Vienna

Ohh Vienna. What a time.

We left early Sunday morning, changed trains four times and four and a half hours later, found ourselves in Austria's capital.

The sites that we went too mostly concerned Sissy, the Marie Antoinette of the time. She was really focused on fashion and good times lol. She died from a stab wound. Interestingly enough, she didn't even know she had BEEN stabbed. After she was attacked by a man as she was walking, she made it to the ship, where she passed out. They took off her tight corset, that had been preventing her from bleeding to death...and that was the end. We went to two of her castles, or palaces...places of living.

We also went on a tour of the city, but it only lasted a half hour and was really just done like two streets haha. The audio guide was about three or four seconds too fast, so I think i missed a lot of what was going on, honestly. But it was so blooming hot I couldn't really focus anyway.

I don't feel like we saw that much for being in Vienna for two and a half days. But regardless, it will be a time i certainly will never forget. The people make the place.

Anyway, I have a feeling that this blog will be one of my last on this fine trip of mine. Getting internet is getting harder and harder, and I only have a little over a week left. I'm excited to see my friends and family again, but I gotta say...I wish I could stay longer. I've really had a better time than I ever imaged that I would.

We are taking a test on Tuesday. Something about being certified to a certain point...or something. I know, i'm not very useful on the informational part...like history, or...anything significant like that. Only four days of classes left! This weekend we're going to another castle...then the test...then home that Friday!

Castles and the Internet (No relation)

Yesterday, we celebrated the 4th of July at two castles!...Actually not that exciting. Well it was...ok...breathe...let me explain. (I get ahead of myself)

The day started with breakfast at 7:15. We packed a sack lunch and were off....on a pretty sweet bus. We all could have two seats to ourselves, so we just sacked out and slept the 3 hour drive away.

As we approached the Neuschwanstein castle...wow....beautiful (google it and you'll see why). But everyone knows me as a sucker for scenery. I can just go on and on about it. But this castle...just sits on this lush, green mountain side. It's on a plateau and is surrounded by mountains, and a huge lake. Freakin' beautiful. Unfortunately, the king of that time had extremely ambition plans and only finished 15 of the 200 rooms in the castle. And those 15 rooms were the only ones we could tour. Now 15 ROOMS sounds like a lot...but they were counting things like the king's dressing room, and probably hallways or something lol. The point is, it took us a half hour to get through the tour.

The other castle, must less impressive. Although I can't really say why, except the walls were covered in murals versus the extreme golden laden EVERYTHING, which is more to my liking haha. We were unable to take pictures inside of either of the places, so what i'm talking about will probably remain a mystery to all of you.

As for the internet. They have cut our hours down, and now we only have access two hours every day. Hopefully, I'll be able to update my blog just as frequently, but if missing for awhile, you'll know why.

We don't have an excursion this Wednesday like we usually do, but instead are taking a three day trip to Vienna! Austria's capital. Noooo idea what we're doing there, but i'm excited!!

As for the 4th of July, Bogi should their love for us foreigners and lit some fireworks (surely more than dad ever would have if I had been at home lol--you know it's true). We say a weak "Oh Say Can You See" and ate hot dogs and watermelon, but for some reason had Spanish music playing in the background the whole time.

Speaking of foreigners, I think just about the strangest thing of being here is when people ask where I'm from. I'm just to saying "From Union College," or "South Dakota" maybe even "Sioux Falls." But here, they're looking for a country. And it's weird when people say "yeah that word is hard for foreigners to say." Definitely a different feel.

Munich

Ok, so I know I said Salzburg was the most beautiful city I've seen...but I take it all back. Munich...I love you. But I'll probably say that about Vienna when we go there next weekend.

Munich really felt like EUROPE, ya know? It seemed a llliiitttllee less set up for tourists then Salzburg did, and felt more like the Big Apple of Germany.

We started our day at 8:20, meeting in the parkplatz. There we took about 4 vans to get the 21 ACA students to larger train station. Goodness, I'm not sure how many times we had to switch trains...I think it was around 4 times. And all I can say is that I'm happy Markus (our excursion planner guy) knows what he's doing. Although we did get on the wrong trains twice lol.

We started off at the Allianz Stadium. It seats 66,000 people and since it opened in 2004, every game has been sold out. With bigger games they sell standing tickets and can cram 69,000 people in. The stadium changes colors at night. The outside is made of a really tough, thin plastic that heightens the reflection of the different color lights.

We went into the changing rooms and I was kinda surprised to see how simple it all was. The guide said it was because many of the players come from very simple backgrounds and prefer things to remain that way.

The green, the most important part of the stadium, is maintained unbelievably. The sprinkler system that runs over the field has UV lights on the bottom, as to give the grass even expsore. From the months of August to about April the grass is heated from beneath. They have a series of pipes under the field and they heat the water, no more than 50 degrees F, to keep it growing.

After that, we hopped about three more trains and ended up at, what I call the Munich Empire State Building. It was pretty small actually...only one elevator for about 20 seconds. But it was right over the Olympic park. So we got to see a lot of the stadium that was used for the Olympics a few years back.

After that we went into town farther and ended up that this magnificently...indescribable castle, palace, church thing. Honestly, I have no idea what it was but it was.....wow. I really couldn't pry my eyes off it. It's incredibly gothic influences. Creepy Gargoyles everywhere, so much ornamentation...incredible. and HUGE. ENORMOUS. The thing didn't come even close do fitting into my camera picture, no matter where I stood or what angle.

After that we just kinda roamed around and did our own thing. Three of us were so exhausted from the heat and running around we just gt ice cream and french fries and lazily roamed around town until we all met but that ridiculously awesome castle, palace, church place again lol.

Classes are getting harder and harder to focus in. We are CHECKED OUT. We just want to party it up, roam around the country side, and work on our sleep. I'm not sure if we're jet lagged still, but our bodies are definitely still trying to adjust. When I get up at 6:30am it really DOES feel like the 11:30 pm my friends and family are enjoying.

But again, I freakin' am in love with Austria. I couldn't be happier with my decision to come here, more thankful for my parents helping me get here, and my friends for pushing me to go through with it. I owe you all!

Tomorrow, Munich!

There's not bunches to report. Today was a typical day of classes, although (plug your ears...er close your eyes, mom and dad) paying attention in class is getting harder and harder. There's just something about people talking in a language that you don't understand that will make your head hurt, and your eyes heavier than you could ever imange. We're all kinda feeling our summer slipping away and the drone of classes four hours a day. We're very excited about going on an excursion to Munich! Not only are we off campus, but no classes!!! Wahhooo!!

I'm in the process of posting pictures of Salzburg on Facebook, I was in a rush to post them, so I doubt they're the cream of the crop, but hopefully you'll get to admire some of the beauty regardless!

Mauthausen

Today we went to Mauthausen, an old concentration camp. It was pretty...awful. Like you hear about everything the Jews and thousands of others went through, but standing there, standing where they did roll call for hours, shot people, beat them, just because, it feels different. You can image thousands of people being herded into a small, hot space. Clad in their stripped, heavy work clothes, being beaten for no reason, held inexplicably captive.

We walked through the barracks, that were meant for 300 people, but usually "housed" up to 2,000. The bunk beds we narrow, and they forced two people to sleep on each one. So four to a set of bunk beds. They dressed bigger people in too small of clothes, and smaller people in bagger ones.

We stood by the wailing wall, a spot between the barrack and the gate. People would stand there and weep, pray, just wail to get out of there.

We walked through the gas chambers, another chamber were they kept all the corpses, and finally the room that they cremated the bodies in. Adjacent to the furnaces was a room with a single, operation table. That's where they would cut the tattoos from the corpses and send the skin off to sick people, some who made lampshades, book covers, among other things, out of it. It all smelled of death.

It was terribly hot there, felt like a desert. Made the whole tour and experience feel more real, and more dreadful.

Although this experience kinda made me feel sick to my stomach, I think it's an important thing to see. To realize the cruelty that is in this world is the first step to making it a better place.

Salzburg

Salzburg *sigh* How I love thee. It's so beautiful there, not to mention the birthplace of Mozart. I took almost 400 pictures there yesterday, just of everything. The buildings, the water, the beautiful mountains (which was so lovely with the super green ones on one side, and the snow capped ones adjacent), buildings, people. We left Bogenhofen at 8:30 and came back at 8pm. It took us about an hour to get there by train. While we were there we went on a tour of Mozart's home...got yelled at twice for taking pictures...we went into a huge cathedral, that i'm sure held some historical significance I'm unaware off. We say some old men playing chess on a HUGE sidewalk chess set, we took a tour of a fortress once overcome by Napoleon.

The first place we went was called "the house of water tricks" or something to that effect. It was built in the 1500s by some important, rich guy (you can tell history is really my thing). There are beautiful scultpures all around. In the middle of one section is this table, that I thought kinda looked like a table for human sacrifices (I apologize to my audience for this reference lol, I think I've watched too much Alien vs. Predator, kidding kidding...kinda) The table looked kinda odd because the center was missing. Like there was a slit in the middle of the table that came six inches to the end, and was about 6 inches wide. This is were water would flow through to keep the wine cool. When the rich guy would want his guests to leave, or they were getting too rowdy, his servants would pull a lever and water would shoot out of the stools they were sitting on. His seat was the only one that would remain dry.

His courtyard had all kinds of "tricks" like this, and I don't think any of us managed to make it out dry.

I felt more at home in Salzburg ironically, lol. I heard a lot of English, big tourist place. Most of the vendors spoke English, so buying things was a lot less stressful. At the end of our trip many of us opted to eat in town. I bought one of my first cuisines (I did have handtossed pizza early, that made me a little sick)...although it was Turkish, not Austria or even German. It was a kebeb. They actually save the meat off right in front of you. There's this large rack of...lamb? Prehaps, that is just hanging over this counter. When you order they pick up this electric razor and just shave off pieces. Nice and fresh and delicious, sorry to all the vegetarians and vegans out there!

I really can't say enough about Salzburg, you'll just have to see it! I'll try to get pictures up on facebook sooner vs later.

This upcoming weekend we are going to a concentration camp site and on Wednesday will be going to Munich.

My teacher has decided that we don't study our vocab words well enough from each lesson, so tomorrow we will have our weekly test, along with a specially made vocab test. My friend, Alexendria from Macedonia, is trying desperately to help me learn things. She always says, "you MUST learn!" (she says must for everything, which makes her sound super serious about everything lol) She has been learning German for the past 7 years. At lunch Erika, a secretary here, sat with me at lunch and tried to teach me proper pronunciation. She made me feel like there MAY be hope, but I'm not so sure. but it's only been two weeks! So I can't get too discouraged. All of my friend agree that I need my own personal tutor, because people can say the same word to me 20 times, and I still can't get it to come out right.

A chance to hitch hike

Today's walk was filled with strange auto behavior. We decided to direct our walking path toward St. Peter, a close by, small town. We were walking on a pretty main road most of the way there. About half way down the road, with cars whizzing by...because they do NOT stop or even slow down when you're walking on the side of the street, crossing the street, really anything near the street...eventually we her the crunching of wheels behind us get closer...and then slower? That's odd. We turn around and this single lady says, "Hallo! Are you going to Braunau?" She motioned toward her backseat like "Yeah, come on in, I'll drive ya'll there." It was only Kelsey and I, but still, I've never been offered a ride from a total stranger before. Nice lady lol.

When we got into St. Peters, we walked by this church with a large funeral party (ok, not positive it was a funeral party, but it kinda seems to be the only explanation)eating outside. As we were walking down the stairs to get to the main sidewalk again, this large garbage truck slowed way down and just starts honking at us. We're kinda like "uhh...ok.....awkward" and keep walking. Well the honking gets louder and more incessant...we quicken our step. Suddenly, we hear all this shouting from the driver. So finally I turn around and as I turn I realize I don't have my camera anymore. So it clicks. This truck driver saw me drop my camera and took the time to literally pull into the middle of the street and honk for a solid 45 seconds until the stupid die Touristien turns around and picks up her Fotoapparat. A little embarrassing, considering he had completely stopped traffic for me, but I will be forever grateful!

Today was the first day I felt like I knew what they were talking about in my class. I did some hardcore vocab studying last night. I've started to write down each chapters vocab words, with its article, the plural form of the word, and the English translation. Memorizing the articles of the words as well was what pronoun (er, es, die, der, das, sein, seine, dein, deine, eure, eurne, meine, meine, ist, ihr, ihre, Ihre, Ihr, ect) will definitely take the longest....along with pronunciation. I am infamous here for not being able to pronounce anything. Not being able to roll my R's is a pretty huge problem. I'm also infamous for my larger in size caboose, so I guess I'm known for that no matter what continent I'm on lol

2nd post of the day! I'm on fire!

After writing my last post, I tried to figure out how to upload some pictures to my blog...yeah...No idea how. So I had to just resort to good 'ol Facebook. It's not many pictures, and I can't say their terribly exciting, but it's something! I will try to get more up soon! The internet here is kinda sketchy and will only allow me to upload about 10 pictures at a time. Love you all!

Oh Adventist World, How Small Thou Art

Seriously. How small can it be? I sit in church with hundred of people each week, roam the campus of a thousand or so, without being related or even know one person. However, I can climb onto a plane, fly 15 hours and end up half-way across the world, and know, not just one person, but two people by association.

Yesterday, as Kelsey and I were flipping through pictures, I recognized this girl in one of them. “Oh oh oh! I know her! Who is that?!”

“My brother’s girlfriend.”

I kinda got this puzzled expression on my face and said, “omg, no way! You’re brother is THAT Jesse?!” She showed me a picture of him, and yup, sure was.

I, what I would consider against all odds, had gone on a random picnic with a few of my friends, when her brother Jesse and his girlfriend happened to swing by.

Then, in a much more unbelievable connection happened. I was in Rebecca’s room today. We were talking about how her roommate is gone until Monday night because of this wedding in Romania. And I go “Romania, uh? I can say like 3 phrases that my roommate from Andrews taught me.” Before this, I knew Rebecca’s roommate was named Mia, and I knew that Iustina (My roommate from Andrews) had a German cousin named Mia, who had a sister Lilly. Mia had pictures of her sister up in the room, and I had initially had this sense of familiarity, but I ignored it. So I’m about to leave Rebecca’s room, when suddenly I see this picture out of the cornor of my eye. OH MY WORD. It was Iustina!!! There she is, my roommate from 3 years ago, staring back at me IN A PICTURE THAT HAD ONCE HUNG IN MY DORM ROOM AT ANDREWS. I told Rebeca that if Mia was at a wedding in Romania that there was a really good chance Iustina was there. She goes, “wow, what are the odds that you’re old roommate would be 8 hours away from you on the other side of the world?” Seriously, what ARE the odds? Well in the Adventist world…apparently pretty high.

Today we went to a hot spring. Kinda like Evan’s plunge, but not as amusement parkish...ok the two have nothing in common except the hot spring. It was more of a spa. It was really nice, but the scenry hurt my eyes at times lol. There was a lot of—closeness—in the pool. Couples, yep, everywhere. Advert eyes. Opps, more couples, Ok, let’s move pools…oh bad idea. Besides that little detail, many of the woman simply swim in their underwear and bras, and I spotted a few guys swimming in only their boxers. I find in odd that they allow people to swim in their underwear, but wouldn’t let one of the girls in our group wear a T-shirt into the pool, odd. But apparently the shirt is a hazard because it’s heavy….I would beg to differ that the other could also be a hazard of some sort…lol. We took der Zug there (the train). It took about 20 minutes, and then we spent 4 hours there.

While there we all got this wrist band key things. You could buy things by scanning them, open and close your locker by scanning them, get a massage by scanning them, and then, when you left the facility for the day, the cashier in the lobby scanned that sucker on last time and you paid her the total.

I called my mom and dad for the first time since I’ve been here. I called about 12:30pm, my time…yeah about 5:30am their time. I considered the time difference, but knew dad worked late and knew I wouldn’t be getting back from the pool until 7. They did a nice job of not acting too upset, I was almost convinced ;). I wanted to wish dad a happy Father’s Day..but naturally I forgot, so Happy Father’s Day dad! Love you!

When we got back from the pool, we watched a movie in this little room, with a name I cannot pronounce. We watched a movie, which name I also cannot pronounce. Something about someone winning something a long time ago. Luckily, they put English subtitles on. I tried to follow along in German as well as I could, but I don’t think the words “Deustchland, bitte, Danke, Morgen, and Football” would have gotten me far.

Afterwards, I came back to the dorm, diligently finished the homework I had started this morning. Tomorrow is back to the old grindstone of classes. We will have a different teacher for the day tomorrow, so that should be interesting.

Oh yeah. I never got a chance to write about church! Again, understood about…hmm….1/5% of it. Not terribly interesting lol. It was communion, we stood and knelt about 9 times. I thought it was interesting how the pastor and the elders passed out the bread and the juice, not the deacons. I rather liked the symbolism, it felt more like the leaders of the church were showing their servitude side.

Before church, we had Sabbath School. We were all in the sanctuary. A guy would show and read this questions off a powerpoint slide, and then the pews would discuss it. The pastor ended up being directly in front of us, and took pity on our English speaking selves. He read translated the questions for us and then asked us our opinions. The topic was being vegentrain, vegan or eating meat. It was kinda funny because he seemed to be making fun of the guy up front. Saying things like “Meat is bad for you—that’s what the guy up front is saying…I say I feel better after eating a steak!” hahah. He shook my hand after he found out I wasn’t a vegetarian…good guy. He’s big on chicken, so I figured dad would approve.

The church is beautiful, modern, and two walls of sliding glass doors that lead outside. Beautiful, light, breezy. They left the doors open to get a little breeze…and look what it drug in, a cat! Yep, in the middle of the sermon, the pastor quits talking, and you see this other man walk to the front, lean over, and bring up a cat lol.

Their song service is lead by a wonderful organist. The organ has this beautiful mellow sound to it. Not the sharp, harsh sounds like a lot of big pipe organs do, like at Union.

Special music was done by Lousia, one of my teachers. She plays the violin beautifully. I haven’t had a violin put me in a day dream like that since Sveta spend the summer in Sioux Falls, my 8^th grade year. For the postlude, Lousia and two others played a violin trio, magnificent. I would buy their CD in a heartbeat. I miss playing the saxophone and piano…

A relaxing day

Today was nice. I got up at 6:30, went to breakfast at 7:30 (yes mom and dad, i get up that early every day. I AM capable of it....but only when I want to be) Went to class from 8:30 to 12:30, had our last meeting about the exceptions, principles and rules of the campus. The man who did the talk was Mr. Vogel, my teacher, Gaby Vogel's husband. I was kinda distracted by him talking, he had nearly no German accent, very crisp English, but reminded me of an odd mix of Robin Williams and Steven Zork from Andrews.

After class, we all hit up lunch. We had...hmm...I forgot the name of it, but it's a mixture of pasta and potatoes. It looks like little balls of pasta, but has a pretty firm middle, which i guess is the potato portion of it. And it was served in red sauce. I can't really explain the flavor...like this odd..like..bitter? after taste. For supper we had a really sweet meal. It was bread with soft biscuits with fruit baked into it. And it was served with a almost frosting, white sauce. Very sweet, very delicious. They serve fresh fruit with every meal. Kiwi, bananas, apples, an interesting desert which is usually the texture of whip cream with fruit mixed in.

After lunch, Kelsey and I went on a walk. Kelsey arrived yesterday, she lived in Germany for a year while her dad was stations there. She knows quite a bit of German and is good to have around on any exploration lol. We walked toward Branau (kinda) and ended up getting distracted by a side roads and private properties. It was lovely. Very rural, green, high trees, a creek, moo'ing cows. Beautiful, bright yellow cement houses, which SWEET doors. We took pictures of the doors, I'll have to post them soon. After the walk we had a soul-baring conversation by the pond on campus. It's nice to have someone to confide in 5,000 miles away from everyone I know.

I plugged my appliances in for the first time yesterday! I can't remember if I mentioned that in my last blog. I tried to write the last blog about 3 times but kept getting kicked out of the library. Anyway, I first plugged in my battery charger for my camera. Ok, Kelsey plugged it in. I couldn't bring myself to do it. She was trying to convince me I won't hear that crackling and see the fireworks display I was envisioning. She shoved the charger into the socket and thankfully nothing happened. My mac was low today, so I plugged it in...all by myself! today. To my horror there was a spark in the socket, so i pulled it out quick..but than in desperation i shoved it back in haha...it's working...for now.

I have GOT to get a watch, and more importantly, get better with army time. When our teachers tell us to meet them at 19:00 we all stand around like dimwits, scratching our hand, trying to count down from midnight, or up from noon. Not the sharpest tacks.

Study hall was a bit frustrating tonight. I honestly, CANNOT HEAR WHAT THEY ARE SAYING. There's so many 'ts' and 'ack' and other wierd, unidentifiable sounds coming out of their mouth. Plus their more polite here so they whisper things and open their mouth like their trying to hide a secert or something. TALK to me my peeps! Spracken! and LOUDLY. SHOUT (like I am in my head) It's all good!

Tomorrow is our first test. We'll be having on every Friday. I have no idea what it will be over, if it will be multiple choice or writing. I'm sure a lot of it will focus on the gender of the noun. in German all nouns have a different gender and all nouns in a sentence are capitalized. With each gender comes a lot of stuff that i don't understand. Like when to use es, er, sie, ist, blah blah blah. We'll see how it goes.

The weekend is coming up and I'm sure I won't be logged on until Sunday. Church will probably be an event to share. I'm thinking about hitting up the children's Sabbath School, maybe they'll speak more at my level and pace lol.

Day Three, Adventures to Branau

Yesterday was the first day of classes. We all had to take a placement test. I think there were four of them....I didn't make it past test one lol. Gaby Vogel is the teacher and she told us not to guess, so i ended up I answering eight out of 40 questions, with a whooping five correct, so naturally I ended up in the beginner section (ahhh, what can I say, that 'ol pod cast studying will get you far!) There were about 4 people that opted not to take the test at all.

In class they only speak German. I would say that about only 1/8 of everything said in class is in English and that is either as a quick clarifier when the teacher isn't sure what the correct English translation is, or if students have question....which we do....a lot...but it usually evokes a short, one sentence answer. The faculty, staff and students are all very nice. Over the 36 hours my luggage was missing (seems like so much longer) the dean offered me own shampoo, toothbrush, pants and even underwear. lol, very friendly.

Also, the friendliess of the staff is what i attribute to my even getting my luggage back. Although I talked to the luggage tracker people in the airport, I didn't feel very confident about the information I had given them, and in turn, the information i received back (darn that communication being a two way street). On the campus tour yesterday, I stayed afterward to talk to the guide, Frank something. I explained my situation to him and he was so nice as to call the airport himself, on his own cell phone, and get things worked out. They couldn't tell him when the luggage would arrive, just sometime that night. When i got back to the dorm around 10, my luggage was just chilling in the hallway, and i fell out top of it shouting "gepack gepack!!"

I feel like Bogenhofen is trying to teach us Rosetta Stone style. Without any English words, and with pictures. Hearing German words is very frustrating. I can hear all of these "achkt" and "ts" and "tvs" sounds, but can't mimick any of it. After our trip to Branau, which is Hitler's birth place, I went to study hall. Melanie is the TA, so to speak, and was trying to help me in my pronunciations. Having people help you with pronunciation is rather intimidating, they get way in your personal bubble and stare at the way you shape your mouth. It can be kinda embarrassing almost because you can have them repeat the word 15 times and still not be able to make it sound anywhere close to what they are saying.

It's been raining basically since I've gotten here. But it's this beautiful, windless, storm-less, gentle rain. Lovely.

Arrival-- Day One

Oh my word. I made it, what are the odds! AND I did it with NO air sickness. After dad and I had talked to Trudy at chruch about 'sea band,' we ran off to Walgreens. I got a tight elastic band that went about three finger widths up my wrist, with a little plastic ball underneath pressing on my pressure point. Worked like a dream! I was able to read a whole book without motion sickness.

Ok that really wasn't that interesting. I made all of my connection flights without a problem and safely arrived in Munich on time....bad news is, I beat my luggage. I waited at baggage claim for a good hour. Finally, I found a airport person, prayed they spoke English and ask him what I should do. He directed me to a counter where they take care of all of that. The guy behind the counter had me list three 'unusual' items in each of my suitcases and describe the type and color of each case. He told me that my bags will be delivered to Bogenhofen tomorrow evening by 6. I sure hope so. Fortunately, I packed a toothbrush, deordant, contacts, glasses and an extra shirt, but I'm missing my jeans, shirts, power cords, adapters, shampoo....everything. So PLEASE pray that my suitcases will easily be found and returned to me soon. So far, not having my luggage is the most stressful part.

When I finished at the baggage counter, I asked some random people how to get out of the airport lol. Oh, but before that, as i was getting off the plane I asked four cute little old ladies if i could trail behind them. They were so sweet, lead me to the baggage carousal and through customs, and then promptly left me as their luggage was one of the first to come out. So after about two hours of me taking care of the lost luggage, I ask these guys how to get out of the airport, they point, I go and am shocked to turn the cornor to about 30 people all holding signs with different names and destinations on it. So I start looking for 'Bogenhofen. After some searching, I find the fellow, he shakes my hand and takes off. I ran after him, we piles into this van with two other students....none of whom said a word. And rush to the other gate to pick up two other students.

The campus is absolutely beautiful. So much greenry, beautiful trees, a little creek and pond, hills, gorgeous. I've met 5 people who are in my program now and will meet moroe tomorrow. So far i do not have a roomate. They can't decide if they want to put me with an American or an Italian. They asked me which i preferred...i really didn't know how to answer the question, so i just kinda shrugged and said 'whatever.' however, the more i think about it, the more i think i want a non American. While I'm here i really need to cease the moment and immerse myself in it all....hopefully with the help of my luggage #sigh#

Love all of you dearly! thanks for all your prayers and well wishes and please keep them coming!

The Freak Out Begins

I woke up feeling....a little skittish. Ok, a lot skittish. My nerves having finally caught up with me. Today is basically my last day before I leave. After church tomorrow, my family and I are driving to Omaha and spending the night across the street from Eppley Field so they can drop me off at the airport around 6 am the following morning. I still have some things that I need to pick up before I leave, but I hate shopping, and especially hate it when I have a rock in the pit of my stomach...

Nine Days...

It's officially nine days until I leave for Austria! My fears have calmed considerably. I've gotten over the pure outrage and horror of when I discovered I booked my ticket for the wrong month...yes month. Apparently I was feeling a bit of anxiety and homesickness and booked my return flight a few weeks premature. After a few frustrating calls to Vayama and a big ca-ching later, I got my return flight moved from June 23 to July 23.

Also there has been a rather large misunderstanding concerning visas. The ACA website indicates that we need a student visa for the six weeks that we will be there. This other student I've been talking to called the Austrian Embassy and they told her that we needed one. However, when she drove to the Embassy in Chicago the guy basically said, "Uh, what are you doing here? You definitely don't need one and I can't issue you one." However, when she called them again when she got back home they told her that, yes, she did need one. Fortunately, Brianna was a dear and called the Embassy for me, asked all the hard questions and informed her that a visa is no necessary.

So far my fears have only been alleviated by talking to Lauren and Brianna. The ACA people kinda suck at answering....well anything. Come on ACA people! I need answers and affirmation as a first time international traveler! Yes, I said it. Baby me!

I did a little faux packing today and feel pretty confident I can get everything there in two check bags and a carry on. I"m still a little ner ner about the eight hour flight I have from Philly to Munich, but I'm hoping with a little help from my friend Tylenol PM will make me too tired to care.

What's going on

I'm starting this blog up because this little Tiffero is off on adventures soon! In academy just about all of my friends went on the annual mission trips.

Freshman year:Bulgaria

Sophomore year: Honduras.

Junior year:India

Senior year:Brazil.

I was too young until my junior year but still never went. This summer, that's all changing! My traveling horizons feel almost endless! I convinced my parents to let me go to....AUSTRIA! I. Am. Stoked. I"m leaving June 13th, arriving in Munich on the 14th. Then I will be on the Bogenhofen campus and on 11 cultural tours for six weeks! THRILLED doesn't even begin to explain it. But it's about as horrifying as it is exciting. With no international travel under my belt, it's alarming to think I'll be on my own. But we can only go as far as our fear allows us, so I'm kicking that to the CURB and jumping on that plane...*big gulp*