And it stoned me to my soul

My first week started and ended and passed quite successfully. In all, I enjoy being in the school, the teachers are alright and the students are cool (at least, I think they will be once they warm up to me a bit). Although, I was quite happy when I busted out of there on Thursday afternoon, done for the weekend!

Friday, I slept in late and bummed around in the morning. I keep getting more and more mail and on Friday, I got a postcard from my friend in Berlin, a package from "Visit Florida" with travel brochures in it and my pin number for my bank account! All quite exciting! So then, I started cleaning my place, which took a lot longer than I thought it would, but it looked good and then I went shopping for the weekend supplies! I got lots of good junk food- perfect for a girls only weekend!

So, Nichol got to BA around 5:45, and I met her at the station. I gave her the little tour from the station to my apartment, then we dropped off her stuff and went around the town. It was getting a little dark, but it was a nice evening, so it was really nice to walk around. I found some places I had never seen before, maybe because I was feeling more adventurous with an "exploring buddy." I found the gym, the museum, a book store, the library and a DVD rental place. Excellent! Now I have some exciting ways to spend my evenings...

Frankie arrived around 8, and that's when the party really got started- ha. We were all "pre-loading" (as the German word for "pre-gaming" translates to) and chatting about our first weeks. We got all dolled-up to check out the local disco and left around midnight. We weren't exactly sure where Salzhaus was located, but we followed the oh-so-convenient event lights (can't think of the actual word?) shining into the night sky and found the place, right around the corner from my school! For a Friday night, the place was dead. We waited outside as Frankie finished her cigarette and had a laugh at this guy who had passed out on the parking lot ground in the fetal position...hmm, strange. He eventually got up, took out a cigarette, and moved to go inside. However, he didn't quite make it, as he somehow managed to pass out, cigarette in hand, in the doorway. Wow, hilarious and somehow I was impressed at how he managed to do this! Frankie went over to offer him a light and wake him up, and then we all went inside to the bar.

Us ladies ordered some drinks and our pal who likes to pass out in inconvenient places came over to sit with us. Turns out, his name is Mike and his father lives in Morocco and Mike lives in the town over, but comes to BA/Salzhaus on Friday nights although the club is shit (all according to him). Anyway, we all have a drink then Mike goes off somewhere and we all go to the dance floor (seperate from bar). Turns out, Mike had disappeared to the ladies restroom, because Nichol spotted him coming out of there....

But, we find a spot on the dance floor, order some more drinks and just dance, dance, dance. The place is still quite empty and the crowd is a little shady. Mike comes over every so often and then just says, "Später" (which means "later"). Eventually, we get him to introduce us to his friends, but they for sure weren't interested in us, so we decided to get a pizza and leave. Now, getting a pizza was a hassle in itself. I speak to the order-lady all in German asking her what kind of pizza they have, how much it is, etc. and since it was the end of the night, all we had left was change, so we take a minute to count the change out. She starts getting pissy and started making horrible comments to her Austrian coworker about us and how she was going to rip us off, but Nichol told her off (I missed all this because I'm counting out change). So, we get our pizza finally and leave and then Nichol tells us this story and I was quite upset. All the way home, we complained about this girl and the dialect in Austria, which none of us can understand. Then, we ate our pizza and went to bed.

The next day, Saturday, was spent gossiping/chatting, reading Cosmo, eating and watching movies/TV. We decided to watch Center Stage (Frankie was blown away that us American spell center with an -er instead of -re) and ate delicious cheese (we are all cheese fanatics). So we pretty much did nothing all day, which was fine by us because it was raining and we were all just lazy and tired from the week/the night before. We went to bed early-ish because we were all quite tired and Frankie and I talked a little bit more in bed (we shared my bed, while Nichol curled up on the couch).

Sunday, we awoke and had tea. We hung around for a couple of hours and at 12:15 Nichol left and then Frankie got a ride back around 1 pm. Since then, I've been relaxing, listening to music and daydreaming about my next travels, which I can't complete until my first/next paycheck on November 15th.

Anyway, it was a great weekend and although we didn't do much, it was great to do nothing with other people! Plus, I really enjoy Frankie and Nichol's company and we are all quite similar. I'm glad I finally checked out Salzhaus, even though it left a bit to be desired ha. I can't wait to go to Vienna to visit Nichol (she's a 10-minute, 2 Euro train ride outside of the city) and shop, shop, shop, go to a ballet and celebrate her birthday (Nov. 6/7/8)....although the shopping and ballet may actually have to wait until after Nov. 15th when we get paid. Also on the 6th is a reception for all of the US teaching assistants, so it'll be a fun weekend.

Today is rainy and cool and it is now definitely fall in BA. Last week, it was sunny, warm and beautiful, but now the leaves have started to change, the mountains are constantly shrouded in clouds and it's getting cooler. Additionally, it's supposed to snow up in the mountains this week- something I'm not sure I'm ready for. I keep hearing about winter and skiing, and while I think it'll be comparable to winters in MI, I'm getting nervous haha. But it shouldn't be too bad (I keep telling myself).

Alright, well time to really get to work with lesson planning. And I think I'm going to cook some pasta- I'm quite hungry!

Love to all!
Cheers,
Alaina