Fun Discoveries:

1. People here take dogs everywhere.

2. One peed in the road in front of me.

3. Everyone here knows how to rock the scarf... the warm kind not the fashion kind.

4. People take dogs everywhere.

5. I don't understand German.... at all.

6. SKYPE DOESN'T WORK IN MCDONALDS!!!

7. Oh, I found free Internet in McDonalds.

8. McDonald's here is expensive... 7 Euro a meal= about 9$

9. It's still gross here.

10. McCafe's are like Starbucks

11. There are a lot of families and people pushing strollers here. I think I'm just not used to seeing so many babies because I live in a College town.

12. I just watched a little one year old kid run into a glass wall at McCafe (where I'm bumming free Internet). He bounced right off and kept going.
13. It's warmer now and people still know how to rock the scarf.
14. It's almost 60 outside and people are still wearing heavy coats.
15. I found dog poop outside my building

And I'm here...

After 2 months of packing (let’s be honest I did that the morning of my flight), multiple good-bye parties, a handful of tearful days, and a day-long flight, I finally made it to Vienna. I couldn’t believe it, in fact I still can’t believe it and I’ve been here 3 weeks.

The flight really wasn’t bad; no one sat next to me so I was able to lay down and sleep the whole time. I was a little creeped out when the guy in the row next to me took his shoes off and put on complementary socks, apparently this is normal on long flights? But I was asleep before I can remember reaching full altitude, so it obviously didn’t bother me that much. I woke up in time to see the sun rising as we were landing in London, but my seat was right by a plane wing so the pictures didn’t turn out very good. Heathrow was an experience; I had a 3-hour layover there on my way to Vienna. It was 7 in the morning, and I just found my terminal and slept for a little longer before boarding the next plane, which was completely packed. When I got to Vienna I just went through customs (it was a joke really), went and got my luggage and then followed the crowd out hoping that this is where I was supposed to be picked up. It was!!! And I think I could have strangled her I hugged her so tight.

That afternoon/night I got settled into my housing, got a crash course on the Vienna public transportation system, I think I ate…?, and then I settled in for my first night in Austria. The first few days were a little rough; I had to figure out how to get a phone, where to find Internet (my housing didn’t get it until the first of March… so I spent a lot of time in McCafe), what I should eat (not McDonalds), and how to find my way home (yes my sense of direction is still horrible), but somehow I survived.

So, I am here, I am home for the next 4 months!