Croissants and espresso for breakfast, registered with the police, first day of German intensive class, walking tour of the inner city, shopped for our house, and sweated buckets. All before 18:00. Pretty solid.
The IES building is GORGEOUS (it's an old palace), and we have tons of classrooms and beautiful practice rooms and places to study. Free coffee as well if we offer up some collateral (my soul?). Our teacher is the hilarious head of the German department and she's kind of like a super sweet grandma. Also, from what I could tell from today, she's not a half-bad teacher. Definitely a good thing.
On the walking tour we learned where the post office is, good places to grab a quick (or not so quick) and inexpensive (or extremely expensive) bite to eat, where the shops are, and other useful touristy information. We also got acquainted with the S-Bahn, which we took to class and then Sarah and I took home later that afternoon (after we took it in the wrong direction for three stops first). The U-Bahn is next on the list of public transit to be mastered.
This sign LOOKS like it points to a McDonalds, but in all reality, it is a secret sign to help you find your way to IES. Either that, or our building just happens to be right next to McDonalds.
I have never appreciated the ease of American grocery shopping more than I have today. In Wien, you don't really know what kind of meat or cheese or yogurt or bread you're getting until you buy it. You have to bring your own bags (as a dirty hippie, I love this, but I have yet to remember to actually BRING a bag so I always have to buy a new one), and shopping carts cost 0.50 euro. Oh, it also isn't very helpful to NOT SPEAK ANY GERMAN. Thankfully, we managed to throughly stock our house with soap and that kind of stuff and a decent amount of basic food after a frantic trip to one store before class this morning and at another one on our way home.
During the afternoon we hung around the IES 'hood (1st district) for a while and picked up some school supplies and things like that and explored a little. Eiskaffee was gratefully had by all.
I'm EXHAUSTED from the heat and the walking and the newness of everything but fairly content and definitely starting to settle in. The rest of the week is filled with German from 9-11:45 every day, auditions for the music programs, a course fair, registration, orientations, etc.
"Intensive" doesn't even begin to describe it. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing!
My friend Travis from Bloomington is actually in Wien for the night (don't ask me why, I am so confused), and I think we're going to meet up for a coffee or something after dinner! So I guess when I leave the mid-west, it follows? Fine by me.
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