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Look what you've done, you gigolo
2002-07-15 03:34:12
Yesterday was odd. I'm still recovering mentally, physically is yet another story. After having breakfast and coming here to post, check comics, etc. we had our opening ceremonies. The head of the program introduced a few of the higher ups responsible for it, and then we had a 30 min. or so lecture about how central europe, and the concept of central europe, has changed over the last 30 years with the breakdown of the cold war and such (for his purposes, central europe was places like Poland, set by the divide between catholocis and the orthodox church.) It wasn't too bad, a couple of dry bits to it.
After the ceremonies I went off to get changed and we had lunch, followed by the German placement test. The test itself wasn't too hard, I found myself where I was hoping, in 3rd level German, which means that I must be able to do something right I guess, though if that's the case I should probably be posting in German, shouldn't I?
As for lunch itself yesterday, this is Austria. All of the food is good. There is no other possibility. Period. While it didn't happen at Lunch (I forgot where I was sitting in the mensa), breakfast had an amazing view of the mountains.
Once the placement test and a little free time had occured, we had an introduction to the courses by the professsors, and I wound up deciding to go with the history course, Turning points in the 20th Century, instead of the poli-sci cource about security issues. The security issues prof. seemed to resemble Sumida in his attempts to scare people off, and I guess it worked well enough for me. While I'm up for a reading intensive hard work class like that, I'm just not in the mood to deal with that sort of thing right now.
Dinner was, of course, good. Sat with a couple of young females from Turkey, a guy from Poland, and another nice young lady from Mexico. The Turkish folks are INSANE. They're extremely outgoing and smoke like mad whenever they're allowed to.
After dinner was the welcoming party. Had about half a glass of wine, didn't like it, don't think I'll acquire the taste, so it goes, and hung around for a bit until it got too loud, crowded, and smoky to really hang out for much longer.
Sleeping here is not an easy task. Yesterday I found myself getting up at 5:40AM, today at 2:40 (went to bed at 11:15) and didn't fall asleep again until at leat 4:40, and that took a sleeping pill and half a chapter of Harry Potter on the Rio.
As far as most people go, they seem really nice...a bit too nice for some like a pair of natives who are fun to talk to, but I keep getting the overly paranoid feeling that they're having a lot of fun at my expense, and I'm not sure if this is just paranoia and memories of bad trips gone by, or if it's something I should really be looking out for. Either way, I've pretty much got another four full weeks here, so I should be nice to as many people as I can and hopefully make SOME friends...
Today's plan is to turn in my class form, go to clas at 10:50, then lunch, swimming in the lake, german, dinner, tutorial, and dance lessons (they teach us the Vienese waltz.) It should be fun and interesting and all that. I think I may try to run back to my room and doze for 30 min. before class. Not getting sleep sucks.
Now for the bad news of the day...I have, for the third time, failed to make the Otakon AMV contest. I'm not really sure why I even bother anymore, and am debating whether or not it's even worth going on with the big project I was planning for next year. At least I know that I can't just go blaming matt and duane and such, but rather myself, for making an art video that goes so far over everyone's heads that no crowd will ever accept it. Note the lack of a /sarcasm tag (I don't know where the carat tags are on the german keyboard layout, still getting used to it, but don't see them anywhere...)
So I have failed in my task for 3 years. I guess it's time to start re-evaluating my priorities, hobbies, etc.
Finally, for those who wish to stay in touch while I'm gone, please send email. The account I have registered as my official org address SHOULD work, otherwise you probably know where to find me anyways. AIM is firewalled to hell, so don't even bother looking for me, because I won't be there. IRC is open, I'll briefly hop onto the dalnet chan every day at around 9AM CET (3AM EDT) to see if anyone's there, but email is the best method of communication for now.
Now, off to leave my form and take a nap...and get a drink, the only annoying thing here is that I'm constantly thirsty. -
Strobl, 0900
2002-07-14 03:02:18
Last nite a bunch of us went over to Billie's, a bar in downtown (if you can call it that) Strobl. Lots of fun, very nice people, and we stayed up until about midnight between getting there, talking and hanging out for a couple hours, etc. before we came back and went to sleep.
This morning, got up first at 0540, as the sun comes through the curtains in the room. Rising with the sun is nice, but I wanted to roll over and go back to bed...which I did until 0730. Then off to breakfast which was nice because it was with the people I had dinner with last night, and not so nice because the one I end up talking to the most doesn't speak German, but that will change soon enough. Breakfast was also nice because besides being great food (other than the cherry jam which was a bit bitter), the mensa looks straight out to the mountains. What a view to eat to. I#m really starting to like it here.
Now it's a quick email check and then back to the Wiesenhaus to get ready for Opening Ceremonies. Wish me luck on my exam today!! -
Und jetzt, Strobl...
2002-07-13 09:57:31
Der Bus nach Strobl war immer schön, ruhe, und kuhl.
The village of Strobl sits on the Wolfgangsee, and is abso-fucking-lutely gorgeous. Words fail to describe how truly beautiful this area is. There are mountains everywhere, and all of them are covered totally with trees, making for wonderful scenery and hopefullz some nice photos to go with it. The town itself is a resort town, although calling it that cheapens the image. For the warm months, the town does a lot of business because of the lake, which means that some stores are actuallz open on Saturdays (this does not happen in most parts of central Europe).
The room I'm staying in for the program is insanely nice. It's a single, has plenty of room, and a nicely sized closet. On the other hand, I don't get the instant friend for four weeks like people in the doubles do, but I think I'll manage =) I'd be out socialiying or something except I have no idea where anyone would be, and am guessing that they're all unpacking, etc. Dinner is in 2 hours so everyone will come out then.
I'm a bit disappointed right now though - everyone speaks English really well, which is giving me less incentive to work hard. On the other hand, it really pisses me off that I can't hold a decent conversation without blanking out. This is a bad thing and must be remedied, hopefully quickly.
Another note - Austrian showers kick ass. They have two controls - one for water flow, and the other for temperature. "How is this weird" you may ask? The temperature control is in deg. C, so you get consistency from every shower you go to because it heats the water to that temp. How nice would that be to go to a hotel and get the same nice warm temperature that you get at home rather than the burn-or-freeze that hotels have in the states?
Still adjusting to the keyboard layout. Hopefully that will improve too. -
Salzburg, 7:22AM
2002-07-13 01:26:11
Europe is starting to fascinate me more than I intended. The train rides yesterdaz were definately a sign of this - going through münchen, there would be spans of industrial sector, commercial, and agriculture (yes, farms) all right next to each other like it was nothing out of the ordinary. Salzburg is quite similar - I had a bit of an adventure last night going out to walk and wander for a bit and ended up getting a little more lost than I would have liked, but I also found a really pretty nature trail that went either by a river or an open line to water purification - the smell resembled both at times and there were lots of trees around as well.
Today I have to catch the bus to Strobl in order to meet up with the study program, and I think the bus schedule I found last night may be a bit out of date, so I need to get to the station early to buy water and snacks if nothing else. In the meantime, my paid minutes are starting to get low (I had about 8 available last night and Iäm down to about 3 now) so it's time to go get breakfast. Time to post again soon! -
Hallo aus Salzburg!!
2002-07-12 12:02:18
I have made it to Europe. The flight from Dulles to London sucked - that's what i get for buying generic sleeping pills. london to munich was ok, except that it brought my total number of security searches to 3 and 2 of those were by hand of everything in my bag. at least getting through customs was easy - gave the guy my passport, he asked why i was there (didn't even bother to ask if i spoke german), and he let me through. train to salzburg was nice, i slept through part of it. in the hostel tonight, going to the program tomorrow (and had to do a panicked search for a bus scheduel because i fucked up and left mine at home!)
In the meantime, need water and something to eat. Ensure chewy chocolate peanut bars are ok, but not very substantive. I also need more practice on the german kezboard layout (ie the y is where the z usually is and vice-versa)
will talk more when i'm not paying by the minute!!
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