Thaliastrasse

Today I rode the U-Bahn by myself for the first time to school. I have a pretty easy commute, with only one transfer, so it's not too bad. My neighborhood's stop is Thaliastrasse on the U-6 and my school's stop is called Volksoper, because there's an opera house next to the stop.

During my German class, we walked around the neighborhood a bit, to see what's around the school.
And I discovered...
They have ALDI in Wien!!! It's called Hofer, but the sign was the same. I am so excited. Tomorrow I'm going to get groceries there.

Today, on my walk home from school, I realized that we live in a "poorer" side of town. There are plenty of Eastern European immigrants around us and, from the comments of my host mom, there seems to be a good amount of prejudice surrounding them. My Viennese host mom even got special locks installed after the borders were opened, to protect against the rising theft rates. The prejudice might be partially justified, but it reminds me of some people's attitudes towards Hispanic immigrants in Indianapolis.

I had my first real class and I was thrilled. I got a book and assignments and everything. I had forgotten how much I love academics (at least in the first few weeks after break).

This class is the EU Politics and Economics class. I have three presentation assignments and a book discussion assignment already. I chose Slovenia and Belgium to research and I'm also researching Immigration in the EU and other Internal Security issues.

Next month we'll be traveling to Zagreb, Croatia. I'm excited for that, too. I also have to fit a trip to Budapest in, but I already have some people who say they'll go with me.

Some people are going to Oktoberfest, but I think I'd only go if I lived near Munich. As it is, I'd much rather stay here than hang out with a bunch of "Bierleichens".

I have yet to try some Sturm, which is the fresh wine from the surrounding countryside. Maybe I'll do that tomorrow...