wow ben over a week since i last posted. its been an exciting week so i'm gonna try to cover everything.
last friday evening. the dinner with andrea went fabulously. we had steak with mashed potatoes and carrots and cresants. the steaks were perfect. i covered them in a mixtures of taco seasoning italian herbs and garlic powder. then lemon juiced them and wraped them in aluminum foil with a lemon slice on top. then put them in the oven and baked/broiled them (not sure which( ovens here can heat from top or bottom i had it set for both top and bottom and had the shelf all the way up. so probably both baked and broiled)) mashed potatoes and cooked carrots. i bought the cresants pre made at the store and put them in the micro wave for a short time. every thing was perfect.
saterday. i relaxed and helped andrea get ready for her families visit. (mostly decorating)
sunday i don't think i did much but that was a week ago so i'm not sure what i did. andreas family came.
monday i got a call from andrea, who wanted to make the same thing we had on friday for her family on christmas. she had bought pork (not steak but should still work) but could not find taco seasoning at the store (its hard to find. i found it by chance. its in a tiny half shelf mexican section with taco seasoning, tortillas (expensive 2 euro for 8) and taco sauce) so i brought over some and the italian seasoning mix (which i had made from several different herbs) and garlic powder. then i got looped into taking a city tour with the family via strassen bahn. after going to the office i decided to stay back and practice piano.
christmas day i was gonna stay home and plan my trip the next day. but i got a call in the evening. from andrea, she said her father really wanted me to eat dinner with them and it wasn't right that i spend christmas alone. so i came over and had porrk and mashed potatoes and carrots with them. had some great conversations. then i excussed myself and came home and packed and did all the last minute stuff i had to to do for the italy trip the next day.
i wrote out blogs for each day on my palm pilot during the italy trip. then i came back and found out i can't connect it to my computer to transfer them so i have to type them all out.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Thursday, December 20, 2007
day 146 (28 days)
wow its been a while since i posted.
well since the last post several things have happened.
last saturday i went to the technical museum here in vienna. it was fun. the first floor especially it had lots or physics toys. the second floor was dedicated to industrial stuff. like giant machining machines and how iron casting works and so on. the next floor was deticated to cars. i think i saw the fastes car in the world there. i didn't see and liturature next to it so i can't be sure. the next floor was musical instruments and bicycles and other stuff (the example of a modern bike they had there was a joke.) the top floor was mostly aircrafte and space travel.
monday i had a test in german. i thought i did horrably but i ended up passing. the test was on stuff we had started to learn the day before. no one was ready for it.
the next day i had a presentation. i did it on space exploration and i did most of the work for it the morning before class. i was nervous. i had my hand out all done and asked marie to take a look at it. while she was grading it i think i started to pass out. every thing turned a hazy shade of white. i could still force myself to focus but i could not focus on small things like typed print 3 feet away. i realized somthing was wrong and i was likly about to pass out. luckily maries desk was low enough that if i took a knee i could still see the paper and maybe get some blood back to my head. i took a knee and finished with marie. then went to the computer room made the corrections and printed up 16 coppies. then i went to the lounge and lied down for 5 minnutes and thought... "what happened" it was at this point i realized i had not had lunch or breakfast and the dinner the night before was small. i had to get food in my stomach. but i was nervous and my natural responce to stress is to stop eating. so i had to force the bread i bought at the store down my throat.
i was temped to skip that day because of what happened. but i figured if i did pass out the teacher would be better equipt to get me to a hospital than any one, and i may get out of finishing the presentation.
the presentation went smoothly finishing at the exact time it was supose to. during the break the russian lady yelled at me to get my attention then complimented me on how logical my presentaion was. (i did the hand out in bullets (my favorite writing style) in cronilogical order). i thanked her then continued with class.
the next day it was the russian ladies turn to present. i was waiting for this it was gonna be fun. we all know the russian lady loves to argue and tak alot so we all knew the presentation would be atleast twice as long as any one elses and i was hoping the teacher would have to cut her short and she would argue that she was not finished and they would argue for a while.
my wish was an understatement. to begin she argued with the teacher to let her present after the break. about 3-5 minutes he eventually gave in. after the break she had us all sit in the center of the room so we could see her computer screen (when herr schnell first introduced the presentation assignment he said no computers) then she passed out her hand out (3 pages, mine was 1 and some peoples were 2) he said "meine refferate ist über iran" ( my presentaion is over iran) the teacher corrected her "über den iran" (over the iran ( most countries have a gender and you have to use the article before it most of the time)) and wrote "den iran" thez then argued over it for about minutes she read it in a book somplace and her husband told her not to use the article and the teacher said well thats wrong. eventually the teacher gave in (you can't teach some one who won't learn) the entire presentaion lasted about 50 minutes and the entire time she was talking to micheal. (a student with the central program) and micheal talked back. it was funny. finally she showed pictures on her computer and held us all 5 minutes after class. if it wasn't so long it would have been much more fun. after class i went to andreas and hung out for a while
the next day we had a feild trip (in the german class) to walk around the first district and then go to a resturant and eat crazy pancakes. i ordered 2 beef paleschinken (dictionary says pancakes) and was expecting hamburger in pancake mix with some kind of sauce ontop.
when i got was 1 beef thing (i think they are called crebs in english. it was a extrmly thin bread thing ontop of mushrooms and some beef and a huge salad on the side. (with to much dressing) it was kinda disapointing. found out after eating that the turkish kid (who doesn't belong in our level (he ccanot read and doesn't understand the teache 90% of the time. ) got mine luckily when it came time to pay he realized he had mine and payed for it. so i got off easy.
then i came home and went to sleep. i was tired.
i woke up and did laundry and did some shoping. now i'm waiting for th laundry to get done and then i plan to go to class. and then have dinner with andrea.
well since the last post several things have happened.
last saturday i went to the technical museum here in vienna. it was fun. the first floor especially it had lots or physics toys. the second floor was dedicated to industrial stuff. like giant machining machines and how iron casting works and so on. the next floor was deticated to cars. i think i saw the fastes car in the world there. i didn't see and liturature next to it so i can't be sure. the next floor was musical instruments and bicycles and other stuff (the example of a modern bike they had there was a joke.) the top floor was mostly aircrafte and space travel.
monday i had a test in german. i thought i did horrably but i ended up passing. the test was on stuff we had started to learn the day before. no one was ready for it.
the next day i had a presentation. i did it on space exploration and i did most of the work for it the morning before class. i was nervous. i had my hand out all done and asked marie to take a look at it. while she was grading it i think i started to pass out. every thing turned a hazy shade of white. i could still force myself to focus but i could not focus on small things like typed print 3 feet away. i realized somthing was wrong and i was likly about to pass out. luckily maries desk was low enough that if i took a knee i could still see the paper and maybe get some blood back to my head. i took a knee and finished with marie. then went to the computer room made the corrections and printed up 16 coppies. then i went to the lounge and lied down for 5 minnutes and thought... "what happened" it was at this point i realized i had not had lunch or breakfast and the dinner the night before was small. i had to get food in my stomach. but i was nervous and my natural responce to stress is to stop eating. so i had to force the bread i bought at the store down my throat.
i was temped to skip that day because of what happened. but i figured if i did pass out the teacher would be better equipt to get me to a hospital than any one, and i may get out of finishing the presentation.
the presentation went smoothly finishing at the exact time it was supose to. during the break the russian lady yelled at me to get my attention then complimented me on how logical my presentaion was. (i did the hand out in bullets (my favorite writing style) in cronilogical order). i thanked her then continued with class.
the next day it was the russian ladies turn to present. i was waiting for this it was gonna be fun. we all know the russian lady loves to argue and tak alot so we all knew the presentation would be atleast twice as long as any one elses and i was hoping the teacher would have to cut her short and she would argue that she was not finished and they would argue for a while.
my wish was an understatement. to begin she argued with the teacher to let her present after the break. about 3-5 minutes he eventually gave in. after the break she had us all sit in the center of the room so we could see her computer screen (when herr schnell first introduced the presentation assignment he said no computers) then she passed out her hand out (3 pages, mine was 1 and some peoples were 2) he said "meine refferate ist über iran" ( my presentaion is over iran) the teacher corrected her "über den iran" (over the iran ( most countries have a gender and you have to use the article before it most of the time)) and wrote "den iran" thez then argued over it for about minutes she read it in a book somplace and her husband told her not to use the article and the teacher said well thats wrong. eventually the teacher gave in (you can't teach some one who won't learn) the entire presentaion lasted about 50 minutes and the entire time she was talking to micheal. (a student with the central program) and micheal talked back. it was funny. finally she showed pictures on her computer and held us all 5 minutes after class. if it wasn't so long it would have been much more fun. after class i went to andreas and hung out for a while
the next day we had a feild trip (in the german class) to walk around the first district and then go to a resturant and eat crazy pancakes. i ordered 2 beef paleschinken (dictionary says pancakes) and was expecting hamburger in pancake mix with some kind of sauce ontop.
when i got was 1 beef thing (i think they are called crebs in english. it was a extrmly thin bread thing ontop of mushrooms and some beef and a huge salad on the side. (with to much dressing) it was kinda disapointing. found out after eating that the turkish kid (who doesn't belong in our level (he ccanot read and doesn't understand the teache 90% of the time. ) got mine luckily when it came time to pay he realized he had mine and payed for it. so i got off easy.
then i came home and went to sleep. i was tired.
i woke up and did laundry and did some shoping. now i'm waiting for th laundry to get done and then i plan to go to class. and then have dinner with andrea.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
day 138 (36 days)
two days ago i walked to the u-bahn station with a grocery store to get food (the stores here were closed at this time) while walking into the main entrance i walked past a group of punk teens. i'm not sure what happened (if they were talking to me or not) but when i walked past they got all up in an uproar and one of the girls was shouting walking toward me. i decided ignoring her was the best option and continued on my way. the second i put foot into the station (on a steel grate) i heard a rather loud "pop!" and i thought immediately "am i hurt?" it took me afew seconds to realize the shot was not loud enough to be a gun shot. but for a quarter of a second i thought i may be seriously injured and there is nothing i can do about it. it took me far longer to interpret the situation than it ussualy would have. after the pop the group of idiots broke off. i still don't know what happend but i realized just how feeble i really am. i could die at any minute. i didn't panic or even break stride i just had a disturbing revelation. its nothing to be afraid of. but i just realized i am mortal.
andrea an i went out last night all around town it was great fun. despite the rain.
today we had a vienna seminar excursion to a art museum with a monet to picasso exhibition.
the building use to be the residence of some one who fought against napolean. and he was great for some reason. i saw lilies by monet. and thats the only famous work i saw. it was a guided tour so we had to follow a tour guides schedual and we didn't have time to look around on our own. its a shame because i saw some nice stuff but i couldn't look at it.
in german we are reviewing for the test. i'm not to concerned i'm more comfortable with stuff than half the class is.
tomarrow i have a test for history. it will consist of 4 questions and maybe an essay. i don't think it will be to hard. its in english so i can fake my way through most of it if necessary.
friday andrea is going to belgium.
over the week and i am planing on going to the tech museum (again) and maybe do laundry.
monday is the german test
then tuesday i have a presentation.
i have to talk for 10 minutes (about) then pose 3 questions and have the every one else discuss them then ask each group what they thought. totaling 20 minutes. so far most have taken between 30 and 50 minutes. mostly due to poor planing. i plan to do 2 things. 1. write every thing out on the board before class. 2. arrange the tables into islands so i can easily say ok, this table is a group that table is a group and so on. (thats were most people gained a lot of time.
still have no idea what to present on.. any suggestions would be appreciated
andrea an i went out last night all around town it was great fun. despite the rain.
today we had a vienna seminar excursion to a art museum with a monet to picasso exhibition.
the building use to be the residence of some one who fought against napolean. and he was great for some reason. i saw lilies by monet. and thats the only famous work i saw. it was a guided tour so we had to follow a tour guides schedual and we didn't have time to look around on our own. its a shame because i saw some nice stuff but i couldn't look at it.
in german we are reviewing for the test. i'm not to concerned i'm more comfortable with stuff than half the class is.
tomarrow i have a test for history. it will consist of 4 questions and maybe an essay. i don't think it will be to hard. its in english so i can fake my way through most of it if necessary.
friday andrea is going to belgium.
over the week and i am planing on going to the tech museum (again) and maybe do laundry.
monday is the german test
then tuesday i have a presentation.
i have to talk for 10 minutes (about) then pose 3 questions and have the every one else discuss them then ask each group what they thought. totaling 20 minutes. so far most have taken between 30 and 50 minutes. mostly due to poor planing. i plan to do 2 things. 1. write every thing out on the board before class. 2. arrange the tables into islands so i can easily say ok, this table is a group that table is a group and so on. (thats were most people gained a lot of time.
still have no idea what to present on.. any suggestions would be appreciated
Saturday, December 8, 2007
day 133 (41 days left)
(there was some confusion about the countdown but this is correct)
today i had planned on going to the technishe museum again but once again i failed to do so. it turns out its a holiday today so all the grocery stores were closed. so in order to get the ingredients for the chop suey i'm making with andrea tomarrow i had to go all over town and find grocery stores that were open and find the stuff i needed. but they didn't have sprouts or those tiny corn on the cobs. so i had to wander through the saterday traffic at the naschmarkt till i found some. i still have not found corn starch. i hope that one of the larger chains by the univeristy is open.
thursday i had history and german classes. geran went surprisingly smooth and history went even better. we have a test in history next week.
friday i just had german. fir the first time i was late to class. the teacher was Überrascht (really surprised) ironically it was during the presentation of the polish girl who sits next to me and is always 10 minutes late and takes forever to get ready for class all while standing in the way of the board. so i didn't feel to bad. the presentation was about louis armstrong. (i knew more than she did but didn't say anything.)
i want to do laundry but i need a laundry coin but the dorm director office is closed for the week end. so i have to live with my cloths for the time being.
i want to go out and get a hair cut my hair is getting just long enough to go crazy and is not long enough to hold itself down. i'm told it cost about 10-15 euro for a hair cut but i'm not sure i'm gonna get around to doing it before i get back to america.
sunday night i have a concert at the koncert house
bruckner orchestra linz
patricia kopatchinskaja on viloin
i think its music fron anton bruckner which means romantic (which means singers (ugghhhh...))
part II
i got corn starch at one of the stores by the university.
while at the naschmarkt i found a man with no legs walking around (on his hands) beging for money. i was kinda surprised he could do that.
acourding to ruth most of the begging that takes place in vienna is organized bagging which means that they take people from other countries (most likly turkey or other eastern countries) and drop them off in hot spots and tell them to beg and they get a certain percentage of what they bring in. that explains why there begging phrases are all the same. she also said that these people are choosen by how many children they have and how disabled they are since they bring in more money. she said its still ok to give to them.
in my mind now, they want me to give them money so they can buy drugs and also pay there boss who is probably none to charitable himself. i know i am cynical but its the only way i can keep from going broke.
today i had planned on going to the technishe museum again but once again i failed to do so. it turns out its a holiday today so all the grocery stores were closed. so in order to get the ingredients for the chop suey i'm making with andrea tomarrow i had to go all over town and find grocery stores that were open and find the stuff i needed. but they didn't have sprouts or those tiny corn on the cobs. so i had to wander through the saterday traffic at the naschmarkt till i found some. i still have not found corn starch. i hope that one of the larger chains by the univeristy is open.
thursday i had history and german classes. geran went surprisingly smooth and history went even better. we have a test in history next week.
friday i just had german. fir the first time i was late to class. the teacher was Überrascht (really surprised) ironically it was during the presentation of the polish girl who sits next to me and is always 10 minutes late and takes forever to get ready for class all while standing in the way of the board. so i didn't feel to bad. the presentation was about louis armstrong. (i knew more than she did but didn't say anything.)
i want to do laundry but i need a laundry coin but the dorm director office is closed for the week end. so i have to live with my cloths for the time being.
i want to go out and get a hair cut my hair is getting just long enough to go crazy and is not long enough to hold itself down. i'm told it cost about 10-15 euro for a hair cut but i'm not sure i'm gonna get around to doing it before i get back to america.
sunday night i have a concert at the koncert house
bruckner orchestra linz
patricia kopatchinskaja on viloin
i think its music fron anton bruckner which means romantic (which means singers (ugghhhh...))
part II
i got corn starch at one of the stores by the university.
while at the naschmarkt i found a man with no legs walking around (on his hands) beging for money. i was kinda surprised he could do that.
acourding to ruth most of the begging that takes place in vienna is organized bagging which means that they take people from other countries (most likly turkey or other eastern countries) and drop them off in hot spots and tell them to beg and they get a certain percentage of what they bring in. that explains why there begging phrases are all the same. she also said that these people are choosen by how many children they have and how disabled they are since they bring in more money. she said its still ok to give to them.
in my mind now, they want me to give them money so they can buy drugs and also pay there boss who is probably none to charitable himself. i know i am cynical but its the only way i can keep from going broke.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
day 131 (41 days) :-) :-(
monday.
i had german class and then music class. nothing really special happened
tuesday,
i went to german class and thats pretty much all that happened
wensday
i woke up early and went to the central office because i had a vienna seminar disscusion meeting. we had to disscuss what was a "critical event" for us. i don't think i had one othere than the break down i had in germany on the first day. but i was not about to tell any one that. every one else had a problem with people being rude. on the public transport people will all pile into the trains and not say excuss me and will not open the door for you if you run like an idiot. and they are so rude. and when walking on the street people will walk into you if you don't get out of the way and so for and so on. i really havn't noticed. i guess i am one of those rude people. thhats probably why i like it so much here.
then i went to german class and we had a presentation on wine. i wasn't very livly in disscussion since most wine tastes like gasoline to me. the only good alchohol i have tried has been sake in a chinese resurant in bratislava. but i still didn't drink all of it.
then after class i went down to the ofice and waited for the class that was going on in the classroom to have break then i asked andrea out for pizza after class before the concert. so i sat and read cosmo (one of the students got it in a care package) (it was hilarious) and then we went out to get pizza and then went to the concert (we were the first ones there and we didn't get lost) ((*bonus points*))
the concert was a pianist and a guy with a computer with sound board. the pianist was obviousy trained in the art of playing piano (i heard the attempts at melodic changes) but for the most part he just spazed out on the key board. then he took out some mallets and started playing on the strings (still didnt sound good) then he started playing on the frame. then he took a piece of stirofoam and squeked in on the inside of the frame. then he took out a bananna and ate it for 2 minutes. then climbed under the pianno and stated hitting thing under neith.
(you don't do that to a Fazioli!!!)
as far as i can tell from the second piece the pianist spazed out on the piano and a guy with a computer and sound board tried to turn it into music (unsuccessfully) he also occasionally added a rusian ladies voice. it got so bad andrea got dizzy and had to leave the room.
then when the concert was over i met her out in the lobby and we walked to the ubahn. then we got on the ubahn and then transfered to another ubahn and then i got on the train that went in the direction of home (when the train started to move i saw andrea still by the train we got off. when i got home and got in bed i think i realized she didn't have her back pack the last time i saw her. the last time i saw her back pack was on the first train. i'm not sure if she has it or not. but i am concerned.
today i have history class. emily is doing a report on the education system here in austria vs. the usa. it should be short. .
then on sunday i have another concert (a violin concert) i have to do a report on it at some point in music class.
and thats as far into the future as i can think right now.
i had german class and then music class. nothing really special happened
tuesday,
i went to german class and thats pretty much all that happened
wensday
i woke up early and went to the central office because i had a vienna seminar disscusion meeting. we had to disscuss what was a "critical event" for us. i don't think i had one othere than the break down i had in germany on the first day. but i was not about to tell any one that. every one else had a problem with people being rude. on the public transport people will all pile into the trains and not say excuss me and will not open the door for you if you run like an idiot. and they are so rude. and when walking on the street people will walk into you if you don't get out of the way and so for and so on. i really havn't noticed. i guess i am one of those rude people. thhats probably why i like it so much here.
then i went to german class and we had a presentation on wine. i wasn't very livly in disscussion since most wine tastes like gasoline to me. the only good alchohol i have tried has been sake in a chinese resurant in bratislava. but i still didn't drink all of it.
then after class i went down to the ofice and waited for the class that was going on in the classroom to have break then i asked andrea out for pizza after class before the concert. so i sat and read cosmo (one of the students got it in a care package) (it was hilarious) and then we went out to get pizza and then went to the concert (we were the first ones there and we didn't get lost) ((*bonus points*))
the concert was a pianist and a guy with a computer with sound board. the pianist was obviousy trained in the art of playing piano (i heard the attempts at melodic changes) but for the most part he just spazed out on the key board. then he took out some mallets and started playing on the strings (still didnt sound good) then he started playing on the frame. then he took a piece of stirofoam and squeked in on the inside of the frame. then he took out a bananna and ate it for 2 minutes. then climbed under the pianno and stated hitting thing under neith.
(you don't do that to a Fazioli!!!)
as far as i can tell from the second piece the pianist spazed out on the piano and a guy with a computer and sound board tried to turn it into music (unsuccessfully) he also occasionally added a rusian ladies voice. it got so bad andrea got dizzy and had to leave the room.
then when the concert was over i met her out in the lobby and we walked to the ubahn. then we got on the ubahn and then transfered to another ubahn and then i got on the train that went in the direction of home (when the train started to move i saw andrea still by the train we got off. when i got home and got in bed i think i realized she didn't have her back pack the last time i saw her. the last time i saw her back pack was on the first train. i'm not sure if she has it or not. but i am concerned.
today i have history class. emily is doing a report on the education system here in austria vs. the usa. it should be short. .
then on sunday i have another concert (a violin concert) i have to do a report on it at some point in music class.
and thats as far into the future as i can think right now.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
day 128 (48 days)
towers _________________passageway andrea___________ keep
bus in bratislava (cabble car) ____ me __________________andrea
went to brataslava on saturday and stayed over night. to start i woke up and went to the train station. i got snacks and had breakfast. and went up to the sky way bridge type thing there and people watched until the group showed up. then i went down and said hi to all of them. then we got on the train. we arrived in bratislava and the tour guide was waiting for us. we went on the tour (which was rather pathetic) and then we went out to lunch at a slovakian resturant. i had spagehitti that tasted like spagehitti flavored ramen noodles. then a sunday for dessert. then andrea and i went to the hostel to check in and it took forever. eventually after checking in we went to the room and started to make the beds (we tryed to make them look used so they would not be taken) then the lights went out for the entire floor. so we just decided to go out and explore. we walked through a over packed advent market (i had to push people out of the way and we had to hold hands to keep from getting separated. then we decided to go up to the castle in town (it was starting to get alitle dark out at that time).
on the way up the mountain andrea mentioned that she was starting to be come more aware of her environment after walking through the area the hostel was in (the gehhetto(never stay at the patio hostel in bratislava it is a lousy hostel and a more expensive one is well worth it.) ) then i said "so you have noticed him to?" implying the man following us up the hill. (not sure i should have mentioned it) she said "who?" and i said "the man following us" (i should have played it cool and not told her since i was not certain he was following us at th time)(but i guess im paranoid.) so we crossed the street and stopped at a tourist station and stood around as i watched the man walk by. he stopped at a near by realistate building and pretended to read the adds. (great he actually was following us!!) so i acted like it was fine and we continued up the hill. keeping an eye on him. we got to the castle and after some language problems we found out it was closed. so we turned around to see the man walking towards us about 200 ft away. i said " could you please get on the othere side of me" moving her to my right side. (by this time i had my pocket knife in my pocket with the pliers end out) and we walked down the hill. i kept andrea about 1 foot to my right and kept the man about 2 feet to my left. watching him for any aggressive move fully ready to throw my entire body into him (packed fist first) while simultaneously moving andrea forward (to the area behind the man) out of harms way. but nothing happened he passed us giving me the same attention i was giving him. i think he saw me move andrea so she would be on my right side and mostly safe and realized i knew and was fully ready to retaliate if he made a move.
we had dinner at a chinese resturant. we saw a cool little contraption, it was a plate holder/keeper warmer thing. it was a plastic box with a metal grate top and 2 candles inside (holloween pumkin / poperie candles) they put it on the table and then put the plate of chop suey on it to keep it warm. i'm gonna steal this idea someday when i have time. i'm gonna make it out of oak and fine steel mesh.
then we went back to the hostle to find some one had taken andreas bed. so we had to go down stairs and complain and they gave her new sheets and asked if she could take another bed. then we watched "olive the other reindeer" ( a christmas movie i had ordered online and had gotten in the mail the previous day) and then went to sleep.
that night the guy who took andreas bed came in a 4:00 AM and made alot of noise his breathing was irregular (he was drunk) i didn't really sleep that night i spent the entire night slipping in and out.
the next morning i woke up (kinda) and got ready to go we left for the castle at 9:00AM and found out the bus we wanted to take would only be there an 1:30 so we waited after an hour i got annoyed and checked if other busses would get us close.(we could walk some) and found that bus 28 would get us most of the way there. we waited 20 minutes and took the bus. after we got to the castle we talked to a ticket clerk who we found out only knew afew words of german or english. we asked to 2 tickets at student rate he understood that then tried small talk with us and then for some reason was convinced we wanted to exchange our money so we said no thanks and left. the castle was great. we spent about 4 hours there mostly just sitting on the wall watching boats go by. then we left for the bus station (the sun was setting (3:00 pm). we ate lunch/dinner at mc donalds and then changed our money back and then went to the train station we missed the train by about 2 minutes so we had to wait 50 minutes for the next one. then we rode home and i went to sleep.
it was strange being in a country that did not speak either german or english. after this trip i realized how much german i actually knew and was happy with it. this trip also confirmed another belief i gained in germany , I KNOW ENGLISH! I HAVE IT MADE FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE.
its even stranger that at the castle we could see over the river and see austria (a place were every one sproke german). but literally 100 ft away some people knew no german what so ever. i think boarders (imaginary lines) are alot stronger than any of us realize both culturally and politically.
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