Pancakes

Today was a wonderful day. I had class in the morning for a couple hours, but I got out early. I hate getting out early because there is usually nothing else to do. Klagenfurt proved me wrong today, though. I found out that there is a student cafeteria, so I went over there to eat some lunch. I made it through the line to find a whole group of foreigners that I knew. Eating lunch in a group of people is so much better than eating by yourself. Lonely thoughts come into your mind when you eat too often by yourself, so eating with a group was good. It was nice also because they were a group of higher level German students. That meant that they were speaking German, which is hard to find sometimes on this campus. I spent the lunch hour with them, then found my way to the grocery store. I love the grocery store. It's a short walk from campus, which is a nice time to think. I usually think about random German phrases, or what I learned that day. Maybe I think about what I'm going to do for the rest of the day, but that thought usually gets me nowhere so I forget about it. After the grocery store, I came home to read some German poetry. My professor gives us things to read for fun in our free time. Usually they are songs, poems, jokes, or short histories. While I was reading, I found out that people were coming over to the kitchen tonight from all of the other dorms to make pancakes. Haha, there was going to be a pancake party. I had something to do! I read all afternoon until a knock came at my door telling me that the pancakes had begun. I went downstairs to the kitchen, and sure enough, the pancakes had begun. All of us foreigners were there. It was wonderful. I spent most of the night in the kitchen before coming back to my room to write an update for you all. I started writing, and my roommate came home. I was writing some really good, interesting stuff about a chapter in a book I read, but he kept telling me to look at stuff on his computer. He's from India, so he was trying to explain to me about the caste system and the meanings of the Sanskrit words. That's really great, but I was trying to write and my fingers were going nowhere. He kept telling me random Indian facts, which I love because he always laughs after every one like it's funny that I never knew the random fact about India before. My mind wasn't working while he was explaining things like Shudras and Hindi and diamonds and lots of giggles, so I decided to give up and write this silly update instead. It was straight, to the point, and not very cool. Sorry. Blame Avalanche. He has too many Indian fun facts. I can't pay attention to writing and listening. That's my excuse. Maybe I could tell you a little bit about the chapter now, though, since he has gone back to his computer game. Here is what I had written so far:

I read the best chapter of any novel I've ever read today. It's not actually a novel, I guess, but more like a book of some guy's thoughts. It's called Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller. It's a rather interesting book, as I told you yesterday, and today he talked about an idea I've never before thought about. The chapter was titled Naked: Why nudity is the point. Odd chapter title, huh? I mean, nudity is ok. I'm not afraid of it, but is there really enough relevant to write a whole chapter about it in a book like this? The other chapters are talking about things like poetry, knowledge about God, the enormous of a creator, and modern warfare (not the type that is being fought in Iraq and Afghanistan; more the type being fought by your soul). He says great things, things that really hit me in the face because they are so simple yet so huge. He says things like, "poetry is a literary tool that has the power to give a person the feeling he isn't alone in those emotions, that, though there are no words to describe them, somebody understands," and "if you happened to be a person who thought they knew everything about God, Jesus would have been completely annoying," and "if we could muster a portion of the patriotism we feel toward our earthly nations into a patriotism and bravery in concert with the kingdom of God, the enemy would take fewer casualties to be sure." These are all things that I would love to write about. For real, I would love to fill this post with comments on just one of those statements, but this post is about nudity. When I got to the chapter, I was thinking, "how is this guy going to go from talking about spiritual warfare to such an immature topic like nudity?" It blew my mind that he was going to try to include this subject in his book. Maybe it doesn't affect you like it did me, but I'll say that it really made an impression on me, not necessarily positive, that he was going to devote a whole chapter to why nudity is the point. I read through the chapter, amazed. Such a simple thing. Such a well known story that people look over. At least, if you're like me, you probably looked over it or saw it one time and thought about it for a couple minutes then let it go to the back of your mind. The chapter was about the Garden of Eden. You know, God creates Adam, Adam becomes lonely, God tells Adam to name all of the animals, God creates Eve, Adam and Eve walk with God, Satan tempts Adam and Eve, Eve eats the apple, Adam and Eve make clothes, God gets upset. They are naked the whole time until the end. That's how the story goes. You probably know that. The thing that struck me was, Adam told God he was lonely. He was searching for a friend, but couldn't find anything that was right. God told him to name all of the animals. Yeah, all of the animals in the world. So Adam was lonely, and rather than God creating Eve right away, he made Adam name all of the animals in the world. How comforting for Adam huh? Many years of naming probably passed before God removed the rib and fashioned Eve to end Adam's loneliness. So now Adam is way in love with this girl Eve. I mean, he had never even seen a woman before (unless of course God looks like a girl), and now he has a wife created perfectly for him. I don't know if you get how much Adam loved Eve. He was alone for so many years because he had to come up with names for animals, every animal. He was lonely, and the thought of a woman may never have even crossed his mind. Then, one night, God creates Eve, and Adam wakes up to find the most beautiful being in existence sleeping right next to him. What a surprise! Years of waiting seemed to be worth it. Don't forget, the whole time they were naked. No clothes necessary. Adam and Eve were perfect, living happier lives than you and I have ever lived, and they were naked the whole time without even realizing that being naked is different. That's because naked wasn't different. They were naked not only because they had no clothes, but they also had no secrets. The couple went on walks with God. Take a step back, read that sentence again. The couple went on walks with God. They were friends, they talked, they probably joked with each other, they smiled and hugged. Adam and Eve were totally naked; they had nothing to hide. There entire life was spent glorifying their creator without anything inhibiting their praise. That's magical. But that nudity ended. They gave in to temptation, and what was the first thing that happened after the apple was eaten? They realized they were naked. Suddenly, being naked was weird, awkward. The grabbed leaves to cover themselves. They hid when God came looking for them. They wore clothes and hid. Why? Because they had given in to temptation. Donald Miller says that Moses, when he wrote Genesis, does not have any point other than this when he wrote the portion that is now Chapter 2 and 3. Do you get it? They were naked and perfect, but then they gave in and started to think that nudity is weird. Do you think nudity is weird? I mean, I'm not really talking about clothes or no clothes here. I'm talking more about the other aspect of being naked. The part where you hide nothing from God; where you let Him see your heart and mind because you don't put up walls. Are you naked in that sense? Do you have walls? Secrets? Do you put clothes around your soul? I do. I do it when I refuse to die to myself. I do it when my faith is small. I do it when I willingly separate myself from the Truth. I put up those walls a lot, but I know what it's like to be naked too. I know what it's like to be totally bare before God, to be completely honest about my stupidity and attempts to run my own life. I have felt what it's like to sing and dance without any worries of who's watching and what they're thinking because I know that my actions are making Someone smile. I know all of those things, yet I still put up walls. It's a terrible situation to be in. Do you know what I'm talking about? Do you even know what it's like to be completely naked? Have you ever felt total liberation while standing before Jesus? Try it out some time. I don't think you can find anywhere better to be than naked right there.

That was what I wanted to write. I hope it wasn't too much. I hope it doesn't sound religious to you because I would absolutely hate to sound religious. Too many rules and judges. I just want to write what I think about. I just want you to read this and think about your own life. Maybe it means nothing to you. Oh well. I hope that you spend more time being naked now. You can do that physically, but I think it would be better to do that spiritually. Break down the walls you've allowed to be built up. Don't worry what other people think about you. Just be free. I'm up far past my bedtime now. I will write again soon. I love you. Guten Nacht.

lazy sundays

As I'm preparing myself for this post, wondering what I should write about that might hold your attention, I'm eating chocolate. I'm always eating chocolate. I wrote about that before, but it deserves to be written about again. The chocolate here is so much better than anything you can buy in Hy-Vee or Safeway. Seriously, it's so good here. There is a word is German that is kind of similar to the word addicted in English. It's called süchtig. Our professor sometimes asks us what our süchtig is. Three or four of us say schokoladesüchtig. We are addicted to chocolate. We're trying to get help, but it seems like nobody really cares about our addiction. Everybody just keeps giving us more. For real, everywhere you go, people give you chocolate; especially in class.

I'm sorry I just wrote about that for so long, but I didn't know what else to write about. Now, I think I have an idea. Often, though, my idea of what I should write about at the beginning of my typing is nowhere near what I actually write about. That's because writing is thinking. Writing is a journey into the unknown. I say that a lot. You don't have to believe it, but I think you would discover it for yourself if you tried it.

Ok, so today is Sunday. Austria, as a country, is closed on Sundays. The only thing open in Klagenfurt, other than churches for morning services, is a grocery store on the far side of town that is too far to get to by foot. That means that you have to find something to do outside of going anywhere in the city. In my case, I have to find something to do in my little dorm room. Let me tell you, there aren't a lot of options of things to do in this room. I have my computer, some books, a journal, a bed, and some fruit. Lucky for me, there is also a common room with a television that receives 5 or 6 channels. So what did I do?

I woke up this morning around 8 am in order to shower and eat breakfast before setting off to find a church that I had never seen. All I knew was that it was an evangelical church somewhere near the city center. I also knew that the service started at 9:30, so I gave myself about 45 minutes to get there because I was going to be walking. The walk to the church took almost the whole 45 minutes because I was slowed down a little bit by the snowfall from last night. Like I said before, nobody shovels here. I walked along a bike path next to the land canal that separates part of the town into two portions. It was a nice, cold, snowy walk, but eventually I found the old cathedral. I walked in the large wooden doors, and realized that I was the youngest person in the building by about 30 years. The service was nice, but I didn't understand a thing because of the dialect. I found myself sitting down when everybody was standing up and never knowing which page to turn the hymnal to. It was fun, though, and I was happy to get out of my room. I passed on communion because I get nervous enough when I take communion at an unfamiliar church in America. I never know how I'm supposed to respond to the person handing me the bread. That's in America, this is the southernmost province of Austria. They barely speak German here, and you should know that I was never taught words in my university classes like Savior, worship, peace be with you, and so on. All of this was going through my mind, so I decided just to stay sitting in my back row pew.

After church, I walked home through the snow again and ended up sitting in the TV room. I found Germany's version of American Idol, and it held my entertainment for awhile before I switched to a handball game. I can only watch TV for so long, though, so I headed back up to my room. My roommate disappeared after I left for church, so I had the room to myself. I decided to read one of the few books I brought with: Searching for God Knows What. It's a book by Donald Miller. You should read it. You should read all of his books. They are interesting. He says a lot of great things, and the reason they are great is because many of them are things that have passed through my mind at one point or another. They are simple ideas, usually ones that we look right past, but they are important. So I read, and I snacked (chocolate). Most of my afternoon was spent reading and listening to music. Sundays are so lazy. I guess it's good, though. Remember I wrote about the Sabbath? It's almost like I'm forced to observe the Sabbath every Sunday if I'm going to be in Austria.

Tomorrow, I start my second week of intensive German. We flew through so much information last week. It was all stuff that I had already learned in high school or at UNI, but so much of it had to be dug out of a dusty corner somewhere in my brain. I'm excited to get back into class tomorrow. The weekends are nice to relax, but they seem a little long and lonely. This building is so quiet, like a ghost town. It's good to get out and socialize with people, and it's fun because it's in German. Our class is like a little family, too. We spend every day together. We're planning trips together and times to cook together. It's great. It's really helpful to have connections with other people who are totally new. We are basically the only people we know here, so we hang out with each other. It's cool because most of the people who I'm spending time with are not necessarily people I would be spending time with if I was in Cedar Falls. Some of them are quite a bit older, and most of them are girls. Not saying that's bad, just describing the group. In fact, there are only 3 of us guys in the whole group. In the group, there are so many nationalities and languages it's unbelievable.

I think I'll stop writing now. I don't really feel like this was a successful post, but more like it was an obligation. I don't want my posts to be obligations. I apologize to anybody who read this and thought it was boring. I thought it was boring too. I promise not to write about boring things anymore. I'll talk to you soon. Send me an email this week thomaspanicucci@gmail.com. Tell me what you are doing in your life. Ask me a question. Say anything. I'd love to get a message just saying hi. Ok, Guten Nacht. Go Saints.

Samstag

Hello my people. I realized something today after I received an email from my Uncle Gord Panicucci, and I'd like to write about it.



What am I doing in Austria?

I mean, some of you know because I may have told you or you found out from somebody else. I think there are several of you who don't know exactly what's going on, though. That is my fault, because I haven't clearly stated what's happening here. That includes where here is, what I'm doing, and why I'm doing it. Maybe, I can explain so that you can know better. I think that even those of you who know what I'm doing here don't even know exactly what I'm doing right now. Where do I start? First, I'm in Klagenfurt, Austria. Klagenfurt is the capital of the province of Carinthia. It's a relatively small city with a large history that includes a constant tug-of-war between Austria and Slovenia about who really owns this land. For the record, I'm in Austria, not Slovenia, although I'm very close to Slovenia. Actually, how many of you actually know where Slovenia is? Do you know the capital? Do you know anything about it? Probably not, google it. Ok, so that is where I am. Before I was here, I was in a magical village called Herrnhut. Herrnhut is in Germany. I was in Herrnhut only for 2 weeks. It was sort of a buffer zone I had planned between Cedar Falls, Iowa and Klagenfurt, Austria. In Herrnhut, I was staying at a YWAM base where I met so many amazing people. Read my previous posts to find out about what I did there. Now, for what is currently happening. I am living in Klagenfurt in what is similar to a student dorm. This semester, I'm going to be studying at the University of Klagenfurt. I will be studying German: linguistics, grammar, translation, and so on. The semester doesn't start until March 1, though, so right now I'm in an intensive language course held at the university for foreign exchange students. I go to class every day. The goal of the class is to prepare us for the upcoming semester that will be held in a language different from our mother language. It's a great class filled with people from all over the world; seriously, there are people from every continent in my class except Africa. This class goes for 2 more weeks before I have a week off to further prepare myself for the start of the semester. The semester will run from March until the end of June, with a break in the middle for Easter. Ok, so that is where and what that I've answered; time for why. I feel like I've already answered this question in a couple essays, but it's important to tell you too. I'm studying in Austria simply because it is an amazing opportunity. In America, I study Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, and German is kind of tossed in there. I decided to study here because I am hoping to further my abilities in German. All of my classes will be in German, so I think that I will be able to take plenty away from this semester pertaining to classroom education. I came here for more than just school, though. I came here because I love to experience new things. I love to be in situations that aren't always easy peasy routine. I like to be challenged and to live a life outside of my comfort zone. Those are some pretty dangerous statements that I just made, and they could come back to bite me but I think it would be worth it. I like the unknown. Austria, to me, is unknown. I knew nobody when I came here. I knew nothing. All I knew is that it was time to get out of Iowa again to explore this big world around me. The opportunity arose to come here to learn German and experience new things, so I took it. My plans, while I'm here, are to study during the week in Klagenfurt and travel on the weekends the rest of the world that seems to be within a couple hours reach. Austria is fairly centrally located, you see. It touches Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Hungary, and Slovakia. That's a lot of countries, and I plan on seeing them all.

Now you know what I'm doing. I am studying German, living in Austria, meeting new people, traveling to crazy places, and every step of the way, learning to live a better life. I have met many people so far, and I've been to so many new places. I've only been gone for 4 weeks. Who knows what will happen in the next 5 months? I hope something sweet.

ADDRESS!

I found out my address today for all of you dying to send me something. Here it is:

Thomas Panicucci rm. 213
11 Nautilusweg
9020-Klagenfurt am Wörthersee, Austria

I hope to be getting packages and letters everyday. Haha.

Freunde

Good news everybody: I made my first friends today. After class, I went out to lunch with some people to an Italian restaurant not far from campus. It was great to sit down and talk to people. We went straight from lunch to an intercultural workshop, much better than the ones I've been to in the past. At the workshop, there were people from every continent, I think. It was amazing. We talked about cliche things like are goals and expectations, but we also had a great conversation about what we think best represents our home nation. Before each of us answered, the others tried to guess what we would say. For America, people guessed hamburgers, cowboys, country music, famous actresses, and other things that I guess are stereotypical of Americans to non-Americans. It was fun because we got to say the good things and bad things of each country. As you all know, there are many bad things about America, but we also talked about a lot more good things. The only thing that brought us all together was that we could all speak German. It's kind of funny hearing people from Chile or Japan speaking German. After the workshop, I expected my day to be over because it was almost 5 pm. I was surprised to find out, though, that a couple students were going over to my neighbor's room to hang out and use the internet, so I went with them. Another student met us in the hallway, and he told us that there was going to be a pizza party tonight in the kitchen. Several students were meeting in the entrance to go to the grocery store to buy ingredients, and then we were going to come back and make pizzas together. Let me tell you, after a couple days of not spending anytime with people or talking with anybody, the idea of cooking pizza with total strangers sounds like absolute heaven. None of us knew each other, and we all came from different countries, but we all bought food and cooked together. At one point, there were 6 of us guys putting ingredients on one pizza at the same time. All of the girls were watching, taking pictures, and laughing at us like we were fools. After dinner, conversations died down, but then more students from the floor came in to the kitchen. Natürlich haben sie viel Bier getrunken. We were all getting to know each other, new Erasmus (Exchange) students with old-timers, the ones who are students here all of the time. When conversations started to die, we did what any group of people from mixed cultures does; we talked about sports. Naturally, we started talking about the difference between soccer and football. There was one Australian in the room, so he had to bring Footie and Rugby into the play, and everybody tried to convince one another that they were right. Eventually, we started talking about different accents, dialects, and words that each speaker says funny. A lot of times, there are sounds in one language that don't exist in others, so when those speakers are forced to make the foreign sounds, they sound strange. We each made fun of each other and laughed together. This may sound all kinds of cheesy and cliche, but it was so perfect. As always, I was worried when I first got here that I wouldn't be able to make friends very easily. I was wrong. The great thing about this place is that there is a large international group, and we are forced to be with each other all of the time. We are forced to live together, eat together, communicate with each other, and take classes together. We would be lost without that guidance. I would be lost, maybe not the others. It's unusual for me to be up this late, 11:15 pm, so it's time for me to go to bed. I just had to let you know how great of a day this was for me. Everyday that passes pushes me to realize the importance of staying positive and living life with a smile on my face. It's more important than I think we can know. I say it to you so often, so I'll say it again: Smile today. Who knows how powerful a smile can be to the right person?

Sunsets

Sometimes, at different times during the day, I think of something great in my mind, and I tell myself to get back to my computer immediately to write it down. Today, that happened to me, but I was 20 minutes away from my dorm. I was worried that I was going to forget everything, so we'll see how I do with my memory. I guess none of you will know if I told you everything or not, but just trust me that I am trying to write down all of those thoughts that go through my mind during the day.

Last night was my first decent night of sleep since I left the castle. That was last Thursday. Ever since then, I've been sleeping in the same room as guys who have terrible snoring habits, and my sleep just doesn't coexist with snoring. My roommate, Avalanche (Aveenash?), doesn't snore nearly as bad as the other guys, but he still does a little. I fell asleep before he got back from the kitchen, though, so it didn't matter. Back to the important stuff, I had my first real intensive language class today. I spent 5 hours in a classroom in 3 different shifts. You might think that sounds like a lot, but I enjoyed it. It was nice to have something to do. During those 5 hours, I think I learned as much German as I have over the past 5 years. 5 years of German in 5 hours. It was a lot, but it was fun. We started off with an exercise where the professor asked each student a random question he made up. My question was how does the future look for America. Is it optimistic, pessimistic, poor, something else? I was also asked what I would improve about the country if I was the president. I'm not a very political person, but I had an answer. The only problem was, how do I say all of this in German? I made it through, and he went to the next person, asking them if they would take a chance in a game of dice to win either $1 million or get their little pinky cut off. It was a fun way to start the morning, and in the afternoon we moved on to settings of time. Grammar came next, and last was culture. Lots and lots of information. It's going to be great to have those classes everyday for the next 3 weeks before I start my actual university classes. After class, I went grocery shopping with my neighbor, who is also from Iowa. Let me tell you, everything looks different in a grocery store in Austria. It was fun to get away from campus and actually spend time in a conversation with somebody.

This evening, I went on a walk to get to know the city where I'll be living for the next 5 months. I decided that I had no pictures yet, so I should probably go out while the sun is still up. It was a miracle that it was still up because it was almost 4 pm, and usually the sun is long gone by then. So I headed out. Somebody had told me that the Wörthersee was in this direction, so I made my way that way. I took some photos of my school and dorm before I left, and when I got halfway to the see, my camera died. Sorry, but I have no photos for you of the beautiful see. You will have to either look it up or wait until I get some new batteries. I persevered through the death of my camera, though, and kept on the path. As I was walking, I quickly got out of the small area I knew, and I realized that campus is really small. It is only a couple buildings; nothing compared to the huge campus in Cedar Falls (just kidding, but really it's not even as big as Hawkeye). I crossed the street, heading away from campus, and on the other side I reached ground never before seen by my eyes. I walked over a bridge and found a nice park. All kinds of neat things were in the park, including a couple giant boards with chess pieces. There were also random stone sculptures strewn around the snowy grass. Near the end of the park, I finally noticed the see. It's huge. There are all kinds of great big houses and castles that surround the see, and did I mention that the entire city is surrounded by mountains? It's beautiful. You don't see the beauty when you're looking out my dorm window, but you can definitely see it when you are by the see. I walked a little ways along the shore, and found a tree I could rest on to watch the sun dip down behind the mountains. I kept telling myself, "Tom, you're in Austria right now watching the sunset. You are on the shores of a huge, beautiful lake, and you're staring at the sun as it slowly slides down the far side of the Alps. Are you getting this?" I mean, how many of us can say that we see that on a regular basis? How many of us can even say that we've seen that once? I realize that there are millions of people who can see that every night because they live here in Europe, but how many of them actually take the time out of their busy day to watch the sunset? How many of you take the time out of your day to watch the sunset over the cornfields on the west side of Cedar Falls or wherever it is you live? I don't think that there are many of us who do take that time. We are often too worried about school, dinner, friends, work, tv, or anything to stop ourselves long enough to notice the beauties put before us everyday. Our lives are crazy, and we often wonder if they are ever going to slow down. I don't think that they ever will unless we set aside time to do things like watch the sunset, go for a walk, have a conversation with out parents, or even just sit in silence with no distractions. Getting back to the sunset and away from that little bit of opinion, I was listening to music on my walk to the lake. It was a newly created playlist titled "Happy, Smile". I named it this because I decided that this part of my life, along with every other part of my life, is supposed to be happy. God says to never grow weary, but to always keep a smile on our faces. I think it's really important to be happy and positive, and that is why I answered optimistic to my teacher this morning. As I was watching the sunset, I listened to these three songs in a row, There Will be a Day, Oceans from the Rain, and Tension & Thrill. You may not know the artists or ever even heard of the songs before, but they were amazing to hear while watching the sunset. So many thoughts started to fill my head. There were thoughts about the words in the songs like the idea that someday Someone will come back to save all of us. There were also thoughts about my immediate future here in Klagenfurt, and my schooling when I get back to America. I had thoughts about the times in my life when I've spoken in front of large groups of people, and I realized when I was thinking about those times that each one of them changed my life. I cried before, during, or after a lot of those talks, but they weren't sad tears. They were very happy. I was also thinking about how beautiful everything was in that exact moment of Lobpreis. It was a wonderful feeling leaning up against that tree, watching the sun slide, remembering the experiences I'd had, and dreaming of the days to come in my future but also the future of the body. I don't know if it's worth trying to describe anymore than I've already tried. I think that you, yourself, have to feel it. It's like being in the perfect place at the perfect time with the perfect thoughts and the perfect Friend. Sometimes, I think my words are silly, like those of a fiction writer or a child in his writing class. I think that a lot, but I hope you can see past my words and discover the words meant for you. Most of the stuff I say is just nonsense, but I want you to find your own sense in the middle of this mess. I would tell you what my dreams were for my future, but I already know that the only thing for sure is the next step. It's like walking in the snow in somebody else's tracks who knows the way much better than you do. You can't look to far forward without stumbling and falling out of the tracks set before you. I think I told you that once, but I said it again anyways. It's time for me to go now. I think I might watch a movie tonight. Tomorrow I have another language class and then an intercultural workshop. Those are always exciting. I hope that you read this today at work or school or wherever so you can go out tonight and watch the sun go down. You never know how many more chances you'll get to do that.

I'm here!

Sorry about the brief post last night. I had no way of getting internet on my computer, so another student took me to campus to let me sign in on her account at a computer lab. I didn't want to take too long, so I just wrote something short. I have plenty of time to write now, though. Let's see, maybe I'll tell you about my trip here from Salzburg since I didn't get the chance to write that last night. My departure time from the main train station wasn't until noon, so I hung around the hostel in the computer room. I had to check out of my room by 10 am, so I had all of my stuff with me. I wrote more emails (who knew you could write so many emails in your free time?), and I watched some videos on youtube called Nooma by Rob Bell. You should check them out if you're ever bored. They aren't stupid videos like the ones you get in emails, at least I don't think they are stupid. I sat and watched videos, waited, drank coffee, ate rolls, and then finally took off from my hostel around 11:15. A miracle happened at the train station; I bought the right ticket. I boarded a little compartment in the second class part of the train, and a young Swiss mother with her little boy and an old Austrian lady joined me. The little boy was very entertaining. At one point, he and I shared chocolates with each other. I think that was the highlight of my day. The train ride from Salzburg to Klagenfurt was wonderful. I had no clue I would be going through so many mountains, but it was almost like the road going through the mountains in Colorado. I believe it's I-70? Every once in a while, a little village would show up, and most of them had mountain resorts. We went through forests and along rivers. It was a great ride. I got to Klagenfurt around 3:30, and an Austrian with an Irish-English accent greeted me. His name is Philipp, and he is sort of my guide for these first couple days. He studied in Ireland for a semester, so his English sounds Irish. It's weird. We went right to my dorm building, where I was put into a temporary room until today. After moving in, some of us foreigners were taken on a city tour by some local students. There's not much to see in this little town. It's the capital of the province of Carinthia, but that's not saying much. After the tour, I went out to get groceries because I'm on my own for food now. No more being fed 3 meals/day by the nice Germans. That's kind of sad because my own cooking is nothing compared to that of the castle. Oh well, I did it in Iowa. We got groceries and came home. I'm living in a student dorm. It's much bigger than the dorms I've been in. Each room has 2 beds, dressers, desks, bookcases, shower, sink, and toilet. Each floor has 2 kitchens. It's basically like an apartment building. The halls look like prison, though. Nothing is on the walls. I think I might have to put something up in order to instill some creativity in the residents. This morning was my first class. I'm enrolled in an intensive language course for the first 3 weeks I'm here, so my actual classes don't start until some time around March. The semesters are different than America. At 9, I went to the main student building where classes are held, and I took a placement test. I also had an interview, so the teachers could judge how much German I actually know. This afternoon, I was placed in a class with some students from Bulgaria, Italy, Serbia, Slovenia, Japan, Iran, and even one from Iowa. We talked only for a little bit about the class, and then we were dismissed. Now, I'm back in my new, permanent room with not much to do until 2:30. My roommate is from India. I don't know his name, but I know it sounds something like Avalanche. He doesn't really speak German, but maybe I can learn some Hindi from him. I have no plans for the rest of the day, but who knows what will happen. If something great does, I will let you know. Talk to you later.