Thursday, September 11, 2008




Meine familie, guten tag! Today was our first day in the city. My, let me tell you, the jet lag wore us out pretty early on in the day.

I slept great—thankfully—we awoke and had unser frühstuckt (breakfast) and got onto some public transportation to get to the AAIE (Austro American Institute _______--not sure about that E). It is a loooooovely school; a wealthy man owns the building and we rent a floor there. It has high ceilings, and intricate décor; the walls are fabric and cushioned, much like a quilt. There are seven klassenzimmer (classrooms), and there are two other universities from the states schooling there as well. The institute is equipped with internet, lockers, a kitchen, computers… etc. It is in the first district, in the heart of the town. I’m unaware how much anyone/everyone reading this is informed about districts. There are 23 “districts” in Vienna. They somewhat distinguish the class of the area, and are also part of the zip code. They basically surround the city; the closest are surrounding the city hall, and they spiral out. The first district is very touristy with all the museums, opera houses, and what not—therefore the shopping and food is much more expensive. My house is located in the 23 district. Ha. Meine Mitbewohnerin (roomie) and I have the farthest to go to get to Karlsplatz (the station right by the AAIE), which is where we’ll be going daily. Soo we got the school, covered a lot of info, went on a walking tour, ate lunch, and went over more info und dan our host familien started trickling in to pick us up.

My woman is single and worked for a cosmetic company. Her name is Eleonore Alfons and she recently retired. She is absolutely classic—so funny! She is beautiful and appears to be almost Native American. She lives in a cute home and we have our own apartment, but it’s much different than in America. It’s a separate room, and this is considered quite a luxury. She said that housing in Europe is ridiculously expensive to own a home—she gave us a ridiculous number for her house…500,000 euro… a year? We can’t remember if it’s a year or a month, however! That is still ridiculous. She also told us that citizens spent half of their money on utilities, gas, water, and gasoline. HALF! Maybe it’s about the same for us? Ich weiss nicht, aber dieser ist nicht gut! Frau has a weiner dog, fish, 26 birds, and a turtle. She is such a comical woman; she makes funny noises and uses facial expressions constantl. Meiene Mitbewohnerin is named Melissa, and she’s from Seattle. She’s only a Freshman, and she’s very sweet.

After Frau showed us around we wanted to go the Supermakt to get some food and cleaning supplies (our room has spiderwebs galore! And I have arachnaphobia, remember?)—and it was closed. Ha, 7.30 and no access. We’d planned to get dinner there, too. Luckily, we found a little place near the Uban station and got a _____ we don’t remember what they’re called either, ha! Our brains are PACKED with so much information, you wouldn’t believe it! Anyways, then we cleaned the room and ourselves, unpacked, and voila!

Morgen ist unser (our) erste (first) tag (day) von Schule (of school) (trying to get in the mode of Deutsch). It should be a good time! Hier ist dieser email. Oder blog. Yeah, it’s long. Time to sleep.

Post script. On Freitag (Friday) we’re taking train to Bratislava. Has anyone been there? This will just be a day trip, but Cindy says it’s like a mini-Prague. It’s beautiful and cheap to get to so we’re going! I’m sure it’ll be great.

2 comments:

Ali said...

Tawwwwwwwwny. I miss you so much, not even gonna lie. I went to sonic tonight and all i could think of was our various trips there, but only because nothing else was open. HA. I love you, it sounds like youre having so much fun, lovin the blog, and the pics. Keep up the good work! Ali

William said...

Honky! Love the blog!1 Aren't you glad you started it now? Dad and I are loving London. The jet lag does suck though.
We've had Fish & Chips twice, gone to lots of familiar places, saw Lion King, did the London Eye... Lots of fun stuff.
Hope you're doing well! Love you lots! MOM XOXO