Bad Habits

Before I left, everyone was telling me I would come back a different person. Teachers, friends, my bishop, that was the immediate response to learning about my SA (yes, I did just abbreviate study abroad SA). I knew they were right to a certain degree, maybe a little more mature, a little more well rounded, much more traveled. I guess I didn't really know what to expect as far as changes in myself go. I'm still not sure. You'll have to tell me once I come back.

What I did not know was all the bad habits I was going to develop, such as:

-Staying out late. Now, responsible adults don't start freaking out. I am totally safe. Vienna is a safe city and I avoid bad places. But I have developed this habit of not coming home until 10, or 11, or 12, or 1. Which means I don't go to sleep until 12 or 1 or 2. And anyone who knows me knows that I need my sleep. Terribly irresponsible of me.

-Shopping too much. I am constantly surrounded by stores. Since I pretty much walk everywhere, I walk past every store. There is always something that catches my eye. So I walk in to just look. Then it turns out to be better than a though. It would be the perfect present for so and so or go beautifully with my favorite skirt. 20 euros later I emmerge with more stuff. I have too much stuff. Some days I want to blow up all my stuff. And then buy new stuff.

-Eating something sweet after every meal. I really am doing better on this one. I promise. But there are stands and shops and guess what they all offer? Tarts, tortes, cakes, strudels, and other assortments of things I shouldn't eat. But they taste so good.

-Wasting hours online. 1 or 2 hours a day to email, blog, facebook and other such things. Things that connect me with the people I love back home. But I do overdo it. I can really only justify so much time online.

-Listening to my iPod constantly. I like music when I am on public transport, walking on the street, or writing things. I don't think music is evil. I love music. But I think that I may be spending an excessive amount of time tuned out of the world.

-Scratching my many mosquito bites. When summer came so did mosquitos. And then they bit me. Mean mosquitos. I scratch the bites and then the itch more. Or bleed.

-Wearing the same shoes every day. No, this is not a flaw in my personality or terrible decision. But I do have tan lines from my white sandals. And they aren't cute. Nor are they discreet. If you were to look at my foot you would say "Oh hello tan line". They are that bad.

I am sure there are others, but those are the one that have been irritating me lately. Badddddd Hannah.

Sixteenth Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. Yay! In the US that means I can drive. In Europe it means I can drink. It was a great birthday, including:

-Going to Donau Insel Fest (Europe's largest outdoor music festival) the night before/early morning of and hearing Billy Idol play. For free. It was epic. Especially when he sang "sweet sixteen". That was pretty sweet.

-Going to the Naschmarkt, browsing antiques, and buying a picnic lunch.

-Going to a park to eat said picnic lunch, birthday baklava (way better than any birthday cake, ever), and laying in the sun.

-Going to Prater, going on a roller coaster where you lay down and another freaking sweet ride where you are 200 feet in the air going upside down and spinning in circles.

-Writing in my journal. I love birthday journal writing.

-Back to Donau Insel Fest.

-Free "I (heart) Vienna" shirt.

-Dancing to techno European MTV music.

-Getting shoved, groped, and beer spilled on me.

-Having the sweetest sweet sixteen with Mika and Amelia all day.

The Awful German Language

I have always liked Mark Twain. Ever since I read Tom Sawyer for eighth grade summer reading.

But now, now I think he is a genius.

Because of THIS BRILLIANT ESSAY.

Week Trip

The past week has been just perfect. Spain was beautiful. We shopped, went to the beach, saw some sights, and fell in love with Barcelona. Venice was fun. We shopped more, saw lots of sights, had men fall in love with us, and ate our weight in carbs. Slovenia was epic (see previous blog post). Despite the trauma, it was still incredible. This world is just incredible.


Amelia, Ale & I jumping for joy in Venice.

Ale & I have fun together. Even though sometimes we struggle.

The group Ale, Me, Amelia, Mika.

Me, Amelia, Mika, Ale

Financial Crisis

I have been too lazy to go to an ATM. So currently, I have about a Euro and fifty cents to my name. I was planning on going to an ATM in about an hour. I logged online to check my account to see how much I should pull out. Now imagine my surprise when my account has:

-$595.64

I immediately thought back to my spending. No, I had not spent all the money in my account. I scrolled down to purchase history. There was a charge for $1750. I had not bought anything of that amount. Turns out is was a check Lorin had signed for the US treasury.

I logged onto skype and tried calling my mom (because she doesn't turn her skype offline). She didn't answer. I tried again. Still no answer. So I sent my parents both an email. Then I remember they are going on trek tomorrow. Which means it is either money today or none at all.

I walked into the office and asked Marcus if there was a phone with which I called the US. He said yes. I was so surprised. So I called Lorin. I was definitely choking back tears on the phone. Turns out that evil check was a quarterly tax payment. He promised to refill my account today. Until then though, I am stranded. And stressed.

4 Am

We got off the train in Ljubljana at 2AM to pouring rain. It was real rain, with drops the size of the diamond on my mother's wedding ring. Our fearless leader Amelia was sick to her stomach, trying not to writhe in pain. So it was up to Ale and I to find a way to our hostel 40 minutes away. An older couple from Portland got off the train with us. When they learned where we were trying to go, they were worried. "You can stay in our hotel room if you want". It was really sweet of them. But we weren't scared and were determined to go to our hostel.
We found out that the buses weren't running. So it was either sleep in the bus station or take a taxi. We wandered around the train station until we spotted the little yellow signs that universally mean taxi. The taxis were dark and empty. Next to them I spotted glowing orange circles. The cigarettes the cabbies were smoking. Ale and I walked up to them,
"How much to get to Bled?"
"One euro one kilometer"
"So how much for Bled?"
"ehhhh 65 or 70 Euros"
"No more than 70 Euros?"
"You want fixed price?"
"Yes. Fixed price of 70 Euros."
"ehhh okay."
The cabbies conversed among themselves. The chosen one emerged from the group and led us to his silver Mercedes station wagon. We filled his trunk with out luggage and got in. Ale sat in the front, Mika, Amelia and I in the back. We showed the driver our hostel's address. He nodded and started driving. We were all exhausted but awake. The driver soon made it very clear that he didn't speak English. But he wanted to communicate. I don't know why, it was too early in the morning to be communicating. His greatest effort consisted of:
"Obama gut! Bush nicht gut. Clinton gut!"
We laughed and tried to stay conscious. The signs along the freeway were saying nearby town names. After 25 minutes, Bled appeared. 16 Km away. The driver stopped to get out his "naveegashion" system. While he was out of the car Ale turned around, "Guys I am worried that this is going to be more expensive than we thought. It is already at 89 Euros and we still have 16 KM to go." Before we could reply the taxi driver was back in the car. He continued driving. It was 3 AM by now. I had a headache from being to tired. I hadn't had one of those since school. It wasn't a welcome feeling.Down a dirt road we went. He decided it was wrong and decided to put the address in his GPS.Oh good I thought we'll get there soon. FALSE. He pushed buttons, but he couldn't work his GPS. He pointed to Ale to work it. In Slovenian. Needless to say she couldn't work it either. So we were lost.
The driver decided to turn around and drive down another. He decided that wasn't right so he drove down another. That one wasn't right either. After 15 minutes of being lost and turning around we said "telephone" and communicated that we had the hostel's number. He called the hostel and started speaking. We're going to get there soon I thought again. The driver hung up the phone and drove more. And turned around more. And got lost more.
15 minutes later we had him call the hostel again. He got directions again. He got lost again.
So Ale took his phone and talked to the hostel. Oh wait. The guy on the phone was "f***ing 400 miles away" and had "already given the taxi driver directions twice". He gave Ale the directions again.
So Ale directed our useless driver to the hostel. The taxi meter read 135. Twice the arranged price. We got our bags out and knocked on the door. Nothing. Waited. Nothing. Another door. Nothing. After 5 minutes an old woman stuck her head out the window and pointed to a door. We knocked on that. Nothing. A few minutes later the same old woman opened the door. We were saved. She motioned for us to come in. But we had to pay the taxi driver first. I handed him 75 euros. He was furious. He pulled out a piece of paper and wrote 135 and circled it. We were all furious with him at this point. "No. You got lost. Your fault. We won't pay." He crossed out the 135 and wrote 100. "No. You said 70 Euros." He was not happy. He was yelling in Slovenian.
The old woman motioned for us to come in. She stood in the doorway and talked to the driver. Then a bald man came out. He took over talking to the driver and the woman lead us to our rooms. They were wonderful. And she communicated that we could have breakfast whenever we woke up.
The next day we got up at 11:45. We were downstairs by noon. The old woman had breakfast laid out, and she even made us eggs. I want to move in to that hostel.

Halloh

Ale, Mika, Amelia and I, being the beautiful Amerikanerinnen we are, attract a lot of attention from foreign men everywhere we go.
Today we got to Barcelona and pretty much went straight to the beach. We showed up in our modest one pieces laid out our towels and got ourselves some vitamin D. We looked around and SURPRISE it was a topless beach. Boobs everywhere. Got to love Europe. We had been up since 3 in the morning and we spent about 6 hours laying, reading, tanning and sleeping. It was threatening to rain so we decided it was time to walk back to the hostel. Literally the moment we stood up though, there were Spanish men around us. Two of them ran into the water in front of us shouting "Halloh, Halloh". We got out of there as soon as possible.
We went back to the hostel and decieded to get pretty, something we had not done since arriving on this continent. We all showered, put on pretty clothes, did each others makeup and did our hair so it was the perfect mix of messy, elegant and natural.
Dinner had to be the Hard Rock Cafe for two reasons
1) Ale needed a shirt
2) It has American food. We needed some of that.
We got there after a few mishapped directions, mostly originating from Ale s seriously flawed Spanish. We sat down at our table and ordered burgers. They arrived and we downed them. You would have thought we were some sort of starving children who had been surviving on bread for the past 6 weeks.
Then a live band came on stage. Turned out it was the 39th anniversary of the Hard Rock Cafe Barcelona. WOW! So they had a live band there. Our table happened to be directly to the bands right. They played some brilliant classic rock and we started dancing in our seats and such. The singer noticed us. Mostly he noticed Amelia. There was not a verse of a single song when he didnt glance at our table and make eye contact with someone. He liked us a lot. Then he started to get more forward. He took a drink from his beer bottle and stared at us the whole time, I am pretty sure he winked at Amelia. Like I said he liked her.
The band finished the set and the singer went out for a smoke rather than coming and talking to us. Well you know what buddy, your loss! He was like 40 and not very attractive anyway. We were way out of his league.
After that we went to a huge plaza and took lots of hot pictures. Facebook profilers for sure. We were posing and two men on the bench next to us thought we were trying to seduce them. They started cat calling and whistling. We realized we were probably putting ourselves in a bad situation and headed out of there.
But not before yelling at them,
"Halloh"