In the beginning

I promised you stories, and you will get stories. Here are a few from my first week here, way back at the start of September:

International Travel

My journey to Salzburg began in the afternoon on Friday, September 10. With my suitcase and my backpack stuffed to capacity and ready to go, Mom, Dad and I hopped in the van and drove down to Sioux Falls to catch my first flight. The Sioux Falls airport was in the middle of a rather large renovation project, and the usual path from the check-in counters to the gates was blocked off. Instead, we were funneled through a winding tunnel built of plywood. It felt a bit like being a gerbil in a maze (Yes, the usual phrase would be about a rat, but gerbils are much cuter). I'm pretty sure we had a good long farewell hug three different times between check-in and when I went through security. Those hugs had to last me a long time! Getting through security was a breeze, as it always is in SuFu (which is one reason I chose to fly out of there), even though I was wearing my tall brown riding boots (hey, I had to get them on the plane somehow!). Of course, there is really no reason to get to the Sioux Falls airport the full two hours early, but it didn't seem right to press our luck on such an important day. So I waited for over an hour to board the plane. Ihad a window seat, which was great, except that it was so cloudy there wasn't much to see. Instead of watching the familiar Sioux Falls landmarks falling away beneath us I was greeted by the sight of clouds, but I did have the surreal experience of seeing the shaddow of the plane, darting back and forth as it passed over clouds varying distances away.

In Chicago I was annoyed to discover that I actually had to leave the terminal to get to the gate for my international flight. This meant riding the airport tram and then going through security again. I got a window seat for this flight as well. I watched the lights of Chicago drop away behind us and then settled back for a nap that wasn't meant to be. Even though this was an overnight flight departing at 10pm, the airline felt the need to feed us dinner. So the lights stayed up, and so did I. The dinner was alright, but sadly the beverage cart had no Ginger Ale (and just when living in Boston had taught me to love the stuff!). There were many options for in-flight entertainment, but in economy class we had no control over them. Several movies played at the same time, and you just had to hope that the one you wanted to watch would be starting when you wanted to watch it. I ended up watching three different movies, Prince of Persia, Letters to Juliet, and The Karate Kid, for lack of any better options. They were all reasonably entertaining, and better than nothing since I inexplicably could not sleep. However, after the first movie, I caught the second one about 30 min in, so I had to wait until it looped around again to catch the beginning. So I watched bits and pieces of movies out of order all night. It was lovely. As we neared Copanhagen the next morning, one of the flight attendants came by to tell me that my suitcase was not on the plane. I had a moment of panic and despair, but luckily that didn't last terribly long. I couldn't do anything about it in Copenhagen without leaving security, so I opted to wait until finally arriving in Munich. At Copenhagen we had to go through security yet again, and then get our passports stamped for entering Europe. I was dead on my feet at this point.

The flight to Munich was a much smaller group, and I dozed in and out quite a bit. Upon arriving in Munich I went immediately to the counter to report lost luggage, which was helpfully located right next to the luggage carousel for my flight. The airline employee was very helpful and gave me a complimentary bag of toiletries to ease my wait for my own bag. He seemed to take an interest in this foreigner with a German name who was on her way to go live in a castle.

My transportation from Munich to Salzburg was a shuttle bus. There were four other people on the bus, most of whom got dropped off before me. I dozed for much of this trip as well, because it certainly didn't feel like the reported 2 hours. I'm sure it was not the most direct route, and it didn't give me any idea what the city of Salzburg was like. It was nearing sunset when we pulled in at Schloss Leopoldskron and I walked into the Meierhoff for the first time. The Meierhoff is actually older than the Schloss, and was originally a barn. Now it's a large pink hotel with a lovely courtyard in the middle and the offices of the Salzburg Global Seminar taking up most of the ground floor.

Much of that first night is fuzzy, because I was so tired. The girl working the reception desk was very nice and called the only other intern who was in at the time to show me around a bit. Lisa is Brittish and an absolute dear. She cooks much of her own food because the kitchen staff don't know how to prepare food for a vegan, so that first night she offered to share her dinner with me. After the trials it took to reach this place, it was the perfect welcome: warm, but not overwhelming.

I met the rest of the interns and staff over the next several days. Well, I really shouldn't say all. There are still staff members I haven't met, and my time here is now a third done! But people are coming and going here all the time, so it's not too surprising. Plus, there are only a couple of us who do our work in the Schloss, so I really don't cross paths with staff members much. Tourists poke their heads into my office from time to time, and I see the kitchen staff quite a bit on my way in and out, but not my actual coworkers. I was offered the chance to work in the general intern office where there would be people around me, but I couldn't give up my beautiful view for that. Besides, the librarian needs to be by the library. This is the way the world works!

Oh, and my luggage did arrive, only a day and a half behind me. And since I spend most of Sunday asleep, I really didn't suffer that much for not having it. In fact, when I told other people at the Schloss that my luggage was lost, they generally seemed more upset than I was. But then, that's just how I react to things. After the initial shock, if it's something I can't do anything about, I resign myself to making the best of it without much thought. And really, if something had to go wrong in the adventure of getting me here, at least it was something relatively small.

Oh dear, will every story be this long and require it's own post? I may have to do some grouping or some serious editing of my usual, detailed style If we're ever to get caught up! We'll see if I can do better next time!

-Kim

Texas!

One week ago today I spent the day in Austin, TX with Dianna. It was the last day of a spring break trip to visit her down in Waco. Last year she came to Boston to visit me, and it snowed. I thought this year we should do the smart thing and let me come to Texas, where it would be warmer. It actually rained half the time I was there, but it was a warm rain, and actually, that's probably all that saved me from coming back north with a wicked sunburn. The sun shone strong in Austin that day, though it was on its way down by the time Dianna took the photo below on our visit to the capitol building.


Another highlight of our time in Austin was the LBJ Presidential Library. I have a newfound respect for the man now. Previously he was just one of the other names other than Lincoln or Washington and had no real association for me. Now that I've been reminded of the hundreds of bills and acts he signed into law to make America a better society, I find I have become a fan. And the nerd in me just loved being in the museum. They had on display some of his actual speeches with hand written notes and the Bible he was sworn in on after JFK's assassination (by the way, we also saw the spot where Kennedy was shot on our way through Dallas, complete with conspiracy theorists trying to win over the tourists). And then we walked up from the lower level and I was absolutely astounded by what we saw:


All those shelves of red boxes are the LBJ archives. Those are the actual stacks of archival quality, acid free boxes with the presidential seal embossed on them. What a collection!

On the two days we stayed in Waco, it rained. That wasn't a big deal on Sunday, since we had intended to stay indoors anyway, going to church and watching the Oscars in the evening. But on Monday a got the grand tour of Waco in the rain. The best part was probably visiting the Dr. Pepper Museum. Did you know that Dr. Pepper was invented in Waco? Well, it was, and the old bottling plant is now a museum, with old equipment and advertisements on display. They even have their own archives. I wonder if I could get a job there? Dr. Pepper is my favorite carbonated beverage, after all...


Best friend fail. Sadly, this is the only picture from the whole trip I have of me and Dianna together. I don't have any idea how it could have slipped my mind, especially since I likely won't see her again until Christmas....


This sidewalk leads up to the bear enclosure on the Baylor campus. Yes, they have two live bears on campus. Sadly, I didn't get to see them. The first two times we went, it was cool and rainy and they were asleep in their cave. The last two times, we stopped by in the morning on our way out of town, and it was apparently too early and they hadn't been let out to play yet. It made me very sad.

In all, though, it was a great trip. Being back in a plains state made me feel so much at home. The weather was great, too. It felt like being home in South Dakota in the summer. I enjoy living in Boston and don't seem to have any trouble with the closeness of the city. But I'll always be a Midwestern girl at heart, with a special love for the wide open spaces and simple living. I mean, how can you not love a sky this big?


-Kim

Thanksgiving in CT

Instead of staying in Boston over Thanksgiving break, this year I went home with my friend Tierney to Norwalk, CT to stay with her family. It sounded like a lot more fun than staying in the dorm and doing homework. We spent the long weekend making a series of excursions all over western Connecticut and eastern New York state, generally only returning to Norwalk by dinner time, using it as a sort of base camp.

Tierney's dad came to Boston Tuesday night (after my evening class) to pick us up and make the long drive to Norwalk. Not having to take a bus or train to reach our destination was amazing--I haven't spent so much time in a car in a long time. In fact, I think I easily rode in a car more this weekend than the whole past year in Boston. I also listened to the radio more over this past weekend than in all my time in this city, mostly because I don't have a radio in my room. The only downside to that is that there seem to be only five or six different pop songs that are on the air right now, because we seemed to hear the same things every time we hopped in the car. So maybe I don't actually miss the radio.

The other big bonus of the weekend was that Tierney's family has a cat. She's a sweet little black and white thing named Maggie, and she adopted me pretty quickly. Maggie became my lap warmer most evenings, which I didn't mind at all.

On Wednesday I slept in while Tierney got up early to have her teeth cleaned. After a late breakfast we decided to go into New York City for the afternoon. It's crazy that you can just do that from her town. The ride on the commuter rail was less than an hour, and suddenly we were downtown at Grand Central Station. We spent the afternoon walking up and down Fifth Ave, looking at Christmas displays in store windows and generally having a good time. We even saw the tree in Rockefeller Center, though it wasn't lit yet. They were still taking down the scaffolding from putting the lights on, but it looked pretty awesome even without the lights turned on.

I also got to go into some really fun stores for the first time in my life. The first stop was the American Girl Place, home of the American Girl dolls. In spite of my complicated feelings about the company (described in a previous post), I had to go in and look around. I've wanted to visit the store since I bought my own doll from them in grade school. The first floor of the store has all the Girl of Today accessories, so we pretty much skipped past it. The better displays were upstairs, where we found the historical girl collections. Each girl had her own large display case, showcasing her different outfits and accessories. Each girl, that is, except Samantha and Kirsten. Samantha, having already been archived, was nowhere to be seen, and Kirsten, about to disappear the same way after the holidays, had only one tiny corner. There wasn't even a Kirsten doll on display, just some books and the miniature dolls. It makes me sad to see her fading away like that. When I was younger I didn't fully appreciate the true value of the historical dolls. I love the doll I did get, but dolls like Kirsten capture so much cultural memory. In the end, I couldn't leave without a souvenir, so I bought my doll a hat with the American Girl Place, New York logo on it.

Other stores we spent time in included FAO Schwartz, the biggest toy store I have ever seen, and Tiffany's. We didn't make it all the way down to Macy's, but seeing it on TV during the parade the next day made up for that.

On Thanksgiving we traveled up the Merritt Parkway, on of the most scenic roads in the US, to Tierney's cousins' house for dinner. With a lot of people and two dogs underfoot, it was a bit chaotic, but a good time. I need to look up the recipe for one of the desserts we had so I can make it at home for Christmas--I think my family would appreciate rich, chocolatey Oreo truffles.

Friday was a bit dreary, so we opted to stay indoors as much as possible. That didn't mean staying home, though. After a stop at Kohls, which was surprisingly fast even with the Black Friday crowds, we headed off to IKEA to look at furniture and get ideas for Tierney's new apartment. This was my first visit to the Swedish furniture store, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We wandered through rows and rooms of furniture, dreaming up ideas for future apartments and houses. And since their in-store restaurant was having a 99 cent Swedish meatball meal deal, we had lunch too. On the way out through the warehouse on the lower level where shoppers pick up their items I debated the necessity of of a beautiful green screen printed throw pillow, but decided to go with a practical clothes drying rack instead. It was a fun trip, and now I'm excited for the day when I'll have a place of my own to furnish.

On Saturday we headed off in the car into New York State to visit a place I had been wanting to see for many years--Sleepy Hollow. And Tarrytown, NY as well, but the two towns blend together, as many New England towns are apt to do, so it hardly matters. The Old Dutch Church from Washington Irving's classic story is right along the highway, along with the churchyard burial ground in which the Hessian is said to have been buried. Beyond that is the newer cemetery, in which Irving himself is buried, along with other notable figures, such as the Carnegies and Rockefellers. The bridge from the story sadly is no more, but a sign marks where the modern highway crosses the creek at the same spot. Farther back in the cemetery a replica of the original bridge for tourists like us to enjoy. The boards have been left loose (we assume intentionally) so that when cars drive over it they shift and rumble, making a sound deliciously like galloping horses. And an even more perfect surprise was a pumpkin bobbing in the creek just to the side of the bridge. This, of course, led to silliness. We also stopped in at Sunnyside, the home of Washington Irving. We didn't feel like paying the admission price to wander the grounds on such a cold day (it would be better to make a return trip in the summer), but we did spend time at the gift shop. I bought a book there that was a compilation of some of his shorter works, and they put a stamp on the front page indicating that it had been purchased at Sunnyside, and included a reproduction of Irving's signature. (His capitol W actually looks rather like an M) I was in English nerd heaven.

But the best part of the holiday weekend by far? Not thinking about school. At all. Well, on the last night I got out my grant and compiled the various comments I had received onto a single page, only to realize that I actually had very little to do other than create a detailed budget. So I packed it away again, not to be worried over until back in Boston.

I'm so glad Tierney and her family invited me in for the holiday. That was the break I needed to face the end of this semester. Full steam ahead!

-Kim