Splorin'

Today I went down to the campus in order to get my student ID. Marco (my sub-buddy) had just picked up a girl from Korea, Sol A the night before so we all went down together. Sol A had to stop by the international office where we ran into two japanese exchange students who spoke little english and no german. After standing about for a bit outside the office, a girl Hannah’s age came out. Eli is from Austria and was quite a relief to talk to without any issues of the over-extention of vocabulary. There was also another exchange student that I met, I believe her name was Sofia and she is a Turkish student who goes to a university in Milan and is in Austria for the semester. (I would congratulate myself on my memory of names, however I do not remember the names of the two Japanese girls). All of us went to get our student ids together and I was first (unfortunately both me and the secretary might have snapped at Marco for being a bit slow and dull witted… I will try not to do so again… try). While the secretary put my information into her computer she made a multitude of crazy faces at her computer (most of which included bulging eyes). This, of course, made me a bit nervous, especially when she gave a strangled cry and jumped up from her chair and disappeared into the back room. Apparently the computers were a bit wacky this morning and were refusing to take any of our information, so we will just have to go back next week to get our ids. After that I went on another campus tour with Marco and the girls and then we split up. Eli, Sol A and I went down to the lake to see what it was like. It is gorgeous. The buildings by campus are a bit… hmmm… how do I put this… communist in their architecture (everything the same and square and, well, unimpressive) but the nature here is amazing! We went through a wonderful park that led to the Bath (swimming area) and then found a path that goes around the lake. We did not get all the way around (I heard from a friend back in the states that it takes about 12 hours to go around the whole thing). However we did find some beautiful houses, trees, and porsches. Before we turned back we sat on a bench that overlooked the most amazing view. I am planning on going back tomorrow to get a picture of it to share. We sat on a public bench that had a trellis woven with leaves that looked out over the lake. Near the shore there were reeds poking out from the water as well as lily pads with pink flowers floating atop. The lake is almost crystal clear, so we could see the fish swimming around under the lily pads. The view across the lake was of the hills that surround klagenfurt and then a silhouette of the Alps just beyond. It was amazing. On the way home, Eli decided that she was going to go into the town center to try to find a Ethernet chord. None of us knew how long it would take her, but we all agreed we were on the bike path that went into town, so she went. I do not know yet whether it is an easy jaunt, I will have to ask her later. Sol A commented after we had parted ways that she would not be as brave at Eli, but I had come to the conclusion that Eli could handle herself. She had given a thorough set down to some creepy old men who where publicly and verbally leering at us and then grumbled about how men in Istanbul were worse. Once back at my dorm, while chatting with my mom I met my neighbor (…forgot her name already) and she is from Topeka, Kansas. Her and her friend (insert male name here) have been here the past month and are leaving next week. She seemed like she had enjoyed herself, but her companion was a bit grumbly about being bored and how the people in Klagenfurt do not speak “real” german. She blew him off, but I have noticed the same thing as well. It is a mixture of something, but it is a lot easier to understand. The bored comment did not phase me though, because what could be more boring than UNI’s campus? Overall it was a great day that ended in me watching “Ever After” and eating nutella and some peanut butter. I also found out that I cannot watch netflix or hulu here, but I can rent movies on iTunes! And the hulu thing is not really and problem because I can watch the shows on the network’s sites. Tomorrow I am going into town to get an ethernet cable and get bedding for Sol A with her and Marco, maybe Eli will join us. Good Night!