Innsbruck!

Liz and I took the Eurail from Munich to Innsbruck with only a few minor melt downs. I basically knew nothing about the Eurail because I kept telling Liz it was only a train for Americans (like they love us enough to actually give us our own train) and I thought you couldn't buy the passes in Europe, which you can. So once we figured out we had to get them stamped, I went first so Liz could stay with the luggage. I literally got it stamped in two seconds. When she went back to stamp hers this lady kept telling her to switch lines, putting her in the wrong place, etc. and we were almost late for our train. The Eurail isn't bad itself though. We were in a tiny compartment with five other people, all speaking German. I just tried to sleep most of the way, but if my stepmom had not given me motion sickness patches, I made not have made it traveling. There is one girl in our program who was sick the whole way to Austria and finally decided she couldn't take it and is flying home tom. Eek. We also have some friends that are taking a 20 hour trip this weekend to run with the bulls, but that is WAY too far for us on that tiny train compartment.

When we arrived in Innsbruck, Dexter and Brandon, two guys in our program, must have heard us speaking English and asked us if we were in the Innsbruck program. So relieved to have met them because they led the way, arranged cabs, and got us to the hotel in timely fashion. We could have done it on our own, but it was nice not having to at that point. Our room is pretty sweet. It's bigger than we thought. We have all the necessities and the shower actually stays on without having to push a button over and over, like we had to in the hostel (also minus our "hostile" roommates). We got to the hotel just in time for the walking tour with one of the professors. He took us all over town; showed us the school, places to eat, where the ski jump was for the Olympics, etc. and then it ended in a cool beer garden. Liz and I are still feeling hesitant about Austrian food, so she ordered crepes and I ordered a baked potato with spinach and cheese. Most of the kids here are from St. Mary's, but there are also some people from Texas Tech. We were semi-worried that we may not like the people in our program since we've been told that before about other study-abroad programs, but so far, we really do.

From dinner, about 10 of us went to a placed called "TT" which is like a bunch of bars set up outside. A reggae band was playing and there was a man-made beach. We stayed there most of the night and then made the walk home. On the way home, we heard music coming from somewhere, so we decided to check it out. There were a bunch of random tables set up outside and people hanging out, so we hopped the fence to join. We ended up kind of sketched out that there was a DJ spinning in a church and no one really in there, so then we went to McDonalds. European McDonalds is excellent-they have waffle fries! They also give you larger drinks than most places around here, which doesn't sound like a big deal but when you stop getting ice in your drinks and a water costs as much as a beer, you start to appreciate the small things. We decided that if we were in government here, one of the first things we would enact would be free refills for American Tourists. We spend ALL of our time being thirsty.

Today was our first day of classes, but we start around 9:00 and end at like 1:00, so it isn't too bad. All of the readings are more like college than law school though. Tonight we went to a cocktail party in a castle. Probably some of the best food we've had on the whole trip. There was a piano player, drinks, and a museum. Innsbruck is a blast.