we'll live where we smile most

the past few days i've been getting settled in my dorm (which i actually really like), getting to know the other exchange students (who i also really like) and getting used to drinking tap water (which i'm trying to like). i'm really happy here, and i'm happy i came alone because i've been forced to meet new people and create friendships so quickly, although i was terrified at first because it seemed as if a lot of people were coming with friends from back home, but it's not really the case.

i went grocery shopping on saturday and got bread, grapes, wine, vodka, and orange soda. i was graced with a large nutella from the family we stayed with for a few nights and i'm completely content. you can't go wrong with nutella lets be real.

there's about 40/50 foreign exchange students this semester, and it's a really diverse group: china, south korea, finland, holland, lithuania, france, argentina, portugal, czech republic, slovakia, and of course, canada. there's two of us from the USA, and of course i've been representing us well. jaws hit the ground when i drank wine straight from the bottle on our way out, and i was practically laughed out of the room when i said i wanted to wear sweatpants to school. i was told it's "extremely american" and unacceptable here, which  might be a problem later in the semester.

most grocery stores, malls, restaurants, cafes, bookstores, etc are closed on sundays, so a group of us spent the day walking around the city center and trying to familiarize ourselves with the surroundings. i've learned i have a terrible sense of direction and it's probably a good thing i'm never in charge of leading us to the subway. i have yet to successfully figure out where and in what direction to transfer when we travel. if i was on my own, i'd probably be halfway to russia by now.

the city is beautiful, i went to the albertina art museum where kandinsky, klee, and lichtenstein (among others) were being featured. it's amazing to see the art when you have some knowledge of the artists, and unfortunately i only knew a couple, so i got through the exhibits rather quickly. i realized i enjoy art museums, but only for the first hour or two, and i really only appreciate the first couple of rooms. of course i liked lichtenstein's works the most, and i was quickly reminded that i'm a pop culture child, but i'm okay with that.

i spent my saturday night going from a bar called dick macs to waxy murphy. so far, drinks have been fairly cheap but i'm not used to how much people smoke here, all the bars and pubs are extremely smokey because of it.

monday we had a campus tour, and i really like the school. it's a nice change from HPU because all of the classes are in one building and it's extremely modern. i believe it was built three years ago, but i'm not positive...and i'm really too lazy to look it up.

i ate pizza with a fork and a knife for the first time, and i found it time consuming and strange but people here have incredible manners. i already know i'm going to be the token american who doesn't know how to properly use utensils or hold a wine glass...story of my life.

it's just before midnight and i'm absolutely exhausted. due to a long night and my amazing dancing ability, i managed to lose my keys last night and haven't gotten new ones yet. i'm going to the office tomorrow but i can't really leave my room tonight, and it's probably better. last night i got practically no sleep and ate too much salami.

from 830 am to 530 pm today we had one big austrian culture lecture, and although we got delicious snacks (little breads and sachertorte) i was more than ready for bed afterwards, but first we had a waltz lesson. anyone that knows me knows i am not a graceful dancer and don't know what a beat is, let alone how to keep one. so it was really great when the dance instructor personally showed me (in front of everyone) how to add the quarter turn to the box step. it was also great how the entire time i was dancing i had to chant out loud "left right close, right left close, left right close..." and even better when my dance partner and i knocked into just about everyone while trying to put the moves together. we more or less got it in the end though, and it was a lot of fun. i think the sparkling wine helped though.

at first my sarcasm didn't translate very well, especially since the majority of the students are not native english speakers and came here to improve their english as well as their german. i'm so happy i speak fluent english, but i do feel ignorant when i walk into a store/museum/office and i can't say anything in german. german class starts tomorrw though (630 pm to 945 pm..what?) and hopefully that'll help me. but as everyone's english is improving extremely quickly, i think everyone's understanding my humour a little more now. there's a group of people here from the czech republic and slovakia, so i'm speaking czech with them to brush up, and hopefully lose a little bit of that gnarly american accent i've acquired.

i'm starting to doze off, so i'll take that as a sign that i need to get into bed. sweet dreams, world. :]


'cause we can live anywhere
yes we can live anywhere
pack your things up, come on let's go
didn't you know that we own this world
we can live anywhere
-big d and the kids table, we can live anywhere