Actually Settling In

The more I'm exploring the city, whether on my own, or with friends, or as a class field trip, I am falling in love with this place. Which I was warned would happen, from people who had visited Salzburg before, and from that orientation thing at school that said: Step 1- fall in love with your new home. Step 2- become horribly miserable and homesick. Step 3- Get over both of those (that's a modified version of the powerpoint). So I assume I'd classify under the Step 1 at the moment, and I'm kind of hoping to skip over Step 2. I could just stay in Step 1 until the end of April and be perfectly fine. I think it helps that I am still in very good contact with people from home, so I'm balancing both worlds well (I hope).

Classes: Ha.

Ok no really, I do go to class, contradictory to what Mom might think. It's just, I only have 2. Next semester (they split the semester into 2 halves) I'll have 3. Right now I'm only taking German I, and Understanding Austria. German is hard. German is really really hard. I can read things pretty well, between the words that look English, and the German that I do know, but speaking it, I'm hopeless. Our teacher, Konrad (the really cool guy that's the academic head or whatever), is so nice and helpful, but that doesn't exactly form the words for me. That is by far what I am struggling with the most. We have quizzes every Thursday on the chapter from the week, and quizzes every Monday on vocab lists. I studied with friends last time, I think I'll take my work home and study with Alexandra this time. As her mother says "She's a perfectionist". So hopefully that will help.

Understanding Austria is really neat. It's an awesome class to have for first semester to help us learn about the city we're living in, and to understand the people. The downside: twice a week there are lectures. The lectures last for 2 1/2 hours and make me want to jump out the window. It's interesting information, but really, unless it's a Harry Potter movie, making me sit still for 2 1/2 hrs is near impossible. The days we don't have lectures we have "excursions". That's the awesome part. Yesterday we hiked up the Monchsberg, which is the mountain our school is built into (not in front of, or on.. into.), the Fortress, Hohensalzburg, (the big castle thing that is in every picture ever taken of Salzburg), and Nunberg Abby (Maria's from The Sound of Music!!!) On Thurs we don't have class, because on Friday we're going to Upper Austria. Upper Austria is where the largest concentration camp in Austria is located. It's going to be an emotional day. And next Tue, we're going on a tour of a brewery. So yeah, my classes are like that. The excursions come along with essays (good thing I'm remembering that now), but they're only 250 words, which doesn't induce too much stress (hahaa).

Everyone is still getting along really well, which is incredible, because we spend sooo much time together. We've definitely formed smaller groups, but really, everyone is up for anything. My smaller group consist of Kerrie, Jesse& Jenna. Kerrie and Jesse are from Texas, and Jenna is from MA. She's the one that skis. Which is wicked sick, and we're planning on taking a weekend trip soon to a big mountain so we can stay for a few days and not have to worry about anything (like busses and homework). Everyone has been talking about spring break already, and I am totally lost for what I want to do. Everywhere would be incredible, I already know that, so it's just.. figuring out what will be best for me, and convincing someone else to come with me (I'm more comfortable in the city, but nooo way would go traveling on my own). So overall, I'm having an amazing time, but I think of everyone often, and I really really miss y'all. Hope everything is going well at home, I can't wait to hear about rehearsals and everything. Love you soso much <3