School

The first week of school has come and gone. I feel like this is going to be my most productive semester ever. I have always just coasted through school and did the minimum that it would take to get me an 'A' (which sometimes was a fair amount) but I have already read more for two of my classes than I have for many others put together.
Right now I am staying up too late and considering some more reading. I have a book called "Life w/Big All" to read. I'm almost done but there is still a lot to go. Class starts at 0800 hrs and its 0003 hrs now.

interesting

I have just realized why it is that I like my blog layout and theme so much. It is just like the In-n-Out sign but in green and gray. I love it!

So I came home, right?

Wow. That is the best thing that I could say to describe the last week.

I decided to go on a study abroad before I had met Hayley Burch. But then in the course of my preparation I started dating her. Of course, she is the coolest thing since , but I still decided to go to Vienna. It was scheduled to be a 3 month and 3 day trip, but at about a month I was feeling pretty anxious to get home. Talking for hours a day on Skype is great but it isn't the same as being in person and being able to hold the person you love. So I figured it all out, I got in contact with the BYU travel again and I was surprised that only 75 dollars to switch my ticket around. I also figured out with enough time to spare that classes could be dropped and I wouldn't have any black marks on my transcript.

At first I didn't want to get Hayley's hopes up by telling her I was thinking of coming home and then not being able to, but then it turned into me wanting to surprise her. Of course. And it was a full two weeks of me trying to not tell her anything as I spoke with her almost every day on Skype for about 3-5 hours. The study abroad group new after about 4-5 days and then I also had to have someone pick me up from the airport so I had to tell someone at the apt. I asked Joseph Seth and Janette and they figured out to come get me at 11:30 at night. Of course, anything to help me surprise Hayley :)

I flew out of Austria on the 7th and got here 26 hours later even with the hour and 15 minute delay at JFK. Not much could get my spirits down. After getting home at 2:30, staying up for another hour and getting only 3 hours of sleep I was ready to go see Hayley.

I knew that she goes for a run with Canada every morning at 7 so I got out of the house at 6:30 and bought some flowers (orange roses). I had already brought home 2 pairs of earrings and an orange scarf from Vienna but needed a way to wrap it so I got a bag as well. I set all that up and then before Danny went to work I asked him to do some reconnaissance and he found out that at 7 she was still in bed. I wasn't sure what to do but I got online and looked to see if Canada was there but she wasn't so I went over to her apt. She was still asleep and her roommate didn't want to wake her up so I just went home to wait and worry. Well, I saw that she was online about 15 min. later so I chatted with her and went told her to stay in her apt. She knew then that I was going to be coming over and that I was back from Vienna. At her apartment we said that I would watch for them to leave to go running and then I'd catch up.

I waited and saw them leave, took the flowers and the present and put them on her table, then I took off after them all sneaky-like. Quite as a mouse and only taking steps when Hayley was talking, I came up behind her and put my hands around her waist. I'm not sure if that was a good idea or not but after she turned around and looked like she was going to die she was just so excited that it didn't matter that I am a creeper. :) She couldn't believe it! I was there and she had just been chatting with me about 10 hours earlier. She said, "This is so surreal...you aren't REAL!" So she had a hard time looking over at me as we were running, or at least she was just so blown away that she had to look over every few seconds to see if I was still there. She even hit me in the arm to make sure that she wasn't dreaming. I was very happy with the whole event.

When we were done running we got back and she loved the flowers. I mean, she LOVES the flowers. I am glad, and she loved the other gifts as well. It was funny because she was really happy to get them but I think that she was just so overwhelmed by the fact that I was back that the coolness of the presents was toned down a bit. Be that as it may, I think that the last 3 days have been the best days of my life!

I love you, Hayley Burch.

Rain and dessert

Today is a fun day. I am first off, thinking of Hayley, and then I also went out in the rain and walked around. It looked like rain when I left today but I just brought my umbrella. I wore shorts and flip flops and the rain wasn't cold. It was fun. The umbrella is broken a little bit, luckily there wasn't a lot of rain. Then I decided, what the heck, I'm going to go get a bit of Appel strudel since the several that I've had until did not give me a good impression. I went to a place that got high marks in Megan and Chelsea's book and I was surprisingly won over. The strudel was excellent and it came with vanilla sauce that was also amazing. And because it was raining I also got a bit of Hot cocoa that was, of course, awesome. I went a little earlier to the museum that McKay and the others went to as well. The ancient instruments/weapons/armor museum in the National Library. It was pretty radical. Now like most evenings I am wasting time at the institute before FHE starts. But of course it's not a complete waste because I get to chat with Hayley! ;)

Still alive

Sorry for not posting for a while (for those who actually read this silly thing). I have been busy with school and whatnot here in Vienna. But now I'm in the week-long break between semesters and I am whiling away the hours with my beloved computer. The weather is rainy and so I can't go out and do my street music. Even if I had good weather I probably wouldn't do it as much as I originally planned because I stay up super late to talk to Hayley and sleep until the afternoon. I am okay with that because normally (in Provo and here) I sleep little and stay up late.

Right now my roommate and about every other person on this study abroad is on the road. They mostly in Italy (8 people) and a couple are in Spain, I think someone is in Germany. The only ones left here in Vienna are Anne, Leah, Emily, and me. I sorry for Leah, the only reason she didn't go with the others is because her ticket didn't come. Hopefully she'll be able to go somewhere else.

An update on the food...Charles and I found the greatest Döner known to man. It is a little place on the U6 called Kent. It's a real Turkish restaurant and it is worth it's price and then some. The kebap was only 3 euro and it was real lamb and it was seasoned to perfection. I was in some crazy Turkish version of heaven...maybe it was opium?! I'd do it again. I'm going to.

Well, tonight at FHE we had a good lesson by one of the missionaries and also there was a nice reflexology massage demonstration...and guess who the guinea pig was: Yours Truly! I enjoyed a little foot rub. Everybody else was too scared to offer themselves up. But the guy is a member and he is a professional. He was kinda scared that no one wanted to learn about it at the beginning because no one volunteered and when he started talking people started laughing. What he didn't know is that I (laying on the table behind him) made a scared face when he said that sometimes it causes some pain to have foot reflexology therapy done. He must not be very self-confident but that's ok. Afterward he talked to me (because I volunteered) and he is a really cool guy. He plays the guitar like a pro and sings really well. He likes blues and jazz and can play Sinatra better than Sinatra. It was amazing. So we're going to do a number for the talent show in a week or something. I also have a musical number to do next week in church. I am sight-reading it right now and it's not too hard but it goes up into 5th position (like all good violin songs) and that isn't the easiest to pull off when you aren't very practiced. Hopefully I get nervous enough to make my hand shake and then the vibrato will help me get into the right notes. :)

It's 3:11 am. I'm tired and need to take my contact out. I also need to exercise a bit before I go to bed. There is always so much to do that I forget to do during the day...gosh.

Vague for good reason

You never know who might be an avid blog browser and stumble upon you one day when you least expect it. Well, I'm almost done with an all-nighter that started because I was pulled by McKay to go to Chelsea's for a movie. We ended up getting there late, waiting some more for other people who were even more late, and then watching two movies. It's unfortunate that the public transportation system doesn't just run 24/7. But we left Chelsea's just in time to catch the 45B and then we caught the U3 to the U2 (not the band, but close) and the U4. That was just to take Anne home but then we caught the last U4 and missed the last U6 by about 35 seconds. Big deal, we live so close to the Spittelau station that you might say I could spittelau to it from here. We got home at 1:15, ate, talked a spell, and got ready for bed...well, he did. I got on the computer and found, wouldn't you know it, the greatest person the world has ever known: Hayley! Of course you can't crack an egg w/o making an omelet so Joseph was there too, but what can you do. J/k, Joseph, you're are a good man, helping Hayley get a web cam and all. I owe you something good...name your price. Then I will tell you something completely different that I can afford, find, and care little enough about to give you.
So I talked for a while until I reminded Hayley that she had work at 7:30 (I told her at 7:36). She immediately left without saying goodbye. I'm not upset in the least, I just hope she didn't get in trouble with her job. But after she hung up I decided that I would just pull an all-nighter. Why you ask? Well, I have to be up at around 7 or 7:30 and hop on the train. It's for a good reason, but being vague now will build up the suspense! You'll like it.
Ok, have a wonderful, night, morning, evening, afternoon, or whatever.

Speise im Wien!

I was thinking that I need to be sure to tell everyone which are the places that I have been for food and which places are the best. Ok, so there is this little würstel stand just off Kärntner straße that has really good kebab and dürüm. It is kitty corner behind the Sacher Hotel. They are a little more expensive than the place in front of the Augustina as far as Bratwursts go but the wursts are bigger and tastier.
Everyone who has heard of Vienna knows about the Sachertorte which is a chocolate cake that is supposedly amazing and originated in the Sacher Hotel. Well, I haven't had it from the Sacher but I had an even more expensive version from the oldest continually running restaurant in Europe, if not in the world, Griechenbeisl. It cost 4,90 Euro (about 6.75 USD). It was dry and overrated. My roommate McKay bought one from the actual hotel and he said it was the same.
Also at the Griechenbeisl I ate the apfel strudel. I heard from others that it was awesome but I think that was because it has a little lemon zest in there to liven it up. I thought it was alright but not 5,20 alright (about 7.25). I had the marillen palatschinken (Apricot Crepes) though and they were the bomb. Maybe even worth the 7.50 (USD).
I'll have to let you know about other steals, deals and yummy meals a little later. Bis dann!

I'm not complaining, I'm just busy

I'm sick of trying to post pictures to the internet. I have had something crash almost every single time. I can't even get them to my computer before something goes wrong. I am just going to put stuff on facebook and not here anymore unless at some future time I become more adept at blogging.
I am actually debating whether or not to keep doing this. Maybe it would be easier just to keep what little thoughts I have right where they are. Oh well.
I have been doing quite a lot of traveling here. The subway system will get you pretty close to anywhere you need to go. The trouble is that I have small breaks between things that need to be done and I don't have much time to do homework. I have to leave the house 45 min before class, I have an hour and a half between classes, I have a few hours after class to do homework, shop, eat, or do whatever else needs done. Because of FHE and Institute on Monday and Wednesday I am cut short those days, I have a dinner with my host once a week and I don't know what day she'll be choosing, so there is a lot going on. My homework has been failing miserably. I am getting the page and a half written for McFarland right before class and I receive about 3-5 worksheets or something from each Peter and Veronika. That's a lot to do every single day.
That said, I'm going to go eat something.

First day

So I woke up Tuesday morning even earlier than I normally wanted to. My alarm was set for 8:00 and I woke up at 6:30, laid in bed for an hour then got up. I used all of that day to get ready to go to Vienna. Actually for a couple hours right after getting up I got a gift ready for Miss Hayley Burch. I wanted to give her something before I left for 3 months. After that I packed some, and then I drove my little Toyota to Midvale. Now, when I got this car (it was free by the way, from a guy that I met about 2 weeks earlier) it shook when you went over 35 mph. I didn't know why but when I turned really sharp it also clicked. Well, I had to get to Midvale to pick up 2 fiddles that my mom had dropped off for tune-up/repairs. I drove 50 on I-15 and as I was leaving the fiddle place my left front tire blew out.
My very first thought was to be upset but I then realized that it isn't that bad, then almost immediately I thought, "you know, I could have been going down the interstate and I may have died. I'm glad that just happened." Plus it happened in the parking lot of a Discount Tire store. How convenient.
I got the tire replaced, and my tires rotated (it cost a grand total of 50 bucks) and took off down the street. Santa Vaca! My car drives like a dream now. It was all because the balance was off and that made the whole car shake. It is now a really fine automobile. I'm glad I got it for free. So the day before I leave my car works well. But I proceeded to continue my preparations.
My biggest fear was that I would have no camera. I was worried that I would be here in one of the most amazing historical cities in the world and not be able to document it. So I bought a camera at 1:30 in the morning at walmart. It is a really awesome camera. It's a kodak and it has 12x optical zoom with a lot of other nice features. It was cheap too because it is a little bigger than most people want. It only cost me 130 bucks. Sweet deal.
Well, I didn't go to bed that night (as you can tell by the fact that I was buying a camera at 1:30 am. I had to be out of the house at about 5:15-5:30.

Hayley gave me a ride. Hayley is a wonderful and extremely generous example of a girlfriend.

She gave me a ride at 5:30 in the morning when she had class at 9:00. I can't think of anyone I would rather be with than her. Alas, I am in Europe and torn.

Well, I flew from SLC to JFK and arrived at VIE this morning at 8:30. It was fun and the plane rides were good. A little loud but it didn't bother me much...at all. I have just been sitting here at the Austro-amerikan Institute since we got in. I was lucky enough to fly in with Dr. McFarland who knows Vienna like the back of his hand. I'm happy to be here and I hope that all goes well...and it will.

Hard to believe

Michael McPhie is going to be leaving in the next couple days. He may not be back for a long long time. He graduated yesterday and now we no longer have the magical film genius to accompany us. take a look at this...

Finally

I think that I have had too many good experiences not to write them down here. Now, unfortunately I have to go through my memory and try to extract that which has happened over the last year and a half. Well, I'll try to work backwards.

I am moving out, kind of. I sold my contract for the spring/summer at campus plaza to Seth, my roommate. He can't buy my contract really though because he has one for fall and CP doesn't want him to buy mine. He's paying me under the table so my name is here. That means that I can stay here if I want to. Which I do. I like staying at CP. The problem is that there isn't enough space for me and my things here. I am moving it out and I'll be giving it to my mom for the three months that I'll be in VIENNA!!!

I'm sure that if I start doing something now I may actually come up with time to finish everything that I need to do. I just don't have much gumption so I think I'll spend my time equally wisely: I'm going to bed.

President Weipert

On the mission I had a hard time keeping up with all the different things I was supposed to do. I never disliked President Weipert even though it seemed like he was the one setting the "impossible" standards. I really did enjoy his company and his attitude toward the work. It was inspirational the way that he led the Paraguay Asunción North Mission. He worked harder than anybody and demanded that we give no less. It was hard to live up to his standards and although I don't think that I ever really did ,it was an experience to have had. I love the man, I love his wife Jen and I will miss him a lot. I haven't really communicated with them since the mission and I feel bad about it. I plan on at least sending an email every once in a while to Sister Weipert. She is one of the kindest people that I've met and she would like for all her missionaries to always keep in touch.
I have never really lost anybody that has been close to me. I would actually say that this is the closest friend or relative who has passed away. I was sorry that I couldn't get out to the funeral. I don't have the money to travel much, but when I can I will go visit his grave and also his family. I wish that there were more that I could do. I will just have to pray for Hermana Weipert and her family. I know that I will see El Presidente after this life. I will live a life that is worthy of the kingdom he is in with our Heavenly Father.

der 20 Januar 2009

So Today I woke up with 45 minutes until my nutrition class. Luckily I had finished the homework for that before I went to bed. I had two hours until my next class and I had to finish two papers and buy some things at the bookstore. I actually finished the second paper in class. I had to buy a scrub top and 2 name tags. That was surprisingly cheap. Then I went to my German class. I forgot the entire weekend to take a ridiculously easy quiz over the weekend so I finished it hastily before we corrected it and missed a lot.
In other news I am reading Voltaire's Candide and it's pretty hilarious.