And finally, Wien

After about 17 hours of traveling from Los Angeles to London to Vienna and one night in a hotel, my program finally began on Thursday, 18 August.
For orientation, we took a 3 hour bus ride to a hostel (which was really nice, actually) in Mariazell, Austria. For the next 2 and a half days, we sat through countless information sessions, met the German professor (yea, I'm in Elementary I German, aka I know absolutely nothing), met a bunch of people on the program (a good amount of which I still can't remember the names), met some real life Austrians who did some awesome dancing for us in lederhosen, and made some cool friends. The wine and beer is pretty inexpensive so far and is great.

Mariazell is beautiful and the town is adorable. We went to the Basilica in town, which is famous for people on a religious/spiritual pilgrimage, and I ate some nommy ice cream. Ordering things in German has been a struggle and I hate not knowing the language. It just makes me feel like I'm being really rude and uneducated. I can't wait to learn it and actually be able to carry a conversation - or, at least be able to order food and drinks without sounding like an idiot. Some of us also went on a really short hike to this chapel up in the hills near our hostel. It was locked, but there was a hole that we could look through and the inside looked so pretty. It was also an awesome view of Mariazell from the chapel and I was awe struck by how beautiful and green this country is.

Today, we left Mariazell and finally got to our apartments. I'm living in the 13th district right by the U4 and literally a four minute walk to the Schonbrunn Palace! Don't worry, Rachael and I already walked over there and took a bunch of pictures. It's gorgeous and I just can't believe that I'm living so close to such a beautiful place. The Palace is surrounded by gardens and paths and it's apparently a popular place to go running. I now regret not bringing a pair of running shoes with me, oh well. I haven't uploaded those pictures, yet, so I'll have to post them later. I still have unpacking to do and I should probably get to sleep soon since I have class tomorrow! Hopefully I'll be able to update this often enough...Auf wiedersehen!