February 22, 2018


I did not sleep well last night. It took me a very long time to fall asleep. I am a bit tired. I woke up and did some research for some upcoming trips that I would like to take. As an Erasmus student, I get 15% off on Ryan Air flights. I was testing flights to different locations to see how much they would be and I was surprised to see that a flight from Bratislava to Malta was only 35 Euros. As I had already wanted to go to Italy during spring break, I thought I could easily add Malta into this trip. I made a plan to go to Malta, Rome, and then Milan. This is a very ambitious trip. I would really like to travel with someone.
     I finally was able to purchase my semester transportation ticket. My friend Michaela who went to Vienna last year on the same program told me that it usually takes 24 hours for you new address to change in the system. She was right. I am glad that I no longer need to worry about this. After planning trips and buying that pass, I studied a bit for my Russian language placement test. I only know words and simple phrases, but I will explain to my tester that I had only one semester of Russian.

            Justin and I arranged to meet in front of the main building today at noon. We first went to a café to get lunch. I got Wienerschnitzel which was excellent and was only 6,30 Euros. Great deal and I would definitely go back to that café. After lunch, Justin wanted to go to Jundeplatz to see the Jewish memorial. We walked there which took us about 20 minutes. It was interesting to see the city change. The roads became narrow and there was no more public transportation. This seemed like a richer area of Vienna. Inside the Judenplatz, there was the Jewish monument and a statue of Schiller. It was very quiet and peaceful. Justin then wanted to go to this building that has a cool architectural and colorful design. This was a hike to get to since there was no public transportation running through where we were. After a few wrong turns, we arrived at the house. This house is definitely odd but actually pretty cool to see. We walked around the area a bit and tried to see a local palace, but all the gates were closed. It was about time for my placement exam, so we headed back towards the Main University and parted in our separate ways.

I arrived early for my placement test. A girl came in behind me and asked for clarification of the location of the Russian placement test. I struck up a conversation and learned that she is from Austria and is studying Russian. We talked only in German which was nice. I went in for my placement test and explained to the lady that I am an exchange student and I only had three months of Russian. I brought in my notebook from my Russian class and I am glad that I did. She looked through my notebook and she got a good understanding of what I had learned. She asked me to talk about myself in Russian and that kind of went horribly. I learned that I cannot speak in Russian besides the random words and phrases that I know. Nevertheless, she placed me into A1 Phase 3 and I was happy with this. She gave me the information for the books I needed to buy as well as how to register online. I left the language center and went straight to the bookstore to buy the books.

I wanted to go home after this so I looked up what street car to take and hopped on. Well, this was the right number car, but was going in the opposite direction of what I wanted. I got off at the next stop and had to get on another street car to go back home. I really hope I can learn this public transportation soon.

I came home and made dinner. I called my mom and did more trip planning. I registered for a two-day trip to Krakow and Auschwitz in Poland as well as a day trip to Hallstatt, one of the most picturesque cities in Austria. These are cheap bus trips through ERASBUS. You travel with other Erasmus students, so I am hoping that I can make friends through this. I am so attached to this Malta and Italy trip but want to find people to go with me so that I can start booking flights. I decided to put out a message in the Erasmus group message that I am a part of. I got 8 responses of people that were interested. I was shocked. I put everyone that was interested into a separate group message and told them my ideas. We set up to meet at a café on Saturday. Only two girls said that they were coming to the meeting. I definitely tried my best so I hope something good comes out of this. I have hope.

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