Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Learning German and Eating Goulash

Hey Mom,
Sorry it's taken me so long to write. I need to just do it at school, but there are so many distractions once I get there. I tell myself I'll just do it as soon as I get back at night, but then the internet refuses to work. I'm so happy for Levi that he won the elections!! I had to tell Krystle because I was too excited to hold it in. Good for you for doing the silica trail! You've always been such a good example for working out regularly. And good job for starting to run, that's not easy, even if it's not a long way. How come your hip still bothers you? Will it ever get better? Maybe you need to go back to therapy for it. Is the weather warming up there? It's mostly been cold and rainy the whole time I've been here. I think there have been maybe two days that the sun came out...I think it's supposed to warm up this week though. You'll have to tell me how the grandma/yw thing goes. I remember when you guys started that; I was wondering how it would turn out.

Question. Is anyone reading my xoxo blog? I'm just wondering. Do my grandparents or anyone read it?

I'm not fishing for compliments, but do you honestly feel like my pictures are improving? It's so hard to feel like I take anything good since there's 17 of us here all taking pictures of the same things. And half the kids have way nice cameras that can do things mine can't. I just hope mine look good -- remember when I was leaving and dad said, "Kayla, we're expecting some good pictures to come out of this trip!" haha no pressure...

Before I forget, can you check with the bank about some things for me? Is it better for me to take lump sums out of the ATM or should I just pay with most things for my debit card? I've heard some of the kids say it only costs 3% every time they use their debit card, so I just don't know how it will all even out. I heard the conversion rate is getting better, isn't it only like 1.25 euro to the dollar? That's way better than before I left -- it was 1.44 I think.

German really isn't getting any better. I'm hoping it will turn out okay and just the first few weeks will be really difficult...We're already learning about conjugating verbs, and I didn't even learn that in Spanish until my second year! Everyone else seems to share the panic I'm feeling. That class isn't much fun, but I absolutely LOVE my writing class. I think I sit there in a trance, soaking everything up Louise says like a sponge. We usually do timed writing, and after she reads hers I sit there hoping with all my heart I can write something as good as she does in just those rush writes. We have our travel journals we're writing in and pasting things into (it'll be fantastic when I'm done I think), and every week we have to turn in a more polished, 1+ page essay about some part of our travels that week. At the end we'll have 9 I think and they'll be really fun to read all together.

We all met Tom and Louise for dinner tonight at the Gulachmuseum -- a goulash restaurant. Have you ever had goulash? I was scared to try it, but I actually really loved it! I ordered a fish goulash, and it was so good. After dinner we split into groups because some wanted gelato (somehow I resisted) and others wanted to go home. I was with five other girls and we had so much fun walking to the subway station! They keep talking about doing a flash mob to some popular musical song, so they were running around the main square dancing and singing Wicked and Newsies at the top of their lungs. It was so funny, people kept stopping to watch, some even clapped. A few weirdos got a little too close and one stopped to record them on his cellphone for a few minutes. It was so great, haha. They might become a youtube sensation overnight, they're hoping at least.

Krystle and I are back now. I'm really tired, so I think I'll go to bed. We're running at seven in the morning, and we ran lots of hills yesterday, so I'll need some rest! Now I just need to figure out how to limit the nutella, pastries, and gelato and I'll be well on my way through the Vienna Hot Body plan -- Krystle's and my idea so we can be hottie mchotties when we get back; all the boys will want us because we'll be practically European and we'll have toned bodies from working out so much in Vienna. Those dang gelatos though...

Well, I'll talk to you soon. Have a good day, and I hope YW goes well. Tell everyone hi!

love
kayla



1 comment:

  1. Uh, I read it. Most of the time on my phone though and its hard to comment with that. That and I am jealous of all the fun you're having and things you are seeing. And the gelato. Can't you, like, mail me some? Love you.

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