A Few Things...

Sorry, no pictures for today....whoooooops.  SO LAME

But here are some interesting things about Vienna I have been writing down:

1. Almost every old lady has dyed their hair RED RED

2. Laundry is done one day a week

3. Toilets are usually a separate room in the house from the sink + shower bathroom

4. The toilet doors must always be CLOSED

5. Bathrooms are called WC's, and in public places (train stations) or restaurants they cost money to use

6. Some kind of bread is served with almost every meal

7. There are no screens behind any of the windows

8. Wedding rings are worn on the right hand ring finger

9. People buy small groceries daily and have tiny kitchens

10. Elevators are TINY...like for ONE person

11. There are NO drinking fountains anywhere!!

12. And water at restaurants is never free

13. Most people don't have dryers for clothes...we hang dry everything

14. Nobody smiles at or chats with strangers

15. The paper + notebooks are LONGER and they all have GRIDS not lines

16.  EVERYBODY SMOKES EVERYWHERE

17. The people here consider themselves more cultured than people from the states (a guy in our institute told us this)

18. People think we are LOUD AMERICANS

19. Grocery stores close so early! Like 4 or 5 pm so you grocery shop during the day...

20. There is a bike path by the road and the bikers will run you over if you are in the path.  They go FAST.

There are soooo many more I have thought of/noticed but I don't write them down usually.  I'll make more of these later!  Some things about OUR APARTMENT:

1. We never see Frau Feest.  She leaves us notes everywhere.

2. She does our laundry on Saturdays and dries it for us in her room...we thought this was weird for her to wash our underwear but whatever

3. She drops off breakfast every night.  Tonight it was 3 glasses of OJ, and rolls, and grapes

4. She has 3 doors we have to unlock to get into the apartment

5. I guess I'll just attach the contract she wrote up for us when we moved in.  Notice her English attempts...hahahah (and those aren't our 3 names obviously. I guess they switched who was going to live here)

Oh, and this is our school schedule:

Art history, German 102, Austrian history, History of the church in Austria, and Exploring Vienna.  13 credits total!  Then on Monday nights we go to the Church place with the Institute kids to have a dinner for 1.50 Euro and games and a small lesson and games.  Wednesday is real institute...same dinner and more deep lesson.  Friday is waffle night (for free I think) at institute, but we haven't been able to go yet!!  It is a good way to get cheap dinners!!

So today we had Art history with professor Kröll...I really like him.  His lessons are not boring really.  I love it.  It goes by fast.  We had an hour and a half long break, where I ate the sandwich I packed (bread + meat + cheese) and yogurt and orange.  Caelyn and I ran back to our apartment to grab my camera, umbrella, and jackets because we WERE going to go on these boats at 4....but then the place closed because the weather looked bad.  So after our German class, we went to this THRIFT STORE to look for dirndl dresses.  They are traditional.  We have a dirndl shop by our apartment that we pass every day, and they are over 150 Euro!!!  So we were hoping to find some cheap used ones.  Most of us were successful!!  I am getting a three-piece set...red skirt (was 9 Euro) + the blouse (12 Euro) + I still need a vest to go with it....AWESOME PRICES CLAIRE.  I'll post pictures when it's all good and done and cute.

We rushed from the thrift shop to the church center to have FHE.  We had enchiladas made by Brother and Sister Strong.  I think they're from Utah.  The BYU students make up like half of the attendance now I think.  We had a quick lesson, then played some games.  It was REALLY FUN.  Everybody gets along.  About half of the kids there speak English.  It will be good to be friends with them, and they can take us around a bit.

Another good thing about today....

P-DAY!!!

I got an email from TELU (Elder Anitelu Cruser) at 5am saying he was leaving to the island of Hunga, Tonga in just a couple hours.  He had a 20 hour sailing trip ahead of him...and he should be getting there pretty soon now I think....!!  He won't have internet on this island...so we won't be hearing from him for 3 ish months.  Sad, but he is doing great!!

arrived in Tonga...so many brown elders I couldn't even find him hahah

if Tonga isn't small enough itself...here's Hunga way out there.

missin him tons!!

One of my other favorite elders to get emails from...this kid is good at sending pictures!! They make me so happy.  He is loving seafood which is a gooooooood step for him hahaha.

Elder Cisneros

 WELL, goodnight.  One more day till our big trip!!