Weekend Roundup

Okay, let me catch up here...its been a little while since my last post.

Last weekend: Pub Crawl on Friday night-all of the international students sent out into the city with the goal of making it to a number of pubs around Linz...I probably don't need to go into more detail than to say it was quite crazy but very fun. Last Saturday and Sunday were slow to say the least. Everyone (including myself) was a little tired from the pub crawl...not too much going on.

Monday: should have had a class on Monday, but I didn't have to go because the University had a welcome dinner for all of the international students followed by a party in the bar on campus. The dinner was great...good food, speakers, traditional Austrian Dancers...you know, the usual. The after party was fun as well. It was pretty much just the international students and our mentors so, same old crowd in a new location. We played some...interesting games that the mentors planned. They were pretty much the kinda games you would play at an 8 year old's birthday party (relay race where you have to spin around while running, balloon popping game), but modified for older people. It was pretty funny.

Tuesday: still no classes...life abroad is good. My roommate finally moved in! Her name is Andrea and she is from Slovakia. She is a law student and this is here second semester abroad. She goes to school in Prague normally, and get this, her boy friend goes to school at the same school Rachel is at! She has offered to take me to Brno sometime when she goes to visit him. So far, she is very nice and I think it is going to be easy living with her. The only problem is that now there are three people sharing the bathroom which gets a little hard some mornings.

Wednesday: My first real classes of the semester. At noon I had Introduction to International Business which I think is actually going to be an interesting class. I have never had a business class in my life, so some things are a little foreign to me. I am trying really had not to believe that business classes are just classes in how to become The Man, but so far they are not making it easy for me. I guess my anthropology and biology classes have just trained me to look at the world in a different way than business classes do. The best part of Wednesday: my friend Jamie says that she is supposed to go to Munich this weekend to meet someone from home, but the person she was going to travel with backed out at the last minute. So, I volunteered to come along! We got our train tickets and I suddenly had big plans for the weekend. Okay, I think I will stop here for now and actually leave my Munich trip for a later post to come soon. I actually have some homework to do today and should probably work on that for a while.

I forgot what classes feel like

Whew! So, I actually had classes this week. Our German Language class continued for 3 hours a day in the afternoons and we got culturally sensitized in the mornings which actually wasn't that bad. I learned a little about Austria, and got to see a part of Linz I had never been to before. We had group project where each group got a list of directions to a part of Linz we had probably never been. We had to take pictures of our place and find a person who lives there to interview. My group lucked up and only got sent a few tram stops down from where we live, but it was in a part of town that was really really nice. It was the first big houses I had seen in the city since I have been here. They were all very modern and all looked quite expensive. The modern architecture still throws me off, but I would love to live in one of these houses. They are on the side of a hill so you get a great view and there is a really old church at the top of the hill with walking trails all around it. The lady we interviewed was really nice and I was lucky that the other members in my group all spoke better German than I do.

I got confirmation of registration for all the classes I wanted yesterday, so that is very good. As of right now, I only have classes Monday afternoon, some Tuesdays, and Wednesday afternoon. Awesomeness. One of my classes doesn't have dates and I am a little worried about that. I probably need to email someone and see what is up. Scheduling at ETSU sucks. I was going to take genetics this summer after I got back, but now it is not offered the term they initially said it would be. I may still take some summer classes either cell bio or possibly German...I am still entertaining the idea of turning my anthro. minor into a second major and I would need some more foreign language credits, I think, to do that. We shall see; it all kinda depends on what classes are offered next semester and when. I was also looking at the new Carrer Services site...thinking maybe of foregoing classes for a summer job or internship if Icould find something in the right field that is still taking applications for summer. Whatever. I am not going to loose sleep about my summer plans while I am here.

I have got big plans for tonight and may go to a concert/party thing tomorrow, more news on that to come. Well, I am exhausted from actually having to wake up and go to class...I even had to take a test today, so I am going to catch a quick nap before I go out tonight.

Wow, I can't believe it has been a week since my last post! Time is starting to move fast here. My German class is going well. We have had alot of information thrown at us all in a very short amount of time, but I am at least starting to get the hang of some of the basics. I feel much more empowered when I go into shops and can recognize some of the words people are saying to me. I am a little worried about the test we have at the end of this week which determines if we pass the course, but I will deal with that later. Starting a new language is hard because you have to start at the very beginning and it feels kinda like being back in kindergarten. I also have another class starting at the end of this week called Cultural Sensitivity Training...which I guess with help me to become more culturally sensitive.
Other than classes, I have been finding lots of stuff to keep busy with. We have been enjoying the fact that class doesn't start until 2:30 and staying out late. I had a particularly interesting night at a club where it was lady's night a few days ago. Rachel and I were talking about how odd it is that all of our friends in the States are getting ready for midterms and I haven't even started real classes yet...but I guess I will make up for that when I am still in class in the middle of June.
Last Saturday our group took a tour of Mauthausen which was a concentration camp and is now a museum and memorial. It was a very emotional experience and definitely not happy, but I am glad that we got to go there. In a way, I think that our group going to Mauthausen was particularly poetic because it was hatred and fear of "the Other" that caused much of the atrocities committed by the S.S., yet we are such a diverse group of people who have all come together to learn more about each other and become friends. Below are a few pictures, there are more on Picassa which I now have a link up for on the upper Left hand side of the page. Hope everything is well with everyone else! Oh, and Laura asked me if I had heard anything about the protests here, and I have not. I didn't eve know they were going on until she told me about them, but rest assured that I will not be getting in to trouble while I am here. The last thing I want is to end getting deported.

This is a picture of the quarry and the "stairs of death" where prisoners where forced to carry huge stones up and out of the quarry for 8-12 hours a day.

One of the watch towers where guards watched from above as prisoners suffered in the overcrowded yards. In some places, guards would not enter the actual yards because of the disease that was so rampant among the prisoners.

One of the many memorials now in place to remember the people who suffered in Mauthausen.

Grüß Gott

Today was our first day of Intensive German Language class and man was it intense. 3.5 hours of trying with frustration to pronounce that guttural back of the throat thing that only native speakers can really do...ha! But most of the people in the class were about on the same level as me, there was a small group of people who actually know something about German that were bored out of their minds while the rest of us were completely lost, trying to make sense of the half-english, half-German instructions our teacher was giving us. So, it should be an interesting next two weeks. I still am not sure what classes I am going to be taking this semester, right now it is looking like a random mix of electives because all of the science classes I wanted are only being taught in German. On the bright side, class doesn't start till 2:30 tomorrow, so I am going have some fun tonight, and I got a sweater from H&M yesterday for 5 euros! Wish me luck tomorrow as I attempt to pay my rent. Hope everything is under control back home!

Schlierbach and Steyr

Greetings! Saturday all of the International Students took a trip to another part of Upper Austria (the state of Austria that I live in) to do some sight seeing. First we went to Schilerbach which is a monastery decorated in Baroque fashion. The monastery used to hold hundreds of monks, but now is an elementary school. I can not imagine going to school in a place decorated like this.

We also got to go inside the Beauty and the Beast-like library.

The monastery is also now know world wide for their cheese production and for housing several famous glass makers. The end of the tour led us to a gallery where we could see some of the famous glass pieces and sample the cheese! The gallery also had an incredible view of the mountains and the town below.

We spent the rest of the day of the city of Steyr which was founded in medieval times. The picture below is of the palace where the lord of the town used to live. The city was beautiful, but Saturday was the coldest day we have had so far. It snowed on and off while we were there and we had to continually take breaks from our wandering the city to sit in cafes. What a life!

Saturday we also hit up a club, or disco as they say here, in Linz which was quite fun. Europeans really can't dance, so I fit right in and they played American eighty's music most of the night. No joke Vanilla Ice, Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Rapper's Delight all came on back to back at one point. I relaxed Sunday and we hung out in the dorm, today will be much of the same and a little getting ready for German classes to start tomorrow. I have more pictures of my trip on my Picassa page and am going to try to get a link up for that soon. Look for it on the side of my blog.

Hit the nail on the head

Yesterday and today were filled with more orientation stuff, ie tons and tons of information being thrown at us through thick Austrian accents, but I am starting to feel like I have my feet on the ground here. I have gotten all the really important stuff mostly figured out and everything else will work itself out as time goes along. Last night, the mentors took all of the international students to a local pub to help us unwind...we descended upon this little pub for a specific reason: nalgn. A game to be played while drinking, but not a drinking game. To play nalgn, several people gather around a sawed off tree trunk and all players start their nail by tapping it into the wood so it stands on its own. Players then compete to see who will be the first person to get their nail completely nailed down. Each player gets one swing to try to hit the nail and then must pass the hammer on to the next person in the circle. Things are further complicated as players are only allowed to use the wrong side of the hammer. Here are a couple of pictures:

As you can see, we had a great time last night. Today I continued to get stuff done on campus this morning. I was supposed to have a meeting with a professor to discuss my classes today, but he didn't show up...I guess some things are universal. This afternoon, my mentor took some of us to Ikea to get supplies for the dorm. I now have a cup, plate, and cooking supplies! Cooking will be much easier now. I am always amazed by Ikea, my whole trip only cost about 25 Euros and I came out with a ton of stuff. Then we ate at an Austrian restaurant where I had the Strudel and it was delicious. Well, I am turning in early tonight because we are taking a trip with the school tomorrow and leaving early in the morning.

Address

This is my address while I am here:

Emily Smith
Julius-Raab-Straße 10 Room 214
A 4040 Linz

And, I just got a cell phone, well I am borrowing a phone:

+43-676-4802256