Hello from Austria! I'm sitting in the IES Study lounge waiting for the program orientation to start. I got here at about 9 this morning because I forgot my cell phone at home and Ryan Fed-Exed it while i was en-route to the airport to the center (Thanks, Ryan!). I needed to catch the duty fees before the office got stuck with (or worse, rejected) them. I'm pretty jet-lagged, so when another student, Paul, came in i took a nap ...apparantly there are a bunch of students from Notre Dame who will be taking german classes with us. sweet. It was great to run into someone who spoke american english! So rewind to yesterday, the day that lasted 36 hours instead of 24...its about the same as the euro to dollar ratio (bear with me)...

The flight over was uneventful. I watched Enchanted and a bit of Juno, and I listened to music and tried to sleep, unsuccessfully for most of the flight. Heathrow was pretty sweet. The new terminal is gorgeous and so entertaining! There is a Harrod's, Prada, Gucci, Coach, Tiffany's, sushi places and even a raffle for two cars: a sweet audi TT and a red porsche that were both really good looking. I ran across a cigarette place and I found the warnings hilarious, so i took pictures until someone told me i couldn't ... oops ;)

The flight over Europe was a bit easier...I sat next to a Brit named Chris, who was traveling with his wife to see the Lipizzaners in Vienna. We talked about our countries a bit...gas there is estimated at about 10$ a gallon!! He also gave me a copy a major newspaper and when I looked through it, there were articles and comics about American politics...apparantly they follow the election very closely, and I got the impression that they'd rather see Obama in office than Hillary Clinton. The comic that i saw was disgusting but funny...it was Obama with a zit that looked like Hillary Clinton and in each frame, the zit got bigger until it popped, and then it happened again...I guess it was trying to say that Clinton keeps coming back as a huge pain for Obama.

In Heathrow, i met 6 of the other students in the program. They are from PSU, Susquehanna, Bucknell, Tulane, Yale, and UMD. Most are vocalists! All seemed pretty nice and excited to try new things on this trip. I think they have more traveling experience than I do... my passport fell out of my bag on the plane during takeoff and since i was half asleep I didnt even look for it when i was getting off, so i had to call the plane once i got to customs and they brought me my passport We rode the CAT into town and it was a sweet green train...the trains here are so smooth!

My hotel was cute (thanks for the pick, Dad). It was white walls with wood furniture and a huge window...pretty, even though my view was through a courtyard...i got to look at the architecture of the building. The coolest part was the fridge: loaded with Cognac, vodka, bailey's, beer, some other stuff i didnt recognize, orange drink stuff, and coca cola. The coke reminded me of when I went to France and the first thing i was happy to eat was the Coke there because it was so good! When i got to my hotel room I was totally exhausted so i hooked up my computer and called Dad on Skype (still no phone, gahhh) and then took a nap. After that I went to eat and just walked around until I found a little cafe. I didnt know how to order there, so some guy who spoke english was like, what are you doing? and I told him I wanted to order, and he asked, "you want to order, but didnt find a seat yet?" i was so confused...I thought it was like a regular deli, but i guess not. So I sat down and the waitress took my order from the English menu, and brought my food: an open faced piece of rye with butter, cucumbers, tomatoes, and chives. It was simple and very tasty. After I was done eating, however, I sat for 45 minutes because she wouldnt come give me the bill until I stopped her and asked for it in German! I was getting really frustrated, but fortunately I had a dictionary that helped me through that. I think that the cuisine here will take some getting used to...breakfast was a bunch of fancy lunchmeats and cheese with some rolls(?) and other really foreign substances that I did not touch. I settled for a croissant with gnutella and some orange juice. yum.

Taking the taxi was an experience...neither the driver nor I spoke the same language so paying was pretty fun, especially because i didnt realize i had to pay 2 more euro than what I thought..oops. The Palais Corbelli, location of the IES center, didnt have any markings indicating that it was the place to be, but i found the sign for IES, although the initials meant something else: Institute for European Studies instead of International Educaton of Sudents....??? Anyway, now I am sitting upstairs in this really old building waiting for things to get started as a few students are coming in early like i did.

So I'm having a pretty rough time adjusting, but I think Ill be okay when more people get here and i have a kind of "home base" set up with the center and at my apartment. Orientation starts at 2 and lasts all weekend, so it should be fun- it seems like a kind sightseeing vacation of Vienna so that I have some type of orientation to the city...right now i have absolutely no idea where i am, and following a map is turning out to be a lot more difficult than i thought it would be...these streets are not in grids!!

more later! I miss everyone so much and hope you are doing well!!