Another blog update already;

I feel like I have so much to say. And I just want to tell everyone. I am now trying to save my little random things for the blog, so everyone does not have to read my random thoughts. First of all, if you do not read my emails, I have gotten the job that I wanted. Next year I will be a Community Director. I am in Fairmont and Lisa is in Grossmont, so we are neighbors! Moving on to things that are happening right here in Salzburg/Vienna

We went to Melk on Wednesday. We saw the beautiful Stiftmelk Monastery. This has already been noted in the email. But I said that the tour guide had a little bit of a speech impediment. Actually, I do not know if I said that, but she does. The problem is that she is German and trying to speak English, so that can be challenging. Anyways, the letter “v” became a “w” when she said it. So she welcomed us “wisitors” to the monastery at Melk. She then showed us the “westaments” that the archbishops wore. It was a little hard to follow at times, but gave us something to talk about later. This v-w problem is what made me think she was the guide before.

Our seminar this morning was on the European Union. The guest speaker said that in the beginning France was getting a lot of goodies for being in the European Community (actually it was the European Commission of Steel and Coal, I believe) and did not want the United Kingdom to get these goodies. He said this is why the U.K. was rejected twice from the Union, because France did not want it to get any goodies. (I apologize if I have wrong names for commissions and unions, but the European Union, by that name, did not come into being until way later) I thought it was really funny that he said goodies. And so did Laura, sitting next to me. She looked at me and whispered “My goodies, not your goodies,” a song. I had to stifle the laughter.

On Friday night we went out to a nice dinner, because we were all dressed nicely from the Opera, it was at 2.30 pm (14.30 in Europe). The waiter brought us bread and then told us that we would be charged for bread, and butter. Some of the girls thought it was really weird that he brought it to us and then charged us. Also, how do you charge for bread? We were charged for 10 pieces of bread, is that just 2 baskets, or did they count what was left over? And we were charged for each butter packet that we used. Quite amusing. But dinner was excellent. I had potatoes with cheese and bacon and onions. Delectable!

Friday morning included a visit to the Imperial Palace and a tour of the silver collection. This included a part on Sanitary items and chamber pots (womens were different from mens, interestingly enough). I was excited about this, because I missed the chamberpot museum in Munich (yes, we tried to find it. But it was closed down, I wonder why?). They also had a showcase on the basins and pitchers used for ritual feet washing. The tradition for Lent was that twelve women and twelve men (symbolizing the twelve apostles) were brought to the Queen and King, respectively, for ceremonial foot washing. I found this quite interesting, and thought it was great that they tried to be Christlike by washing the feet of the poor…. Until I read the rest of the sign. The twenty four poor people were scrubbed clean before being seated at a table. They were given bread and water. A huge meal was then served, but removed before they could partake of it. The King and Queen came to wash the feet, but usually only washed one pair of feet, if any. They might have simply poured water onto the feet. Then their attendants finished the foot washing business while the King and Queen went into their royal dining room. The poor were given the suits that they were wearing during the ceremony, as well as food and money in a bag. It is quite and interesting idea. I think it would have been more real if the Queen and King had actually washed the feet. I would have had so much more respect for them.

That is all for this update. Thanks for tuning in!

More things....

More things I have seen and heard

-So all over Europe they do not care…
We were walking back to the train station on Friday at midnight (in Prague) and some guy starts to relieve himself in this little median with trees, next to the sidewalk. So sketchy!

-The Prague train station (Hlvada-Nminski or something) is Sketch
Arriving at 10 pm was not the best time to arrive for the first time. My friends has a terrible first impression of Prague. Poor and homeless people were all over, sitting and standing everywhere, talking to us in Czech and asking for money. I had to remain calm so they did not freak out. (We are fine you guys, no one is going to do anything, don’t worry)

-Czech teens are possessive over their ATM machines
We walked to the ATM to withdraw money and a crowd of Czechs were clustered there. The people were about our age, and looking like a gang. The ringleader girl saw us coming and moved to the front of the ATM to block it off. We waited a ways away and she just glared at us. We left when they didn’t move after 5 minutes. When we went back a few minutes later, they were gone and we were able to withdraw crowns.

-Tourist t-shirts are fun
A bunch of us got shirts that say “Prague: Czech me out.” (Czech is pronounced check, in case you were wondering…) We wore them in class today. I love it!

-I should have bought an IPOD
Train rides are very long. Six hours from Salzburg to Prague, and this is considered a short train ride. I had no music, but it was okay. It would have been nice to just put on headphones and zone out. Instead, I studied German and slept a little bit.

Ich will besseren Deutsch sprechen.
Deutsch is nicht easy. Meine class ist gut in die Profesorin is freundlich. Heute sprecht Eva “Ich bin schönes.” Haha Sie gibt ich die antwort im der examen. Das ist sehr gut. Ich verstehe oft nicht gut.
(Translation: I want to learn German better
German is not easy. My class is good and the professor is friendly. Today Eva said “I am beautiful” [to tell us what beautiful was in German] haha She gives me the answers on the test. That is really good. I often cannot understand well.

Um yeah, There is some Deutsch for you. It is hard to translate exactly. Word for word does not work. You just do what you can. More later homies!

Update One

I wrote this awhile ago, but forgot to put it up... so here it is

Interesting things I have seen and learned in Salzburg;

-Austrian men are very open and do not care…
…about certain things. We were walking up the stairs (on the side of the hill, back to our house) when I saw a little Austrian man run across the trail and onto the snow about 5 feet away. As I passed, I saw yellow snow appearing right where his body was facing. Quite interesting, Austrians pee in public, and not far from sight of others. I tried not to laugh, but Laura was ahead of me and could not stop giggling. Finally the man ran past us on the stairs and we were able to stop and laugh.

-Americans are beloved
Jim has told us this time and time again. But most Europeans do love Americans, even if they do not like our foreign policy. And I have been able to see that as well. When I am in Spar (the market) I have tried to use what little German I know. The man behind me smiled when he saw that I was trying to fit in. I gave him the separator and said something, he said “danke” (thanks) and smiled, and I said “bitte” (you’re welcome). While this was a small transaction, there have been many more.

-Arnold is from Austria (I knew this, but...)
Once you say you are from California, the first thing that people say is oh, Arnold is from heir (here). We laugh and say yes, and they get a huge smile on their face. On Friday night we had dinner in a restaurant “Goldener Ente” (Golden duck) and upstairs, where we were eating, there was a statue/wax thingie (not really sure exactly what, maybe a mannequin) or Arnold, sitting on a chair. We all took pictures with Arnold.

-Recycling is huge
When we throw things out there are 5 different bins to place them in, rubbish (trash), plastic bottles, juice containers (they are more like paper things), glass bottles, etc. In Austria they will either fine you if your trash is not sorted, or simply leave your trash until you do sort it. This is something Americans should be forced to do as well.

-European bars stink
We went to a bar that other Redlands students talk of (ones who have some on previous semesters) called Murphy’s (or Murphy’s Law). It is a little Irish bar in downtown Salzburg. We went there on Friday night and hung out for awhile. There is actually a Redlands banner up on the wall. The bartenders loved us and would talk to us a lot. However, the bars smell disgustingly of smoke, as everyone smokes. I went back into my room and realized just how much I smelled of smoke, even though I do not smoke. The scent sticks to your clothes, your hair, your jacket. All of us smelled like smoke. Yuck!

-Well, lots of places stink
Because Austria is not California, there are not many smoking rules. Once can smoke almost anywhere. There are designated non-smoking rooms, not vice versa, as it is in Cali. So it smells of smoke everywhere, as many Austrians smoke. They have not had the Nancy Reagan public alert on how bad smoking is for you.

That is enough for now
More later!