Well hey family and friends, it’s been awhile.

Ilsa and I just got back from a weekend in Vienna, so things have been hectic here for sure. We had an early start Thursday morning, arriving in Vienna then heading to Mass right away. After a short tour from Bibet (not sure on the spelling for that one), we had lunch (Mmm schnitzel!) and made our way to the hostels to settle in. Our hostel was located off the main street, through some sketchy back alleys with graffiti eeeverywhere (maybe they think it’s the welcoming to write vulgar English language everywhere? Makes the tourists feel at home. How nice of them.). No worries though because the guys at the front desk assured us (and I quote), “Vienna is a safe city. We are in the worst part of town and it’s still really safe here!” Well now…

But no really, it was sweet. No bed bugs, so that’s always a bonus. We left quickly after to make the best of our free time. First on the agenda was to find a statue that our friend Matt’s great grandfather had carved and was displayed in some random park (how neat is that? That’s pretty neat). Afterwards we ran in and out of a few churches in the area (never gets old) then went to the main part of town to catch the culturally-enriching opera. For the small price of four euro we were able to snatch a spot in the standing-room only area of the theater. We definitely were under dressed for the occasion, but they let us in any way. Because we arrived 5 minutes before the show was to start, the standing room was packed full, making us have to stand in the waiting room for the standing room (well that’s a mouth full). The attendant was a very proper older woman who took her job to the next level. I mean seriously—she was telling me shush every other minute. I would move my feet and my shoes would squeak: death stare from attendant lad; breathing in a little loudly (because I’m currently sick and can’t help it): death stare. I ended up walking out periodically to blow my nose just so I wouldn’t “disturb the show” (cuz you know my nose blowing from the waaaay far back in the standing room would be heard all over the theater and would then destroy the entire performance).  Overall the show was great—good music, beautiful voices, all in some language I couldn’t understand (no worries, I improvised and made up a story). 

 mosaic we found in one of the churches; Ilsa wants one; same size and everything

It was about 8:30 at night by the time we left the opera house, but the night was still young! We stopped by a street vendor to grab some kebobs (kabobs? I guess there’s a difference…) then hopped on the subway (which, by the way, we would have been completely lost on if not for Matt's amazing directional skills--honestly, we'd probably still be wondering the streets of Vienna right now if it wasn't for that kid) to head for the giant Ferris wheel. The view was incredible—city lights, cool breeze, and a chance to sit after a full day of walking. 

  Left my household’s mark on the wall of the cart #rebel

The day ended when we made our way back to the hostel, shared in the company of our friends, even ventured out the window onto our fire escape (OK, so maybe I just crawled through and hung on for dear life, but we were on the 5^th floor, which looks intimidating through the grates of the walkway), all before calling it night sometime after 12.

Day two was pretty similar (packed and amazing), so I’ll just post a couple pictures with captions so you can get the some of the experience (there's more on Facebook if you care to see others):

             Ilsa navigating the subways; also, some random girl posing for the picture

                   ^view part way up while climbing the stairs of St.Stephan's

Hey again, just a random story for you all:

Yesterday, Ilsa and I decided to get a little cleaning out of the way seeing as how room checks are today (I think?). Sounds easy enough, right? False. Here in Austria they really like to be picky about their cleaning. There’ s a lot of calcium in the water, so we’re required to spray and wipe down the shower and sink daily, along with a weekly spray down using this other cleaner  that I hear is dangerous (they said don’t be fooled by its enticing Kool-Aid scent, this stuff is highly acidic). No big deal, we were able to get that done in a matter of minutes, so we moved on to trash. Boy, were we in for a surprise…

Everything here needs to be separated—paper, glass, metal, biodegradable, problem trash, and (if all else fails) Restmϋll. Being the ignorant Americans that we are, our trash had been mixed together and piling up for the whole week. It was a mess—a mess that needed some major sorting. So we grabbed the garbage cliff notes (more like garbage novel) and got to work. Who knew four girls living in a room together could produce so much garbage (and shed so much hair)?? Five piles, moldy food, and a few used feminine products later we had what we thought as the properly separated garbage. Let’s just say this will never happen again. 

                                            ^garbage cliff notes (side-ways because I don't know how to use this blog)

                                                  

Another fun fact, we took a walk into town yesterday. While were there, a car pulled over and two guys started talking to us in German (sounded like they needed directions?). I gave them a confused look and asked if they spoke English. The one immediately switched to English, but was disappointed to learn that we were not locals, so drove off. More importantly the moral of this story is that he thought we were Austrian! Guess we’ve done a better job of blending in with the culture than we thought…

So it is day 4 in Austria and it feels like we've been here two weeks with the packed days that we have! I guess it's good that we're kept busy since it's prevented us from sleeping when our jet lag starts to get the best of us.
I can hardly believe that I get to live in this beautiful place for the next 3 and a half months!
We've already been on a trip to Melk, which is about an hour away from the Kartause in Gaming, where we're staying. We had the privilege of attending Mass in the 1000 year old abbey and then taking a tour to see the beautiful church and buildings. We also got to walk around town a little by ourselves after lunch, which was fun to just see and experience. We probably got some funny looks from people when we kept asking our friend how to say "I'm sorry" in German (in case we bump into someone) because of how many times we then repeated it. Endtschuldideung!

For the past couple days we've been busy with orientation meetings, but today we got some free time which we used to walk to the grocery store downtown, called Spar. We got some chocolate and Tess got some premade waffles which she was pretty excited about and proceeded to pull out of her purse and show to pretty much everyone at random times.

We went on a short tour of Gaming later in the afternoon, which didn't take long because it's so small, but very cute! When we got back Tess suggested we go on a river walk in the creek that runs parallel to the Kartause. We thought, sure that sounds fun! (although the freezing cold water should have tipped us off that it might not be the best idea) We climbed down the slope into the creek--I slid more than climbed, and have the dirt marks on my shorts to show for it. We realized that it was a little (understatement!) cold, but decided to brave the icy waters. At one point Tess ended up on my back and I carried her since she was barefoot (after being kind enough to lend me her rainboots). It all ended up being worth it when we discovered a beat up bike in the river, which was pretty funny considering all the stories we'd been hearing at orientation about finding bikes in the creek that students had used. We dragged it out and carried it back to the Kartause and placed it by the functioning bikes that are provided for us to ride around town. Tess was then brave enough to jump into the creek at the popular "tree stump spot" where students jump off into the creek frequently. She described it as "sucking the air out of her lungs"! I decided to save that experience for another day...

Tomorrow we have our first days of classes! I'm a little scared after seeing how many books we have for some of them, which we got at book pick up today, but  I'm looking forward to having more of a routine and starting our trips traveling on the weekends. We go to Salzburg this weekend!

Guten Tag!

Finally made it safe and sound into home sweet Austria. The day had started with my amazing friends Becca and Abby stopping over for breakfast, one last goodbye, and Heidi just barely making it to see me off (how blessed am I for friends like these! Love you ladies) My family then made the trek to drop me off at the airport where, after a tearful goodbye (at least on mom’s part), Ilsa and I went through security and found our gate. The plane thankfully changed our seats so that we could sit next to each other…in the second to last row. We spent most the time watching movies, the best by far being “Meet the Sloths” (thanks Jericca ;) but seriously, just picture it—sloths slow motion fighting; Freaking entertainment, that’s what.)

We arrived in Gaming an hour early (woohoo!). However, being in the back, we were separated from the group and had to wonder the Vienna airport alone for a bit. The Franciscan group was easy to spot though—who else would come with their very own Franciscan TOR sister and priest? After grouping up we were supposed to follow the group to the buses that would be taking us to our house in Gaming. Ilsa’s bag on the other hand had its own plans. One of the wheels popped off and was lost, making it extremely difficult to navigate through the streets of Vienna. We took turns hauling the bag to the bus, laughing and probably looking pretty ridiculous (couldn’t take a couple steps without having to set it down—that thing was heavy!). We were separated from the group (again), but using our “amazing” directional skills we were able to find them as they were loading the buses (that’s Tess and Ilsa: 2, Vienna Airport: 0.)

The bus was already packed full, so our luggage was moved to bus two (this will be important information later on, I swear) while we got on bus one. Our drive through the beautiful Austrian country took about a little less than 2 hours until finally we arrived at the Kartause! People got busy checking in, getting their room assignments, meeting their roommates, etc. We were both placed in room 301, with our lovely roommates Erin and Katherine. Time went by, we grabbed some lunch in the Mensa then headed back at 12:30 to go check on the status of bus two. We heard a bus was about 25 minutes away, but luck was not with us yesterday. Turns out, it was bus three; bus two was stuck in traffic and wasn’t expected to get at the Kartouse until 3:00. We literally had nothing—my carry-on was even on that bus. Thankfully, though, there were towels to spare and a friendly RA was willing to share some of her soap so that we could shower before mass (by the way, the bus didn’t end up arriving until 4:00).

Mass was at 4:30 (One of us will have to take pictures later, this place is incredibly beautiful). The pews were packed, so my friend Becca and I went to sit in the back with the director and his family of young children (such an adorable distraction; two babies and a 4 year old boy shooting imaginary bombs all over the church to blow it up; that kid has quite the imagination).  We had dinner right after that, and then headed up to our room to unpack and organize a bit. It’s funny how you think you brought a lot, but when it’s all taken out and hung up you realize how little you really have (this coming from a girl who could change her outfit three times a day, easily; probably going to have to change that habit while here). At 7:30 there was a small meeting where we met the staff. Afterwards we headed to the St. Francis lounge for a social with beer and wine. We mingled a bit, even met some foreigners—or wait, maybe we’re the foreigners?—whose names were Olga and Balint (if only they had a euro for every time someone asked them to pronounce their names again).

Being as jet-legged as we all were, the night ended young and we were off to bed at 9:00.

Overall I'd say it was a good start to the adventures we'd be having here in Austria...can't wait to see what is next! And since I started this post in German, might as well end it the same.  Aufwiedersehen! 

-Tess

P.S. The picture at the top is of our dinner on the plane...can you tell what it is??

So just to give you a little idea of who the writers of this blog are: my name is Ilsa and my best friend Tess and I are both sophomore nursing students at Franciscan University of Steubenville. We have the amazing opportunity this semester to study abroad in Austria for almost 4 months and we want to document our adventures and keep our family and friends updated on what we're up to while we're there. We thought, what better way than with a blog? 

So here we are: the night before our flight out of the Chicago O'Hare airport to Vienna, Austria. I'm currently sitting in a hotel in Marinette, WI with my younger brother and sister Ted and Maria. I live in Marquette, MI and it's around a 7 hour drive to Chicago from home so I wanted to get the drive part way done today and have lots of time tomorrow so I don't get too anxious about missing the flight or something going wrong! My wonderful family came to see me off: my mom, dad, and two younger siblings are here (although that's really just a small portion of my family, since I have 7 siblings total). Right now my mom and dad are at Walmart because my mother, being super-mom and of course never thinking of herself, forgot her overnight bag since she was so worried about helping me remember everything I would need! 

I can't wait to see Tess for the first time since we came back from spring semester. It's hard to believe that tomorrow we'll be reunited and then traveling to Austria for a whole semester! I remember when this seemed so far off and now it's finally here, and came much more quickly than I was expecting! I can't wait to see what this semester brings and to experience a studying abroad in Franciscan's beautiful campus in Austria.

Just to leave you with a little humor; this is most likely what Tess and I are going to be like in the airport tomorrow (although it does bother me that "actually" is spelled wrong...)