Day 24

Thursday morning I woke up at around 7:30. I was determined that I be ready to go as soon as possible so that I could have a relaxing morning. I got dressed then went around to everyone’s rooms, knocking on their doors to make sure that they would be getting up eventually. I walked up the hill to Andy’s dorm and knocked there too. Luckily he was already awake. I told him that I was going to get some things packed myself, but that I would deb back later to help him since he still had only one arm to be packing with.

I headed back down to my dorm and proceeded to get myself completely packed. It was about 8:20 when I walked back up the hill to help Andy. I organized things and folded while he packed. I helped him out for about 30 minutes.

I walked back down the hill to go back to my dorm and make oatmeal for myself before the bus came. Since the bus was coming at 9:30 I had to rush myself in order to be ready. However, my meal was finished before the bus came. 

Once I was finished, I started talking to Nina and told her that she could have all of the baking supplies that I would be leaving behind. She was grateful. The bus pulled into the drive way so I had to get my stuff outside. I gave Nina a hug goodbye and brought my luggage outside.

Our driver loaded our things into the bus and I sent Jesse up the hill to make sure that Andy was going to be on time. Stephen was in the kitchen scarfing down a breakfast meal of meat, potatoes, and scrambled eggs. Andy came down the hill and got onto the bus. We waited for about 10 minutes for Stephen who apparently was not ready. Meanwhile I asked everyone if they A) had their passports, B) had their train tickets, and C) had their basics (wallet and phone).  Once I heard that everyone was ready, including Stephen, (I also got a „yes Dad“) we headed on our way to Nurnberg.

Charlotte had brought along a half-drunk bottle of wine but didn’t feel like wasting it. Therefore after careful consideration as to how much water I also had with me I agreed to help her get rid of it before the train station 2 hours down the road.

After that was done, Charlotte and I went to the back of the bus where Stephen and Paithan were and watched The Adventures of TinTin on my iPad. Sadly we got to the train station about 30 minutes from the end of the movie.

We unloaded our things, headed inside, and looked for a place to spend the hour that we had before our train left for Vienna. I ended up eating at a little restaurant called Mr. Clou and ordered a rice box. Once our hour was almost up, we all headed to the platform to wait for our train. Once it came, we hopped on and went to our reserved seats.

Jesse and I had seats in car 21. We found our seats and settled in. Eventually Stephen came by wanting to chat. Eventually he went back to his car to grab his backpack so that he could work on his journal. I pulled out my computer and did the same. After we were both bored of that Stephen pulled out his computer and we watched Newsies. It’s Stephen’s favorite musical of all time so he was super pumped for me to watch it with him. I will say that I did enjoy it a lot and that it had an excellent score!

Once we finished the movie, we discovered that we were only 8 minutes away from Vienna so naturally we listened to Vienna by Billy Joel and sang it to Jesse who just gave us a tired look. Once the train stopped we hopped off and walked down the platform until we saw Michaela. She greeted us all, asked how Andy and Paithan hurt themselves, and brought us to the street where she sent Stephen, Jesse, and Paithan with Erica, a girl who has already been in Vienna for a semester. Then Michaela walked the rest of us (Anneke, Andy, and me) to our dorm which was only 5 minutes away from the train station.

Once we got to our dorm, Michaela told us goodbye and we headed upstairs to the office where we met the Hausleiterin (the house leader) to get our keys and information packets. We all headed to our respective rooms. I couldn’t get my key to work, but then realized that I had been given a blank key so I went upstairs to get it exchanged for another.

I unpacked then Andy came to my room. He asked if I had been able to connect to the internet yet and I said no. I called the Hausleiterin and said that we’d be upstairs to get the lowdown in the internet situation. Once we got to her office she told us that there was an ethernet cable in each room and that we needed to register with her to use it first. We registered and headed back to my room. I got my internet connection to work and then we hatched a plan to get in touch with Stephen, Jesse, and Paithan. 

We Facebook messaged Stephen and asked if they were still up for going out to a bar. We had discussed such a plan on the train. I searched for their dorm on google maps and then got directions from our dorm to theirs. Andy took a picture of the map with his phone, then we headed out. It took us about 12 minutes to get to their dorm. We tried calling their rooms with the PA, but no one answered.

Andy and I decided that we’d go out for dinner and a beer anyway so we started wandering. As we were walking past a bar, I happened to look in and recognize the sweater that Paithan had bought when we were in Schwäbisch Hall. I knocked on the window excitedly and then Andy and I went inside and joined them at their table. They were with Erica and Benjamin (Jesse’s roommate) and had already ordered beers. Andy and I followed suit and we also both got the cheapest soup on the menu which was goulash soup.

We sat and talked for a while then headed back to our dorm using another way. On our way back we saw Anneke walking with her brother who is currently teaching English in Vienna. We all introduced ourselves and then Anneke came back to the dorm with us. Everyone wanted to see my room so we all headed upstairs. We talked for a while, then the people from Haus Salzburg left. Anneke, Andy and I talked for about 30 minutes until we all decided that it would be a good idea to go to bed. They left and I decided to take a shower. Sadly I hadn’t packed a towel so I had to drip dry, but since my roommate wasn’t yet in, it wasn’t a problem. After getting on my sleeping clothes, I headed straight to bed.