On Thursday evening, the Central Abroad group arrived here in Wien. It was quite a chaotic day, as expected. Perhaps the most difficult part for me was dragging my 33 kilo suitcase across Schwaebisch Hall to the ZOB bus station. Luckily most of it was downhill so I kind of just let it go, and if there were stairs I employed the help of our friendly Bulgarian and Saudi-Arabian men. Miraculously, I didn't have to pay anything extra for being way over weight limit on the flight. Marie finagled the good people at German Wings into measuring us as a whole group, and since some people were somehow under weight limit, I was fine. We took a short flight out of Stuttgart which involved a lot of me being disturbed by the amount of turbulence, and arrived in Vienna in the late afternoon. We were then all put in cabs, and without much information, taken to our seperate dorms.
Rachel, Jonathan, and I arrived at our dorm (Boltzmanngasse) to find it dark and locked, with no one in sight. We stood on the street with all of our luggage for a few minutes just looking sad, until we were able to sneak in behind someone else. We then spent the next few minutes in the lobby looking even sadder as it was dark and no one was there. Finally Rachel just opened a door behind the desk, and the Heimleiter emerged - an awkward, short Austrian man named Karl, apparently ganz langsam and ineffectual according to my roommate. But he gave us our keys and sent us off to our rooms, without much information about the dorm. His office hours next week are very short and all during times that I have classes, but I need him to sign a paper so I can register with the city. Central already told us to lie about what day we arrived, I will just have to lie more, since I can't get it in until later because of this.
I met my roommate pretty soon after arrival, and she is very nice. She speaks German and English very well and seems to just respond in whatever language I start off speaking to her in, so we have a little weird mix going on right now. Our room is nice and big, even though the bathroom light doesn't work and my bed light doesn't work. The bathroom light is really the only big problem - showering in the dark last night was not the most fun. I'm still on a quest to find a desk lamp that can double as a bed lamp when I need it to.
Friday was Central College's insane whirlwind of activity day. Orientation in the morning was essentially filled with throwing a bunch of mostly-confusing forms at us, saying YOU MUST FILL THESE OUT AND TAKE THEM TO VARIOUS PLACES IN THE CITY NEXT WEEK, a nice, comfortable little talk about not breaking any more doors and essentially not being like the frat boy half of our program in Schwaebisch Hall, and a few things about academics. They then took us to a few of the Universität buildings, most of which are within a 10 to 15 minute walk from my dorm, which is nice.
We had a bit of a break during which many of us went on a frantic trip for bed sheets, which we found and which are very comfortable. Then we had a tour of the city, which I kind of just wish they had saved till Saturday since by that point we were all very tired, wanted to buy things we needed, and it was still raining. But, we did see lots of palaces and Hapsburgs houses...always a bonus. Then dinner with the professors all paid for by Central...soup and goulasch and beer and chocolate cake for me.
Today was shopping day, and I found everything I needed but the desk lamp, the quest for which will continue on Monday. Also did not find an open Apotheke, but tbc on Monday as well. Three friends and I had a very nice dinner at a good Asian restaurant, followed by some quality time walking around to look at the Rathaus and Volksoper and to sit on the giant statue in front of the Hapsburgs´ palace.
Anyway, I am convinced that perhaps by the end of this week I will understand the U-Bahn and street car maps a little better, but I have not actually gotten lost yet! I have, in fact, led people home with the handy gigantic map of the city.
On Monday I´ll have my first class, which is Central´s theatre class. I think I am actually taking all of Central´s classes, plus one at the Uni. I am also being interviewed by Greenpeace on Wednesday...AHHHH.
Also. Auf wiedersehen bis das Wetter shöner ist.
(goodbye until the wetter is better and I have seen more of Vienna).
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