Sunday, November 30, 2008

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!

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