Vienna

Everyone,

I made it safely to all of my destinations and am now in my pension in Vienna, waiting to go out to eat. Let me give you all a little heads up on what's been going on:

Despite all the concern over the amount of time it would take to get though airport security, I made it all the way through and to my gate in just about 45 minutes. I was happy about that. I got on my flight to Boston where I enjoyed visiting Brittany and Emily getting inroduced to all their friends there. Then I was on the Fung Wah bus which took me straight into New York's China Town (which Bridger correctly called a "steaming dump") and met up with some friends there. New York to be honest was quite culturally shocking to me, much more so than here in Vienna. Maybe that was partly because I was alone for some of my time there and I knew I had to go to Vienna all by myself (or so I thought). But I did get to see a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman. He had Chris Elliot, Nancy Pulousi (sp?) (a politician from California), and the band Razorlite. So if you see that show, know that I was the one applauding in the audience. That was really fun to see.

The next day I went to JFK about seven hours before my flight was supposed to leave because I didn't have anything better to do and I didn't want to be hauling all my luggage around NYC (again!). The airport was totally empty (including workers) when I got there, so that was a really weird thing. I ate the best strawberries of my life there too.

Right before my flight boarded, my friend from the Berlin classes called me and asked which gate I was at. (I'm purposefully "breaking" the preposition placement "rule".) Anyway, it turned out we were on the same flight to Austria, which turned out to be a huge blessing because I had no idea how to get to the pension where we're staying. I don't know what I was thinking.

Since I've been here in Austria, I've seen some cool churches, an art museum, and spent some time in the cafes. The place is very nice and super super clean. Everything costs money (this isn't surprising to people who have been to Europe). Our time in Vienna is very short though--we're leaving tomorrow to go to Dorfgastein, a time Alpine town. I can't imagine I'll have the internet there, but it's nice to be able to get one blog up now. I imagine when I get to Berlin, a stable internet connection will be more accessible.

That's it for now. I've gotta go get something to eat, then repack my bags for the big trips ahead. I tried to put pictures on this, but they took way too long to load with my weak weak internet reception. Sorry. They'll come later.

Love goes out to everyone,

Jordan

Vienna

Everyone,

I made it safely to all of my destinations and am now in my pension in Vienna, waiting to go out to eat. Let me give you all a little heads up on what's been going on:

Despite all the concern over the amount of time it would take to get though airport security, I made it all the way through and to my gate in just about 45 minutes. I was happy about that. I got on my flight to Boston where I enjoyed visiting Brittany and Emily getting inroduced to all their friends there. Then I was on the Fung Wah bus which took me straight into New York's China Town (which Bridger correctly called a "steaming dump") and met up with some friends there. New York to be honest was quite culturally shocking to me, much more so than here in Vienna. Maybe that was partly because I was alone for some of my time there and I knew I had to go to Vienna all by myself (or so I thought). But I did get to see a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman. He had Chris Elliot, Nancy Pulousi (sp?) (a politician from California), and the band Razorlite. So if you see that show, know that I was the one applauding in the audience. That was really fun to see.

The next day I went to JFK about seven hours before my flight was supposed to leave because I didn't have anything better to do and I didn't want to be hauling all my luggage around NYC (again!). The airport was totally empty (including workers) when I got there, so that was a really weird thing. I ate the best strawberries of my life there too.

Right before my flight boarded, my friend from the Berlin classes called me and asked which gate I was at. (I'm purposefully "breaking" the preposition placement "rule".) Anyway, it turned out we were on the same flight to Austria, which turned out to be a huge blessing because I had no idea how to get to the pension where we're staying. I don't know what I was thinking.

Since I've been here in Austria, I've seen some cool churches, an art museum, and spent some time in the cafes. The place is very nice and super super clean. Everything costs money (this isn't surprising to people who have been to Europe). Our time in Vienna is very short though--we're leaving tomorrow to go to Dorfgastein, a time Alpine town. I can't imagine I'll have the internet there, but it's nice to be able to get one blog up now. I imagine when I get to Berlin, a stable internet connection will be more accessible.

That's it for now. I've gotta go get something to eat, then repack my bags for the big trips ahead. I tried to put pictures on this, but they took way too long to load with my weak weak internet reception. Sorry. They'll come later.

Love goes out to everyone,

Jordan

Z Morning Zoo

I had a little bit of a scare recently--something that was potentially totally emarrassing.

But first I have to admit that I do listen to Chunga and Mister's local radio program on 101.9 weekday mornings on my way to work. A lot of things that are said are totally ridiculous (ie, Chunga saying that Los Lonely Boys' song, "Heaven", is "one of the greatest songs ever written, a timeless classic"; or that if you make any mistakes while driving in LA, "you will die"), but some of it I do enjoy--plus every once in a while, I like the idea that I'm listening to something that lots of other people in my same situation (commuting to work) are listening to.

Anyway,

While the Chunga and Mister morning show was commercialing (would that word fly in a game of Scrabble?), I turned to the local top 40 station, 97.1ZHT, to see what kind of fast-talking know-nothing was dj-ing during the horribly-named Z Morning Zoo. I was planning to listen just until I got to work--which was a combined total of maybe three minutes--then as soon as I got in the car again, I was going to change the station. My plan was (in the words of Dell Schanze) flawless up to this point.

At work, the buzz in my office was that the Real Madrid team was going to be practicing at Rice-Eccles Stadium that afternoon and that the practice would be free and open to the public. When the people in my office decided to go, I offered to drive--no big deal.

We got in the car, I assembled my cd player and I-POD, expecting to capitalize on this opportunity to introduce these people to some great music. But as soon as the radio was assembled, to my horror, 97.1ZHT was blasting throughout the sedan! I had clearly forgotten that I had turned the car off while that was playing on the radio. "No big deal", I thought in a split-second, "I'll quickly change the station and no one will be the wiser." Unfortunately, this was not an option, as my cd player refused to allow me to change any setting on it! For all I knew, I would be stuck with a cd player that would only play every high school stomp's hottest beats.

Things ended up working out just fine--I blew gently on the sensitive workings of the player, which convinced it to work again, and we drove to the pracitce listening to what I consider to be one of the greatest songs ever written: "Wake Up" by the Arcade Fire. (Eat that Jimmy Chunga!)

Timberlake

I just need everyone to know that I think Justin Timberlake's song "I'm Lovin' It" is absolutely horrible--one of the worst pop songs of the last few years. Come on now, Justin. I'm ashamed that we share a birthday.