Shopping galore . . .

So for the past two days after work I have gone shopping in two different places: Stephansplatz and Donau Zentrum mall. My mission was to get some new shoes but apparently I got distracted by cute clothes. ;)

Stephansplatz is where the St. Stephan's Cathedral is at, along with so many shops, boutiques and cafes. It is a very tourist-y type of place where the streets are crowded with street performers and music fills the air. For those of you who are familiar (and are in love with) H&M, there is one shop at pratically every corner. And apparently not all the stores are the same. Yay me! :)

Robbie took me to Stephansplatz last week and introduced to new shops such as Zara, which reminds me of an upscale Forever 21. My auntie Ruth was my field guide at Stephansplatz and showed me all of the nice Italian shoe places, which unfortunate for me, were way out of my price range. Oh well. My alternative was clothes shopping. I am so in love with the store Mango and it's adorable fashions from Spain. If you are interested, here is the website for Mango: http://www.mangoshop.com/preHome.faces Although I didn't buy any shoes that day, I did get some cute clothes from Mango.

The next day (Tuesday) I met my auntie at Donau Zentrum mall. Really big place, with not just the usual shops and restaurants, but also a huge cineplex and bowling alley. Here I went to this store called Corti and got my first pair of shoes. Stylish running shoes. Pictures to come later.

Walking around it reminds me of a mall in the U.S., except everyone speaks German. I did check out some stores such as C&A and Pomodor, where I got another cute shirt. ;) I eventually went to a sports store and got myself a new pair of running shoes. :)

Here's a funny tidbit, stores here close around 6PM or 7PM. Now coming from the U.S. where malls close around 9PM or later during the holidays, that is just strange to me. It was so dead in the mall as my auntie and I ate dinner at a restaurant. Yet another thing to get used to while here in Vienna. Oh well. I will post more pictures soon. Until next time . . . ciao!

My week in a nutshell . . . .

So today is another Sunday and that means I survived my first week. This Sunday also happens to be my Tita Ruth's birthday. It's her debut today. ;) A nice lunch, chilling at the house and cake. Yay for cake! :)

My week in a nutshell was pretty interesting. My supervisor Giovanni is really chill. He sounds like John Cleese with an Italian accent. If you don't know who John Cleese is, I recommend you watch "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" or check out this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3LJYO3r1xw&feature=related

Anyway, I digress. I have been meeting a lot of other interns from all over the world. Most are students from other countries. They all seem nice Sadly, a lot of them are leaving because many of them were only at the U.N for the summer.

So far in the office I have been doing mostly admin work and helping with some minor computer problems. Yay me! According to Giovanni, the real work begins starting this Monday and I told him at his birthday party, "Bring it on, G." Of course, I hope NOT to eat those words.

So I've gotten pretty adjusted except for the jet lag part. Keeping busy has distracted me from it for awhile but come Friday night it hit my like a sledge hammer. Sucks for me. Blah!

I've been meeting a lot of Robbie and Raffy's friends while learning about the city. Yes, shopping is awesome of course and I love the architecture. Don't worry . . . pictures will come soon.

In the meantime, it is now 8:24PM and got to get ready for the next day. Until next time . . . ciao!

High heels and cobblestones don't mix

So today was my first day of my internship and if there is one thing I learned from my day it is this: high heels and cobblestone pathways don't mix. Yes, I decided to dress up a bit but I did not anticipate the cobblestone pathways to the main entrance. By the end of the day, I was limping because my feet hurt sooo badly. Thankfully, I didn't have to walk home or something.

But, I digress. My first day went pretty well. I really didn't do much except set up the password to my office phone. I did practice some of my German on my iPod while waiting to go to lunch, but that was kind of weird for me too.

After getting past security, I had a small orientation from the Personnel Director Steve Amundson who was a pretty laid back kind of guy. He took us (there was another intern starting today too) around the main portion of the IAEA which takes up half of the buildings in the United Nations International Center. He calls the center "a city within a city" because there are all the necessary such as banking, post offices, pharmacy and medical clinic. I pretty much have access to everything except the duty-free shops because I'm not staff. I know that sucks but there are ways around it . . .

My supervisor, Giovanni Verlini reminds me of Howie Mandel except without the earring and OCD. He was nice enough to treat me to some tea during break and lunch. He pretty much explained to me that everything in the division is relaxed and that there is no rush. For me, that is something that I have to get used to because I've been drilled to ALWAYS be on my toes, courtesy of grad school.

I did go to my first editorial meeting, where food coma hit me as hard as a punch in the stomach. Luckily, everyone else around the room was just as tired as I was, mostly from jet lag. Apparently, many of the staff went on holiday and just came back the day before.

So tomorrow, I'm making a mental note to wear no heels but something sensible like ballet flats. Hopefully I will have much more to do tomorrow instead of sitting at my desk and looking pretty. Stay tuned . . .

Saturday Night to Sunday Morning . . .

Here is the view from my relatives' backyard. I believe past that mountain is the Czech Republic. And yes, to the right is a pool. This was taken today, which is currently Sunday.

Here is the natural pool. Raffy and I jumped in instead of swim.

It's Sunday and the weather is FINALLY nice. It was warm outside and Raffy and I hung outside. In other words, I hit the punching bag while he does his tae kwon do and tricks. So far it has been pretty relaxing, which is helpful for my nerves since tomorrow is when I start my internship. If I get to wake up every morning to this kind of weather, count me in! :)

So I went to my first "grill party" with my uncles last night, where I met Robbie's friends. Mostly guys of course, but a few girls. Ironically, the guys were the most talkative to me. Well, the ones who could speak English. And if you are wondering what a "grill party" is, it is basically a BBQ or for all of you journalists who are devoted to AP Style, barbeque.

It was pretty much a kickback, where there was good food, good drinks and good company. I talked to a few of the guys who could speak English like Robbie's friend Clemmens. He spent some time in Sacramento as a mechanic and so his English was pretty good. It was also very cold at night so thankfully I had my down jacket because it was freezing. Hmm . . . another flashback to Syracuse.

And now I know how animals in the zoo feel. The whole time I noticed that everyone kept staring at me. I guess because I am a "new" person. It was uncomfortable at first but I just ignored after awhile and had fun. I have a feeling that I will see a lot of these guys within the next few times I'm with the guys. Until next time . . .

Yay so I'm in Vienna . . .

Arriving yesterday, the drive to the house in Klosterneuberg reminded me of going around New York City, especially seeing graffiti along the freeway. If I didn't focus on the German street signs, I would think I was still in the U.S. The freeways (or autobahn) are pretty much the same as it is back in the States.

All day yesterday, my uncles Robbie and Raffy were trying to keep me awake. Watching movies in Raffy's dark room and lying on his bed is definitely a challenge to the jet lag that hit me like a truck.

According to my great uncle Roland, you shouldn't sleep right away or take a nap, especially if you come in during the daytime. It would make it hard for you to adjust to the time difference. Coming from California, where it is 9 hours behind Vienna, makes it worse. Since arriving in Vienna at 10:00AM, I was moving in slow motion the whole day.

No problem for those two guys. Either Raffy scares me by randomly slamming his hand on the bed or Robbie would hit me with a pillow. I feel so much love from those two.

And the weather really reminds me of Syracuse in the Fall. Looking out the window in my room, it is cold, wet and cloudy. Nope, no sun at all. When I arrived the day before, it was hot, muggy and cloudy. Maybe Syracuse DID prepare me for weather in Vienna. One point for Syracuse.

Taking in some Austrian culuture, I'll be going to a birthday party of one of Robbie's friends. I think his name is Clemmens or something like that. This will be interesting. Robbie mentioned to me earlier that his friends speak English. I guess that is one reassuring thing, except shouldn't I be learning German? It doesn't help when everyone turns to me for English terms. I'll what happens in this shindig. Maybe I should take pictures. Hmm . . . Stay tuned . . .