Ich bin hier!!!

Dear People,

I managed to get to Vienna in one piece. Which is pretty amazing, at least in my mind. And I have days and days of notes to write about, so if it all doesn't get into this post, watch out for frequent updating in the next few days. For the most part, I'm going to put up a heading for a day and go through everything I did that day. Pictures are forthcoming, probably to be posted on facebook first, then on some site that the rest of the world can access.

January 9-10 (this is one day because there wasn't enough sleep inbetween to make them count as two days)
So Mom and Dad and Cheers and I packed the car and drove out of Drums around nine, bound for New Jersey and lunch with Mommom and Poppop. This feels like a really long time ago, so I can't tell you all if I was worried or tired or anything, because I honestly can't remember, and this part didn't get into my notes. But we spent part of the afternoon with them, and I worked on various surprises for a certain boy.
Sometime around 2:30 it was time to go onto NYC and JFK. Apparently, we got there in extremely good time and without dying, which if any of you have driven in NYC, is a miracle in and of itself. Especially when there's conversation and directions and everything going on at the same time.
Daddy-O dropped me and Mom off at the front door (?) of the airport with all my bags, which I'm very proud to say totaled only four -- one ginormous one, two backpacks, and a laptop case. Keep in mind that I had yet to carry all of these bags by myself. We got inside and I only had to move a few things around in my carry-on backpack to make it fit into the little luggage thingy. One backpack and the ginormous bag got checked, and they didn't have to search them -- thank God, that would have been a mess. I still don't know how I'm going to move home at the end of the semester; I don't have the mad-awesome packing skills of my mother. If Austria has a SalVal, they're going to be very happy to see me at the end of the semester.
Now I'm pretty sure I didn't start crying et al by this point, but that's coming up soon. Since we had so much time to spare before I had to go through security, we beat down fellow travelers vying for a table to sit at and eat McDonald's. After munching through fries and an icecream thing (I can't think of the word for it right now), it was the dreaded time. But I didn't feel so bad because when we got to the security area, every single person around the age of 20 was bawling their eyes out. We all went in looking like we were on crack. Sehr toll. The people sitting there working the security area where they checked on the whole liquids in the small bag thing even told me to not cry, it's not that bad.
I'd like to say I got through security without mishap, but I didn't. I'm just that awesome, they had to wand me on the other side. Luckily, again, they didn't open bags. So the tears are pouring down my cheeks and I don't have shoes on and the lady with the wand must have thought I looked like I was 15, just because I was feeling that pathetic. But she was nice, I guess. Momma and Poppa got blown a kiss, and that was the last time I'll see them in person til about March (just thinking about it is making me get all emo).
*shrug* I guess the airport was nice. I didn't really explore at all. I had a really nifty book that kept me company until an older Asian man poked me and asked me if my book was funny. Apparently he noticed me laughing under my breath. He was a pretty nice old guy. Several chapters later, we got the call that the flight was delayed. The same thing happened again. By now the flight was running about an hour late, which all my stalkers at home knew, since they were watching their computer screens avidly. Finally, the plane showed up and we could get on. I got a window seat and the chick next to me was going to the IES program in Freiburg. She was nice, but she ate a lot. I know that sounds like a really weird detail, but I was kind of dosing for most of the flight or just feeling queasy, so I was a bit preoccupied.
The flight was as to be expected I guess -- not a lot of sleep, not such great food, and very LONG. I'd tell you how long it was in hours, but honestly, I can't. The whole time change thing really screwed up my ability to tell time, but either way, we got to Frankfurt on time. We got bussed in from the tarmak (?) and got hustled through customs. Again, I had to do the wand thing in security. What can I say? I just make all sorts of bells and whistles go off. But I did get a stamp from Austria in my passport, which is kind of cool. Not that its anything special, just the date, but it's the first one.
Did you know that people smoke in airports in Europe? It's super gross and I was really confused. But they have their own little smoking tower area. I guess it's better than having people smoke all over, but you can still smell it wherever you are.
I was wearing my Penn State Equestrian Team sweatshirt and a man walked up to me and asked me if that's where I went to school. His son and daughter graduated from there. Some other kids were in the area and overheard and asked if I was doing IES. That's where I met Amber, Jessica, and Daniel. Amber is from Texas; Jessica rides horses out west (but she rides English); and Daniel is from Salt Lake City, but he's not a Mormon. He clarified that ASAP. We compared life stories and talked about what we thought this whole Vienna thing was going to be like.
Our flight to Vienna left roughly on time (love those Germans). It was a smaller plane and a much shorter flight -- only about an hour or so. It was so cool to see the scenery out the window. It was all little towns and lots of fields and mountains. We arrived in the Vienna airport on time and were pretty much on our own at that point.
A group of IES kids found each other at the airport and decided to bus over to the Westbahnhof (West Train Station) together. Since it only cost 6 Euro each, it wasn't too expensive. On the bus, I called home to let Mom and Dad know that I was still alive. Then we all compared lives with the new people. Five of us were staying at the same hostel and decided to walk over together once we got into Vienna.
We got to the Westbahnhof and found out that that lovely storage we were supposed to keep our big bags in wouldn't be available until the next day. This is where I started wishing that I had packed even less crap. Our hostel was only about three blocks from the Westbahnhof, but with rest stops and direction-checking, it took us about twenty minutes to get to the Ruthenstein Hostel. Amy, Connor, Ian, Andre and I made our way through check-in and hauling our lugguage upstairs (I managed in two trips).
First thing to do was take a shower. I swear, Europeans don't condone being overweight. This shower stall thing was SOOO small that I could barely bend over enough to shave my legs. And I guess water conservation is right up there on their list of favorite things too because after about ten seconds, the water shut off. So I was like rinse, water off, shampoo, water on, rinse, water off, shave a quarter of a leg, water on, another quarter, water off.... Because of sheer aggrivation, this ranks right up there with one of the shortest showers I've ever taken. Once I got back to my room, I met Winny. She's from Maine and in IES. Of course I had to go through the whole dressing and make-up ritual, because then a bunch of us were getting together to go out to dinner.
That group met at the Westbahnhof and took a train to a different part of the city to a restaurant called Centimeter 7, which is part bar and part restaurant. Everybody ordered a beer (for anybody that cares, I got a Paulaner), which only came in size large. Needless to say, most of mine got passed off to the boys. But I did try it and decide that I'm sticking to wine the rest of the time I'm here. It's just not worth the effort to try and like beer. There were twenty-one of us at the restaurant so we ordered three big group dinners. They came on a sword. The pictures will be available eventually, I hope. But they had wienerschnitzel, fried steaks, grilled peppers and onions on the swords and then fries (which sucked), wings, and chili (which was really spicy) underneath. The schnitzel was amazing and I've decided that that's one of my new favorite foods. At the rate I'm going, peanut butter is going to be the next one.
Rather than going out with some of the others on a bar tour, most of us went home to sleep off the effects of jetlag. Back in the hostel, I met Rebecca and Emily. There were two other girls in our rooom, but I didn't catch their names. Rebecca was from Hong Kong and Emily was from Canada. I have Rebecca's email, so sometime this semester I'll send her a line or two and see how her travels went. I guess it's just normal, but I swear I woke up like 3 or 4 times that night for absolutely no good reason.
And now, since it took this long to get through day 1-ish and it's 1:24 a.m. here in Vienna, I'll leave the rest of my adventures for a later date. Love you all!!! <3 Amanda