A documented adventure

Today there was an adventure! As we were getting on the U-Bahn, headed to an Irish pub to watch the USA/England World Cup Fussball game, the clouds were moving quickly and getting blacker and blacker, and thicker, like smoke. The wind started to pick up too. When we were inside the U-Bahn, debris of leaves and weeks and dirt were flying into our hair and faces. I knew it could only get worse when we had to get off, and of course, I was dreading it.

If you know me well, you know that I will do whatever possible to NOT be outside during a storm. I have survived many storms outside, but I do not like it. We were walking up the stairs to come out of the U-Bahn and the wind held us back, and blinded us by stirring the debris up and off of the ground. I refused to leave, so I hung back. I decided I would be ok by myself, and let the rest of the group go ahead, and let them know that I was going to wait the storm out in the shelter of the U-Bahn staircase at Stadtpark. And so I did. I watched this incredible storm from inside. The lightning was horizontal, and the wind took the rain in sheets on the pavement outside. The U-Bahn stop was flooding below. I saw two girls slip their shoes off and run barefoot out into the storm!

There was a girl about my age standing near me, and she had a trombone case with her. When she kept looking out the doors to see if it was safe to go out, and then she came back, I decided to start talking to her...in English. I have to admit, I was kind of a chicken about speaking German to her. We ended up talking for a while. She is studying Trombone at Vienna University, and is in an academic orchestra. Her part of concert had finished, but she said it was open air, and was supposed to be still going on! She looked down at the U-Bahn station at how the rain was flooding the floor, and said to me, "This is not normal!" She went on to say that how the hot weather is weird, and how this much rain is weird, and how Austria had its first Tornado in April of this year! I was glad she was there. I told her I spoke a little bit of German but I was really bad--but then I spoke German to say that I was studying for 6 weeks, and my family has a connection to Wien, which is why I'm here.

When she left, the rain had gotten "heller" (lighter) and I left soon after. Although the rain had almost completely stopped, the streets were flooded and it was still lightning like crazy. The lightning was right in front of me as I ran down the street, and it was connecting in circles. It wasn't just a flash of lightning--it was more like a surge, that stayed in the sky for a few seconds before it went dark again. I found the pub, and we watched the game in a very pleasant place. Very few people were smoking, and it was air-conditioned! It was fun to be around a lot of people who spoke my language!

I enjoy the challenge of being able to speak German to people here. The best feeling is when I go to the store or a shop, and I speak complete German to them, and they reply in German, and I understand! I have learned an incredible amount while I've been here! I would say that in two weeks, I've probably learned about a half of a semester's worth of what I would have learned by taking a German class at Penn State. It's so much easier to pick up a language when you are hearing it all the time, or seeing it everywhere. For example, yesterday, one of the other girls asked me what der Teller meant. I didn't know the answer, but today, on one of the descriptions in the Hofburg palace tour, it occured to me that 'der Teller' is a plate. There are more exciting words than der Teller. Some of my favorites.... Entschuldigung! Ausgezeichnet! Löffel, Hausübung, langweilig, Ecke, und Schlagobers, to name a few! I taste the consonants on my lips and tongue, every single one of them! Maybe I'm weird for that, but I don't care! I love the language. I love the way Austrians speak, and my German teacher is helping me to recognize what is Austrian German, and what is German German. Sometimes, when I order food at restaurants, I say the whole description on the menu, just to say the words outloud.

I will be seeing the Vienna Boys Choir tomorrow, the Wiener Sängerknaben. I love Sundays, and hopefully the weather will be nicer now that it has rained and cooled off quite a bit!

Love to America tonight! Our team played well!