It's a cliché but I love it all the same, all we can do is live for the moment

After lunch, getting ready for EU class.

"In our lit class today we talked about the story of Oedipus and the overriding theme of fate and freedom of choice. Jim asked the class if we believe in fate and although I have been asked that question before, for some reason it really resided with me. The concept of choice. Conscious decisions one makes and accepts all results (and repercussions) those choices entail. How we have come to the moment that is now. What choices, the good and the bad, that have landed us here. Fate, the idea that something is destined to happen—therefore ones conscious decisions no longer bear the same significance they would if we lived in an ultimately random world. I believe that things happen for a reason, that good things will find their way to good people, and that there is someone out there for everyone. But fate? It seems the world is too complicated a place to fit such a small, four-lettered word. If fate was real, I think too many people would sit and wait for the good stuff to happen instead of going and living it. Appreciating the moment, that’s the best I can do."

—Just finished a traditional Hungarian lunch –the beef goulash was delicious!!

Just a few bumps in the road

Saturday night, in sick.

"It’s a Saturday night and I’m staying in because I have some sort of bug L. We think its something I ate and I thought I would feel better in the morning but it definitely stuck with me all today. Abbie and LJ left to go out on the town tonight and Holly’s in Switzerland for the weekend. I wish I could have gone with them! But I spent all of today on our tours of the Salt mines and Sound of Music nauseas and getting sick on the bus. Gross. So hopefully by just staying behind and watching a movie with two other girls who opted out of the bar scene I will feel better tomorrow.

This has been quite the weekend for our group! One girl sprained her ankle, some people’s things have gone missing, one other guy is sick and I got some sort of food poisoning. One week in and we’re falling apart! Ha! No, just kidding J I’m taking Airborne and drinking lots of fluids, just woke up from a 2 ½ hour nap that I desperately needed and by tomorrow I think things will be better.

On a happier note the tours today were amazing! The buses left at 8:45am and we didn’t get home until 6:30pm. A picture says a thousand words so I’ll share many, but it was quite the day!

Highlights—

*the fashionable jump suits we got to wear in the salt mines

*(our tour guide in general) HAHA he was dressed up as a solider? Or maybe a drill sergeant, anyways he was hilarioussssss

*OH! I de-boned my first trout this weekend…!! Um, yes so proud of myself. It came grilled whole on my plate and instead of panicking I dug in and it was delicious J

*got mom a birthday present!

*saw VERY native Austrians walking around in the small town we stopped at to see the Church where the baron and Maria got married… lederhosen and all!

*we took a picture in front of the very gondola where Liesl and Frank sang “16 going on 17” SO PRETTY

*got Sound of Music stickers for my scrapbook!!

*had my first experience of throwing up ON A TOUR BUS, IN EUROPE, IN A (TOO-SMALL) PLASTIC BAG, IN PUBLIC, TRYING TO DO IT QUIETLY SO I DIDN’T GROSS PEOPLE OUT, wanting to legit sleep on the bus and miss seeing the hill where Julie Andrews frolicked. I won the trooper award (along with Jo who hobbled around on a sprained ankle) Hands down."

Sitting in the Republic right now, (turning into our new favorite place!) and was pleasantly surprised that Sunday mid-mornings have live music! Two guys on guitars are playing right now and just sang "Wonderwall" ... its so friendly here! Side note: I'm feeling lots better today... knock on wood, the nausea is gone :) Today is dedicated to playing some catch up on homework for tomorrow, aka German verbs and conjugations and EU reading. I read a lot this morning while the girls were still passed out from their eventful night, but the book is dense! We want to walk around a little today too, even though the past two days have been so packed with sightseeing and tours and bike riding. Oh! I forgot to write about our biking adventure!!! on Friday! It was amazing! My stress fracture is still healing so "low-impact" things like bikes are really good for it. After a frustrating beginning to the whole-- paying for the bikes at a machine that has an English option but might as well not because every other direction was German-- it honestly took us forever to pay BUT once we did we were off! We biked all along the river that runs parallel through Salzburg and into some more residential areas which were really pretty and had tons less traffic so we didn't have to stop as often to cross busy streets. I don't know what it is, but biking seriously puts me in the best mood. I probably sound so dorky, but we biked for at least 2 1/2 hours and it was the best time I've had here so far. The houses were so cozy, the people watching was so fun, and I felt like we really took the time to trek through the heart♥ of Salzburg; the place Ava wants us to soon feel comfortable enough to call home.

Pictures, pictures, pictures!!

the lake where Maria and the kids fell overboard!

I ♥ the Sound of Music... (the bus ride, not so much...)

"I am 16... going on 17" GONDOLA !!!

LJ and I with our tour guide! :D

on the train into the mine!

the gang in our sweet mining jumpsuits!

bikes! in front of the Sound of Music cow :)

how cute??!!

Tessa Rosa... best Bailey's hot cocoa everrrr!!

The hills are alive!

After dinner, before a run downtown.

"Just about to run out to get a hot tea down into town. Just finished the most amazing dinner Kelsey created, whole-wheat penne with chicken and vegetables we got at the open market today. Tomorrow we are going on the SOUND OF MUSIC TOUR!!! & touring the famous Salt mines in Salzburg. “Salz” actually means “salt” from way back when, so we were told it was something we should NOT miss. It is an 8-hour tour, all day tomorrow; we are going to be such tourists… I love it! Haha. Oh and don’t worry Nana… I’ll go again with you J Tonight is karaoke night at one of our favorite pubs but I think were forfeiting it to watch the Sound of Music movie tonight so we can be prepped and rested for a full day of walking and pictures!"

Errands that were on our to-do list today:

- buy tickets to do the Sound of Music tour

- drop off postcards (aka locating the post office)

- find the outdoor market to get produce for dinner

- find the silver&blue Mozart chocolates

- check e-mail

- buy “Austria” t-shirts… they look like Puma brand, so cute J

How errands actually went today:

- asked 5 different people where the post office was… 2 of which actually “Sprechen Sie Englisch”

- the internet connection at the café decided to be fickle so we almost bought tour tickets 6 times… woooo for “7^th times a charm!”

- Almost bought horse meat instead of chicken for our dinner… I really wish there were pictures along with way-too-long German words

- FOUND THE MOZART CHOCOLATES

- T-shirt shopping: ummmm it’s just too early on in the semester to be buying clothing, language barrier and all…

Side note: I have learned more German in this one week (four classes to be exact) then I could ever imagine. Although it is intense and we joke that it is more of an “immersion” program, I know it will be so helpful when getting around… and maybe soon shopping will become easier!

----these pictures are from St.Wolfgang, uploading finally worked! Enjoy!

You are only what you eat

Sitting looking out at such a sunny day!

"In our European Union class today we talked about the differences between American and European culture. Before the class even begun I looked around and thought I kinda already got it. It was sunny today so we had a BBQ on the lawn. Since the tables were already set up and our teacher was comfortable he just decided to have class outside, and start it late. People were still drinking their beers from lunch and when class started I thought it was weird only until our teacher went to grab another one. And then after all this, class ended a good fifteen minutes early because the sun moved and it was getting in his eyes so he wanted to leave and enjoy to day. In a nutshell, class outside + drinking IN class + not so prompt times = European living. I could get used to this…

We are reading The European Dream in class and, even though we’ve only just made it through the intro, I can already tell it will be a fascinating read. Europe is just soo different. And I totally hate myself for just writing that because I have read that exact sentence so many times and been irritated at its vagueness. What is soooo different? Of course cultures and customs play a part in the difference but it is so much more than that. The best way I can describe it (after not even being here for a full week) is the discussion we had today about food. To Americans, food is something that needs to be convenient, fast food has definitely added inches our waistlines, and IN N OUT is a place to be revered. To Europeans, food is something you can get your hands on. The idea of ‘slow food.’ You know the baker that bakes your bread, the farmer that raises the pigs you buy and the milkman and his cows. To elaborate on this point, Jim (our teacher) told us that our turkey for Thanksgiving is already picked out and at a specific farm, getting fat for our dinner in a few months… how weird??!!? Jim brought up the common phrase, “you are what you eat” and then added the European spin that they say about us… “you are only what you eat.” If we play into this notion, Americans are nothing more than greasy burgers and a disgustingly high annual pizza consumption rate.

Completely switching gears I am enjoying every minute over here. Abbie was on the phone trying to get her calling card to work so I came outside and am sitting next to an open window in our house. It is so homey here I already feel like in a few weeks it is somewhere I am going to be happy to come back to after long travel weekends. Ava tends to pretty rose gardens that line our yards, when I look out the window I have to remind myself where I actually am. We are done with classes for the day and have some down time before dinner. I want to try and make it to the internet café tonight but with all this German I’m finding Abbie, LJ, Holly and I are usually in our room quizzing each other on the next days vocab. Oh but I now know that not all of this (seemingly) meaningless vocab studying is a waste!! We were at a museum today and this man ran into me and said something completely foreign and I ALMOST ignored it until a light went off in my little head and understood him… he said “Entshuldigung” which means “excuse me!” Look at me go! I’m totally going to be fluent by the time December rolls around J"

A Day of First's (then again, isn't every day here??)

First...

• German class. & quiz... I now know how to say useful things like "Zahlan, bitte" (check, please) "Entschuldigung" (excuse me) and "weisswein gespirtzt" (white wine spritzer... my personal favorite)
• Eis kaffee. (iced coffee) & then realizing that this was actaully ice cream and coffee, not ICE and coffee. But a yummy surprise nonetheless!
• Time I have seen a real life chess game (like in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets!!) definitely took pictures, the pieces were as big as I am!
• Trip to the train station! We are planning on traveling to Munich next weekend and seeing Germany and going to OKTOBERFEST!!! I have only been to the airport in Germany (ha) and I was one tired girl, so excited!!
• German pretzel. (they are know for them)

We toured around Salzburg today after classes and got to see so much. Along with traveling, I am equally as excited to explore the city I am studying in. There is so much you can miss if you don't give the city the respect it deserves. I am in awe that there are people who call this their home. I am so glad we have Jim and Ava to show us around. This city feels huge and I know I would be completely lost without our very oun tour guides. We went to St. Peter's Cathedral and a few monestaries (one of them still up and working... with monks and everything!) Jim told us the tale of the "Red Bull" and how it originated here... Red Bull's world headquarters are in Austria, we took a bus by it on Saturday so it was neat to connect the story with something we saw. Ava could talk forever. She knows so much. Evey time period, war, and Saint that built this or painted that. I took lots of pictures but its so different looking at them on my camera than it is standing there, looking over all of Austria that is soaked in so much history. I have never been surrounded by buildings and rituals that are so old. The US seems like just a baby compared to what this city has seen.

With Munich in our plans for the next weekend and a four-day trip to Vienna the following weekend, we are content with staying here this weekend and exploring the things we have on our to-do list. This list includes going to the salt mines, ice caves, biking around Old Town, and buying wine and delicious cheeses and fashioning a picnic near the river. With so much to do I feel as though we will be as busy as if we were taking the train somewhere.

Other facts that I thought would be fun to share:

*laundry machines are different here... and by different I mean confusing.

*there are horse-drawn carriages everywhere, it makes me feel like its the holidays constantly!

*lunch menu today: cream of broccili soup, tuna, mixed greens salad, fresh "brot" or bread with a variety of meats and cheeses & chocolate mousee... all homemade. It is really nice because Ava makes a variety of things and its all serve yourself so there is usually something for everyone. Good thing because I heard the word tuna and almost gagged.

*when you pass people on the streets they don't smile at you if they don't know you. Its totally a habit for me/I'm just a friendly person so I bet (if I don't already) I have "YES I AM AN AMERICAN" written on my forehead.

x's and o's to all those I am already missing. Postcards are in the works!

St.Wolfgang & the AUG

In my room after a long day of sightseeing!

"Today was a full day dedicated to touring Austria. We took a bus from town to the most quaint city, St. Wolfgang (w’s in German are pronounced with the v sound) and I could not take enough pictures! The city (well town is a better word for it) sits right on a gorgeous lake, water that reminded me of movies set in Greece. Every single house had window boxes overflowing with flowers and entire walls covered in sprawling ivy. A lot of the houses here use dark green as an accent color which I found interesting and very cool. We got to the town a little later than expected because half an hour into our drive a radiator pipe burst and started smoking. Jim and Ava took us into a café to get something to drink while we waited for a new bus. This was a prime opportunity for us to use our new vocab, “Grub gott” and “danka” while ordering green tea J

When we finally got off the bus Ava took us into one of the oldest gothic churches in Austria. She went into details about Wolfgang ans the legends that make up his past. Churches have always been interesting to me and this one was unlike any I had ever seen. It was so intricate and the ceilings were hand painted, dating back to 2,000 years ago. Such a time seems inconceivable, I was in a constant state of awe. Locals were walking in, lighting candles and saying prayers and I just stood there and watched. A family of three, the little girl being dragged by her parents chanting the German word for candy; an older couple looking sober and serious, their “goodness” so apparent I didn’t even have to hear them speak to know they were just good people. I took pictures of two of the altars so I could look back and remember, but I know they won’t do them justice.

Souvenir shopping and exploring the town I WANT TO HONEYMOON AT!!!! Filled the rest of our day. I got two postcards. Instead of taking the bus back we boarded a gorgeous boat that took us to the other side of the lake. I didn’t want the day to ever end!!

PS: ate schnitzel for the first time last night! Mystery meat to the extremmeeeee."

Sunday morning, hangover.

"I am lying in bed staring out at the green wonderland that sits at the edge of our backyard. It is just past noon and I am the only one awake out of my roomies. Our first Sunday, our first real morning to sleep in!

We went out last night, first big night doing SALZBURG and it was eventful! We started at the AUG which is kinda like the towns local watering hole for beer and socializing. We “American” girls show up in “going out” clothes aka dresses and to say we stuck out would be an understantement. HA. The whole concept behind the Aug is community; a place to go after work with friends for a beer. You don't need to spend a long time here to figure out how close-knit relationships between people are paramount. How the AUG works: You go up to the counter, order either a liter or half liter, then grab your “stein” or mug from the shelf, rinse it in cold water so your beer stays cold, and take it up to the man at the keg where he fills it up past the rim and spills it everywhere.

I thought by now one of my roomie would be up to start breakfast with me, but they are still dreaming so I can write more J Obviously we got in late if it is past noon and we are all still in our beds. I was the first one to make it to our room sometime around 2:30am I think. With that said, the Aug was definitely not our final stop last night.

After a few “steins” (which was only E 5.80!) we walked (FAR AND IN THE COLD!!) to O’Malley’s where a lot of people in the group ended up at. It was a Saturday night so it was packed and even though a table was hard to find I liked taking in the culture and watching the locals interact. There was a bachelorette party that came in dressed in white coats as nurses and they were hilarious!! There were at least 20 of them and they were so cute. They like working on their English so they tried talking to us and giggled when we kept saying “Grub gott” and “prost!!” (which means cheers!)

LJ and I met this Austrain, Lucas, SO funny. He loved us. & bought us each a drink. We were very appreciative and made conversation but we knew we had to get out quick because we are fast learners and know how Europeans like Californiaaiaiaa girls…. oh boy.

Off to wake these chickes up and make breakfast (well I guess lunch) from groceries we bought yesterday; eggs, yogurt, and toast. I should have written about our first experience in a German grocery store. Simply put, I feel as though I could have dealt with ten Lucas’s better than we shopped."

-------just got to do a little catching up on the family and saw pictures of Meg and Austin ready for their first day of school! WOW! Austin you're growing up too fast. And the picture of hank missing me.... i miss him too!! He already looks bigger (if that's even possible)!! I miss all you guys to the moon and back... Mom: keep your updates as least sentimental as possible, I get sad over here easily at the thought of how long it will be until I see you guys!! ok? For some reason I try and post comments but it won't let me... I'll try and figure it out. xxoo♥

Hello Europe!

I am coming to you from Cafe Republic in the heart of Salzburg! I just ordered a latte machiatio and it came in a tall glass, layered colors of espresso, milk & foam, coupled with a tall spoon and amarettio mint, I think? haha... everything is new here. I love it♥ !!!!!!!

We don't have internet at our house (so whenever I have time to write or think of something I want to say I am not in immediate access to my blog) so at the house I journal. Therefore I have decided to write most of my posts in "journal entry form", so that when I do have an hour to come down here and blog I wont have to spend it stressing about what I remember from previous nights, I can just transfer my journal here, to my online home:)

On the airplane from LAX to Frankfurt.

"It feels like it took forever to get here, on the plane, headed to Germany and in a weird way I thought this day would never come. After a two-day, 18hr car trek with Dad from home to Redlands and a solid week of packing prior, sitting here didn't seem quite tangible. But nevertheless, here I am, squished between a older slightly grumpy woman and a German family of four. LJ and I tried to sit together but the best they could do was get us in front of eachother. Lucky for me I do have the bulkhead (sp?) so coach seems slightly more spacious, but then again I'm constantly bumping elbows with my fellow fliers. Joy.

Things that I'm already noticing and we haven't even crossed over New York yet...

- German is every flight attendant's first language (and when this surprised me I felt stupid)

- my first German word: Zucker = sugar (got a cute little packet for my tea) :)

- time is listed like army time. ie: 14:15...??

- I ♥ accents

- diet coke is called 'Coca Cola light'

My nerves have seemed to ease from quite a teary take-off... I've never traveled internationally, and to do so with no one sitting next to me and family I know I won't be seeing for four months is unnerving to be completely honest. Liz is already in Barcelona, along with Hilary and Nickie... it seems as though I was one of the last to take off towards what is guaranteed to be a semester to expect the unexpected. Alyssa put together the most amazing "how-to-salzburg" guide that I read through last night and it did help with the nerves.

We're coming up on 4 1/2 hours of flight time, leaving close to 5 1/2 left. The little boy sitting next to me only speaks German, so he keeps looking over at me while I'm writing this and it probably looks like Chinese to him. How weird :)

This is my first entry, the beginning of what everyone refers to as the most eye-opening experience college has to offer. While I cannot endorse that bold statement quite yet, I have no doubt it will be one for the books."

In my room (#3!!) on our first full day.

"I am here! After two flights, a taxi & a shuttle, we are nestled in our castle on a hill :) Our first night was quite the start! (ha!...ahhhhhhh!!!!) but I really won't have wanted it any other way. But I have to say it was weird waking up this morning at 7am to the dinging and donging of a nearby monastery bell through our open window.

After we unpacked a little we met and went down to town for dinner. Ava wanted to show us how to use the elevator so we took it down right into the center of town, across from the cute little restaurant we dined at:) and conveniently across from the internet cafe we will be using often. Dinner was WEIRD. The menu had some/little/no english (ha) I ordered polenta and spinach in a tomato sause and it came out looking like two slices of bread almost. But maybe the wierdest thing was being able to order a glass of wine with our meal. --defiantly not used to drinking in public!!

It was raining when we finished, the plan was to walk around town a little before crashing (exhaustion setting in with this crazy time change...) but instead we ended up at two different Irish pubs...."

---I am going to try and keep the following as minimally incriminating as possible so to all who are reading and have been here you will understand. Bla Bla. Eieldwiess. O'Malleys + vandalism delta love♥. Karaoke. Rainbow door. Walk up the hill. These are explained in detail in my journal however I am censoring a bit ;)

ORIENTATION DAY TODAY!!

miss you all, you know who you are xoo.