Lost and Found in Translation

I've been in the fast line for the past five days so I haven't had ANY time to update this thing, my apologies. I am indeed alive and doing well. Honestly, the past week has probably been one of the best in my life.

All the expectations I had for this program have been surpassed. The city, the people, the food, the lifestyle, has all been so fun to be a part of.

I will start by saying that this program feels a bit like summer camp, but in the best sense possible. I'll give you a run-down of the week:

MONDAY: Woke up and went down to the lobby to meet some people for the train (U-Bahn is what it is called here). The station is quite close, and it's about a 20 minute ride to the University. This was the early morning ride of many.

Once we get to school, first thing on the agenda is breakfast. We get 2 rolls of bread, and a cup of coffee or tea. Apparently Americans are the only ones who eat substantial food in the morning. Though waking up early sucks, I actually enjoy going to breakfast with everyone because it has become a time when we discuss the events of the night before. It is also funny to see who is hung over, who got home at 6 in the morning, who made asses of themselves the night before. Breakfast of shame.

On Monday, we started with an opening ceremony, where a band played and the staff spoke about the program...you get the idea. After a tour of the school, I had class. First day=fun day. Musical chairs may have been played. Tacky? Yes. Fun? Definitely. We have 4 professors for one class, who switch off teaching days intermittently. They have all been great so far and the class is a great experience. Having students from all parts of the globe in one classroom has been eye-opening. Everyone has something to offer (Did you know that in Spain you can show a student ID at McDonald's and get discounts?) Anyways, class has been good, and we have it everyday M-F 9-noon. At noon, we get lunch...a huge upgrade from the prison meal we get at the beginning of the day.

Monday night we had the opening party at a restaurant called Shiraz. The moment we stepped in the door, everyone was given shots of some frozen raspberry drink. This was a moment when I realized that this program was going to be veeery fun. Everyone mingled and got to know each other more. As the sun went down, we headed over to Ride Club....a somewhat Eurotrash bar. It was the funniest night ever. Flashback to 7th grade dance circles (someone showcases their moves in the center), and that's what they throw down in Europe. Ukrainian girls dance like they are possessed by some higher force. As the night went on and drinks kept coming....everyone went wild and had fun. Best way to end the first day of the program.

TUESDAY: Real class began. It was fine. The professor was Polish and funny, and everyone was hungover so that was a topic for conversation. That evening was nice and we just went out for dinner at a hole in the wall place. WARNING: if you order pepperoni pizza in Vienna, this is what you get:




WEDNESDAY: Best day so far! Class was fine, then afterwords some of us went climbing on this Flak tower, which is pretty much a giant tower that was used by Austria in World War II. It was 120 km tall...which is however many feet (?). When we first arrived, we couldn't believe how tall it really was. Joubin (one of the leaders) decided to set up a competition: team USA vs team everywhere else. You got points for how high you could climb. Since USA was feeling a little nervous, some of us decided to walk across the street to find a bar and have a beer and a shot. We ended up going into this adorable little restaurant and ordered a delicious german beer called Franzikaner and a shot of god knows what. It was a great way to start the rest of the day....and was a bit of liquid courage. Here's a pic:



Anyway, we went back to the tower to take on our fellow Ukrainians, Portuguese, Croatians, etc. It was so much fun watching everyone climb, here's a video of Ashley from Nebraska who kicked all the girls (and some guys) asses...




Here's a pic of my showcasing my less than impressive climbing skills:



Anyways, the day was a great time. That night we went to an Austrian "heuriger". If you are ever in Austria, I highly suggest visiting one. They are old-fashioned places which serve you wine that they make (Vienna is one of the only big cities to produce wine within city limits), traditional food, and some great live music. The whole gang went and we watched the Espana/Germany game on a projector outside. This place was beautiful...you can see it in my picasa pictures. Here is a video of an impromptu dance I recorded...

Cute right?

Aftw

After the heuriger, we went over to club LOCO for kareoke night. Enough said. Fun stuff.

THURSDAY: The same routine for the day, except this day we added on our second class in the afternoon...another 3 hours. Definitely a damper in the week. Worst of all, the class was extremely boring and my Hungarian professor is painful to sit through. At the end of the day, I went to a great Vegetarian restaurant with some friends. I was surprised at how delicious their food was. I thought I was staying in, but my roommate (who is a 24 yr old Hungarian student) convinced me to go out with her for a while. We ended up having drinks with two of her professors! One of them was a 35 yr old Spanish guy (who was gorgeous) and I thought about suggesting he teach at Madison next year. I remember laughing thinking that 3 weeks ago I was lounging around in La Grange, and now here I am with some Hungarian girl and her Spanish professor having drinks in freaking Austria. Weird. I tried to keep up with the intellect, but who really knows. My roommate is awesome though and I'm glad we went out together.

FRIDAY: Today after class, we went to the Belvedere Palace. It was beautiful. My feet hurt now. I'm waking up at 5:45 tomorrow to catch a 7 am train to Budapest, Hungary. What a life.

Miss you all. I'll update sometime next week...there's some crazy stuff on the schedule...but you'll just have to wait and see!

Picasa pics:

VIENNA

LOVE,

T