October 13, 2004
Life Here in Innsbruck
So - just a little about what my life is like here in Austria. Of course, this will be changing this coming week as I start classes, but so far, life is really relaxed. Angie and I share a room at Haus Panorama, near the airport. In fact, we are so close to the airport that the other day we walked there, all around it, and back and kept going. It's not a very big airport. Our room has two different parts to it. You enter into a closet area. There are three large cabinets: one for each of us, one that we share, and a little broken cupboard for our shoes. On the left is a bathroom with a little shower that has an accordion door that's hard to work, a toilet with the flusher on the lid, and a sink with no counter space. The whole bathroom is tile, and we found that our towels wouldn't dry in there, so now we drape them over the chairs.
Then you walk through another door into our living area. There are two beds connected to the walls on either side of the door. I chose the one on the left. This had two consequences - one good and one bad. The good consequence was that I got the better blanket (Angie's is all yellow and lumpy), but I didn't get a mattress pad - a more than bad consequence, a wretched one. I've been trying to overcome it since I got here. I'm going to have to try and ask the office if they have an extra mattress pad, which won't be easy because it appears that their English is limited.
We take the bus everywhere we go. Bus F. The stop is just across the street.
We often sit on the bench and look at the mountains. Lately, a mist has covered them.
If we don't look at the mountains, we look at this billboard. I'm not quite sure what it's for, but I think it's a rock group. Two brothers - one is the suave night-on-the-town kind of guy, while the other is the reckless skateboarder. Together, they make up Austria's hot new sound.
Hmm... Other details about life here�.. We share a kitchen with several other people on the floor. It's rather awkward. I feel like I can never really relax in there. The fridges are all separated into little boxes with keys that don't work. At first, Angie and I thought we had to share a box, but then we found out that we each had our own. At least, that's what we think. And we have one cupboard to keep all our food in and another to keep our dishes, pots and pans, and stuff in. So far in that cupboard, we have some plastic spoons and a couple plates and bowls. I've been borrowing someone else's fork. Hope he doesn't mind.
Our windows are really cool. They open like a door if you have the handle one way, but if you want to open them from the top, then you just shift the handle and you can pull it down. We overlook a restaurant and the mountains.
I only have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I really don't have much to do yet. I'm rather nervous to start class tomorrow, but relieved because then I will have some structure to my life. I thrive on structure. Anyway, guess that's about all.