GOING HOME SOON?!?!?! WHAT?!?!?!

Today I realized what a bad blogger I have turned out to be! Only 17 more days until I am back in the States! I have mixed feelings about it. I have had such an amazing time over here that it is hard to convince myself that my time is up here and that I have to leave Europe. Over the past month I did some great things! Our program went on a week long trip around Eastern Europe. Granted its not a place that I would normally think about visiting but it was gorgeous and a lot of fun! We went to Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Hungary. I definitely recommend traveling to these places. My friends and I also went on a trip to Italy and when we were there we went to Rome, Florence and Tuscany. The Italian sure know how to make great food and even better gelato! We saw some of our friends while we were there, went to plenty of museums, and went on a wine tour in the Chianti region of Tuscany!! Italy was one of my favorite trips. After I came back from Italy it was only a short time before my mom and her friend Linda came and visited me! It was the perfect thing she could have given me. I loved being able to show her where I was living and what I had been doing for the past few months. I tried to play tour guide and hopefully I did a good job!
With only a few weeks left I have realized that there are still so many things in Vienna that I want to do and see! Along with that I am going to Krakow this weekend to see the concentration camp Auschwitz and I need to see Salzburg also (where the Sound of Music was filmed) before I leave.
I do have to apologize for not blogging as much, I guess you will have to ask me about my stories in person. See you soooon!!!!!

OKTOBERFEST!!!

Oktoberfest is one of those things that I had always heard about and always dreamed of going to but never knew I would have the opportunity to go. A group of kids in my program had been talking about going and one of the girls got a really good deal on a hotel in Munich so we decided to go ahead and go! It was one of the best times I have had in Europe. We took the early train from Vienna and got into Munich around 9 and headed straight to the festival. In my mind, Oktoberfest is just a bunch of German people sitting around a big table drinking beer, singing, and wearing laderhosen. My imagination was not far from the truth. =) Oktoberfest is a HUGE festival, there are carnival rides, lots of food, and of course a lot of beer! We went into the Lowenbrau beer tent and it was packed with people at 10 in the morning! The whole vibe of the place was great, everyone was just there to socialize and eat and just sing and have a good time! We were fortunate enough to grab a table in the tent and it happened to be right next to the stage where they played the music, so that really played to our favor. One of the remarkable things about these beer tents are the beer maids that work in them. These women will carry 8 liters of beer in each hand and act like its no big deal and I struggled to pick up my one liter of beer with one hand!

I feel like all I can really say about this is that is was good food, great beer, great company, and a lot of fun. If you want to go, I highly recommend it, there is nothing like it in the world.

That is all for now! Tschus!!!

Prague

One of the many travels I have gone on included Prague. This was the first big trip I had been on and we went to Prague for the weekend. To be able to see the city and all that it had to offer we decided to rent bikes to ride around the city. This was a really good idea because then we got to see more of the city than we would have if we just walked. Renting bikes seemed like such a good idea except for one thing....the fact that I don't ride bikes very well. Well it turns out this was no exception to my streak of bad luck with bikes. In the 4 hours we had the bikes I managed to get lost because I was pedaling so slow, hit a pedestrian, fall off my bike, bruise myself, hold up traffic, and almost make us late to turn in our bikes. Other than those few minor mishaps, the day was a great success and even though none of us speak Czech we managed to find our way around the city and were able to order food and find out where we needed to go! Prague is definitely a fun place to go because the city is just so beautiful and there a a lot of things to see. This city was one of my favorites of the ones I have visited so far.

Whoops! Two months in...

So turns out I completely forgot about my blog! I figured I would update it now because I am two months in and also because everyone kept asking me nicely to update =) So I have been in Vienna for two months and time is absolutely flying by. I am having a really great time here and have gotten to do quite a bit of traveling. I have been lucky enough to be part of a program where that type of traveling can be done. So far I have been to the Czech Republic, Gratz, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Germany, Hungary, and Italy.My classes are going well, I just started my second block of German and I am hoping to come back fluent or close to it haha. My mom is actually visiting me this week and having her here has made me anxious to get home...a little bit. There are parts of me that don't want to leave and then there are also parts of me that can't wait to start my normal life again and get back to science classes and my friends and family that I have missed. I am hoping that everything is well with whoever reads this and I promise I will post some more blogs so that you can read about the travels I have been making!

I survived the first week!

Im on the other side of my first week here! The walking has been very tiring. We get up for German class every morning, leave here by 8, walk a mile or more to the train station, and then at least 3 miles during the day. It blows my mind how much German I have learned in such a short amount of time! We are getting more used to the city. Tonight we all went to the biggest outdoor concert/festival in all of Europe and it was truly amazing. There are moments in the day where I just sit back and let it register that I am here to stay for quite some time. Here in a couple weeks we are taking a train to Germany for Oktoberfest and then our program is going on a group trip to Sarajevo, the Balkans, and Budapest. Experiencing new cultures is something that I find so interesting and its something I want to continue to do for awhile. I do have a couple of funny train stories. The first one was that I was on the train waiting to get off and the doors opened and pinched my bag between them but I didn't know this so when I tried to get off, the i got clotheslined back into my spot and had to get off at the next stop because I was stuck. The next time my friends got off the train quickly because we realized too late that our stop was next, so they all jumped off real quick and I went to get off and the train doors shut on me. Now in the states they would automatically open back up and you think it would be the same here in Europe, but its not. I had to literally force my way through the train doors so that I wouldn't get drug along. So basically I am not a huge fan of the trains. I will post some pictures so you can all be jealous! =)
Auf Wiedersehen

This is going to be more tricky than I expected

So I arrived in Vienna safe and sound! My flights got a little interesting, especially when I was in Amsterdam with 30 minutes until my next flights and I had to go through customs and my gate was at the end of the airport. Needless to say I was walking very very rapidly to get to my plane =)

The place where I am staying is very nice, Faven and I share a private bathroom and there is a community kitchen and someone comes and cleans our bathroom and changes our sheets. Yay! The people in my program have all been incredibly nice, its definitely a very fun group to hang out with and there are kids from all over the U.S. We went out for dinner and a beer last night (The program director's treat) and it was interesting trying to decipher what the menu was saying! Then all of us jet lagged kids came back and crashed.

Today we took a tour of downtown Wien (Vienna in German) and walked down an original Roman street, saw building that are 2500 years old, saw the cafe where Sigmund Freud taught most of his lectures, saw a gorgeous cathedral, and also saw our campus which is gorgeous! I think the tricky part will be the language barrier, especially with transportation. There are bikes paths next to where you walk and you are not supposed to walk in them because the bikers will run you over, and well you all know me and I forgot and needless to say I had to leap out of the way =) I also got shut in the train door! So I have a couple of the guys in my group watching out for me so I don't wander out into traffic haha.We are just learning how to get around, and we also went to the grocery store and attempted to figure out what the labels said and how much we were supposed to pay! Things aren't too pricy. Im trying to use my Euros wisely! Classes start on Monday, we will be taking 3 hours of German a day for the entire month of September in hopes that we will be able to communicate with the locals a little better. Its a very good time and hopefully I will be able to navigate throughout the city in no time!

So Close!!!!

So I'm on my last day here at home! I have so much packing to do and I know that I am going to forget something! I am getting very excited to leave, four months seems like a long time at first but I think that it will just fly by. Well I better put myself to good use and pack away =)