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
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