Last night I ended up just staying in like I originally planned. I had stuff I wanted to get done, but I didn’t do it. I really miss my calendars and white boards at my apartment in Georgia. I feel so unorganized and lost without them. I’m not even kidding right now. I feel like lists and calendars keep me on track. I’m going to have to start making to-do lists for the week and break it down for each day.
Today I went to German class and learned how to say a bunch of things that people might “like.” Saying things like, “I like to sleep, I like to work, I like to ride bikes, etc.” I’m going to have to make flash cards ASAP! I went to Mensa to eat lunch and had spaghetti. Then I went to my coordinator to turn in my list of classes I will be registering for. I will register tonight. I also need to check and see when I can register for Georgia Southern classes next semester. I think I have to wait until Monday at least though. I came home and ever since then I have been doing laundry. I wanted to go into Linz and go shopping with all my friends, but I don’t want to spend money on clothes and other things when I really don’t need yet. I needed to laundry first thing, so I did. I couldn’t read the settings for the dryer, but my clothes turned out fine. I only dried my jeans. They came out feeling damp still, but once they were out of the dryer for not even 30 seconds they were dry, and they wrinkled immediately! I hung all my shirts all around my room instead of drying them. It was less time consuming and expensive that way. After that, I took an hour nap!
Ana and I made dinner together. We had vegetables that were somewhat fried. They have the crunchy batter on the outside like chicken nuggets, but we broke it all up so it was just vegetables mixed with crunchy batter stuff and we cooked it n the stove. We also had soup. Ana made the soup with just water and a chicken soup seasoning block. I thought that was really good also. She thought it was very plain, but I don’t know, to me it was a nice change and a simple soup.
I did some online homework and was distracted by Facebook for way too much of the night. Surprisingly, I was ready for bed right after 11:30, and I think I was asleep by midnight. So I got a full seven hours of sleep tonight!
I didn’t keep up with my blog this week so I’m really not sure if this was the day I went ice skating or not, but I think it was. Either way, I did it some time this week. There was a group of about 20-25 of us who rode the tram to Hauplatz and went ice skating at a place against the Danube River. This place had three different rinks: one outside, one indoors, and one indoors for hockey. We started out outside, and all I wore was a long sleeve shirt, a GSU beanie, gloves and a scarf, and it felt amazing! I never got cold, and it was so much fun. I was slow at first because besides when I went in California when I was seven, I went in Reno once a year and half ago. I got really good though this time I was going so fast and all the Canadians were so impressed at how good i was doing! They all thought I must have skated often. Miro is really good and can jump and do spins and stuff, because he used to skate every day in middle and high school, so I think I’m going to see if he will teach me some stuff. i would like to skate more often because it is a lot of fun for only five Euro for however long you’d like that day. After skating, I promised Ashley I would go to the Italian restaurant with her and two Austrian guys. She knows them, but I only knew one of them. I felt like it was a double date, and it was kind of really awkward for me.
I can’t really recall what I did today. I know I was excited that it was Friday, and it was my last day of learning new material in German class. After class a bunch of us went to our banks and got our bank cards that finally came in, and then we went to lunch at the Mensa. After lunch, Nick, Miro and I went to the store to grocery shop. I took a nap at some point after all of that I know. We all met in the common kitchen of my floor for a party too. Everyone wanted to party that night, but no one wanted to go out to the bars or clubs. I only went to the party for about an hour or hour and a half, but I still had a good time. We played a card game and some other drinking game and had a good time. After that I watched the movie Johnny English! It was pretty funny.
Today was the excursion to the Mauthausen, a concentration camp about 20 minutes away by bus. It’s so weird that I’m living so close to one of the world’s most preserved concentration camps. It wasn’t at all what I expected though. When we first pulled up, there were long grayish buildings running horizontally, so it looked somewhat like a wall. There were a couple little tower points on the corners also. The first major thing we all noticed was how absolutely gorgeous the view was. It was the prettiest view of scenery I have seen I’ve being here. We were up higher on a hill than all the houses, towns and valleys around us, so we were looking down on them all. If it had been closer to summer and a clearer day, I would have not wanted to leave there. It’s terrible that the location used to be an active concentration camp, but jeeze, what a beautiful place it would have been to live if situations were different.
We toured around some outside parts of the corridors and saw where the guardsmen would play soccer and where they would swim in the pool. We saw where prisoners had to run up and down a bunch of steps carrying the heaviest rocks possible. It was down in a quarry, and the guide told us how a woman who lived in a house across the quarry wrote a letter to the police telling them she could hear people getting shot and be left for hours suffering and dying. She didn’t like to hear it, so she asked for the camp to be closed or be moved elsewhere. The historians think that the police just added her last sentence about it being moved elsewhere that way she wouldn’t get in trouble. It was like she would maybe get killed or something if she was just writing a letter for it to be shut down and no other option. There were statues all over this area, they are from and represent each country that had a prisoner in this camp. The camp had a lot of the original buildings torn down for financial purposes. They couldn’t afford to keep up with all the buildings that were there before. I just don’t really like how 90% of the camp is gone and now there are nice, huge statues everywhere. It didn’t really feel like I was visiting a concentration camp because of all that. 
Only the red still exists today
We toured inside the rooms, and I still wasn’t emotional like I thought it would be for everyone. We saw the small gas chamber, which by the way killed hardly even a fraction of the prisoners there. Most people just died from diseases. There were 200,000 people in this camp, and 100,000 died here. What I found most interesting was that half of those people, 50,000, died in the last three months that it was open. The other 50,000 people died during all the years before the last three months. It really shows how much worse things got in just the last three months. We saw where all of these people slept too. There were some bunk beds in the rooms, not the original ones, and they slept two or three people to each. They even got pillows and blankets with hay in them. I don’t know who got this privilege though, because everyone else slept on the floor. They would all have to lay down opposite from the person next to them. So there would be feet of the people next to you on both sides. They made them sleep like this so that they could fit more people per room. They also only got a half hour to get ready in the morning, eat, wash up, go to the bathroom, etc. I think they also only got two times a day to be able to use the bathroom, and there were only eight toilets for an entire corridor that slept 1,000 people. We saw the shower room too, and apparently this was the only place where the guards really had an option of how they wanted to treat the prisoners. Some guards would keep the shower cold the whole time, and others would keep switching the water from hot to cold until people would collapse and have heart attacks and die. Also, this was an all male camp, but eventually some women were brought in and kept in one area. They saw that women were only useful for sex, washing clothes, doing dishes, and cleaning.
Where prisoners lived and were counted twice a day
Where clothes were burned upon arrival
The reason I was most disappointed about touring this camp was because I thought it would be more like what I saw in Washington D.C. I was expecting to see movie clips of what was going on, pictures, or hear about personal stories that were left behind. Those types of things are what bring more emotion to me, and touring these empty cold buildings couldn’t really bring pictures to my mind like I wanted. A lot of people felt this way, and a lot of people didn’t really want to be there anyway because it was cold being on top of the hill for three hours with the wind. It didn’t help that the indoors of the buildings were even colder. I’m glad I got to see this though. It was very educational and amazing to be able to see something like this, regardless of the torn down buildings. By the way, this was one of the last camps closed down because it was in Austria. The camps in Germany were shut down first, obviously. People from the town of Mauthausen also were never told what was being built by granite at the top of the hill, and they were never told what was going on exactly. People had guesses though. They weren’t going to question something like a prison being built because they thought it was good to imprison bad people, if only it were a real prison for bad people though. They started hearing gun shots and could smell bodies burning at times, but people just never said anything to each other. No one would bring it up or question one another about it. They acted like it wasn’t there even though many people didn’t like what they thought was going on. 
When we got home we all showered, ate and got ready to go out for the night. We pre-gamed in the community kitchen of my floor, like usual. Ashley, these two Austrian guys and I rode the tram to Hauplatz to get a drink before going to the big dancing bar to meet up with everyone else. This was one of my favorite memories so far! So, we are sitting at a little four person seating area on the tram, and I’m drinking a beer on the tram while Ashley is showing the guys pictures of her pets and sister on her phone. All of a sudden this hobo looking man sitting behind the guys, yet facing directly toward Ashley and me, starts yelling at us! He starts yelling in English with an accent, starring only at Ashley, and yelling, “You are a shame! You mother fu**er! You know what I mean?!? Mother fu**er! A disgrace to your grandparents! You know what I mean?! You know what I mean?!” He just kept repeating that and squeezing his cross necklace around his neck and shaking it at Ashley. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen! I’m glad we were with the two local guys who are also our mentors for the study abroad program, but I wasn’t scared at all or anything. All the people behind this man, who were like 30-50 were quietly laughing, smiling and watching. They thought it was just as odd and funny as we did. I literally started crying from laughing. So he eventually stopped and started looking out the door. I notice later though that he’s looking at us through the reflection of the door. So, I tell Ashley this, and once she looks at the door, she meets eye contact with him through the reflection! He starts yelling at her again! Through the reflection! The next stop was our, and luckily he stayed on the tram. Literally, so hilarious though.
Crazy hobo has the hat on
We couldn’t find the bar I was looking for, so we went to Remembar, the big dancing bar, and met with everyone. We paid to check in our coats and ordered a beer each, but then our friends came up to us and said the bouncers wouldn’t let in Sarah or Mitchell. So we tried to complain to the owner, but the owner wouldn’t even come talk to Ana when she demanded to speak to the woman. We could even see here, and she just shook her head and looked scared saying she didn’t want to talk to us. Ana told the bartender than we each spend 50 Euro at this bar every Saturday (obviously not true!) and that there was 20 of us there, and we are leaving and never come back because this happened last weekend to our other American friend. Ana told him it’s discrimination against Americans and that we have had enough. He then tried to get us to stay and was going to go talk to the bouncer, but Ana stopped him and told him not to even bother because we are leaving no matter what. So we really left and all split up to different bars. It was still a really fun night. We went and ate kebabs at like 2:30 a.m. and when we got to the tram everyone else we started the night with showed up too! Apparently they all were able to get back into Remembar. So that was stupid that they went back and then got in, but whatever, I still had a good night trying out a new bar. I also started to speak German while drunk! Not like I know a lot, but I was practicing, and let me tell you, I am so much better when I have had a few drinks! 
Today I slept until 11, and Ana got a phone call from her friends at 8 a.m. asking if she wanted to go to Czech Republic with them because they had an open seat in their car. One of the girls from there had to go there to get something I guess. It was about an hour and a half drive by car, and I can’t wait until I get to go there! So anyway, Miro called me at noon and asked if I wanted to meet him downstairs at 1 and go to downtown, walk around and find a church. We went there and went inside a few different churches. They were very pretty and so quiet! We sat in both of them silently for a good 20 minutes each. It was relaxing, and it was especially nice for him to go because he normally goes to church every Sunday anyway. We found one that we liked the most right along the Danube River, and we are going to go to the service on Sunday at 10. I’ve never been to a Catholic service before, and I haven’t been to church in four years, but I really want to experience here, at least once. Even if everything will be in German! I can at least think in English in my own mind.
The bad thing about going to Hauplatz today was that everything in Linz is closed on Sundays. Literally everything beside the gas stations and the fitness center was closed. It was fun just walking around though and window shopping, even though it was freezing outside and drizzling rain. We saw this purplish pink car outside one church that had stars all along the side, stuffed animals all over inside, girly seat covers, and the hood had a metal name attached that said, “Pussy Ride.” It was the funniest car I’ve ever seen, so Miro took a picture of me crouched by it, and as he was taking it a girl and guy walked up and got into it! It was so funny and awkward! We went back to the dorm and I studied for my German class a little, took a nap, and later watched a movie that night. I haven’t uploaded the pictures from this day yet, but when I do I will post a couple of the pictures on here.
Today was the German test. I didn’t really study, so I was nervous. We reviewed for the first hour, but it wasn’t even really review! Our teacher taught us new stuff, so that was stupid. I finished the test in about 20 minutes because it was so easy. I may not have gotten an A or anything, but I knew what I was doing. There was a lot of writing, like explaining people in your family, what you like to eat and drink and making up a conversation between you and another student that you just met. The only reason why I don’t think I did perfect was because I didn’t know any of the articles that go before all the nouns. Certain words are feminine and some are masculine, and it’s hard to know which is which, so I just guessed.
I went to the store to get a few groceries after the test. I feel like I’m always having to go to the store and shop, and it is so annoying! I feel like I’m spending a lot of money, but I’m not really. Ana and I split everything, so it’s usually between 5-10 Euro each time one of us shop. We can’t buy much though and stock up because the cold cupboard we have is only a foot deep, and then like 8 inches high and 6 inches wide. It really sucks. We have more groceries sitting outside on our window sill than in our so-called fridge. I had pizza for lunch, and then I took a 45 minute nap. I was going to try to do homework, but of course the Internet is out again. It has gone out on my floor four times in the past like ten days. No one else can seem to hook up to the wireless here, and they all have to use Ethernet cords to plug in. I got lucky that for some reason I can connect to wireless, and I say lucky because my little lap top I brought doesn’t have a plug outlet for an Ethernet cord. I think I might be in trouble though, because Ana was able to get Internet again earlier, and mine won’t connect to the wireless anymore at all. Even my iPhone can’t connect. I don’t know what happened, but I may not be able to use my own computer in my room until I can bring back my bigger lap top after spring break. I hope that’s not the case though.
I started getting ready for the night at 4 p.m. We had a welcome reception at 6 on campus. I dressed in my nice black sparkly dress that I wore to Niki’s rehearsal dinner. I couldn’t wear leggings with it because that would be ugly, but I finally got to wear high heels instead of boots since it was a far walk in the cold to campus! Everyone thought I was crazy and going to freeze, but I never even got goose bumps on the walk! It actually felt amazing outside I thought. It was really hard to walk in my really high, high heels though. We had champagne when we first arrived and watched some videos about the university and listened to speakers. The Vice-rector who we were supposed to take pictures with wasn’t able to make it for the first time in like ten years because of something about being at a hospital. We still got to get in groups with our own country though and take a group picture!
Traditional Austrian/German dancers came and danced for us. It was the cutest thing ever! They were a bunch of little boys, ranging from ages 6-13 I would guess. I fell in love with the smallest blonde boy. I wish I could kidnap him. We then had traditional Austrian food buffet. And it was so good. It was a bunch of different sandwiches and desserts. The chocolate cake was nasty, but the apple strudel thing was wonderful. During dinner, older guys came and danced too. They were all in their 20s I’m sure. After that we all went to the bar downstairs in the LUI, which is in the school! The older dancers were there with all of us international students, as well as some of our mentors.
We played games at the party, and they were very interesting! Ashley and I signed up for the beer race and the balloon game, and we were not explained what we had to do. I was on a team with Ana, Nick, and Miro and it was a relay race. One person ran half way across the room, spun in a circle holding their nose three times, ran to a table, chugged a full beer, ran back half way, went in three circles again, finished the run across the room and tagged the next person, and then it continued until the whole group was done. My group got second place out of like 10! We could have gotten first, but Ana was a slow chugger. After that game was the balloon one. When we found out what you had to do, Ashley backed out! You had four balloons and had to pop them against your partner’s body in inappropriate positions! I couldn’t believe this was a game we were playing at a school event, but then again there’s a bar in the school too. Ashley quit, and I tried to, but they wouldn’t let me! They found some guy and shoved us together and all of a sudden we were playing, and I had no idea what was going on! I have to admit it was a lot of fun though. I went home a little while after the games, and m feet were killing me. I didn’t get any blisters from my heels surprisingly, but the balls of my feet hurt so bad!
I was so embarrassed to play the balloon game!
Today was the first day of cultural sensitivity training. It is so stupid. I don’t want to do it because it’s so boring, but I’m getting course credit from it, and it is only three days long, so it will be worth it. It was supposed to be from 9 a.m. until 1:30, but luckily we got out an hour early. All we did was talk to one person not from your home country for a few minutes, and then look at a bunch of pictures of the shape of Austria. We learned a few things, but I can’t even remember what we learned, so it must not have been that interesting to me. One of the professors who was there was so rude! She kept yelling at the whole group to be quiet and everything, and people weren’t even really talking. I wasn’t talking at all, so it wasn’t my fault, but a few people were whispering at times, and she really didn’t like it. I hope so bad that I am not in any of her classes when the semester begins next week. At the end, we formed groups of four to work on a project for tomorrow. We must go to our assigned locations in Linz, away from the city center and campus and interview random people on the street. We only need to interview one person, but it will still be hard to find someone who will take the time to talk and who knows English well enough. People here don’t know English as well as I thought they would, beside the students. Luckily, Ashley is in my group, and she is majoring in German and can speak it. So we have an advantage. My other group members are Miro and some guy from Taiwan we met today. We are meeting tomorrow at 1 to go into the city and begin our project. We have to present a poster to everyone on Wednesday, along with show everyone a picture of the person we interviewed. We are also getting lunch in the city tomorrow, and I’m most excited for that!
We had lunch at the Mensa after class, and I tried an authentic Croatian/Bulvarian dish. I forgot what it is called, but it was some time of big sausages. They were pretty good. They tasted like something I know, but I have no idea what that could be. We all went back to the dorm, and I took a two hour nap first thing. I am so tired here because we are always up so late every night! I tried to connect to the Internet again today, but it isn’t working. This is really starting to make me mad. I don’t know what to do since my computer doesn’t have a spot to plug in an Ethernet cord. Until I get my other computer in April, I guess I will stay more on campus when classes start, or do work in a friend’s room. Right now I am in someone else’s room typing this even. Tonight, I am going to try to do some of my work for my Georgia Southern online class, and then hopefully get a long and good night of sleep!
Also, I’m not rereading this blog, so I’m sure there are probably a lot of grammatical errors or stupid mistakes. I wrote seven pages worth of blogs just now though, and I don’t feel like reading it all again. I will try to stay more on top of blogging daily or every other day though so they aren’t this long anymore! Sorry! Enjoy!
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