traveler's journal: entry one.

oh so you want an update? actually, you probably don't want one as much as i am willing to give one, but since this is my blog i'm pretty sure it's my desires that get written about. so, that's what we'll do.
wow, that got slightly aggressive there for a second, lets blame it on the jetlag (even though i'm weirdly showing like zero signs of. but i guess that kind of makes sense, since i wasn't even sleeping in our time zone to begin with). apologies. anyway, lets get on with it.

first: i started off this international journey, as any world traveler should, on 30 minutes of sleep. smart as always.  i caught the plane from st.george and rode for a gripping 40 minutes to salt lake. from there i sat in the airport for longer than the flight itself was, about an hour, and caught a plane to atlanta, georgia. on that flight i sat next to a rather pleasant, 60 something year old woman with a nose ring, a bag of organic fruit, which she freely shared, and an affinity for curse words, which she also shared with me and the rest of the plane. because of my previous decisions not to sleep like a normal person, my sickness, which i was almost free of, decided to come back with a vengence, leaving me a sniffling mess on the plane. after ten minutes of me and my faucet for a nose she asked me if i was ok; apparently the cold sniffles sound exactly like the i-am-terrified-of-flying-and-emotionally-unstable sniffles. after seeing that i was actually ok, or just really good at faking, she shared half her clemintine with me just for good measure.

my trip has been full of really great strangers like that. while i was attempting to get from the zurich airport to the main train station i was clearly struggling trying to cart around my luggage which weighed just as much as me. (wanna know how i knew i was clearly struggling? i had multiple people stare and laugh at me. not even kidding. at one point the carry-on suitcase i had balanced upon the larger of my bags slipped and fell to the side. so in my ever present grace, i stopped and attempted to pick the suitcase up, all without letting go of my second bag, which was unbelievably front heavy and would tip over if i dared leave it unattended. this happened to me quite a few times actually, and consequently i've become really good at handling public ridicule, but moving on.) so, i was trying to get my two 50 lb suitcases and my two carry-on's up the four steps and onto the train with a line of rather impatient people behind me, a random older gentleman came and saved me. that happened another two times while trying to navigate the train station with all my luggage. (btdubs, i've completely learned my lesson and will NEVER take the 50 lb weight limit as a challenge to make my suitcases as close to fifty as possible. never again.)
one of the most notable saviors is marissa. she's the other USU student here in innsbruck and i swear without her i would be hopelessly and overwhelmingly lost, which is absolutely terrifying to think about because i'm pretty overwhelmed as it is. not only did she save me from the train station but she's taught me how to use the bus system, she's introduced me to many awesome people, and she even helped  me get a cell phone.

one of my favorite things so far is the little difference between here and home. and so i made a list of a few of those things,

fun things i've noticed:

• there are dogs everywhere. and it's awesome. the people over here are really big dog lovers and so, as i write this in a colder-than-i'm-comfortable-with coffee shop there is a dog wandering around, free of his leash, as his owner eats her lunch. (let me clarify, there are very well groomed, well behaved, pet dogs everywhere. i've yet to see any strays.)
• kids speaking german. i have no idea why but this makes me smile. and in that same vane another thing that makes me laugh at inappropriate times in public is...
• they put their kids in snow suits often, which i guess isn't too weird considering it's only 14 degrees outside! (holy crap is it cold here. i remember complaining heavily last year during christmas break because it got down to 6 degrees at night and i was basically frozen. this place is like that at noon. it's a good think i lived in logan for a year and a half before moving here, because i'm not even prepared for it now. i can't imagine how i would have been going straight from 50 degree days to 10 degree days. yeah. no.)

not so fun things:

• everything is gibberish to me. i was sitting in the city office today and i realized that not a single word written in any of the papers so delicately tossed on the lady's desk meant anything to me. it was kind of unreal because the whole motivation behind writing things down is to convey meaning and nothing about those words meant anything to me. it's the same with talking. the noise of the general public now sounds like everyone tape recorded their voices and are playing it backwards and i'm supposed to understand. so whenever i hear someone speaking english it's almost like they're a lighthouse and i can't help but stare at them in an attempt to soak in as much english as possible. (in related news: i now completely sympathize with the solely spanish speakers in southern utah, and i would like to publicly apologize for thinking you were weird for pausing before responding to my questions whenever you visited my place of work. because i now do that too. and it's makes me feel retarded)
• you're all sleeping while i'm awake. which, lets be honest, really isn't that much different from how it used to be, but still... it's kind of a bummer. but i guess it doesn't really matter because...
• i now have a very expensive calendar, calculator, and watch instead of a "smart" phone. so even if i tried to contact one of you, you'd probably be sleeping. i hate that i can't take pictures of the peculiar things i'm experiencing and then upload it to facebook. or that i can't text you guys back home things i see here that remind me of you. but i guess that's what facebook is for, right? speaking of facebook....
• the internet at my apartment isn't set up and can't be set up until i get registered at the university, which i can't do until monday. ooh dear internet, how do i miss thee, let me count the ways. 
• speaking of things my apartment doesn't have: a kitchen. so i don't have a fridge to keep my beloved milk in. turns out i'm going to be eating out a looot this semester, add that to the list of new things i'm going to experience. 

well i think that's a long enough post for now. i wish i had pictures to accompany it but alas, i'm still too chicken to boldly use my camera in public. however, i promise that is going on top of my list of things to do.