Annelise's Study Abroad Journal

Hey everyone,

I can't seem to get into the website to update my online journal, so I thought I'd just write it as an e-mail to all of you. I know I know, group e-mails are awful and impersonal...but oh well!

It's been quite a while since I've updated the journal, so I don't really know where to begin. The closer I get to being able to come home, the more excited I get, which is a good thing- I think. For all those of you who are wondering, I'll be home the night of December 13...one more week! I really like it here and I know there are a lot of things I'll miss: the culture, the sights, the people I've met, my host family, the independence, etc. But, I'm also looking forward to being closer to my family again and to have life be incredibly convenient again (because that's what life in America is!) Vienna has been gearing up for Christmas, so the city is beautifully covered with lights, is cold and wintery (minus the snow), and there seems to be either a Christmas market or someone selling Glühwein (god-awful stuff, haha) on every corner.

This weekend was one of religious and cultural significance in Austria as Dec. 5 was the day of Kampos (the devil) and yesterday was the day of St. Nikolo. For Kampos, kids are supposed to dress up as the devil and run around hitting people or something...I'm not quite sure, the explanation kind of didn't make sense to me- I just know I was told to be careful that night. The tradition is for parents to place a gift on a window for the children of the house, so my host mom put a little gift of dates (ick), chocolate and a devil ornament on the windowsill in my room yesterday-very nice of her.

This weekend has been a good one, especially since it's 4 days long. Gotta love Catholic holidays (although most of them have landed on weekends this semester)! On Friday I went with my host dad to Vienna's central cemetery to see all the famous graves. It was really interesting to see the graves of famous musicians (many of them were dug up and moved to the central cemetery during the time of Franz Josef), politicians, etc. and to hear about the history connected with them. My host dad is one of the most impatient (and nice) men I've ever met, so the tour was incredible quick and efficient, which is not something I can say of most of the tours I've gone on this semester! My host dad's family owned a stone-working company (I can't think of the translation in English at the moment) for quite a few generations, and used to work for the Hapsburgs' court, so their family name is engraved not only on many of the gravestones in the cemetery, but also on a lot of Ringstrasse buildings in the center of Vienna.

After touring the cemetery and the beautiful church there, I went into downtown Vienna and did a little shopping, then met up with some friends to go ice skating at Vienna's outdoor rink at one of the city parks. Afterwards, we went to dinner at this great Irish pub, then went and saw SWAT at an English movie theater, which was a lot of fun. I may be able to understand American movies dubbed over in German, but I sure as heck am not willing to pay to see them. :)I'm definitely going to miss being able to do that sort of thing at night with friends, as the nightlife in McMinnville just doesn't compare, haha.

I spent a few hours yesterday typing my culture paper, so now I can officially say that I have successfully written a college-level paper in German! You should all be very proud! So, now all I have to do is take 3 finals, and I'm done with studying...for a month. So, of course the rest of the weekend will probably be spent in the apartment studying...oh yay.

What else...oh! Thanksgiving! After a huge, awesome, incredibly filling Thanksgiving dinner with all the international students and their host parents, Laura and I got on an overnight train to Germany for the weekend to see Tony and Keith. The train was horrible since we tried to save money by not paying for a sleeping car, so had to sit up in the bright lights of the train all night. Laura got a little more sleep than I did since she slept on the floor, literally under the seats (to the amusement of the other passengers)...things never get dull with that girl. But, once we got there, things got much better. Well, for me at least. Laura realized that she had forgotten a bag on the train right after we got off, so she ran back on to get it. While she was retrieving her bag, the doors of the train shut and locked and the train pulled away from the station with her still on it! So, she had to go into Frankfurt and then catch the next train back to Hanau while we waited for her- so hilarious, I will never forget the look on her face as the train pulled away with us waving, haha.

Friday night after getting settled in at the army base (it's a whole other world there and was really interesting to see. Laura and I couldn't quite get used to the english-speaking, dollar-paying concept-it was like we were in a little America.), we drove into Frankfurt and went ice skating, then had dinner (mm, Mexican food). Then, we were taken to the irish pub where all the local soldiers hang out and sampled the German cidar and had fun. Saturday, we slept in, then drove to Rothenburg- a small medieval town about an hour and a half from where Keith and Tony are stationed. There were so many great Christmas shops and lights and things to see there, so that was a lot of fun! That night, we were all exhausted (well, except for Laura), so instead of going dancing, decided to watch movies, then head to bed.

Our last day in Hanau was spent getting lost while going to breakfast at an air force base that was supposed to be an hour and a half away, then eating a ton of good, American food, then driving back to Hanau. We relaxed for a few hours and then that night got on a train back to Vienna. It was so sad to say goodbye to Keith and Tony since we had had so many great, memorable experiences with them and we (Laura and I) definitely miss them and the other people we met last weekend.

The next week will be crazy and busy and will probably fly by. I have finals Tuesday-Thursday, plus 2 more german classes at the university (I'll be so glad when they're done). Tuesday night I'm going to go see the Nutcracker at the opera, then Wednesday night I'm going to see Fire of Anatole (dance, circus sort-of performance) with my host mom and her daughter. Friday night we have our farewell/Christmas party and then Saturday I get on a plane to fly home!


Well, I have had enough of inhaling second-hand smoke at this internet cafe and this email is really long, so please write back and let me know how things are going for all of you. If you live in Reno, see you in a week or so. If you live in Oregon or go to Linfield, see you at the beginning of January. And if you live in Europe, I'm really going to miss you...stay safe and keep in touch.

Always,

Annelise

Hey all, how is life in the U.S.? Things are good here, it's darn cold though. School is keeping me busy as usual. I got A's on all 3 of my midterms, and turned in my politics paper on Monday, so now I just have to write a 10 page paper, in German, on the intellectual life in Vienna at the turn of the century, and plan 2 oral presentations...oooh, so fun. I'll be really proud of myself if I write a paper in German well, so I guess that'll be my reward for completing it.

What have I been up to...I went to the opera last Friday with a couple friends and bought standing room tickets to see a pretty unique performance. The first half was 2 partial Tschaikovsky ballets and the second half was a short opera. The ballets were so beautiful and great to watch-I really enjoyed them. I'm looking forward to seeing Swan Lake and Nutcracker later this month. The opera part was ok, I'm not a huge opera fan. It was called Pagliacci, I think, and was only like an hour long-perfect length, haha. I thought it was a little dumb but I'm not an expert on opera, so maybe I missed something:). I spent most of the weekend at the apartment working on homework, so got to spend more time than usual talking to my host parents, relaxing, etc. I watched Out Of Africa in German (it still makes me laugh to hear American movies dubbed over in German. Cool Runnings definitely takes the cake for being the funniest translation with the worst Jamaican accents ever. "Bist du tot man? Ja, man" haha) Saturday night with my host mom and I understood what was happening and a lot of what was said, so that was cool.

Last night my Linfield group, a small group from another school, and the Weissgarber family (they run the insitut I go to in Vienna) went to this great heurigen (restaurant on a vineyard or owned by a vineyard that sells and serves only its own wine) about 20 km outside of Vienna in the middle of the Wein Viertel (wine quarter of the province of Lower Austria). We tasted about 5 different wines from this year ('heurigen' also means 'new wine, or wine from this year'), toured the cellars and then had a great home-cooked meal. We were the only ones there and got to hang out and talk with the owners. The man who gave us the tour, Josef, was hilarious and so friendly and we all loved hearing his stories. One of them that I remember was about why wine makes people happy. He says that the grape vines store the sunshine in their grapes and then the grapes are picked and are turned into wine, then you drink the wine and a little bit runs down your chin and gets on your shirt and touches your heart and then you have sunshine in your heart, haha. They were also making brandy and schnaps while we were there, so we got to see that process. I thought the brandy was gross, but whatever. Most people loved it, even the dog who drank quite a bit off the ground and out of the tap, haha. Probably the best part of the night was hanging out with my group and laughing and actually all getting along, which hasn't happened in quite a while. Some definite cliques have developed within in the group, so it was fun to be one group again.

The rest of my week isn't too lively... Friday night my group is going to see Amadeus performed at the Volkstheater for our theater class, then the rest of the weekend will probably be spent starting on my culture paper so I can finish it by Thanksgiving when I go to Germany to see Tony and Keith (yeah!!). I may go see the Matrix also, since it surprisingly came out the same time in Europe as in the States. Anyway, I'd love to hear what you all are up to. Only a month left...crazy thought. The time has flown by. Well, have a good week!

Hey everyone! I had this whole great journal entry and then pressed some wrong, foreign button and the whole thing deleted-grrrr! So, this will be a much-shortened version of the entry, sorry. Things are busy over here, but good as usual. I registered for my classes for next semester and jan term, so that's a weight off my mind. My professors here have suddenly realized how little time we have left, and have decided to pack as much as possible into the next couple weeks. I have a politics paper due Monday, then have to start working on an oral presentation on Freud, and a 10 page paper in German on a yet unknown topic for my cultural history class. That is a hell of a lot of writing in German, so I'm not really looking forward to testing my language abilities with that, haha.

I got back last night around midnight from an awesome weekend excursion to Heidelberg, Germany. Laura and I traveled together on a trip train from Vienna late Thursday night, then met Tony and Keith there Friday night (they're stationed about an hour from there). That night we went to this very modern, expensive, posh bar in the Heidelberg Print Media Center (totally brought me back to high school in Mr. Read's class, haha). Saturday we explored the city all day. Heidelberg has an old, well-known castle, so we went through that and got a beautiful view of the city, the river and the surrounding hills covered with trees in fall colors-very nice. We also did a little shopping and got into the Christmas spirit, then had a great lunch. Afterwards, we went through an old church, climbed the tower, and then got to listen to the choir and orchestra practice for an upcoming concert which was really nice. It was one of those moments when you want to package and save everything about it, the sounds, the surroundings, etc. because you know that words cannot do it justice.

Saturday night I had one of the best nights I've had yet in Europe. We had dinner at a chinese restaurant, then headed to a very American bar. Then, we went to a nearby disco and had so much fun dancing. I haven't had so much fun in a long time, wow. It was so great to have guys with us to dance with. Plus, with the guys there Laura and I had a little less trouble with the frisky locals, but we definitely still have a couple good stories from that night. So, we were there until like 3 am when the club closed, then headed back to our hotel to attempt to get a couple hours of sleep before getting up early for our last day in Heidelberg.

Sunday, we got up early and then headed to the zoo, which was like a flashback to my childhood, but was still a lot of fun. We spent a couple hours there, then went to the train station for Laura and my 3 pm train back to Vienna. It'd been a long time since I'd slept as hard as I did on the train last night, wow. So, I made it back to Vienna safely once again, and survived yet another day of school today. Tomorrow....more classes and a pretty busy week ahead. Hope that everything is going well for all of you, I hope to hear from you about what's going on and if you're in Reno, enjoy the snow!! Have a great week!

Hello again! Life is going well in Vienna, as usual. It's been about 10 degrees celsius during the day and below freezing at night, so definitely feels like winter. I've heard that it's unusually warm in Reno, so send some of that weather this way! This week is a little stressful (well, maybe more than a little) because I have my 2 biggest midterms plus got assigned a paper today in politics over the Anschluss of 1938, plus have other classes to worry about so yea, not so much fun. But, I have 2 days until my first midterm so can hopefully make up for the serious lack of studying this last weekend.

Speaking of this weekend...wow, so much fun. Tony, a friend of mine from high school, has been in Iraq and other locations since joining the military immediately after graduation, and just got transferred back to Germany. So, he and a friend of his, Keith, came to Vienna on Friday and spent the weekend with my friends and I. We(myself and 3 of my girl friends) met them at the train station Friday evening and pretty much saw them every moment until they left Sunday afternoon. Immediately my friends and I clicked with them, and it seemed like we had known each other for so long, which was a lot of fun.

After dinner on Friday at our favorite, cheap Italian food restaurant, we headed back to Laura's empty-for-the-weekend apartment where we hung out for the rest of the evening. Saturday, we met back at Laura's house in the morning and the boys cooked up an amazing breakfast of sausage and scrambled eggs and biscuits and gravy and fruit, etc etc.-so good. We then went to Schönbrunn (palace) to explore the beautiful gardens, plus did a little shopping, had dinner at Naschmarkt, Vienna's outdoor market, then headed again back to Laura's to "celebrate". We all ended up spending the night there, then Laura, Chelsie and I woke up to breakfast in bed and some serious exhaustion. It was definitely a cool weekend though, not soon to be forgotten. It was really interesting to talk to them about their experiences in the war, and also to hang out with Americans who aren't in my study abroad group-very refreshing! Laura and Chelsie and I plan to spend Thanksgiving weekend with them in Germany, so we're looking forward to that.

Let's see, what else...it seems like I've been in Vienna for ages, yet at the same time the past couple months have totally flown by. The city is amazing and I've really enjoyed the ability to travel to all the places I've been to. It's definitely become like a second home and I've learned so much about myself and my goals and already feel more mature and independent (hopefully this feeling doesn't go away when I come home to the US!). The summer and my time in Vienna have given me time to really think of what I want out of school, the things I do and don't like about myself, and have shown me how much I can do on my own. I am nervous to return to Linfield and to try to fit in with the social scene there again, but I am really excited to start on my psychology classes. I have no idea so far what classes I'll be taking in the spring, but look forward to the new challenge and new topics. I feel a lot more confident about majoring in psychology versus communications, so I'm definitely hoping things go well with that.

Well... I'd love to hear what you all are up to, so write back! Al- how's the book coming along? Tay-haven't heard from you in weeks, how is everything? Did you get my letter? Kel- do I still have a brother? Just kidding, please write me though and have a blast at your conference. Tony and Keith-thanks for such a great weekend, we miss you already. Anyway, hope to hear from all of you reading this! Have a great week.

Home sweet home...well, almost. I'm back safely in Vienna and it's so nice to not have to figure out where to go, how to get there, where to eat, where to stay the night, etc etc. Vienna is familiar and after 10 days traveling, familiar is a good thing. I had an amazing vacation though, so it was well worth the stress and exhaustion and sore feet.:)

Florence....very cool city. After meeting up with my friend Karen, we spent 3 hours and $30 in cab fare trying to find our "camping village", so the first night there was a little stressful. I was expecting to stay in the camping village since we had reservations and I had looked at the website, but was expecting to be sleeping in the cabin we had reserved. However, they place was overbooked or something, so Karen and I slept in a "caravan" which is a glorified term for a camp trailer. It was quite a unique place to stay, but ended up being pretty comfortable and we had it to ourselves, so even though we had to walk a little ways to get to the bathrooms and showers, it was ok (and really inexpensive). A good photo op, haha. The camping village was located in an outer area of Florence in a somewhat agricultural area. We were right next to this beautiful monastery, La Certosa, so the view was really nice, even if the accomodations weren't.

So, our first day in Florence we saw of course lots of churches, including the Santa Maria Novella, San Lorento, San Croce, and of course Il Duomo which was especially impressive. It's so fun to find myself knowing enough about architecture and art history to notice and appreciate the differences between like Gothic architecture in Vienna and in Italy. Nerdy perhaps, but oh well. It gave me a certain level of satisfaction. Unfortunately most of churches were about $3 (well, euros, but it's easier to just type the $ sign) or more to go into, so we saw the outside of a lot of interesting buildings (sad, I know). We also saw the Piazza and Palazzo della Signoria, which is a big square and palace with reproductions ,and some originals, of a lot of famous statues including of course, a reproduction of Michelangelo's David. Yes, I did see the original in the Galleria dell' Accademia- very impressive! I had no idea how big it was, so was really impressed by it's size, and by how realistic it looked. Michelangelo definitely did well on that one. David is one of those things that you have to see when you go to Florence. Kind of like seeing the Eiffel Tower or the Mona Lisa in Paris.

On my second and third day in Florence I went shopping at the many outdoor vendors (bought a leather purse, because a person just cannot go to Florence without buying some of the really nice, really well priced leather goods), and went to the Piazzale Michelangelo. This square is in the hills above Florence and has a statue honoring Michelangelo and yet another reproduction of David. We got to see an amazing view of Florence from up there and got to see the sun set on the Tuscan hills, so that was really nice. We also saw the Medici Family's main palace, Palazzo Pitti and some very old churches (San Spirito was especially nice).

So, we left Florence on Saturday afternoon and arrived in Venice 3 hours later and quickly realized that we either should've arrived earlier or should've made hotel reservations. All the pensions and hostels were full, so we ended up staying in a hotel on the mainland and spending much more than we expected, but it was really nice to sleep in a room, in a real bed, and to have my own bathroom! Venice is such a cool city, I loved it. It is completely unique compared to other cities in Europe. As you probably know, Venice is a group of islands so is right on the water. I had heard stories of how there are canals and gondoliers in striped shirts and boats as taxis, but didn't think it'd really be like that. But it was! I sound so silly, but it is such a great city. The gondoliers do actually wear striped shirts and straw hats, the public transportation does actually consist of boats, and a lot of the streets are canals. Even the ambulances were boats! The city made me think of the movie The Italian Job (you should know what I mean if you've seen it), with the people racing through the city in their speed boats. Anyway, we spent the day seeing as much as we possibly could. We saw a seemingly endless array of churches, which were all beautiful but looked essentially all the same, haha. The basilica and square of San Marcos was so great! The church is really unique and covered with beautiful murals on the outside and is massive. The square was absolutely filled with tourists and pigeons, millions of pigeons-disgusting animals. I couldn't believe the tourists who were paying to feed and have their picture taken with the birds, ick. But, whatever makes them feel like they're experiencing Italy, right? Let's see, what else did I see...oh, Punta Della Dogana which is a huge monastery right on the water. Actually got to go in that one, haha. Ok, that's about enough of what I saw. Made it back safely after a really crappy overnight train with no sleep (arriving back in Vienna Monday morning and then having class that afternoon was not such an intelligent decision, but the day the in Venice was well worth it.)

Had my first day of German at the university today, which went really well. I was a little nervous beforehand, but I could understand pretty much everything the professor said, so that was cool. More about that later...time for chinese food with my friend Laura! Have a good week!

Home sweet home...well, almost. I'm back safely in Vienna and it's so nice to not have to figure out where to go, how to get there, where to eat, where to stay the night, etc etc. Vienna is familiar and after 10 days traveling, familiar is a good thing. I had an amazing vacation though, so it was well worth the stress and exhaustion and sore feet.:)

Florence....very cool city. After meeting up with my friend Karen, we spent 3 hours and $30 in cab fare trying to find our "camping village", so the first night there was a little stressful. I was expecting to stay in the camping village since we had reservations and I had looked at the website, but was expecting to be sleeping in the cabin we had reserved. However, they place was overbooked or something, so Karen and I slept in a "caravan" which is a glorified term for a camp trailer. It was quite a unique place to stay, but ended up being pretty comfortable and we had it to ourselves, so even though we had to walk a little ways to get to the bathrooms and showers, it was ok (and really inexpensive). A good photo op, haha. The camping village was located in an outer area of Florence in a somewhat agricultural area. We were right next to this beautiful monastery, La Certosa, so the view was really nice, even if the accomodations weren't.

So, our first day in Florence we saw of course lots of churches, including the Santa Maria Novella, San Lorento, San Croce, and of course Il Duomo which was especially impressive. It's so fun to find myself knowing enough about architecture and art history to notice and appreciate the differences between like Gothic architecture in Vienna and in Italy. Nerdy perhaps, but oh well. It gave me a certain level of satisfaction. Unfortunately most of churches were about $3 (well, euros, but it's easier to just type the $ sign) or more to go into, so we saw the outside of a lot of interesting buildings (sad, I know). We also saw the Piazza and Palazzo della Signoria, which is a big square and palace with reproductions ,and some originals, of a lot of famous statues including of course, a reproduction of Michelangelo's David. Yes, I did see the original in the Galleria dell' Accademia- very impressive! I had no idea how big it was, so was really impressed by it's size, and by how realistic it looked. Michelangelo definitely did well on that one. David is one of those things that you have to see when you go to Florence. Kind of like seeing the Eiffel Tower or the Mona Lisa in Paris.

On my second and third day in Florence I went shopping at the many outdoor vendors (bought a leather purse, because a person just cannot go to Florence without buying some of the really nice, really well priced leather goods), and went to the Piazzale Michelangelo. This square is in the hills above Florence and has a statue honoring Michelangelo and yet another reproduction of David. We got to see an amazing view of Florence from up there and got to see the sun set on the Tuscan hills, so that was really nice. We also saw the Medici Family's main palace, Palazzo Pitti and some very old churches (San Spirito was especially nice).

So, we left Florence on Saturday afternoon and arrived in Venice 3 hours later and quickly realized that we either should've arrived earlier or should've made hotel reservations. All the pensions and hostels were full, so we ended up staying in a hotel on the mainland and spending much more than we expected, but it was really nice to sleep in a room, in a real bed, and to have my own bathroom! Venice is such a cool city, I loved it. It is completely unique compared to other cities in Europe. As you probably know, Venice is a group of islands so is right on the water. I had heard stories of how there are canals and gondoliers in striped shirts and boats as taxis, but didn't think it'd really be like that. But it was! I sound so silly, but it is such a great city. The gondoliers do actually wear striped shirts and straw hats, the public transportation does actually consist of boats, and a lot of the streets are canals. Even the ambulances were boats! The city made me think of the movie The Italian Job (you should know what I mean if you've seen it), with the people racing through the city in their speed boats. Anyway, we spent the day seeing as much as we possibly could. We saw a seemingly endless array of churches, which were all beautiful but looked essentially all the same, haha. The basilica and square of San Marcos was so great! The church is really unique and covered with beautiful murals on the outside and is massive. The square was absolutely filled with tourists and pigeons, millions of pigeons-disgusting animals. I couldn't believe the tourists who were paying to feed and have their picture taken with the birds, ick. But, whatever makes them feel like they're experiencing Italy, right? Let's see, what else did I see...oh, Punta Della Dogana which is a huge monastery right on the water. Actually got to go in that one, haha. Ok, that's about enough of what I saw. Made it back safely after a really crappy overnight train with no sleep (arriving back in Vienna Monday morning and then having class that afternoon was not such an intelligent decision, but the day the in Venice was well worth it.)

Had my first day of German at the university today, which went really well. I was a little nervous beforehand, but I could understand pretty much everything the professor said, so that was cool. More about that later...time for chinese food with my friend Laura! Have a good week!

Yea, I know. The last entry was like a paragraph long and wasn't exactly grammatically correct (thanks Brett). Anyway, I'm in Florence right now basking in the Tuscan sun...well, not quite. Actually I'm being a nerd and am sitting in an internet cafe catching up on life in America while I wait to meet my friend at the train station in 3...no 4 hours. Exciting, I know.

Switzerland was amazing. I have seen some beautiful places while being here in Europe, but mostly they've been beautiful in a man-made sense. The Swiss Alps are so impressive and massive and beautiful in a eye-opening natural sense. Do I sound enough in awe?? I took some pictures of the view from my hostel and I can't wait to show them to people at home. It rained all day yesterday (and snowed last night!), so I didn't get to do the exploring I wanted to do, but it was very relaxing. Also, I met some pretty cool, interesting people at the hostel so that was fun. It was a very home-like place with a big community kitchen and a living room with a fireplace and stereo and couches and all-very nice. I traveled there alone and made it successfully from Zurich to Gryon to Florence with many train transfers, so I'm pretty damn proud of myself.

After my night train Thursday night from Vienna to Zurich, my friend Karen and I spent the day in Zurich before taking evening trains to Germany or France. Initially we got drenched by the downpour outside as we tried to make the best of the fact that it was 6:30 am and nothing was open, including churches. But, the rain finally let up and showed us how beautiful Zurich is. It's right on a lake, so when it's sunny is really a nice place.

I got up way early this morning to catch my cograil, steep-ass train from Gryon to the base of the mountain, and intended to get some shut-eye on my 3 hour train ride from Milan to Florence, but fate didn't like me too much since I accidentally (well, partially accidentally) took a spoon from the hostel, so i got stuck sitting by this guy from Switzerland who spoke perfect English and decided he was going to tell me his theory on pretty much everything imaginable. At first it was a two-way conversation about American politics and my study abroad experience, but it turned into him telling me about everything from politics to conspiracy theories he has about who's pulling the strings behind international finances and political power to the tribal life of some African tribe and how this relates to Americans and Europeans to his 4 out of body experiences and his views on the after-life to how he's headed to Florence to commune (my word, not his haha) with his sister's homeopathic doctor husband. Yea, it was unique to say the least. He seemed very intelligent, and more than a slight bit gay and was really nice at first, but as soon as he compared an out of body experience (his first one was when he was nine and under the influence of ether) to an orgasm, I got a little weirded out. But hey, I'm safe now!

Well, I better head out (even though I still have 3 hours until I need to be at the train station), but let me know what you all are up to. I'll be in Florence until Saturday morning, then a day or 2 in Venice, then back to school on Monday. Have a good week!