Abbey has left the continent. It is kind of a wierd feeling. Ever since I have been here I have seen it in the context of Abbey being a long train ride away. I have always looked forward to the weekends that I could go to italy and travel with my best friend. Now she's gone and it seems somehow different knowing that she is an ocean away.

So now here I am: I was looking forward to seeing Abs on the weekend, it was great, but now its over, and a whole new part of my trip abroad has unexpectedly popped up. A part that I have not really considered all that much: the rest of it.

I was fortunate to be able to spend the weekend in Cinque Terra on the Italian Riviera with Abbey and her parents. It was definitely an unforgetable weekend. I will do what I have said I am going to do for talking about weekend trips, I will give you what will from now on be refered to as the TOP 3.

3. Somehow I used to think I would be a wimp if I never got stung by a jellyfish. I don't know, I guess I always heard about little kids being stung and I always kind of wondered if I could take it. Unfortunately, I will have to go on wondering; however I was attacked by what I will call the invisa-fish.
Ab and I decided to take a break from our hike between the cinque terra towns and take a swim. We had been in the water for about 3 minutes when my foot erupted with pain and I said "something got me." I guess I shouldn't have used these words because Abbey started to panic and fell off the innertube she was on. It was really quite comical. As we were making our way toward the saftey of the rocky beach, the invisa-fish went for my shoulder....frickin invisa-fish. I don't know what it was, but it stung and it made my skin swell up but by the end of the day it was just a red mark. If you know what stung me, shoot me an email. I will investigate and then propose a plan of revenge which you can be a part of.

2. I have heard from several people since I have been here that it is worth it to hike between the cinqueterra towns. They were right. Ray, Joyce, Ab, and I decided to do this on Saturday. Ray and joyce took the ferries and Ab and I walked. It was truly incredible. The towns had a beautiful aesthetic of accumulation. The buildings were all sorts of colors and built into the steep hillsides and seemed to reflect to terraced style of the olive tree orchards and other surrounding gardens.

1. Probably my favorite thing I did over the weekend was swimming in the Ocean with Pooh and Abbey. For all who don't know, Pooh is the innertube that we bought in Capri that is printed with a large picture of Winnie the Pooh. At the last town in Cinque Terra, Ab and I had to wait for the train and decided to do so in the ocean as the sun was setting. It was a cool ending to a hot day and it was especially nice because the invisa-fish was not there.

I met an interesting guy from Vienna on the train to florence. For anyone who has not met him, you might remember him as the guy in your political science class that carried on a dialogue with the professor while the rest of us were mindlessly and frantically trying to take notes. We talked for a while, but one of the things that I remember most about our discussion was discussing the different European and American attitudes toward business that we have both noticed while traveling abroad, respectively. (note: these are overgeneralizations). When a person in America starts a business, often, they have a vision that it will grow and flourish and might one day be a million or billion dollar company. In Europe, of course there are exceptions, but it seems like most business start with the idea that they will sustain themselves and their family; that the business will most likely have one location and that is the way it goes. Anyway, I think it is awsome to see the determination and vision of American business owners, however it is also really cool to see people who are content with their small business the way it is. I don't really know what I think, I just think it is interesting to see the way different people do similar things.

Sorry for the boring journal entry, I just felt like writing about it.

Last weekend I went to Salzburg with Mark from Seattle and Al from KU. I was also able to meet Garrett from NC one last time. I feel like I always have trouble trying to sum up a weekend trip so I have decided to write about my 3 favorite things.

3. Our tourguide for the lakes and mountains tour...
She was a little old Austrian lady and she is my favorite Austrian ever. She drove us through the Lakes and Mountains surrounding Salzburg. She could just barely see over the steeringwheel and she seemed like she was still learning how to drive a manual. More than that, she had a microphone hanging right infront of her face; she was pointing out the window to the things she wanted us to see; and she was speaking about all of this in her second language. She was my favorite and she gave us a wonderful tour.

2. Al's roommate is from Salzburg and she was home at the same time we were visiting the city. She took us out to an awsome Austrian food place, a local place...like the kind that you need to go to with a local. The food was wonderful and the view from our terrasse seating was spectacular. After that she took us to a really small bar to watch some of her friends from highschool play music. It was very nice of her to take us to those places and we really appreaciated it.

1. On sunday, we decided to take the bus to the one of the spots we saw on our lakes and mountains tour. When we got there we figured out we could rent electric boats for 14 euro per hour. It was an incredible deal and it was great to cruise around the lake. There were dozens of sailboats on the lake and the water was light blue.

This bridge was just begging to be jumped off of. How could you not jump off this bridge? Well actually, it would be quite easy to not jump off the bridge and I kind of didn't want to. But the bridge kept calling me names and saying that it didn't think I could do it. It was laughing at me and spreading rumors all up and down the river. Hah...Well...look who's laughing now, Bridge.

Well now, I have told you all that I moved into a new place but I haven't really told you what it is like. It is like America: a mix of people who come from all over the world and the common language is english. Above is a picture of my friends for the month. I know that sounds shallow to say but that is the way it is, Last month my friends came from North Carolina, now they come from my dorm, and next month there will be a different group of people from the dorm. Nevertheless, they are lots of fun and we are enjoying this month. The crew for this month comes from all over: US, mexico, macedonia, poland, spain, and more. It seems like there is always something going on, whether it is group cooking, going to the river beach, or sitting around in our courtyard.

I have also made friends with a few of the natives, Austrians, not Indians. We played Texas Hold'em on thursday (and have decided to play every thursday until september). It was absolutely incredible to do something slightly competative. And more than that, I won. I have never won a game of poker in my life so this was really great...plus it was nice to have 25 extra euros.

Some people were asking about how deutsch lernen is going...

I had seen the movie "the Terminal" with Tom Hanks. He lived in an Airport terminal in America and read 'cosmo' to learn English. It only took him a month to become fluent. I figured I might pick up German even quicker since I was in Vienna and armed with a Deutsch-Engslish Dictionary.....What an idiot I was to compare myself to Tom Hanks. Of course, I will always fall short when I compare myself to Forest Gump. Nevertheless, Deutsch lernen is great, but a bit slower than I expected. Overall I have been amazed at how much I have learned in the past 1.5 months. I can get around the city, ask for things, meet people, and more, but I am having trouble understanding how I will be able to take 4th year college level courses at the end of September.

Vienna...I'm Back.............for 1 weekend...........and this is a penguins butt.

That's right I have returned to the city who loves Mozart and wienerschnitzel more than life itself. Then again what city doesn't. Well, I don't know if they really love Mozart, but they pretend to as long as it keeps the tourism income flowing. Also the above photographed rump belongs to a peguin at the Schonbrun Palace Zoo. The oldest zoo in the world.

Anyway, I have a new residence and an invisable roomate, Mike, who comes from Salzburg. I have lived in my new place with Mike for two weeks. Mike likes Rammstein, drawing pictures with pen on graph paper, and saving flyers that say things like "no drugs, no fun". Actually, he is not invisable but he is on summer vacation and returns next weekend. I have yet to meet him.

It is kind of interesting seeing everything he owns before I meet him (I don't snoop around, it is just on shelves and on the wall) . It kind of makes me think, what would someone think about me if they lived in my room for two weeks before they met me. I suppose they would know that I have a caring and beautiful mother, a father who tells good stories and asks interesting questions, a funny and creative little brother, and a talented sister who likes to laugh alot. But as far as me, I feel like I move around so much in College that I never really get a chance to set up most of my stuff, so I don't know what they would think, I guess I would be fine with them getting to know me through my family and the company I keep. Similarly, I have met some really nice Austrian students who say that Mike is really great and they are anxiously awaiting his return from Salzburg. So...I anxiously await the return of Mike.

After walking around Florence for 3 days Abbey and I decided to get some relief from the heat and go to Lake Como, since I was flying out of Milan. Lake Como is in the “pre”Alps and has a lot of small Italian towns on its shores. One day abbey and I bought the all day ferry pass and tried to go to as many of the towns as week could, however we only got about three in because we had to come back for a hike by 4. Hiking is great here and we tried to take advantage of it each day. Also the hostel that we stayed in was incredible. We are basically right on the water with an incredible view of the lake and preAlps in the forground, and the Alps in the distance. They have a wonderful porch and Patio seating that faces the lake. Each night abbey and I got our cheap meal from the market, which consists of salami, cheese, bread, pesto, olives and a bottle of wine. Then we sit at a table on the upper terrace and eat, talk, and watch the lights on the other side of the lake. I will have the pictures up soon.

On the night that Italy played one of their world cup games Ab and I were eating our meal outside on the Patio. We could not watch the game from our hostel but from the patio we could tell what was happening since every once in a while we could hear each of the towns near us and across the lake erupt in a celebration of fog horns, car horns, and shout. It was a fun way to watch the game.

After Capri, we went to Florence. Aside from the architechture, Florence was kind of like being at a Nascar race, vey hot, very loud, strange smells, and a lot of Americans. However, I really liked being able to see where the Turtlemonkey eats and sleeps. I also really enjoyed being able to visit a lot of the renaissance buildings that I have studied in class. Florence reinforced my belief that the Italians are especially nice and welcoming people.

There is a man in Florence that you need to find if you are there. To find him do this. Walk around the city at about 10 in the morning. Go from piazza to piazza on the south side of the river until you hear Lynyrd Skynyrd blasting from a boom box. Follow this noise. If there is a man wearing cut off army jeans with an unbuttoned flannel shirt and drinking beer, then you have found this expatriate….I don’t know what you should do once you find him.

I am not usually one who likes to get up early, then again, who really is. However sometimes it is worth it. Last Sunday morning it was worth it. Ab and I woke up at 4:50 and started a journey up the sea-mountain, also known as Capri. We made it to the highest point of the island just in time to catch the sun rise above the ocean and distant islands. From that point, the rock walls of the island dropped almost straight into the blue sea where we could see hundreds of seagulls circling the cove a couple hundred feet below us. I am finding out that words really don’t do the island of Capri justice. Everything about Capri was incredible. I think the pictures will probably be more effective in giving you a sense for Capri. I will hit the highlights though. Beaches, swimming in the Cave, daytrip to Amalfi, and dinners with Ab. By the way, I just got a premium membership at Flickr.com so now I can basically store all the photos that I want online. So check those out through the photostream link on my main page.

Abbey and I met in Naples on Wednesday evening and stayed at Hostel of the Sun. All went well until the morning when I was 99% sure that someone stole my passport. It was rather chaotic since all 4 of the staff were called in to deal with the emergencey, the nice girl at the counter was crying, and the owner of the hostel kept telling me in broken english about a Japanese person who thought they lost their passport once but it was really in their pillow case. I wanted him to stop telling me the story about the stupid person who didn’t check their stuff well enough. Unfortuantely after about and hour of chaos and multiple searches of my bags, I found out that I was the stupid person who didn’t check their stuff well enough. I don’t think the people at Hostel of the Sun like us very much except for the nice girl at the desk who was crying.

If anybody reading these entries knows me, then you also know that one of my biggest flaws is that I try to pack too much stuff into too little time. In the end I always look like an idiot or some wonderful person in my life has pity on me…or on rare occaissions it all works out.

Tuesday night I went out for a beer with a couple friends from NC since it was the last time I would see them. We had a lot of fun this month and I hope I see some of them again. Anyway, when we were in the Bar, they asked what I was going to do next week since there were no classes… What…No classes next week?

I don’t know how I consistently miss important information but that is what I am good at, along with overbooking myself. So I said I will be in Italy for the next week and a half, sounded like a good idea at the time. Ordinarily this wouldn’t have been a problem but I had a little over 12 hours to change my flights, check on trains, book hostels, pack, sleep, go to class, and as I would find out in the morning: move out of my dorm and carry everything I have across the city to store at the school (my extension of plans meant that I would not be there to move out on the last day of June). Furthermore, President Bush was in Vienna that day so much of the public transportation system was shut down. Anyway, somehow all of this worked more perfectly that I could have ever imagined and thus, I made my flight to see the coolest person I know and one of the best weeks of my life began.

June 20, 2006

Right now I am sitting on the side of the road in Slovakia just past the border of Poland. Our bus broke down on the way home from Poland and so far we have been here for about 3 hours. It is really a wonderful spot to have a break down though. The weather is perfect and there is a nice view of green fields and distant mountains.

June 20, 2006

This weekend I went to Krakow, Poland with four friends from North Carolina state. I loved Krakow, first of all, things were pretty cheap at least compared to Vienna. Also the people in Poland were extremely nice and we found that they were much more patient and welcoming that the Austrians. I wont bore you with the minute by minute but some of the highlights were the really good deals, the outdoor restaurants, the salt mines, and accidentilty going to a gay dance club but not finding out until the next day. It was just fun to walk around the city and stop at whatever looked interesting.

June 16, 2006

I feel like a little kid again and it is wonderful.

Learning a foreign language makes you feel like a little kid, actually so does being in a foreign country, especially one where you cant speak the language. At first you hardly know what anyone is saying, actually, I still dont know what anyone is saying. In America, I can be self conscious, thinking to my self, "is what I am about to say weird?" But here, like I said, I feel like a kid and I am very proud of my self even when I say something as stupid as, "My name is Steven and I have ten fingers." I am proud of saying things like this even when it is the wrong answer to the question asked. Furthermore everything is new and the only way to learn is by trial and error. When I first got on the U-Bahn I remember tenatively placing my foot on the tram as if testing to see if it was stable ground. After I realized it was I put my whole weight on it was truly proud of myself for boarding a tram like the rest of the big people around me. In addition to all this, I have the whole day after classes and homework to walk around the city and explore, like a little kid at Chucky Cheese's. Speaking of little kids, I think I am going to punch in the face the next toddler that speaks better German than me (which is about every single one). So if you see anything on the news about an American student being arrested in Vienna, please send money for bail. Thats all...Good Bye.

June 12, 2006

Stephansdom or St. Stephans Cathedral is in the absolute heart of Vienna. I decided to go there a couple of days ago. Although I have studied more European churches than I can remember in my Architecture classes. I was truly in awe as I entered the Cathedral. I am begining to realize that you can hardly understand any building on a piece of paper, especially the lofty Cathedrals of Europe. It was truly incredible to be in such a grand space. Furthermore, there is an elevator that you can take to the roof of the Cathedral and that too was a great experience, being able to look down on the city from the top of its Cathedral.

After a while, I sat down in the pews and thought about all the huge Churches in Vienna. I have read in my guide to Vienna and a couple other places and have also gathered from conversations that I have had that the population of Vienna is rather irreligious, despite having such incredible churches. In fact, I have never seen such incredible church buildings as the ones I have seen here. However I have seen many strong and active congreations in America that meet in buildings made of steel or wood or brick or drywall; buildings that don't really compare at all in terms of grandeur to the ones I have seen in Europe. I think it would be great if churches were more awe inspiring and I think it is great when they are but I am also realizing that that is of little importance when compared to the real meaning of the Church. I guess it just makes me realize that the chuch is not a building at all, but rather it is a group of people seeking to know, worship, and follow Christ.

While I am on the topic of chuches I should probably tell you about the one I am attending here. It is called Vienna Community Church. It is in English and is composed of people from all over the world. It was really great to go to and the pastor is a really cool older gentleman from Seattle. He is one of those people that lets you know that he is really interested what is going on with you and is happy to know you. The congregation is extremely welcoming and I look forward to being a part of this church for the summer. Also after church there is free lunch in the courtyard and they served wine as well. I guess that is a european thing, good food and wine after church. Oh yeah, the sermon at chuch as about when God enabled the apostles to speak in different languages so that they could minister to the world. I thought that was kind of cool since that was my first church service in Europe and I am try desperatly to learn German. Any way that is about it.

June 11, 2006

Ok. So I realized that it is getting expensive to eat out every meal. So I figured out that I should go and buy some food and cook in our community kitchen. It is nice because I get to meet a lot of the people on my floor (about all of them speak decent english). The problem is that I bought food but have nothing to cook with or eat from. The picture above is a direct result of this problem. I have made up my mind that I am going out today to buy pots, pans, and plates etc.

Cooking in the kitchen is nice because there are usually a couple of German students to talk to, however, as I said almost all of them speak english quite well and they prefer to speak it with me since it is good practice for them. This is fine for now because my German is not at a conversation level but I think when I move to a new dorm in July, I am going to start telling people that I speak Japanese so that I can practice German, instead of always speaking English.

June 1, 2006 - The First Real Entry

Alright this time I am actually going to give you and idea of what is going on here. The picture here is the view from my dorm room in Vienna. I am on the 7th floor and as you can see I have a beautiful view of the city. By the way, I have started a photo album with higher quality images and more of them that you can find to your right.

Getting to my dorm…

All my flights and transportation into Vienna went well. That is until I left the Hostel to check in at my apartment. It was close to the Hostel and a cheap cab ride away but when I got there, they told me that I am not supposed to live there until July and that they did not know where I was supposed to live in June. Great…I could sleep in the city park with hundreds of pounds and thousands of dollars worth of stuff for the first month. I quickly came the conclusion that this idea would not work so I went back down to the lobby and pondered my situation. I decided that I needed to check my old emails to see if it said anything about my problem. It did; I was supposed to live on the other side of town. It is complicated and information should have been passed on from one apartment to the other but I will not bore you with those details. So from there I set off to find my real living quarters. It was an interesting experience since I have never really used public transportation, couldn’t speak or understand the language, didn’t know my way around the city, and I was carrying all my luggage for 14 months. But it all worked out and I have this wonderful view to come home to each day...until July.

Ich Lerne Deutsch…

I missed the first day of classes because of the previously discussed problem. Class was a bit of a surprise also. When I was told that the students would come from all over the world. I thought they meant the students would come from English speaking countries all over the world. I was wrong. About half the class knows a little English, but there are only about 4 of us that speak good English. The rest of the class consists of about 5 Japanese women, a Polish lady, a Turkish girl, a Greek lady, a Romanian girl, and so on. Naturally, but contrary to my original expectations, the class is not taught in English. The class is 100% taught in German. It sounds difficult but with drawings, body language, and our small—but growing—German vocabulary we are learning quite a bit. My teacher is a fifty year old Austrian lady that laughs after almost everything she says. She is a very good communicator since her job is trying to teach people words in a language they don’t understand. Class is fun mostly because I am learning something that I enjoy and I know will be useful. Also it is incredible to be able to learn without the weight of carrying 18 other hours of credit.

Friends from North Carolina and Free Dinner…
The four Americans in my class are from the University of North Carolina and there are 10 more of them in higher level German classes. Usually we get either lunch or dinner or go out around Vienna together. I am the fifteenth wheel. My first restaurant meal in Vienna was at a small pizza place. It was really good but the best part was when the elderly couple next to us left. As soon as they walked out the door, our waitress said in broken English that the people who just left had already paid for our dinner (there were about eight of us) and had bought us an assortment of desserts. Immediately we all ran out the door to thank the lady and her husband. When we came back in our waitress told us that the lady used to be a very famous Opera singer and that she has residences in New York and Vienna. Of course, that was my first restaurant experience in Vienna and I just assumed that is how it works here…I have been proven wrong at every meal since then and furthermore it is embarrassing when the waiter yells at me in German after I try to leave without paying.

First Entry

This is the last picture of St. Louis for a while. I have been in Vienna for about a week so far and its great. This is my first entry to my online journal and you would think I am about to tell you how things are going but I am going to keep things a secret for a short while longer. I am just trying to set this deal up. I will say something profound later. Good bye