I can't think of a title.

Okay, people have suggested that I update more so that I don't have to write a billion paragraphs and scare everyone off with "so many words." I guess I should listen to this advice since it will also make my life easier as well... We'll see how long I actually stick with updating regularly though. It's rather difficult to do since I'm super lazy and all. This may be my last long entry (for now). Yay?

Melk

• On Saturday, I went to Melk. It's this little town in Niederösterreich (Lower Austria), kind of between here and Linz. Basically, the only thing I knew about it before going was that it is the home of the Stift Melk, a (HUGE) baroque Benedictine monastery/abbey.
• Stift Melk: It was founded in 1089 when some rich dude (heh) gave one of his castles or whatever to some Benedictine monks, however, the actual structure (see Photos section) was built in the 1700s or so. If you want to know more/care, just search it on Wikipedia.
• The inside was amazing! I want the library so badly. It was gorgeous.
•  Melk is a really charming and sleepy little town, right on the Donau. It had narrow winding roads and it was super calm and quiet. I guess everything was closed since it was the weekend and all. Overall, it felt pretty deserted except for the tourists in the Stift Melk (even then, there were only a few people) which was actually really nice. I liked being able to just walk around and... breathe? I don't know. It was wonderful to get out of the city. I mean, Vienna isn't ridiculous and crowded like New York or something, but still... it was great to just wander (the town was quite tiny so walking through most of the streets only took a 2 hours or so) and actually hear birds for once! It probably gets a lot busier during tourism season, so I'm glad we went when we did.
• We went to some random restaurant after dying of hunger, and it turned out that the pizzas (which we happened to order) were on sale for €5. It was amazing. Unfortunately, they gypped us on the water. We asked for tap, but they still gave us bottled stuff. I should have asked in German. Blargh.
• Ended the day with awesome Apfelstrudel and some hazelnut ice cream (€2.50 for everything... granted, I did split the Apfelstrudel, but still. It was an awesome deal, harhar.)
• There are crazy teenagers who drive in their obnoxiously loud cars at extremely high speeds down the narrow streets... it was really annoying because the town was so quiet, generally.

Classes/School

• I'm really scared about my grade for Global Strategic Management.
• We had our case presentation yesterday (Monday), and it did not go well at all. The presentation was only supposed to be 15 minutes or so, but I think we were up there for like... 30 minutes? After I talked, I just watched the prof's face the whole time, and she was basically scowling and grimacing like we were causing her intense pain. Geez. Apparently it was "too long and detailed" and she is going to "decide our grade after she looks over our written case more." Crap.
• I'm going to drop down to German III. German IV stresses me out because we are just doing random phrases and I can't even remember the correct adjective endings or genetive case.
• Swedish is also worrying. I think I was placed into a group for something (no idea for what, really, because I can't understand super fast German well). Sucks for my group, haha. They're going to have to speak English or I won't be able to do anything (well, that is).
• Group work is as frustrating as ever. Some things never change, eh?

Language Learning

• I cannot force myself to speak German. Like with Chinese, in China, it's different because I either have to speak Chinese or not be understood. It's easier that way. Here, I KNOW people can speak English and then when I don't know how to say something, I just fall back to English. It's terrible.
• My tandem partner is probably really frustrated with me because I kind of force him to speak English the whole time. Actually, I wouldn't mind if he spoke German to me, but I can't even come up with coherent responses in German. What a fail.

Other Random Stuff

• Skikiten (ski kiting) = Awesome. I wish I could do that, haha. (My tandem partner ditched school for a week to go home/ski kite/celebrate Carnivale...) I guess skipping tons of school is totally normal here. What am I saying? Of course it is. Hardly anyone is in school, it seems.

This is not a very good entry, is it? I don't really have much to say. This is probably because I really haven't done much. I basically went to Melk, and then did homework for the entirety of Sunday... had various (awkward) meetings on Monday, and today, I went to Hofer to buy some ingredients for the International Dinner tomorrow. Then I went to Swedish class, where I kind of spaced out the whole time. Pretty lame, yeah? At least the weather fantastic today. It was actually warm and sunny!

Oh, and I've been doing a lot of reading about the whole situation in Japan. It is incredibly depressing. I really hope that the situation improves soon...

So yeah. That's basically what's happening right now. Hopefully there will be better updates next time.  I'm going to Budapest this weekend.


Pictures!

Two of the 3 textbooks I had to buy this semester. A miracle!

Rathausplatz, Melk

Stift Melk

Melk, as seen from Stift Melk

Inside

Outside

Sketchy woods

Stift Melk (it's huge!) from the sketchy woods (the river = the Danube/Donau)

Haus auf dem Stein (15th century)

Random tub in someone's yard...

Lolwut? For you, Amy.

Apfelstrudel!

Yay, spring.