well the internet is out in my room again i think i reached my 5GB limit but i'm not sure because i can't sign onto the intranet to check i'll wait till next month then complain if it doesn't fix itself.
in other news my bathroom sink faucet broke so i have to tell the house master and hope my deopsit will cover it from what i can tell the repair should cost 50-100 euro because that particular brand of faucet is really expensive for some reason. i'll see how it goes. i have another blog already typed up on my laptop with more detailed info. i'll post it when i can.
thanks for reading.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Saturday, October 27, 2007
day 93
well its sunday. daylight saving time started (or stopped,, i never know which) this morning i think i was supose to move my clocks back an hour. any way it is now an hour earlier than when it was before.
in my boredom i started planing a tour to yellow stone state park. originally the plan called for a train a bike and a tent. but after some research i discovered that the American train system is only fisable for non-Americans since they are allowed to get a rail pass. for us americans it cost more to use the train than to drive (to go from st. paul to chicago cost $116) (gas would be about half of that) the total cost of going to yellow stone would be $200+ not including food or accommodation or trip back. so i then changed the plan, going by car would be no fun so why not go entirely by bike?, if i broke the distance up into 11 days out and 11 days back my transport cost would be negligible. then i started researching accommodation. i looked up motels in the cities i would stop in the cheapest would have been $50. that would add up to $550 minimum on the way out. so motels were out of the question. there are no hostels in America so i can't do that but i could go camping at about $12 a night. so the total for camping would be $132-$175ish much better than hotels and if i bring my tent i may be able to camp in some places for free (i.e. about 500 yards off the road in a forest). next was food and equipment. if i pack properly i should have plenty of space on my bike for all the equipment i would need for a month. the problem is food would i be able to survive off of camping food for a month? then it occurred to me every town needs a grocery store and in every town i could buy about a meals worth of food for under $3-$5 all i would really need would be a aluminum pot that i could use over either a gas stove or a wood fire. that would also cut the weight of the bike. so the total of this trip would be about $500 not including equipment i don't have yet like the pot, a tent, light weight sleeping bag, gps, bear mace, water filter, bike repair stuff (extra sets of tires). ect....
i expect the total cost to end up around $1000. but thats only if i spend money on good equipment. i really don't need things like a brand name tent or sleeping bag . i could just as easily use a blue tarp and a home made fleece sleeping bag. that would same me roughly $150. so if i minimize the amount of stuff i actually need and compromise with the stuff i do need the cost should come down to about $700. now the problem is when to do it. ideally it would be best done in the summer between may and august. however after college i will need to get a job and work for about 2 - 20 years before i can get 1 month worth of vacation time. it seems that in order to provide for my self and to afford to do things like this i won't be able to.
well as you guest this is merely a plan i made up because i was bored and nothing better to do. in all likely hood this will never happen.
in other news tomarrow i am going to a 4 hour opera by richard strausse "Der Rosenkavalier" its about a guy who loves a girl and some other guy loves the same girl or somthing there is a explanation here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Rosenkavalier
i think its the rainy season here in europe. we havn't had a sunny day in a long time.
well thats all for now
in my boredom i started planing a tour to yellow stone state park. originally the plan called for a train a bike and a tent. but after some research i discovered that the American train system is only fisable for non-Americans since they are allowed to get a rail pass. for us americans it cost more to use the train than to drive (to go from st. paul to chicago cost $116) (gas would be about half of that) the total cost of going to yellow stone would be $200+ not including food or accommodation or trip back. so i then changed the plan, going by car would be no fun so why not go entirely by bike?, if i broke the distance up into 11 days out and 11 days back my transport cost would be negligible. then i started researching accommodation. i looked up motels in the cities i would stop in the cheapest would have been $50. that would add up to $550 minimum on the way out. so motels were out of the question. there are no hostels in America so i can't do that but i could go camping at about $12 a night. so the total for camping would be $132-$175ish much better than hotels and if i bring my tent i may be able to camp in some places for free (i.e. about 500 yards off the road in a forest). next was food and equipment. if i pack properly i should have plenty of space on my bike for all the equipment i would need for a month. the problem is food would i be able to survive off of camping food for a month? then it occurred to me every town needs a grocery store and in every town i could buy about a meals worth of food for under $3-$5 all i would really need would be a aluminum pot that i could use over either a gas stove or a wood fire. that would also cut the weight of the bike. so the total of this trip would be about $500 not including equipment i don't have yet like the pot, a tent, light weight sleeping bag, gps, bear mace, water filter, bike repair stuff (extra sets of tires). ect....
i expect the total cost to end up around $1000. but thats only if i spend money on good equipment. i really don't need things like a brand name tent or sleeping bag . i could just as easily use a blue tarp and a home made fleece sleeping bag. that would same me roughly $150. so if i minimize the amount of stuff i actually need and compromise with the stuff i do need the cost should come down to about $700. now the problem is when to do it. ideally it would be best done in the summer between may and august. however after college i will need to get a job and work for about 2 - 20 years before i can get 1 month worth of vacation time. it seems that in order to provide for my self and to afford to do things like this i won't be able to.
well as you guest this is merely a plan i made up because i was bored and nothing better to do. in all likely hood this will never happen.
in other news tomarrow i am going to a 4 hour opera by richard strausse "Der Rosenkavalier" its about a guy who loves a girl and some other guy loves the same girl or somthing there is a explanation here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Rosenkavalier
i think its the rainy season here in europe. we havn't had a sunny day in a long time.
well thats all for now
Thursday, October 25, 2007
day 89
day 89
today i had music class in the morning because we had missed the first 2 weeks and we are going to miss next monday because we are going to an opera "die rosenklavier" (the red piano) for the first have we discussed the opera then we did mozart. i came home with 1.5 hours to make lunch and eat it. i made stuffed peppers rice (with jalapeno peppers and red bell pepper.) it is hot!! i also used beef. i saw an idea online to brown the beef with peppers and onions. so i browned the beef with onions and green pepper and then added the red pepper and jalapenos and corn letter. i found out a while ago i could use taco mix in rice to give it a mexican flavor. so after i mixed every thing together i added some tomatoe sauce and cayan pepper. (HOT!!!) its good.
i have enough time to finish eating and maybe do the dishes.
next i have german class. in which i will get board and get anoid at my partner who cansee to write anything with out putting her whole head infront of mine and stare at my note book. then i will go to the office and heat up my dinner (stuffed peppers) and then go to history class. in which i will continue to be board. then i'll come home and go to sleep.
tomarrow i plan on going to the technical museum and stay there prety much all day depending on how intressting the exhibits are. over the week end i plan to do somthing i'm not sure what.
today i had music class in the morning because we had missed the first 2 weeks and we are going to miss next monday because we are going to an opera "die rosenklavier" (the red piano) for the first have we discussed the opera then we did mozart. i came home with 1.5 hours to make lunch and eat it. i made stuffed peppers rice (with jalapeno peppers and red bell pepper.) it is hot!! i also used beef. i saw an idea online to brown the beef with peppers and onions. so i browned the beef with onions and green pepper and then added the red pepper and jalapenos and corn letter. i found out a while ago i could use taco mix in rice to give it a mexican flavor. so after i mixed every thing together i added some tomatoe sauce and cayan pepper. (HOT!!!) its good.
i have enough time to finish eating and maybe do the dishes.
next i have german class. in which i will get board and get anoid at my partner who cansee to write anything with out putting her whole head infront of mine and stare at my note book. then i will go to the office and heat up my dinner (stuffed peppers) and then go to history class. in which i will continue to be board. then i'll come home and go to sleep.
tomarrow i plan on going to the technical museum and stay there prety much all day depending on how intressting the exhibits are. over the week end i plan to do somthing i'm not sure what.
Monday, October 22, 2007
day 87
today marks the half way point of my time in europe. i'm gonna celibrate by having ice cream and cake. while on the train on the way to graz i thought of two things. the first way a way to effectivly double the max lifting capacity of a tower crane by using a pneumatic ram to extend the counter weight arm. and how to make a computer automatically optimise the wieght and the presure needed to make it work. the second was about my prvious plan to go across america on my bike. (it had somthing to do with watching the foot hills of the alps go by on the train) and i revised it to being a combination train and bike tour to yellow stone national park. however when i looked up trains in america i quickly realized that it would cost about 10 times as much to go with the train than to drive my self. and since it is 1070 miles it would take me 8 days of riding all day to get there. then 8 days back. so i'm gonna research this more thoroughly.
day 86
day 86
ok its Monday, tomorrow marks the halfway point of my time in europe. i'm gonna have ice cream to celibate. today i plan on going to the naschmarkt and getting some jalepino peppers so i can make a spicyer stirfry. i asked thomas (who is from texas so obviously knows about these things) about how to use the peppers, if there is any special way to use them or what not. he said nope just chop them up and throw them into what ever your making. so i'm gonna make spicy mexican rice some time this week. for lunch and dinner today i plan on having stirfry
i did my homework for today this morning. i had to write a text about a world tour. so here it is in english
first i started my trip in Vienna, since it is known as the gate way to the east i traveled east to Moscow via train and saw red square. then i fly to Beijing and walked the great wall of china. then i took a ship to Sydney Australia and saw a opera in the sydney opera house. then i flew to Wyoming America and toured yellow stone national park. then drove to chicago and went to the top of the sears tower. then i flew to brazil and danced in karnival. then i swam to africa and went on safari in kenya. then i rode a house to paris and saw the Eiffel tower. then i took a train through the chunnel to london and saw the british museum. then i flew back to vienna and took a nap.
now i'm gonna get dressed and go get those peppers
on the way back from the naschmarkt some body checked my ticket for the first time. it was kinda fun.
i just tried a bit of the peppers i bought (they came in a big bundle probly 30-50) it is a whole different animal than a bell pepper. unlike a bell pepper that just kinda tingles (the red ones i mean) the jalapeño tingle the exact same way then continue into burning i don't wanna use to many of these at once. i think i gonna use just one per serving of what ever i make. if they keep they should last me for the rest of the semester.
ok its Monday, tomorrow marks the halfway point of my time in europe. i'm gonna have ice cream to celibate. today i plan on going to the naschmarkt and getting some jalepino peppers so i can make a spicyer stirfry. i asked thomas (who is from texas so obviously knows about these things) about how to use the peppers, if there is any special way to use them or what not. he said nope just chop them up and throw them into what ever your making. so i'm gonna make spicy mexican rice some time this week. for lunch and dinner today i plan on having stirfry
i did my homework for today this morning. i had to write a text about a world tour. so here it is in english
first i started my trip in Vienna, since it is known as the gate way to the east i traveled east to Moscow via train and saw red square. then i fly to Beijing and walked the great wall of china. then i took a ship to Sydney Australia and saw a opera in the sydney opera house. then i flew to Wyoming America and toured yellow stone national park. then drove to chicago and went to the top of the sears tower. then i flew to brazil and danced in karnival. then i swam to africa and went on safari in kenya. then i rode a house to paris and saw the Eiffel tower. then i took a train through the chunnel to london and saw the british museum. then i flew back to vienna and took a nap.
now i'm gonna get dressed and go get those peppers
on the way back from the naschmarkt some body checked my ticket for the first time. it was kinda fun.
i just tried a bit of the peppers i bought (they came in a big bundle probly 30-50) it is a whole different animal than a bell pepper. unlike a bell pepper that just kinda tingles (the red ones i mean) the jalapeño tingle the exact same way then continue into burning i don't wanna use to many of these at once. i think i gonna use just one per serving of what ever i make. if they keep they should last me for the rest of the semester.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
day 84 - 85 graz
thomas logan micheal graz_________ stairs up to clock tower ______________my steak
days 84 and 85 GRAZ
on Saturday i woke up and got ready to go to graz (mostly last minute packing and puting expensive stuff in my lockable closet) then i took the U-Bahn to the train station (i was and hour early) so i walked around and got to know the station. i found a lovely spot to sit it was way up high and i could see the entire station. it was fun to see who in my group showed up first and how they reacted to no one being there and then see how people tried to find one another. i went down at the last minute. (no one saw me up there) then we got on the train and went to graz. first we saw snow in some of the mountains (micheal is from texas) micheal asked me "whats that in the mountains" i said snow. he said really then asked ruth. she said snow. then he said i can't believe its snow. then i said "well actually i lied its actually crack cocaine, thats why the hills are so alive in austria." i got a good laugh out of that one. when we arrived in graz we walked to the hotel and put out stuff in our rooms. then we walked to a meeting point for a tour guide. and did a walking tour of graz. (it was cold) the the city or graz payed for our lunch (a big mistake). i had a 20 euro steak. and apple strudel. allong with the wiener snitzel and roast beef the girls refused to eat. it was all so good (except the steak was slightly to woody) then we heard the mayor had extra seats in his box at the opera (carman) thomas and james both jumped at the two that were open and i wanted to go to get a standing place so every one (being the sheep they are) decided to come with. after lunch thomas micheal logan and i were going to go on a walk of the city but every one decided to follow us. so we walked to a park and climbed a tree then we all gathered around a statue surounded by trees and talked then thomas logan micheal and me met up on one side and logan said were should we skip to i imediatly said that way, pointing to the most conceled escape route from the rest of the group. so we skiped across the park and down a hill and behind some trees. (no one noticed we were gone) so we walked around the city and decided to go to the castle the next morning while every one else was asleep. then we went to the opera a standing place was 5 euro. it was in french. and the director did his own artistic take on it so it made no sence what so ever. thomas explained that they were trying to make the protagonist not only a soldier but a museum curator aswell in a vain attempt to conect women to art or somthing. i walked away with out understanding much. then i walked home allone (because i knew were i was going and i didn't wanna wait for every one else to congrigate.
the next morning i got up early and ate breakfast and waited for the others. we ate with ruth and the communications prof (here to study us) and then we walked to the castle it was on a big hill probly 1000 ft high (vertical with stairs going up the face) and sat there talking for about 2 hours looking over the city. then we walked back to the hotel and watched a childrens nature show on tv then checked out and went to a small vinyard city to taste some dead bishops wine. i actually tasted it. and having tasted volitil chemicals before i can say it tasted almost exactly the same as rubbing alchohol and gasoline mixed with grape juice. i hated the bite it had. we tasted 3 different wines and i had 3 swallows of wine and thomas had about 6 glasses (the left overs from mine) so thomas and micheal (who had been drinking most of the day) were pretty well buzzed bye the time they got back on the bus. then we went to a small wine house and had a cold meal and then drove back to graz the senic way and got on the train and went back to vienna. i had to go to the bathroom so i went on the train but the toilet would not flush an had not been for some time. and when i tried to leave the bathroom i found out that the door only works from the out side. eventually a lady came and opened the door for me. then i sat down and watched the senery go by. when it got to dark i started talking to andrea. then maggi thought she was part of the conversation so she sat there and lectured at us in her slow dark deep monotone voice. eventually i got bored and just dissagreed with her on somthing and proceded to argue over nothing. just to get her to shut up. then i came back to my dorm and passed out on my bed.
before we left ruth told us that apparently in all of europe you have to pay for every GB of information you download off the internet. we didn't know this we thought it was only i our dorms. but the office is already over its limit so we should take it easy on the office computers. during maggies lecture she accused me of being the only person who could have ussed the compputers that much. this was coming from the person who actually told the group that she new about the download restriction at the dorms and downloaded stuff at the office because of it. i proceded to tell her knowing who did it is not gonna solve the problem. but knowing her she gonna pass as much blame as she can.
well thats all i can think of for now .
Thursday, October 18, 2007
day 83 I have internet in my room??!
well its friday morning and i have internet in my room again. i hope it stays that way.
since the music class was canceled last monday we are having a makup class this morning when the office opens. at 9:30 it the first class so i assume it will last no more than an hour but i'm bringing a lunch anyway just incase. then i have an hour or two to do nothing and then i have german class we have to do 3 asagnments out of the book and i also have to write about 3 jobs that are odd for a man to have, ( nurse, phone operator, and secratary). class we are going over reflexive verbs which i'm not sure if we have in english or not. after class i'm gonna come back to the dorm make dinner and pack for the trip to graz tomarrow. i'm not gonna bring my laptop, but i will bring a note book and pencil so i'll transcribe if i have to.
the weather is getting colder and rainier. its supose to rain every day this week and the temp is supose to be between 44 and 34. i'm guessing from the fact that all the locals are already wearing their winter coats that this is a cold as its gonna get. if so i should be fine with my long underwear and fleece jackets.
were going to graz this week end. we are gonna take the train (train ride = 3 hours). then we have a 1.5 hour city tour and free dinner. then the rest of the evening free. the next day we have some kinda ride thhrough the wine land. (the schedual is in german but it doesn't translate well) (for about 6 hours) then we leave graz at 5..30 and arrive back in vienna at 8:00pm .
i'm lokking forward to the train ride. hopfully this time i won't be stressed out or have to hold my bike and stand the whole time. so i can just sit back and enjoy the ride.
i'm not gonna bring my laptop. just gonna bring the essentails.
snack food
hygene and health stuff
alarm clock
austria book
italy book
music player
pocket knife
notebook
water bottle
camera
TRAIN TICKET THING
and a t-shirt
this should all fit easily into my messenger bag.
i was planning on going to the naschmarkt to get some jalepeno peppers but it looks like i will have no time. (i don't need them till monday anyway.) i found out that yellow and red bell peppers really arn't that hot. and the chilli powder i got is not hot either. i have ground cayan pepper but that isn't really as hot as it makes you cough after eating it. i figure if i slice up some jalapenoe peppers and add then to the other vegitables it will spice it up quit a bit.
i had tuna noodle cassorol for lunch and dinner yesterday. i had history class right aafter german so i brought left overs to class. it was kinda funny the prof. kept looking at it. (of course the container is orange and when ever he gets stuck on how to translate a word he looks at brightly colored things. (ie. my coat, my tuperware, emilies shirt, pictures on the walls, ect.)
the trees are all changing colors here. its pretty. next weekend i would like to go to this place i heard about. its a big tower you can go up and look at the city. i'm hoping to see the hills outside of vienna.
since the music class was canceled last monday we are having a makup class this morning when the office opens. at 9:30 it the first class so i assume it will last no more than an hour but i'm bringing a lunch anyway just incase. then i have an hour or two to do nothing and then i have german class we have to do 3 asagnments out of the book and i also have to write about 3 jobs that are odd for a man to have, ( nurse, phone operator, and secratary). class we are going over reflexive verbs which i'm not sure if we have in english or not. after class i'm gonna come back to the dorm make dinner and pack for the trip to graz tomarrow. i'm not gonna bring my laptop, but i will bring a note book and pencil so i'll transcribe if i have to.
the weather is getting colder and rainier. its supose to rain every day this week and the temp is supose to be between 44 and 34. i'm guessing from the fact that all the locals are already wearing their winter coats that this is a cold as its gonna get. if so i should be fine with my long underwear and fleece jackets.
were going to graz this week end. we are gonna take the train (train ride = 3 hours). then we have a 1.5 hour city tour and free dinner. then the rest of the evening free. the next day we have some kinda ride thhrough the wine land. (the schedual is in german but it doesn't translate well) (for about 6 hours) then we leave graz at 5..30 and arrive back in vienna at 8:00pm .
i'm lokking forward to the train ride. hopfully this time i won't be stressed out or have to hold my bike and stand the whole time. so i can just sit back and enjoy the ride.
i'm not gonna bring my laptop. just gonna bring the essentails.
snack food
hygene and health stuff
alarm clock
austria book
italy book
music player
pocket knife
notebook
water bottle
camera
TRAIN TICKET THING
and a t-shirt
this should all fit easily into my messenger bag.
i was planning on going to the naschmarkt to get some jalepeno peppers but it looks like i will have no time. (i don't need them till monday anyway.) i found out that yellow and red bell peppers really arn't that hot. and the chilli powder i got is not hot either. i have ground cayan pepper but that isn't really as hot as it makes you cough after eating it. i figure if i slice up some jalapenoe peppers and add then to the other vegitables it will spice it up quit a bit.
i had tuna noodle cassorol for lunch and dinner yesterday. i had history class right aafter german so i brought left overs to class. it was kinda funny the prof. kept looking at it. (of course the container is orange and when ever he gets stuck on how to translate a word he looks at brightly colored things. (ie. my coat, my tuperware, emilies shirt, pictures on the walls, ect.)
the trees are all changing colors here. its pretty. next weekend i would like to go to this place i heard about. its a big tower you can go up and look at the city. i'm hoping to see the hills outside of vienna.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
day 81
this post is from a while back be sure to look at the next to posts. i posted all the relivant pictures in vienna!
day 81
well yesterday was the first day of actual classes for me. i found out that the music class was canceled because the music prof. (who was on a music tour of japan) came back sick. so i only had german intensive. the german intesive class consists of 16 students and is taught by herr schnell. he reminds me alot of frank stackhower at church he has the same voice and talks the same way. we i found out that two of the people who were in the level below me at goethe are in my class which is kinda surprising but then again i didn't do aswell on the placment test as i could have. however niether of the study. i think that they just reached the first plataue of the language (which is the easiest to get to). the way my german profesor explained it at college is that the first part of any language is easy you learn the vocab and how to construct basic sentences. if drawn on a XY graph with Y being the amount you know and X being time, then it would be a line with a slope of about .5 - 1.5 . then the hard part comes you have to keep going over structure and also learn new wwords and pronunsiation, and all the other stuff that make language hard. this would be best described as a assending sin wave on the XY graph eventually leveling out at fluency. then the even harder part of studing the harder parts of language that even native speakers hate. (i'm not gonna do that part.) we were assigned to write a text about our lives so i plan on writing about how as a child we traveld through america, and the move to minisota, and college and the events leading up to me being in vienna. allong with an explanation of how i am a visual learner and drawing things and writing stuff on the board will help.
after class i went down stairs got my stuff out of the fridge in the central office (i thought i was gonna have music class right after german so i brought a lunch to heat ad eat in class. then i went to the super market to get peppers and carrots. while i was waiting in line i saw some body in front of me with hamburger, so i went back and checked the prices it was about 2.30 for 500 grams i figured i could cut it up and leave it in the freazer and use some for a meal once in a while. so i came home and heated up my dinner and saw an episodeof the simpsons on TV (it was in german) i knew the episode by rote but i didn't understand a word of it in german. and the voices the used were pretty funny they were all high pitched and didn't sound at all like the characters voices in america.
then i cut up the meat and put it in a zipplok bag and froze it. i realized this morning that i didn't compress it at all or wrap it in wax paper so if it does get freezer burn it will happen pretty fast so i'm gonna give my self 3 weeks to use it all. then i will get more and package it properly.
after i choped up the meat i went to the university (which i new was closed) and walked back to my dorm. its a much longer walk than i expected it to be. however i was able to see most of the stuff i don't see on the u-bahn. like grocery stores and so forth. then i came home and went to sleep.
today i woke up and started laundry (i bought laundry coins and laundry detergent yesterday) i should be done now.. ok its in the dryer now. and i plan to make stirfry with meat today because i have eggs that will be going bad in the next week so i have to use them. don't have much else planned for today. just laundry food class food and go to sleep.
we are going on a vienna seminar excursion tomarrow to the vienna museum, i'm gonna check were that is befroe class so i don't show up late
well, i came back to the dorm after class to see if i could get my computer fixed (maggy told me that the tech people were in on tuesday and thursday evenings) i went up to the hiemlieter office (dorm director) and looked at the office hours, she was right the office was open in the evenings on tueday and thursday but from 7 - 9 pm to i made dinner (spagehitti with meat sauce) and then brought my laptop up to see what they could do. i explained that i didn't know how to connect because it was vista not XP or 2000. he said he would take a look he typed in some stuff and without even connecting it to the network he said ok this should work. just click on this and type in your passsword whan you plug it in and it sould work. i cam back and it worked. for some reason at 9:30 it stopped working. i think it may be that they shut the internt down at night or somthing or maybe there was a problem. i'll check again this evening.
new posts and pictures coming soon i'll probably get it done on friday since i'm busy today thursday and saterday and sunday.
day 81
well yesterday was the first day of actual classes for me. i found out that the music class was canceled because the music prof. (who was on a music tour of japan) came back sick. so i only had german intensive. the german intesive class consists of 16 students and is taught by herr schnell. he reminds me alot of frank stackhower at church he has the same voice and talks the same way. we i found out that two of the people who were in the level below me at goethe are in my class which is kinda surprising but then again i didn't do aswell on the placment test as i could have. however niether of the study. i think that they just reached the first plataue of the language (which is the easiest to get to). the way my german profesor explained it at college is that the first part of any language is easy you learn the vocab and how to construct basic sentences. if drawn on a XY graph with Y being the amount you know and X being time, then it would be a line with a slope of about .5 - 1.5 . then the hard part comes you have to keep going over structure and also learn new wwords and pronunsiation, and all the other stuff that make language hard. this would be best described as a assending sin wave on the XY graph eventually leveling out at fluency. then the even harder part of studing the harder parts of language that even native speakers hate. (i'm not gonna do that part.) we were assigned to write a text about our lives so i plan on writing about how as a child we traveld through america, and the move to minisota, and college and the events leading up to me being in vienna. allong with an explanation of how i am a visual learner and drawing things and writing stuff on the board will help.
after class i went down stairs got my stuff out of the fridge in the central office (i thought i was gonna have music class right after german so i brought a lunch to heat ad eat in class. then i went to the super market to get peppers and carrots. while i was waiting in line i saw some body in front of me with hamburger, so i went back and checked the prices it was about 2.30 for 500 grams i figured i could cut it up and leave it in the freazer and use some for a meal once in a while. so i came home and heated up my dinner and saw an episodeof the simpsons on TV (it was in german) i knew the episode by rote but i didn't understand a word of it in german. and the voices the used were pretty funny they were all high pitched and didn't sound at all like the characters voices in america.
then i cut up the meat and put it in a zipplok bag and froze it. i realized this morning that i didn't compress it at all or wrap it in wax paper so if it does get freezer burn it will happen pretty fast so i'm gonna give my self 3 weeks to use it all. then i will get more and package it properly.
after i choped up the meat i went to the university (which i new was closed) and walked back to my dorm. its a much longer walk than i expected it to be. however i was able to see most of the stuff i don't see on the u-bahn. like grocery stores and so forth. then i came home and went to sleep.
today i woke up and started laundry (i bought laundry coins and laundry detergent yesterday) i should be done now.. ok its in the dryer now. and i plan to make stirfry with meat today because i have eggs that will be going bad in the next week so i have to use them. don't have much else planned for today. just laundry food class food and go to sleep.
we are going on a vienna seminar excursion tomarrow to the vienna museum, i'm gonna check were that is befroe class so i don't show up late
well, i came back to the dorm after class to see if i could get my computer fixed (maggy told me that the tech people were in on tuesday and thursday evenings) i went up to the hiemlieter office (dorm director) and looked at the office hours, she was right the office was open in the evenings on tueday and thursday but from 7 - 9 pm to i made dinner (spagehitti with meat sauce) and then brought my laptop up to see what they could do. i explained that i didn't know how to connect because it was vista not XP or 2000. he said he would take a look he typed in some stuff and without even connecting it to the network he said ok this should work. just click on this and type in your passsword whan you plug it in and it sould work. i cam back and it worked. for some reason at 9:30 it stopped working. i think it may be that they shut the internt down at night or somthing or maybe there was a problem. i'll check again this evening.
new posts and pictures coming soon i'll probably get it done on friday since i'm busy today thursday and saterday and sunday.
but wait theres more
the picture post
I know all of you have been waiting for pictures so i burned the good ones to cd and will post all of them in this post with short descriptions
a monument to strauss in the city park
my rosemary plant (fritz)
my room from the window
the gasometers
a U-Bahn station that i really like. it goes from the white walls to stone walls half way through
stuffed peppers
the ugly church by my dorm. i think it will look nicer in winter
the terrible paint on my cieling. it was scraped off by a painter about a week after i took this picture. it was wet pain on concrete so it didn't hold on to well in the first place.
votiv kirche my favorite church. as you can see they put a giant picture of the building up on the scafolding when ever they work on a building. in this case they also hung a huge advertisement
the US embasy. this was taken the day after the bomb thing. i was hoping the flash wouldn't go off so i wouldn't draw attention to my self but it did so i walked away quickly.
the UN
votiv church from the lower strassen bahn station
a monument to strauss in the city park
my rosemary plant (fritz)
my room from the door
my room from the window
the gasometers
a U-Bahn station that i really like. it goes from the white walls to stone walls half way through
i was trying to capture the change from one to the other then have the lights draw the eyes to the focal point of the hole the u-bahn goes throught but i think i was to far away.
stuffed peppers
the ugly church by my dorm. i think it will look nicer in winter
the terrible paint on my cieling. it was scraped off by a painter about a week after i took this picture. it was wet pain on concrete so it didn't hold on to well in the first place.
votiv kirche my favorite church. as you can see they put a giant picture of the building up on the scafolding when ever they work on a building. in this case they also hung a huge advertisement
votiv chuch from the back
some church close to the danau its pretty. like a fairly tale castle
the US embasy. this was taken the day after the bomb thing. i was hoping the flash wouldn't go off so i wouldn't draw attention to my self but it did so i walked away quickly.
votiv church from the lower strassen bahn station
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
I had internet in my room!
the network has a limited bandwith and sombody (possibly me??) over used it and now its down (maybe for the rest of the month) each internet user is allowed 5GB of download stuff or somthing per month.
according to the website i used .17GB in about 2.5 hours. but i didn't down load anything i think watching youtube videos counts. any way once its back up again i#m gonna wait till the network is empty (about 5 am) and then update my computer.
the network has a limited bandwith and sombody (possibly me??) over used it and now its down (maybe for the rest of the month) each internet user is allowed 5GB of download stuff or somthing per month.
according to the website i used .17GB in about 2.5 hours. but i didn't down load anything i think watching youtube videos counts. any way once its back up again i#m gonna wait till the network is empty (about 5 am) and then update my computer.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
day 78
day 78
today i'm gonna have pizza bread for lunch and left ovr stew for dinner.
during the semester the central program goes on two excursions out side of vienna. there is one day excursion (1 day) and one weekend excursion (saterday and sunday) this week end is the weekend excursion. we are going to graz that is south and slightly west of vienna. i looked at a map and atractions guide they gave us and from what i can tell there is not much to do in graz. but i guess its better than spending the whole semester in vienna. i think the day excusion (in november or december) will go to budapest. but i'm not sure.
vienna mostly shuts down for the week ends (kinda like minneapolis or pella) most of the grocery stores close and the ones that stay open have higher prices. the trains still go but almost every thing else is closed. most of the drug stores shut down to , but i think that the german speaking countries have some kinda goverment controled pharmacy system. they all have the same symbol over there doors and at any given time one is open in the area. and there are signs on each store saying which ones are open when. also the pharmacies have more power here than in america. in most casses in america if you ned drugs you go to a doctor and he writes you a subscribtion and you take it to the phamacy and they give you the drugs. they act like a ware house. here the phamacy has the power to give subscriptions and diagnose stuff. doctors are mostly used for moree severe stuff. i think this might add to the germans hemophilia. german speakers tend to be very concerned about there health and feel they are always sick.
it seems i always meet my roommates and other people while i'm sleeping. i think i should train my self to say "santa?" every time i wake up. it would be funny.
found out at the naschmarkt yesterday that the same stand i buy the flat bread from sells pack of 5 sesame ring things for 1.25 euro so i may try that this week it looks like it would be more calories for the price. which would be good.
it was in the 30's this morning (i guess) and now its warm enough out to have the window open so i have fritz sitting out on the ledge in the sun. still have to get a spray bottle to keep him clean i can see the mold starting.
i just saw 2 guys walking to the dorm door carrying a halogen lamp and a table. one of them may be my roommate i'll find out in the next 10 minutes. i know i met my roommate once already but i was half asleep and i didn't look at him for to long.
well i went out and came back its now 8:00 pm and i still have no roommate. i'm not sure if i even have a roommate i didn't understand to much of what the guy said on friday night but i think i heard him say check. so he may have been one of the dorm directors checking the room or somthing. i don't know, i think he said he lived here but i'm not sure, if nobody moves in till next monday i'll assume i have my own room.
while i was out tonight i was on a train going to city center to see how the lite up the stephans cathedral. (they did a very good jobit lite up so you can't tell were the lights are and it isn't bright its just glows) and i saw a drug deal go down on the U-bahn, i was alittle surprised after all vienna is a quite little town and it has hardly any crime. but i suposse like any city it has its low lives. on the other hand the drug deal was done very slopily. the first thing i noticed was how tence the supllier was. he was giving him self away by being to annsy. the second thing i notice is both the suppplier and the buyer both turned toward the door of the car and exchanged stuff there then the buyer put the stuff in his outside pocket exposing it to half the train. it was sloppy, the only thing i saw that they did right was exit the trains at different times. however after the supplier left a kid sat down next to me and took 30 euro out of his wallet as well as some change then both the kid and the buyer left the train at the same time and got on the same elivator. sloppy.
i have classes tomarrow at the language program and the central office. my teachers name is schnell (literaly translates to "fast") so i expect class to move allong quite quickly. also i finaly have a male teacher i was hoping this would hapen its hard to learn german from some one of the opposite sex because the tones are different and there are othere dis-similarities. i also plan on going to the dorm director and buying laundry coins and maybe asking about my roommate. then i plan to go to a drug store and get some vitamins. then lunch since i will have no time between classes i'm gonna make 2 servings of stuffed pepper rice and bring one with me to the central office so i can heat it and eat in class. if that doesn't work then i guess i'll have to come up with a new stratagy next week. if i explain that i don't have time to eat then he may understand. then i will go to the german class and learn german for 2 1/2 hours then run down stairs heat my dinner and then run to the class room to learn music stuff. then go home clean my tupper ware and go to sleep.
since i am on the topic of classes here is my strategy
1. pass german class learn as much as possible so if there is a placment test to decided my level i can test out of 300 lvl
2. pass the history class it is a requisit for graduation
3. the music class doesn't really matter i only took it so i could go to the concerts and maybe learn somthing i feel i could drop out of this class in december and still be happy i could also go all the way with it and just fail it. either way, i don't need the credits. although if i can do well in this course it would be a bonus
today i'm gonna have pizza bread for lunch and left ovr stew for dinner.
during the semester the central program goes on two excursions out side of vienna. there is one day excursion (1 day) and one weekend excursion (saterday and sunday) this week end is the weekend excursion. we are going to graz that is south and slightly west of vienna. i looked at a map and atractions guide they gave us and from what i can tell there is not much to do in graz. but i guess its better than spending the whole semester in vienna. i think the day excusion (in november or december) will go to budapest. but i'm not sure.
vienna mostly shuts down for the week ends (kinda like minneapolis or pella) most of the grocery stores close and the ones that stay open have higher prices. the trains still go but almost every thing else is closed. most of the drug stores shut down to , but i think that the german speaking countries have some kinda goverment controled pharmacy system. they all have the same symbol over there doors and at any given time one is open in the area. and there are signs on each store saying which ones are open when. also the pharmacies have more power here than in america. in most casses in america if you ned drugs you go to a doctor and he writes you a subscribtion and you take it to the phamacy and they give you the drugs. they act like a ware house. here the phamacy has the power to give subscriptions and diagnose stuff. doctors are mostly used for moree severe stuff. i think this might add to the germans hemophilia. german speakers tend to be very concerned about there health and feel they are always sick.
it seems i always meet my roommates and other people while i'm sleeping. i think i should train my self to say "santa?" every time i wake up. it would be funny.
found out at the naschmarkt yesterday that the same stand i buy the flat bread from sells pack of 5 sesame ring things for 1.25 euro so i may try that this week it looks like it would be more calories for the price. which would be good.
it was in the 30's this morning (i guess) and now its warm enough out to have the window open so i have fritz sitting out on the ledge in the sun. still have to get a spray bottle to keep him clean i can see the mold starting.
i just saw 2 guys walking to the dorm door carrying a halogen lamp and a table. one of them may be my roommate i'll find out in the next 10 minutes. i know i met my roommate once already but i was half asleep and i didn't look at him for to long.
well i went out and came back its now 8:00 pm and i still have no roommate. i'm not sure if i even have a roommate i didn't understand to much of what the guy said on friday night but i think i heard him say check. so he may have been one of the dorm directors checking the room or somthing. i don't know, i think he said he lived here but i'm not sure, if nobody moves in till next monday i'll assume i have my own room.
while i was out tonight i was on a train going to city center to see how the lite up the stephans cathedral. (they did a very good jobit lite up so you can't tell were the lights are and it isn't bright its just glows) and i saw a drug deal go down on the U-bahn, i was alittle surprised after all vienna is a quite little town and it has hardly any crime. but i suposse like any city it has its low lives. on the other hand the drug deal was done very slopily. the first thing i noticed was how tence the supllier was. he was giving him self away by being to annsy. the second thing i notice is both the suppplier and the buyer both turned toward the door of the car and exchanged stuff there then the buyer put the stuff in his outside pocket exposing it to half the train. it was sloppy, the only thing i saw that they did right was exit the trains at different times. however after the supplier left a kid sat down next to me and took 30 euro out of his wallet as well as some change then both the kid and the buyer left the train at the same time and got on the same elivator. sloppy.
i have classes tomarrow at the language program and the central office. my teachers name is schnell (literaly translates to "fast") so i expect class to move allong quite quickly. also i finaly have a male teacher i was hoping this would hapen its hard to learn german from some one of the opposite sex because the tones are different and there are othere dis-similarities. i also plan on going to the dorm director and buying laundry coins and maybe asking about my roommate. then i plan to go to a drug store and get some vitamins. then lunch since i will have no time between classes i'm gonna make 2 servings of stuffed pepper rice and bring one with me to the central office so i can heat it and eat in class. if that doesn't work then i guess i'll have to come up with a new stratagy next week. if i explain that i don't have time to eat then he may understand. then i will go to the german class and learn german for 2 1/2 hours then run down stairs heat my dinner and then run to the class room to learn music stuff. then go home clean my tupper ware and go to sleep.
since i am on the topic of classes here is my strategy
1. pass german class learn as much as possible so if there is a placment test to decided my level i can test out of 300 lvl
2. pass the history class it is a requisit for graduation
3. the music class doesn't really matter i only took it so i could go to the concerts and maybe learn somthing i feel i could drop out of this class in december and still be happy i could also go all the way with it and just fail it. either way, i don't need the credits. although if i can do well in this course it would be a bonus
the actual day 77
day 77
today i walked through the naschmarkt (its saterday so the people selling there old junk were out.) if you want skis, cobat knives, door knobs, or old tools. the naschmarkt is the place to go. i saw tons of stuff i would love to have but there is no way i would be able to use them here or send them home so i didn"t get any thing. i looked at the meat stands for some kinda meat with a bone in it but could find anything in my price range that had a big enough bone. so i went to the grocercy store to get celery and i found that they sell soup bones there so i bought some kinda bones from a pig and celery
i had spagehitti for lunch (early, about 10:30) then started the broth. i filled my pot with water and started boiling it then after stripping some in the meat off the bone i put it in the water allong with some salt and rosemary. i brought it to a boil then started simmering it. i put the lid on and soon found out that it boils with a lid on so i lowerd the temp all the way down and put the lid on. its still boils with the lid on but not as much. i started it at 11:00 it is now 1:40. at 5:00 i plan to check on it and see how dense the broth is if its thick i'll cut the vegitables small if its thin i'll chop the vegitables bigger and make stew instead of soup. i plan to use potatoes, carrots, celery, tiny corn on the cob things, and peas. after i remove the bone i"ll put the veggies in then let tit go for a while then add the other spices (more rosemary, garlic, oregano.) then put in rotinni noodles and boil till the noodles are done. at some point during this i will cook the meat i have in my frying pan then add it to the mix probably with the noodles. then if the broth is thin i will strain it and have stew, and if the broth is thick i'll just have soup.
after i started the broth and was sure it wouldn"t explode or any thing i went back to the naschmarkt and got more of that flat bread. it should be good with the soup. now i"m wasting time waiting for dinner to come.
in other news, i start classes on monday
german intensive 3:00 - 5:30 13 credits
music mondays 5:30 - 8:00 3 credits
history thursdays 5:45 - 8:15 3 credits
vienna seminar wensdays 10:00 - 12:00 1 credit
from what i understand here is how all the classes work...
1 german intensive- i learn german just like i did in germanynot sure what to expect from this class
2 music - i show up and learn about composers and go to concertswe havn't met yet i may end up doing a presentation or some tests or a paper
3 history- i go to class take notes and do a presention and take 2 tests10 minute presentation on somthing we havn't covered in class about austrian history. its gonna be hard to pick a topic since i don't know austrian history.
4 vienna seminarwe've met once so far and it seems that every other wensday we go on an excursion to some place in viennathen we divided into 2 groups and we have to meet twice during the semester and talk about vienna (using guidance questions)i think all i really need to do to pass is to show up and talk some.
i will have nothing to do in the mornings so i might learn how to sleep in. it might even return to the USA time since it will be winter and day time really doesn"t mean anything any more.
my roommate hasn't move in yet, i expect he will do so either tonight or tomarrow.
just ballance my budget. my spending is going down but its still to high. in germany i could live off of 10 euro a week this last week was 80. but allot of that was on stuff i will never need to buy again so i think it wil continue to decline until the italy trip. when it will spike up for a week or to then sudenly decline back to the previous weeks amount.
fritz (my rosemary plant) is doing well i have to find somplace to get a spray bottle so i can keep him from getting moldy. according to people online rosemary plants that live inside often get a certain type of white powdery mold that shouldn"t kill them but will weaken them. and i wanna keep fritz as healthy as possible for the next three months at least.
since i have nothing better to talk about i"ll go over what i know about the italy trip.
1. i don"t have a euro train pass. (i may end up being cheaper with out it.)
2. i'm not gonna spend 10 days in italy that plan was abit extravegent. at most 6 days probably less.
3. i plan on seeing and doing these things
- go to venice (1 day) not sure what to see. i mainly wanna see the streets and say "ahh, venice" maybe se the library in indiana jones and the last crusade
- go to cremona see stradivarious workshop museum (1/2 - 1 day) theres not much else to see here if possible i would like to make it a stop on the way to florence but its way out of the way.
- go to flourence (may or may not spend time in florence) and then go to vinci to see the da vinci museum (1 day) i just wanna see the davinci museum
- go to pompie and see the ruins (1 day) the ruins are open to the public and they say its a full days walk to see it all.
- go to rome see the city (1-2 days) not sure if i actually wanna go here or not since i'm in itally i may as well but theres not much of intrest there
- eat pasta (its italy)
- eat pizza (its italy)
- other stuff i havn't thought of... (obviously i havn't thought of this stuff yet)
4. my break starts on december 22nd?? and go through january 6th giving me 16 days to do stuff of course i will need to work around christmas and new years since public transport will be insane at those times.
5. no idea how to deal with food during trip
6. i think i'll leave right after christmas day.
for some reason i am always extremly tired here. i don't know why. i don't do to much and i go to sleep early and sleep late. i think its culture shock. but of course thats the solution that central tries to explain every thing thats wrong in europe. for example i was walking and i stubed my toe, blame culture shock. my credit card doesn't work ... culture shock. i got run over by a train, culture shock..
not exactly sure when i did this i think it was last thursday. i went to see the gasometers. the gasometers use to be 4 giant gas tanks (about 100 ft around and 100ft tall.) i think they were for natural gas) that would supply all of vienna with gas. but vienna grew and the tanks got old. so they stoped using them, they were about to tear them down when the historical society said nope they are historical buildings can't tear them down. so they built brick walls about each of them and turned them into small cities. i think there are dorms and class rooms in them and so forth. any way i went to see them. i wasn't to impresssed. some of the students at goethe had to read about them several times. so thomas gave me a very detailed description of their history and so forth.
well the broth was not that great. it was thin and it had no flavor. i think i will stick to fake broth. at least until i learn how to do it properly. i made to much i thought i was making 1 serving i apparently made 3 by accident. and since the tupperware i have can only hold 1 serving i'm forced to eat 2 servings. i also learned that boiling peppers is a bad idea. they get mushy and flavorless. the bones only cost 1 euro so i don't think it was a total loss.
yesterday i was typing my last blog and maggy showed up and saidthe strassen bahn was was broken i said which one she said 43. thats the one from the U-bahn to the office it goes about 3-5 blocks from here to there. then she complained that she had to walk and i said its not that far and she said but its cold out and i said its well above freezing then she just glared at me. at that moment i realized somthing about most of humanity myself included people love to complain (seriously some people won't be happy till you beat them with a stick) but they love their egos more. so when the two come in conflict the ego will ussualy win. in this case maggi complained about the walk but it would dammage her ego to say the walk was to far for her to complete easily. so when the two came in conflict she jumped to complaining about the cold but when those two come in conflict it wasn't resolved she just got angry.
on the walk to the u-bahn .(the strassen bahn was not going). i was walking past a lady with children and she said excuse me do you know were i could get a job cleaning? (in german) i paused because i thought i saw a putzerie (literly cleanery) around the corner. then i realized she was one of the homless croations that always begs for money inthe train station and her citizen ship probably wasn't legal. so she was asking to clean my house for non goverement approved pay. so i said i'm sorry, i don't know. then she got loud and asked if i had somthing to eat and i said no then she told me to give her a euro i just walked away. i don't have the resources, time, or ability to help the homless especially here in austria.
well thats all for today.
today i walked through the naschmarkt (its saterday so the people selling there old junk were out.) if you want skis, cobat knives, door knobs, or old tools. the naschmarkt is the place to go. i saw tons of stuff i would love to have but there is no way i would be able to use them here or send them home so i didn"t get any thing. i looked at the meat stands for some kinda meat with a bone in it but could find anything in my price range that had a big enough bone. so i went to the grocercy store to get celery and i found that they sell soup bones there so i bought some kinda bones from a pig and celery
i had spagehitti for lunch (early, about 10:30) then started the broth. i filled my pot with water and started boiling it then after stripping some in the meat off the bone i put it in the water allong with some salt and rosemary. i brought it to a boil then started simmering it. i put the lid on and soon found out that it boils with a lid on so i lowerd the temp all the way down and put the lid on. its still boils with the lid on but not as much. i started it at 11:00 it is now 1:40. at 5:00 i plan to check on it and see how dense the broth is if its thick i'll cut the vegitables small if its thin i'll chop the vegitables bigger and make stew instead of soup. i plan to use potatoes, carrots, celery, tiny corn on the cob things, and peas. after i remove the bone i"ll put the veggies in then let tit go for a while then add the other spices (more rosemary, garlic, oregano.) then put in rotinni noodles and boil till the noodles are done. at some point during this i will cook the meat i have in my frying pan then add it to the mix probably with the noodles. then if the broth is thin i will strain it and have stew, and if the broth is thick i'll just have soup.
after i started the broth and was sure it wouldn"t explode or any thing i went back to the naschmarkt and got more of that flat bread. it should be good with the soup. now i"m wasting time waiting for dinner to come.
in other news, i start classes on monday
german intensive 3:00 - 5:30 13 credits
music mondays 5:30 - 8:00 3 credits
history thursdays 5:45 - 8:15 3 credits
vienna seminar wensdays 10:00 - 12:00 1 credit
from what i understand here is how all the classes work...
1 german intensive- i learn german just like i did in germanynot sure what to expect from this class
2 music - i show up and learn about composers and go to concertswe havn't met yet i may end up doing a presentation or some tests or a paper
3 history- i go to class take notes and do a presention and take 2 tests10 minute presentation on somthing we havn't covered in class about austrian history. its gonna be hard to pick a topic since i don't know austrian history.
4 vienna seminarwe've met once so far and it seems that every other wensday we go on an excursion to some place in viennathen we divided into 2 groups and we have to meet twice during the semester and talk about vienna (using guidance questions)i think all i really need to do to pass is to show up and talk some.
i will have nothing to do in the mornings so i might learn how to sleep in. it might even return to the USA time since it will be winter and day time really doesn"t mean anything any more.
my roommate hasn't move in yet, i expect he will do so either tonight or tomarrow.
just ballance my budget. my spending is going down but its still to high. in germany i could live off of 10 euro a week this last week was 80. but allot of that was on stuff i will never need to buy again so i think it wil continue to decline until the italy trip. when it will spike up for a week or to then sudenly decline back to the previous weeks amount.
fritz (my rosemary plant) is doing well i have to find somplace to get a spray bottle so i can keep him from getting moldy. according to people online rosemary plants that live inside often get a certain type of white powdery mold that shouldn"t kill them but will weaken them. and i wanna keep fritz as healthy as possible for the next three months at least.
since i have nothing better to talk about i"ll go over what i know about the italy trip.
1. i don"t have a euro train pass. (i may end up being cheaper with out it.)
2. i'm not gonna spend 10 days in italy that plan was abit extravegent. at most 6 days probably less.
3. i plan on seeing and doing these things
- go to venice (1 day) not sure what to see. i mainly wanna see the streets and say "ahh, venice" maybe se the library in indiana jones and the last crusade
- go to cremona see stradivarious workshop museum (1/2 - 1 day) theres not much else to see here if possible i would like to make it a stop on the way to florence but its way out of the way.
- go to flourence (may or may not spend time in florence) and then go to vinci to see the da vinci museum (1 day) i just wanna see the davinci museum
- go to pompie and see the ruins (1 day) the ruins are open to the public and they say its a full days walk to see it all.
- go to rome see the city (1-2 days) not sure if i actually wanna go here or not since i'm in itally i may as well but theres not much of intrest there
- eat pasta (its italy)
- eat pizza (its italy)
- other stuff i havn't thought of... (obviously i havn't thought of this stuff yet)
4. my break starts on december 22nd?? and go through january 6th giving me 16 days to do stuff of course i will need to work around christmas and new years since public transport will be insane at those times.
5. no idea how to deal with food during trip
6. i think i'll leave right after christmas day.
for some reason i am always extremly tired here. i don't know why. i don't do to much and i go to sleep early and sleep late. i think its culture shock. but of course thats the solution that central tries to explain every thing thats wrong in europe. for example i was walking and i stubed my toe, blame culture shock. my credit card doesn't work ... culture shock. i got run over by a train, culture shock..
not exactly sure when i did this i think it was last thursday. i went to see the gasometers. the gasometers use to be 4 giant gas tanks (about 100 ft around and 100ft tall.) i think they were for natural gas) that would supply all of vienna with gas. but vienna grew and the tanks got old. so they stoped using them, they were about to tear them down when the historical society said nope they are historical buildings can't tear them down. so they built brick walls about each of them and turned them into small cities. i think there are dorms and class rooms in them and so forth. any way i went to see them. i wasn't to impresssed. some of the students at goethe had to read about them several times. so thomas gave me a very detailed description of their history and so forth.
well the broth was not that great. it was thin and it had no flavor. i think i will stick to fake broth. at least until i learn how to do it properly. i made to much i thought i was making 1 serving i apparently made 3 by accident. and since the tupperware i have can only hold 1 serving i'm forced to eat 2 servings. i also learned that boiling peppers is a bad idea. they get mushy and flavorless. the bones only cost 1 euro so i don't think it was a total loss.
yesterday i was typing my last blog and maggy showed up and saidthe strassen bahn was was broken i said which one she said 43. thats the one from the U-bahn to the office it goes about 3-5 blocks from here to there. then she complained that she had to walk and i said its not that far and she said but its cold out and i said its well above freezing then she just glared at me. at that moment i realized somthing about most of humanity myself included people love to complain (seriously some people won't be happy till you beat them with a stick) but they love their egos more. so when the two come in conflict the ego will ussualy win. in this case maggi complained about the walk but it would dammage her ego to say the walk was to far for her to complete easily. so when the two came in conflict she jumped to complaining about the cold but when those two come in conflict it wasn't resolved she just got angry.
on the walk to the u-bahn .(the strassen bahn was not going). i was walking past a lady with children and she said excuse me do you know were i could get a job cleaning? (in german) i paused because i thought i saw a putzerie (literly cleanery) around the corner. then i realized she was one of the homless croations that always begs for money inthe train station and her citizen ship probably wasn't legal. so she was asking to clean my house for non goverement approved pay. so i said i'm sorry, i don't know. then she got loud and asked if i had somthing to eat and i said no then she told me to give her a euro i just walked away. i don't have the resources, time, or ability to help the homless especially here in austria.
well thats all for today.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
day 77
as you can see i found a away to post the blogs i had on my laptop. my internet still doesn't work i have to talk to some tech guy about it on tueday. i went to the grocery store and got cdr's and coppied all my stuff onto those and i brought it to the officee and coppied it to the blog.
yesterday i went to the naschmarkt and bought a rosemary plant (i named it fritz). i hope to keep it allive for most of my stay here in austria and i can use it to flavor mashed potatoes.and other things to i guess. i went to sleep early last night (about 7:30,, i was tired) and then i woke up to find a guy in my room. so i woke up turned around and said " bist dou mine zimmerfreund?" (are you my roommate?) he said JA , then i said "ich hiesse phill" (my names phill) then turned over and went back to sleep. when i woke up his stuff wasn't there. I assume he decided to not move in that´night because i was sleeping. if that us the case he must be a vienna native. othere wise he would have almost no choice but to unppack right away. or maybe he came by just to see were his room was (and to get his key) and he plans to move in on the week end (the house master office is closed on week ends) if this is the case it is his first time living in this particular dorm. which doesn't help me much. not sure he speaks english but i only heard him say afew words, so i guess i'll meet him again some time.
went for a walk around the nashmarkt again this morning. i love walking there especially when there are only afew people. (on saterdays people are literally stuffed in the walk ways no one has more than 6 inches of space to them selves) but on week days its hard to get around people but its atleast possible. bought a bunch of bannannas and now i'm typing this.
plan to have left over mexican ricce from last night for lunch. and piyya bread for supper. i think thats it for now.
yesterday i went to the naschmarkt and bought a rosemary plant (i named it fritz). i hope to keep it allive for most of my stay here in austria and i can use it to flavor mashed potatoes.and other things to i guess. i went to sleep early last night (about 7:30,, i was tired) and then i woke up to find a guy in my room. so i woke up turned around and said " bist dou mine zimmerfreund?" (are you my roommate?) he said JA , then i said "ich hiesse phill" (my names phill) then turned over and went back to sleep. when i woke up his stuff wasn't there. I assume he decided to not move in that´night because i was sleeping. if that us the case he must be a vienna native. othere wise he would have almost no choice but to unppack right away. or maybe he came by just to see were his room was (and to get his key) and he plans to move in on the week end (the house master office is closed on week ends) if this is the case it is his first time living in this particular dorm. which doesn't help me much. not sure he speaks english but i only heard him say afew words, so i guess i'll meet him again some time.
went for a walk around the nashmarkt again this morning. i love walking there especially when there are only afew people. (on saterdays people are literally stuffed in the walk ways no one has more than 6 inches of space to them selves) but on week days its hard to get around people but its atleast possible. bought a bunch of bannannas and now i'm typing this.
plan to have left over mexican ricce from last night for lunch. and piyya bread for supper. i think thats it for now.
day 73
day 73
since classes don't start till next monday my weekdays have been incredably boreing. today i went online and found the best wiener schnitzel in vienna. its at a resturant in city center. i went there to check i out (its tucked away on a side street in an alley way) the schnitzel costs 12.50 euro. i plan to eat dinner there tomarrow. tomarrow i also plan to go on a tour of the UN so tomarrow shouldn't be to boreing.
i still don't have a roommate. i'm begining to question if he actually exists.
two days ago i went to the naschmarkt and got chicken boulioun (i have been searching for the past week to find it in grocery stores) it was really expensive (4.50 euro) but it will last 1-2 months so i think it is worth it. especially since it effectivly doubles the kinds of food i can make (flavor i mean).
on the way out of the naschmarkt i saw a stand that sold all kinds of stuff but what caught my eye was a 1.25" round 1.5" think piece of bread that cost only .65 euro. the price said "0.65 st." (st. is short for "stuck" which is german for piece) so i wasn't sure if it ment 65 cents for a piece of it or 65 cents for the whole thing so i decided it was a good thing to find out so i asked for 1 piece and he gave me the whole thing. i was happy. on the way home i thought if i had a bread knife i could cut it and turn it into 2 large pizza bread things. so i went out a bought a bread knife. of course when i tryied to cook it there was no shelf in the oven so i set it on the bottom of course it burned the bottom of the bread but over all it was a good first attempt. i plan to have pizza like that every so often.
since i'm on the topic of food i'll go more into my diet in vienna. it has changed allot form my diet in germany when i first got here i went to the grocery store and bought a lot of rice and rotini noodles and spagehitti and potatoes. allong with spices and oil , green peppers, carrots, butter eggs and othere usfull ingrediants. now my diet consists of about 8 different menus each of which i can change to taste almost entirely different. stirfry spagehitti stuffed pepper rice double baked potatoes mexican rice tuna noodle cassoroll stew and pizza bread.
i am starting to research meat. if i buy a kilo or two of beef i can cut it up and freeze it and then use it in some of the meals somtimes. as long as i don"t eat it straight the cost should not add up to badly.
tomarrow marks 100 days till i come home.
after living in 3 different dorms over the past 3 months i think it must be weird to move into an appartment by yourself. first of all your used to living in a single room with all your valubles and then use a comunal kitchen. but when you get an appartment you have 3-5 rooms all of which belong to you. it must bee weirrd to space your stuff out so much.
found a money exchange place by the main tourist attraction (st. stephans cathedral) and the exchange rate was 1.49 dallars on the euro i laughed . the actual exchange rate is 1.35 dollars to the euro. i have $60 from gramma that i still have to exchange it. if i exchange it there i would get 40 euro any were else i would get 44 euro. i plan to use that money for tomarows excursion, thank you gramma.
i don't think i explained my room yet so here it is. everything is like an ikea add its all mapple venneer and blue fermika. i have a refridgerator in the room. (very happy) i have a closet that has a lock on it (use full for keeping things safe (cheaper than buying a lock box at a bank)). the bathroom in in working order. the toilet is quite intresting, instead of the drain being in the center it is way up front and there is a flat spot that has a small pool of water on it in the center. i don't like it it often takes more than one flush to get the job done and somtimes no amount of flushing will help you have to use the toilet brush to help. the kitchen is communal. at the door way there are 1'x1.5' lockers (about 2' deep) were we can keep our cooking supplies. (i found that i could use a plastic crate thing to keep all mmy stuff organized and when i want to cook all my stuff can come out on the counter in one trip. it works well) the kitchen is actuall 2 kitchens mirroring each other to either side of the door. there are electric stoves (i actually like these, they are the glass top ones that light up when you turn the burners on and they heat up pretty quick.) and a sink and a public fridge (same size as our room fridges) then two tables also mirroring eachother on either side of the room. the outside wall is mostly a giant window. unfortunatly unlike the window at goethe. there is a street out side the window so we can't just through all out biodegratable stuff out the window. which is a shame because that was fun. (at goethe we had a 20 ft. strip of weeds and dirt between our building and a prison wall. we would through vegitable parts and egg shells and water and othere cooking garbage out the window. and somtimes when we had somthing dense enough we would through it onto the prison roof. but if i did that here i would get yelled at.)
i wanna get a fish for the room it would amuse me and add some color to the shelf over the fridge. but i can't find a pet store any were i'm not even sure if fish are a common pet in austria or not. also considering a plant but i would have to keep it in the window which will get cold soon so i don't know of any plants that can with stand the cold or be an indoor plant with out sunlight. maybe a rose mary plant i could use it with mashed potatoes and it if dies i can dry the leaves for later use...
city life is expensive there is nothing to do but shop and spend money. of the 400 euro i started with half of it is gone, of course most of that goes to the monthly train ticket and the room deposite (total 100 euro) then i have the groceries and cooking supplies. i think the only money i really wasted was on candy and bakery goods and pizza at the pizza place at schotentor.
a guy came to look t at the ceiling over my window today. he asked "wie lange war es wie das?" (how long was it like that?) i ment to say "since i got here" (seit ich heir kamm) but i havn't thought in german for nearly a week so i said "von wann ich heir gekommt" (from when I here comed) he looked at me funny then said thanks and left the room. looking back on it, it was kinda funny.
since classes don't start till next monday my weekdays have been incredably boreing. today i went online and found the best wiener schnitzel in vienna. its at a resturant in city center. i went there to check i out (its tucked away on a side street in an alley way) the schnitzel costs 12.50 euro. i plan to eat dinner there tomarrow. tomarrow i also plan to go on a tour of the UN so tomarrow shouldn't be to boreing.
i still don't have a roommate. i'm begining to question if he actually exists.
two days ago i went to the naschmarkt and got chicken boulioun (i have been searching for the past week to find it in grocery stores) it was really expensive (4.50 euro) but it will last 1-2 months so i think it is worth it. especially since it effectivly doubles the kinds of food i can make (flavor i mean).
on the way out of the naschmarkt i saw a stand that sold all kinds of stuff but what caught my eye was a 1.25" round 1.5" think piece of bread that cost only .65 euro. the price said "0.65 st." (st. is short for "stuck" which is german for piece) so i wasn't sure if it ment 65 cents for a piece of it or 65 cents for the whole thing so i decided it was a good thing to find out so i asked for 1 piece and he gave me the whole thing. i was happy. on the way home i thought if i had a bread knife i could cut it and turn it into 2 large pizza bread things. so i went out a bought a bread knife. of course when i tryied to cook it there was no shelf in the oven so i set it on the bottom of course it burned the bottom of the bread but over all it was a good first attempt. i plan to have pizza like that every so often.
since i'm on the topic of food i'll go more into my diet in vienna. it has changed allot form my diet in germany when i first got here i went to the grocery store and bought a lot of rice and rotini noodles and spagehitti and potatoes. allong with spices and oil , green peppers, carrots, butter eggs and othere usfull ingrediants. now my diet consists of about 8 different menus each of which i can change to taste almost entirely different. stirfry spagehitti stuffed pepper rice double baked potatoes mexican rice tuna noodle cassoroll stew and pizza bread.
i am starting to research meat. if i buy a kilo or two of beef i can cut it up and freeze it and then use it in some of the meals somtimes. as long as i don"t eat it straight the cost should not add up to badly.
tomarrow marks 100 days till i come home.
after living in 3 different dorms over the past 3 months i think it must be weird to move into an appartment by yourself. first of all your used to living in a single room with all your valubles and then use a comunal kitchen. but when you get an appartment you have 3-5 rooms all of which belong to you. it must bee weirrd to space your stuff out so much.
found a money exchange place by the main tourist attraction (st. stephans cathedral) and the exchange rate was 1.49 dallars on the euro i laughed . the actual exchange rate is 1.35 dollars to the euro. i have $60 from gramma that i still have to exchange it. if i exchange it there i would get 40 euro any were else i would get 44 euro. i plan to use that money for tomarows excursion, thank you gramma.
i don't think i explained my room yet so here it is. everything is like an ikea add its all mapple venneer and blue fermika. i have a refridgerator in the room. (very happy) i have a closet that has a lock on it (use full for keeping things safe (cheaper than buying a lock box at a bank)). the bathroom in in working order. the toilet is quite intresting, instead of the drain being in the center it is way up front and there is a flat spot that has a small pool of water on it in the center. i don't like it it often takes more than one flush to get the job done and somtimes no amount of flushing will help you have to use the toilet brush to help. the kitchen is communal. at the door way there are 1'x1.5' lockers (about 2' deep) were we can keep our cooking supplies. (i found that i could use a plastic crate thing to keep all mmy stuff organized and when i want to cook all my stuff can come out on the counter in one trip. it works well) the kitchen is actuall 2 kitchens mirroring each other to either side of the door. there are electric stoves (i actually like these, they are the glass top ones that light up when you turn the burners on and they heat up pretty quick.) and a sink and a public fridge (same size as our room fridges) then two tables also mirroring eachother on either side of the room. the outside wall is mostly a giant window. unfortunatly unlike the window at goethe. there is a street out side the window so we can't just through all out biodegratable stuff out the window. which is a shame because that was fun. (at goethe we had a 20 ft. strip of weeds and dirt between our building and a prison wall. we would through vegitable parts and egg shells and water and othere cooking garbage out the window. and somtimes when we had somthing dense enough we would through it onto the prison roof. but if i did that here i would get yelled at.)
i wanna get a fish for the room it would amuse me and add some color to the shelf over the fridge. but i can't find a pet store any were i'm not even sure if fish are a common pet in austria or not. also considering a plant but i would have to keep it in the window which will get cold soon so i don't know of any plants that can with stand the cold or be an indoor plant with out sunlight. maybe a rose mary plant i could use it with mashed potatoes and it if dies i can dry the leaves for later use...
city life is expensive there is nothing to do but shop and spend money. of the 400 euro i started with half of it is gone, of course most of that goes to the monthly train ticket and the room deposite (total 100 euro) then i have the groceries and cooking supplies. i think the only money i really wasted was on candy and bakery goods and pizza at the pizza place at schotentor.
a guy came to look t at the ceiling over my window today. he asked "wie lange war es wie das?" (how long was it like that?) i ment to say "since i got here" (seit ich heir kamm) but i havn't thought in german for nearly a week so i said "von wann ich heir gekommt" (from when I here comed) he looked at me funny then said thanks and left the room. looking back on it, it was kinda funny.
day 70 (i honestly don't remember the actual date)
day 70
today i woke up with the intention of finding a wooden spoon. (cooking the stirfry last night with chop sticks was harder than it needed to be) so i walked up and down every street i knew that had stores on it. i had over heard the group talk about a shopping center by south train station so i was on my way there when i heard the train voice guy say naschmarkt (basically its a huge farmers market swapmeet like thing. so i got off and walked through it theres lots of cool junk there eventually i found a wooden spoon (with a flat buisseness end) and i bought it.
looked at the time and it was 11:00 so i came home and made stew. potatoes carrots green pepper corn broccli rotinni nodles and beef boulioun. it turned out much better than i expected it to. i"m gonna have spagehitti for dinner tonight.
as a child i was often more cultured than my teachers. (i.e. ms. dumetz) i knew all the major composers and could identify some of there works. i knew art. i knew lots of othere cultural things that my teachers had hardly ever heard of. now that im in austria i realize that i am just as uncultured as my teachers seemed to me. there is so much more culture to study here than i even imagined possible.
people in germany and austria have leg problems. on trains I constantly see people with (european) chutches. the difference between european and american chrutches is american chutches go under the arm pit and suport the weight from the shoulders transfering it to the ground. european chrutches are like a care with a pistol grip comming out of the front of the cane and then a arm suport cup thing comes out the top. so when being used it suports the back of your fore arm and the weight goes through the hands into the cane to the ground. i see theses all the time i wonder why so many europeans have trouble walking. could it be connected with the european hypnocondria?
planning on going back to naschmarkt some time to see what i can see. found huge peaces of bread for about 1 euro but it says stk by the price which think means stuck (peice) so i think 1 euro get you a peaice of the bread need to figure that out i don"t have any thing to do till thursday.
turns out that Iveta actually ment adam jacky and emily. the central people who came here to get ddrunk. so i"m just gonna avoid going out with them. i hate them. they are in europe and the best things they can think to do is complain about every one they know and get drunk every night. every one else i can somwhat respect thomas is a great cook who is a type a personality, logan is quite but smart, micheal makes me smile, james is drunk but he is here for music, maggy is a democrate (which i respect but she is one of those anti republican democrates which i can't respect) but i respect her need to be higher than were she is, andrea is smart although she is a puppet, i don"t know the other two yet. adam is an idiot who can"t perform the simplest tasks (and vomits loudly every morning) (i think he is actually an alchoholic), emily came here to get drunk with adam, jacky came here to chase after james (she has already given up on that) and to "study music" (she really isn't) and get drunk. kim came here to get lost, i can"t respect that but i don"t dispise her for it. lindsey is a virginia tech chearleader so i guess i don"t respect her either but i have no reason to hate her.
today i woke up with the intention of finding a wooden spoon. (cooking the stirfry last night with chop sticks was harder than it needed to be) so i walked up and down every street i knew that had stores on it. i had over heard the group talk about a shopping center by south train station so i was on my way there when i heard the train voice guy say naschmarkt (basically its a huge farmers market swapmeet like thing. so i got off and walked through it theres lots of cool junk there eventually i found a wooden spoon (with a flat buisseness end) and i bought it.
looked at the time and it was 11:00 so i came home and made stew. potatoes carrots green pepper corn broccli rotinni nodles and beef boulioun. it turned out much better than i expected it to. i"m gonna have spagehitti for dinner tonight.
as a child i was often more cultured than my teachers. (i.e. ms. dumetz) i knew all the major composers and could identify some of there works. i knew art. i knew lots of othere cultural things that my teachers had hardly ever heard of. now that im in austria i realize that i am just as uncultured as my teachers seemed to me. there is so much more culture to study here than i even imagined possible.
people in germany and austria have leg problems. on trains I constantly see people with (european) chutches. the difference between european and american chrutches is american chutches go under the arm pit and suport the weight from the shoulders transfering it to the ground. european chrutches are like a care with a pistol grip comming out of the front of the cane and then a arm suport cup thing comes out the top. so when being used it suports the back of your fore arm and the weight goes through the hands into the cane to the ground. i see theses all the time i wonder why so many europeans have trouble walking. could it be connected with the european hypnocondria?
planning on going back to naschmarkt some time to see what i can see. found huge peaces of bread for about 1 euro but it says stk by the price which think means stuck (peice) so i think 1 euro get you a peaice of the bread need to figure that out i don"t have any thing to do till thursday.
turns out that Iveta actually ment adam jacky and emily. the central people who came here to get ddrunk. so i"m just gonna avoid going out with them. i hate them. they are in europe and the best things they can think to do is complain about every one they know and get drunk every night. every one else i can somwhat respect thomas is a great cook who is a type a personality, logan is quite but smart, micheal makes me smile, james is drunk but he is here for music, maggy is a democrate (which i respect but she is one of those anti republican democrates which i can't respect) but i respect her need to be higher than were she is, andrea is smart although she is a puppet, i don"t know the other two yet. adam is an idiot who can"t perform the simplest tasks (and vomits loudly every morning) (i think he is actually an alchoholic), emily came here to get drunk with adam, jacky came here to chase after james (she has already given up on that) and to "study music" (she really isn't) and get drunk. kim came here to get lost, i can"t respect that but i don"t dispise her for it. lindsey is a virginia tech chearleader so i guess i don"t respect her either but i have no reason to hate her.
day 69
day 69
well i havn't posted in a while, so i'm gonna try to start off were i left off. i'm not really sure were ileft off but i am sure that i did. this first week i have spent far more money than i think i needed . i bought about a months worth of food on monday (1kg spagehitti, 1kg rotinni, 500 g rice, a bushle of potatoes, various spices, vegitables ect...) along with more resturant food than i have eaten in schwabish hall total. i think i"m begining to undertand city life better than i knew it before. fast food is every were and it smells good so its very temping to skip cooking and just eat a big slice of pizza or while waiting for the train its temping to go to the bakery and get some kinda pastery.
every day i go to the train stop and i see the same two old muslim ladies sitting on the stairs up to the terminal. one has two children. each of them have beutiful voices that sound desperate it sounds almost as if they are praying in arabic. but its obvious that they are begging. i feel sorry for them but refuse to give them money. call me cinicaal but i have no idea what they are gonna spend it on. i"m not gonna pay for their drug addiction. and i doubt that the change i could spare would be enough to help them in the long run.
today i woke up and went out to find a note book. i walked down the shopping street to find a store that i knew sold notebooks in germany. but in austria it looked like thy only sold perfumes and stuff. so i decided to chek the book store by the central office, nope only books. then it hit me, the book store at the university building so i got my note books. then i looked at the time and decided to come back to the dorm and make lunch. i have mashed potatoes with carrots butter cheese and broclli. then i went to the central office to say good bye to mom and dad (who are going on a mission trip) and i saw a "dollar" store (actually it was labeled euro haus) and i found a frying pan (which i deseratly needed) allong with a cooks knife (2 euro) it was a cheap knife so i decided to get a sharpening steel as well total it was about 22 euro. then i went to the office and talked to mom and dad and looked up recipes. then i came back to the dorm and made stirfry. (i forgot i had brocoli) with green peppers the peas i had left over from the tuna noodle cassorol and carrots. it was good. then iveta (a girl whom i just met last friday) (i think she is from croashia or some placce but moved to minnesota) she walked in and said das rieched good (that smells good) i said huh.. still thinking in english. then she invited me out to dinner with a group of people she said james maggi and lindsey (these people rarley hang out together at all) but i think she has trouble with names so it could be adam emily and jaclyn (the three people i dispise the most on the program) so i said no i'm having dinner right now. then she asked if i wanted to go out in the city with them latter. i said sure so she asked for my phone number and i said i don"t know my phone number as i walked to my room to get it. and she laughed and said what!? i said i have never needed to call my self. so i got her my phone number she said she would call me at 7:00ish i"m think of not being here and forgetting my phone so i don't have to deal with them but that would be rude. so i may go out with them and if the drinking starts i"m just gonna leave. if they try to make me stay i"ll kindly explain that i don't wanna deal with there drunken bodies after sitting uncofortable in a bar for several hours.
i don't have any week end plans. i guess i'll try to make the internet work or go out and take pictures or somthing.
the room i'm in is beutifull except i think some one left my window open all the time between semesters so the ceiling above the window is falling apart. when i first arrived i saw it and it looked like the dry wall was deterieorating but now that a chuck has fallen i see it was about 10 layers of white paint that was on a stone/concrete celing that got wet and lost stickyness. so i"m gonna take a picture and keep it so when the dorm director yells at me i can say i wrote it down on the room report and that i took a picture the first day.
well i havn't posted in a while, so i'm gonna try to start off were i left off. i'm not really sure were ileft off but i am sure that i did. this first week i have spent far more money than i think i needed . i bought about a months worth of food on monday (1kg spagehitti, 1kg rotinni, 500 g rice, a bushle of potatoes, various spices, vegitables ect...) along with more resturant food than i have eaten in schwabish hall total. i think i"m begining to undertand city life better than i knew it before. fast food is every were and it smells good so its very temping to skip cooking and just eat a big slice of pizza or while waiting for the train its temping to go to the bakery and get some kinda pastery.
every day i go to the train stop and i see the same two old muslim ladies sitting on the stairs up to the terminal. one has two children. each of them have beutiful voices that sound desperate it sounds almost as if they are praying in arabic. but its obvious that they are begging. i feel sorry for them but refuse to give them money. call me cinicaal but i have no idea what they are gonna spend it on. i"m not gonna pay for their drug addiction. and i doubt that the change i could spare would be enough to help them in the long run.
today i woke up and went out to find a note book. i walked down the shopping street to find a store that i knew sold notebooks in germany. but in austria it looked like thy only sold perfumes and stuff. so i decided to chek the book store by the central office, nope only books. then it hit me, the book store at the university building so i got my note books. then i looked at the time and decided to come back to the dorm and make lunch. i have mashed potatoes with carrots butter cheese and broclli. then i went to the central office to say good bye to mom and dad (who are going on a mission trip) and i saw a "dollar" store (actually it was labeled euro haus) and i found a frying pan (which i deseratly needed) allong with a cooks knife (2 euro) it was a cheap knife so i decided to get a sharpening steel as well total it was about 22 euro. then i went to the office and talked to mom and dad and looked up recipes. then i came back to the dorm and made stirfry. (i forgot i had brocoli) with green peppers the peas i had left over from the tuna noodle cassorol and carrots. it was good. then iveta (a girl whom i just met last friday) (i think she is from croashia or some placce but moved to minnesota) she walked in and said das rieched good (that smells good) i said huh.. still thinking in english. then she invited me out to dinner with a group of people she said james maggi and lindsey (these people rarley hang out together at all) but i think she has trouble with names so it could be adam emily and jaclyn (the three people i dispise the most on the program) so i said no i'm having dinner right now. then she asked if i wanted to go out in the city with them latter. i said sure so she asked for my phone number and i said i don"t know my phone number as i walked to my room to get it. and she laughed and said what!? i said i have never needed to call my self. so i got her my phone number she said she would call me at 7:00ish i"m think of not being here and forgetting my phone so i don't have to deal with them but that would be rude. so i may go out with them and if the drinking starts i"m just gonna leave. if they try to make me stay i"ll kindly explain that i don't wanna deal with there drunken bodies after sitting uncofortable in a bar for several hours.
i don't have any week end plans. i guess i'll try to make the internet work or go out and take pictures or somthing.
the room i'm in is beutifull except i think some one left my window open all the time between semesters so the ceiling above the window is falling apart. when i first arrived i saw it and it looked like the dry wall was deterieorating but now that a chuck has fallen i see it was about 10 layers of white paint that was on a stone/concrete celing that got wet and lost stickyness. so i"m gonna take a picture and keep it so when the dorm director yells at me i can say i wrote it down on the room report and that i took a picture the first day.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
day 75???
i have decided that since i have no idea when i will have internet i will just start typing the blogs here at the central office.
today i went to the naschmarkt and got another flat bread thing and chilli powder (it cost half the price as at the super markt). i plan to make incredably spicy food since its getting so cool here.
on the way back to my dorm for lunch i saw two of the biggest scarriest looking german shepards i have ever seen. they make the moois dog look small. they were each wearing a muzzle (which is required to ride on the train) and they had chain collars make out of three chains and they both had two leashes on the leashes were thick its apparent that any thing smaller and they could have broken through it with out a struggle. there owners looked like they came from the country side one was wearing blues jeans and a red flanned and a beatup leather bag and the other a leather coat with tassles. each with increadably thick beards. whats funny though is both of the dogs were scared one didn't like his muzzle and wanted it off. the othere coward in the corner niether of them liked being in the city or on the train. it was kinda sad to see such frightening dogs so scared.
then i had reheated tuna noodle cassorol (never use garlic soup to make tuna noodle cassorol, it smells awful to make, luckily the tunna mostly canceled out the taste) and some of the flat bread i had bought before. then i came here and now i'm typing this.
planning to make mexican rice for dinner today. i was tempted to buy a red pepper for it this morning but i didn't know how buying fruit at the farmers markt worked i may get one at the suppermarkt latter today. this rice is going to be HOT. i found that i could use taco mix to add flavor to the rice before i add it to the veggies, and then i can add cayan pepper and chilli powder. its gonna be good.
some one broke the glass front door last night at the dorm. i assume that it will be deducted from all of our deposits but since there are atleast 20 people on each floor and there are six floors with people on them it adds up to 60,000 euro of deposits and the replacment glass probably cost 200 - 300 euro tops so at most thy may take less than 1 euro out of my deposit. assuming they don't catch the guy who did it.
found tortillas at the super markt they cost 2.50 euro for an 8 pack. i could make my own for a fraction of the cost.
well i think thats it for now
today i went to the naschmarkt and got another flat bread thing and chilli powder (it cost half the price as at the super markt). i plan to make incredably spicy food since its getting so cool here.
on the way back to my dorm for lunch i saw two of the biggest scarriest looking german shepards i have ever seen. they make the moois dog look small. they were each wearing a muzzle (which is required to ride on the train) and they had chain collars make out of three chains and they both had two leashes on the leashes were thick its apparent that any thing smaller and they could have broken through it with out a struggle. there owners looked like they came from the country side one was wearing blues jeans and a red flanned and a beatup leather bag and the other a leather coat with tassles. each with increadably thick beards. whats funny though is both of the dogs were scared one didn't like his muzzle and wanted it off. the othere coward in the corner niether of them liked being in the city or on the train. it was kinda sad to see such frightening dogs so scared.
then i had reheated tuna noodle cassorol (never use garlic soup to make tuna noodle cassorol, it smells awful to make, luckily the tunna mostly canceled out the taste) and some of the flat bread i had bought before. then i came here and now i'm typing this.
planning to make mexican rice for dinner today. i was tempted to buy a red pepper for it this morning but i didn't know how buying fruit at the farmers markt worked i may get one at the suppermarkt latter today. this rice is going to be HOT. i found that i could use taco mix to add flavor to the rice before i add it to the veggies, and then i can add cayan pepper and chilli powder. its gonna be good.
some one broke the glass front door last night at the dorm. i assume that it will be deducted from all of our deposits but since there are atleast 20 people on each floor and there are six floors with people on them it adds up to 60,000 euro of deposits and the replacment glass probably cost 200 - 300 euro tops so at most thy may take less than 1 euro out of my deposit. assuming they don't catch the guy who did it.
found tortillas at the super markt they cost 2.50 euro for an 8 pack. i could make my own for a fraction of the cost.
well i think thats it for now
day 74
the last post was a mistake apprently blogger installed a new button that translates every thing to hindi. why, i do not know.....
today i planned on going to the UN and eating the most famous schnitzel in vienna which i did. the tour was great there were only 2 of us and he was the talkative type so i got allot more out of it than if i had been alone. the tour guide said it was odd for the group to be so small. the only problem i had with the tour was the other guy kept going on about how crazy the security is and how he can#t see why an one would attack the UN and on and on. i knew the answer but i knew enough to not use the words attack and UN in the same sentence while in the UN compound. so i let it go. the UN onsists of 192 countries and in order to become a member a country has to be recogniyed by all the othere memebers so if egypt wanted to join and isrial said they didn't recogniye them then the would not be aloud to join. the UN building complex was actually build by the austrian goverment out of their own pockets and the UN pays an anual duty of 7 euro cents to the austrian goverment. however the building is not big enough for some confrences so they have to rent out a building next to the complex (the vienna international center) and then they pay the big bucks. while i was there i was not actually in vienna any more or even austria for that matter i was in somsort of UN nation kinda thing. as i understand it i could have killed a man there and it would fall under intenational law. they had an incident with a suicide a while back at the vienna international center but they were having a confrence there so it was technically UN territory so they had a big to do about it. saw a short propoganda film about standing up against poverty. so if any of you hate poverty stand up on october 17th and say you hate poverty.
then i went to the money exchange place and exchanged my money and then went to the worlds most famous wiener schnitzel resturant "figlmüller" and got a schnitzel and gape juice mixed with sprite. the grape juice i guess was made from white grapes, it tasted like watered down apple juice. the schnitzel was bigger than the plate it hung over by about 2 inches evey were. however it was about 3/8ths of an inch thick. its like they ran over a pig with a steam roller and then deep fried it. it was good. the total cost was 14.50 euro but i remembered that i needed to give a tip so i gave him a twenty and said 15. then i went home and dropped off my passport (which is the heaviest doccument i have ever had to carry, it makes me parranoid having it on me). and then i came here to the central office and picked up a piece of apple struesell at the local backery and ate it while typing this.
now i shoud mension that today was made possible by the money grama gave me over the summer. thank you gramma.
gonna post more blogs when i figure out how to makee my internet work in my room.
today i planned on going to the UN and eating the most famous schnitzel in vienna which i did. the tour was great there were only 2 of us and he was the talkative type so i got allot more out of it than if i had been alone. the tour guide said it was odd for the group to be so small. the only problem i had with the tour was the other guy kept going on about how crazy the security is and how he can#t see why an one would attack the UN and on and on. i knew the answer but i knew enough to not use the words attack and UN in the same sentence while in the UN compound. so i let it go. the UN onsists of 192 countries and in order to become a member a country has to be recogniyed by all the othere memebers so if egypt wanted to join and isrial said they didn't recogniye them then the would not be aloud to join. the UN building complex was actually build by the austrian goverment out of their own pockets and the UN pays an anual duty of 7 euro cents to the austrian goverment. however the building is not big enough for some confrences so they have to rent out a building next to the complex (the vienna international center) and then they pay the big bucks. while i was there i was not actually in vienna any more or even austria for that matter i was in somsort of UN nation kinda thing. as i understand it i could have killed a man there and it would fall under intenational law. they had an incident with a suicide a while back at the vienna international center but they were having a confrence there so it was technically UN territory so they had a big to do about it. saw a short propoganda film about standing up against poverty. so if any of you hate poverty stand up on october 17th and say you hate poverty.
then i went to the money exchange place and exchanged my money and then went to the worlds most famous wiener schnitzel resturant "figlmüller" and got a schnitzel and gape juice mixed with sprite. the grape juice i guess was made from white grapes, it tasted like watered down apple juice. the schnitzel was bigger than the plate it hung over by about 2 inches evey were. however it was about 3/8ths of an inch thick. its like they ran over a pig with a steam roller and then deep fried it. it was good. the total cost was 14.50 euro but i remembered that i needed to give a tip so i gave him a twenty and said 15. then i went home and dropped off my passport (which is the heaviest doccument i have ever had to carry, it makes me parranoid having it on me). and then i came here to the central office and picked up a piece of apple struesell at the local backery and ate it while typing this.
now i shoud mension that today was made possible by the money grama gave me over the summer. thank you gramma.
gonna post more blogs when i figure out how to makee my internet work in my room.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
notice
well i know it has been a long time since i last posted but since my laptop is no longer connectable to the internet i can't post any thing.
don't worry i have been typing them i just can't post them. as soon as i get my internet working i will post them all.
so here is a short out line of my past few days
- my room, wow. pretty.
- shopping troubles
- bought cooking knives
- homless people
- so many resturants
- wow im more ignorant than i thought
- health problems in europe
- nashmarkt
- i hate some of my fellow students
- don't have a roommate yet
- i love trains
there is a short preview. if your confussed and intrigued then good.
don't worry i have been typing them i just can't post them. as soon as i get my internet working i will post them all.
so here is a short out line of my past few days
- my room, wow. pretty.
- shopping troubles
- bought cooking knives
- homless people
- so many resturants
- wow im more ignorant than i thought
- health problems in europe
- nashmarkt
- i hate some of my fellow students
- don't have a roommate yet
- i love trains
there is a short preview. if your confussed and intrigued then good.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
day 69?
ok i got the password for the vpn and i signed in but i can't get online yet. could some one ask jon if i need to do anything else. because i'm not computer literate. thank you.
made tuna noodle casorol last night for dinner but instead of mushroom soup i used broclii soup mix. the only problem was the dreid broccli stayed dry. i plan on cooking the soup acording to the direction tonight to fix it. othere than that it was good. it was all green because of the brocli and peas but it was good.
made tuna noodle casorol last night for dinner but instead of mushroom soup i used broclii soup mix. the only problem was the dreid broccli stayed dry. i plan on cooking the soup acording to the direction tonight to fix it. othere than that it was good. it was all green because of the brocli and peas but it was good.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
day 60 somthing
ok today i have the first vienna seminar class.
i still can't get internet in my room and my computer is crashing more often i'm trying to save every thing of value but my burner won't burn to the dvds i have and my memory stick is only 512 MB so i may lose my music and some pictures and videos. i'gonna try to find a larger memory stick or buy some new blank cds or try to save the info some how then i'm gonna restore the computer to i'ts factory comdition. then i'll figure out how to get online (it has somthing to do with a private network or somthing) and then make the computer work like it use to again. hopfully i don't lose anything important.
in othere news a girl tried to getz on the train this morning she sprinted into the train and the door shut right behind her and her purse got stuck out side of the train.
i still can't get internet in my room and my computer is crashing more often i'm trying to save every thing of value but my burner won't burn to the dvds i have and my memory stick is only 512 MB so i may lose my music and some pictures and videos. i'gonna try to find a larger memory stick or buy some new blank cds or try to save the info some how then i'm gonna restore the computer to i'ts factory comdition. then i'll figure out how to get online (it has somthing to do with a private network or somthing) and then make the computer work like it use to again. hopfully i don't lose anything important.
in othere news a girl tried to getz on the train this morning she sprinted into the train and the door shut right behind her and her purse got stuck out side of the train.
Monday, October 1, 2007
day 65
day 65
well last night i woke up to find another student walk into my room at 10:40 pm i was tired and confused so it was hard to speak german. he asked if it was the right room and how long i was gonna be here for then he left. i supose he went to the front desk and told them then he came back and explained that he got another room. i thanked him then went back to bed. i was out of it.
i woke up this morning expecting some one to barge in my room. yesterday i had 4 people enter my room without permission. the thing is that during the school semester this building is a dormatory but during the summer break it is a hotel run by 2 diferent organizations. the hotel people were moving out yesterday which is why they took my tv and my lamps and my mirror. then they probably didn't tell the dormatory people that i was still here so the dormatory people gave the guy last night the keys to my room and thats why i was so confused yesterday. any way today i'm going to move to "haus burgenland II" and meet my roommate. before i do that i pplan to go to the train station and buy a month pass. i'm not elligable for the semester pass since i am not a student at the vienna university so instead of paying 117 euro for the semester i gotta pay 200 euro for 4 monthly passed or maybe less depending on how i handle the last two months. it requirres more research.
i had pizza for dinner last night from a trainstation fast food place. then i walked to a church i like and found out its called Votiv kirche. i might post a picture but with how internnet has been lately maybe not. i should have internet in my room at haus burgenland II but who knows. maybe they were lying to me the whole time. it wouldn't surprise me.
i'm gonna go buy the train ticket now and hope that all my stuff is still here when i get back.
i have the train ticket. on the way back into the building the manager stoped me and asked if i want to registar and i said i have a room then he said ohh your from central college. so it seems its all been worked out i should move out at 2:00 and there should be no problems.
the guy whos gonna move into this room after i leave just moved all of his stuff into my room and left. his main concern was if it would bother me or not. i'm amazed how trusting he is.
if i had taken the train with all my luggage i would be at the dorm by now but marrie had to arrange the taxi to pick us up at 2:00 pm so i'm stuck here playing solitare until 2:00 only 2 hours to go
after i get to the place i plan to drop off my stuff say hello to my roommate if he is there and then go to the central office to get help with my registration form and then bring it back have the RA sign it then i'll go to the distric official and register with them.
just had pizza for lunch. i found this fast food pizza place in a train station the pizza isn't that great or cheap but i know it beter than any other food place. it was cheaper than the mensa anyway. 2.30 euro for 1/4 of a 20" pizza. once i get to my new dorm i'll find out were the kitchen is and srtart making my own food. i already know were a rocery store is in the area (1 kg spagehitti = 0.75 euro)
well guess who was late to move to the new dorm. thats right kim. she got lost...again. so maggy being the nice person she is decided to take her stuff to the new dorm for her. then i got stuck watching there stuff for 40 minutes while maggie tried to go to the trainstation and also got lost then found kim then they got lost on the way back again. and they wonder why i was so pissed off. any way i'm in my new dorm room now and i thinks its newly renovated. however i can't get online here either. i'm starting to get stressed about it. at least at goethe i had about 2 hours a day on weekdays here i'm lucky to get 20 minutes a day. with my battery and the wifi at the university. i'm on the 6th floor which is actually the seventh floor. in europe the first floor is the second floor. i have a huge window but not much of a view. i can see the building on the other side of the street but thats it. i'm gonna go to the institute after alittle unpacking then post this.
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