First full day!

Oh man, this trip is going to be pretty excellent! Let me name the ways:

-my roommate (whose name is Harold), is from Guatemala. It seems he´s actually pretty similar to me in that he doesn´t party much, keeps the place clean (both apparently rarities among the dorm residents), loves music (playing guitar, drums, and bass), and he´s been here studying Industrial/Mechanical engineering for two years (shoutout to my various IE/ME friends from school!). The only thing I´ve found difficult so far is that his computer (which he´s been nice enough to allow me to use) is spanish, so many of the keys are in different places! It´s going to be an excellent month though.

-This morning, we took our placement tests, and I got into level B1,2 (level 6 out of...14 I think). I placed fairly evenly to a little ahead of most of our group though, so I hope it´s not too hard!

-Then we went hiking through a bunch of vineyards north of town, up this hill with a great view of the city. It was definitely a healthy climb but we only covered a couple miles round trip. It was also exceedingly hot and humid (90ish would be my guess), but don´t worry, I´ve downed about 2 Liters of water today.

-Foodwise today was also pretty good. Schnitzelsandwich (fried chicken sandwich), Fanta (much different than that in the States), and an excellent dinner featuring assorted sliced cooked meat (ham, pork loin, chicken) with assorted brot (bread) and kase (cheese). Naturally, since we were hiking through vineyards, dinner was served with (we assume) a local red and white wine as well as grape juice. I could only down one glass of red wine...so I guess wine isn´t really my thing.

Well, tomorrow´s another day- I think the only thing planned is a city tour, which should be pretty fun! The place is hyped up for Saturday´s start of the Eurocup and there are banners, gear, painted busses, etc, etc. Tomorrow, I think I'm going to look into tickets to see The Sound of Music, The Barber of Seville, and/or My Fair Lady at the Volkstheatre this month. Interested in joining me?

Arrival in Vienna!

Well, I made it!

Thankfully, everything was on time- flights, meeting with the director, getting to the dorm - except for my head. Jet lag is harsh, but hopefully tomorrow will be normal. It's 9 pm here (3 pm EDT) and I'm getting ready to head to bed, but we still did quite a bit today. After getting in at around 13:00 (how I'm going to refer to Austrian time from now on), Dr. Kube said, "ok, you guys can hang out and I'll meet you all here at 9:30 tomorrow morning!" (*groans*) . So, we spent the afternoon walking the area around the dorm (twice), grabbed some pizza (yeah, I know...we couldn't find a restaurant that was between a cafe and a fancy place) and we got to know each other a bit. Then we walked around some more, sat in a park, admired some architecture, and came back to play cards.
Ok, I can't think straight because I'm on way too little sleep, SO, good night and hopefully I'll write again tomorrow (after our placement interview, ahahhhhh)

San Francisco

Ok, so I partially lied...before my trip to Austria, I went with the family to San Francisco for a week! We hit up Cable cars, the Muir Woods, all three awesome bridges (Golden Gate, SF Bay Bridge, and the San Meteo Bridge), Alcatraz, and even an SF Giants baseball game! What an adventure. I must say, though, I spent a fair portion of my time in SF thinking about Austria. Now it's only 4 days til I leave, and I haven't packed yet! I'm definitely getting excited though! I got my Euros ($453 gave me only 255 Euros...BLECH) and I have purchased pretty much everything I need. Woo hoo!

Welcome

Welcome everyone to my travel journal! As I have the opportunity to use the internet in my travels, I will update this with my latest happenings! So what's coming up on the travel schedule? VIENNA. I'm leaving May 29 to go study abroad in Vienna for a month. Enjoy the blog and PLEASE leave feedback!
Dan