The Chirping Birdie’s Weblog

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Really, I’ve been using softener???? October 3, 2008

Filed under: Uncategorized — thechirpingbirdie @ 9:25 pm

Let me share with you all a discovery I recently made. Liquid fabric softener is not the same as detergent!!!! When I first arrived in Vienna I went to the store and along with other things I purchased laundry detergent. It came in a nice peach bottle with the word Silan across the top and made my clothes smell delightful. Well, the Silan ran out last week, so I went to the store to replenish. I stopped into Zielpunkt, one of the many grocery stores (not the kind Americans think of… we’re talking 5 short aisles and a deli) within 4 blocks of my apartment. I found the laundry detergent and reached for that beautiful peach bottle. I noticed that the Silan brand was a shelf or two away from the other laundry detergent looking bottles and the thought briefly crossed my mind ‘What if this isn’t detergent’ but I quickly dismissed it. My clothes seemed to come out of the washer looking cleaning and smelling great! I made my purchase and headed home. Once I made it back to my apartment, the thought popped into my head again, that maybe I haven’t been buying laundry detergent. The bottle was covered in German writing of which I could not understand a lick. A mistake wasn’t out of the question… A few days past with the question persisting in the back of my head. No attempt was made to find the answer during those days, because frankly I did not want to feel stupid. Finally I broke down and took the bottle over to my neighbor, Becca, who speaks German. And, of course, it was liquid fabric softener. So, for the past 6 weeks, I have been washing my clothes with fabric softener. All is well now. I made it back to the store yesterday (dragging Becca with me) and purchased the real deal and today I did about 5 loads of laundry. Ah, the obstacle of language.  I’m sure I’ll have many more of these stories to come….

Here are the rest of the Salzburg trip photos..

 

Finally… photos from Salzburg! October 1, 2008

Filed under: Uncategorized — thechirpingbirdie @ 9:36 am

Not writing anything today, just posting photos. Oh yeah, got an A on my Intro to International Relations midterm. Thank you Jesus!

 

Another weekend begins! September 25, 2008

Filed under: Uncategorized — thechirpingbirdie @ 10:45 pm

So I finished my midterms this week (sort of). And I’m pretty confident they went well. My midterm for international law was last night. The midterm was a simulation of a UN Security Council meeting discussing the Georgia conflict. Guess who I played??? Russia! It was actually very enlightening. Of course, in the states, Russia is so often viewed as the big bad guy, so stepping into their shoes and having to defend them opened up a completely different perspective for me. Not that I believe that their actions are always appropriate, but I at least have a greater understanding of their concerns and position. Anyway, it is such a relief to be finished with all of that! I researched five days straight for that and would prefer not to here the words Georgia, Russia, South Ossetia, self-determination or territorial integrity for at least a week. Today in professional seminar we visited the OSCE  (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe). The headquarters are here in Vienna. We were able to sit in on a weekly Permanent Council meeting of the 56 member states. Tomorrow me and a few girls are headed to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, for a little day trip. It is just under an hour long train ride. We’ll head out late morning and probably make our way back in the early evening. Then Saturday morning the entire group is headed to Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic for a short weekend trip. Needless to say this weekend is full! Hopefully I’ll come back with lots of photos… and get them quickly posted!! Speaking of pictures here are some more…. they aren’t that great. From a bus tour of Vienna that we took so keep in mind that we were moving while I was photographing.

 

Just finished 4th week in Vienna… crazy! September 19, 2008

Filed under: Uncategorized — thechirpingbirdie @ 10:11 pm

Okay, so I feel like such a slacker. I had such great intentions for my blog and I am not living up to my expectations, and probably not to your’s either. Just so I can get you all caught up on my photos, I am not going to write much. I am now at the halfway point for Vienna. I just finished my fourth week of classes. The time here has flown by and there is still so much I want to see and do here. Since I last blogged, I spent a weekend in Salzburg, visited the Schonnbrun palace, did some shopping, spent some time at Cafe Sperl (my favorite) studying, and got an A- on my first quiz . So things have been great. Salzburg was phenomenal and I would recommend everyone visit. I was unable to do the Sound of Music tour, which I was a bit disappointed about. No running through the hills singing… Maybe next time. Instead we visited Kehlstein, which is the mountain on which Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest sits. The Eagle’s Nest was a gift to Hitler I believe on his 50th birthday. It is a mountain retreat. Ironic because he was apparently terrified of heights. He only visited the site maybe 10 times. To get there we had to take a 45 minute bus ride from Salzburg to the town of Berchtessgaden. Then from Berchtessgaden we took another bus to the bottom of the mountain, where we then proceeded to board another bus that took us up to the 1800+ meter peak. The road up the mountain is one lane and if you happen to be on side of the bus facing the edge of the mountain you might notice a complete dropoff just feet from the edge of the road. The view was breathtaking though!! Once the bus dropped us off near the top we then had to take an elevator that goes the rest of the 124 meters to the top of the mountain. And when you reach the top, it is all worth it!!! Oh and did I mention that while on the bus I saw a man running the four mile distance up the mountain. I easily decided against that option!!! The building isn’t all that interesting. There aren’t really any remnants of Hitler or the Nazi party. The only thing remaining is the red marble fireplace that Mussolini gave Hitler. Not much information was posted regarding the use of the retreat either. It is so interesting to see the way that many historical places in Austria that had to do with Hitler or the Nazi Party are ignored or glazed over. Part of the reason, so I’ve heard, is that the state is cautious because they in no way want to promote neo-naziism. Whatever the reason, I was hoping to find a bit more history there. But just being there was enough, plus the views were a big enough pay off.

Okay, so here are some more photos. Still trying to catch up…. This is everything up to Salzburg. I’ll try to post Salzburg pictures tomorrow. There are a ton!

 

Two blogs in one day????? September 4, 2008

Filed under: Uncategorized — thechirpingbirdie @ 8:40 pm

So here I am posting a second blog in just one day. Very unusual! Today was a pretty laid back day. The group went on the bus tour of Vienna. We road around in a bus that had no roof and it was an absolutely perfect day!!! Sunshine, but not too terribly hot. The bus took us all over the city. Each seat had a pair of headphones, that you could put on and hear some history and facts about the different monuments and areas that we passed. I actually found out some interesting info. We stopped at a building that Beethoven lived in. Apparently, he lived at 82 different addresses in Vienna throughout his life. The word is that he was a terrible neighbor, very inconsiderate. He would play his piano into the wee hours of the night and disrupt his neighbors. We also passed the oldest cafe/coffee house in Vienna Landtman’s. Sigmund Freud used to frequent it. Just some interesting facts…

 

Grad School is no joke! September 4, 2008

Filed under: Uncategorized — thechirpingbirdie @ 10:28 am

Not that I thought it was going to be easy, but grad school is intense! I was prepared and anticipated the worst, and it truly isn’t that bad, but let’s just say my mind is definitely being stretched while doing cartwheels at the same time. Of course it will be beneficial to me in the long run. In the short run I’d like the cartwheels to cease. The past week has been about 95% devoted to school and studying. But, that’s what I’m here for so you say? Fair enough! Since my head has been in the books and I don’t have any exciting picture from the past week I  can now actually catch up with the picture posting.  Here you go… These are all from Vienna. Getting ready to leave for a bus tour of the city, so we’ll see how many I can post before that happens!


 

Catching Up August 29, 2008

Filed under: Uncategorized — thechirpingbirdie @ 12:20 pm

I have been terrible at keeping my blog up to date. It just becomes so daunting once you get far behind! So, I am going to catch you all up now. In order to avoid a 7000 word post I’ll briefly highlight the things that I’ve discovered about Vienna (good and bad).

Have to buy the plastic bags to carry your groceries in and then bag your own groceries, the Danube, had and enjoyed my first week of classes, the Naschmarkt (an outdoor market), discovered the city centre, visited the Belvedere palace…beautiful, started jogging along the Danube, no dryer which equates to crispy clothes, awesome public transportation, found skippy peanut butter…woohoo, yummy cheese and bread, and wiener schnitzel land.

I am going to post the pictures that I have below. Some are still from the Netherlands…

 

Finally Settled August 24, 2008

Filed under: Uncategorized — thechirpingbirdie @ 4:50 pm

So, I’m here….. finally settled in Vienna where I will be for 8 weeks. The past 5 or 6 days have been a whirlwind jam packed with busyness. I’ll give you a quick rundown of the past few days. I left the US on Tuesday afternoon. The flight was long, but not as bad as I anticipated. I did not get much sleep on the plane, maybe two and a half hours max. Needless to say when I arrived in Amsterdam at 9:15 Wednesday morning (2:00 a.m. US Central time) I was exhausted. Luckily there were a few people from the global program on my flight so we all met up to take the train to Leiden together. It was ridiculous. We had about 4 bags each and trying to get them on the train was a nightmare. Of course after about 20 minutes of being on the train we realized we had gotten on the wrong train. UGH! Needless to say we had to get off and hop on another train, but we finally made it to Leiden. Leiden is a beautiful town in the Netherlands. I absolutely fell in love with it. Lots of students, canals, shops and windmills. It is quaint yet quite crowded and lively at the same time. I decided it would be best to stay up the entire day and not take a nap. My roommate (who had already been there a few days) and two others walk around Leiden for a while and then made our way on the train to Scheveningen. Scheveningen is a resort town on the North Sea in the Netherlands. It was really beautiful. The weather was chilly and overcast and the sea was freezing!! I stayed up until about midnight, that night but got little sleep that night. The next day the entire group took a trip into Amsterdam. Amsterdam was similar to Leiden but a much larger scale. It was amazing. The Dutch are such friendly, beautiful people. You could find a neat shop or restaurant down every alley and crevice of the city. Bikes are the transportation of choice in the Netherlands, so beware, if you don’t get out of the way, they are not afraid of running you over. It’s takes a bit to figure out what is the street, what is the bike path and what is the sidewalk. Friday was orientation for most of the day and then a nice dinner that evening. Then yesterday my group left the Netherlands to head to Vienna. We missed our flight that was scheduled to leave at 8:45 that morning so we ended up having to take the train…. 14 hours!!!!! I probably don’t need to mention that it was an extremely looooooooong day. We arrived in Vienna at about midnight last night. By the time we made it to our apartments it was late, but nevertheless it was absolutely lovely to make it to our apartments where we are now settling in. That is about it for now. Dinner time… and no, I’m not having Weinerschnitzel.

 

Preparation August 18, 2008

Filed under: Uncategorized — thechirpingbirdie @ 4:22 am

Have you ever tried to prepare yourself for something when you don’t quite know what to expect? It’s kind of like dressing yourself when you don’t know what the weather is going to be. You can give it your best shot, but you could end up in a thunderstorm without a raincoat! That’s about how I’m feeling right now. In just two days I will embark on the greatest journey I’ve yet to travel in my 28 years of life. I’m headed to Europe (and possibly Asia) for the next year to study for my M.A. in International Relations and I have no clue what to expect! My world has been crazy the last two weeks, getting ready to go and spending time with family and friends. Last night one of my best friends threw me a going away party. It was perfect. I was able to see all the people that mean so much to me before I go, but leaving is now really starting to settle in. Tonight I had Thanksgiving dinner with my family and wonderful boyfriend, since I won’t be here in November.  And now, I am spending time with my awesomely supportive boyfriend. He has been soooo wonderful through all of this and I am having a hard time just thinking about being away from him :(   BUT, I am confident that things will be even better the next time I see him!!!

So, if you want to follow my adventure, just check out this blog. I’ll post pictures and let you know all about the ups and downs, twists and turns. It’s going to be quite an experience and I’m ready to get it started!!

 

 
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