Döner, Elephants, and Bachelors

Tuesday night Donnie, Tina, and I went to get Döner. It's a Turkish kebab similar to a Greek gyro. Omygoodness it was soooo good.  For the past two days I haven't been impressed with Austrian food and that really disappointed me because I had heard it was super good.  But this Döner changed everything. It was amazing. And it was way cheaper than eating in a restaurant because they are sold on the street.

We then went to Mariahilfe Straße and looked at the awesome architecture and statues. There was this elephant statue outside of the museum of natural history, so of course we had to take pictures.

After a little while longer of walking, this man that had feminine products all around his waist came up to us and told us that he was getting married and that tonight was his bachelor party and he had to sell all the items around his waist to girls on the street. So we helped him out and got a fabulous picture and laugh out of it. 

This night was so much fun. It really made me start to enjoy being in Vienna and I can't wait to see what else it has to offer.

On the way to class

Tuesday morning (May 19) I had my first class. It was really boring and long. It was just so hard to concentrate for 3 hours straight on the same material without any sort of break. Here’s a pic of the building that connects to where we have class. 

Unfortunately our class is not in that gorgeous building but we walk through it to the next one.

On the way to class we passed a Jewish cemetery and it was surrounded by this wall that was covered in glass and barbed wire, which were done to help prevent destruction of the graves by Neo Nazis.

Getting set up in the dorm

We rushed through dinner at The Centimeter so we could get back to the dorms and get internet. In order to receive internet, your computer has to be registered with the dormitory and a small fee is required. But the problem was that the computer lab closed at 9pm and we were still at the restaurant at 8:15pm. We really wanted internet immediately because we wanted to inform people that we arrived safely to Vienna. We ran to the bus and went through all the various connections to get to our dorm. We made it there by 8:45. I ran upstairs to get my computer and my suit mate was there. I felt really bad because I wanted to have a proper introduction and be polite and talk for a bit, but I really wanted the internet.  But we introduced ourselves rather quickly and she understood that I needed to go take care of my computer. Unfortunately she was leaving in 15 minutes to visit a friend for the night.  But upon first meeting my suit mate, I learned that her name was Inas, and she's from southern Austria. (German spoken in southern Austria is as far away as possible from the German I've learned in the classroom.)  

I ran over to my friend Tina's room and grabbed her computer for her (she went ahead to the store and got in line for the both of us) and then raced to the computer store. I got there three minutes before closing and they said they wouldn't do anymore. I think I must have given the worker an incredibly distraught facial expression because he said, "wait, wait. what kind of computer do you have?" "A mac!" I shouted. "ok, we can do that." Apparently macs take only a couple of minutes to scan whereas pcs take a couple of hours. So I got my computer set up and immediately went back to my room to check my email.

I guess I should explain how my suit is set up. It's kind of like a very tiny apartment but you're with a random roommate.  When you open the main door, you are immediately in the kitchen, which is roughly 2.5 feet in width - super small - and the bathroom - also super small.

Then there are two more doors that lock. One is my room. The other is Inas's.  In my room I've got a bed, night stand, unit of cubbies, desk, and standing closet. My view is pretty nice. I overlook the Danube canal, some buildings, farmland, and mountains. 

Dinner Disappointment

After orientation to the dorms we had our first group meal together to kick off the program. We went to a place called "The Centimeter" which had paintings of strange viking type men on the walls.  Something to note about Viennese dinning is that it is very slow. Waitresses don't immediately come to get your order, nor does it matter how long it takes to get your food. Eating is supposed to be a complete experience in which conversation is the main focus. I know I eat slowly, but this was too slow - even for me. I didn't get a beverage until 2 hours after sitting down and I got my meal an hour after that. The whole dinner took close to 3.5 hours and we only had food for maybe 20 of those minutes, if that. Overall I was really disappointed. None of us had slept in days and were so stressed and exhausted that we just wanted food quickly. Instead we waited 3.5 hours for the Viennese experience, and it wasn't even good.

Arrival

After we got to the Vienna airport, we were to meet a U of I professor and bus over to the dorm. The plan was originally to leave at 12:45pm and if you weren't there at that time the group would leave without you and you just have to take a taxi. I was there at 12:40pm. There were about fifteen people who were supposed to be in this group. So far only two had shown up, myself included. We then waited for about an hour for 11 other people to show up. So there were only two missing - but their plans had landed. We continued to wait another hour thinking that any minute they would show up. No luck. We then waited another half hour on the bus. So much for the immediate 12:45pm departure and the "you're on your own" attitude. 

When we got to the dorms we got our room keys and had approximately 30 minutes to find the rooms, unload our stuff, change clothes or freshen up, meet our suit mate (mine wasn't there at that moment), and be back downstairs for orientation. So much for any time to rest.

Frankfurt hatred

Omigosh I hate the Frankfurt airport. It's absolutely horrible. There are no signs anywhere! Never a board to say "you are here" or even a tv monitor displaying the times and gates of flights. I asked every worker for help and they all gave me different information, which eventually got us turned around and outside of the secure section so we had to go through security again which is always a blast. :-/  The guy ahead of me was questioned about the oreo's in his bag. I had oreo's in my bag but no one stopped me. Must have been my charm. After an hour and a half of confusion and frustration, we made it to our gate. After going through this nightmare, I would gladly go through Heathrow - that says a lot.

When I sat down at B13, another airport person came up to interview me - I must have some sort of sign written all over my facial expression because that's two in a row! First Detroit, now Frankfurt. Here's how the conversation went (it was obviously in German but I've provided the English translation):

Her: Do you speak German or English?

Me: Yes I speak German but I'm not fluent.

Her: Are you flying to Bergin?

Me: No, I'm flying to Vienna.

Her: Thank you for your time. You've been a great help. Have a good day.

I'm not really sure what the point of that little questionnaire was, but it was fun.

By this point the effects of this trip are really taking a toll on my body. I'm physically in pain and mentally drained. I'm wiped. This better be a kick ass trip because the journey getting there is beyond rough.

Flight #2: Detroit to Frankfurt

On the 9 hour flight to Frankfurt I sat on the aisle and luckily no one was next to me. So no worries about falling asleep on some stranger like I did on the MI trip to Ireland/London. awkward. At the beginning of the flight they showed that standard video acting out how to use various features of the plane. I've only ever seen attractive females fill this role. I had a fun surprise. Instead of an attractive female, it was a fat, bald, asian man that I got to watch blow up his floatation device. I've actually never paid such close attention to one of those videos, so maybe the bald guy served his purpose.

Dinner was decent. I chose chicken over pasta. It was some kind of asian inspired mixture of chicken, carrots, and rice - no different than the TV dinners I grew up on. The guy across from me got his meal before everyone else - I think because it was a vegetarian meal - so of course I watched him. I watched him squeeze the entire packet of french dressing into his mouth, swallow it, and then proceed to eat his salad plain. What? So weird. Needless to say I kept by eye on him the rest of the trip. Anyone who downs a salad dressing packet like a shot of rum must be a weirdo.

I made it through the overnight portion of flight two. I watched The Curios Case of Benjamin Button. After the movie I decided to try to get some sleep - but that proved quit difficult. Impossible actually.  Since I was on the aisle, every time someone went to the restroom or a stewardess walked by, my chair got bumped. There was also a very unhappy toddler. He was wailing - full out top of the lungs, heavy, choking kind of wailing. The parents were doing absolutely nothing. It was beyond any psychological approach of ignoring the problem - the totally didn't even see the problem - they just let him wail.  He was screaming the same phrase over and over again.  I know with the Gosselin family, repeating of any request sends them to timeout. Too bad John and Kate weren't here to take action.  It actually got so bad that other passengers began yelling at the farther to shut up his kid - that they had meetings in the morning and such.  So between the less than happy child, who by the was was two behind me, and the constant bumping, I didn't sleep a wink.