A Slow Sunday Morning

Greetings all!

So the title says it all. I'm sitting in my room, sorting some 3 loads of dirty laundry for the wash, listening to some jazz, answering emails, and basically bumming around. Who misses me?? Show of hands?? Well, I miss all of you too. As Salzburg decorates for Christmas, I'm filled with predictably wistful, yet nonetheless emotionally comforting feelings. Tomorrow is December 1st, which means I need to begin my third annual Elf-Quote-A-Day campaign in preparation for Christmas. First though, I wanted to share with you some of the festivities of my surroundings to get you in the holiday spirit. Now, try not to be too jealous, because it's a lot less tacky here than it is at home.

These first three pictures are from the Salzburg Christkindlmarkt, while the last one shows a bit of the snow we've had here.

These three are from the Thanksgiving dinner AIFS organized for us on Thursday. We enjoyed parts from Mozart operas in between our courses. For some reason, whoever I handed my camera to that night cut me out of every picture a little bit. Conspiracy? Probably.

These two are from Innsbruck's and Hall in Tirol's Christkindlmarkts. Hall in Tirol actually displays their advent numbers on the building! How quaint.

Innsbruck is quite the cute little town situated between some gigantic mountains. I got some great Christmas presents there, and stole a mug from the Glühwein stand. Oops :) souvenir. If you haven't had Glühwein, you haven't had a Christmas drink. I think I'm going to bring a bunch of the packet mix back home. 

I definitely want to get further out west in Austria before I leave, and the weekend of the 12th might be the best time to do it. We have a 4 day weekend coming up from the 5th-8th, and I am trying to go to Mallorca. Woah. Todes random. It's not too too expensive to fly, and as long as I can find someone to come with me, I am so booking that flight ASAP.

So, preemptively, I am starting a list of things I will miss about here and things I miss about home (this is the Christmas wistfulness coming out):

Things I'll miss about Salzburg:

-Obviously, all the close friends I've made here and all the amazing times we've shared. We're spread too far out across the States and Europe as well, but it gives me a good excuse to travel to California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin, Poland or anywhere else in between. As Cowboy Mouth cheesily points out: "People may come and go but the truly great moments survive." If Salz had a yearbook, that would be my quote.

-The nightlife. Sorry Georgetown, Worcester (kind of sorry) and even Boston. Salzburg on a bad night still typically holds more promise.

-Traveling and the ease of it. Public transport in the states has a lot to aspire to and I could practically run to Germany from here.

-Walking around a historic city and pinching myself from time to time when I find myself taking it for granted.

-School being really easy. Sorry, it's just not the main point of studying abroad.

-Seeing a gigantic mountain from my window...or any window for that matter.

Things I miss from home:

-Also obviously, my family, friends and everything they entail. The hardest has been wanting to share moments with people from home and not being able to.

-$1=$1

-Being able to exercise in the basement...exercising in general.

-Chicken.

-The top sheet on beds.

-Being able to understand everything that I read.

Okay, time to get down to showering business, finishing some postcards and maybe starting my second of two (yup, two) essays for the whole semester. AssCo should take a hint. 

Until December, I am fondly yours!

Snow in the Mountains

Well, I was trying to nap, but apparently some higher power wants me to remain completely unrested throughout this whole semester and sleep would not come. So what do I do? Whatever any other hung over person in pajamas eating cornflakes out of the box at 3:15pm on a Tuesday would do. Blog.

It's been a while again, so I think I'll make it a good one.

Last you heard were stories from Hallstatt. It feels like ages ago. Today marks the one month remaining date, but since my family is totally awesome and is coming to visit me, I get to stay for another 6 days. That makes my EDA December 23rd for all of you who have missed my cute little face.

Last weekend AIFS took us to Prague. The city was pretty fantastic. Architectural building styles from different time periods stand next to one another on each cobble lined street and souvenir shops stand next to other souvenir shops selling the same crap. It's like that Starbucks joke. But Starbucks in my book is no joke, and I was very happy to find one. Czech currency is strange - not relatable to the dollar or euro - and so when I exchange 50 Euros and get 1190 Kronas, I don't know if I've lost or gained money. All I know is that a tall Mochaccino cost 95 Kronas and a beer cost 30. Starbucks is still ripping people off from behind the Iron Curtain. Saturday in Prague, after a great night sleep on a super comfortable bed with *shock!* two blankets, a bunch of us set off to explore Prague zu Fuß (after the incredibly disturbing Prague subway story one of our group members told us). I navigated us to a Monastic Brewery for lunch - great dark beer - and we got a fantastic view of the city from atop the hill. Next we checked out the Ghost Museum, where I experienced some of the most poorly translated English (except for Polish Kleine Piotr's classic text messages) and some weird sort of haunted basement. Made me wish the Sex Machines Museum wasn't so damn expensive subsequently making the Ghost Museum look cheap.

Saturday night, we celebrated baby Jeff's 20th birthday. Brian, Seth, Scott, Piotr, Machs, Taylor, Jeff and I (ya, the only chick) checked out the 5 floor disco, much to our disappointment. All the guys wanted to leave since there were too many guys. Tut mir Leid, Ich care nicht. Eric tried to make it out with us, but unfortunately, going shot for shot with Polish kids and wodka is almost as foolish as Jess going shot for shot with Kim. Just as she ended up babbling on about drugs and ruining Josh's shoes, so Eric only remembers pre-gaming and then waking up in his room the next morning. Unfortunately, no one's sure how he made it home, least of all him.

Die Manner von links bis rechts: Scott, Piotr, Seth, Eric, Brian, Jeff and Machs

On the way home Sunday, I got to see another world heritage town called Cesky Krumlov. Geoff spent most of the time asking our tour guide incredibly random and personal questions like whether he likes to paint watercolors (that was the opener - he doesn't paint), how many cats he has (none), if he believes in aliens (yes, but we won't be able to prove their existence in our lifetime), which Indiana Jones film he likes best (The Last Crusade), what type of car he drives (I think he misinterpreted this question somehow), what his favorite beer is (Pilsner) and finally, if he has Facebook (of course, and Geoff got his business card too). Basically, Geoff is one of the most hilarious people I've ever met. He brightens up my life.

The weekend prior, Geoff's dad was here and Catherine and Jess and I tagged along on their drive to Zagreb, Croatia...my second trip to Croatia in a month. That's kind of a strange sentence. The hostel we shared was more of an apartment in need of some serious love. I'm not sure how it was a self sufficient apartment though, as it lacked anything that could remotely be called a kitchen. Two bedrooms with low, thin cots and a bathroom with a shower missing a shower curtain. I forgot my towel too. So. Saturday morning, I dried myself off with my sweater I wore Friday, and Sunday morning I dried off with the fitted sheet.

Zagreb was pretty awesome though. On Saturday there was a music festival in the main square and we saw a band that sounded similar to the Ramones or the Clash. We didn't understand a single word, but I swear the lead singer looked like Coop from Wet Hot American Summer. Same haircut too. There were people giving out free hugs, so I took one and it cracked my back. Croatian money is strange too, but everything was much cheaper there and we got a yummy dinner and then went out for drinks. Catherine may or may not have punched a guy and between the three of us, we said JA GENAU far too many times. Still funny though.

Okay, so I may have fallen asleep in the middle of this blogging process. Let's see if I can wrap this one up with a picture. There. I put one in.

PS. There is snow in the Alps right now, ever since last night. The world is really pretty awesome.