elis' travel journal

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

wieder internet - finally!! et...ma nouvelle coiffure ;-)

Salut!!

Nach drei endlos langen unerträglich schmerzenden tagen ohne internet wurde mein qualvoller entzug heute endlich beendet - und ich bin wieder online!!! ;-)

Inzwischen bin ich von der französischen viel zu religiösen und spießigen (sorry aber ich muss es raus lassen) Gastfamilie in eine total lässige original Studenten- WG mitten im Zentrum der Traumstadt Lyon gezogen! Und ich muss sagen, ich bin wirklich erleichert.... endlich wieder unabhängig, frei, selbst kochen wann und wie man will, heimkommen wann man will... usw.. wirklich super! Mein Zimmer ist mittlerweile nach viel schrubben, herumwerken, montieren und ikea-verzierungen wirklich gemütlich und wohnlich (nur für die gewöhnung an die tapete brauch ich noch ein paar wochen - siehe foto unten!). Meine zwei Mitbewohner sind auch total nett, ich hab wirklich glück gehabt! Da wären Jacques (natürlich, wie sonst!), 25 Jahre, pompier (=Feuerwehrmann!) und Gaelle, 24, Handels- Studentin und Gaelle's Freund Benjamin, der oft vorbeikommt, und allesamt wirklich lieb und aufgeschlossen und angenehm!!
Die Wohnung insgesamt ist schon uralt und mangelt an manchen Dingen (die Studenten aber nicht brauchen *g*) aber ich werde auch bald eigenes Internet bekommen (tu grad mitschnorren mit einer Bekannten 2 Stöcke unterhalt :-)) und wir werden uns auch noch eine Mikrowelle und sogar eine Klobrille anschaffen! (=alles noch nicht vorhanden bis jetzt..lol)
Ansonsten ist alles total nett, großes Wohnzimmer für alle, super Ausblick, Lage 1A!
Also, jetzt kann das Erasmus- Semester richtig anfangen!

Bienvenue à Lyon!

à bientôt..... Elisabeth

c'est moi il y a quelques heures!

ma chambre! (pas encore prêt!)

hier soir à Ayers Rock avec Sarai (milieu) et un gars de Taiwan!

Thursday, September 28, 2006

plus de Lyon!

Ici quelques photo de la semaine dernière, quand nous nous sommes rencontrés au bord de la Saône avec les autres étudiants internatinaux (principalement de l'Allemagne, de l'Italie, du Pologne, etc...) :

Au place des terreaux...Sarai, Michaela, beaucoup de Mexicains..

Michaela (la deuxième autrichienne ;-) )

Doro (allemande)

Sonja (allemande)

Michael et ...et ... hmmm (allemands)

Magnus (allemand)

Axel (allemand)

et moi....c'était aujourd'hui...avec ma nouvelle veste ;-)

Ce soir, on se rencontrera à nouveau au bord de la Saône - alors, les photos le prochain fois!!
à Bientôt...

Elisabeth

Sunday, September 24, 2006

L Y O N

Lyon - la plus belle ville du monde?
Sabine, qui a passé un semestre à Lyon l'année dernière, a dit cela aussi... : )
Quelques photos des deux semaines dernières:

10 Tage Österreichurlaub

Nach meinen knappen zweieinhalb Monaten in New Jersey verbrachte ich 10 stressige und terminreiche aber sehr schöne und auch entspannende (auf eine gewisse Weise) Tage in meiner Heimat!
Gott sei Dank ist es sicher sogar ausgegangen die meisten wichtigen Personen zu treffen, die meisten meiner Verwandten auf der Geburtstagsfeier von meinem Papa (die zufälligerweise am 9. September war), meine Cousine Iris, meine liebe Ex-Studienkollegin Steffi und meinen ganz ganz lieben Matthias *g* in Graz und meine ganz wichtigen Freundinnen Juli und Domenika und kurz auch Susi in Teufenbach bzw. Murau... :-) Also perfekt!
Noch dazu war das Wetter die ganze Zeit traumhaft schön und sommerlich (was ich überhaupt nicht erwartet hatte) und so hab ich die Tage echt genossen...

Aber ich hab halt in einem höchst chaotischen Zimmer gelebt in Murau (eh nur 5 Tage, weil die restliche Zeit in Graz und Frohnleiten verbracht) und Dinge direkt von einem Koffer in den anderen gepackt... *g*

In Graz dann noch ein bisschen Stress zwecks organisatorischen Problemen (Erasmusantrag, Studienbeihilfe, Vorausbescheid der Kurse hat gefehlt...) und Unizeugs (hätte Literatur für eine Proseminararbeit suchen sollen... ) usw...

Aber alles in allem hat doch gut funnktioniert und so sind Michaela und ich am 13. September von graz über Frankfurt nach Lyon geflogen um unser erstes Auslandssemester in Frankreich zu beginnen!! :-)

Jetzt sind wir seit eineinhalb Wochen hier und ich muss sagen LYON - JE T'AIME DÉJÀ!!!!!!!!

Photos in Kürze......

Friday, September 15, 2006

Goodbye New Jersey, Good Bye Summer...

My last days in NJ were quite okay, it was a nice feeling to be still there, knowing I don't have to work there any longer but can still enjoy the last hours of my "American life".

Friday night, we had a very nice family BBQ at our house together with the O'Shaughnessys. It was really nice to be together with all of our cute kids and the two couples, and the food was just perfect. Especially the dessert was delicious, I will never forget the great "chocolate fondue" we had: many many different fruits and biscuits to dip into hot creamy chocolate......mmmmmmm!!

Saturday night, Michaela and me wanted to spend one last time in NYC, visiting Webster Hall. The way there was a bit complicated (and wet. . .) but we finally got there and had a great time getting to know people and drinking (illegally of course, but thanks to Schoko) and dancing on 5 floors with cool music...

Sunday at noon, Brad drove me to Newark Int'l Airport, from where I left the US to London Heathrow at 3 o'clock. I was so happy when I got onto the plane, but of course it was also quite sad to have everything behind me, as I was so much looking forward to this summer and my Au Pair job. However, I went home with a lot of great and unfortgetteable memories of a summer full of sunshine, kids' laughing, a funny (sometimes odd?) family and a lot of trips to new and interesting places AND a digital camera, which was Brad and Kathleen's (surprising) "goodbye-present"!!!

After I had missed my connection flight in London, where I consequently had to wait for about 4 hours, I was a bit "fertig" but finally arrived safe and sound in Vienna where I was picked up by my parents at the airport!

The first thing we did was to stop at a "Billa" to buy something to eat and drink for me (as I couldn't bring my heissgeliebte water bottle on board of the plane) and later on had another stop in Gloggnitz, which was the most exotic place you can imagine at all after being in NYC and Philadelphia for 2 months... lol... there, we had ice cream and coffee in the beautiful fall sun and I have to admit I truly enjoyed the Austrian ambiance!

------I'LL BE BACK; NEW JERSEY ---------------

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Photho Shooting

Yesterday, we did a little photo shooting with Sharon O'Shaughnessy, who wants to be a profesional photographer.... it was really a very funny time, I've never done that before at all, and at least some of the pics look quite nice ; )

Thursday, August 31, 2006

3 Days To Go

SOME MORE PICS FROM MY LAST WEEK...

me and the O'Connor family

(this was tonight, we had a family dinner with the grandparents and Aunt Kristin)

me and Ryan....isn't his face just cute?

me feeding Brady...something I did daily for 2 months ; )

Ashley and the teddybears I gave her when I came here (they are sacred! she goes to bed with them every night)

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

~ P h i l a d e l p h i a ~

Sunday, August 27

Yesterday, on our day off, Michaela and I spent time in the largest city of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia, "the city of brotherly love"...

Although the weather wasn't that nice anymore yesterday- it was raining in the morning and the sky showed us its greyest grey ever- the day turned out to be okay (at least not too hot) for a city trip in the end and we enjoyed our time there a lot by making a little sight seeing tour by bus and strolling through some parts of the city.
As we didn't really know a lot about "Philly" before we got there, we didn't have any special plans about what to do or where to go, and just went by a tourist info folder we got. So we got to see the, said to be quite famous, Liberty Bell, the Love Park, the City Hall, walked in Walnut and Chestnut Street (shops, cafes, arts, etc.) and went shopping again... Well, I have to admit the shopping and eating part were not Philadelphia-like in particular (H&M, Mc Donald's...lol) but still very nice!

All in all, I have to say that the city is really likeable, the size is okay, and we noticed that there is a lot of "green" and that it is a quite tourist friendly place - providing lots of public maps and guides and a very cheap tour bus (4 $ for the whole day, to hop on/off at 20 different stops). What's more, I got the feeling that the Philly people are indeed friendly and helpful above average....Okay, only about 10 people took part in my critical survey, but I really felt they mean it. E.g. a very polite policeman concerned about us finding the right way back to our car, some hyper friendly and jolly bus drivers (not grumpy as usual), talkative photographers, random persons trying to help us find our way around etc. Maybe they are just seriously trying to live up to their motto about brotherly love??? Although I am wondering how they can stick to that... but hey, we're in the land of opportunity! (hmm, more appropriate in german in fact... > Land der unbegrenzten moeglichkeiten)

However, I don't really feel like I have to go back to that place too soon, not that I will miss anything! :-) But it was great to see it once... will have to watch the movie "Philadelphia" again now...

P.S.: no catastrophes this time - no breakdowns, no getting lost, etc...(except for the tour bus breakdown, lol) but we found the way and everything went smoothly ;-)

. . .and here are the pics: