Saturday lunch! 4.50 Euro

Sausage.
That's all I have to say about that.

more pictures! & internet is working now! yay!

** a few shots of inside my dorm.. the really dark one I tried to lighten up is the front of the apartments.. it says "Donaufelder" & the photo beside it is one of Stiege 2 (building 2) of the four Stieges (we are in Stiege 4)

*** Behind Donaufelder is a HUGE field.. which I'm not sure when I think mine be a government thing.. I need to look that up.. but it's cool because I was just walking and saw through this gate a big field with tall buildings in the distance.
** the Euros there.. I thought I only had 5E & some change but since they use 1 and 2 Euro coins, I actually had about 19Euro there! (Looks like Monopoly money doesn't it?)




Ok so I didn't get to finished writing about Wednesday or about Thursday, but that is ok because yesterday was pretty uneventful. I went to the police station with my RA David to register with my police. We were in the waiting room from 8:30 to 10:30 am! We were number 98. After that David had to get on the train the other way to go to school, but I stayed at the mall at Kagraner to look for an adaptor and an ethernet cable. The mall is just like any American mall, except no one speaks English. I managed the buy an ethernet cable & buy & then return an electrical adapter because I realized it won't work for my computer charger. I took the tram back to Fultonstrasse, the stop were our apartment is & bought groceries at the Penny Mart. I only spend 12Euro & got quite a few cheap foods. milk, juice, bread, cereal, a big bag of apples & cheese oh! and frozen pizza bread. yum! So I'm putting up some more pics from yesterday! (later tonight I will put up some stuff about what we did today... hint: we went down into the city & saw the historical area).

A few observations that go with the pics from Weds & Thurs (this post & the last one):
1. yes! Austria has Aldi's (I think it's from here or Germany) but it's call "Hofer"
2. Apparently Cindy Crawford has still got it.



Today we went down the the Innere Stadt to go to the open-air market at Karlsplatz & walked around the City Center ("Innere Stadt" means this). More details & pictures to come!

I'm in Vienna! ...first impressions..

So I made it to Vienna everyone! Yesterday I arrived here at 10:00am ish Vienna-time & was whisked away from the airport by a taxi driver with my name on a sign, but who spoke no English. He dropped me off at Haas Donaufeld.. the "studentheim" where I am staying.. it's cheap housing for students from many different schools or I think maybe non-students too. I was met by David, my RA, who showed me around the apartment complex & gave me my room key, etc. My roomate is Rebecca, who I already knew from the Webster art department back home.. so that is great! She has already told me a lot about Vienna, things they have learned so far, etc. She went to grab lunch & I walked around the neighborhood before I slept for about 15 hours last night! (which you know isn't much more than I usually like to sleep!)

Walking around the neighborhood, which is the 21st district of Vienna, called "Donaustadt" I already felt very comfortable with the area & the idea that I will be living here for 5 weeks. It felt very safe & residential, but also with many little shops, gas stations & grocery stores nearby.

I found an ice cream shop, a little bar, a cell phone store, 2 cheap food stores, an adorable church & stores I had no idea what they were.

After I explored the area for a good hour or two, my first task was to go find an ATM so I could get out my first Euros! I took out 50E, which is approximately $70. (The conversion rate right now is 1.40.. so it takes $1.40 to make 1E, meaning the Euro is worth more. Sucks for us, but the rate is better than it used to be.) After that I went to the 2nd nearest gas station.. (the first only had oil and what looked like 10 bottles of soda on its shelves.) My first purchases with the Euro were 1. a coke 2. a beer 3. potato chips & 4. a 1.70E sandwich that was actually pretty good!

...ok computer dying, more soon!

at Chicago O'Hare!

I'm at the airport in Chicago... waiting for my flight to Frankfurt that leaves at 3:45. I had a cheeseburger for breakfast at St. Louis airport at 10am! I paid to use the internet here at O'Hare because I had to do a few things online before I'm magically in another country & I wanted to check on what's going on with my pick-up in Vienna. I got an email from the Ra there that there will be a cab waiting for me at the airport to take me to my apartment.. so that's great! my first task: sheets. I forgot to pack some & after talking to Zach last night I think it will be a funny adventure for my first venture out into Vienna to be a search for bedsheets! "ya know.. (acting like sleeping) sheets!" :)