My BIG F A T Greek Birthday

Not my birthday (about 5 months late or 7 months early depending on what way you look at it) but the one and only Greek girl in our exchange program turned 22 yesterday.

Poseidon, God of the Sea, graced us with his presence (actually the name of the resturant) and shared with us in celebrating Anna’s 22nd birthday. With typical Greek food, alcohol, music, and dancing, we all started to become ‘experts’ in Greek culture (well not really).

We had a Greek lesson with what different foods were,

how to drink the Greek alcohol (tasted like black liquorish and the waitress just kept them coming),

learning how to do a bit of Greek dancing (the whole restaurant was dancing with us)

and becoming fluent in Greek (ok, only how to sing Happy Birthday).

(We managed to sing happy birthday is 6 different languages, including Greek!)

Walking



in

a

Winter

Wonderland

January 24, 2007

Yesterday I spent about 3 hours typing a blog, and trying to make it just right... yeah, well some how I deleted it. That was my sign to quit for the night, get some sleep (I've been a bit sleep deprived lately) and start again today.

At this current moment it's snowing. Last night when I was walking home I counted about 10 flakes (exciting moment in my life) and was ready right then and there to go skiing, build a snowman or go sledding down the Rumery Luge (the best sledding run in the world). Unfortunately 10 flaks don't make the best ski run, can't build Frosty and would melt if I tried to go sledding. So I opted to sit with a cup of hot apple cider and watch the snow fall...

Last weekend was our Erasmus Ski weekend... Minus the fact that there is NO snow and most ski resorts in Germany aren't even open this year (or right now). But with the hurricane weather (not just hurricane weather, actually hurricane Kyrill graced us with its presence) that we were happening to be experiencing we still decided to go on the 'Ski Weekend.'

Adventures of the Weekend...

1. Trying to stay on 2 feet when walking out side...

2. Hanging out and playing cards at our weekend 'pension.'

3. Seeing fairy tale castles... the real Walt Disney Castle…

(friends from 5 different countries)

4. Throwing a surprise birthday in the 'Pent House Sweet' (actually my room that I shared with Shawn and Priscilla).

(allmost the whole 'gang')

5. Singing tons and tons of karaoke... Go Beatles!!!

I have just jumped back 10 years in time. To the time of no cell phone (or before they were a necessity for worldly communication) and to the time of not having a computer (or having a computer but with out all the gismos that a computer comes with today (i-tunes/windows media player, DVD player, games and internet)). I am as of 3pm today without communication (not good). Cell phone is broken and is in the process of being sent back to get fixed, and I’m still with out a computer (yes I’m at the computer lab typing this Blog, checking my e-mails, dinking around on Facebook, and trying to do some homework)

The cell phone decided to brake last week, and I some how I managed to get it working again but the # key and the number 9 key stopped working. Writing a text message became fun because all words that had a WXYZ in them I couldn’t use or I just had to leave those letters out. So my messages started to look like this… Ho are u? Here are e going and hat time? I happened to run across the same problem in German as well (all the question words start with a W too). Communication just isn’t in my favour right now.

HAPPY 2007!!!

The new year came with style as Theresa and I celebrated it in St. Viet, Austria.Theresa and me preparing to go out.

At the Bar

The night was full of fireworks to welocome the New Year!

Ski week...
Theresa and I left the Tropics of Germany and headed to the desert of Austria for 5 days of rock hoping (I mean skiing) the Austrian Alps.

2 7 hour train rides
6 Nights
5 Days of sking
3 Mountians (Alpendorf, Wagrain, Flachau)
Tons and tons of sking on some of the worst conditions (good thing I wasn't using my skis), and some of the best conditions (very glad I had my own boots).

Yes it's true, there is practically NO snow in the Alps the year (so strange), and Theresa and I were lucky enough to witness it. We were also lucky enough to witness getting rained on while skiing the Alps (that made skiing the next day 'so fun') and then enjoy the true meaning of a white winter (we got two days of pure white stuff, I was so happy) and to see snow fall for the first time this season.

We took a ride on the flying Mozart (gondola)

Merry
Christams










Christmas: German/American… take your pick. The German side of things, with the typical hearty meal on the 24th followed by dessert and presents, or American with stockings and Santa on the morning of the 25th followed by an American feast in the mid afternoon.

I had both this past Christmas. Theresa and I were lucky enough to celebrate with a German/American family and we experienced what a German Christmas is like along with being comforted by the American side of things.

The Rumery girl's Christmas Branch (Theresa's appartment is WAY to small to have a real tree. Our Christmas Branch was great though)

Place: Vienna, Austria = Wien, Österrich
Date: December 21, 2006 – December 24, 2006 Travellers: Molly Rumery, Sabina Beri and family

My style of travelling turned from planes to trains, hostels to hotels, and sandwiches to fine dining for a nice weekend trip to Vienna to visit a good friend of mine from the US who was travelling in Europe with her family over the Winter break.

Site seeing was at our beck and call for the next two days. We walked the main strip and fought all the last minute Christmas shoppers, saw the Schönbrunn Castle, the St. Stephens Cathedral, and made our way to a few museums. We saw Veinna from the "Wienerturm" which gave us the best view of the city and the Danube River that flows through it.

The St. Stephens Cathedral

Rathaus (townhall), with the Christmas Market in frontThe Art Histry Museum

The Gardens at the Schönbrunn Castle