Orientation week begins!

Yet another post from my phone so I really hope these are working...although this time I'm testing the "save post" and then I'll publish tomorrow when I'm around internet again.  I thought I knew the correct place to go get what I needed to hook up internet in my room and even though they say on their door that they stay open until 19:30...today apparently they did not.  I went next door to the print cartridge store and tried to in a mix of English and German explain what I was looking for and ask where I might find one...she was super helpful and wrote down a place she thought might help, but it is several stops away on the U-bahn and she confirmed they were probably closed for the day already anyway.

This morning my housing complex had office hours for 2 hours from 9-11 (they are open in 3 two hour blocks per week and that's all).  If I missed this morning I'd have to wait until Wednesday at 2pm.  I needed to have my Meldezettel form signed...basically the document you take to the authorities to register in the district where you live.  Everyone has to have them, Austrians and foreigners...so tomorrow morning I'm back to the scary abandoned looking school room to submit that...I'll try to get a picture.

I got to the building office just before 9, and I was already the sixth person in line waiting.  I had to be up to school at 10 so waiting in this line as I'm watching it pass 9:10 and 9:15 I'm about to have a mini panic attack...we all know how much I love being late to things ;) but again...miss this little window and have to wait until Wednesday or later depending on my schedule.  I got the form signed and stamped and everything about 9:25.

Now...if everything is running exactly right and the tram comes and the bus comes quickly...it should take about 30 minutes from home to school.  Of course this morning I had JUST missed a strassenbahn so I had to wait 6 minutes for another...fast forward to my bus transfer point and I'm now officially late.  Thankfully there is a taxi stand in the little village center type place where I transfer so when the bus didn't come quickly I did as any good New Yorker would do and hopped in a cab.  Thankfully I had a super quick cab driver and ended up being right on time.

I hope to be able to somehow show what the drive up the mountain to school is like...it is steep sharp turns on cobblestone through the Vienna woods.  There are vineyards and farm animals you pass on the road...it's so bizarre to me how quickly everything changes from capital city to rural feeling. 

I realize this is getting long and I have no pictures to keep you entertained, but this is also for me to remember all this...so feel free to skim where needed :)

Orientation itself is pretty standard.  My school offers not only my masters program but also undergraduate and MBA programs as well.  There are about 35 of us starting this semester but only 3 in my program and the rest undergrad, so our orientation is partly with them and partly on our own which is nice.  The other two people starting with me are a girl originally from Venezuela but has lived in DC with her husband for 8 years and got her MBA from Marymount during that time.  She and her husband have been living in Vienna for 3 years so she understands the east coast to Vienna adjustment.  The other is a retired Austrian physician who is going back to school to start something new with his time now.  The three of us had a great time today discussing different cultures and languages.  Hopefully I will also continue to get German pointers from him.

We had a lovely faculty meet and greet early this evening, complete with homemade Austrian cakes and pastries and Austrian wine.  So so good.