilled to be in an actual home! He showed us to our room where we each had our own twin sized bed. It felt so good to sleep there. We slept in till about 10:30. Then we showered, and took a bus back into the center of town where we met Andy. He showed us around Sheffield. It is such a cute little town! We shopped for a little bit, and then his friend Tom came and picked us up in his car. We went out to eat at this restaurant called Toby Carvery’s. We all ordered a “Carvery.” I guess in England, a Carvery is a buffet. But it was good and cheap and I loved it. I ate stuffing and turkey and a lot of potatoes and gravy! After lunch, Tom drove us all around and showed us England’s country side. It was beautiful!
In Sheffield's city centre. During our Drive, notice what side of the car Tom is driving on. AND, fyi, TOM IS A MODEL!
Just a video from the drive.

Afterwards, Nat and I went to the grocery store and got some soup to eat for supper and lunch the next day. We went back into Louis’s house and took a nap until about 11 at night and then woke up and ate our soup.

Louis’s parents both speak French (they grew up in France), so Louis grew up speaking both English and French. And, most of their movies are in French. Nat and I tried to watch one before bed, but couldn’t figure out how to change the language to English so eventually we just gave up and went to bed.

The next morning I woke up, showered, and ate some more soup. I tried to call my parents allllll day long on skype, but could never get a hold of them. I was extremely frustrated. By the time I finally got a hold of them, we talked for one minute and then I had to leave to go to Andy’s house. It was a bit disheartening.

Anyway, Louis’s mom dropped us off at Andy’s house. We got there, and Nat and I ordered a Dominos Pizza. It was delicious. It was the first normal, “American” pizza we’ve had since we’ve been in Europe. Then we got online and ordered our bus tickets for the next day. We watched TV for a bit, and then the three of us went to a pub. We all just relaxed and talked for a bit and drank one or two drinks. Then we all went back to Andy’s and went to bed.

The next morning, we got up and got ready to catch our bus. Andy’s friend drove us to the bus station. Once we were in there, Nat and I were thrilled to see a candy machine. We each got several candy bars for our breakfast/lunch, and then hopped on the bus and were on the bus for four hours back to the London Victoria Station. Since it was Easter and all, Natalie and I decided to treat ourselves to a good ol’ pizza buffet at the station. Haha, it was good, but it definitely made me miss my Grandma’s home-cooked Easter dinners. Anyway, from there we got on the tube (or the subway) and went to the Paddington train station. Then we got on the train and headed to Maidenhead.
My Easter dinner.
Natalie has another friend that lives just outside of London in a town called Marlow. She ended up picking us up in Maidenhead and took us to her house. Her house was kinda like a townhouse. But it was huge. It was four stories high. and soooo nice and modern. Once we were settled, I used Harriet’s computer and finally got to talk to my family on Skype. They were all at my grandma’s house. And my Aunt Nancy and Uncle Bret were there too…so it was good to see and hear everyone!

Afterwards, Harriet’s mom cooked dinner for us. We had chicken and mushroom pie, veges, potatoes, and even this little bread appetizer thing. It was great to have a real home-cooked meal!

Later, Nat and I made reservations at a different hostel in London, and then we all watched Eurotrip together and went to bed. In the morning we got up around ten, showered, and ate FROSTED FLAKES (my favorite) for breakfast. Then we piled into Harriet’s car and went to the cute little town of Windsor. Yes, this is where the Windsor Castle is, and YES the Queen was there when we were there!
Anyway, we searched forever, but finally found a parking spot. Then we made our way towards the castle. We decided to pay and go in to take the tour. It was 7 GBP, and definitely worth every pence! It was beautiful. Since the Queen was there, the state apartments were closed, but we at least got so see everything else. After about a 2.5 hour tour, the three of us went to a little café and ate lunch. I had leek and potato soup. Then we got in the car to go back to the train train station. We said our goodbyes and then were off for the Paddington station again.
Part of the castle!

Us with Harriet.
Nat had no problem getting close to the guard, but I was too nervous!
From there we had to take a bus to the Royal Oak, because our tube line was down. Then we stood in a gas station FOREVER trying to ask where Talbot St. was (cuz that’s where our hostel was), but the guy was on a phone with a friend and wouldn’t help us. So we walked outside and ventured forever, finally, we found it, and it was RIGHT NEXT to the gas station we were just out. We felt pretty stupid.

We were staying at the Torquay Hostel. It was only 6.50 GBP a night! A great deal! Our rooms were incredibly nice too. We were in another four person room, but no one else was staying in it, so it was basically like a hotel room to ourselves! There was even a kitchen and a bathroom in our room. I loved it.

Once we were settled, we went out and searched for a supermarket. We found a Tesco on Warnick street, and bought food for the next two days. Afterwards, we ate dinner in our room, and then went to bed.

The next morning we were up at 8. We ate breakfast—rice crispies and toast—then we got ready for the day. We took a bus to the Marble Arch, and then bought tickets for the Original Bus Tour. We got on the bus at about 11, and toured around till about 7 at night. We even took a two hour cruise tour! It was pretty fun and we got to see ALL the sights. Big Ben, The Eye, The London Bridge, Buckingham Palace,…everything.
Just a pretty view during the tour.
On our bus tour
In front of Buckingham Palace.
In England and Ireland (cuz ireland they drive on the opposite side of the road too) they have these on every single cross way.

Afterwards, we found another internet café, and booked a hostel and bus tickets for the next day. Then we walked back to our hostel, ate dinner, packed our things, and went to bed around 11. I woke up at 3:50 am, and crawled out of bed about 45 minutes later. We left the hostel around 5:30 and went to catch our bus at the Victoria Station. The bus took us back to the airport and then we got all checked in and boarded our plane to Dublin, Ireland!

We arrived in Dublin about twenty minutes early. We got our luggage and our passport stamped, and then got on a bus towards the city center. We ended up getting of f way too early and had to jump back on another one. We eventually found our hostel at like 12:30 but couldn’t check in until 3 that afternoon. So we went and got groceries from across the street (bread and peanut butter). Then we ate a sandwich and sat in the lounge and watched Oprah for the next hour or so.

We eventually checked in. We were staying in a 12 person female dorm, but it was incredibly nice. After we put our stuff in our room, we went out and ventured Dublin! We went shopping and I bought another pair of skinny jeans. Eventually we made it back to our hostel, showered, and went searching for a drag queen show at some gay bar. Random story: we saw some guy, I assume he was drunk, but he was pooping outside of McDonalds on the street. I couldn’t believe it. I laughed so hard about that. And he wasn’t trying to disguise it either, he was just squatting right in front of everyone. Yuck.

Anyway, after that big scene, we ran into three guys from Boston, and ended up just bar hopping with them. I was so excited to be in a REAL IRISH PUB!!! Anyway, later that night we found out that the three boys we met were from HARVARD! I couldn’t believe that. Anyway, the boys bought us Jameson whisky shots, and then we all shared a bottle of white wine before going into a club.
With the three Harvard boys!
After a long night of dancing, we all headed back to the hostel (they were staying in the same one as us). We talked in their room for a bit, and then we went to bed. The next morning Natalie and I went to the Guiness Factory Museum. That was soooo fun! We got there around noon and had a tour of the seven floor building for the next two and a half hours. They gave us a taste of the Guiness—but both Nat and I didn’t like it. The coolest part of the whole thing was the top floor—the Gravity Bar. It was all glass, and you could see the entire city of Dublin. They gave us a complimentary drink, but since Nat and I didn’t like the Guiness, we got soda instead.
In front of a waterfall inside of the museum.

Our first taste of guiness!

A video from the inside of the gravity bar.
In the gravity bar. That is the actual city behind Nat, not just a picture!at some random medieval place.
n At a castle in Dublin. ...standing in the guard's thing.
After the factory, we walked around Dublin for a bit, just seeing some of the sights. Dublin wasn’t what I expected at all. When I think of Ireland, I think of green rolling hills…but I guess since we were in the city I shouldn’t have expected that. I don’t know, there just wasn’t much to do there. The Guiness factory was probably the main attraction. When we got back to the hostel, we watched a movie and then went to bed.

Some sweet glasses I was tempted to buy at H&M.
The next two days were not very fun. Our plane left at 6:00 am on Saturday, so Natalie and I decided not to pay for a hostel on Friday night. So, Friday morning we checked out and walked to the port of Dublin. It was a good 2 hour walk—and it was pouring rain the whole way. By the time we got there the rain had cleared up, and we found a rock a place to sit and eat our pb sandwiches on the beach. Then we walked to a café and drank some hot coco to warm ourselves up. Then, we went all the way back to the city center. We went out to eat at the Bad Ass Café. It was an expensive place, but we thought that since we had only eaten peanut butter sandwiches that last three days that we should be able to splurge our last night in Dublin. So I spent 15 euro on a bacon cheeseburger and fries. It was delicious, but definitely not worth the 22 US DOLLARS that I spent on it.
Our lunch on the beach....and yup, my hair is soaked from the rain.
At the Cafe.
After dinner, Natalie and I went to the hostel and sat in the lounge until about 11:30. Then, since we were homeless for the night, we started walking to the airport. It was a good 2.5 hour walk. It was miserable. And we had no clue where it was either. Anyway, we got there at 2:15 and laid around on the benches until 4:30 when we could check in. We landed in London at 7:30. Our plane to Klagenfurt wasn’t until 4:50. So, for the next 8 hours we slept on the airport benches. It was absolutely miserable. The flight to Klagenfurt was full of middle schoolers. They were so loud and annoying. And my ears were going crazy and hurt so bad from all the pressure. Needless to say, it felt so good to finally land back in Klagenfurt. Nat and I took a taxi back to our dorm and were THRILLED to get back to our room.
After a 2.5 hour walk, we finally got to the dublin airport!

From being in the rain all day yesterday and the day before, I caught a horrible cold and had a miserable night of sleep last night. Anyway, it still feels so good to be home.

All in all, the past 17 days were great! Of course, we had a few bad days, but we still had a great time! I would definitely say that Rome was my favorite city, and Dublin was probably my least favorite. My parents come on Friday of this week, AND I CAN”T WAIT! We’ll be spending a few days in Klagenfurt, then in Rome, Paris, and Munich! I can’t wait! And I can’t wait to see them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Before I end this, I just want to say thanks to Kris, Krista, and Megan! Thanks for EVERYTHING! Both Natalie and I had so much fun with all of you! You were way too sweet to us! Love you very much!!

A few weird things:
-in England and Ireland you stand in a queue instead of a line. they say "mind the steps" instead of "watch the steps"..among other prhases like that.

-in England they say "cheers" instead of thank you.

-in England they call everyone "my love." ...awkward the first time you hear it.

-in Dublin we saw a lot of people that pretended to be homeless and were begging for money. Once we saw a girl that was begging on her knees with a cup in her hand, and then five minutes later saw the same girl across the street talking on her cell phone.

-"taking a piss" in england means "pulling your leg."

They serve beer in McDonalds.

To any of you that actually read this whole thing....wow.

AHHH!!

2008-03-13T01:11:00.000-07:00

HERE I GO!!! I AM SOOO EXCITED!!!! :) ...and NERVOUS!! love you and miss you, and MOM AND DAD I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE YOU IN ONLY 3 MORE WEEKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE YOU!

An interesting two days!!!

2008-03-12T15:29:00.000-07:00

Haha, yesterday was an interesting day. Nat and I had a lot to get accomplished, so we were up and ready to go by 10 am. First of all, we went to the train station and got our Fotas cards. It's a card that students can buy for 20 euro to get 25% of all the train passes outside of Austria, and 50% of all of the trains inside of Austria.

Then, we got back on the bus and headed to the city. Now, when you ride the bus, your supposed to pay 1,70 euro. OR, you can buy a pass every month for 25 euro and ride it all you want. The bus driver never checks to see if you have a card. BUT, there is one guy in charge of the whole city that gets on random buses to make sure that everyone has either paid or has a pass. AND if you don't have one, then you have to pay a 60 euro fine.

The odds that that one guy gets on the same bus that we happen to be on is very slim. SO BASICALLY, Natalie and I never pay. I know, it makes me sound like such a horrible person, but I'm on a budget, and I decided that saving almost 2 euro a day was worth it. We were just talking about how we had never been caught before..then two seconds later, on walks The Man. Natalie and I didn't know what to do. We basically pooped our pants. When he came to us, he said something in German, and so we asked if he spoke any English. And he said no. So, I looked in my wallet and pulled out this random student card, called the ISIC card. This card is in no way related to the bus situation. But, somehow, he accepted it. I WAS SO RELIEVED!

After that whole situation, Natalie and I went to get a Kebab from the city (I had to step over a dog that was laying in the doorway in the restaurant...weird). After the Kebab, we went to the City Arkaden (the mall) and bought a cellphone for 20 euro, it is SO old school.

Afterwards we both went to class and found out that we have a 20 PAGE PAPER TO WRITE! LITERALLY, 20 PAGES. OH MY GOSH! that is not humanly possible. ...the topic--Racism in Aboriginal Australia. HAHAHAHA. I'm screwed.

Anyway. After my kickboxing class, I went to the Mozartheim party. Got home at 4:30 am. Had class at 8:30.

Lance, Christoph, Christian, and Me

Gavin, Alex, Tally, and Me

Then, I went to the city, got some well needed twix bars, and some other snack foods to take with me on my adventure.

At 2:00 I had my business class. English for Business Administration 1. LET ME EXPLAIN-- this is a class for German students that are learning English. HAHA. So, today when the professor was describing the syllabus, I couldn't help but laugh to myself. Our final exam is an english telephone call. What a challenge.

Then we did this exercise where we go around the room asking the other students questions in English like, "How long have you been studying English?" or "How many hours a week do you study English?" Then we had to interview another student and present them to the class. Gosh, I felt so stupid. ANYWAY, I'm going to continue taking the class. I am going to be teaching English in China for a month after I leave Austria, so I figure this will be a great way for me to get some good lesson plans. I talked to the professor about it and she was completely fine with that. SO, at least I know I'm guaranteed one A for the semester. Unless, somehow on test day I blank about how I am supposed to answer the telephone.

Now I am finishing packing and getting ready for my busy week. I am going to try and journal about my trip so that when I get back I can blog about everything! But, I guess this is goodbye for the next two weeks. Love you all. Gute Nacht.

after one week of school, it's already time for our two week easter break. here is the plan!!!

2008-03-12T15:22:00.000-07:00

Alright, we finally have all the details of our spring break worked out! Natalie and I will be literally “backpacking” around Europe. We are sharing one backpack for the entire 2 and a half week adventure—wish us luck! Mom and Dad, this is my cell phone number (this is what you would dial from the USA): 0043676/4856796. Here is the itinerary:

Thursday, March 13
- Depart from Treviso, Venice @ 18:55/6:55PM Confirmation Number: YYC4DG
- Arrive in Rome @ 19:55/7:55PM
- Not sure where we’ll be sleeping yet. I’m calling Uncle Kris and Aunt Krista as soon as we land to figure it all out.
- Megan’s phone number: 393288787744
- Uncle Kris’s phone number: 909 721 9416
- Cristoforo Colombo Hotel 710 00144 (where Kris and Krista are staying): 39065921901

Friday, March 14
- Today will be spent with Kris, Krista and my cousin Megan. We’ll just be doing a little bit of sightseeing around Rome—I’m SO EXCITED!!
- Stay the night in Rome

Saturday, March 15
- Wake up in Rome and maybe do more sightseeing.
- Take a train/bus to Florence.
- Stay the night in the Hotel Palazzio Dei Ciompi Suites

Sunday, March 16
- Megan’s Birthday!!! Today will be spent doing whatever Megan feels like!
- Stay the night in the Hotel Palazzio Dei Ciompi Suites

Monday, March 17
- Happy St. Patty’s Day!
- We aren’t sure whether we’ll be staying another day in Florence, or going back to Rome for the day/night. We’ll see how we feel.

Tuesday, March 18
- Depending on what we do the 17th, we’ll wake up here or we’ll arrive here in the afternoon sometime.
- Depart from Rome Ciampino(CIA) @ 22:05/10:05PM Confirmation Number: TLBKBL
- Arrive in London Stansted (STN) @ 23:45/11:45PM
- Check into a hostel for the night.

Wednesday, March 19-Tuesday, March 25
- These six days will be spent in England. We are hoping to travel up to Liverpool, Manchester, and Sheffield, but do not have any set and stone arrangements yet. Natalie has friends here that we will hopefully be able to stay with for a couple nights!

Wednesday, March 26
- Depart London Stansted (STN) @ 9:35AM Confirmation Number: G5517M
- Arrive in Dublin @ 10:50AM
- We’ll spend the day sightseeing Dublin!
- Check into a hostel and stay there.

Thursday, March 27-Friday, March 28
- Spend these two days doing more sightseeing in Ireland—probably just in Dublin.
- We’ll stay in the same hostel (I think) all three nights. Saturday, March 29
- Depart Dublin @ 6:30AM Confirmation Number: G5517M
- Arrive in London Stansted (STD) @ 7:45AM- Spend the day in London waiting for our next flight to take us back home.
- Depart from London Stansted(STN) @ 16:50/4:50PM Confirmation Number: A5TCNZ
- Arrive in Klagenfurt (KLU) @ 19:45/7:45PM

Sunday, March 30
- SLEEP ALL DAY LONG IN MY OWN BED!!

boring week.

2008-03-09T08:03:00.001-07:00

So, Tuesday afternoon Natalie and I went into the city and met Louis and Derek. We ate Kebobs and then, at 2 Nat and I had our Australian course together. It was quite long and quite boring. I think that is how all of my classes are going to end up being.

At 5:30 I had my Kickboxing class. That was an experience. First of all, I get there and first thing I realize this is not a beginners class; I am a beginner. Luckily it is a small class of about 8 people. One other guy happens to be a beginner too, so of course, we are partners for the rest of the semester...and he is at least 50 years old. Ha.

We warmed up by playing 20 minutes of basketball. Just to give you an idea of how horrible they were at basketball....I HATE basketball and try to play as little as possible, and I was the best one on the court. A little ridiculous. They didn't know what double dribbling or traveling was, and they all shot with two hands.

Kickboxing was fun though. We even get to wear the gloves and shoes. I only learned a few different moves on Tuesday, but I'm pretty sure by the end of the semester I will be comparable to Rocky.

Afterwards, Nat and I went with about 6 other people to Mozartheim (the other dorm) for their weekly Tuesday night party. We didn't get there til about 11:30, and I only stayed till about 1:30. I was super tired. Apparently those parties last until 6 am, but I'm pretty sure I'll never be able to actually last the whole night.

Wednesday morning I was up bright an early for my 8:30 am class--English Linguistics. Talk about easy. She said "It's okay if you guys don't want to come to class, all the notes are on the internet..I'm just here to say it outloud." How ridiculous.

After class I met Blabi, Christoph and Natalie outside of the dorm and we drove to some mall to do some quick shopping. Then we went over to another mall and ate lunch. I ordered a pizza from the food court. I thought I was ordering sausage, but after a few bites realized it was tunafish pizza. Weird. Weird. Weird. I couldn't finish it. ...I like tuna, it's just not very pleasant to eat fish when your expecting sausage.

Afterwards we went to this HUGE grocery store. And when I say huge, I mean huge for Europe. ....It wasn't even close to a HyVee kind of huge. My most valued item that I bought-- CHEDDAR cheese!!!!! So far that's the first I've seen since I've been here.

We got home by 2 cuz I had class at 2:30. BUT, I went to find my room and it turned out that that class didn't actually start til the following wednesday. So, I went and hung out with Markus instead. We went for a walk and then just sat at the lake for a while. When I came home it was time to go to Blabi's birthday party. We got there around 8 and just had fun hanging out with them. I've decided that Blabi is by far the funniest person I have ever met in my life. Natalie and I went home around 11.

Thursday I woke up super duper late. Blabi and I met outside of my building at 3:45 to go to our business class together. The teacher suggested I take a different one because this was going to be way to easy for me. She said that she would benefit more than I would if I stayed in there(because I guess it's for german students learning english). So, long story short, I dropped that class and am now taking another monday class from 12-2. SO YIPEE--NO CLASS ON THURSDAY OR FRIDAYS NOW!!!

Thursday night at 8:30 I had my other work out class. THe title of the class is "ab-power" but it's more like a step/ab/weight class. AND, it's taught completely in German. So, basically my head was cranked to the side the entire time so I could see what the instructor was doing since I couldn't understand two words that were coming out of her mouth.

Thursday night around midnight, Markus drove me and Natalie to this random mountain just outside of Klagenfurt. We parked the car and then walked up a trail for about five minutes to a ledge that overlooks the city. It was a GORGEOUS view. You could see all of the lights of the klagenfurt....I tried to take a picture but it didn't turn out. Afterwards we went home and went to bed.

Friday I woke up super late though.....like 1. I had no class and I don't remember what I did during the day. Haha, sorry! Friday night was the University party. It was kinda boring this time. I got home at 3:30 and went to bed. Yesterday I woke up at 1:00 in the afternoon. Then I went and played soccer with everyone, came home showered and went to a soccer game with Christian, Blabi, Christoph, and Natalie. Klagenfurt won 1-0. WOOHOO! Afterwards, Natalie and I went home, ate supper, hung out, and went to bed. TODAY, I woke up late again--like noon--ate lunch, and I am currently doing laundry. Woohoo.

did you know there are over 20 different kinds of schnitzels? cuz there are.

2008-03-03T10:26:00.000-08:00

I think I forgot to mention that the Slovenia trip that was planned for this weekend was cancelled. Not enough people were interested so it has been post-poned to I don't know when.

Alright...so Saturday night we went and played ping pong with a few other people. ...I'm pretty bad by the way--I lost every game. The greatest part of the night was when Blabi brought us down some strawberries. I don't even like strawberries, but I had the biggest craving for some fruit (cuz I haven't had any since I've been here!).

On Sunday, Blabi and Christoph invited us over for lunch. It was so cute. We went over at 12:30 and Blabi was locked in his room and we weren't allowed to look in there. Apparently it was a disaster--Hell's Kitchen they called it. So we went over to Christoph's room and they had the table set up all cute for us. Christoph came running in about 5 minutes later with pasta and a pan of Ramschnitzel. They dished out all the food for us and then we began! It was delicious! I was very impressed. Afterwards, we had a shot of I don't know what. They said in Italy it's tradition that everyone takes a shot after your meal to help digest the food...so we did.

After lunch, around two, Blabi came with us to the hockey slab where we met about 15 of our other friends. We played soccer for about an hour until we got kicked off by some real hockey players. Then we went to the Mozartheim courtyard and played there until about 4:30. By that time I was hungry again, so I hurried home and cooked some pasta for supper.

Right after I finished my meal, Clemmons came in and invited us to the roof for a barbeque. So, an hour later we went, but I didn't eat anything...we just sat around and talked with everyone. At 9, about ten people came over to our dorm to hang out. We sat in the tv/smoke room and just talked with everyone and ate some popcorn. It was fun, but by the end of the night I was EXHAUSTED! At 12 something I went back to the room and went straight to bed.

This morning I woke up around ten and went for a run. I've had a horrible blister on my foot for the past week now and today it hurt extra bad. ugh. Anyway...after my run I showered and went to my 2:00 class.

It was my American studies class...the one focused on Vietnam. The professor asked why we signed up for the class. I said that I thought it would be interesting to hear it taught by someone that wasn't from America...just to see if it was taught differently, or the words I used were, "different perspectives." I don't think he quite understood what I meant, but luckily some other kid in the class started talking and explained to him what I meant. Whew. ...I'm nervous that the professor is going to think that I know a lot about this war and ask me questions or expect a lot of input from me...but I definitely won't have anything to say so this could be interesting!

I dropped my computer class because it was only worth one us credit and it was a ton of work so that was my only class of the day!

Afterwards Nat and I went to the city but got nothing accomplished and are super tired now. SO, I plan on watching a movie from the internet and going to bed. CIAO!

this is me venting.

2008-03-01T09:59:00.000-08:00

Well about 30 minutes ago I could have said with one hundred percent confidence that last night and today has been the best 2 days I've had since I've been here...but I just woke up from my nap and went to go start some dinner, but discovered that ALL OF MY HAM AND CHEESE HAS BEEN STOLEN FROM THE FRIDGE! I am so mad. I know it may seem like a ridiculous thing to be upset about...but when you're living on a budget--a very tight budget--it would make you mad too. They stole 2 unopened packages, and two packages that were JUST opened. Alright, I need to stop talking about this, I need to get out of this mood.

LAST NIGHT, natalie and i went over to watch a movie with Blabie and Christoph. We ended up watching Cry Wolf. It was a super good thriller/scary movie. It was one of those movies that was unexpectedly good--BON JOVI is in it. Noone there appreciated it's pure goodness. Nate (if you happen to be reading this), I know you would have liked it and last night I even said out loud, "I wish Nate was here!"

After the movie we met a ton of friends and we all went bar hopping. We had so much fun together! We just danced the night away. I loved everyone I was with...and pretty much can't wait to do the same thing with all of them again sometime. We didn't get back till 5 am. We went straight to bed. We woke up around ten and got ready to go play soccer again. Rachel, Talli, Nat and I ended up going to the city center first for lunch. We got kebobs and ice cream. I'm obsessed with kebobs now. That is something I'm going to miss when I leave this place.

OH YEAH, we saw a lady wearing a fox fur today...but it was like the entire fox--legs and head even. It was disgusting and weird. She had the body on her back, and the legs dangled and swayed when she walked...and then it's head was resting on her shoulder. I could not stop looking at it. I don't know if she thought she was cool or that it looked good....but those were definitely not the thoughts that I had when I saw her.

Anyway, we played soccer and then it started pouring rain after about 30 minutes and then everyone left. Natalie ran home. This was another time that I said "I wish Nate was here." Noone wanted to play in the rain with me...and I know he would have. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the rain, so I decided to take my time and walk the entire 20 minutes back by myself. I enjoyed jumping in every single puddle that I saw.

When I got back I was absolutely soaked. I took a shower and went to bed. ....you already know what happened when I woke up (the stolen food!)....but now after discussing my last night and today, I am in a little bit better of a mood. I'm going to go to mozartheim and play some ping pong now. Adios amigos.

BTW Nate, it's pretty obvious after reading this, but in case you can't tell, I miss you!

...just so you can keep everyone straight, I've made a CHARACTER CHART! :)

2008-02-29T05:32:00.000-08:00

Alright, well because I know how much trouble my mom has keeping all the people that I talk about straight, I decided to make a character map of everyone!
This is Me! I live in Uniheim with Natalie and am friends with all of these people.
Natalie- My friend from UNI, roomie over here, and the girl that I spend every waking minute with! She is also friends with all of these people.
Lance- Another friend from UNI. He lives directly below me, but not for long. He is way homesick and has decided not to stay here for the semester. He'll be leaving in a couple weeks. He is friends with all of the exchange students.
Petra- This is my entree, or contact person. She is an Austrian student studying in Klagenfurt, and the girl that I am suppose to go to with questions.
Sibylle (Billy)- This is Natalie's entree. Her and Petra know one another and are friends.
Sebastian- The 19 year old kid I met on my first train ride from Vienna to Klagenfurt. He is currently doing his 8 month military service in his hometown of Hermagor (which is about 1.5 hours away from Klagenfurt). We've gone on skiing together in Hermagor and soon he'll be visiting us in Klagenfurt.
Alberto- 25 years old. From Italy. Lives in Uniheim (my dorm) and on my floor. He is friends with Conny and Markus.
Conny- 21 years old. From Austria. Lives on my floor in Uniheim. Is SUPER sweet...my favorite girl friend. Is friends with Alberto, Markus, and Clemmons.
Markus- 26 years old. From Austria, near Hermagor. Lives in Uniheim, 2 floors below me. Is friends with Conny and Alberto.
Clemmons- 22 years old. Lives directly across the hall from me. Super nice. Is friends with Conny. ...I also hang out with many of his other friends, but they aren't on this character chart!
Christian (aka Blabi)- Lives in Mozartheim (another dorm). LOVES CANDY AND FUTBOL! Is friends with Christoph, Christian, and Marcos.
Christian- Is 24 years old. Lives in Mozartheim. IS A TRIPLETT! Is extremely smart. Is friends with Blabi, Christoph, and Marcos.
Christoph- Lives in Mozartheim. Very very nice! Is friends with Blabi, Christian, and Marcos.
Marcos- 28 years old. An Exchange student from Nicaragua. Lives in Mozartheim. One of me and Natalie's best guy friends. Is friends with Blabi, Christian, Christoph, and all the other exchange students.
Misty- An exchange student from Kansas. Lives in Concordia (another dorm). Is friends with all of the other exchange students. She knew Gavin before coming here.
Gavin- An exchange student from Kansas. Lives in Concordia. Is friends with all the other exchange students, Blabi, and Christoph. He knew Misty before coming here.
Hope- An exchange student from Australia. Lives in Mozartheim. Is friends with all the other exchange students. Is just now learning how to ride a bike--Gavin is teaching her.
Audrey- An exchange student (kinda) from Ireland. Always a sweetheart. Is friends with all the other exchange students.
Al- 28 years old. Works at the rec-center. Is the man in charge of all of the exchange student trips. ...basically our tourguide. He is super funny and nice.

Alright, that's all for now. As soon as I make more friends I'll try to remember to add them to this!

MacDon's, The Missing Mars Bar, and My Class Schedule!

2008-02-29T05:25:00.001-08:00

WELL—Wednesday night Natalie, Christoph, Christian (aka Blabi), Marcos, and I all went to a pub and watched some futbol. The Klagenfurt soccer coach ended up coming in and watched too. Which was pretty exciting because apparently he’s like a small town celebrity here. BY THE WAY...there was a yellow lab in the pub with someone...just wondering around. And that's a very normal occurence.

After the game we went to McDonalds and got a shake and some curly fries. A couple weird things about the MacDon’s here: They charge 20 cents for every pack of ketchup you get. And…they serve the curly fries with sour cream. I thought it sounded weird, but I tried it and decided I like it better than ketchup! And, there is shrimp on the menu! And, there is no such thing as “super sized” (not that I wanted to!). AND weirdest of all, when you walk in the first set of doors there is a place for your dog to eat—for free. I couldn’t even believe that.

Even though yesterday was Thursday…I’m having a hard time remembering everything I did but here is what I can think of… Natalie and I woke up around 10 and went to the University so Blabi could help us figure out what classes we are going to take. We ended up having to go talk to some advisor to ask a few questions and then when we were ready to sign up, we released we didn’t have a username and password—and we had no clue how to get one. So, anyway, we went home and made lunch and I asked around and eventually managed to get a name and password. Whew.

At 2:30, we went to the city center—which is called Heilegengeis Platz—to get a few things from Woolworths (the closest thing to a target…but really not even close) and from Spar (the closest thing to a Fareway). We met a friend from Kansas there—Gavin—and helped him search for a man-bag (because all guys seem to have one over here), but we had no luck. After all our shopping was done, we went over to Mozartheim to meet Blabi so that he could help us register for classes.

SO, starting this Monday, this is what my schedule will be:

Monday— 2:00-4:00 Topics in American Studies
5:30-7:00 English for Computing 1

Tuesday— 2:00-4:00 Topics in Australian Studies
5:30-7:00 Kickboxing

Wednesday— 8:30-10:00 Survey of English Linguistics
2:30-4:30 English for Business Administration 1

Thursday— 4:00-6:00 English for Business Administration 2
8:30-10:00 Ab-Power

Friday— Absolutely NOTHING!

Natalie also has a good schedule, but she doesn’t have class on Thursday or Friday! Talk about amazing! I’m pretty excited for all of these ones—especially my first class…it’s based on the Vietnam war, and we’ll be reading a book that I read my senior year of high school…so that shouldn’t be too bad. Oh yeah…all of these classes are taught in English—I wouldn’t pass a single one if they were in German.

ANYWAY, we left Blabi’s and went back home. We cooked supper and then watched some TV off our computer. Earlier that day I put a Mars bar (a milky way) in the freezer so I could have a snack after dinner. BUT, when I went to get it, it was gone! Evidently someone stole it—and believe me, I was MAD! I know, it was only a candy bar…but I had been looking forward to it all day long! So, I settled for some popcorn, ate that and went to bed.

This morning I woke up and went for my run. Remember how after my first run this month I could only go about ten minutes before being out of breath and walking?? WELL, today I ran for 45 minutes STRAIGHT, and then walked for 45 minutes afterwards. I’m not back in shape yet…but I’m definitely making some progress! Oh yeah, and I saw someone else running in shorts and t-shirt today!

After running, I came home and could 2 sausages for lunch (aka hotdogs) and now here I am! I hope you all have a great Leap Year Day!

Saturday Night til Today

2008-02-27T09:00:00.000-08:00

Recap:

Saturday night a ton of us went out to Saluds (the Mexican restaurant) for happy hour. Everything was incredibly expensive, so Natalie and I both just got one drink and we sat around and talked to everyone. Then we moved on and went to our first disco. We had to pay 4 euro to go in, and you had to be 21. Apparently I look 21 because they didn’t even question me, but it definitely took a while for them to let Natalie in.

This is Marcos and I at Salud's.
This is inside the disco!
Anyway, we danced until 4:30 in the morning—and when we left the party was still going strong. I’m pretty sure it stayed open till 6am or so. When we were standing outside, an Austrian boy came up and asked where we were from. We told him and then he started SCREAMING at us. He was cussing about Bush (because EVERYONE hates him over here) and saying a lot of other stuff about America. So, instead of listening to him, we just walked away. The walk home was about thirty minutes long and on the way back we found an open gas station so we went in and picked up a frozen pizza. We came home, cooked it, talked to Toni and Christy on skype, and then finally around 6:30 am, we went to bed. It was a very long night.

On Sunday, Natalie and I were incredibly sore from our runs the day before, so we thought walking might make us feel a little bit better. So we ventured out in our shorts and t-shirts (once again, the only two people dressed like that) and walked for about 3 hours. We followed the lake and walked to the next town—Kupendorf. It was incredibly nice out and there were people all over the place! The skate park was packed, and the bike trails were covered with bikers and walkers.

Monday was a fairly bad day. We woke up at nine and had to go to the BIB (international office) to hand in a copy of our passport. Natalie asked Christina (one of the in charge ladies) if she could make a copy so she went to try and apparently couldn’t get it to work. She came back and started saying something in German. She knows we can’t speak German, so Natalie said “what?” And then Christina said “you guys need to speak German,” in an incredibly mean way. So after that, we left and walked over to the rec-center to sign up for classes. The line was INCREDIBLY LONG. We waited in line for over an hour and when we finally got to the window, found out that we needed proof that we are an exchange student—which we didn’t have. We had our Klagenfurt ID’s but apparently that wasn’t good enough.

So, we walked all the way back to our room got our print off and came back. Luckily the line was short enough by that time that we only had to wait another 15 minutes. We ended up signing up for Kickboxing and Ab Power…we’ll see how they go. Both of them are only once a week so it shouldn’t be too strenuous.

Monday night we went over to Mozartheim and hung out with a few friends. We didn't really do much...just played Wii and hung out. The boys insisted on walking us home...which is incredibly cute and they always do it.
The girl Natalie created for Wii--Janellizl.

And this is my girl--Os'madfer.

Tuesday was a GREAT DAY! I woke up around ten and went for a 45 minute run. Normally, people here don’t say hi or smile when they pass by one another, but today I decided to try it. I did it to every single person that I ran by (and there were quite a few) just to see what their reaction would be. All I’d say was “morgen!” (morning!) and everyone was very pleased to hear it. They all were a little startled at first, but then they’d smile and say the same thing back. It was a fun little experiment.
At 3:00 we went to the rec-center to pay Al—the tour guide—75 euro for our weekend trip to Slovenia. And then walked with Misty and Hope over to Mozartheim (another dorm). We met about 10 other people there and then took a bus to the city. We all got Kebobs. It is a Turkish food, but it’s pretty much exactly like a Gyro. It was very very good. After words we went to an Italian ice cream shop and got some ice cream. It was a great bonding experience.
Lance and his Kebob.

Natalie and I had to leave early because we were meeting a few other friends back at Mozartheim at 6. We got there and pretty much left right away. We went to the futball stadium to get tickets for the game that night. Girls always get in free, so that was a plus! Then we walked back to Mozartheim and just hung out and ate some popcorn before heading over. At 8 we left for the game. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!! It was Klagenfurt vs. Graz. Both are Austrian teams, but Graz is much better than Klagenfurt so pretty much everyone was going for them. They ended up winning 2-0.
Delilah, Me and Nat at the game.Klagenfurt is white, Graz is yellow.This is Christian--the new boy I like :)

All of us after the game

Afterwards back at Mozartheim
Afterwards we went back to Mozartheim and ended up staying there until a little after 2. Then I went back to the dorms and hung out in Clemmons’ room. There were five of us hanging out in there (watching youtube videos) until 4 am. At that time Nat and I were exhausted so we both left and went to bed.

Today I woke up around 12. I made lunch and then got ready to go play soccer. We met at 2 at Mozartheim with a bunch of other international students. We ended up playing on an old hockey slab. It was incredibly fun. We played until 4 and then went to the grocery store, came home, ate pizza, and here I am! In about an hour we are going with a few friends to a pub to watch some more futbol.

Alright…time for me to go get ready. Love you all!

This is Graz's fan club. They chanted the entire time. I loved it!

...a few things from today

2008-02-23T06:58:00.000-08:00

I just got back from a 3 hour run/walk around Klagenfurt. It was so beautiful outside--60 degrees! I feel so sorry for everyone in Iowa. I know you are all suffering this winter--I heard it's the 2nd worst one in all of Iowa's history...I'm not sorry I'm missing it.

I noticed that not a single person was wearing shorts and a tshirt. I was the ONLY person. Most people were even wearing their winter coats. I couldn't believe it. I was wearing less than half of what they had on and I was sweating like crazy. I was wondering if maybe it's illegal, or weird, to wear shorts before a certain day of the year. Like not before May or something. I dont know...but I sure got quite a few weird looks--I guess it could have just been that everyone was shocked at how white a humans legs could actually be.

Also, everyone's dogs are so well trained. They are rarely on leashes and they follow their owners so well. If I ever took Chuck on a walk without his leash I'd never see him again.

Another thing-- there are swans here! I'd never seen one until I got here but I see them all the time just floating up the stream here. Gosh I love it.

all about my GREAT week!

2008-02-22T16:40:00.000-08:00

An update on my last week:

Monday: Well Monday, I pretty much did nothing. I was completely focused on planning out the trip for when everyone comes to Europe. “Everyone” is my beautiful sister, my charming little brother, Chandler Eley, Grant Robinson, Adam Bell, Chad Phares, and Jamie Olson. They are all coming on May 28th, and basically…IM THRILLED! I can’t wait for them to see this place.

Also, on Monday Natalie and I bought a plane ticket from Venice to Rome for March 13th. My Uncle Kris and Aunt Krista are going to Italy to visit their daughter (my cousin) that is also studying abroad this semester, so Natalie and I are going to visit them and help celebrate Megan’s 21st birthday! I can’t wait, it’s going to be an absolute blast!!!

Tuesday: After class on Tuesday, Natalie and I went to the lake and studied for our final exam in our Deutsch class. The weather was gorgeous. We sat on the dock and I rolled up my jeans (to try and minimize the pasty white shade my legs have become) and just enjoyed the lake. Afterwards we went home, made some dinner, and then showered and went over to Marcos’s dorm. We met up with two of his friends and then walked to a pub. There were about four soccer games on, so we watched those and then headed home around 12. I studied for about ten more minutes for my final, and then went to bed.

Wednesday: Wednesday was my final. It definitely wasn’t easy, but I felt I did okay on it. After class I got home and saw that I had a package! I went to the post office right away to see what it was. My jaw dropped when I opened it. It was a pillow made from Brad’s old jeans and flannel. Brad’s mom and sister made it for me. It is so perfect. Being here—thousands of miles away from home—makes me miss Brad all the more. Having this, something of his that I can hold onto every night, just makes me feel closer to him, or like I can feel him with me. There is an angel pin on it too—so now I really am sleeping with angels every night. I love it. It’s absolutely perfect.

After lunch, Natalie and I went into town. We went to H&M and then to the mall. I finally bought a pair of cowboy boots. For like 2 years now I’ve been looking for the most perfect pair, and I finally found them! I CANNOT WAIT to wear them. After shopping, Natalie and I went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant called Salud. We’d been craving Mexican—or anything that tasted somewhat normal—since we’d been here. We devoured a plate of nachos, and then took home about half of our meal for some leftovers. It was amazing. I tried to savor every single bite.

When we got home, Nat and I played dress up and took turns doing runway walks with all of our new clothes on. Clemmons happened to come in while we were all dressed up. It was quite embarrassing. We’re such girls.

After dress up I watched even more soccer. Clemmons, Hammes (a guy that lives diagonal from me), and I watched the Arsenal vs. Milan soccer game, and then half of another one. I love how everyone here is so obsessed with soccer. At home it’s all about football...but here soccer is what they live for—gosh it’s amazing.

Thursday: I got my final back in class. 97 out of 107. …so 91 percent. I’m okay with that. After class I went and got my student ID. My picture looks absolutely ridiculous. I got home and Lance (the other kid from UNI that’s here) and he said that he had mail for me. It got put in his box by mistake (for the second time now). I knew exactly what it was and ran downstairs to get it. I ran to the post office and got another package. This one was from my Mom and Dad. They sent me salad dressing (because it doesn’t exist here), grape jelly (because it doesn’t exist here), TWIX, a giant peanut butter cup, and a few other things that I feel like I can’t live without. It was amazing. I’ve already eaten half of the twix bars—and there were like 50.

Thursday night Marcos came over and we took a bus to the other side of town. We went to some Indian peoples' house and they cooked for us there. They made about four or five different things, and it was all SOOOO SPICY! My mouth was on fire. They said that they made some of the least spicy things they could just for us—but it was still the spiciest thing I have ever tasted in my entire life. I was sweating the entire time I ate it. I don’t know how they think that is enjoyable. We even ate with our fingers. They tried to teach us how to do it correctly, but I was absolutely horrible at it. I ended up with basically all my rice on my lap by the time I was done.

After eating all of us went to an Irish pub for an hour or so, came home and went to bed.

Friday: Today I went to class and got my certificate for finishing! That’s basically all we did in class. One of the other students, June (who is actually like 45 years old and from England) brought us a treat—flapjack. It’s pretty much like a no-bake cookie, but without the chocolate and peanut butter. Natalie was obsessed with it. An Indian kid also brought us a treat. But, after last nights experience, I couldn’t fully appreciate it. I didn’t feel like sweating again. It was alright, but I couldn’t finish it.

After class, Nat and I went grocery shopping and stocked our cupboards again. It seems like I got so much, but it was only 13 euro. I’ve definitely learned how to pinch my pennies.

We went to the bank and paid a couple bills, and then went to the rec center just to see what was there. Al (the guy that took us to Venice) works there, and he showed us around. He also talked to me for about 20 minutes about everything I have to do when everyone comes to visit me—where to go, how to do it, etc. He’s incredibly helpful.

Afterwards, we came home and bought another plane ticket for March 18th (for less than 20 euro!). We’ve decided that after we are done in Rome and Florence with my Aunt and Uncle, we are going to fly from Rome to London and stay for a few days traveling around London, Liverpool, and Manchester. From there we will fly/take a ferry over to Ireland and stay for a few days. I have two friends from UNI that are studying there, so we can stay with them. Also, Natalie has a friend over there, so we’ll pry end up staying there too. I’m pretty much thrilled beyond belief.

Around 4, Natalie and I took a nap, and didn’t wake up until 9:45. Since then we’ve just been sitting around and eating. Haha. Anyway, that was my week! We have all of next week off, so we are planning a trip to Budapest and Prague—we’ll see how that goes.
I hope all is well with everyone!

Love, Love, Love.

So Marcos does this all the time--just breaks out in song. I wanted to make sure I got at least one of his many songs on video.

My Ski Trip in Hermagor

2008-02-17T04:49:00.000-08:00

Pretty much since we met Sebastian on the train, we’d been trying to find a day when we could all go skiing together, and well, yesterday was the day we went!

SO here is how it went:

I woke up at 4am—crazy, I know—and had to leave by 4:45 to catch our 5:00 bus. We made it to the bus stop a few minutes before five, only to realize that the first bus wasn’t actually coming until 5:52. So, my first thought—we’re screwed. We had to make it to the train station by 6:15 at the very latest to catch our 6:22 train. So, what did we do?? We walked. We walked for about forty minutes to the center of the city where we were able to catch a different bus that took us to the station.

Once we got to the station, we had to buy our ticket from a machine. Nat went to ask someone who could speak English if they would help us, and then we found our way to a bench to sit and wait for the next 30 or 40 minutes. Natalie left me for a little bit to go to the bathroom. As soon as she left, a 60 year old man came over to sit next to me. He said something to me, and as soon as he opened his mouth I could smell the alcohol on his breath. THEN, he began singing something to me in German. I was getting creeped out.

Soon Natalie was back—thank God. The guy then began to speak some English. He pulled out his wallet and showed us that he had no money. Then he proceeded to say that he has a place in Vienna, and we could stay there—for free—if we wanted. OH MY GOSH! Talk about scary! Natalie and I escaped and went upstairs and sat near a police guy to get away from him.

When it was time to board our train we tried to be as sneaky as possible to avoid having him sit next to us…and thank goodness it worked.

Anyway, after that fiasco, we finally arrived in Villach. Sebastian was at the top of the escalator to meet us and we all jumped in his tiny car. He drove us to Hermagor—his home town—and we stopped at Christof’s (Sebastian’s best friend) house. After sitting there for about 15 minutes, everyone was ready to go, and the four of us jumped into Sebastian’s car and drove about 15 minutes to Nassfeld—the ski resort in their village.

Once Nat and I had our gear rented, we were on our way up the mountain! Apparently the boys were expecting to have to teach us how to ski…so they were pleasantly surprised when they saw that we were alright skiers. But, obviously we didn’t even compare to how good they were. Sebastian said that they were pretty much born on skis, and I believe it. Both of them have won several contests, and we saw the trophies to prove it!

I was AMAZED at how good they were. Sebastian can literally ski down the entire mountain BACKWARDS! He tried to teach me, but to say the least, it didn’t go too well. At the end of the day I had fell a total of five times—with one of them being a face plant, and two others requiring me to spend a couple minutes putting my skis back on.

BUT, all in all it was a great day! We left Nassfeld around 3:45. Sebastian drove us to the train station in Hermagor because he had to work at 5 and wouldn’t have time to drive us all the way back to Villach. We got our tickets and then spent the next hour staying warm in a pub across the street.
We got on our bus, and I fell asleep almost instantly, I was sooo tired! After an hour we had to switch trains somewhere along the way, and then still had about a 15 minute ride to Klagenfurt. We got off and then took the first bus we thought would take us back to our dorm—but, surprise, surprise, it didn’t. We ended up on the completely opposite side of town. SO we got back on the bus and headed to the city where we got on the right bus and made it safe and sound back to our dorm around 8 pm.

By this time, I was STARVING. I took a shower and made supper and then was off to bed. I woke up this morning completely bruised up. But, all is good, and I am sooo happy that I got to spend yesterday skiing with Natalie and Sebastian—it was sooo much fun!

Here are a few pics from yesterday:

Right before we headed down...Natalie, Sebastian, Me, and Christof.

After a while--at like 10:30--the boys were ready for a beer. So this us in a pub at the top of the mountain.

The boys and their beer. Christof, Marcus (another friend who is a ski coach there), and Sebastian.

Me and Nat on the mountain.

A gorgeous view that I couldnt pass up.

Sebastian, Me, and Nat. This was taken by an automatic camera on the mountain.

This is Sebastian spinning in circles on his skis down the mountain. Pretty impressive if you ask me. Ignore my voice in this video. I sound so dumb.

After a short lesson, I tried to do the same thing.. ...gosh this is sooo embarrassing!

And here is another video of me trying to do the same thing. I'm only adding this so you can hear Sebastian's voice...it's soo cute!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

2008-02-15T13:34:00.000-08:00

Alright, well, I’ve had an amazing past two days. Valentine’s Day isn’t that big of a deal here, but this year they had a huge party at the University. BUT—I’m pretty sure the best part of my day was getting a Valentine’s Day card from my best friend in the whole wide world. (thanks Toni). Then, a little later Lance gave me a Valentine that was mistakenly put in his mailbox. That one was from my Grandma—thanks!

Then, after a long 4 and a half hours of class, I got home and got dressed and ready to go out to eat with Natalie and our two friends Connie and Billy. We went to an Austrian restaurant and I ended up getting Weiner schnitzel—which is basically just like a breaded pork tenderloin, but for some reason it’s super popular over here. Connie got a salad, and there were potatoes on it! And apparently that’s pretty normal here. I tasted it and LOVED it.

Then we went back home and I showered again (because I already smelled like cigarette smoke from the restaurant). Then about 5 or 6 people came over and hung out before heading over the V-day party.

We didn’t go to the party until about 11:30. It was at the main university building…just across the street from my dorm. It was soooo much fun! First of all, there were probably 1000 people there (I might be exaggerating a bit…but it was PACKED) and every single guy there was GORGEOUS. There were also 5 bars set up there. FIVE! I couldn’t even believe it. The people here are like alcoholics.

Anyway, we stayed there until 3 or so…and I don’t think it got over until about 5 am. Then, the next morning I had to be awake and at my class by 9am. Talk about miserable. I don’t think I learned a single new word in class today…I couldn’t focus at all. There were only 7 of us in class so we decided to cut class a bit short and go out for dinner. That was pretty fun! We went to the UNI Pizzeria. Two of the ladies that I went with ordered pumpkin soup. It was like warm spicy pumpkin soup with whipped cream on top. WEIRD.

Anyway, I got home around 1:30 and then slept until 5:30—which was definitely well needed. Natalie and I made plans to go skiing with Sebastian tomorrow and we have to take a bus that will take us to the train station at 5am! So, basically I need to go to bed right now!

….oh and I forgot to mention, I got a flower from a boy!

Me, Natalie, Billy, and Connie at the Austrian restaurant.

Marcos and I in my room

Natlie, Hope(the australian girl), Audrey (the Irish girl), and me. ...and markus is to the far right but you cant see him very well.

Connie Me and Nat

At the UNI Pizzeria.

Boring Blog.

2008-02-12T10:39:00.000-08:00

I realize I haven’t blogged in forever, so updating you might take some time…but I’ll try to keep it as short as possible! On the Friday before Venice, I hung out with Clarence—but learned that his name is actually Clemmons! Haha, so I called him by the wrong name several times before he—or anyone else—corrected me. That’s embarrassing. I have discovered that Clemmons makes tons of weird facial expressions at the most unnecessary times…it’s quite entertaining, but it took a while to get used to. Anyway, we just hung out in his room with four or five of his friends.

After a while, I got bored and went to see what Markus (I used to spell it Marcus, but now learned the correct spelling) was up to. I ended up hanging out with Markus until 3:00 am (and I had to be up by 8 the next day!). I discovered that he is almost identical to one of my really good friends in high school, Nathaniel Hansen. Their personalities are SOOO similar. And, they like all the same bands, and even have the same body type and hair. I love him to death!

Alright, anyways…I didn’t really do anything Sunday night after Venice.

On Monday night though, I ended up hanging out with Clemmons, Markus, and a bunch of other people. It was soo fun. And once again, we stayed up till 3 am. Pretty Ridiculous.

Today, class went by super slow. For lunch I ate eggs once again. Afterwards, Natalie and I went to our friend Marcos’s (the Nicaraguan) and he made us hot chocolate—with notella—and french-fries. And now I’m back in the room, getting ready to make dinner—peanut butter toast. Woohoo.

Alright, sorry for such a quick and dirty update. Tomorrow’s will be better :)

Last of the Venice pics

2008-02-10T15:30:00.000-08:00

THE TINY STREETS!

Al (the tour guide) nat me and lance.

Just hanging out at night. That is Marcos on the pole--I LOVE him!

The church that a 20 year old architect built.

GROSS

Venice Pictures

2008-02-10T15:27:00.000-08:00

Our glass of wine in the Rialto.

VENEZIA

2008-02-10T15:15:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone! I’m back from Venice, Italy…and it was sooo much fun! About 18 of us went, and we were all international students. There were 5 Americans, 3 Indians, 1 Polish guy, 1 Nicaraguan, 1 Australian, 4 from I don’t know where, 2 Irish girls, and then our “tour guide”—his name is Al. Al actually works at the University in Klagenfurt, and will be the one that takes us on all of our weekend trips—the next one is to Slovenia, where we’ll be staying in an old prison that has been turned into a hostel!

Anyway, back to Venice… After our 4 hour train ride, we arrived in Venezia at 3 in the afternoon. I was sooo excited to be in another new country, and in Venice of all places! Our group stuck together the entire time, and I absolutely LOVED Al. He’s only 28 years old, so he was super fun to be around and fit in great with all of us students. He told everyone we had to take at least 2 “freaky” pictures. So, a lot of the trip was spent trying to find some semi-crazy/weird stuff for everyone to do.

To be honest, there is really not a lot to do in Venice. If we were to go on a gondola ride, it’d cost 50 Euros per person—so 150 US dollars for two people—I decided against that. Instead, we walked through the city, went into some gorgeous church, went out for some Italian pizza, and drank some white wine in the middle of the city.

The church that we went through was built with every type of marble possible. You probably couldn’t even put a price tag on this building. It was beautiful! I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures from the inside, but gosh it was amazing!

Going out for pizza was INCREDIBLY expensive. We went to the cheapest place we could find. My pizza was 8.50 Euro, mine sprite(which was just one tiny can) was 4 euro, service charge was 1.50 euro, and my chair—yeah you have to pay to sit—was 2 euro. So, in total my pizza and sprite was 16 euro, or 24 dollars! It was good, but still…definitely not worth what I paid. Al told us to put olive oil on our plate so that our crust would have some added flavor, and oh my gosh, it was sooo good! You all should definitely try that at home!

After we ate pizza we went to the Rialto (which is funny, because at UNI that’s like our dining center). But here, the Rialto is like a huge open area surrounding by marble buildings and extremely tiny bars. Natalie and I went into a bar and an Italian guy (that had a lazy eye) ended up having some connection to Des Moines and bought us a glass of white wine. It was incredibly nice of him! ...What was really weird though, was that since here the drink age for beer and wine is only 16, we saw such young Italian kids going to the bar and ordering their drinks.

Anyways, afterwards sitting in the Rialto for a couple hours, we walked back to the train station—this was around 11. Marcos (the Nicaraguan, and like my favorite person here) and I went for a walk to some Pita place and I got a little spinach rollup thing.

At 12:15 we got on the train. We got off about 15 minutes later to catch another train, but it was delayed so we ended up waiting from 12:30 to 2:15 in the FREEZING cold weather to wait for our train. We didn’t end up getting back to Klagenfurt until about 6 am. Then we took a taxi back home, showered, and slept until 3:00 pm.

All in all, it was a GREAT trip! Venice was gorgeous, and I can’t wait to go see even more places!

The entire group that went.

Hanging out on some bridge.

Under some bridge.

And at sunset!

Night time over the water!

And ill put more pics on another post

2008-02-08T10:52:00.000-08:00

Today was a great day! First of all, class went by super fast. Afterwards I was in the kitchen cooking lunch and a super cute Austrian came in to introduce himself--his name is Clarence--we talked for the entire 20 minutes I was cooking. Haha, and as we talked, he sat at the kitchen table and rolled his own cigarettes--that's definitely something I've never seen before. By the way, EVERYONE smokes here! Yesterday I walked past the rec center and saw a huge group of people taking an exercise break so that they could smoke their cigarettes.

Anyways, a little later I was in the hall and ran into Clarence. He asked if I wanted to go with him and his friends to the lake! SO, at 3:00 me, Natalie, and like 7 of his friends all walked there and just sat on the dock and talked for a while. One kid brought a guitar and was singing "Sweet Home Alabama." Gosh that was hilarious.

We went home, and then he came in and asked if we wanted to hang out with him tonight! Gosh, HOW EXCITING! Anyway....by that time Natalie and I were craving chocolate like you wouldn’t believe. So, we went to the grocery store and got a few things (I got some mock Twix bars!), and now we are getting ready to hang out with Clarence.

OH YA! …when I was at the market, I saw Alberto, and he said Marcus wanted to know what I was doing tonight! So, hopefully I end up seeing him tonight too! :)

Tomorrow I'm off to Venice! I'm beyond excited!

This is the stream that runs along side the path I run on. I'm standing right across the street from where I live. Isn't this GORGEOUS???

This is the view from the dock. ...Andrea, it's quite hard to see in this picture, but the cross is on the very left mountain at the very top.

This is Clarence and a few of the other ones that were with us.

HAHA! This man randomly decided to go for a dip. AND LET ME TELL YOU, IT WAS COLD!

As the sun was setting tonight. .....right over the mountains to the left is where Italy is!

...just another day in Osterreich.

2008-02-07T13:33:00.000-08:00

Well, apparently I cannot sleep at night. I swear I wake up two hours after falling asleep every single night…and then cannot fall back asleep for three hours, literally. It’s horrible. I wonder if there is such thing as Tylenol PM here…

Anyway, today I had 4.5 hours of German (every t/th I do. m/w/f is only 3). …that gets to be a bit long, but I’d still rather sit through 4.5 hours of German than 50 minutes of high school Spanish with Mrs. Daza. For lunch I made eggs, which is what I have had everyday for lunch so far.

After the last hour and a half of class, Marcos, a 28-year-old (everyone seems to be much older hear…they are all shocked when I say I am twenty) lawyer from Nicaragua (and VERY cute) came with Natalie and I to the bank. Natalie had to exchange some money…like 110 US dollars. SO, Marcos exchanged his money too—3 dollars! LOL…he got 2 Euro back. Gosh, I laughed so hard about that. Anyway, about Marcos—his first language is Spanish, but he speaks English too. Guess how he learned?!?!? His parents don’t speak it and he’s never taken a class or anything, but he learned by listening to American music. How is that even possible!?!? Ugh, it just boggles my mind. By the way—everybody listens to American music here—like Creed, and Colbie Caillat, and pretty much the exact same stuff that I listened to at home—which is quite nice.

After the bank we went and signed up for the Venice trip (YAY!), and then we went to the Bipa (Sally’s Beauty Supply) to look for a blow-dryer…but nope, they don’t have any. SO, it looks like tomorrow Natalie and I will be going to class with wet hair AGAIN.

I went for a run again tonight…I went the same distance today but felt much better than last time! I am determined to get back into shape. You would not believe how beautiful it is here! If it’s nice out tomorrow I am going to take my camera with me on my run and post the view from the lake. I could easily see myself living here—but don’t worry mom, I won’t J.

Natalie and I ate pizza for supper and then watched A Knight’s Tale. AND then I finally got to talk to Sanny (Toni) on Skype for like an hour. Gosh I just loved that! I miss you Ton!

Hotdogs and Syrup

2008-02-06T13:56:00.001-08:00

Servus! Natalie and I just got back from our friend Alberto's room. We watched the Osterriech und Deutschland futbal game with him and Marcus. Germany won 3-0.

Last night we were having a few drink with them and Alberto asked us if we wanted to grill some sausages. HAHA! Grill sausages?? We said no, but tonight he ended up doing it; apparently in austria, "sausage" is actually an american hotdog. I tried to tell them that, but they said no, it is a sausage, when you have bread with the sausage, then it is a hotdog! So, I'm pretty sure they do not have actual american sausage meat here.

HAHA, oh yeah...when I thought they were making actual sausage meat, I asked if they ever have it with syrup, and they said no, but said they would try...so they got out their syrup. Little did i know though, that their "sausage" is actually "hotdog." When I explained to them that hotdogs would not be good in syrup they insisted on trying it anyway! DISGUSTING!

By the way, syrup cost 5,90 Euro--or 9.50 US dollars!!! Holy cow.

We also found out that there is an american grocery store in klagenfurt somewhere--thank god.

Also, instead of shaking hands with the other team after soccer games, they exchange jerseys.

Next Stop

2008-02-06T04:07:00.000-08:00

I have become obsessed with one phrase here..."nachte haultestelle" --pronounced neychste haulteschtella--which means next stop. I hear it whenever I ride the bus and cannot stop saying it wherever I am, and in any social situation; I get plenty of confused looks.

Also, I forgot to mention last night that we found out that there is cold milk here! Thank goodness for that.

AND, I didn't mention that we do that french kiss on the cheek thing when you say hallo to your friends. That will probably take a while to get used to.

....and I'm pretty sure that not everyone wears deodorant.

Tusch!

My First Purchase!

2008-02-05T16:50:00.000-08:00

I definitely felt a bit of déjà vu today. Once again, my alarm did not go off! Natalie and I woke up at 9:10…class starts at 9. Then, to make it worse, we tried to plug our blow drier into our adaptor things (because the plug-ins are different in Europe), and ended up blowing a fuse—so yup, we were forced to do our makeup in the dark.
When we showed up at class, the mean lady who is in charge of the international students just happened to be sitting in on our class and was quite angry that we were not there in the morning. But, our teacher was nice and completely understood.
After class, Natalie and I went shopping with Petra and Billy (our contact people, or entrees), and bought an alarm clock, thank God! I also bought my first bottle of wine for 3, 49E….it wasn’t very good. We both cooked for ourselves, did our homework, and then hung out with a few Austrian friends (Alberto, Marcus, and Connie), or Osterreich friends. I will write more tomorrow...Gute Nacht! (Good night!)

More pictures from today!

2008-02-04T10:10:00.000-08:00

This is the top of the monument that was placed in memory of the people that were killed by the plague. ...13th century? i think thats when.

This is the bottom half of that same monument. ...notice the Italian marble!

This is the church in the middle of the city. In the olden days, whenever the Emperor changed, the people would swith their religion to whatever religion they were.

The church's steeple.

The founder of Klagenfurt. He was an architecht and super duper rich. He thought the land and area was beautiful, so that is how this place all began!

....alright this post goes along with the two others below it!

More pictures!

2008-02-04T09:57:00.000-08:00

This was built in 1480, for the archduke. It was also made for a place for the Emperor to stay if he ever came to vist, but haha, he never did. The columns on the side are even older than the building; they are from the Roman Ages...10th or 11th century. In english this place is called The House of the Golden Goose (I dont remember how to say all of that in German).

This is the same building--notice the left side and how crooked the building is!

The town was very competitive with the archduke, so the people decided to build a cityhall that looks very similar to the archduke's just to prove they could build something as great. This building also has Roman columns at the door. This is where the mayor would have lived.

In June the city is hosting a HUGE soccer (American soccer) tournament! They have this sign in the middle of the city counting down the tage (days), hours, and minutes until game time! 124 more tage!

...by the way, these pictures go with the blog below this and there are even more pictures on the blog above!