Scissors, Rolling Pins and Fabric..Oh My!!!: Leaving on a Jet Plane

Sunday May 20, 2012 (please pardon the typos, I am using a German keyboard)
Today was hard, I said goodbye to the hubby and kiddos for a month, thats right I am leaving town for an entire month, I get to go study abroad in Bad Gleichenberg, Austria for 3 weeks and then spend another week tripping around Europe with my other half. I can't wait for that last week but getting through this first three weeks will be tough.

Our gate that leads to a 747 waiting to take us to Frankfurt, Germany

Today at 3:40 pm I take off in a 747, yep a human sardine can, I was squished and in the center so I couldn't see but the airline had a very nice selection of movies to watch. My eyes leaked a wee bit thinking of the kiddos but I know I am building my resume' and learning lots! Well that is all I did today is sit on the plane...more tomorrow.

Monday Maz 21, 2012
6:50 am we arrive in Frankfurt, we then have to go through the passport check, sprint to our terminal and go through security all over again! most of us had water and had to chug or toss it, one girl still had hers and went through the securitz point with it and thez made her drink it before she could leave, she didnät have the option of tossing it! We sprinted and made our bus?! which drove us to the tarmac where our plane is sitting, we now have another flight ahead of us...

Our little bus to take us to the plane

our little plane with stairs...so neat

8:10 am we land in Graz where we are greeted by Jim our professor out here who has a nice cushy bus and we all want to sleep on it. That is not in Jims plan, we get to register with the police and do other bits of paperwork on our hour and something drive to BG Town. His thought is, get us going now, no sleep until its night time cause then we get over jet lag much quicker. He hands out room assignments and we get to go unpack before our welcome lunch and orientation, I feel bad for the guy but most of us were doing the classic lecture eye droop and head bob. Then we did a walking tour of campus and then a walking tour of the entire town (its not that big but it is hilly!) then we meet up with our personal buddy assigned to us that is Austrian, mine is Julia and she is a sweetie! and hike up a hill (think rib mtn sized hill) to a beautiful restaurant that only serves food that they produce. It was amazing!! The laughter and tales shared by our group only made it better. I think I fell into bed at this point and slept after talking to the kiddos and Dan till midnight. Wow what a first day!

dinner

my buddys dinner, those are beans, soaked in pumpkin seed oil...its sooo yummy!

Tuesday, May 22 2012 We are allowed to sleep in a wee bit but I am woken to the beautiful sound of rain and thunder. We have class for a bit and then we board a bus to Reigersburg Castle and all I can say is WOW what a place its at the top of the mountain and we would have had to climb our way up except it was raining and the professor didnt feel it was safe. We explored the castle having lots of fun and giggles and then rode the wonkavator back down to our waiting bus. We then drove back to BG Town to change and get ready to hit the spa, we got to go into an original thermal pool and I wish I could have had my camera it looked like an infinity pool, we spent a couple of hours soaking it up and then went out to dinner without a guide of any sort, we managed pretty well too!! Now we hiked back to our dorms for some much needed sleep!