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my adventures abroad are over... for now
I had an amazing time and I have been back home for a little over a week.
I have adjusted fairly well into the American life. I am very much enjoying the free refills and free bathrooms is public!

I would still like to continue blogging, but what about? I tended to post after my travels or doing something novel, so I will try and keep the same perspective back in America. I will start with one thing that I have changed since I have been back.

I no longer wash my hair. Rather, I should say that I no longer use shampoo. A conversation between myself and my friend Casey Ryan (mentioned in previous post) spurred this idea. She had read several blogs where ladies had discontinued their use of shampoo for carious reasons. Some didn't like the chemicals shampoo contains, some were doing their part to minimize their carbon footprint and use less plastics, and so on.

I do not have a definite reason for why I am doing this. The closest answer I can come to is the same reason I do half of what I do, because I feel like it. I thought there may not be a better time. I am not in school and I do not have a job. Yes, it is true, i tried and failed at getting a job as a burrito roller. Burn. I know. Anyways, the process of "no-poo" starts with a few days of grease on your head and after a certain amount of time, which differs for each person, your scalp with start your natural regulation of oils. Shampoo reduces these oils and causes the body to over produce to compensate for the oil that you are habitually removing.

So here is the dirty truth. The last time I washed my hair (with shampoo) was around midnight on the night of June 28/29th in my shower in Haus Erasmus in Vienna. That is right, I haven't "washed" my hair since I have been back in America. I guessing I am just exercising my rights. I went about 4 days without doing anything before I started to wash it with water. On June 6th I prepared a natural shampoo (1 tablespoon baking soda and 1 cup water) to reduce the amount of grease going on up top. I conditioned with a mixture of apple cider vinegar and water, one cup of each. I braided my hair, left it in for two days and just took my braid out.

I think it looks pretty good and my ends feel really soft. I will continue updates on my hair until I start doing other worth while things. With that, I will leave you with a song and a picture of my golden locks.

Sedimentation

After spring break I took an honest vow of sedimentation. I honestly wanted to just stay in one place until I essentially became immovable. For about a month I did exactly that. Let's us not say that I sat so still that I could have actually hardened into the earth, but I kept myself in Vienna.

The name and for this post came from the graffiti art I saw in Amsterdam that read "we used to be wild then we became sedentary" I often sit around thinking of the noun, verb, adj., etc tenses of all words. Through these personal mind games that I play, I have become rather fond of the word sedimentation. As free and ambitious as the "world traveler" in me, and in anyone else is, sometimes it is good to sit down and take a rest.

So as I am currently sitting, trying as hard as humanly possible not to advance my self sedimentation while eating my nutella and frozen fruit, I will attempt to recount those events that have passed since I returned from spring break. I cannot promise anything for this post other than that it will inevitable contain my semi-coherent ramblings and due to the time that has passed, severely undermine the gravity and greatness of what I will write about.

To begin, I have in the past week going to bed around 11:30 every night. It is nothing short of amazing. I love the days that I get to sleep this early. That means I have 45 minutes to crank out the post, so here. we. go.

May 3 I finished my first course at WU. I relied too much on my "native english skills" on the test and not so much on studying the actually information from the lectures. I got a 2 in the class, I can deal with that. May 4 I started my International Supply Chain Management Block Course. It turns out to be my favorite course of the semester and i received a shiny grade of a 1. May 5th is Cinco de Mayo, and I had many reasons to celebrate. 1) To celebrate Mexican heritage and pride 2) My room mate Jess got into Medical School in Canada 3) My little best friend from the great state of Texas came to visit me. These were goods times

May 10 I woke up and gave my preliminary presentation for my sourcing course, oh, yeah, and I turned 21. My friends and I went to a bar that night. It was fun. The next dew weeks consisted of me doing school work every few days, but spending a ridiculous amount of time in the parks of Vienna during the days. I think I have read 7 novels since spring break, and I am on the eighth. I'll list what I've read and where I've read it:

Sarah's Key
Ricochet
White Hot
The Lost Symbol
Secret Daughter
Barrell Fever
Currently on The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo... so it seems I have read six and I am on the 7th, but I think I have left one out...

Anyways, I like to read these books in:
Burggarten
Stadtpark
Donau Insul
Burggasse Stadhalle Park
Burggasse Steps and of course in my room and on buses

I really like the parks in Vienna. The city is so green in the summer months and I love it. Much more bearable than it was in the winter months. We also went to a picnic arranged for the Erasmus program on the island one day. There were tons of people there and that was nice.

FINALLY!!!! on May 27 I decided to break my vow and travel once again. I am oh so glad that I did. My room mate Jess and I booked a train and a hostel for a trip to Overtraun and Hallstatt, Austria, which are little cities in the western part of the country. This was probably my favorite place I visited my entire trip in Europe.

We arrived in Obertraun Saturday around 11am to a drizzly grey sky. It didn't even phase me! I was so taken aback by the surroundings that I would have been happy if the whole earth was on fire. Well, maybe not on fire, but you know. So we found our hostel, which was located in the upstairs of a British couple's home. They moved to Austria when the husband turned 40, decided he no longer wanted to do management consulting and would rather be a ski instructor. HERO! It was an adorable place and served us an awesome breakfast the next morning.

The first day we decided to go on a hike. It was supposed to take about 3 hours. We stopped and had an awesome lunch (artichoke pasta with sun dried tomatoes, ham, cheese, olives, yum) and then took a slight detour that ended up in us getting lost in the alps. If we hadn't gotten lost we would have missed most of the cool things we saw, many of which will be pictorially documented below. The next day after breakfast we walked to the next train station at Hallstatt, took the ferry across the lake and spent the day up on the mountain in Hallstatt. It had breathtaking views, but I was still more fond of the awesome valley in which Obertraun was tucked away. Spent the day there and trained back to get home around 8pm. It was a short trip, but it was just what I needed. An escape into nature, and the most beautiful nature at that.













I returned Sunday the 29th, took my International SCM final on the 1st and headed to Krakow, Poland on June 2nd. From what I remember, the city was pretty cool. I was in a weird mood the first day, so I was not paying that much attention on the city tour. During the trip we visited Auschwitz, one of the largest death camps from WWII. It was a very strange experience. My mind would not fully let me contemplate the atrocities that had occurred in the very places that I was standing. There is no way to describe how this camp makes you feel besides heart ache and depression. It was a very heavy experience, but one I am glad that I got to go through

I returned the evening of the 5th from Krakow, attended one class, took one exam (1 in the class SCM, wahoo) and then headed to Prague the morning of the 8th. I stayed with my friend Casey Ryan from UT who is studying there for the summer for two nights. Prague is a neat city with a medieval feel. It was good to see the city and we hung out at this hanicap benefit for awhile and watched kids race each other on scooters. My favorite part of Prague was the John Lennon wall (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lennon_Wall). It is ever evolving and a really cool work of art. The picture below is of Casey and I with the main part of the city behind us.




Came back from Prague, took a final on the 17th, Casey came to Vienna a few hours later. I spent the weekend showing her around here. We did the palaces, the hike up the the vineyards and the city buildings. It was good to have a friend here again. She left earlier today and here I am. 12 minutes to spare before bed time.

Other things worth noting, hmmmmm. I was dating this boy name Lukas, but he wen't back home for the summer so that is over now. It was pretty sad when he left.

My friend Drew left last night. That was sad, but I felt that I had already climbed the biggest sad hill, if you will.
Dasha leaves on the 23
Preston leaves on the 25
and I think the rest of us leave on the 29th.

Only 9 more days and I will be home. I am really excited. I know I will really miss Vienna though. I have to love a lot of things about this city, so it will be tough to go. But like everyone says, all good things come to an end. Erasmus has been good, but as legend goes, it must end.

I doubt I will update again before I return home, but you never know... Until then..

xxoo

Long Overdue

>>This took me a few hours to complete. I went for brief, but brevity is not always my strong suit. Enjoy..? OH and look over all of my bad grammar, spelling mistakes, etc. :)

For my dearest Nana, and my companions in the blogosphere, yes all 6 of you, I am back to update.

It has been a solid 2 months since I embarked on by backpacking journey. My feet still hurt, but I feel like I have seen the world. Obviously I have not see all of it, but I have seen a bit.

This will be maybe my most brief account of it all, and all stories and locations may/will be elaborated later down the road.

not to quote Mario, but "Here we gooooo"

April 9: London.

London was an amazing city. I found their accents a bit hard to understand at times. Often times it was harder to understand them than it is to understand people who do not have English as their first language. A bit funny, really. Alex and I arrived to central London around midnight and accidently got on the wrong bus. Maybe it was the right bus in the wrong direction, but we don't really know. There was a smelly man on the back of the bus who grumbled like a pirate and a potato sitting on the floor of the bus. Once we realized we were not in the right part of town, we exit the bus in the Piccadilly Circus area. It was saturday night. We walked half way across London with the help of a boy named Michael Smith- he went by Smithy.

The first day in London we did the free walking tour. This took us by all sorts of places, including Buckingham Palace. The wedding was about two weeks away at this time and the city had already began to prepare. By prepare I mean all souvenir shops had stocked up on items with WIlliam and Kate's faces printed on them. I may or may not have purchased a tote bag with their faces on it....



This is me at Wellington Arch. It was a really pretty area near lots of parks.

From there on we saw everything that I previously considered classic London and things that I now consider classic London. Included are, the palace, the red phone booths, the black taxi cabs, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Parliament, the big Ferris Wheel, Royal Guards, double decker red buses, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, the Tower Bridge, Baker Street, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Platform 9 and 3/4 (where Harry Potter catches his train to Hogwarts located in King's Cross Station) uhh and probably lots of other things, but those are the big ones.

We had to be careful, as the silly Brits drive on the wrong side of the road. I had the classic meal, fish and chips, and experienced the classic rainy weather for only 15 minutes. The only things I would have liked to have done differently is to take one ride on their subway "the tube" and to have seen some Banksy art. OVER LONDON WAS GREAT!

April 12: Hamburg

I should preface this with the fact that stating "April 12" is a bit of an overshot. We left London at 6am by Ryan air and landed in Germany around 1030. By 1130 we made it into the city of Hamburg and grabbed food at McDonalds because it has free wi-fi and was the first place we saw. We went to our hostel at noon but check in was at 3pm. Being tired from our mistake of pulling an all nighter for the flight, Alex and I both passed out at noon in the lobby, woke up at 3pm to check and and I proceeded to sleep until 7am the next day. This is the reason why I should probably start Hamburg on April 13.

When I awoke the morning of the 13th we headed out for the free city tour. As nice as the tour was, and as nice as the sky looked, it was freezing cold and windy the entire day. I kept my head down and in my jacket for the majority, but managed to look up a few times to take in the sites and snap a few, very few pictures.

I was not overly impressed with Hamburg. It was a port city, and had a decent amount of history (main Nazi port fore exports in WWII) also the city where the Beatles played a lot of shows before they made it big, but overall I give it a 5. If you're in the area, stop by, but I wouldn't reroute any trips to make it there. My favorite part was when we walked under the channel through the tunnel to get a view from the city across the water. It was our last night there and a good way to end. If i had done anything differently, I would have gone to the model museum.



APril 14: Amsterdam

Amsterdam is a popular tourist destination for various reasons, among the top I would say are the infamous "coffee shops" and Red Light district. Neither of these were my main motivation for visiting, but both were interesting to see. The drive into the Netherlands was absolutely beautiful. So green and full of baby sheep! I found the city itself quite weird. The houses are structurally similar to those in San Francisco, tall and skinny, but these were all sorts of bold, odd colors, with thickly painted window panes. Not only were they a bit off on that aspect, almost all of the houses leaned. Leaned. A lot. To the side and two the front. It was very strange. There are over half of a million bicycles in Amsterdam alone. You are maybe 30x more likely to be hit by a cyclist than by a car, and don't underestimate them. they are quite frightening. So there are weird houses, an abundance of bikers, oh and the fact that you can buy marijuana in almost any form in almost every other story in the center. At night if you wander the streets you will undoubtedly come upon lit windows with girls waiting inside trying to find customers/clients.

Yes it was just a bit much for me. I think it is a place that is interesting to see, but I would probably not return again. Also, I was near the Ann Frank house and a seemingly homeless man offered me a carton of icecream. It was frozen solid and still completely sealed with the top and clear plastic air tight covering. Perhaps the weirdest thing I have ever been gifted.

I enjoyed my time in Amsterdam, but 2 days was enough for me. It would have maybe been nice to go inside the Ann Frank house or to rent a bike and ride around. WAIT!! I have forgotten. Some of my favorite street art was in Amsterdam. One included "peace" written in purple on a dark gray wall, and painted on a construction tarp was "we used to be wild, then we became sedentary"




April 16: Brussels/Paris

April 16 was the second time on my trip that I was in 3 countries in one day. The first was the day we left (Vienna, Austria, Bratislava, Slovakia, London, England). We left paris early in the morning and bussed to Brussels, Belgium. While we were here we saw a really cool cathedral. It was so much cleaner on the outside than most cathedrals in Europe. We also saw the famous statue Mannekin Piss, which is a little boy that is peeing. It is sort of weird, but one of the cities biggest attractions...

BEST PART, dun dun dun. THE WAFFLES. obviously. Belgian waffles. I die. Only thing worth posting picture of. Strawberry with Nutella, soak that up, yummmm. Between my two waffles, yes that is right, I got another one, this time with Amarena ice cream on top. Good, but honestly, how do you compare with chocolate and strawberries?



April 16: Paris

We get into Paris around midnight and found our hotel rather quickly. I have left out a lot of what happened to Alex and I. If you want to know, we got lost a lot. never severely lost, but we are just not experts on finding the right way the first time. Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts sure do.

Paris round two was quite enjoyable. We started with the staples, ie Eiffel Tower, where we have a baguette with some camembert cheese and then made our way up to the Arch de Triumph, down Champs Elysees and eventually to the Louvre, and Notre Dame. We walked all of this. We must have thought our feet were invincible. We were wrong. This time i was SO SO impressed with the Arch de Triumph. I don't know why I liked it so much but I just thought it was so beautiful. It is huge and magnificent and had awesome sculptures on each side of the pillars.

The men who sold the Eiffel Tower Key Chains called us "Lady Gaga" and there were still hoards of them all over the place. The second day I slept in and adventured around the area of our hotel, the Republique area. It was a cool area with a lot of restaurants and shops. There were a bunch of homeless set up in the middle, and some of them even had couches, but I felt it was a safe area. That afternoon we headed to Montmarte, which has also been known as the area where the artist hang out, and the area home to the Moulin Rouge. Atop the hill sits the Sacré Cœur, which is a catholic church. The outside and inside were both magnificent. I think it is my favorite cathedral I have seen in Europe.

That night we went to watch the Eiffel Tower light up. It was a cool sight, and we ran into one of my friends from UT. He also studies in Vienna but we didn't know he would also be in Paris. Hook 'em. All the way from France. Our final day we packed up and headed back toward Notre Dame, but it was the weekend before Easter and a mass was happening so we left and went to a cafe and got our last crepes in France. I LOVED BEING IN FRANCE!! I think the language is beautiful, and even if I only know a few communication words, I think bonjour is the most fun way to greet people and merci is such a nice sound to thank others with.






April 20: Barcelona

It must be noted that we left Paris at 3pm on the 19th and arrived in Barcelona at 6am on the 20th. It was one of the worst experiences of my life. There were a bunch of crazies on the bus. Seriously, bus people are special people. People that you most likely never want to encounter.

That aside, Barce was a really great city. Our weather could have been a bit better, as I would have been more than content just laying on the beach. Perhaps it was good it was a little chill, so I was forced to go see the city. By this time we had met up with our friend Drew from Michigan and Jess (room mate in Vienna) would be there the first afternoon. We started with our own little tour of Gaudi architecture. He had a really unique vision for his art in all forms and is a staple in Barcelona design. We also visited Park Guell, which was one of my favorite parts of the city. I FINALLY saw the coast!! The water was beautiful but cold.

The second or third day, honestly I cannot remember we went to the beach. I got a massage from one of the asian ladies walking around. The cops were patrolling so she layed her head on my back and in an asian accent in her broken spanish said policia policia. It was really funny, but it was a good massage; 15 minutes for 5 euro. I had put on my bathing suit to lay out so I went to change before we were to head back to the hostel. The bathroom stall I was in didn't lock and of course in the two seconds I take my hand off the door to switch from bathing suit to underwear someone opens it, so I cover myself and she shut the door again. Then I realize my white denim shorts that were just in my hand were no longer there. Let's take a guess as to where I dropped them... That is right, in the toilet. So now I have wet white denim shorts. Really cool. My soggy pants self and friends wound up listening to a really cool street band for awhile. Street musicians were all over Barcelona and really added to the feel of the city.

Each night we bought snacks/dinner and ate on the steps at the port. I went to the Picasso museum. I like his sketches from his early years way more than the cubism he produced later on. There was a really cool park near the coast and Barcelona has its own arch de triumph made of red brick. It was really cool as well. The last day we were there was the Spanish equivalent of Valentine's day. Their version: girls get roses, boys get books. Who gets the better end of the deal? The included pic is at the top of tres cruces in Park Guell




April 23: NICE

The morning, and by morning I mean 4am, we get to NICE. Shady time to be out, but you do what you have to. I cannot even put my feelings toward Nice in words. Anything I attempt to say with not do my feelings or happiness justice. It was so beautiful ad french and clue and clear and relaxing. It was everything I needed. EVERYTHING. We had wine and cheese and I ate a lot of Subway, it was just perfect.

To add to the greatness, MONACO, is a 30 minute and 1 euro bus ride away. That is the best joke that I have ever heard. MONACO, I must emphasize, because, seriously, it is MONACO. Every other car was a Ferrari. The Casino is less than a rocks from away from the Hotel de Paris and I was just so overwhelmed by the money and the beauty. It was not even real. It is like a weird over priced fantasy land.

Pictures, though they do not do it justice are the best way i can attempt to explain how great it was.

Spring Break-- Coming Soon.

I should and eventually will post about the twenty days I spent backpacking around Europe. Unfortunately, the trip took a toll on my mind and body and I want to wait to settle before I post anything. More importantly though, I kept a journal for the entire length of my trip so at least I will have a hard copy of my thoughts for the rest of my years.

Since I have returned I have spent a considerable amount of times in the parks of Vienna. This morning I ran to Schonbrunn Palace, the yellow one from a previous post. It was so much nicer in the summer. Though they have not planted all of the colorful flowers, the green of the shrubberies that make up the massive acreage of mazes have grown in. It was so beautiful. I walked mostly up the hill and sat indian still on a concrete box for awhile just soaking it in. From this vantage point you can see a considerable amount of the city. There was a slight breeze and I was just so satisfied.

The other day I ate lunch with my friend Kambis and we went to the Modern Art Museum. The exhibits on display were sort of disturbing but I had such a great day. That evening I went to a heuriger with Jessica, her friend from UWO and Preston. The green beans were so good and reminded me of the bean salad I eat at home.

Itinerary

I will start this with one of my life mottos that I undoubtedly stumbled upon and added to my repertoire of life statements.. "If you rest, you rust."

Saturday April 9
Leave Vienna around noon or 1pm
Go to Bratislava, hang out for the day, fly to London at 9pm and arrive in London 10pm London Time

April 10, 11- London

April 12
Get on bus from London around 3 am
Fly from London to Hamburg, Germany at 630 am arrive around noon

April 14
Leave Hamburg at 545 in the morning to go to Amsterdam

April 16
Leave Amsterdam at 9am arrive in Brussels around noon.
East some waffles and walk around the city
Back on the bus at 7pm, arrive Paris at 11pm

April 19
Leave Paris at 2:45pm and arrive in Barcelona morning of the 20th.

April 22
Leave Barcelona at 3pm for Nice, arrive at 230 next morning

Stay in Nice until the 26th. Then I need to figure out how I am getting back from there. I will still have my bus pass, so I'll just bus it back.

Like I said, If you rest, you rust.
I may be dead tired at the end of this, but I guarantee, I will not be rusty.


OH AND I FORGOT TO MENTION!!!!
I am taking only my backpack

crayfish

The weather had been awesome. I wear shorts around. No one else really does, but it is so nice.
DIfferent groups go to parks almost everyday between classes or on off days.
Spent a few days at Donau Park, Stadtpark, Belvedere, and Donau Island today.
I layed out for too long and my back has reached crayfish status. Bright red. SUMMER!!!

When my stomach growls..

I generally want one of the following

Gringo's Shrimp Enchilada
John D. Rockefeller burger from Your Mom's
Turkey Artichoke Sandwich from Panera Bread
Gadd Thai from Jalopy
Strawberry Fields salad from Cypress Bend
Fries from P. Terry;s
Lemonade from Chik fil a
and last but not least, a meal from Subway

i quit my rant now.

It was gloomy and supposed to rain

So what do I do? Go to the cemetery. Zentralfriedhof to be exact. It is not named zentral for its location, but because it is Vienna's biggest cemetery. I rode the underground to the very last stop on the U3 to Simmering. There was maybe a tram to take but i decided to walk. It was a bit sketch looking, more like a regular city with car dealerships and autoshops and some places to eat, etc. Vienna is safe enough so I figured I was fine. I took a right because I felt that was the right direction and kept walking. I had written down the major street before the cemetery and the street name for if I had gone too far. After 10 - 15 minutes of walking and watching the #6 tram clearly labeled Zentralfriedhof, I arrived at the corner entrance. The older man at the entrance did not speak english but showed me on the map locations that I wanted to visit.

Assuming none of you know why I would go here, I will explain. Not only is this the largest cemetery in Vienna, it is the final resting place of tons of famous people. Famous by Austrian standards, ie incredible composers and so on. Beethoven, Mozart, Johannes Brahms, Josef Strauss, no big deal, right?

It took me awhile to wind through and find the grave of Ludwig Von Beethoven, but once I did I was so satisfied. It was very simple and understated for what it could have been. The same can be said for Mozart's. I do not know if they had input into what they wanted, but I was impressed. When I arrived at Beethoven's grave I stood in front of it for a few minutes. I didn't really want to leave or walk around much because this is what I had come for. I sat down in a patch of grass that made the third point of a triangle between the graves of Ludwigand Wolfgang, if I may call them so, and listened to what tracks I had on my iPod from each of them. I saw indian style, face up, eyes closed. It was really nice and relaxing and the perfect thing to do today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJDQMyHbSko

It started to sprinkle on me so I scooted under this tree/bush thing. After my songs ran out I got up and walked some more. There as a cathedral with a really cool dome (on the inside). The rain was a constant trickle so I walked back to the entrance. This time I got on the tram and rode it all the way home. It was a nice day.

The luck you have

of which you are not even aware..

Yesterday I went on an adventure with four of my friends (Amanda, Tess, Alyssa, and Siegfried). Went to Seegrotte, which is an underground lake, former Gypsum mine. In the late 1800s through 1912 the mines were used to extract gypsum that was used in agriculture products. In 1912 they were attempting to expand that caves, but they blast opened a pocket to an underground water cave and thus the mines were flooded. Between the flooding and my tour yesterday it was once in habited by Nazis. There were remnants of a Heinkel HE 46 aircraft which the Germans built (underground and top secret of course). These planes were very narrow as they must be maneuvered through the tunnels of the mine and out the surface level.

Obviously, much of Austria and Europe was occupied by the Nazis, but this was the first time I had truly felt the affects of their former presence. I think because the mine tunnels were fairly small and the save areas were only the size of a dining hall is what made the difference. The area was tight and I could just picture how the Nazis would have been running around down there. It was eery.

Back to the fun part- We were lead on a German/English guided tour and given historical facts about the mine. As we wound down to the lower levels, about 180 feet below ground, we reached the lake. It was really cool. The walls were covered in mineral deposits, so they had a subtle glow, the water was bright and clear and hyper-calcified. We took a boat tour through the caves and received more information about the area. The water is only about 4 feet deep because they continually pump (about 60,000 gallons a day) water to the surface.





Now to explain the title of the post, which until now is quite irrelevant:
The trip was tons of fun and it was great to see a more suburban area of the country. We took 1 Ubahn, 1 Sbahn, and a bus to get to the caves and the same route to return. As much fun as I had in the caves, the part of the day that impacted me the most was the Sbahn ride to the Seegrotte. The seats are grouped in 4s so I took the 5th seat across the aisle from my friends. It seems I have a knack for meeting interesting people on public transport, and this trip would follow suit. I sat next to a man, maybe in his thirties, but I could not really tell. I asked the woman across from me if she would mind taking a photo of my friends and I. She got off on the next stop. The man next to me asked if I had spoken Russian to the lady. I told him no and that I only speak English. We then had conversations about where we were from, why we were in Austria, etc. He was from Chechnya, a part of Southern Russia. He had worked as a construction Engineer in Turkey and was now working on a Petroleum Engineer degree in Vienna. He spoke Russian, Turkish, decent English, and was working on French and Arabic. He had given Chinese a shot, but did not have much success. He seemed like a nice man but he also seemed very sad. Only a few minutes into our conversation he began to tell me about Russia's multiple invasions of Chechnya and how his people were fighting for their freedom.

At first I thought it was really weird that he was telling me all of this, but I continued to listen. I asked him if he preferred living in Austria or Turkey better. I think his answer was Austria, but it didn't really matter to him, as long as he felt safe. In Russian occupied Chechnya, he said there is a constant fear, and that you must monitor everything you said because yo could be report to the police. I was sort of shocked to hear this. Clearly the secret police existed in previous times but I had no idea that this was still an issue. It was all quite sad really. He had not lived in Chechnya in many years, but this was still clearly effecting his conscious train of thought.

We got off of the Sbahn and parted ways. I didn't really pay much thought to the conversation until I was headed home that evening. This man's entire person was shaken by the current situation in his home country. His family was in a dangerous place that forced them to live in constant fear.

I guess the point of this is to appreciate the freedom that you have. We take it for granted every single day when we wake up and go about our day. Feeding our whims and saying what we please. Not everyone has this luxury, so be grateful, and compassionate to others.

http://abcnews.go.com/Archives/video/dec-11-1994-russia-invades-chechnya-12334058

St. Patty's

Happy St. Patty's from DUBLIN! jk. I am in Vienna :(

I am sitting in the fire escape in my building read my articles for International Marketing Tourism.
Look, I am taking notes with my green pen. So in the spirit of the season. Oh well. Looking forward to consumption of green drinks later.

My Wish

I wish that you could have felt the cool air today as I ran.
I wish that you could have seen the faces in the cafes.
I wish that you could have uttered entshuldigen.
I wish that you could have made the quick left turn up the ring.
I wish that you could have told the man that you didn't speak.
I wish that you could have lay on the grated deck.
I wish that you could have felt the sun on your skin.
I wish that you could have seen the statues the stood atop the museum.
I wish that you could have witnessed the blue of the sky.
I wish that you could have relished in the moment.
I wish that you could have.
Like I did.

Lessons learned the hard way

So until now all of the restrooms or WC as they are labeled have had the picture of the man or the woman on them. Easy to figure out, right? Well, yesterday I was early for my Analysis and Decision Making in Marketing class so I decided to use the restroom because the class lasts from 4-7pm. When I arrive at the two doors there are no helpful pictures. There are two options "herren" or "damen". I was at a total loss. Herren has the word her in it and damen has the word men in it, but it also looks like dame. I chose Herren and entered. It was a little dark and smelled weird, but I was in the basement of UZA 2. I didn't see any urinals so I thought it was in the clear. I used the restroom as fast as humanly possible and then walked toward the sink. For some reason I went back to look in the last stall. Lo and behold, A URINAL. Needless to say I bolted out of there. Walked around the halls for a second and then returned to Damen to wash my hands. Luckily no one was around.

Primary Lesson learned: learn German before going to German speaking country
Secondary Lesson learn: only use the WC with pictoral help!

Blood, Sweat and Tears

Except in the order blood, tears and sweat.

This past week, for the first time, I bled, I cried and I sweated.

On Thursday we went to a ski mountain to go sledding, or sledging as the Austrians call it.



This picture is taken before we went down the mountain. We took 4 person gondolas to the top of the mountain, and from here everything went down hill. (literally and figuratively). We rode in pairs and about 3 minutes down the run Amy and I were headed straight toward a wall and then a few seconds later, BAM. Amy flies over me, the sled flies over me, and I face plant into tightly packed snow. I stand up and a few seconds later the blood starts to drip from my nose. I was basically a red leaky faucet for about 15 minutes and then held a snowball on my face. Needless to say, I was not super stoked to go down the rest of the mountain.

Once I reached the bottom I half way thought I might have broken it so I went to the bathroom to look. The left side was pretty scraped up, and this is where the tears come in. There were not a lot, but I feel they are worth mentioning. I went to the sled rental office so ask for some ice, so one of the guys took me to the Ski Patrol Office, which was closed, so we went to the lift ticket office to try and find someone. After sitting in a chair in a desolate corner for a bit, three guys showed up to talk to me. Funny thing is, none of them really spoke English. I got my bag of ice, specifically a thin trash bag filled with ice, and tried to tell them what happened. The situation was humorous and made me feel a little better.

Out of the shack, into the bar for some gulashsoup and a hot chocolate. yum.

That is all for blood and tears, now it is time for sweat.

On Saturday Alex and I went on an organized hike called 2nd International Hiking Day. There were quite a few WU students there. What we thought would be a chill hike turned into basically a run up the mountain and eventually a nice walk at a high altitude. The trip was awesome though. Stellar views, though it was a bit foggy in the distance, and the weather was so warm. I was wearing short sleeves!!!!!!! Point of the story, I sweated.



Running up the mountain



Enjoying the view from the top, squatting for some reason.

Carnivale de Venezia

I honestly wish there was some way for me to display in this post the amount of ridiculous that was this trip to Venice. We left Vienna at 10pm on an overnight train that included a "discowagon" with all you can drink. They played Papa l'Americano the first night and Alex and I continued to sing it for the entirety of the next day. By sing, I mean yell Papa l'Americano and making do and beeping noises.

When we first arrived we walked through the train station to see our first view of the canals. It was great. The water is an icy green color. We wandered with a big group for a bit in search of San Marcos Square. The group stopped for a coffee and I bought a panini. I was in Italy and I was going to eat as much as humanly possible. The group somehow split off and I ended up with Alex, Drew, Justyna (from Poland) and John (South Carolina). Our group was so funny. Most of the entertainment was provided by the constant commentary coming from Drew and John. They somehow concluded that Europe was just like Disneyworld. Drew thought the whole city was full of freaks/creepos/crazies/homeless/street urchins, etc. but then he runs around with cameras in their faces yelling crazy crazy crazy crazy. Who is the true crazy one...? We then found a hoodie with the I <3>

We continued to make our way to San Marcos Square. Our main navigation tool was called follow the cluster of tourists. Due to the holiday weekend, the streets were ridiculously crowded. Not to mention some of their streets are about 5 feet wide. Ran in to a group of guys from UI that live in our residence in Vienna, small world. We finally make is to San Marcos and make our first, but definitely not only gelato purchase of the day (one lemon scoop one strawberry scoop). We now ran into club dave and ben and a few others who quickly got lost.

On our way out of the square, which was sort of a giant tourist trap but offered cool views of the water and more people in costume, John bartered with a gypsy and bought a "gypsy ball" which Ben broke before we even got to the next block.

We now wandered in search of a pizza (pizaz as we like to call it) restaurant for an authentic Italian lunch. Most of the places were really pricey and the first reasonable menu we found would not let us all sit if we were not going to all be eating. We left. We returned again 15 minutes later to ask if we could have pizzas to go. Shot down! And the third time we tried to go I got lectured by the owner for some certain words I may have uttered the last time I left. Ooooppsss

Near this little restaurant the 6 of us ran into another group from WU, half of them from Texas and South Carolina, and a few others. We sat in a little courtyard and made our own wodka redbulls. We sat and we passed the bottle and for some reason this was one of my favorite parts of the day. Anyone can see the buildings, anyone can ride to gondolas, but this little courtyard and the people there was an experience and that is why I enjoyed it so much. We left half of them behind (including my jacket and scarf) and continued our search for lunch. By this 3 of us were from SC, two from Texas, and on Poland. Lunch was good but we had to pay and extra 1.5 euro to sit and eat our food. Taking it to go was not an option so basically there is just a 1.50 premium in every head that walks through the door.

Our little group, which still had the charm and wit of the original, went on a wine search. This lead us through many streets, large and small and by many shops filled with masks. We found little market with 8 euro bottles of Prosecco, but the place arcoss the street had sparkling wine for 2 euro. Done and done. We then found a really inexpensive place to get gelato. They also had cheap crepes. Decision making time. We decided crepes, and then bought gelato (one scoop chocolate one scoop spiced cherry) after we finished our crepes. Alex and I were now deemed "the fat kids" but we wouldn't have done it any other way.

We took our bottle of wine and went to look for a park. We ended up at a dead end street. Their streets dead end into canals. We sat here with our feet hanging over the edge and watched as the sun set. It was nothing short of amazing. Since it was getting dark we decided to head back to find the train station and then to find a place to eat close to it so we would not be late for the train. We ran into the original part of our group and the sent us over two bridges and to the right. I am still not sure where they ate, but we ended up at a restaurant where the average age was about 60. We apparently took our sweet time ordering, as the waiter let us know he took six separate orders since he had first visited our table. It was one of those "calm your shit" moments, but we ordered and almost an hour later got our food. We had 15 minutes to eat and had to almost run back to the train station.

We made it on time, got back on our train, back to the discowagon, back again to our cabins. 6am rolls around and we were back in Vienna. It almost didn't feel real. From 8pm friday to 6am sunday we had traversed the country, spent time in a foreign land and were somehow right back where we had started.

This has definitely been the most detailed post so far. Incase you want the shorter version, the day is summed up here (but if you got this far I assume that you read the rest :) )

The beds in the cabin looked more like prison cells and did not come with pillows. We arrived in Venice at 9 am and hit the streets (the paved ones). We spent hours trying to find San Marco Square with our ever evolving group. We ended up sitting in a courtyard with half of Texas and S Carolina and then I get lectured by an Italian restaurant owner. We ate pizza. We ate pasta. We ate gelato. Twice. Crepes in between. We bought two euro bottles of sparkling wine and drank them on the edge of the water as the sun set over the city. We sang the whole time. Papa l'Americano. We spoke more Spanish and German than ever before and managed to squeeze a few Gratzis in every once in awhile. The sky was blue and the sun was warm. We saw outrageous outfits. Some of them were ornate and beautiful. Some were dressed as "crazies/crazos" freaks, street urchins, homeless, but mainly just festive. It was an outrageous experience and one of my favorite days I have spent in Europe.

Other memorable quotes

"North is in the eye of the beholder" -Alex

"These steps are mossy, slippery and will get my ass green, none of those I want right now" -Ryan

"Calm your shit"- Drew

"Don't break my gypsy ball"-John

"You're the fat kids"- Ryan

Like a lightning bolt, your heart will glow

My blog is majorly lacking in creative titles for each post. I wish I could think of more enticing words to label these posts, but it has just not been in the cards recently. This post, although quoting Katy Perry lyrics is not really creative, will attempt to have some sort of unifying theme.

I.

This past weekend I spent time in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. The city was amazing. I fell in love with the way that it looked at night. It was darker and dirtier than Vienna and had much more obvious signs of the remnants of communism. It had a broken down charm that I just could not get over.

II.

When the firework video debuted so many people asked me if I had seen it. I had seen a clip on MTV between shows and so I told everyone that I had seen it. I did not realize what I was missing when I told them this. Take a quick look at the first few seconds of the video

That is right! The video is shot in Budapest. I hope that you were able to gather that by the specific pictures I posted from my trip. Preston, with whom I traveled to Budapest, sent me the link the day we got back. I could not believe it. It was strangely exciting.

III.

There was a Katy Perry concert at the big concert hall that is about three blocks from my residence in Vienna on the Saturday that I was gone. SO WEIRD the connections to all of these happenings.

IV.

Katy Perry's single Firework I think is one of the few truly positive and uplifting songs to come out in quite some time (perhaps even since Christina Aguilera's Beautiful). My favorite lyric of the song says "like a lightning bolt, your heart will glow." Since the first time I heard this song those lyrics have stuck with me.

I feel that on this current adventure/trip/life that I am living that my heart is truly glowing. I am in a place that has opened my eyes, my heart, and my mind. I am so fortunate to be surrounded by the people that I am and to have the opportunities to learn so much about them. Traveling to countries outside of your home country could be scary I suppose but I have felt so comfortable for the entire month that I have been gone. It is very strange not being able to speak the language here but I am at peace with that. When I go to other countries (such as Hungary) I do not feel as bad about not knowing that language, but when I am in Austria I still sometimes feel guilty for not knowing more German.

Besides the big experiences I am having, there are little things that still make my heart glow

- Getting a package in the mail from my parents. It had some of my clothes and some spices for cooking and my pair of Sperry's. When I received it yesterday I put on my sperry's a grey t shirt and my cut off blue jeans. As weird as it sounds, I felt so at home.

-I purchased some waffles at the Penny Markt the other day and heated them up this morning. I didn't have any syrup, but when I took my first bite I found them to be oddly sweet. They were deleicious and it was just really nice to eat them

-I started class on tuesday. So far I have enjoyed the two that I have attended and think that they will be very beneficial to me

-The weather is supposed to get to 40 degrees today

- I am going to Venice, Italy this weekend for their Carneval festival

V.

One more thing that I must add. I do not usually play video games online. Ever. Until last weekend. I encourage you all to play it a few times. It is nothing short of majestic!! Also, this song played during the game, definitely added to the "list of things that make my heart glow".

http://games.adultswim.com/robot-unicorn-attack-twitchy-online-game.html

Break the law before breaking it up

I will do my best to recap the past 10 days-- It probably would not be hard to blog more often, I just don't really think about it.. so here we go

Feb 14- Happy Valentine's Day! Except that consists of me still laying in bed. It is different having a cold in the cold. I felt that if I went outside I would just die, so I stayed in.

Feb 15- I drag myself out of bed, out of Haus Erasmus and back to WU (the university). We heard an interesting lecture from one of the professors concerning the history and political structure of Austria. One of the most interesting things to me was the identity of European nations before and after both of the world wars. Austria was once part of Germany but somehow became this other area but never considered itself necessarily a separate entity from Germany. After the second world war the decided it was time to make the distinction. This was my understanding, it is probably a little off, but none the less, it was interesting to hear this.

My group of the program was scheduled to go to the Parliament building that day. We were allowed in three of the different conference room, each of the progressively more impressive. I did not have my camera with me, but this is a picture of the third and most architecturally interesting room that we saw.

Feb 16- I went to Erste Bank and opened an account. I don't remember what I did for the remainder of the day. Probably explored?

Feb 17- Went back to the bank for a minute to ask a question and then went straight to the United Nations building. We went through some janky form of security booth. The building was very modern and not very attractive. We saw a few conference rooms and that was about it. I did learn more about the purpose of the UN and how participation varies by country.

Feb 18- This was our last day of the OK program. We went to a theater called Burgkino to see the movie The Third Man, which is set in Vienna. It was an older movie, but it was cool to see the city then and compare it to what we see now. The ferris wheel at Prater was in one important scene of the movie and that was cool because the same wheel is still up in the theme park today. To read more about the movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041959/).

At 8pm we went out to a bar/pub called Charlie P's where they had fingers foods for us. These finger foods were sandwhiches and french fries. The place was packed with people from the program and it was fun to meet people that I had not met before and also see those that I had been hanging out with already.

Feb 19- A few of my friends here had not seen Black Swan so we decided to go back to Burgkino to see the movie. Once we paid for our ticket, which is a ticket for a designated seat, we sat down and then Alex I did not know if we had paid for the German showing or the original version. Luckily, it was the original..

Later that night I met up with my friend Kambis for a drink at a place called the Frei Raum on Mariahilferstrasse and then walked around the city centre. Vienna is such a beautiful city, especially at night.

Feb 20- A group of us went to a cafe with the intentions of doing some leisure reading. Once we got there it was too dark to read so we all just hung out and ate

Feb 21- Alex and Andrew and I decided to take an adventure. We jumped on a tram and headed across town. We had no plans and decided to get off on the south side of town. As we walked along the streets we noticed many of the embassy buildings. After a few minutes of walking we went through a little gate and stumbled upon this little beauty

By little I mean palace and by beauty I mean out of this world. This is the Belvedere Palace. Even though the gardens were not in bloom they were spectacular to look at. I cannot wait to go back when it warms up.

Feb 22- Went to the school with my friend Drew and found some cool street art. No one else was awake so we went home to gather more troops and then headed of the the Naschmarkt. They had dream catchers!! and giant grapes!!

Currently I am trying to dry my laundry and listen to Cat Stevens. I thought drying everything on the balcony was a great idea until I remembered it was 7 degrees below freezing. Oooppsss

The Summer Residence

Feb 9- Schonbrunn Castle: Summer home to many of the leaders of the Holy Roman Empire

Fun Fact- Marie Antoinette lived in this castle. She is Austrian and was originally named Marie Antonia, but changed her name to the French counterpart upon her marriage to Dauphin Louis of France. She was married at age 14 and was the 15th of 16 children!

Feb 10- City Tour of Vienna: Three hour tour on foot of the city of Vienna. We began our walk at the U Bahn (untergrundbahn/ subway) Schwedenplatz location. We wound around the 1st disrict, which is the city centre, and saw various buildings and historic places. My favorite building was the Hofburg Palace, which was the winter residence of those in power. Though I think I would prefer the sprawling gardens on Schonbrunn, the Hofburg had quite impressive architecture.

Feb 11- My group took a tour to the Donauturm Tower. This tower is located a bit out of the city on the northwest part of town jsut past the Danube River. The tower is one of the highest points in Vienna and therefore lends itself to incredible sights of the city. From the top we were able to see the giant power plant next to our university (sounds unappealing, but it looks like something straight out of the Willie Wonka movie). It was difficult to recognize some of the buildings from so far away, but it was really nice to see some of the residential areas that were beneath the tower. They houses are much more colorful than those in America, but still tasteful. There also seemed to be more space/bigger lots between the houses, but that could have been just the area I was looking at. From this height I was now able to get a good view of the mountains and hills that surround Vienna and they were so beautiful. This made me so excited for the weather to warm up so I can go hiking.

Feb 12- Linz: Yesterday I went to Linz. Here, we took a tour of the steel factory and the a tour of a future technology museum. It would have been cool if I was into steel factories or future technology museums, but alas, I am not. The day was not a total bore though. At lunch, we tried a new type of fruit. It was really tart but delicious. Turns out it is an Israeli fruit and is named syphilis. It made for a good joke because we had each passed it on to take a bite, and has therefore all given each other syphilis. Ok, kind of gross, but still funny.

Feb 13- Benadryl: my best friend for the day. Not feeling to well so I am going to take it easy.

Exhausted

Quick Update

Vienna is great at night. A huge group of Americans went out to watch the Superbowl on Sunday.

I have made friends from lots of different countries and they are really fun to hang out with.

Graz trip was beautiful.

Today I will take a trip to the Schonbrunn Castle. I think I visited this site when I was here in 1999, but this time will be great.

I reached a point of delirium yesterday and laughed for 3 hours straight. Sleep schedule may still be a bit off? Ooops

updates

-sometimes my google is defaulted to german

-I legally purchased a bottle of wine last night

-Today was the first day of our orientation program.

-There were way too many American there

-I went on a solo adventure today. No one who knows me should be surprised to know at the market I bought two oranges and a litre of orange juice

-I also bought two apples this morning

so far...

-I have discovered the Vienna is awesome

-That I definitely should have learned German- more ordering complications today

-The Billa, basically a convenience grocery store, that is in block of my residence is a total life saver.

-By life saver I mean I buy an apple every morning and they have 1.99euro bottles of good wine

Tomorrow my group will take its first trip. We will be going to the city of Graz. It is 2.5 hours from Vienna. We will see some of the city and ultimately tour a chocolate factory. Nomz. Pictures to come, for sure!