Travel Bug

Iceland Emailed!

2011-08-05T16:41:00.010-05:00

Well, the word is out: In a week, George and I are leaving for our last big hurrah of the summer - our trip to Iceland! Saga country, here we come!

Over the last two weeks, we have planned, re-planned, and planned again our itinerary. This included a sorry day in July when we realized we had to scrap our intention to trek around each of the western fjords, considering we'd planned only about 4 days on the Snaefellsnes Penninsula. As luck would have it, we're still hoping to visit the home of Iceland's hakarl industry. Putrified shark meat. Mmmm-mmmm!

Also on our list: Reykjavik, an evening bike tour of the coastline around Reykjavik during the midnight sun (22 hours of sunlight, and a high of 55 F in August!), Stykkisholmur, a ferry trip around the fjords in the Breidafjordur, Grundarfjordur, and Videy (a small volcanic island off the coast of Reykjavik). Not to mention trying to figure out how to say the names of all of these things. We have it on good authority (Hanna and Marko) that, try as we might, we will fail.

More (pictures, too) to come!

Thanksgiving 2010 - Meat Cupcake Edition

2010-12-23T11:14:00.011-06:00

International Relations Part Why Me?

2006-07-09T10:36:00.001-05:00

Me being successful as a Fulbright scholar:
So, I am completely ill. SO sick, and no dayquil. I want to die. The other day I slept for six hours in the middle of the day (totally erasing my "Jet lag is SO last season"), and my host mom/landlord came home and asked if I needed doctor. When I said no, she said, "then you eat." Then I said... um... Jenna sick. no eat. And she said "no eat doctor. no doctor eat." Then she made me eat buerek, which is bready oily fetaey parsleyey pastry stuff.

Burek Recipe: 1 pan phyllo dough, 6 oz crumbled feta, 4 oz creamed cheese, 1 beaten egg, 2 T fresh parsley, 1 T fresh dill, 1/2 cup better, 1 cup olive or grape oil. Eat repeatedly. Retreat to bathroom.

I thought I was going to puke all night. Then we had it for breakfast. And again for lunch. Also, at dinner she told me that both "um" and "sick" are "no say" in Turkish.

I looked them up, and "um" is an expletive for the female genitalia, and "sick" is the same, but for males. Thanks, Redhouse dictionary, for the specific translations.

So to recap:
Kind Turkish host mother: "You bad? You hasta [which I now know means ill]?"
Jenna: "&$#%& Jenna &%&&$@#"

Dear Fulbright,
Thanks again for the investment in my visit here to improve American-Turkish relations. About that, you're welcome.
love, Jenna

International Relations

2006-07-08T09:04:00.000-05:00

TÃ¼rkiye welcomes you! I got in on Sunday, July 2nd, and already I've made a big splash with the international community.

I had little to no time to wallow in my homesickness on the flight over, as the Bosnian man sitting next to me for the eight hour flight was very talkative. Especially after I told him I hadn't slept in days, and would like to sleep now, and for the next eight hours. Instead, he regaled me with tales of his job as a prosecuter for the US Embassy in Bosnia, including informing me that it would take just one call for him to find out if I had lied on my taxes, in which case he would be sure that I would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. In other words, we were fast friends.

Mehmet, my cell mate and new husband.

After the meal, he started his Bosnian stand-up routine:
1) This guy calls home in the middle of the day, and his little son answers.
*in high-pitched prepubescenttesquee voice*
"Hello?"
"Is yourmotherr there?"
"No. She's in the bedroom with another man."
"She is? Then do me a favor. Go to the closet and get the gun."
"Alright." And the boy goes to get the gun. "What do I do now?"
"Go in the bedroom and shoot them both."
So the boy does this and comes back and says, "What do you want me to do now?"
And the man says, "Nothing, Elam. Now go outside and play."
And the boy says, "My name is not Elam."

And..... Scene.

Good one, right? But also with a message, because "the woman got what she deserves anyway."

Then there was the one about the bird who wants to "get some", and keeps getting rejected by the female bird, until when she gets "randy? Or do you know horny better?" he is able to turn her down, because he is masturbating.

This one he barely made it through, he was laughing so hard. Oh! Those Bosnians and their humor!

In all, the flights were pretty much the worst I've ever experienced. In the middle of the night/flight to Munich there was a big racket a few rows up, and a woman ran to the back of the plane. Shortly thereafter a flight attendant came down the aisle in full toxic clean-up gear. After awhile word came back that while the woman slept her seat mate had woken up and vomited all over her. She then puked all over herself. After the clean-up, they were both moved to business class. Score for them.

After barely making it through the landing without losing it myself, the flight to Ankara was mildly better. Until the landing, when the boy next to me turned green during the landing, started sweating, and crawled over me and the man next to me to start vomiting over and over again in the bathroom directly behind us. Until the flight attendant knocked on the door and made him return to his seat before the plane touched down. I gave him my air sick bag and prayed I made it off the plane without the Lufthansa salad he ate all over my pants.

Once we landed, things went well, until the luggage stopped coming and twenty angry, luggageless Turks erupted in Turkish swears and tears. Joanna's bag was one that didn't come, and she got in the line / cluster of Turks waiting to write down their luggage information, as the Ankara airport is without computers. Meanwhile, I guarded our luggage that had arrived from the suspicious Turks who probably assumed we had just gathered up as much luggage as we could to sell at the nearest Bazaar.

Joanna and me supplementing our meager IIE stipends.

Tomorrow: More on how I severly offended our host mother, and purchased a Turkish boy to accompany me to Austria at the Bazaar.

Change Language

2006-06-23T12:25:00.000-05:00

Yeah. Okay. So I took that from the blogger page. Look. It's my last day of work, and I'm tired.

Things that indicate I am secretly already fluent in Turkish:

Bin Jenna. Bir Bira luetfen.

See? I can totally 1) Introduce myself 2) Order a beer....though nothing else, so all of my memories of Turkey will be hazy at best. Probably my pictures, too. Har Har!!!

I can also count to 19, and say 100. AND I can ask if there is any bread (and) milk. I know that should be "or"... but I don't know that word yet, OK!

All this after only six months of ravenous studying!!!!!!!!!

Thing I will miss as of 12:20pm today:

Chipotle Fridays (and Tuesdays... and Thursdays)

Thanks for making it a memorable three months, Chipotle.

Easy does it. Hard does it better.

2006-06-13T09:46:00.000-05:00

Okay.... so slight change of plans. NO biggie! Just a little... different. For one thing, remember my new best friends I was bragging about making in Alabama? Billy Jean and Jed are going to be so sad, but we aren't going to get to fry up some catfish for another whole year.

Instead, I've got some new new friends waiting for me:

AUSTRIANS!!!!!

(Or as I will now and forever call them, "Austrifriends".)

A few weeks back I got accepted for the Fulbright to go and study all my booooring / totally fascinating linguistics stuff in Vienna. And, after much ado about whatever a quadratmeter is (turns out: big), I even --hopefully-- have a place to live while I'm there.

I'll be doing language acquisition and maintenance research in the the Turkish migrant community in Vienna, and for an added bonus, 12 hours a week of "Native English Speaker" TAing at a UNESCO high school there. Sweet deal? Terrifying? A little of both??

The big bonus of all of this? Apartment in Vienna?? = meh, okay. Great experience teaching English to high school students who are probably faaaar cooler than me?? = yeah... close. Prestige of being part of the research community blah blah blah? = now you're not even trying.
Give up? For a week in September I get to go through a TA orientation in sunny, beautiful, Kulturhauptstadt 2003 Graz!!!! Back to my old Austrian tromping grounds.

I was trying to find a funny picture to put here, but then I remembered: Graz is actually amazing. Not funny "amazing". Actually, truly, gorgeous. Thanks again, Graz.

So the big story is that I also got accepted for this other grant to go learn Turkish before I start in Austria, so before I meet my bff Gunther under the shadow of St. Peters, it's off to Ankara, to get to know the Turks and their CRAAAAAZZZZY language. I just found out classes start July 3rd. What's that you say? It's already June 13th? Oh, I KNOW.

Mom, Dad, I'd like you to meet my host family.

Did I mention I get to find my own housing?

Ummm.. yeah.

2006-03-28T17:40:00.000-06:00

So... now that I bragged on and on about understanding the "link button"..... For some reason my super cool "post" is half way down the screen.
Fine. I've learned my lesson. I won't brag / "lie" about my internet prowress anymore. sheesh.

On a more serious note, 3M asked to extend my contract, so I now have a job for longer than the next month and a half! Woohoo!
P.S. Don't ask me what I do there, because after almost two and a half weeks of wowing management with my PeopleSoft skills I still have no clue what it is I actually "do".

Yeah, well maybe you're a showoff!

2006-03-28T17:27:00.000-06:00

How sweet is this?

This is from this thing where you can create your own visited countries map.

AND! You can do it for states, too! (See below, where I unwittingly look like I am spreading A)Communism [see above map] or B)Republican jingoism.

(Thanks Saryn for link!)

P.S. In case you hadn't figured it out yet, I totally figured out how to make links. So, who's afraid of the internet now, fool!

My Future / Jim Crow Past

2006-02-24T19:29:00.000-06:00

My future home? The dirrrrrty south.

That's right, folks. As of Thursday I am kind of sort of an Alabamian six months from now. Sweet cornbread and mint julips! The University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa, nestled snuggly between Montgomery, Birmingham, and Mississippi, has offered me a full-ride with a TAship and a $10,000 stipend each year. I may jest about the somewhat tarnished history of the great state of Alabama, but really, this is crazy exciting. Alabama is in my top three schools, and beyond that, this ensures that I have a future for the next three to four years. Not to mention, Tuscaloosa is a city of the "New South", so back up, y'all. This is a new day:

(Alabama Riding Lawn Mower)

It's actually sort of a funny story, involving me confusing the head poetry professor for a program assistant, and having no clue even after he spelled his name out for me. Obviously, I am a terrific candidate for this program. Whatever. Now is not the time to wallow in the embarrassing past. Now is a time to look towards the bright future. As in towards my future new best friends:

(Left to Right: Jethro, "Little Lady", Billy Bob, Bobby "Boob Job" Jim, Jed and Jimmy Dean)

Oh, who am I kidding? We all know who my real friends are going to be.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

2006-02-15T00:09:00.000-06:00

Or as I like to call it, the day any Law and Order watching person realized that they could put their free NBC legal education to good use, and mentally convict Dick Cheney of attempted manslaughter.

It's a good day for love.

Hey Hey Christmas!

2006-01-03T02:41:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas!!!!! I know it's late. But it's Christmas, and isn't that the real story here?

For "Christmas"* I got:
1 fake diploma
1 fine diploma holder, which I've since learned is too small for said "diploma"
And the real ringer: 1 University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire alumni pin!
I am a lucky lucky girl.

*Note: By "Christmas" I'm speaking of course of my graduation from college. Christmas is a secret time to be shared among family. No gloating allowed.
Seriously, you should be ashamed.

ConGRADUATions!!!

2005-12-05T15:14:00.000-06:00

That's right. I've officially learned from the registrar that I will, in fact, be graduating on December 17th. So, no more of this "you forgot to take those two classes... remember?". December 17th, baby. I'm so there.
But first I need to write two capstones (one in German), a psych paper worth 240 pages, three book responses, and pass a couple of exams. But most of those exams don't happen until the week after I graduate... so. Yeah. Not taking them. WOOOHOOOOO!

(seriously though, I'm taking them)

For Reals

2005-11-22T18:10:00.000-06:00

The Gre is in fourteen hours, and I'm starting to panic. The using the mouse portion I'm feeling confident about. Even the math might be okay after brushing up on triangles. It's the vocabulary that's crap. Syncophratic febrefuge penury scoddelwaggery. That means something, and not just I love you.

Also, something more interesting than the GRE study guide? Practically nothing.
Except this:

(Nail growth study done at the Institute of Medical Illustrators)

Reeding, Righting, Rist-o-matic!

2005-11-14T17:00:00.000-06:00

Here's an update of my life as a future grad student:

Lately, my days have been full of the little things: buying manilla envelopes, only to realize that I need even more manilla envelopes, since for every school that I apply to it's really like applying to two (one to the department, one to the graduate school. Jerks.); spending hours detailing individual lists of things to do for each school, and then realizing I still haven't actually had the time to start doing any of it since I spend all my time in "prep" work, (like a doctor, except without the payoff of "saving" "lives") and while that feels constructive, it's not; and buying 12"x12" cork squares for a makeshift corkboard on which I've hung all my manilla envelopes and checklists. At the time it felt like a great idea for organization's sake, but I've since reconsidered. Apparantly staring at the board of mfa's for an hour before you go to sleep each night, only to be greeted by it as the first thing you see every morning isn't as relaxing as it sounds.

On a positive note, the cork board fell down, bringing all my hard work down with it into a crumpled mess of paper and tears on the floor. I've since reinforced it with a nail-gun. Suckers.

So, if you're interested, here's my final list of schools:

University of Virginia (Charlottesville)

University of Texas (Austin.. WOOHOO!)

University of North Carolina (Greensboro)

University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa)

University of Arkansas (Fayetteville)

University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)

University of Iowa (Iowa City)

Columbia Unviversity
Cornell University.

If you're impressed, consider writing me a letter of recommendation, since I still only have two, and I need three. Sweet F-bombing deal!

As you may have noticed, the list is full to the brim with the bible belt. So clean the windows, Jaron! I'm coming to visit!! (if I get accepted, so maybe hold off for now)

Of some concern: Brent has expressed the opposite of willingness to follow me past the Mason Dixon Line. Or is it Mason Dixie? I think I called it Dixie for a long time, thinking it had something to do with those crazy racist paper cups.
Ah, love.

How to Make Friends 101

2005-11-12T23:32:00.000-06:00

Okay, this was super. Don't tell me it wasn't.:

My dad wanted this ultra cool pair of motorcycle pants, which my mom thinks is stupid, so he asked me to order them, and once they arrived at my place he would come in the dark of night, secretly pick them up, and hope my mom didn't notice him parading around the house in ultra strong mesh-layered yellow motorcycle pants. The plan was that they were to arrive in the morning, and I was going to call my dad and tell them they'd gotten here.
So, the Fedex guy comes while I 1) had just gotten out of the shower 2) was incredibly indecent. So I threw on a sweatshirt while he rang my buzzer over and over and OVER again (smooth, right?), and hoped he wouldn't notice that I am a fantastic floozy obviously home alone. In the end, Fedex guy gives me the box with my dad's pants in it with nary a disapproving glance.
No sooner had I closed the door and ripped off my shirt the phone rang, so I answer it and it's a man's voice on the other end... my father has amazing timing!:
(Dad): Hello?
me (obviously excited, and also running late for class): Hey! Great timing! Guess what I just got?!
(D): What?
me: Your pants!
(D): What?
me: Your pants just came in the mail, not kidding less then five minutes ago. They're here!
(D): What are you talking about?
me: .... (small, horrified voice) ... dad?
(D): It's Jaron.
me: (horror)
Jaron: What are you doing with your dad's pants?

Moral: I am awesome.

Liar McLiarson

2005-10-12T01:45:00.000-05:00

Okay, fine. So I'm not in Austria anymore. You're right. The jig is up. I hope you're happy JARON!
I'd also like to point out that now, months after returning home and months more after trying to figure out how to add pictures to this blog for my loved ones to see Austria, I see right now that there is an incredibly simple, easy to use button at the top of this page that says "add picture" and, yes, is in fact a very small picture. I am a complete idiot.

Recent occurances you've probably missed since we no longer are next door neighbors and best friends (that's for my Ameri-Austrian peeps out there):
I got glasses four weeks ago, and can once again read. The other night I stuck in an episode of Northern Exposure, which is still the best show to ever grace CNABC hands down, and got these sudden inexplicable waves of nostalgia. After taking off my glasses for a second I realized that it was because I was seeing the blurry faces of my favorite Alaskan deep-thinkers and well-meaners clearly for the first time since I first watched the show with my family when I was eight. Thanks DVD!
Also I've officially popped one of the lenses out of my very new Burberry (they came with a fancy case that looks like those fancy scarves, so there's no hiding it) glasses when I went to take them off my head the other day, and had to scour my parking lot like a blindman looking for his shoelace trying to find it. Ah how that harkens back to sixth grade when I knowingly wore a found pair of glasses with only one lense, insisting they were real. I've also lost them for several days on campus already, to the point where I had to write a fairly embarassing testimonial on the white board of one of my classrooms with my full name and an artist's rendering of my beloved glasses.
Also: today while crossing a busy street in front of one of the buildings on campus I fell off the curb and splayed face first into the intersection in front of a car and roughly fifty people waiting for the bus. Then I had to cross that street and another one to get to my building, and before I could walk in the door somebody stopped me to ask if I was okay after my "nasty tumble".
Now I ask you, how couldn't they give me a Fulbright?
Now that I can add pictures, I wish Brent's fancy digital camera (that doesn't even use film !!! ) hadn't stopped working, so I could show everybody my glasses.
Try to control the excitement.

Whatever you want, fine!

2005-06-14T20:28:00.000-05:00

Woohoo!!! I have a job!!!! Yeehaw!
Zur Zeit: I know practically nothing about said job; however, what I can gather is that it is a translation/German-English Grammar site. Jacke (a girl here also from Eau Claire) is working on it right now. It's something we can do online from the states (which means I'll be working on it when I get home...!!!!), and it sounds terrific. Mostly because I'm a lame, lame geek who likes grammar. I know. Peinlich. (See all the German I've learned!). One problem, in order to do the work I need a copy of a program called Dream Weaver... not quite sure what that is. Apparantly, you can do a month long free trial, but after that the program costs about $300 (but at least it's not Euros... And I'm not talking Gyros folks--thank GOD!). So.... if anybody (SARYN, or one of her very fancy, suave friends) knows about how I could get that cheaper, that would be just terrific. Other fun: This will probably change my end of the semester plans a little bit, because I have to go to Linz for two days to do training with Jackie and our new boss. So now I'll be going to Linz the 2nd and 3rd of July, then to Berlin that night, and on to Wittenberg... spend the 4th and the 5th in Wittenberg, then to Frankfurt on the 6th, and a train to Trier, spend the 7th-9th in Trier, and take a train back to Graz on the 10th,11th and 12th in Graz, 13th to Vienna, and then--baby--I'm coming home.
To my parents couch.

In other news: Brent's here in beautiful, stiflingly sunny, Austria's city of roses--Graz. From Thursday to Sunday we went on a crazy bender with my pal Meg (who I will be seeing once, maybe twice once we fly home, and it will be very very sad) and Brent from Thursday to Sunday. Which is to say, Meg and I each split a third of a small beer and immediately passed out in a drunken stupor, waking up with absolutely no recollection as to where, oh where, we had left our pants.

The following: a brief history of my life as a drunk:
Thursday: We spent a relatively benign day drinking the most amazing hot chocolate ever to grace the earth's surface and eating many varieties of strudels. That evening, in a bald-faced lie effort to prove to Brent that we were in fact care-free and hilarious girls of leisure--rather than the pubescently awkward low-tolerance hacks we really are--we took Brent to an Irish pub, where we got embarrassingly shitfaced just by walking into an alcohol selling establishment and smelling their wares.

Friday: The next day, still drunk from the raucus 15 minute night life of the evening before, we bused ourselves to the Puntigamer brewery--an old, famous in Graz, and sort of okay brewery--with good intentions on going on a crazy and fun Austrian brewery tour (See Brent! SEE!!! We are soooo fun!!! We do this ALL the time!!! --us falling into a dumpster--). The brewery was closed. So, we went to the restaurant next to it, which wasn't in fact a part of the brewery, ate an amazing meal, and drank for the afternoon (read... two beers. Our tolerance was reaching for the stars!). That day we decided it would just super to visit Munich for the weekend. Wouldn't it just be super? So off we went.

Saturday: We left Graz at 8:30 am. After a slight misunderstanding as to where exactly the border between Austria and Germany is (p.s. it is not, in fact, in Linz, and if you ask them about a schoenes Wochenende ticket (the "Great Weekend" ticket for E30 that you can put up to 5 people on and go anywhere in Germany from 2am Saturday to 2am Sunday) there, all they'll be doing is telling you to have a nice weekend back), we arrived in Munich at about 5pm. We also took a bus for part of the way, which was especially fun, and almost stole our buzz. Crafty bus! We then went to the Hofbrauehaus, the oldest and largest brew house in Germany, well known for it's raucus good time and live polka band. We ate weiss wurst (with the skin on, which we later learned was a disgusting, rude way to ruin their fine regional cuisine), and drank beer with many other nationalites. How very eurotrash of us! Two liters of beer later (Two Liters!!!) we found our way home, ate a lot of bread and salami, and fell fast asleep in our 95 degree 8 person dorm.

Sunday: We felt fine, alright!
It was a great day, and nobody felt sick. Sure we didn't drink beer at 9am like the rest of the Bavarians. But who drinks beer that early anyway? Who even looks at it without getting a little woozy? Alright then. Stop judging.
We went to Marienplatz, watched the Glockenspiel go off (for which the entire city stops what it's doing and stands in awe, weeping from the overwhelming joy of it all), went to the English Gardens, and saw the university. A good, fine day had by all, we climbed aboard our train, sober and refreshed, and made our way home past Salzburg and through the beautiful alpine sunset, complete with a full rainbow--of skittles.

No, but really. A rainbow in the alps. It was almost too much.

Don't worry, we got pictures.

Wouldn't it just be divine to get away for awhile?

2005-06-04T18:21:00.000-05:00

For one of the classes I'm taking this semester which I NEVER wish I could drop and be done with already, I interviewed one of the eight year olds I'm tutoring in English. Here's an excerpt from said interview:

Me: And do you know what you’re doing this summer, after school’s over?
Felix: Yes […] Um..We, I make a overnight party.
Me: Oh, with your friends from school?
F: And we will go swimming, and play football.
Me: And where will that be?
F: In our weekend home.
Me: For how long, an entire weekend?
F: I, um yes. No. Um, longer. We.. I go in ten days of school, one week.
Me: That’s a long time.
F: Yes, [slightly annoyed at such a stupid, obvious comment] one week. In ten days we go from school with a bus to the house where we are in Fügerhof, this is the name of the house. And we will there one week.
Me: One whole week. Wow, that sounds really fun. But with your parents there though, right?
F: [Visibly Exasperated] No.
Me: No? Are there going to be any adults there?
F: But we have a Handy. (Cell phone. Their group of 20 eight year olds will have a cell phone. Correction, they'll probably have about eighteen of them.)
Me: But it’s just you and your friends?
F: Yes. And the class.
Me: The whole class. No adults.
F: No. [Followed immediately by a look of pity for my apparent provincialness]
Me: Are you serious? All alone?
F: Yes we go Angern. Angern…. There we go angern...what means Angern?
Me: Is that a German word?
F: When you catch a fish.
Me: Angling. You’re going fishing, fly fishing.
F: And we play fussball--football, and we go wander… er… wander…
Me: Hiking?
F: We go hiking.

Oh. Of course you're going wandering around in the woods with nothing but a soccerball and something fishing lures for a week. How ever did I get so old fashioned?

I'd like to take this opportunity to re-point out that Felix, and his classmates, are--along with being OBVIOUSLY cooler than I am--EIGHT YEARS OLD.

Enjoy your weekend homes.

Get this thing to stop!

2005-05-30T13:09:00.000-05:00

So, the word on the street is (and by street, I mean Erin, my one contact to the mtv world) that the new Weezer album is about to save the face of American pop music as we have ever known it. And the new Shakira video is hot Hot HOT!
What am I doing in this country???!!!

Cheeky Piefkas

2005-05-28T20:51:00.000-05:00

So, here's a rough translation of the full page spread about me in the Steiermark section of Die Kleine Zeitung... a little paper with a little name.
Let's see if, together, we can find some of the problems with the story. The answer key will be up shortly, as well as a fun and exciting behind the scenes look!

"ACCOUNT OF STUDENT EMPTIED WITH E-MAIL TRICK
Unknown Perpetrator disguised himself as the "Bank" and collected account information. Unfortunately, not an isolated case; computer deception on the rise"
Daniele Marcher

The young woman is an American with an account in the USA, and therefore thought nothing of it when the "Bank" contacted her by email asking her for her account information. Confidently, she complied.
Two days later the student, who is studying in Graz, experienced a terrible surprise: Her account had been emptied--more than $1500 was missing. An unknown perpetrator had withdrawn the money from her account through an ATM in England. Everything is stated in the police report filed at the Schillerplatz police station, where the civil service trainee handed it over to the investigating officer, who is now determining the fraudulant group members.

A WHOLE NEW CASE
"We have yet to have such an individual case", said lead officer Hermann Kemetmueller. "Cash withdraws through false transfers happens relatively often, but this is the first time with a falsified ATM card." That must be the case, if the student had not given her card to anybody. The 23 year old could not be reached by the police for questioning.......

Blah blah for another three paragraphs that somehow end up talking about how old people are often the one's who are scammed. And ain't that the truth, but come on, folks... what about MY time to shine?

Okay... here's the game. There are at least FOUR things wrong with this story, can you pick them out? I bet you just can't wait to hear....

Jenna's Famous!

2005-05-28T20:22:00.000-05:00

Just think, you could be famous, too, if only you were stupid enough to have thousands of dollars (roughly 18 Euro) stolen from your bank account while studying abroad in one of the friendliest, safest countries in the world....

Intrigued? Read on:
If you'd like to hear all about it in vague detail all you have to do is:
1) Learn German
2) Scratch the German you've learned, and learn some valuable Austrian terms/grammatic idiosyncracies
3) Spend the hour it takes to navigate the Die Kleine Zeitung website
----OR-----
Move to the Steiermark, where you can read the paper version (if you choose this last option, you will also have to go back in time, since apparantly, the city burns all issues of that day's paper once midnight strikes..)
4) Turn to page 22 of the Steiermark section and read on, aghast and enthralled at Jenna's tail of wo and despair.
5) Be willing to overlook a couple of journalistic differences between Austria and the USofA; namely, "Privacy" and "Fact"-"Checking"

If you've completed step one, I can also email you a copy of the story.

Austria Totally Flips Its Shit

2005-04-20T11:16:00.000-05:00

Again.
I got home from babysitting last night, soaking wet from the rainy bike ride home, and every single one of the town's 63 Catholic churches' bells were pealing to high heaven (originaly that pun was unintentional, but... ). So, at 6:30pm--my time--they announced the new pope, after only using two of their fifteen possible days. Don't you think they'd want to take full advantage of those fifteen days? I'm sure it wouldn't have been too bad for the economy of poor little Vatican City.
ugh... this is a little too cynical for 9am.

Okay.. so the bells go crazy, for the second time. When the pope died they went almost all day long (not kidding... it was nuts), this time they only went an hour. I guess they're waiting for him to prove himself.

Watching the new pope get named with a room full of Catholic mid-twenties Austrians was pretty interesting. I think they may have actually had bets running on it. Definitely none of them had put money on the German--practically heresy. When they named the German they flipped out, swearing and grumbling about the "verdammte Piefkas", which is about as rude as you can get within EU countries these days.

Let's just say that Austria and Germany have a huge rivalry of the sort that fuels the hearts of most Austrians, but that most Germans are completely unaware of. An example:

Austrian Newspaper Article: "Oh those smartass Germans, they think they're so great. Well, let's just compare the two, shall we? Oh look their unemployment rate is in the shitter; our's? Couldn't be better! Their economy is on a slow, but certain spiral downwards; our's? Couldn't be better! Crime?! Don't even start with us on crime! When was the last time somebody even tried to make eye contact with you on the street???!! Verdammte Piefkas!"
German Newspaper Article: "?"

Austrians: "God, those Germans think they're soooo great." (Insert completely undistinguishable accent, so that all vowels are flipped to sound like some other vowel randomly.)
Germans: "Can any of you understand what they're saying?"

So now, to make it worse... Germany's got the pope. A 78 year old hyper conservative who's been in charge of "interpreting" John Paul for the last twenty four years. Who's in for Vatican III?!!!

Kuerbis Kern For All!

2005-04-17T15:01:00.000-05:00

So last night I cut my thumb open on a tuna fish can. Very smooth of me. Too bad it's Sunday, and all of the Apothekes in Graz are closed. Hence, this may be the last you hear of me, as I will no longer be able to type after my thumb falls off, gangrenous and sore.
So, new things I have tried since we last spoke:
Kuerbis Kern Eis: Translation-- Pumpkin Seed Ice Cream. Hmmm.. you may be thinking, that sounds like it could be interesting. Perhaps a hint of pumpkin pie goodness in every bite. Surely they wouldn't simply mash up pumpkin seeds and stick them in some sweet, green ice cream of undistinguishable flavor! And if you were thinking that--as I was thinking--you would be wrong. As I was wrong.
Don't get me wrong, along with freshly mashed organic apple juice, pumpkin seed oil is the queen bee of the Steiermark. Everybody talks about it, it's at every meal, and I must say, it is Dee-Lish! That being said, delicious pumpkin seeds does not an ice cream make. Or... whatever. It's not pistachio, that's all I'm saying.
Also: The big possibility for today? The Circus!
Also: Here are some more opportunities to see beautiful pictures of Graz, eat it up, because the chances of my pictures turning out this well are not great.

http://cms.graztourismus.at/cms/ziel/92072/EN/

Speaking of pictures: Who wants to see pictures of Jenna during her ellusive Easter Break? One week of it has been beautifully documented with funny, memorable comments by my roommate Christy on her photo site. Do you remember how to get there? Directions are listed in a previous entry, but here they are again, in an easier to use format: Go to
http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumList?u=4251724
If you go to this specific link you don't have to type in her pesky email address. What a fun, new development! Here you will see a list of album options. If you want to see pictures of Graz, look at Graz. If you want to see pictures of places I've never been, look at any of the other cities. If you want to see pictures of things I may have seen several years ago look at Berlin pictures. If you want to see pictures of me and Christy during easter break in Stuttgart, look at "Osterferien". I promise you won't be disappointed.

Also: So, apparantly visiting Jenna is the new fad! Check out my month:
April 21-29th, Brent comes to visit. I try desperately to impress him with how fun I am. I fail, but he loves me anyway.
May 12-23rd: Casey comes to visit (!!!). Exhausted by my previous attempts to create an incredibly exciting and unforgettable experience with Brent, I nap a lot between classes. Casey gets lost trying to find Hauptplatz due to my lack of directions, and ends up traveling the orient, while I fumble through my dictionary trying to find translations for linguistics terms that don't exist.
May 14-17th: Molly comes to visit from Trier! We go to Budapest for two days! Neither of us speak Hungarian, so we end up crossing the border, and outside of the EU. Oh my God! Outside of the EU! We must be in China! (hoooeee. a little political humor for you. nice, huh?)
What an exciting time!
Speaking of excitement, here's a fun little play on words for you: The word for Diarrhea in German is "Durchfall", literally, "to fall through": a nice little image for you on your way to work. The word for flunking, something I may be doing a lot of this semester? "Durchfallen". Very nice. I'm diarrhea. Super.
But not yet, buster. Not yet.

Come on, touch me, I dare you...

2005-04-16T14:02:00.000-05:00

Alright, so I know I haven't kept up on this like I said I would.. I know. But I have a really good excuse for not writing about Easter Break: I had hives. And a cold. So I, Jenna, who you care about and would never want horrible, embarassing things to happen to, was that gross girl walking around all hivey and scratching herself inappropriately in public while snotting all over the place. mmmmm... very appetizing. Traumatic to say the least. And sure that was only about 4 days of the 10 since I've been back, but whatever... it's been rough. Quick wrap up of what's been going on before I jump into Easter Break shennanigans and fun:
What I am reading right now that isn't linguistics: "A Wild Sheep Chase" by Haruki Murakami, and New Yorkers all over the place--from this great Ami I met who will be in Japan for the next two and a half months, and gave me a huge backlog of New Yorkers, a pile of books to read, and two new English tutoring jobs. Woohoo!
Number of times I've fallen going up or down the glass enshrined spiral staircase I need to use daily to get to and from my room on the third floor, or "tower A", in Schubertheim? Officially 13; unofficially, too embarassing to count.
How much my blood pressure rises using, or at the thought of using, those stairs? A good 12 points.. or whatever it's called...
Proud new home of an ant colony: The showers on my floor. Very fun.
Rating on a scale of 1-10 of how beautiful Graz is this weekend? Umm... what's that number? oh yeah. 10
Do you want to see? Here are some livecam shots of Graz RIGHT NOW!!!!:
http://cms.graztourismus.at/cms/beitrag/10009552/92104/
Amount of Spaetzle and Nutella I've eaten, thank god not together, in the past week? Ugh.. don't remind me.
Number of days until Brent comes to visit? FIVE!
What we will be doing while he's here? Good question. But I do have four different pamphlets from the Graz tourism office.
Best gift ever from new Ami friend? Milka Hot Chocolate mix. That's where they melt a bar of Milka and add a couple of spoonfuls of milk. mmmmmmmmm

Sending me mail

2005-03-21T01:21:00.000-06:00

I almost forgot. This is VERY important:
If anybody wanted to send me mail that isn't on a computer, it is very very VERY important to write it with EUROPE at the end. Apparantly things sometimes get mixed up and get sent to Australia instead of Austria--a situation that is increasingly maddening as I enter my 5th week waiting on a package from Beth that I will probably come while I'm gone, not get picked up in time, and then get sent back to the states... and as I am still waiting for my stupid stupid dumbass bank card.
So, if you plan on sending anything, address it this way:

Jenna Cushing-Leubner
c/o Schubertheim
Leechgasse 1
8010-Graz, Austria, EUROPE

Thanks.

Oster Ferien!

2005-03-21T01:17:00.000-06:00

Right now I'm eating canned corn with Schaffkaese. How gross am I?

Alright, so Easter Break started officially on Saturday, but we'll just count Monday as the first official day, since it isn't a weekend. I spent a good part of the weekend wandering around the city with either Christy (Friday) or Meg (yesterday and today). Friday Christy and I got ice cream (it was almost 70 here) then trapsed up to the schlossberg, where we sat on a wall overlooking the city for a good hour and a half having a "conversation" about Graz, and how much we love it. Which is to say, every 15 minutes or so, one of us would pipe in with something else we just love about Graz. Then we wandered around and "looked" at apartments. Basically we day dreamed of what it would be like to live in an apartment downtown. Very exciting. Since Christy left on Saturday morning, Meg and I have been eating a lot and watching "My So-Called Life". Fulfilling, to say the least.

Now to the fun part: EASTER BREAK!
STILL haven't gotten my bank card in the mail yet, so I'm hoping to scrape by on under 300 euro over the next two weeks. Ordinarily wouldn't be a problem, but it definitely will be a chore with traveling and having to eat out every single day.
So, it turns out I won't be around at all until the first weekend of April. I thought at first that I would be home for a few days before Easter, but I think that has changed.
Here are my plans:
Beth, Bob, Frau, Bob's parents, and Jason--a friend from Bob's work, are in Germany as we speak, and heading to Salzburg in the morning. I leave Graz at 6:35am, meet them in Salzburg at 11:44am, then we are going on a bunch of Alpine tours, and tours around Salzburg, ending in a Mozart concert on the 23rd. On the 24th, it looks like I will be going with them to Vienna (was going to save some money by going home to Graz, but got an email this morning from Beth that said that Bob's parents want to pay for me to stay in Vienna, which to be honest is more than a little uncomfortable for me, but I think I'll just do something really nice for them when I get back to the states. They leave for home on the 27th (Easter Sunday). I'm taking a train on that day up to Stuttgart, where I will be staying with my roommate Christy's great aunt until saturday or sunday. I'm very excited, and a little tweaky about the Euro deal. I think it will be really fun, though, and am really looking forward to seeing everybody, and working on my german for a good week straight in a more laid back setting (Stuttgart). I've also never been to any of these places, so I'm pretty excited about all of that, too.

Other exciting things: Earlier this week I sat in on the tutoring job that I'm going to be taking over on April 13th. Tutoring is sort of a loose term, though. Basically I am teaching a high school English class once a week. The girl who does it now is studying compostition at the music conservatory here in Graz. She's been here for almost three years now, and is leaving for 2 1/2 months to do a composition fellowship in Japan. It's really sort of a shame, because it turns out she is absolutely great! She's proven to be a good source of back issues of the New Yorker, let me raid her bookshelves, loves This American Life, is watching my plant while I'm gone, and gave my name to the four other students who she tutors individually. Here's the best part: Somehow we started talking about linguistics (probably because I'm a massive geek who always somehow squeezes it into to conversation. God. I'm probably really boring...). Specifically we started talking about phonetics and the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). Turns out that she writes her music based on the IPA. So, she doesn't write words, she writes sounds. Pretty cool and even more intense. We talked about it a lot, and she gave me two of the pieces she has been working on. I'm going to go over them and see where possible problematic sections are for reading the IPA, etc. I'm probably going to be recording me reading it so we can compare notes and look for common mistakes. Probably doesn't sound like much, but I'm VERY EXCITED! It's SO cool. We also talked about a bunch of other things to do further down the line if this preliminary stuff works out. It's too bad that she's heading out so soon, but It's definitely been very cool to meet her. Also good to see that you can actually make it on a student visa. (turns out you can make up to 10,000 Euro legally in Austria without getting taxed, and with just a resident visa... good to know, possibly...)

So that's that situation. Otherwise, bringing plenty of schoolwork to do while I'm on the train. Looking forward to the trip, and still still unbelievably still having a good time.
Love you all!
Jenna

Let me touch your face....

2005-03-13T22:05:00.000-06:00

Hey! Does anybody want to see pictures of Jenna in Austria? My clothes are probably dirty, but I've gotten over it. See if you can too. Don't get tripped up, while it appears that all of these pictures have been taken on the same day because the clothes don't change, they actually have been taken on separate occassions. I know. Gross.
Here's what you have to do:
Go to: http://www.photo.epson.com
On the left hand side it will ask you to either sign in, or right below it you can type in the email address of the pictures you want to see. In that space type in: cmp001@lvc.edu (that's my roommate).
It will open up on a new page with options for different types of pictures. If you want to see pictures of Graz (where I am), you can click on the Graz pictures. If you want to see pictures of me go towards the bottom and click on the People pictures.
A new page will open up with little pictures on it. Click on the "Show all" link.
A lot more pictures will show up! Scroll to the bottom of the page. The last ten or so include pictures of Jenna, as well as my roommate Christy and another pal, Meg. They also have little thumbnail comments that Christy thoughtfully wrote. If you click on a picture it will get big and take up a lot of your screen.
If you love me a lot, you will use one of these as your background.
If you love me even more, you will create a looping slide show and use me as your screen saver, leaving your computer on even as you sleep.

In the land of Vollkorn und Honig

2005-03-12T13:23:00.000-06:00

Day: Saturday
What I’m reading that isn’t about linguistics: “Naoko”, a Japanese mystery novel from Jaron that’s pretty good.
New roommates for the weekend: One. SUNY Meg who was evacuated from her room when her new roommate’s boyfriend came to stay.
Number of times I’ve eaten Spätzle with goat cheese in the last week: Three
Number of times the power in our dorm has gone out: Two
Number of times it has stayed out in only the bathroom for more than eight hours due to SOMEBODY leaving the burners in the kitchen on the entire night: One.
Things I don’t understand: Pretty much everything.
Tried to figure out how to post the one an only digital picture of myself looking mad sporty in Austria. To no avail. We had our first practice for La Crosse on Tuesday, and on Wednesday received a speedy email attachment photo of us sweaty and hardcore awesome with our La Crosse sticks. I’m pretty bad at it, but it will probably be fun. Wednesday we were kicked out of the game room in the basement for kicking the soccer ball around and told the roof might be a better option. Hmmmmm….

First week of classes down, and I had a geektastic GREAT time! I love love love my classes. I understand my classes, except for two of them, which I probably won’t end up taking the exams for anyway. Right now I should be in the library for my classes, but they aren’t open on Saturdays or Sundays. And they close at 4pm during the week. Why not? Everything else does. So this week I’ll library myself out. Oh, one other thing: We don’t have books for our classes. We get a resource list. If we’re lucky we get a binder in the institute library filled with articles. No matter what we get, we have to make copies of it. All of it. Something else Jenna doesn’t know how to do? Make copies.

It’s too bad. Since everything shuts down on the weekends, for once it would be the perfect opportunity to head to the library and study up. In fact I really want to head to the library and study up. I’m insanely interested in everything we are covering, and I want to read all the articles we’re supposed to read… for ALL my classes. It’s insanity. And thwarted. I guess I’ll start preparing things ahead of time next week, and start making the copies. I already have four presentations scheduled, three papers, and one very exciting group project. Don’t ask me about exams. I don’t want to talk about them. You can take your final here any time until the first week of the next semester. In the fall that means by the first week of March. Which is what all my rooms were full of when I thought the first week of classes was supposed to start. Tricky tricky. For the spring semester that means the middle of October. Which really means the beginning of November. Yes. November.
Not a bad deal. Actually, I’m still going back and forth on that one.

All in the timing

2005-03-04T18:33:00.000-06:00

Well, I just got back from the post office, where it took me an HOUR AND A HALF to send a package and a postcard. Though to be fair, the postcard only took about 90 seconds. I’m also including the time it took me to walk to the post office only to find that, of course, they are closed from noon until 2pm every day. Of course they are. Why wouldn’t they be? After all, Austria is well known for their Siestas in the middle of the day. Oh wait. No they’re not. So then I just waited, something I’ve gotten good at. It’s funny, I see the Nordic girls going absolutely nuts at all the bureaucracy and disorganization. Strangely, I’m feeling pretty thankful for how absolutely unorganized and inefficient everything in South Africa was. Thanks to freaking out for the first two weeks there, I just sort of wander around now, figure something will open later, and go to the next office I’m told to go to… where chances are they’ll tell me to go somewhere else. It helps that NONE of my classes have actually started this week, when they are scheduled to start, so all I have is time to go from office to office to office in any case. So I sent a package home for Easter, which is only supposed to take 4-5 days to get there. I’m shooting for a week and a half. Either way, it would be nice to know that they receive it eventually. That took awhile, after standing in an Austrian “line”, which basically means a clump of people that you scratch eyes out to get out of first. Both Elisabeth (Swede) and Eva-Maria (Fin) had package problems. I probably do too, but I just don’t know yet. Apparently Beth sent me a package on Feb 14th, and it was supposed to take 10 business days. Still no sign of it. Will check tracking when she sends me the number, but chances are it’s stuck in customs, and it would have been just as fast for her to physically bring it with her when she comes in three weeks. Durr…. Still… not really frustrated just yet. The class situation is sort of bothersome, but I’m doing pretty well with that. Thanks UKZN. Seppi said something pretty useful last night: “Everyone thinks that Austria is going to be efficient like Germany, but really we’re much more like Italy.” Ahhhhh… I get it.

Had a great time last night: Went with Seppi and Jaron in this mobile soup kitchen. From 8-10 pm we made three stops at Stadtpark, Hauptplatz, and the main trainstation (Hauptbahnhof). We had hot tea and sandwiches we picked up from a convent. It was really a good time. Seppi volunteers to do it every other Thursday, and I’m invited along every time. Afterwards, Seppi took us through the seedy part of town, where he opened a loading dock door in the middle of a wall. We walked into the baking factory for Auer Brot (which is the ritzy bakery that’s all over town and drives up the prices for all the other bakeries). It smelled awesome. There was bread everywhere, and in the back they were baking in these huge ovens, and there were carts and carts full of pastries. Apparantly the bakers do a little downlow business at night and sell things at a discount. Very funny, and VERY secretive. It was so so so good. Something to add to our new bimonthly ritual.

It snowed again today. Not sure how long it’s going to last this time. Christy and I are going to take the Lacrosse sticks out as soon as it starts melting a bit. First meeting on Tuesday sounds like. Tonight: homemade salsa with some of the amis, then an ERASMUS (the EU joint study program) party late late tonight. Next week: classes start. If we’re lucky.

First Day of School!

2005-03-02T01:23:00.000-06:00

First day of classes!
I know I'm a total geek, bu today was my first day of real Austrian classes, and I was totally excited! My roommate Christy and I went around finding our buildings and classrooms yesterday. I was supposed to have two classes today: Development of language and text competence in school aged children, and the Theology of Hitler. Both are "lectures", although the first is going to have a little more work to it, and the second didn't actually meet. No professor.. and apparantly in Austria the 10-minute rule is the 45 minute rule. ugh.

Anyway, because Eau Claire is crazy in setting up credit equivalencies, I'm taking 15 classes, and eventually will probably pair it down to a smooth 12. Yes. That's right. 12. Classes. The classes only meet once a week for 1 and a half to 2 hours a day here, but for the most part your entire grade settles on the final paper or exam at the end, so no matter what lecture or proseminar (More individual work than a lecture), I'll have a good 10-12 exams and papers to do before July 2nd. Sort of funny, actually. The semester is over July 2nd. Students here can do their exams or papers anytime within a year of taking the class, but I need to have this form filled out by the professor as (yes) my ONLY proof of taking the course and the grade I get to bring back to EC (Can you believe this?) before I leave. My flight is the 13th of July, and I only have my room until June 31st (yes, before the classes are actually over...). nice, hmm?

Anyway Class today was excellent! I understood everything the professor said, and it sounds so interesting. During the course of the semester we have to do a small research project with kids 10-12 years old to test their language competence alone and in pairs--looking at their reading and retension skills when working with a text and creating a summary of said text. May not sound incredibly exciting, but I just dropped into the course because I thought it might be a good idea to sit in on for future possible research concepts. Good move I guess. Pretty neat. Tomorrow I'm sitting in on a class in the Amerikanistic building called Varieties of English. My mentor is taking the class, so I'm going to sit in for fun and help her out with some of the dialect issues and linguistic terms. I like to give back. Also may be going to a class on Language change and Variations of German.
Thursday: Living styles and Social Relationships of Immigrants (this is the equivalent of a 5 credit course back home.. and is basically one big reasearch project. Probably over my head, but I'm going to at least sit through the first session and see how I feel.) Language Acquisition, Jesus and Mary in Islam, Famous Forged Documents.
Friday: Austrian State Treaty of 1955, Society Culture and Social Change; African Structures of Time and Space
Monday: Meaning of 1989; Languages of the World; Problems of Sociolinguistics; Assessing Multi-Lingual Comeptence

The obviously linguistic courses I'm taking for sure, the others are padding, really interesting sounding lectures that are only worth 1 or 2 credits back home (really stupid), and sounded super interesting. All German but one--Assessing Multi-Lingual Competence. My excuse: The professor heads up research in the field I'm applying to study with the Fulbright, and I'm hoping to woo her and convince her to write me a letter of support. The top five students in the class get to take part in a field research project. If five Austrians beat me out of that in and English taught class, I'm moving to Guam.

So, nothing so crazy I guess, but VERY exciting to me!
Hope everything is going well for the rest of you!
Let me know if you want my address, etc.: cushinjr@uwec.edu
LG
Jenna

First Things First

2005-02-26T14:54:00.000-06:00

Well, guys here I am in Austria, almost a month in, which is pretty hard to believe. An ami came up to my room yesterday and finally figured out how to set up the internet. It took her 20 minutes. four people have been in and out of here for the last four months, and nobody could seem to figure it out. I can't tell you how many times I heard: "but there's something that's supposed to show up in the corner." Thanks guys.
In any case, here is an overview of how I've spent my last month:

Took an intensive German language course with four Swedes, three Finns, a Turk, an Italien, an Arkansasian, and a Frenchman named--yes--Pierre. Finished class on Wednesday with a 2.. which is apparantly the equivalency of an A or maybe a B.. not quite sure.
Wondered around the entire city on my first weekend, and it is awesome! More on individual stuff later.
The first day I got here they had just gotten six days of snow, and it was still snowing, and has been on and off ever since. As soon as things begin to melt, it drops down again. They don't usually get much snow, so everybody is freaking out. On the other side of the country they got almost three feet in one night last week. No joke. The train ride from Vienna to Graz was absolutely beautiful (though a hassle to try to figure ouut at the time). The story is actually pretty funny to think about. Me on about 6 housr of sleep over the previous three days with my two huge suitcases, Kelty pack, and laptop case; no idea where I am going which means lugging them up and down stairs and stairs and more stairs, missing trains that I may or may not have been able to take in the first place. Finally, since I had so much crap, I had to stand the three hours to Graz. Plus side, right by the window and was gorgeous! Slight downside: always, always, always next to not one, but two train bathrooms. Which, in case you are not aware, are grosser than cat pee. Really really really pretty though. I took some pictures of the city when I got here.
Little things since I got here: Bought a bike, live across the street from the Uni, met my roommate after two weeks (went home for break), got a refrigerator space two weeks into the stay (was keeping things on my window ledge, because it turns out the Bosnians aren't very approachable). Made friends with the Finnish and Swedish girls.
Big things since I got here: Went to the Opera to see Jesus Christ Superstar, which was only 3 Euros, and really interesting. It was all sung in English, so they had subtitles scrolling across the top of the stage. Really well done. They have an opera house, ballet, and three theater houses here. Can get tickets from 3-7 Euros if you show up an hour before the show. Very very very cool. They are doing a German Streetcar Named Desire, which can't be missed... Went to jazz club with Frenchman and Fin. Had sort of house band, then an open mic sort of setup, so people would come up and take a couple of songs. Mostly singers, but a drummer and guitar player, too. Graz has a really impressive Music/Art Conservatory, and there were some really good jazz singers. Couldn't believe it, actually.
Can't really udnerstand what people say around here. They speak Austrian German, which is such a different dialect, it almost reduced me to tears the day we tried to study it in class. Even so, I really like it here. Really.
Been spending a lot of time with the Nordic girls: Wine and Cheese party: justoja ja venjia in finnish (!!!!)--in fact I can now say my name in Finnish, where I come from, and "Tommorrow evening we are have wines and cheeses at Elisabeth's house." Tacos last night, coffee all the time.. just a lot of Scandinavian all the time pretty much.
Something very very very exciting: The Noric girls always speak Swedish together. Always. Finnland has two national languages: Finnish and Swedish, because of a minority group of "Finnish Swedes" in the south of the country. One of the Finns speaks perfect Swedish (and Danish, Norwedgian, and English) and the other can at least understand it, because they have to study it for six years in school. So all swedish all the time. I don't mind. They keep saying it is kind of like a combination of German and English, sort of. So I just listen and try to follow hand gestures and pretend to get jokes. It's actually really fun. Here's the cool part: Last night we were having Tacos at Elisabeth's (Swede) and all of a sudden I started picking up words. Mainly, instead of what they say sounding like a long string of neverending bidibadipidipuaidiadi, I could sort of hear how things separated out, and for the first time when they would say something I could repeat it at least close to what they were saying, because I wasn't guessing, I could actually sort of hear the word separations. Elisabeth got really excited and we started talking. For real..., sort of. If I were a four year old, anyway. Still. VERY Exciting. She didn't even have to tell me what she was saying. I figured out What is your name? Where are you from? I am from... I miss my boyfriend (Elisabeth). I can speak Swedish. You are doing a really good job. You she they I.
How cool is that???!!! I am so excited!
Next stop. German..... ;)
Don't have a landline, only a cell phone. But I just downloaded AIM onto my computer, and my roommate uses that to talk to her family back home. If you download AIM you can talk with me for free!
Shoot me an email for my screenname, or how to set it up.
Love you all!
Jenna