And you were the sunshine heading my frontline

Hello! How's it going? Here in Bad Aussee, it's just going. Lately, I have been doing absolutely nothing and while I had been looking forward to this downtime, it's starting to get really boring. I spend my days walking around the city (which isn't too big, so that doesn't last too long...), grocery shopping (when needed), watching a lot of really crappy American TV dubbed in German and reading. I have, however, started running again, which is really nice. I'm not pushing myself too much with it, since I haven't run in a very long time, but I'm trying to make a good, healthy habit :).

I also haven't been drinking much caffeine lately, so last week when I had a glass of Coke Light(Europe's Diet Coke) at 10 pm, I was up until almost 5 am, which was kind of funny.

Last Saturday (aka, yesterday), I had wanted to go to to Salzburg for the day. When I checked the train schedule Friday night, it wouldn't load, so to be safe, I set my alarm for 8 am to get up on time. However, my alarm didn't wake me up (I suspect it went off and I turned it off without waking up, because it was set) and I woke up at 9:30. I checked the train schedule and the next train was leaving at 10:17 am and I told myself I could make it. I got ready really fast, and as I was walking out the door, I checked my cell phone: 10:05 am. And I still had to go to the bank. I decided I couldn't make it in time and the next train wouldn't get me there until 3 pm, so I ditched that plan and went into the city.

Saturday morning is apparently a big shopping time for the locals, as everything was alive and crowded. I found an even better grocery store than before, and since I love grocery shopping, I enjoyed that :) haha.

But, tomorrow is Monday. Friday, I am leaving little Bad Aussee for a whirlwind traveling trip. I'll be first going to Munich, spending the day there, and perhaps doing a little shopping then off to Bad Neustadt for the weekend! I'll be there until about Monday afternoon, when I'm going to go somewhere? and spend Tuesday and Wednesday. Either late Wednesday night or early Thursday, I'll be going to Freiburg and spend the evening, probably at Kagan haha, and then Friday, I'm driving with Sarah and Maude to Neuchatel for this big wine festival! I'm pretty excited. From there, I'm going straight to Graz for my week-long orientation! After that, I have a weekend to re-cooperate and prepare for my first day- Monday, October 5th! I'm getting a little nervous so.... we'll see how it goes!

Anyway, I've been doing a little research into volunteering with the Red Cross while I'm here. I won't be starting that up until at least mid-October/early-November, just so that I can give myself some time to adjust to working and to get a little more comfortable with the language/dialect here.

Additionally, my sleeping pattern is getting really screwed up. I usually go to bed around 1/1:30 am and sleep until 11 am/12 pm. This is bad considering I will be working in a school very soon. While I don't know my schedule yet, I am sure I'll be starting around 8/9 am. I was thinking about waking up early everyday this week just to get used to it, but then I realized I had absolutely nothing to do and making the days longer would be somewhat painful. I guess I'll just have to jump right in when school starts...haha.

OK....well that's all from my little life. More than ever, I wish I was in Ann Arbor, especially after this weekend (go blue!!!!). I'm not homesick (you know, that horrible, horrible feeling in your stomach?) but I just wish I was in the States, at home or in Ann Arbor. I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but I'm coming home for Christmas and I'm getting really excited already. And, by the time I start school, it'll only be 3 months until I'm flying home! Which is a pretty exciting thought. I'm already making plans with friends! And the last two weeks before October will go fast, as I'll be traveling, meeting new people, and having fun.

But, hmm, that's all. Hope all is well with all of my lovely readers! Until next time...
Love,
Cheers,
Alaina