We've been here two weeks now, and it's an odd feeling. At first, the whole trip felt like one big vacation: we tried to cram as much sightseeing as possible into the span of a few days. But now that we've settled in and are more used to living and commuting in the city, the vacation feeling has worn off a little bit. You can't live your life moving around and sightseeing every second; one must sleep and do laundry and spend an hour or two watching TV. So now, we are learning how to walk the delicate line between being "tourists" and regular people, while still trying to take in as much as we can. It's difficult sometimes.
Yesterday Jeremy, Laura, Melissa, Shireen, and I woke up and went to the Chinese restaurant down the street for lunch. It's interesting to try different food ethnicities from a German/Austrian perspective. They all loved it; I personally wasn't a big fan. Instead of giving us fortune cookies at the end of the meal, like in America, they gave us little cups of fruit. It was interesting.
Last night we got dressed up and went out to Flip, a bar in the Altstadt that serves delicious drinks. Laura and I spent the evening talking to Stefan and Christian, two Austrian guys who are grad students here in Salzburg. They wanted to practice their English and I wanted to practice my German, so we spoke in two different languages all night. It was fun to hear about life over here from the perspective of native Austrians. Stefan told me that he was amazed that I spoke so "properly", without any slang in my vocabulary. I wish I knew more! I probably sound stuffy.
Tonight I went to Franziskirche by myself for mass. It was nice; it gave me a little time to think, and as always, it was a great way to fine-tune my listening skills. I think I understood a little more today than last week. On the way back from church, I was on the bus with a lot of returning students coming from the train station. Spring break is over for the rest of the university now, and suddenly we have neighbors in Europa Kolleg. Living in the dorms here in Austria is a slightly different experience than it is in America. I get the feeling that the students are older, many of them in their late '20s, rather than 18-23 like they are back home. They seem to keep to themselves a little bit more, and take their studies more seriously. The students here finish high school a year later than we do, and many of them choose to take a year or two off and travel around Europe. If they work decently hard in high school, the government pays for their college education, so they're not really in any rush to finish it quickly like we are in the U.S., where our loans are coming due. We met several European students our age in the Munich hostel who were spending the spring and summer backpacking and traveling. Must be nice.
Tomorrow we get our stipend of 200 euros, something everyone's looking forward to. We need to go grocery shopping. I'm actually cooking! Laura and I made really yummy spaghetti sauce tonight.
Ooh cooking... sounds like fun! Looks like you're really settling down and, like you said, relaxing and meshing in. That must be nice.
ReplyDelete