Day 69

This morning I woke up at 9:00 again and decided that it was time for a shower so I took my things to the shower building and almost froze. Yes I was in Italy, but for some reason it was about 50 degrees. Needless to say, the time between the end of my shower and getting dressed were extremely short. The check out time was 10:00 so I packed up my things and stripped the sheets off of my bed. Janaya had woken up and was also going to shower. She asked me to take her phone to the picnic area to charge. So I did. She came to the picnic area about 30 minutes later. My internet time had expired so she used hers. Anneke was on the morning train scheduled to get into Venice around 2:00, but apparently the Italian train workers were on strike so she had to board a bus at the border that would be taking her to Venice. While Janaya was figuring out plans for the day I worked on updating my journal with bullet points. Eric and Rebecca came to our table and chatted for a bit. Then we all took the 11:20 bus into the city. Janaya was set on finding a church for Palm Sunday service so we found a church at around 12:15 and went inside and sat in the back of the congregation. We couldn’t understand a thing, but it still was pretty nifty. The service lasted until about 1:00. We left and then decided that we’d try to find a bakery that we had visited yesterday. I had ordered a slice of spinach torte there and had had Janaya try some. We were both hooked, but didn’t remember the name of the bakery. Luckily Janaya had remembered the name of the neighboring church so we looked at our map and navigated our way to the bakery. We found it after about 20 minutes and I bought a €3 slice of the spinach torte. We went over to a open square and sat down to snack on the torte and to figure out where we going to go next. We decided to go see the third bridge that crosses the Grand Canal. We had already seen and walked over the first two yesterday and the day before so seeing the last one kind of made the trip to Venice complete. When we got to the bridge we spent some time looking over the canal, watching the boats going under us. Two of my favorite things about the city is that the „city bus“ is a boat with docks all throughout the city and that there are these beautiful wooden boats everywhere in the city. It’s all just so cool! We eventually made our way to the water’s edge and found a spot in the sun. Despite the cold temps in the morning, the weather was very warm and perfect for getting some vitamin D. Janaya worked on writing some postcards and I unashamedly took off my shirt and soaked up the sun. It was so great; this was what I had had in my mind when I had thought about vacationing in Italy! There was even a couple a ways down that had begun playing some songs with some sort of a guitar thing and a recorder-ish instrument. The best part was that I recognized one of the songs, „Down by the Sally Gardens“. I had sung the song in Glee Club and so I started quietly singing along. Once Janaya was done with her postcards we packed up and walked towards the end of the peninsula and then turned the corner and made of way back up the other side. On our way we witnessed a seagull attacking some sort of fish in the water, but then as we got closer we saw that it was a squid. Just then it squirted ink at the seagull, but missed. We watched the battle. It only took about four minutes and a lot of shaking on the seagull’s part to get the squid onto the sidewalk. Janaya and I made our way to the bus station thinking that Anneke would surely be in Venice by that time. Janaya checked Facebook and found out that Anneke had already been there for an hour and was already making her way to the campsite. Janaya and I talked and decided that she should head to the campsite to help Anneke get settled. We had been planning on a nice dinner all together, but it was okay that the plans had changed. I gave her a hug and wished her a happy Easter vacation then I headed to a nice restaurant for an authentic Italian meal. I ordered spaghetti with white clams and a cafe espresso. It was fantastic! After dinner I found free wifi and checked in on Facebook. I headed over to the train station and boarded my train. Luckily it wasn’t cancelled!
I found my reserved seat and started to work on my journals. Two girls came into my compartment and we all started talking. They were both heading to Vienna. One was from Russia and was currently studying in Finland, but was doing a semester in Vienna and the other was from Brazil and traveling Europe. I worked on my journal and caught myself up completely!!! About an hour into the ride a very loud group of young Italian teenage boys infiltrated the train. I think that they were a part of a traveling soccer team. They took the empty seats in our compartment and were crazy loud. However, I didn’t have a problem with it because I had my movies to occupy me. I first watched Gladiator, then switched to the last 40 minutes of The Adventures of TinTin, and then finished it up with The Perks of Being A Wallflower. By this time it was about 5:00 in the morning and we were stopped at the main train station in Salzburg. Once we started moving again, I fell asleep.

Day 68

On Saturday I woke up around 9:00. I left the tent and went to the picnic area to charge my computer and phone. Janaya came about 10 minutes later. I bought a chocolate croissant for breakfast and then also bought 24 hours worth of internet access from the campground. Jen and Virginia joined us at our table and then Janaya and I began to plan out our day. We ended up leaving the campground at 11:00. We had looked up cheap, good eats in Venice so we made our way to a pizza place on the East side of the city. We ordered a margarita pizza and then took it to a canal and ate. Once we were done eating we decided that we were going to try and see different parts of Venice than we had seen the day before so we made our way to the Eastern edge of the city and walked along the stone „boardwalk“ and enjoyed the great view of the surrounding islands. We eventually made our way to a Coop store where we bought a bag of apples, some discount bread, cheese, a bottle of wine, and a bottle of Bellini. We left the store and decided that we were going to venture to the Southwestern side of the city to San Marco. On our way we stopped at a bridge and shared some of the Bellini and each had an apple. Bellini is a sort of peach cocktail that resembles champaign. It was delicious and tasted like it should have been for kids instead of adults! I ate some bread and cheese and then we headed off towards San Marco. Once we got there we saw why it was so popular. It was this huge square filled with tourists all surrounded by these huge buildings with amazing architecture. We walked to the water and then took the „boardwalk“ to the park about a mile away. There we found an empty section of grass and each ate another apple. I put on my music and napped and Janaya read. It felt so relaxing to not be walking that it felt like it was actually an hour nap instead of only 20 minutes. We walked further and found another park. We stopped and sat on a bench, because Janaya wanted to see the sun set over Venice. I was cold and tired, but I told myself „Why not?“. We sat there and I played sun songs on my phone to try and inspire the sun to come out from behind the clouds. It started to sprinkle a little so ten I switched the music to rain songs. Sadly, when the sun did set it was behind a lot of clouds so we started walking back to San Marco. However, this wasn’t bad because the city at night was absolutely beautiful! Janaya’s phone, which we had been using as our GPS was dying so we just followed the signs pointing us the Realto bridge. We eventually got there and took a few pictures. We decided to once again divert from the route that we had taken the day before and tried following signs to get back to the bus station. Once again, to rewards ourselves, we bought gelato. This time I got malaga, which was some sort of raisin flavor, and tiramisu, which was fantastic! We eventually found the bus station and managed to catch one of the last busses to the campground. When we got back we found Rebecca and Eric sitting at one of the picnic tables eating pizza. Janaya and I joined them and opened our bottle of wine. I ordered a mushroom pizza with olives and it was SO good! Once the wine and pizza were gone we all said goodnight and went to our tents. Janaya and I had talked about watching a movie so we started watching, but I fell asleep within ten minutes. A long day finished with wine has a way of doing that to you.

Day 67

My alarm went off at 4:30, but I got up easily. I quietly assembled my things and then left the room. As I waited in the lobby for Janaya, I ate two yogurts for breakfast. I had one left so I gave that one to Janaya. Once we were ready we left for the Westbahnhof. There we hopped on the U6 and took it to the Vienna Meidling train station. We waited there for about an hour and then boarded our 6:30 train heading to Venice. The train cars were divided up into cabins like you would see on the Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter books. Janaya and I got a car together and then two Italian men also joined us and then promptly fell asleep. I fell asleep for a while until Janaya woke me up. We were traveling through beautiful mountains. There was a misting lake to our right and snow-peaked mountains all around us. We went across a bridge and made our way through what I am guessing were either the Austrian or Italians alps. It was breath taking! We eventually started riding through fields again and I fell asleep. I had the weirdest dream that Kelsey’s dad was driving me through Italy somewhere and was taking a wished route. In the dream we were going through curves that were not physically possible to navigate and going up almost 80 degree mountain grades. It must have been the train twisting and turning because at one point I decided to just close my eyes and trust that it’d all be okay. I’m an awful backseat driver who likes to stomp on the imaginary brake in the passengers seat so this was a big step for me. When I woke up I was a little confused, but everything made sense again pretty quickly. I had packed two granola bars so Janaya and I each had one. That was around 10:00. Our train got into Venice at around 2:00. Right when we walked out of the station we saw the Grand Canal straight in front of us. Since we were in Venice we decided to just start walking. I bought a slice of pizza and Janaya bought a mozzarella ball. She had packed some bread so we found a canal edge and had a light lunch. We wandered around for about 2 hours which felt like forever since we were carrying all of our things. I felt especially bad for Janaya, because she was carrying all of the things she needed for her entire Easter break and I was only carrying things for the weekend. Eventually we made our way back to the Grand Canal and got gelato as a reward and then we made our way to the bus station. In order to get to the campground where we were staying we had to go two stops on the number 5 bus. Luckily we met two girls who were also going to the same place. Their names were Virginia and Jen. Virginia was from Vermont and Jen was from Ottawa. They had been traveling since January and were now in Venice. They had started in China and were eventually going to end up in Morocco. Janaya and I chatted with them on the bus. We all got off one stop early so we then walked about a quarter of a mile to Camping Realto. Since Janaya and Anneke had booked a tent together and Anneke wasn’t there I asked Janaya if it would be okay if I took Anneke’s spot so as to safe Anneke some money. She said that it wasn’t a problem. In each tent there was a nice wooden floor about 5 feet wide and 6 1/2 feet long and had two cots on it. The tent was a little cozy, but I switched my bed to face the other way so that it wouldn’t be too awkward. Once our things were in the tent and my bed was made we walked over to the picnic area where Jen and Virginia were sitting and joined them. Janaya and I walked into the general store and bought a bottle of Chianti. We rejoined Jen and Virginia and started chatting. At the table next to us there were two other Canadians, Eric and Rebecca. They joined us and we all listened to Jen and Virginia’s travel stories. Jen and I were both cold so we decided to split a veggie pizza together. It was a great decision! It was so fresh and so warm! They had brought a ukelele along with them on their travels and had since learned to play it. Since I could sing they took turns playing and I sang along. It was really fun and relaxing. When it was about midnight Janaya and I headed back to the tent and we both went to bed. It was cold out so I didn’t even bother changing into anything different for sleeping. The bed, although a little short, was very comfortable and I fell asleep very quickly.

Day 66

On Thursday I woke up at 9:00 and had a slow morning. I watched a few episodes of Friends and then got a message from Janaya saying that she was coming back to the dorm from her 8:00 class. I went to the kitchen and started making pancakes. Every time anyone goes to Asia World for lunch they get a 400 g box that they can fill up at the buffet. They are the best tupperware substitutes in a pinch so I used them for pancake carriers. Since Janaya, Anneke, and I had had a pancake breakfast the previous Thursday, it seemed only right that we do it again this Thursday. So I made mini pancakes and filled three boxes with four each. I packed up some forks and the syrup and a tube of Burt’s Bees and then Janaya and I headed to the hospital. We got there around 12:30. As we ate we talked about our plans for the weekend. Janaya and I were supposed to be leaving the next day in order to go to Venice and Anneke, before she was hospitalized, was supposed to be doing the same. We eventually decided that I would be leaving the next day with Janaya and that Anneke would come to Venice when she could. I left the hospital and headed to the Westbahnhof. I bought my roundtrip ticket there and then took the U-bahn to the university. I arrived about 5 minutes before my class started. Dr. McLoughlin talked about the strategies of World War II and that typical day as a British soldier. He also said that the Canadians and Australians were seen as the real men of the war especially in the eyes of the British. After class I went to the office and rested for a bit. I walked to a local restaurant called the Pie Factory and bought a veggie pie for my dinner. Since it was a lot smaller than I had anticipated, I also went to a bakery again and bought another good sized chunk of bread that was very cheap. I ate the bread on the way to dance class. We learned the cha-cha, the foxtrot, and worked on the waltz again. After class Janaya and I headed back to the dorm and made dinner together. We chatted for a bit and then I headed back to my room. I showered and then packed for my weekend in Venice. After I was done I watched an episode of Friends and headed to sleep.

Day 65

On Wednesday I woke up around 9:00 and got ready for class. This week for Austria in Context we were meeting at a museum to look at old models of the city to learn about its history and how it had developed. Our tour guide that had been scheduled to work that day had called in sick so Ruth, having gone on the tour about 30 times, did her best to give us the comprehensive city history. At one point we were following a group of what looked like 4th graders who were very knowledgable about the city’s history. After we got done at the museum I went to Haus Salzburg with Stephen to get my camera back before the start of Easter vacation. After that I went to the office to meet with Ruth about my classes. I officially dropped a german science fiction class that I hadn’t been going to because my schedule was too full. Also, I asked if I could audit my music theory class since it won’t be counting as credit at Wabash (I need a full Wabash credit music theory class for my minor). I'll have to speak with my professor about that. After I was done straightening out my schedule with Ruth I met Janaya outside and we walked to the hospital together to visit Anneke. She had been hospitalized the day before. After getting kind of mixed up at the largeness of the hospital we eventually found her room. We stayed and talked until Andrew, her brother, and a few of his friends came to visit as well. I headed back home. On the way to my literature class I stopped in a bakery and bought a half of a loaf of bread for about a Euro and a half. I enjoyed that before class. Class was as normal and, sadly, very boring. Dr. Eschenmüller is a very nice man who cares about what he is teaching, but he is just so boring. It’s bad enough having to sit through a boring class in English. In German it’s a lot worse. It took a lot of effort to stay concentrated on his lecture. After class I headed back to the dorm with Janaya, Andy, and Erica. I was in a mood to get rid of my food so I made rice, spaghetti, and fried up all of my veggies. Erica and I split this meal and used some of Janaya’s pasta sauce and much coveted sriracha sauce. It was a really funky concoction, but it was insanely good! After dinner I went back to my room and watched an episode of Friends. Then it was time for bed.

Day 64

I got up on Tuesday around 8:00 so that I could get the rest of my homework done and have enough time to go for a run. I ran to Schönbrunn again and it was, once again, wonderful! When I got back from my run I took a shower and got ready for class. Class went well. Dan’s friends Aiden and Andre had wanted to go shopping, but Dan still had class for a while so I said that I would take them to Mariahilferstraße. We first stopped at the dorm, because Stephen had his last photography class that evening and wanted to borrow my camera again for it. We left and started walking down Mariahilferstraße and talked. The only place we stopped at was Forever 21, but that was only for about 10 minutes (thank goodness!). We kept on walking all the way to the Museums Quarter (Museumsquartier). Once we got there we turned around and started heading back towards the Westbahnhof. Dan called and said that he was available again to „take Adre and Aiden off of my hands“, but I was having a great time with them. I suggested to Dan that we meet at Bürgenland 3 for pancake appetizers. He said that that sounded great! On our way back to the dorm the three of us got ice cream. I got straciatella and mint-chocolate chip. I have a goal of not repeating a flavor until I’ve tried them all. So far it’s been very much worth while. Once we got back to the dorm, we all went upstairs to the third floor kitchen and I started mixing up the batter. Dan called and said that he, Charlotte, and Max were outside so I went downstairs and let them in. I was making pancakes like a machine and they were loving them too! Eventually Minnie, a friend of Max and Charlotte’s came with her boyfriend and joined in on the fun. Aiden and Andre couldn’t stop saying thank you. Since I love being a host it was no problem at all! Dan was really kind and washed the dishes for me. After everything was cleaned up we all left the dorm and went a block over to a restaurant for the main meal. I ordered a small beer and a greek potato pan, which consisted of pan fried potatoes with goat cheese, tomatoes, and spinach. It was fantastic! After dinner everyone was heading out to go to a bar. I had already used up my food allowance and was pretty tired, so I said goodbye and went back to the dorm. I went straight to bed and it was only about 10:00. I know that that doesn’t sound super early, but it was considering that I normally don’t go to bed until about midnight.

Day 63

On Monday morning I woke up at 1:00. Yes, 1:00. I was so incredibly tired from the weekend. I decided that since I had already missed class I might as well go and do something productive with my day so I decided to run to Schönbrunn. It was about 5 or 6 kilometers round trip and it was so beautiful and sunny. When I got back from my run I cleaned up my room and then made an early dinner. I wasn’t feeling up for much so I just made rice. I FaceTimed with Mother about the trip details again and then I got my homework and brought it to the kitchen to work on it in peace. I got almost all of my stuff done for my grammar class and then, when it was midnight, went to bed.

Day 62

On Sunday morning I woke up at 7:45 and packed my things. I got dressed, stripped the sheets off of my bed and brought everything downstairs. I put the sheets in the hamper and went to breakfast. Erica was already there and she told me that despite being two floors above us the night before she had still heard the ruckus that was coming from our room! Erica went to take care of a few last minute things and Stephen came down for breakfast. 10 minutes later Michaela arrived and Dan came down as well. Erica, Stephen, Dan, and I left for the Sound of Music tour. First we went to the mansion where the lake scenes were filmed. We took time to take pictures and then got back on the bus to go to Hellbrun where the gazebo from 16 Going on 17 was located. After this we took the bus for about 30 minutes to Mondsee to see the wedding church. On the way we learned about the history of the film and even sang along with the soundtrack! It was all super cheesy, but it was SO much fun! When we got to Mondsee, we were given an hour to look around. We spent a little time in the church and then went to a cafe to have some genuine apple strudel. We boarded the bus again and headed back to Salzburg again singing almost all the way. Erica and I headed back to the hostel to get some work done and to get some wifi. Everyone else met us there an hour later and we all headed to the train station to board our train. I stopped at the Spar in the train station and bought a tuna wrap, a yogurt drink, and some cheese for the ride back to Vienna. This time we had seats reserved in the upper deck of the train so we had an awesome view on our way back. Charlotte sat next to me and we watched World War Z. Riding the train with our group must have been a nightmare for Michaela because the guys were so loud and mostly due to the fact that we had gotten seats that were facing each other. When we got back we headed back to our dorms. Andy and I decided to make dinner together. It was a nice quiet wrap up of a long weekend. After dinner I went back to my room and FaceTimed with Kels. Afterwards it was time to hit the hay.

Day 61

I woke up at 8:00 on Saturday and packed up what I wanted to bring for my weekend in Salzurg. It involved testing to see whether or not the clothes were actually dry first, but luckily I found enough dry stuff to supply my need for the weekend. Once I was ready I walked to the ÖBB platform with Andy, Tony, and Paithan. We eventually found the right car and Erica and Dan saving our reserved seats. Charlotte had woken up late and was running to make it to the platform with me on the other end of the phone. Sadly, she didn’t make it. I handed my phone to Michaela and she talked to Charlotte and advised her as to what to do. I spent the first part of the trip writing out my journal from the bullet points that I had been putting down every night before I went to bed. I quickly got burned out from this task and started watching Phantom of the Opera. Once we arrived we all got off of the train and followed Michaela to our hostel. We all got checked in and put our things in our lockers in our rooms. We then headed to lunch. Still not being able to order schnitzel I decided on the trout. I was surprised when I got a whole fish on my plate, but (after a little instruction from Michaela on the technique of eating a whole fish) I was pleasantly surprised with how good the meal tasted. Once we were done with lunch our tour guide led us on our tour of Salzburg. We started out at the Sound of Music bridge that Maria and the children run across in their outing and then made our way to the birth house of Mozart and the Mirabell gardens where parts of Do-Re-Mi were filmed. After our tour we walked around for a half hour and then met Michaela to go up into the fortress. After spending some time there, we headed down the hill along the ridge of another hill to go to the Augustina Brewery (Augustinabräu). On the way there Michaela told us of her dream to visit a country for each letter of the alphabet and how far she had gotten. I’m pretty sure that the only country she was missing was Zimbabwe! Once we got to the brewery we found a table in the courtyard and got our beer and food. We were there for about an hour or so when Michaela said that she would be taking anyone who wanted to go back back to the hostel. All of the girls left and so did I. I honestly didn’t want to be spending any more money than I already had and I was very tired. Once we got back to the hostel I was invited to work on my homework in the girls’ room instead of having to do it alone in my room. We all talked for about two hours and then I decided that it was time for me to go to my room to get ready for bed. On my way out I heard singing coming from the bar downstairs. I went down there to see a choir serenading the bar, which was pretty cool. Andy and Dan were there and were very excited to see me. The three of us headed upstairs to our room and Dan went straight to sleep. The guys had all been drinking and it got loud! Somehow Dan managed to sleep through it all despite the fact that it went on until about 1:30! I eventually fell asleep around 2:00 which was a miracle considering how loud Dan was snoring!

Day 60

Friday morning I got up around 7:30 and was at the plasma center at 8:00 for my appointment. After I was done I went back to my dorm room and watched a few episodes of friends. Janaya and Anneke had invited me to go shopping with them that morning so I waited for a Facebook message from Anneke to say that she was actually awake. Once the message came, we went to Forever 21. I tried a few things on, wasn’t satisfied, and was done within 20 minutes. I waited outside for about 20 minutes and then got a call from Anneke saying that they would still be a while. She said that if I had something else to do I could and that they were sorry. I had no problem with that so I headed home by way of the kebab place to get a vegetarian sandwich. When I got home I decided to take a nap. We had arranged a get together that night at Haus Salzburg in order to get to know a few different people. We had all been tasked with bringing along an Austrian friend. Once we got there however we found out that not only my Austrian friend, but a lot of others’ Austrian friends weren’t able to make it. On my way to the party I had stopped at the grocery store to grab cheese, cookies, and Sekt. Eventually we moved from the garden (because it was getting a bit loud) to the 5th floor kitchen. We had a great time altogether and I met two of Dan’s friends who were in Vienna to visit him. They had been studying in Ireland, but their program was already done so they were just touring Europe. When it was time to go I left with Andy and Anneke and walked back to Haus Bürgenland 3. Since our Salzburg excursion was the next day I decided to run a load of laundry. While I was waiting for the laundry to finish I FaceTimed with Kels. Once the laundry was out of the washing machine, I brought it all up to my room and hung it all around the room to dry. This was especially difficult because Christoph was already fast asleep and I didn’t want to unnecessarily wake him. Once everything was drying, I headed to bed.

Day 59

On Thursday morning I woke up at 8:00. I had gotten a text from Maria saying that she’d be delivering my jacket sometime around 9:00. She came around 9:30 and apologized again for Boyce’s behavior on Tuesday evening, but I said that it was okay and that I wasn’t at all annoyed by her. She left to go to work and I went upstairs to the 3rd floor kitchen to make breakfast. I Facebook messaged Anneke, Janaya, and Andy and told them that pancakes were being made and that they should join! At 11:00 Janaya and Anneke came and we all had pancakes together and hung out. After our community breakfast I headed back to my room to work on an application for Sons of Wabash, an group of undergraduates at Wabash who work closely with alumni of the college. Since it had been a busy week I seriously thought about skipping my Britain at War class, but decided at the last moment to go anyway. I wasn’t disappointed about my decision. Class was good and very interesting as usual. After class I took another way back to the office and meandered into an antique store. I looked around for a while and then headed back. I played the piano for a while and then went back to my dorm to get changed for dance class. Dance class was good, but it got really of awkward. For one of the dances I was paired up with Anna Marie who is about 70 and we were dancing to Blurred Lines. You really notice how vile the lyrics are when you are dancing with someone who is at least three times as old as you. After class we went to a new brewery, the 1516 Brewery. We ordered drinks and Andy and I spilt a pretzel. Janaya left early and Erica and I followed shortly. I went straight home and went to bed.

Day 58

On Wednesday I woke up at 7:30 and worked on my reflective journal that was due for Austria in Context. I decided to finish it up on the Straßenbahn 5 on the way to the office. On my way though I heard raised voices in the back of the car. Two men were arguing in some Slavic language. I chose to ignore it until I heard a thump, which turned out to be one guy slamming the other guy’s head against the window of the car. I was freaked out, but had no idea what to do. I was very glad when they got off at the next stop! I got to the office, printed off my reflective journal and handed it in to Ruth. She started off the lecture talking about I don’t know what when Jesse started giving counter points and arguing them to no end. Everyone tuned out for about an hour at least and took turns going to the kitchen to get snacks and drinks while we waited for Jesse to stop talking. Eventually Charlotte reigned him in and Ruth who had not only been holding her ground, but also schooling him resumed her lecture. After class I play piano for a while and then went to music class. It’s a difficult class, not because it’s all that hard to understand, but rather that it's two hours of lecture. It’s always a battle trying to keep myself focused and not nodding. Once class was done I headed back to the office and read the rest of Bahnwärter Thiel, which we had to read for the literature class. I took a break to walk to Billa to grab some snacks then resumed reading before class. After my very long day, I almost fell into bed and fell asleep very quickly!

Day 57

On Tuesday morning I woke up late. When I got up I took my homework for my grammar class to the kitchen and got it done. I made lunch and then headed to the office for my 2:00 grammar class with Michaela. For every class we start off with some sort of game that gets our minds thinking in German. This time we played a guessing game. Class was very informative as usual. Afterwards I left to meet Maria, my German TA from my freshman year at Wabash, at the Billa nearby. It was wonderful seeing her again! We talked for a while while we waited for another Wabash guy who was also in Vienna. His name was Boyce Evans and once he arrived, we went to the University Brewery (Unibräu) and had a few drinks and talked. After about 30 minutes or so Maria had to leave because she was teaching a German class in town. Boyce and I chatted and waited for a friend of his. Eventually she did come and I was introduced to his friend Alex. As we were talking Boyce invited me to his birthday party at the Seven Star Brewery (Siebensternbräu) that evening so I said that I had to go home to drop off my backpack. I said goodbye and went to the office. I told Jessie about the birthday party and he and I headed back to Haus Bürgenland 3 to drop off our things. We got to the brewery on time and were the first ones there. A few of Boyce’s friends came and we all waited. Boyce eventually got there about 30 minutes late and very drunk. Jesse and I talked with Boyce’s friends and had a great time talking as much as we could in German. Boyce was so inebriated that he was just sitting in the corner quiet and sullen. I tried striking up a friendly conversation, but he just shut me down. I thought I had done something wrong, but later, when he was in the restroom, one of his friends said that that was just how Boyce gets when he has had too much to drink. Great impression. At some point Boyce left without saying anything. Everyone thought that he had gone to use the restroom, but when he didn’t come back for a while his friends started wondering about him. We kept on talking, despite Boyce’s absence, for another 30 minutes. When Jesse and I were leaving I realized that my coat was gone and that Boyce had taken it. I shrugged it off and Maria, who Boyce was staying with, said that she’d get it back for me. Jesse and I left disgusted with the night’s events and an alumnus’ actions and headed back to my dorm. Jesse grabbed his things and then went back to his dorm. I headed to bed.

Day 56

On Monday I woke up around 8:45 and got ready for class. In class, to change things up, we acted out a section of the play and then, after we were done practicing it, performed it for our teacher. It was good to change things up a bit and it also helped us to understand the text a little better. Once class was over I headed back to my dorm and had more soup for lunch. Janaya had asked earlier if I wanted to go for a walk in a new part of town so I said sure. I took the U-bahn to Kreplerplatz and met her there. She is currently in an urban-planning class and as a part of a class project she needed to measure out the store fronts for two blocks so I helped. We used my pace, which is approximately one meter, and spent a good hour walking in front of store fronts. After we were finished we headed back to the Westbahnhof and got ice cream to celebrate a job well done. Since I was getting ice cream again I told myself that I needed to try new flavors before I could repeat one so I got a scoop of poppy ice cream and a scoop of peanut. It was great! I headed back to the dorm and got dressed up. As part of the theater class we were actually going to see a performance of Arturo Ui at the Volkstheater. Andy, Stephen, Erica, and I all met there and waited for Frau Andreewitch to get there. She had been delayed because of the public transport. We got tickets in the back of the theater and watched the show. It was very well done, but I did not like it at all. The storyline followed a Chicago gangster’s rise to power which almost perfectly paralleled Hitler’s rise to power in Germany and Austria. After the performance I headed home. Before I went to bed I made sure to jot down the important happenings of the day in my computer.

Day 55

On Sunday I woke up late because I was so tired from Bratislava. Luckily church starts at 1:30 so when the time came I got ready and met Anneke and Andrew there. After church I went back home to my dorm and then took a nap. I probably napped for about 2 and a half hours then decided that it was time to get up and get some work done. I showered and started reading Arturo Ui for my theatre class. When suppertime rolled around I made rice and asparagus soup from a mix. In order to make the soup go further I added the rice. It was a good dinner and especially good for a breezy day. After dinner I kept reading and eventually went to bed.

Day 54

On Saturday morning I woke up around 8:15. I decided to take a shower and then got dressed. We had made plans to travel to Bratislava so we were going to try and leave on the 10:30 train. I packed up my things including my wallet, ticket, and map of Bratislava and then went downstairs to the lobby. Janaya and Andy were there and ready to go. I told them to go ahead while I waited for Anneke. She came down shortly and then we went to the Westbahnhof ÖBB office to buy her ticket. We took the U-bahn to the Hauptbahnhof. We got there a little after 10:30, but that was okay, because Andy and Janaya had missed it too. Erica and Paithan were on the 10:30 train so we took the 11:00 train so as not to be too far behind. On the way there I read a little for my theater class and then ended up playing around on my phone. Once we got into Bratislava we took a bus towards the castle. We got off and started walking towards what looked like downtown. We stopped at a Billa and bought supplies for lunch. I bought cheese, a yogurt drink, a small loaf of french bread, and two different Radlers. It seemed appropriate since it was a warm day. We found a park right outside of the store and ate there. After lunch we decided to walk towards the castle and hope that Erica and Paithan were there too. We stopped at the Crowne Plaza across from the presidential palace in order to use the restroom. While there we used the free wifi to update Erica of our location and plans via Facebook. Once everyone was ready to go again, we walked up to the castle. We took our time at the castle looking over the wall at Bratislava below. We documented it all with a few pictures and then walked over to another side of the castle grounds where we found an empty chunk of the wall. We all layer on the wall and soaked up the sun for around 30 minutes or so. We also made pinky promises that we would stay in touch with each other after our time abroad. :-) Janaya got a message on her phone telling us where she and Paithan were so we meandered to Cafe Hemingway. Just as we were walking towards the cafe we saw Erica and Paithan leaving! We walked with them to the old city center and started exploring. Janaya, Anneke, and I spotted a gellateria and bought some as an appetizer for dinner. We found a place that had offered genuine Slovakian food and were seated outside. We all ordered drinks and then placed our orders. I ordered the garlic soup and a plate of gnocchi. The soup was served in a bread bowl, which I ate, and was very filling. I couldn’t finish the gnocchi so I recruited Andy for some help. After dinner we made our way to the train station. We had thought that there would be a 7:45 train, but for some reason there wasn’t one so we had to wait for the 8:45 train back to Vienna. In the meantime Anneke orchestrated a few rounds of MASH for myself and Andy. By the time that it was her turn we had boarded the train and were heading back to Vienna. We were all so tired that it was almost impossible to be serious so we ended up laughing almost the entire way back. Janaya, Andy, Anneke, and I got off at Simmering which connects to the U3. We took the U3 back towards the Westbahnhof. Andy and I got off a stop before to get gellato. We walked back to the dorm and chatted until we got to our rooms. Since it was the weekend Chistoph was gone so I didn’t feel guilty about being loud and Skyping. I chatted with Kels again and told her all about my day in Bratislava. After we hung up I decided to update my journal before I headed to bed.

Day 53

On Friday morning I got up and went to the plasmazentrum to donate plasma. That took about 50 minutes. When I was done I stopped by a bakery and grabbed a chocolate muffin. I had said that I would go shopping with Charlotte so while I waited I watched an episode of Friends. When she called me we met at Neubaugasse and then started walking down Mariahilferstraße. We eventually made our way to Starbucks. Charlotte ordered a coffee drink and chocolate truffle cake and I ordered a hot chocolate and the caramel apple pie. We chatted for a while there and then decided that we’d better go leave to get ready to meet students from the Vienna University of Business and Economics. On our way back we saw Stephen who was just heading to Starbucks to get some studying done. Charlotte had not yet been to see my dorm so I showed her and then she headed back to her dorm and I headed to the office. Once I got there Erica, Stephen, Andy, Dan, and I left to go to meet the VU students at their campus. As part of our meeting we had made posters about what positive and negative stereotypes/opinions we had about Austria and the US and the VU students did the same. Next semester most of them will be studying in the US, so they actually wanted to meet and talk with actual US students to get to know more about the US. After going around the room and introducing ourselves, we all took time to look at everyone else’s posters. Many of the students were surprised to see that I had The Sound of Music on my poster, because it’s really just an American thing. Some of them didn’t even know what it meant. Of course they had things about fast food, guns, and Hollywood on their US posters. After our meeting, most of us headed across campus to the University Brewery (Unibräu). We all ordered drinks and dinner and had a blast talking with one another. We probably stayed there for about 2 hours! After I left I headed back home to my dorm. I skyped with Kels and we probably talked for about 2 hours. After that I FaceTimed with Mother. She led me through all of her tentative plans for her, Dad’s, and Ally’s time in Europe. She showed me a few hotels that she had booked and asked if there was anything extra that I thought we should be seeing. Since she had been working with Frau Smith all of it seemed perfect. After we hung up I decided that I was time for bed.

Day 52

On Thursday I, once again, didn’t have to get up early so I ended up getting up around 9:30. To be perfectly honest I spent most of the morning watching Friends, but I definitely don’t regret it. At 1:45 I went to the Westbahnhof and took the U6 to Alserstraße. I took the SB 43 to Schottentor and went to class. Dr. Finnbar lectured on the strategies of the World War I. After class I took the public transit back to the dorm to change for dance class. We learned the Viennese Waltz and then at the end, a few different variations in ¾ time. After class Janaya told us that she had just gotten a job for the summer so we all agreed that we’d head over to a new brewery called the 7-star-brewery to celebrate. I ordered two small sizes of their specialty beers: the chili beer and the smoke beer. After I was done with my drinks I went home and cooked some rice for dinner. I worked on my journal for a while and then went to bed.

Day 51

On Wednesday morning I woke up around 9:30 and got up slowly. After Christoph left I went through my slow morning routine of the open window, music, and homework. At 2:00 I went to my music class. We learned about dissonance and its many variations (okay, there’s only three, but it’d take a bit to explain). After what felt like an especially long music lecture, I headed back to the office. I told Michaela that I couldn’t meet with her today for pronunciation lessons, because I needed to go back to Haus Bürgenland 3 to grab my things for the literature course later in the evening. So that’s what I did. I returned about 10 minutes before class started. We went through the authors that we were reading and learned about their backgrounds. After a very long two-hour class, I headed back to my dorm. It’s funny, but a day of long classes can really take it out of you!

Day 50

On Tuesday morning I woke up later than expected, but it wasn’t that much of a problem since Grammar class didn’t begin until 2:00. I spent the morning getting my homework done with the window open and listening to music. After class I went back home again and made dinner for myself. After that I started working on homework again. The day wasn’t that exciting, but all in all it was a pretty good day.