Here everything is fine. It continues to get colder.  In fact, on the way back from a week long school trip in Vienna, it was snowing outside the train! It hasn't snowed where I am yet though. I'm still pretty excited over seeing that snow though. I've already had a pretty busy month, just a week into it. The month started out with a three day Rotary get together for a hiking trip. I got to see all my friends that I had made at the language camp again. No matter how nice the people you meet here are, no one really understands what you are going through like another exchange student, and we have all become close.

Rotary here gave us little bottles of homesickness drops. They are labelled 'emergency drops', in german, and are to be taken by putting a couple drops under the tongue or in a glass of water. You apparently get them from pharmacies. They supposedly calm you down. We all thought that was weird, but amusing. Then on Sunday, from the hiking place (tauplitz? that's where last years was, so I think it is the same place...I don't remember) I took a train to Vienna to join up with the rest of my class, who had arrived earlier that day. I took a taxi to the hostel place they were staying. I'm quite proud of myself for not getting lost.

Vienna is absolutely wonderful. I love it. I think it is one of the most beautiful cities I have seen so far. Not only does it have these majestic old buildings and churches, but it has stuff like pizza hut and subway sandwiches that I can't get in my town. The buildings there are so elaborate!! They are made of stone, and have carvings and statues all over them, and are so intricate it looks like they must have taken decades to build. The u_ban (underground) is great too. You can get anywhere in just a few minutes. And they have absolutely everything there you could possibly be looking for, though I think some things are a little more expensive there than the town where I live. I really liked it. And a couple other exchange students and me got to ride in an 'orange taxi', which are taxi's that are driven by people being filmed for on of those reality shows. These drivers are just people who got picked to be on the show, and will be filmed for eleven weeks everywhere.

The only contact they can have is with their fellow orange taxi drivers and with the costumers. So I might be on Austrian tv, though I hopt not. It's not likely anyway, since I spoke English to the driver, which they probably couldn't air to the Austrian vieweres. But it was kind of cool. The whole trip was. I really had fun. But, oh, the communal showers! There was only one bathroom for the girls in my class to share, with five showers in it. Blah. I showered at odd hours to avoid the others, as did everyone else. I'm descended from Puritans after all. Blood thicker than water, and all that. It was almost funny how all of us girls would try find time when no one else was around to get clean. I think a private bathroom was the thing we were all looking forward to the most by the time we went home! The teachers there were pretty strict too, though nice. We didn't have much free time to explore on our own, and they turned the lights out at midnight, except for the last night where we had a free afternoon and until two in the morning till we had to be back.

So anyway, so far the month has been great. My German is slowly (very slowly!) improving. I can't say much in German, but I can understand it more. Life here is starting to settle into a routine. I can't wait for the next Rotary get together, and us exchange students are trying to plan a way to see each other even sooner than that. I hope everyone back home is doing equally well!

Luky