On Pubs, Rain and Busses

Fellow blog stalkers....

Today was my first day of school! My family all gets up early (around 6:00) and we have breakfast consisting of a small loaf of bread (baguette style), jam or butter and tea or coffee. Mornings are like mornings on a soap opera (Corie it's exactly like the OC!) they are bright, the birds are out and the morning mist is still clinging to the alps which are visible outside my bedroom window. Today after breakfast we (my roommate host dad and I) all walked the few minutes to the no. 4 bus. It was an easy walk and, after my roommate saw a small hill and asked what mountain it was and if it was the begginning of the alps and my host dad and I shook our heads at each other, laughing at the mis labeling of very small hills as mountains (apparently mississippi is rather flat), we got to the bus stop.


We got off a few stops before the one we usually would because it is thursday, which means the local market is going on. This isn't like any farmers markets you've ever seen I assure you that. This was an event. There were hundreds of people and hundreds of bikes and bustling people and yelling and smells and strange sounds (in Austria and I'm told all over Europe, the police, fire and ambulance alarms sound the interval of a fourth... a rather startling thing when you're accustomed to the siren sound our emergency cars make). A monk from the monastary on the mountain came down and bought the supplies to get the monastary through to the next week. He was wearing a brown robe with a rope belt, cap and large cross, the spitting image of what you'd expect to see a monk dressed in.


I made it to school. Everyone was really nice, a couple weirdos.. including me and a couple really awesome people I think I'm going to have fun getting to know. We had a few lectures, lunch and then a few more lectures. We got our school schedule (all the classes times change each day). We have LONG lunches and late mornings. I think I can adjust to the European way of life.

We took a walking... sorry, a swimming tour of Salzburg and called it a day... for school at least. I then had the brilliant idea to go out with everyone and get to know each other and just hang out. I looked at my watch and it was only 2:00, plenty of time for socializing, dinner is not until six.
We went to "Murphy's Pub" it is owned by ALL irish men and they will not tolerate ANY german to be spoken even by the locals within the walls of their pub, it's a bad idea because it drives the locals away, but a very good idea because it also draws all of us not so fluent foreigners in and relieves us of repeatedly saying "danke" "bitte" which seems to be the extent of most of our German. While talking to some of the people it turns out a few of us still needed to purchase the monthly bus pass so I invited along these people to come with me to purchase it, we got rough directions from the program director and set off. This was at 4:00.

We wandered around the city for a while enjoying each others company more than we were really trying to look for the place where we could buy bus passes. We found it eventually and went squishing into the store drenched from head to toe from the down pour outside (we forgot our umbrellas today), and handed the ticket man soggy euro in payment for the passes. We were definately a sight to see, and many locals were enjoying the view. I started to walk out of the store when the owner ran after us and gave me an umbrella, naturally I tried to refuse his kindness, hurt his feelings, and ended up taking the umbrella to ease my guilt and his sadness. Charles and I vowed to return it tomorrow.

Here's where dad needs to stop reading to avoid a heart attack. It was 5:00, like I said my host mom serves dinner at 6:00. Austrians are prompt. I decided to start to head home that way I could change and wash up before dinner and maybe help a little (they never let me they say I am here to work at school not at home). I said bye to Hannah and the others and ran to catch the no. 4 bus back home. This doesn't work so well when you get on the wrong bus, heading the wrong direction, and only know where you're stop is in the first place by sight. I boarded the no. 4, realized a few stops later I was going towards the castle and not the bridge, got off the bus, waited another couple of minutes, doubted myself and my sense of direction in this strange country, re traced my steps to the old bus stop, retraced my steps all the way back to college, walked again to the bus stop, crossed the street and prayed that any bus a cross the street would mean it was going the opposite way. I was right in thinking that it may be the right bus, doubted myself though and got off. Regained confidence right after getting off, got back on the next (not such a rapid thing to do, the busses only come every 10 minutes so every self doubt I experienced cost me a drastic amount of time), waited until i recognized my stop, doubted myself until the doors closed, regained confidence and pried the doors open, crossed the street and walked down to my neighborhood, forgot my house number and walked passed, remembered my house number and my name at this point, walked in to a frantic mom... apparently this whole thing had taken me about an hour and a half putting me 30 minutes late for dinner. My h. dad laughed and said he wasn't worried he said I am an adult and every time I get lost means that I will only get my bearings for the city more quickly. I was soaking wet but viewed getting lost in the city as a great adventure... maybe not one i would care to repeat, but an adventure all the same.

Sorry about the length however, I cannot imagine them getting shorter so if you're unhappy at this point you're in for a long month.

Love you all

E&M