May 31, 2007
About 11:40 p.m.
Apartment

So there is a lot going on right now and I’m going to try and keep this short. We have a long weekend starting tomorrow, so myself and three other students are taking advantage and spending some extra money to go to Innsbruck, which is in western Austria at the base of the Alps. There are several castles out there as well as some Swarovski exhibits plus a lot of local favor so it should be fun. We will be a taking a train out there, which will take about 5-6 hours, so we are leaving our apartments tomorrow around 5:45 a.m. to get to the train station and head out so we can get more than half a day there tomorrow. I’ll be sleeping on the train! I’m going with Marcela, Gilbert, and Rachel and we all are getting our own room together at the hostel with just the four of us for about 20 euros with breakfast, so not too bad, especially since this means we basically have a hotel style room. Others on the trip are going places like Prague, Bratislava, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, but I’m going to the first two places after the program so Innsbruck is going to be perfect.
Everyone should be very proud of me. I am packing the lightest I’ve ever packed in my entire life. One zippered pouch/bag that I bought at the Naschtmarkt and my miniature backpack! I am REALLY going light since I’ll only be there two days.
That’s that. On Wednesday we had class back at the Kunthistorisches art museum again, and it was still fascinating. Afterwards I stayed behind and had lunch and a cappachino at their little café inside and I really enjoyed that. Then I came back and got ready for a reception hosted for UT students by the staff at the University of Vienna. We got a big tour of the main building, and they had tons of busts of famous scholars who studied there, and when we past Sigmund Freud, they asked if there were any psychology majors there, and I said I was neurobiology, and there were like “go get your picture!” so now I have a picture of me next to Freud. lol
It was neat to learn about how their university is structured, and how the system is in Austria. We then went and had refreshments and the best little open faced sandwiches along with the a huge assortment of little bon bons and cakes. It was fabulous. Professor Waldman introduced me to what is the equivalent to the US version of the Vice President of the University and he talked to me a little about neuroscience since I was introduced as a neurobiology major. It was a very neat experience.
Today we had class, and my German teacher said I have a French accent in German instead of an American accent. She said it sounded pretty and I should keep it. lol Go figure I still have retained some of my French!
After class I went and walked around a little bit, sat in a park around this cathedral, and then ran some errands to get ready for tomorrow. That’s about it. I hope everyone has a great weekend and I’ll update you guys on everything Monday or Sunday night!

Elaine
PS: I had apple strudel this morning, and the way they wrap it is different, but the apples and raisins taste almost exactly like Grandpa’s. It was amazing. I will be definitely eating more of those in the future!