School Begins!

Well, I have started to take classes again like a normal college student! However, it is not normal what so ever, because I am in WIEN!!! I remember I had the same feeling...and to be honest still do...when I started at Sewanee. Sewanee seems like an amazing summer camp for learning! And Wien seems like a giant adventure with learning thrown in! However, I realize that I am here to learn, and I cannot wait to make the most of my experience learning about culture here while mixing it with my academic passions!

I am taking two psychology classes-my major- and one education internship! I am also taking modern architecture and german, natürlich! I am super stoked about all of my classes, especially because I get to integrate Austrian culture into them! I am so excited to learn more about the schools here!! I get to help out in English classes, which students here start at a young age! Learning a language here is just a completely different concept! At first when I was learning German here I could not get used to it! I could not believe that we were already learning sentences when I did not even know the alphabet or numbers! Things that I expected we would learn first because they were simple, I mean, don't you learn those things first? Well, answer: in America yes! However, the perspective of language here is so different! They learn sentences, words, read articles, listen, speak, and they do not learn things like grammar straight off the bat! They do not spend time in class learning nitpicky things like we do in the English language, or in foreign language classes! Here English is much more prevalent than German in the US. I often hear English songs being played everywhere! About 80% of the music I hear is English! They believe language should focus more on conversation, while in the US, they believe in the written word much more. It was an interesting way of learning to get used to, but I have to say, I feel like I have learned a lot of German in only four weeks! Much more Spanish than I learned the first month at school!

So, anyways, I am super stoked about classes!

Other happening this week!

Grace, Courtney, and I along with Carolyn and Erica had a lovely Valentine's Day cheese and wine dinner on Monday night! I have to say, a lovely way to spend Valentine's Day with some wonderful ladies! We seriously killed some cheese! NOM NOM NOM!! Again, my new found love of cheese! Super duper tasty!

I have had some bad luck with the public transportation this week! Once the sbahn kicked everyone off, they do this sometimes, and another time there was an accident blocking the tracks! They have also been checking the tickets like crazy this week! As I mentioned before, Wien is on an honor system. Today when I came upstairs from my ubahn there was a blockade of people checking cards! That has not happened yet since I have been here! It was quite a strange sight coming upstairs to see it!

In other news......BOOKED TRIP TO PRAGUE TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YEEAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!! I am going to Prague with my friend on the program Kristen!! Woop Woop!!!

Super duper excited!!!!!

Also, if you have not looked to the upper right of the blog page, I have updated the picasa picture album page with more pictures from my trip last week!! There are lots of pictures! And one album just with people because I realize not everyone wants to look at hundreds of pictures of buildings and many of them duplicated into black and white!

The weather here has been gross the last week :( I hope that it gets warm soon!!!!!

Long post revisited?

OK! Time to re-visit the long post as well as make another post about my last week!!!

For the last ten days I was traveling with other IES students through Germany! The break was after our three weeks of German intensive...which as I said before was VERY intense! I will speak more on it later!

But now I'm going to address the things that I said I would address last time and never did...whoops!

Learning German:

German...ohh man. Well, I was pretty excited to learn German, and my enthusiasm has not left me yet...but it successfully terrified me! We spent the first three weeks in Vienna learning German, which is GREAT! I am super grateful that I got to spend so much time learning a foreign language! I really love using German in public! It is also super wonderful when people talk to me in German because then secretly in my head I'm saying, "Yes, I'm blending in!"

If anyone knows me, or my mom for that matter (sorry mom, but you know its true) I am horrible at foreign languages!! Somehow Carter got all those genes because she is a Latin beast! Spanish was super successful at always giving me a deer in the headlights look, staring blankly into my teachers eyes wondering in my head what on earth was going on! German did that the first week...and part of the second...and hey, even the third! The first week of German was me with deer in the headlights. It was so strange to be learning a new language completely again! I have not learned a new language since 6th grade when I started to learn Spanish and Latin. I feel so strange that I am on a child's book level! After the first week of German kicked my butt, I had to reorganize! The second week I focused and started to tell myself in my head during class that I knew what was going on. Instead of looking at my Professor with blank stares I looked at her like I understood and knew what was going on. I literally had to tell myself in my head "Blair you know this!"...oh gheeze...I'm sounding like a crazy person! Haha, well, I am one so this is ok! By the third week of German I had gained the German confidence, at least more of it! WOOHOO! With something like a foreign language, you cannot be afraid to use it in public, no matter how much of an idiot you might look like. This was a little weird to get used to. I cannot tell you how many times I have gotten corrected by a person when I was trying my German. And one of the most frustrating things is when I am trying to talk to a person in German and they respond in English or tell me just to speak English. I love it when they respond in German, even if I don't understand everything that they say (or even any of it for that matter) because that means that I pronounced it right and did not sound like a foreigner! That is something that is truly an accomplishment! I love being able to go into the grocery store and get deli meat from the counter, or ask directions from a taxi driver, and especially reading a German menu, even if I am guessing what some of the ingredients are! It is super refreshing and I love it!! So so very much!!!

Vienna Night Life:

Now, this is something that has also taken some getting used to! I come from a small school with a frat scene. I had never been to a real club until this trip, in fact, I had barely been to a bar before this trip! So that was something completely new for me! Night life here means that you stay out until 5 or 6 in the morning....now THAT is something new for me too! At school parties shut down at 1, and by that point I am normally already heading back home!

The one awesome thing about the night life here though is that everyone dances! Now, I love dancing, and friends should know that I am a crazy dancer and look like a lunatic sometimes when I'm dancing! Well, people dance like me here!!!!! Its awesome!!!!!! I have yet to have a late late night yet, the latest that I have stayed out is probably 3, but at some point this semester I would like to have at least one good "typical" Vienna night! I forget how many young people are in Vienna because there are so many older people here! It is a city that a lot of people retire in and I normally see much more adults walking around then people my age. The night life here confirms that there is a young crowd of students!

Appreciation for food:

I love eating. I wrote earlier...at least I think that I did...about how I was trying new foods. Well, I have tried lots of wonderful things and gained a new appreciation for food in general! Especially eating slowly. I would never say that I am a fast eater, but eating is a different culture here. It is completely acceptable to sit in a coffee house for hours here, or sit at a restaurant for half an hour after you have already finished your food. People here have an appreciation for eating. So, I have tried to adapt this! The first time that I did it was when I went to a cafe (they are super popular here) and nursed a piece of chocolate cake, called Sachertorte, for over 2 hours! Now, those who know me know that this is quite an accomplishment! It is super easy for me to eat desserts, and they are my favorite food group! I really have no self control sometimes! I would study some German, then take a bite, and continue and repeat! It was absolutely a great feeling too! I did the same the other week with an eclaire! First of all, I ate it with a fork! Which is super strange, but they eat everything with a fork here! I nursed that sucker for about 25 minutes! Again, so refreshing to do something like that! I really have enjoyed eating many things with a fork and taking longer to eat them! For instance, pizza! I love that there are no slices and that I can just cut my way through! I am quite a fan of taking my time eating and enjoying good company and conversation!!

I have also developed a new love for cheese! My roommates and I all love eating cheese, and they have opened my eyes to a wonderful world! Cheese is very popular here! My favorite cheese place is Käseland, which is cheese land! It is found in the open air market and it is a small store filled with lots and lots of cheese! When you walk in, you almost have to leave! The smell of all of the cheese is slightly overwhelming! My roommates and I are in love with this one cheese they have (which I bought the rest of the wheel today) which has figs on the top of it! I have never really been a cheese person but now I find it completely tasty and wonderful!!!

I am still falling in love with being here. Here is a quote that I wrote down this past week while traveling:

"I am in love with life right now! I am in love with the independence, something different than myself. Something new and exciting. I am falling in love with a young love. A new, undiscovered love. An exciting love that opens your eyes. This new love of showing me this life. A totally different, exhilarating life. My new life!"