I am currently sitting now in the dark, I’ve been in Austria now for about 12 hours. As I was watching the Princess Diaries in German on local TV, the other students abroad with me haven’t figured out the whole adapter/converter issue yet and between the 14 of us, we’ve probably blown about 3-5 fuses in just the past half hour.
Visiting ND was really fun. I had a great time going around campus and goofing off with people. Even though I’m still extremely bitter about missing the Georgia Tech game, it wasn’t as hard to leave. By the time classes started I just got kind of bored and after doing all of the facebook stalking I could, I was ready to blow that pop stand. Bryce (who generously let me crash at his place) threatened to put on Rudy my last night on campus, and it’s a good thing he didn’t because I would probably be on campus still.
After enduring the world’s longest bus ride to O’Hare in Chicago, I met up with the rest of the group and prepared to board our Austrian Air flight to Vienna. After getting through security and walking 5 miles down to our gate, we all agreed that our stomachs were going to start digesting themselves so we began to look for a place to satiate our hunger. We then discovered we were trapped in the world’s most poorly planned terminal. Not only did we have to walk 5 miles back to the security gate searching for food, with the only edible substances being duty-free sees’ candies and liquor, but they have food court right outside the security gate with windows that border the terminal! It’s just sitting there, taunting you. It finally got to us so we walked the 10 miles to go back and get our boarding passes so we could go out and eat and come back in.
The flight was uneventful except for the fact that I got no sleep because the stupid solitare game on the airplane kept cheating and I wasted 5 hours of good sleep time trying to beat the stupid thing.
Once in Wien (Vienna for all you English speakers), we ran to get a connecting flight to Innsbruck. It was here that we decided we really enjoyed the Austrian Air stewardesses.
Once in Innsbruck we had the pleasure of meeting our program director, Professor Gürtler who speaks nothing to us but German, they weren’t kidding about the full immersion. Its okay except when he’s telling you important information like where to meet him or how not to destroy the electrical system of the hotel you’re staying in. His wife is funny because she talks twice as fast and giggles a lot and most of us just put on our best acting skills to look like you’re really interested, which gets especially hard when you start swaying and lose your balance because you haven’t slept in 30 hours. I usually know the subject they’re talking about but have not idea why they’re talking about it. Here’s the dialogue in my head:
“Okay he’s talking about chickens… what do they have to do with the crusades? Ooooh, chuckle, I think he made a joke, all the better German speakers are laughing. Crap, did that last comment warrant a response from me?
From Innsbruck, we drove east again to Salzburg where I am currently staying. It’s a really nice four star hotel outside downtown and we’ll be here for the next four weeks. Since we got here, we've been doing orientation stuff and we're all super jet-lagged so its been really interesting. I seriously dont remember some of the day, like I remember sitting on my bed, and the next thing I know, I'm in the shower, 30 minutes later. I should seriously get some sleep... Oh and my address is:
Charlie Vogelheim
CO Hefterhof Hotel
Maria-Cebotari-Straße 1-7
A-5020 Salzburg
Austria
So the beds are starting to look pretty inviting now.
Visiting ND was really fun. I had a great time going around campus and goofing off with people. Even though I’m still extremely bitter about missing the Georgia Tech game, it wasn’t as hard to leave. By the time classes started I just got kind of bored and after doing all of the facebook stalking I could, I was ready to blow that pop stand. Bryce (who generously let me crash at his place) threatened to put on Rudy my last night on campus, and it’s a good thing he didn’t because I would probably be on campus still.
After enduring the world’s longest bus ride to O’Hare in Chicago, I met up with the rest of the group and prepared to board our Austrian Air flight to Vienna. After getting through security and walking 5 miles down to our gate, we all agreed that our stomachs were going to start digesting themselves so we began to look for a place to satiate our hunger. We then discovered we were trapped in the world’s most poorly planned terminal. Not only did we have to walk 5 miles back to the security gate searching for food, with the only edible substances being duty-free sees’ candies and liquor, but they have food court right outside the security gate with windows that border the terminal! It’s just sitting there, taunting you. It finally got to us so we walked the 10 miles to go back and get our boarding passes so we could go out and eat and come back in.
The flight was uneventful except for the fact that I got no sleep because the stupid solitare game on the airplane kept cheating and I wasted 5 hours of good sleep time trying to beat the stupid thing.
Once in Wien (Vienna for all you English speakers), we ran to get a connecting flight to Innsbruck. It was here that we decided we really enjoyed the Austrian Air stewardesses.
Once in Innsbruck we had the pleasure of meeting our program director, Professor Gürtler who speaks nothing to us but German, they weren’t kidding about the full immersion. Its okay except when he’s telling you important information like where to meet him or how not to destroy the electrical system of the hotel you’re staying in. His wife is funny because she talks twice as fast and giggles a lot and most of us just put on our best acting skills to look like you’re really interested, which gets especially hard when you start swaying and lose your balance because you haven’t slept in 30 hours. I usually know the subject they’re talking about but have not idea why they’re talking about it. Here’s the dialogue in my head:
“Okay he’s talking about chickens… what do they have to do with the crusades? Ooooh, chuckle, I think he made a joke, all the better German speakers are laughing. Crap, did that last comment warrant a response from me?
From Innsbruck, we drove east again to Salzburg where I am currently staying. It’s a really nice four star hotel outside downtown and we’ll be here for the next four weeks. Since we got here, we've been doing orientation stuff and we're all super jet-lagged so its been really interesting. I seriously dont remember some of the day, like I remember sitting on my bed, and the next thing I know, I'm in the shower, 30 minutes later. I should seriously get some sleep... Oh and my address is:
Charlie Vogelheim
CO Hefterhof Hotel
Maria-Cebotari-Straße 1-7
A-5020 Salzburg
Austria
So the beds are starting to look pretty inviting now.
